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Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball at large:
I took the photo that's attached to this morning's missive ahead of Monday night's season opener when it popped up on the videboard at State Farm Center. It's one of several graphics Illinois has produced featuring former Illini Ayo Dosunmu, Terrence Shannon Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis and Will Riley repping the NBA organizations that now employ them.
I posted the photo to Twitter (always Twitter, never X) with the caption: "Last time there were four former #Illini in the NBA at the same time?"
It drew some feedback. A common response being, what about Brandin Podziemski? My response? Illinois clearly isn't claiming the 6-foot-4 guard, who left Champaign after one year and used his sophomore season at Santa Clara to turn into a first-round draft pick of the Golden State Warriors.
There were also several responses of groups of former Illinois stars that played in the NBA at the same time. I did the research myself following the Illini's season-opening win against Jackson State and came up with a couple of answers.
Illinois did have four former players active during the 2022-23 NBA, but it comes down to if the Illini intend to claim Kendrick Nunn or not. The record book for the 2025-26 season isn't out yet, but in last year's both Nunn (and Podziemski) are listed among Illinois' "all-time NBA roster," which is basically everyone that suited up in orange and blue and went on to the league at some point.
So let's count Nunn, who played 70 games in 2022-23, getting 39 with the Los Angeles Lakers and 31 more with the Washington Wizards after being traded in the deal that brought Rui Hachimura to Los Angeles.
That same season Ayo Dosunmu started 51 of 80 games for the Chicago Bulls, Malcolm Hill appeared in five games also with the Bulls and Meyers Leonard played the final nine games of his NBA career for the Milwaukee Bucks.
It's a group that comes with a disclaimer, though, considering Hill's final game with Chicago came on Feb. 16, 2023, and Leonard didn't make his debut for Milwaukee until eight days later. Still, four former Illini in the NBA during the same season at (roughly) the same time.
If you don't count Nunn, who played at Oakland after being dismissed from Illinois, the last time the Illini had at least four former players in the NBA in the same season was 2006-07. There were six that season, although this is another case where they weren't all active in the league at the same time.
Deron Williams, Dee Brown and Roger Powell Jr. all played for the Utah Jazz during the 2006-07 season. Powell appeared in three games in November and was inactive most of the rest of the season before being waived in January. Brown played in 49 games, and Williams started all 80 games he played.
Luther Head finished eight in the voting for Sixth Man of the Year that season after putting up 10.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game for the Houston Rockets. Brian Cook started 24 of the 65 games he played for the Los Angeles Lakers, and James Augustine got in two games for the Orlando Magic in February of that season.