Good Morning, Illini Nation: Illinois offers Class of 2024 forward Darrion Sutton

Scott Richey, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
·2 min read

May 24—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:

Darrion Sutton had a handful of offers last fall. Some high major ones, too, with Mississippi State, DePaul, Rutgers and St. John's among the early interested teams. The offers for the 6-foot-10 forward have picked up considerably this spring. Nearly 20 teams have joined the pursuit of the O'Fallon, Mo., native who played this past season at Accelerated Prep in Denver, Colo., including Illinois.

Truly blessed to receive an division 1 offer from the university of Illinois #AGTG pic.twitter.com/XLgGCvRQk4

— Darrion Sutton (@darrion1k) May 21, 2023

Sutton is ranked as a four-star prospect by ESPN and a three-star recruit by 247Sports and Rivals. ESPN has him ranked as the No. 1 player in his class in the state of Colorado. Rivals has him as the No. 131 overall recruit in the Class of 2024.

Illinois isn't the only offer Sutton pulled in this week. It's a Big Ten trend, too, with Michigan, Penn State also getting involved along with Missouri and Cincinnati. He has other offers from Towson, Akron, Miami (Ohio), Indiana State, UT Arlington, Creighton, Ohio, Toledo, Louisiana Tech, Long Island, Valparaiso, Wyoming and UIC.

Sutton played on a rather loaded Accelerated Prep team in 2022-23. Leading the team were five-star Arkansas signee Baye Fall, Colorado-bound center Assane Drop and Class of 2024 point guard Mikey Lewis. Illinois offered them all. The Illini got involved in Lewis' recruitment this spring after he was the leading scorer on the Nike EYBL circuit in the first weekend of competition in April.