Illinois loses one, gains one from transfer portal
The NCAA college basketball transfer portal is again a part of the Illinois basketball team’s offseason.
Reserve big man Dain Dainja entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal, he announced Monday on social media. The same day, the Illini added 6-foot-6 guard Jake Davis of Mercer from the portal.
Dainja, a 6-foot-9, 270-pound center, averaged 6.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in about 10 minutes per game. He was one of six players to appear in every game for the 2023-24 Illini (29-9), whose season ended Saturday with a loss to top-seeded UConn in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight.
Davis was added from the portal, according to the player’s social media. He averaged 9.0 points and 4.5 rebounds in starting 25 games as a freshman for Southern Conference program Mercer, which finished 16-17 overall. He shot nearly 40 percent from 3-point range in his first season of college ball out of Cathedral High School in Indianapolis.
“He’s going to shoot the ball at a high rate,” his high school coach Jason Delaney told the Champaign News-Gazette. “He doesn’t take bad shots. That’s why he shoots such a good percentage. He’s going to take good shots. From an IQ standpoint, he’s going to make his teammates better around him.”
Davis entered the NCAA transfer portal March 15, two days after Mercer announced it would not renew the contract of coach Greg Gary. Davis got looks from schools like DePaul, Butler, Wyoming and others. He joins the Illini with three years of eligibility remaining.
Dainja said he was thankful to get his degree from the University of
Illinois and thanked fans and the program, singling out strength and conditioning coach Adam Fletcher for “putting in countless hours of work and helping me reach my full potential.”
“I will forever be grateful for the opportunity I had here,” Dainja wrote on X.com. “This place will forever be family to me!”
Dainja played two seasons at Illinois after transferring from Baylor. He played three games for the Bears in 2021-22 after redshirting the previous season.
Luke Goode and Ty Rodgers are the lone rotation players expected to return next season for Illinois, who also expect back redshirt returnee Sencire Harris and key freshmen Amani Hansberry, Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and Nico Moretti. They have a three-person high school recruiting class and are expected to continue to dip into the transfer portal to help fill the roster, according to coach Brad Underwood.