Western Illinois Team Preview by:Trevor Metke

 The Western Illinois Leathernecks came off of a brutal season last year finishing 5-21, with a horrible 2-14 record in conference play. The Leathernecks only beat three division one teams last year, but some new recruits, JUCO transfers and coaching can lead this team to the top of the Summit Conference in the coming years.


Over the summer, Western Illinois signed their highest recruit ever, Marcus Watson. The 5’11 guard played at Morgan Park high school in Chicago alongside top 50 recruit Adam Miller, who ended up signing with the Illinois Fighting Illini. Expect Watson to be an immediate impact on a promising Western Illinois team. A key part in Watsons decision to attend Western has Assistant Coach Nick Irvin. Irvin was the head coach for Watsons high school team,Morgan Park for all 4 years Watson played and after this season, took a job as an assistant coach at WIU. The Leathernecks also grabbed freshman forward Ramean Hinton out of Curie HS in Chicago and guard Robert Jeter IV out of East Ridge high school in Woodbury,  Minnesota. For the 2021 class so far the Leathernecks have one commit, shooting forward Johnathan Dunn out of Hazelwood Central in St Louis, Missouri. With all of this new talent coming in, you are obviously going to lose some, and Western Illinois lost 93.5% of last season's scoring, so a completely new team is coming in this year. 


PG Kobe Webster transferred to the University of Nebraska during the offseason. This was a huge loss for Western Illinois, as Kobe averaged 17.1 points per game last season,3.6 assists, and was the leading scorer on the team. Kobe earned 2nd team all Summit honors last season. Western also lost Zion Young to Oakland. Zion was the 2nd leading scorer on the roster averaging 13.2 points per game, and grabbing 4.5 boards per game. Forward Ben Pyle also transferred which was another big loss for WIU as Pyle averaged 12.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists. 


This Western Illinois team for the upcoming is completely different with many JUCO transfers coming in. Some of these JUCO transfers include Justin Brookens, who previously attended Iowa Lakes CC. Expect him to play behind Marcus Watson and get some solid minutes off the bench. Other JUCO transfers coming in include shooting guard JJ Flores out of HIghland CC.Another former Highland CC player Cameron Burell, and yet another former player of new assistant coach Nick Irvin. Colton Sandage also comes into the program out of Vincennes University as the Leathernecks land another shooting guard. Monmouth College forward Will Carius joins the program. Carius averaged 27.2 points per game at the D3 Level, and expect him to be in the starting lineup this season being one of the leading scorers on the team



Heading into this upcoming season, Western Illinois starts off with a very tough test taking on Luka Garza and the #3 Iowa Hawkeyes. In non-conference play the Leathernecks also take on Central Michigan, Miami-Ohio, Mount St Joseph (D3), and Eastern Illinois. I expect them to go into Summit play at 3-2, with victories over Central Michigan, Mount St Joseph, and Eastern Illinois. Western Illinois is projected to finish last in the Summit conference this year, but I do not think they will finish 9th this year. This year is almost a complete rebuild so I do not expect them to compete at the top of the table, but I do believe they will finish ahead of Denver and come in at 8th in the Summit this year.This team will be very exciting to watch and they will be taking a lot of 3 pointers throughout the season, with many shooters on this team.


WIU Projected Starting Lineup

Anthony Jones

Tarnell Pearson

Justin Brookens

Rod Johnson Jr

Will Carius


Final Record Prediction 7-14 (4-12 Summit)

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