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Phoenix Gill charting unique course toward college basketball – The News-Gazette
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A few showers early, then clouds lingering overnight. Low 64F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Updated: August 5, 2023 @ 3:41 pm
Illinois men’s basketball coach Brad Underwood, left, sneaks up behind Class of 2025 prospect Phoenix Gill at the 34th annual Kendall Gill Golf Benefit, conducted Monday at the U of I Golf Course in Savoy. Phoenix is the oldest son of Kendall, a former Illini.
College/Prep Sports Reporter
Illinois men’s basketball coach Brad Underwood, left, sneaks up behind Class of 2025 prospect Phoenix Gill at the 34th annual Kendall Gill Golf Benefit, conducted Monday at the U of I Golf Course in Savoy. Phoenix is the oldest son of Kendall, a former Illini.
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SAVOY — Phoenix Gill doesn’t have any “dream” schools in his recruitment. Not really.
Of course, there are a couple of programs that have already offered the 6-foot-4 guard which hold a special place in his heart. Gill grew up with Illinois and Northwestern — his parents’ alma maters — as part of his life.
Illinois was the first to offer the Class of 2025 recruit last summer. Northwestern got on board with an offer last week. In between, he’s also landed offers from Toledo and Valparaiso.
He was in Savoy on Monday for his dad’s annual golf outing in support of Cunningham Children’s Home.
“I’m not saying they’re my dream schools, but they were two of the schools growing up I was a part of,” said Phoenix Gill, the oldest son of Illinois Hall of Fame guard Kendall Gill and Northwestern alumna Wendy Gill. “Now having an offer from both of them, I’m really honored and ready to go forward in the recruiting process.”
It’s a process Kendall experienced himself coming out of Rich Central in the late 1980s.
A process he’s enjoying now because he can re-live those halcyon days while his son puts in the real work.
But it’s a process Kendall isn’t trying to influence much. Even if the former Flyin’ Illini has a preference for where he’d like his son to wind up.
“I don’t try to push him in any direction,” Kendall said. “I just try to put him in the best situation possible and let him make his own decision. I’m hoping he leans our way and wears orange and blue, but you never know. I’m just hoping he makes the right decision for him.”
And if that right decision means following mom to Northwestern and winding up in purple instead?
“Oh, my God, it would be tough,” Kendall said with a laugh. “Let’s hope that day doesn’t come.”
Phoenix is charting a unique course toward college basketball, regardless of the destination.
He played sparingly as a freshman at Chicago St. Ignatius in 2021-22, as the Wolfpack won 24 games and finished third in the IHSA Class 3A state tournament. His role expanded this past season, as he averaged 11.7 points, three rebounds and 2.7 assists for another 24-win St. Ignatius team that finished fourth in the Class 3A state tournament.
Where Phoenix’s path diverges is the fact he’s yet to play AAU basketball as a high-major Division I recruit. It’s a choice the Gills made in the spring after his freshman season at St. Ignatius and followed through on again this year.
“After the season, all the AAU teams were calling me and asking me, ‘Where’s Phoenix going to play? Can he play with us?’” Kendall said. “I even had teams from out of state calling me to have him play. I just said I’m not a big fan of AAU basketball. I think it puts too much stress on the kids physically and mentally. They need a break.”
Phoenix isn’t exactly going without basketball, though, by not joining up with an AAU program. He was back on the court last month with St. Ignatius and shined at the Riverside-Brookfield Shootout. He also trains with his dad, a 15-year NBA veteran.
“He’s allowed to be a kid,” Kendall said. “He’s allowed to go play video games. He’s allowed to hang out with his friends. He doesn’t have to travel every weekend in the summer to AAU tournaments. He doesn’t have the strain of coaches looking at him every weekend and thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I didn’t play well that weekend. I need to play well this weekend.’”
There are two more evaluation periods this month to close out the 2022-23 recruiting calendar. Brad Underwood and the Illinois coaching staff — like other coaching staffs across the country — will be on the road recruiting the next two weekends. They won’t see Phoenix, but the Gills aren’t concerned.
“If you’re good, they’re going to find you,” Kendall said. “They found Scottie Pippen. They found Dennis Rodman. They found Dame Lillard. They found me — Coach Jimmy Collins at Five Star in Pittsburgh. Nobody knew who I was. I went to a camp and played well, and they found me.”
Phoenix likes where he’s at development-wise between the combination of playing for St. Ignatius and his own workouts. Skipping the AAU season has given him both a physical and mental break.
“It will be good for me now, but in the long run it will be even more beneficial,” Phoenix said. “I feel like resting my body is going to really help. We see young players like Lonzo Ball and other people getting injured at such a young age because they play so much basketball.”
The younger Gill doesn’t knock players who go the AAU and grassroots route. It’s just not his preference.
“I feel like it’s better if you don’t play AAU and just learn good habits, because you’re going to be playing in a system anyway,” Phoenix said. “AAU, it can teach you good habits, but there’s a lot of bad habits you can get from it.”
His dad would agree.
“It gets kids used to losing, because you lose a lot of AAU games,” Kendall said. “Some kids I’ve seen don’t care because they’ve got a game five minutes later on Court Five. They don’t care, really, about winning. I want Phoenix and I want my son Kota to cherish winning. I want them to hate to lose.”
The next step in Phoenix’s basketball development starts this month. The rest of the summer he’ll train in the morning with his dad three times a week, and then head into Chicago to DePaul’s campus and play with college-level competition in the city in the afternoon.
“He’s going to have that advantage,” Kendall said. “When he comes back next season to play, he’ll have that experience of playing against bigger, stronger and better guys.”
Scott Richey is a reporter covering college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).
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:
Could Kendall and Phoenix Gill become the next father-son pair to play at Illinois?
All these years later, Illini great Kendall Gill and his family remain committed to helping out Cunningham Children’s Home.
The 34th annual Kendall Gill golf outing to benefit the Cunningham Children’s Home, at the UI Golf Courses in Savoy on Monday, July 10, 2023.
College/Prep Sports Reporter
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