Last April, Bruce Weber took the Illinois men's basketball head coaching position and fought an uphill battle for recruits. Wednesday was the first day recruits could sign national letters of intent, and Weber's got his first recruit signed.

"We were very pleased to receive the national letter of intent back from Shaun Pruitt," Weber said. "At times, we didn't know if we could sign anybody getting the job so late. You're really dealing with recruiting against people that maybe recruited kids for two or three years, and we're trying to catch up over a three, four-month period just to have a chance for a home visit and a school visit."

The hard work paid off as Pruitt, a 6-foot-9-inch star at West Aurora High School, felt convinced that Illinois provided the best opportunity for him.

"It's the place that I felt the most comfortable at," Pruitt said. "It feels good. Now, I just get to worry about my senior season. I already know where I'm going now that I'm signed. It takes all the pressure off."

Keeping the best post player in the state within Illinois' borders provided a huge positive to landing Pruitt as the first recruit signed under Weber's tenure.

"I think the major positives about Shaun are, first, that he is an in-state kid," Weber said. "I think that's great, we love to keep in-state kids here at Illinois wanting to come here.

"The second thing is that he's a Chicago area kid, which was important to us to get in that area and make some inroads with that."

The last basketball star to come from West Aurora High School was Illinois' 1988 team MVP, Kenny Battle. Starting in 1989, annually Illinois' awarded the Kenny Battle Award for "tremendous amount of effort exerted in games, as well as in practices."

Pruitt possesses attributes that could help him succeed like Battle did as an Illini.

"He has very good skills," Weber said. "He's a lefty that has a good touch. He shoots the ball very well from three, and yet he has the bulky body that can go inside and do some damage. I think he has a great upside to him."

Most of Pruitt's expected upside comes from playing minimally during the past two seasons. As a sophomore, Pruitt experienced foot problems that kept him out most of the year. As a junior, a broken leg sidelined Pruitt until his return for West Aurora's run through Illinois High School Association's March Madness.

"I'm pretty much recovered from my previous injuries," Pruitt said.

A healthy Pruitt will only add to the wealth of talent the Illini expect to have for the 2004-2005 season.

"We were honest with him the whole entire recruiting process," Weber said. "We're not promising minutes. We're just promising an opportunity, and to be a part of the state and the program, and we think we have a great team."

Illinois still has another scholarship that could be used for next season. Weber would like to use the second scholarship so that he won't feel restrained the following year only being allowed to give out the NCAA maximum of five scholarships, in case a player decides to leave early.

Weber already knows that he will have four scholarships available for the class of 2005 with the graduation of Luther Head, Jack Ingram, Roger Powell and Nick Smith.

"We will continue to watch and see if we can find someone," Weber said. "If we do not find a player that can fit into the mix then we'll save it for the next year. I'd rather not because I don't know if I want a class of five the year after. If we can possibly fill it with a quality kid that fits what we need, we would do it right now."