CHAMPAIGN — Nothing about this spring and summer were normal when it pertained to the world of college basketball recruiting.

Major events were canceled. Visits of any kind — your officials and unofficials — were axed because of the ever-extended recruiting dead period.

Out of that stark new reality, though, came some positive for Mike Mullins’ Illinois Wolves program. Just take now Illinois freshman Brandon Lieb for example. He was essentially offer-less when his senior season at Deerfield ended with a sectional semifinal loss to what would have been a Class 3A state title contender in Niles Notre Dame. Lieb was intending on spending the 2020-21 season at a prep school. Instead, he’ll likely redshirt at Illinois but still be immersed in a Big Ten program.

The Illini weren’t even the first high-major program to offer. Oklahoma held that distinction, and Lon Kruger’s Sooners were soon followed by Oklahoma State, DePaul, Utah and Illinois.

“The dynamics of basketball change,” Mullins said. “That allowed him as a 7-foot prospect to fill a scholarship spot that maybe, in a different year, would have went to someone else. Brandon loves the game and has a chance, given time, to mature and grow physically and improve his basketball skills to be a contributor to the program. Those are all the things coach (Brad) Underwood and I talked about as well as coach Chin (Coleman) and myself.

“Illinois certainly had a roster in flux with whether guys were going pro and other guys transferring. I never think it’s a bad idea to be developing a 7-footer on your basketball team. That’s just me. That’s what Brandon did in our program. We just continually tried to help him get better.”

Mullins considers the Illinois Wolves a “developmental program.” So even though the Under Armour Association closed up shop this spring and summer and he couldn’t get his team together until Illinois state guidelines allowed in July, there was still work to put in and progress to be made. It just happened in house this summer.

Easy to do when the Wolves’ roster reads like a “who’s who” of some of the top talent in the state. That included 2021 Big Ten commits Max Christie (Rolling Meadows/Michigan State), Isaiah Barnes (Simeon/Michigan) and Chris Hodges (Schaumburg/Wisconsin) and a slew of other Division I prospects. Like fellow 2021 recruits Louis Lesmond (Niles Notre Dame/Harvard), Connor Enright (Mundelein/Drake), Scottie Ebube (Mundelein/Southern Illinois) and Denham Wojcik, who attends La Lumiere (Ind.) and will keep playing with Lesmond at Harvard.

The list of 2022 prospects has some notable names, too. Like Illinois target Jaden Schutt (a four-star top-100 guard) out of Yorkville Christian, the Glenbard West duo of Braden Huff (a four-star, top 70 forward) and Caden Pierce and Tuscola’s Jalen Quinn. Not to mention Class of 2023 high-major recruit Cam Christie.

Plenty of talent in the gym. Video of those sessions made it into the hands of college coaches.

“Every time we competed against each other, we had all Division I athletes on the floor against each other,” Mullins said. “It was easy for coaches to look at that. In the high school setting, you don’t get that all the time. You don’t get 10 Division I players on the floor for a whole practice for a whole game. We do.

“We’re blessed to have one of the best programs in the country, not just the state. We have a lot of really good players, and that benefits all of them. They all get pushed on a regular basis, and they like to get pushed or they wouldn’t play for us.”

Mullins has had Schutt play up an age group his entire time with the Wolves. The 6-foot-5, 175-pound guard has reaped the benefits of that this spring and summer in his recruitment.

Illinois was the first high-major program to offer Schutt in mid-April, and nine more have done so since, including Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Northwestern, Nebraska and Iowa from the Big Ten.

Mullins has seen growth in Schutt’s game even after he put up 23 points, nine rebounds, 2.6 assists, two steals and two blocks per game as a sophomore at Yorkville Christian. It’s the typical point in a high school career Mullins expects to see improvement.

“You’re starting to put your skills together with your physical development,” Mullins said about that summer-before-junior-year growth. “What we worked on with Jaden this spring is what he would have worked on live in games. Being with the ball a lot more. Being able to break people down himself and be able to make plays for others as well as himself. Jaden’s one of the best athletes in the state. I’d put him up against anybody in a sprint or in an alley-oop contest. He goes up and gets it.

“We chose not to have him play his age to push him to be developed, to take advantage of going against those guys every day. That’s our formula in our program, but you’ve got to be physically and mentally ready to do that because on the short end you might lose some of the initial luster. On the long end, it catches up quite well for you. That’s what’s happened with Jaden.”

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).