‘Leap of faith’ leads Ben Humrichous to Illinois

May 14—Ben Humrichous took a chance when he decided to leave Huntington University after three seasons. Potentially a big one.

Humrichous didn’t have a guarantee he would find what he was searching for in a shot at the Division I level. The 2022-23 season was his best at Huntington — an NAIA program located between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Ind. — and even then he was only a Second-Team All-Crossroads League selection.

Humrichous had plenty of interest once it was known he was available. But nothing at the Division I level until Evansville reached out. The Purple Aces wound up as Humrichous’ only Division I offer.

“You’re sitting in the portal waiting for the right people to call,” Humrichous said. “I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t nervous at all during that time. What you’re going to start to learn about me is my faith is incredibly important. Along this journey, I know God has a will and has a plan for my life.

“I didn’t want to sell that short. A year ago, I had no guarantees about Division I but, I believed in the work I put in and believed what God had for my life. It was a big leap of faith to chase that dream.”

Humrichous is chasing bigger dreams now. The 6-foot-9 forward entered the transfer portal after one season at Evansville to an entirely different level of recruitment. A whole stratosphere of interested teams.

Louisville and Villanova pushed hard. Illinois won out. Humrichous intends to join the Illini in June, but until then, he’s going through the NBA draft process with two workouts under his belt and at least three more with different organizations to come.

“A year ago, if you would have told me I would play in the Big Ten and doing the NBA (workouts) chasing that dream, I would have thought you were crazy,” Humrichous told The News-Gazette on Monday afternoon. “I would have never counted it out — I know God does crazy things and works in crazy ways — but it would have been pretty crazy about a year ago. Through hard work and trusting in…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/leap-faith-leads-ben-humrichous-035900960.html

Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Publish date : 2024-05-15 03:59:00

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