No. 14 Illinois men’s basketball survived another conference upset in its last time out. The 88-73 win was Illinois’ seventh straight against Michigan and helped put its home loss to Maryland in the past. After missing six games due to suspension, fifth-year guard Terrence Shannon Jr. will return in Sunday night’s home matchup with Rutgers.
“It’s obviously a very serious, serious situation,” said head coach Brad Underwood. “I’m not going to talk about the emotion of Terrence or anybody else. I’m going to say that it’s basketball 101. It’s back to basketball, helping this team continue to move and strive forward. That’s where we’re at with that.”
The Chicago native’s lengthy absence means that Underwood will not immediately insert him into the starting lineup. Despite being allowed to participate in individual and conditioning workouts while suspended, Shannon still needs to ramp up in team practices.
“He has been away from the team in terms of team workouts,” Underwood said. “He was allowed to take part in individual workouts, continue his conditioning, continue lifting and doing those sorts of things with Fletch, which will help him, but there’s obviously game shape and playing. I will not start him tomorrow.”
Shannon’s temporary restraining order fully restored his status as a member of the team, but that does not guarantee that Illinois has to play him. It was a simple decision, however, for Underwood and Director of Athletics Josh Whitman.
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“Josh informed me what the court’s decision was,” Underwood said. “Obviously, that reinstates him to our program and as a basketball coach: He’s a really good player, he’s been a part of our team and we’re going to reinstate him. Pretty simple.”
While not presenting an immediate issue against Rutgers, Underwood stated that conversations regarding Shannon’s safety on the road will be had in the future.
“Not yet, but there will be,” Underwood said. “This is pretty rapid, yesterday, four o’clock and Rutgers, Rutgers, Rutgers and Rutgers some more and, and reinstating him. But we’ll have those (conversations) in due time.”
Rutgers is a slight step up from Illinois’ most recent opponent. Sitting at 13th in the Big Ten, the Scarlet Knights have lost four of their six conference games and are 10-7 on the year. This game can trap the Illini with Shannon’s return carrying so much weight, but Underwood’s group is trained to view all games equally.
“I don’t think there are any trap games in the Big Ten,” Underwood said. “This league is brutal. They’re all, ‘If you don’t play, you lose’ and there’s nothing trap about it. Steve Pikiell is one of the great coaches in the country. You better go out and strap it up. Whatever the emotions are, we have to execute, we have to play hard, we have to be dialed in as a group and be a heck of a lot better this Sunday than we were last Sunday.”
