Terrence Shannon Jr. has returned to the Illinois basketball team, but he won’t immediately retake his spot in the starting lineup.
Head coach Brad Underwood told reporters Saturday that Shannon, who faces a felony rape charge, won’t start Sunday against Rutgers — the Illini’s first game since Shannon was granted a temporary restraining order from a federal court on Friday that allowed him to rejoin the team.
The university suspended Shannon last month in relation to allegations of date rape from September in Lawrence, Kan. Shannon went to court, arguing that he should be allowed to continue playing for the Illini while awaiting the outcome of his case due to the presumption of innocence.
On Friday, he won. He still faces a preliminary hearing in his criminal case on Feb. 23.
Underwood said that while the court decided that Shannon “gets back to full status immediately,” it will take time to integrate him back into the routine. Shannon was available for Friday’s late-afternoon practice after the school learned of the ruling.
“The challenge is we’ve been in a pretty good flow offensively and you don’t want to upset the apple cart, so to speak,” Underwood said.
Shannon, a senior guard, leads the 14th-ranked Fighting Illini with an average of 21.7 points per game, though he has missed the past six games. He has scored at least 30 points twice this season, including in his most recent contest when he put up 30 points and 11 rebounds in a Dec. 22 victory over Missouri.
The Illini (13-4, 4-2 Big Ten) were 4-2 without Shannon.
–Field Level Media
