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Illinois’ great season to date took a massive hit Thursday when the school’s best player, Terrence Shannon Jr., was charged with rape and immediately suspended from all team activities.
“The University and DIA [Division of Intercollegiate Athletics] have shown time and again that we have zero tolerance for sexual misconduct,” said Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman. “At the same time, DIA policy affords student-athletes appropriate levels of due process based on the nature and severity of the allegations. We will rely on that policy and our prior experiences to manage this situation appropriately for the University and the involved parties.”
Right now, we still have more questions than answers, and I’m not interested in speculating much about how things might unfold. But one thing worth remembering in this era of college athletics — and something I pointed out on Thursday’s episode of the Eye On College Basketball podcast — is that players rarely return after being charged with rape. It’s one thing to be accused of a crime like this — but actually being charged is a whole different deal, one that’s typically difficult to recover from, broadly speaking, now that universities all of the country have changed policies connected to how they deal with athletes who are charged with sexual assault.
So what to do with Illinois?
That’s the biggest question facing Friday morning’s CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where the Illini have been sitting at No. 5 thanks to a 9-2 record featuring a neutral-court victory over Florida Atlantic and losses only to Marquette (home) and Tennessee (away). But now Illinois has lost its best player — possibly for the season. Presumably, the Illini will not be the same team without Shannon. You don’t have to be an analyst to share that opinion. You just have to recognize that the 6-foot-6 fifth-year wing who is currently third in the KenPom.com Player of the Year race behind only Purdue’s Zach Edey and Duke’s Kyle Filipowski is averaging 21.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 33.0 minutes per game while shooting 51.4% from the field and 40.8% from beyond the arc.
This is a big loss.
That acknowledged, I’ve never really made a habit of adjusting the Top 25 And 1 because of injuries or suspensions. Instead, I usually just let things play out and adjust when results require it. So that’s what I’m going to do with Illini — at least for now. For those curious, Illinois’ next game is Friday at home against Fairleigh Dickinson. After that, the Illini will resume Big Ten play with games against Northwestern at home (Tuesday) and Purdue on the road (Jan. 5) before two more home games against Michigan State (Jan. 11) and Maryland (Jan. 14).
