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CHAMPAIGN — Terrence Shannon Jr. looked like an All-Big Ten guard facing an NAIA defense. Coleman Hawkins looked comfortable not being asked to do it all. And Marcus Domask stuffed the stat sheet doing just that.
All positives for No. 25 Illinois in its 116-65 exhibition victory against Ottawa (Kan.) on Friday night at State Farm Center.
“I’m excited to go watch film and learn from that,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “Most of the emphasis going into (Friday night) was not about personnel or anything they did. It was about us having a fundamental base and making all the fundamental plays we’ve been working on and trying not to make mistakes and communicate and over-communicate and value possessions. I thought we did a lot of good things.”
But there was plenty to nitpick, too, including more shaky free-throw shooting and some second-half defensive lapses that drove Underwood mad, but the positives outweighed those issues in the expected 51-point blowout.
“We just have a mature team,” Domask said. “That was the talk going into the locker room at halftime was we were not going to let up and keep the same intensity. When you have a mature team and a team that’s this deep, when people get their chance they’re not going to play flat.”
Underwood stuck with his plan for the exhibition playing all 12 of his scholarship players throughout the game and experimenting with multiple different lineups. Freshman forward Amani Hansberry made the most of his 14 minutes with 14 points and a slew of offensive rebounds to get to 12 total rebounds for the night and a double-double.
Shannon led the Illini with a game-high 18 points despite spending a good chunk of the second half on the bench. Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn added 15 points, Justin Harmon and Luke Goode each chipped in 11 points apiece, and Quincy Guerrier and Hawkins had 10 points each.
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Ottawa didn’t wind up on the Illinois schedule by happenstance. Illini assistant athletic director for basketball Joey Biggs is an Ottawa alum, was on the Braves’ basketball and golf teams and also served as an assistant basketball coach and golf coach at his alma mater.
“I really enjoyed my time there,” Biggs said. “It helped shape me. I’m not a revisionist guy. I was an average player at best. I loved playing, but I was an average player at best. I’m trying to figure out how my nephew got to (6-foot-6) because I have three brothers and none of us are bigger than 6-3.”
That Biggs’ 6-6 nephew — Jackson Biggs — is a freshman on the Braves’ roster made Friday night’s game that much more special for Biggs. The nature of the job he’s held his nephew’s entire life means he’s never seen him play in person before Friday.
“I’ve watched him on YouTube some,” Biggs said. “(Scheduling Ottawa) was some driven by that, but at the same time, we did it one time when I was at Oklahoma State. It’s a great opportunity for them to get to come to place like this and play a game. They’ve played a game at Kentucky. Mitch Barnhart, the (athletic director) at Kentucky is an Ottawa grad.”
Biggs did keep his Ottawa pride contained Friday night. No Braves T-shirt under his suit.
“I had to laugh,” Biggs said. “Jackson’s brother posted a deal (Wednesday) night where he had an Illinois shirt on and was like, ‘This will be the only time all year we’ll be against Illinois.'”
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Biggs wasn’t just in charge of scheduling his alma mater for an exhibition game at State Farm Center. Part of his job running operations for Illinois basketball is piecing together the entire schedule.
Some of it is determined by others — the Big Ten slate and, for at least one more season, the Gavitt Tipoff Games — but the bulk of the nonconference scheduling save for Missouri is up to Biggs.
“I think it’s hard,” Biggs said about this year’s schedule. “But we do it by design. I like the way it plays out, especially with several new guys and some older new guys that need to get acclimated. We have really good tests along the way to measure ourselves and figure out where we’re at. We better figure it out by the time we get to that first week of December because that will be a good measuring point.”
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Illinois will play its second exhibition game Oct. 29 against No. 1 Kansas. Underwood and Jayhawks coach Bill Self have had some brief discussions about how their respective teams will approach this year’s game compared to last year’s “secret” scrimmage on the Lindenwood campus in St. Charles, Mo.
“The difference is it’s a game instead of a scrimmage where we played three or four 20-minute halves and had segments and stopped them at different times and coached,” Underwood said. “We obviously can’t do that. It’s about both teams trying to understand against an opponent what we do well. We’ll all play a lot of guys. Yet, you’re trying to figure things out against a top-flight opponent.”
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Illinois will officially open the 2023-24 season on Nov. 6 against Eastern Illinois. What’s stood out the most to redshirt junior center Dain Dainja with that game on the horizon is how the leadership of the team has changed and what that has meant for the Illini’s defense.
“”We’re talking out there,” Dainja said. “We’re always communicating. We’ve got a lot of guys on the team who can lead, so when we’re out there we’re all in sync on defense. … That’s one of the things we’ve been preaching ever since spring is our defense and our effort. I definitely feel like we’re going to be one of the best defensive teams in the country.”
Scott Richey
