Big Ten Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season
By Tuck Clarry
4. Illinois Fighting Illini
Illinois should be better than what we saw last season. Brad Underwood has made the tournament the last three seasons with Illinois and the team returns three of their four leading scorers, most importantly team leader and fifth-year guard Terrence Shannon. They also bring back promising big man Coleman Hawkins for his senior season after averaging 9.9 points and 6.3 rebounds last season.
The issue is that Underwood didn’t really do all that much to solve the Illini’s issues last season: 3-point shooting and point guard play. They ranked 335th in 3-point percentage last season and had 280th in assist-to-field goal percentage. The Skyy Clark point guard role was a near-instant failure with his departure after 13 games and the position wasn’t addressed in the portal or by incoming freshmen.
Shannon doesn’t have the playmaking to fill the role and it appears Underwood has landed on sophomore Ty Rodgers to play point. He struggled with the ball last season, recording 32 assists to 27 turnovers. If Rodgers doesn’t improve or an answer doesn’t appear from the rest of the roster, this greatly caps Illinois’ ability in conference and in March.
Three transfers, Justin Harmon, Quincy Guerrier and Marcus Domask will help fill-out an already versatile rotation. The hope is that Harmon and Domask, who come from Utah Valley and Southern Illinois, will be able to add shooting, averaging 34% each last year.
If Hawkins can make another step on offense, improve his perimeter shooting and continue to offer his rim protection the Illini can expect to fight for a spot in the top 3 of this conference. Shannon is as good of a guard as there comes in college basketball and the defense should remain great after a season that saw them finish 24th in defensive effective field goal percentage and 26th in KenPom defensive efficiency. Those are big ifs, but if the offense can become consistent.