As far as duos go, Terrence Shannon Jr. and Marcus Domask are as good as it gets in the East Region and all of college basketball. Shannon is a lethal downhill scorer, putting constant pressure on the rim and wearing out on-ball defenders. The 6-foot-6 fifth-year guard is scoring 22.6 points a game on 47/36/80 shooting splits while grabbing 4.1 rebounds and averaging a block and a steal.
He can take over a game, as he did against Nebraska in the Big Ten semifinal with 40 points on 11-22 from the field.
Domask is a nice changeup to Shannon’s aggressive attack, operating more in the mid-post, backing down defenders, and looking for a way to maneuver into the paint for a kick out or to finish himself. The Southern Illinois grad transfer is averaging 15.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and a team-high 3.6 assists at 6-foot-6. It's an excellent 1-2 punch that balances very well together and is a nightmare to defend.
The only problem for the Illini; they don’t have a point guard. Brad Underwood’s team relies on two score-first guards as his primary initiators which worries me at the end of games. There isn’t a real point guard in Illinois’s rotation and it’s a big reason I don’t trust the team to make a deep run.