Illinois basketball looks to have Terrence Shannon Jr. for the rest of 2023-24 season

The information train keeps rolling through the Illinois basketball program, as there is more information on Terrence Shannon Jr.’s rape allegation.

Shannon was reinstated back to the Illini within the past week due to him winning a court ruling that would allow him to participate while he awaits his preliminary hearing on the charge of rape.

This preliminary hearing was originally scheduled for February 23, but it has now been moved. According to Bret Beherns of WCIA3, Shannon is now scheduled to appear before the judge in Douglas County, Kansas on May 10 at 9:00 a.m. CT.

In a later post on social media, Beherns is reporting that the hearing is being moved back because of a scheduling conflict.

Illinois basketball is just in a wait-and-see at this point with Terrence Shannon Jr.

With the news coming out in drips, the Associate Chancellor at the University of Illinois came out with a statement clarifying what has happened thus far and who, essentially, has decision-making power.

This statement kind of just recaps what most people following the case already knew about what was going on. But it is always nice to see some of the higher-ups at Illinois explain things a bit.

From a basketball perspective, that date change is pretty big for the Illini. The preliminary hearing was supposed to be in late February with five games still on the regular season schedule. That is when we were supposed to get the process started. Now that is pushed back until mid-May, everything changes on the court.

It seems that Shannon is highly likely to play the entire 2023-24 campaign the rest of the way out. At the latest, if Illinois makes the national championship, we would be playing into early April. May is way out of the college basketball calendar.

So, for now, it looks like Shannon is going to be back in Orange and Blue for good. Thank you to all of the reporters who keep everyone updated on the case.