Where does Illinois turn without Terrence Shannon?

It’s been a difficult week for the Illinois basketball program.

The indefinite suspension of Terrence Shannon Jr. amid rape charges have been hard to process and brought a dark cloud over the Illinois community. A long process awaits, and many questions remain unanswered.

This is a situation that extends far beyond basketball.

There are, however, 14 other players who remain hard-working members of the program and are set to re-start conference play this week likely ranked inside the top-10 nationally. And the fact of the matter is, they’re going to need to adjust to life without their All-American teammate for the foreseeable future.

So, what does that look like for this team?

There’s no need to sugarcoat things. This is a far different basketball team without a two-way superstar averaging 21.7 points per game. Beyond even just the gaudy numbers, Shannon had established himself as the leader of this group and others will now be tasked with stepping into that role.

Friday…