Breaking News: Four-star wide receiver commit ends recruiting, intends to sign with the Vols

Piper: For starters, Terrence Shannon Jr. has been one of the best players in all of college basketball up to this point. He could have been an early-to-mid second-round pick in the NBA Draft if he decided to stay in this past summer, but he came back and he’s been dominant. Shannon has averaged 22 points per game, while shooting 54 percent from the field and a career-best 45 percent from three. He’s a high-level athlete at 6-foot-6, 225 pounds. His improved three-point shooting has been huge. He’s also been much more assertive this season, while last year was his first experience in an alpha role in college basketball. He’s been really locked in at the defensive end as well.

On that note, Illinois has been very stout defensively as a team. The Illini have quite a bit of positional size, especially 1-4, with some very good individual defenders and plenty of physicality. Ty Rodgers (6’6”, 200 lbs.) can make life tough on the ball. Quincy Guerrier (6’8”, 220 lbs.) mixes it up well at the four. Meanwhile, Coleman Hawkins (6’10”, 225 lbs.) brings length and versatility as a stretch five. Illinois did just give up 89 points to Florida Atlantic in a high-scoring affair at Madison Square Garden, and while there are certainly some things to clean up from that, the Illini mostly tipped their cap to the Owls for making shots.

The emergence of Marcus Domask as Illinois’ No. 2 scoring option has been huge as well. The Southern Illinois transfer struggled with his shot through the bulk of November and he also was trying to find his role. Domask broke out on the Illini’s recent East Coast swing, though, with 15 points at Rutgers and a career-high 33 points against FAU. The 6-foot-6 forward really has the mid-post game going, as he can back guys down and he has a sweet turnaroun