BOSTON — Illinois senior Terrence Shannon Jr. is putting together an NCAA Tournament run for the ages. Connecticut is very aware.
When the No. 3 Fighting Illini and No. 1 Huskies meet on Saturday with a Final Four bid on the line, all eyes will be on maybe the best matchup of this postseason: Shannon against the defending national champions.
While the Huskies have ripped through another three teams to run their postseason winning streak to nine games, all by a double-digit margin, Shannon’s ability as a scorer makes Illinois a dangerous opponent with enough punch to keep UConn out of the national semifinals.
“He’s playing like one of the best college players in the country,” sophomore forward Alex Karaban said. “He’s one of the tasks we need to get ready for. Like I said, he’s one of the best players in the country and everybody knows that.”
Shannon has scored 85 points through three games, becoming the first player in program history to score at least 25 points in three tournament games in a row. If he maintains this pace through the national championship game, Shannon would finish with the third-most points by a player in a single tournament, behind Michigan’s Glen Rice in 1989 (184 points) and Princeton’s Bill Bradley in 1965 (177 points).
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He scored 29 points in Thursday’s 72-69 win against No. 2 Iowa State despite playing just 30 minutes after getting into foul trouble.
“He’s strong,” sophomore center Donovan Clingan said of Shannon. “He’s crafty around the rim. He’s an elite player, a lottery pick.”
As an offense, Illinois reminds UConn of Marquette, coach Dan Hurley said. The Illini lost 71-64 to the Golden Eagles in non-conference play.
“I think there’s different elements with the way that they space the court,” said Hurley. “Obviously, we watched their game versus Marquette in the non-conference, the one they played at Illinois. So there was some familiarity coming in.”
But Shannon is a different sort of individual talent than UConn has faced this season, leaving the Huskies poring over game tape to find ways to put the clamps on maybe the best pure scorer left in this tournament.
UConn will focus on three factors in an effort to stop Shannon from taking control: his ability to get to the free-throw line, his aggressive pace in transition and a go-to move that defenders have struggled to stop.
Shannon has gone to the line 24 times in tournament play. He’s made 18, just below his season average (80.4%). During the regular season, Shannon made double-digit attempts from the line 11 times, including in all three games during the Big Ten tournament, with a season high of 19 attempts in a loss to Penn State in February.
“We’ve got to keep him off the free throw line,” said senior guard Tristen Newton. “He runs fast and hard into the defenders’ shirts and gets to the line.”
Shannon is also one of the best players in the country in transition, where he’s a “freight train driving to the basket,” Karaban said. He scored four times on the break against Iowa State, including an emphatic dunk of a steal to seal Illinois’ win with under a minute left.
“He’s really, really quick,” said Clingan. “In transition, he’s getting ahead of the defenders and getting to the rim.”
Then there’s Shannon’s favorite move in the half-court set, said Newton, who described how Shannon will drive to his left, take a Euro step, cradle the ball in his left arm and invariably finish at the rim or draw the foul.
“That seems to work every time he goes down the court,” Newton said.
UConn seems to have a good idea what Shannon will try to do and how, even if stopping his well-rounded game is a different story. In a perfect world, though, the Huskies will take Shannon out of his comfort zone and force his teammates to pick up the slack.
Illinois has two other players averaging double figures in forwards Marcus Domask (15.8 points per game) and Coleman Hawkins (12.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game). But the Illini’s lack of offensive punch when Shannon was sidelined after his fourth foul in the second half against Iowa State showed how hard life can be with the senior off the court.
And UConn brings more to the table than the three opponents Illinois has beaten to reach Friday night: more bodies, more athleticism, more physicality and more length near the basket.
“He’s got to deal with what we do,” Clingan said.