CHAMPAIGN, Ill.– Terrence Shannon Jr. is the Big Ten Player of the Week for Nov. 14-20, the conference office announced Monday afternoon. He earns the award after averaging 22.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists while shooting 59.5% from the field, including 56.5% from 3-point range.

Shannon had career and school-record performances while leading the No. 16 Fighting Illini to a 2-1 record on the week, including a top-10 victory.

Shannon began the week by setting a new career scoring high with 30 points in just 23 minutes in the blowout win over Monmouth, adding eight rebounds and four assists.

He then had arguably the signature performance of the early college basketball season, pouring in 29 points while tying the school record with eight 3-pointers in Illinois' comeback win over No. 8 UCLA in Las Vegas. Shannon was on fire throughout the night, going 8-of-9 from downtown to become the sixth player in Illini history with eight made threes in a game. He also tallied his third career double-double – and first as an Illini – collecting a game-high 10 rebounds vs. UCLA to go with his 29 points.

Shannon finished the week by tying his career high with six assists and scoring nine points in the loss to No. 16 Virginia in the championship game of the Continental Tire Main Event.

Officials decide another game. That's 3.

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Ultimately, Illinois couldn’t defend Virginia without fouling

How’s he lookin for the scUM game?

He’s the real deal. He’s fun to watch and a big that can compliment the perimeter nature of this team. Really look forward to watching him play.

And the four freshmen are legit and will only get better and better looking ahead. It’s going to be tough to keep these kids off the court.

I can see where Goode and his shooting will be a real X factor for this team come March. Look out!

UCLA is favored by 4.5. Baylor and Virginia are just as good.

I think Shannon will do well but I have loads of other concerns.

Turnovers and fouls are just going to give away tons of possessions and easy points.

Coleman and RJ both play soft and can’t handle adversity. They will struggle from 3 against elite talent and stingy defense.

Dainja and Rogers will get rebounds and will get fouled but can’t score at the line.

Epps can score but I don’t think he can guard at all. Skyy is still learning the PG position and will struggle with his handle.

I don’t know what Mayer’s deal is but we will need him to show up. If he’s struggling then we’re going to get in a big hole early.

I like our talent and our potential. Guys are improving. I just saw a lot of weaknesses that will be exploited by top coaches and top talent. These other teams are Final Four contenders.

This will be a fantastic measuring stick and teaching tool for our guys. We may even win a rematch in March. I’m just expecting things to get ugly here.

Playing with house money IMO. If we do win a game I will be extremely bullish on this team going forward.

I'll post a few pics, tweets, etc. from my trip to Vegas.

I got checked in at the Luxor at around 2 am PT this morning. I forgot everything is difficult in Vegas...moving around, checking in, etc. Just too many goddam people. LOL.

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I can see this team portentous making a run?

Tipoff from T-Mobile Arena in about 10 minutes.

I think it's pretty impressive how in 6 years of Underwood we've seen at least 3 different offensive/defensive schemes. Underwood does his homework and is willing to change up the scheme to suit the strengths of his personnel. Kofi Cockburn was an All-American twice and we started winning as soon as he showed up, but it's not like he was a lottery pick. He was a unicorn in college basketball but it's because we played to his strengths. Now we have a team full of long athletes and we switch to this nasty full-court trap defense. I thought maybe it was just something that would work against lesser teams but it clearly bothered UCLA just as much as it did everyone else. That UCLA team was loaded with elite athletes so there's no team in college basketball that is going to just shrug it off like a gimmick. It's going to be a problem for a lot of teams.

Similarly, our offensive scheme has clearly unlocked Shannon's game. TSJ has done the work to improve his 3-point shooting and right-handed drives but even still this is a guy that is absolutely thriving and playing like a first-team All-American.

Even in the first two seasons when we were short on talent we were driving other teams nuts. When we did run into Big Ten coaches that figured out our defense we moved to something different.

What makes Brad Underwood a special coach is that he's humble enough to study up in the offseason and cook up different schemes to maximize his personnel. He's not just a system coach. His system is whatever he needs it to be to win the game.

Michigan jumps on top 7-0.

Did not see a game thread.

First story in the C-U News-Gazette posted about 2 hours ago.

Cause of death unknown at this time:

Tight one between Baylor and Virginia in game 1.

Cavaliers lead 36-35, 17:36 second half.

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Nothing else 😊😊😊😊