Terrence Shannon Jr. was suspended from the Illinois basketball team earlier this season because of a sexual assault case that he is facing, but his next appearance in court has been pushed back and won't take place until after the season. Because of that, he returned to action over the weekend when the Fighting Illini hit the road to take on Rutgers, and he should be able to play for Illinois for the rest of the season. The Fighting Illini played at in-state rival Northwestern basketball on Wednesday, and the crowd didn't hold back toward Shannon Jr.

Early on in the game, Northwestern basketball fans chanted ‘no means no' at Terrence Shannon Jr., and they were chanting ‘guilty' towards the later stages of the game as well. Illinois basketball is going to go into a lot of hostile environments in the Big Ten this season, and Shannon Jr. can expect that to happen at just about all of them.

“We’re playing ball,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said after the game, according to an article from The Chicago Sun Times. “We’ve been in a lot of environments in this league. I had chicken wings thrown at me last year at Maryland. That stuff doesn’t have anything to do with the outcome of the basketball game. We had a chance to win a basketball game today. Chants or no chants, we had a chance to win.”

This was a terrific basketball game. Northwestern and Illinois went back and forth all night long, and neither team was able to create any separation in regulation. The game ended up being tied when the clock hit zeros, and it went to overtime. The Wildcats dominated the overtime period, and they came out with a 96-91 win. The atmosphere at Welsh-Ryan Arena was great, and Northwestern head coach Chris Collins gave the fans credit after the game.

“The atmosphere was electric, Chris Collins said. “We had to win. That was kind of our mindset. It doesn’t become a true rivalry until we start winning our share.”

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That was a tough loss for Illinois, but Northwestern is a very good basketball team, and the Fighting Illini shouldn't hang their heads for losing to a good team in a tough road environment. They need to focus on bouncing back.

Illinois will look for that bounce back win on Saturday as they will be back at home to host Indiana. They should be favored by a decent margin in that one.