Tom Izzo seeks toughness as Michigan State basketball prepares for uncertainty at Illinois

EAST LANSING — Tom Izzo lamented the difficulty in scouting Michigan State basketball’s early-season opponents.

His latest problem for preparation has nothing to do with the transfer portal.

The Spartans travel to No. 10 Illinois uncertain of whether Terrence Shannon Jr. will be available for the Illini on Thursday. The senior swingman was suspended from all team activities Dec. 27 due to ongoing rape allegations stemming from an early September incident in Lawrence, Kansas.

“A lot of confusion right now,” Izzo said Tuesday afternoon about preparing for the uncertainty Shannon’s situation presents.

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MSU (9-6, 1-3 Big Ten) tip off against the Illini (11-3, 2-1) at 9 p.m. in Champaign, Illinois. The game will be televised on FS1.

The Spartans enter having lost three of their first four conference games for the second time in the past four seasons. They have not won at State Farm Arena since Feb. 11, 2020.

“We're good enough to go on a run,” Izzo said. “(Illinois) is not an easy place to play and not an easy team to play. And they're playing very well.”

Shannon surrendered to authorities in Kansas on Dec. 28. Illinois has gone has gone 2-1 without him, beating Fairleigh Dickinson on Dec. 29 (104-71) and Northwestern on Jan. 2 (99-66). The Illini lost at Purdue on Friday, 83-78.

On Monday, ESPN reported Shannon's attorneys filed for a temporary restraining order seeking immediate reinstatement, claiming due process was not followed by the university in issuing his suspension. Shannon is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 18 and his trial would not begin until June, per ESPN.

The 6-foot-6, 225-pound Shannon’s 21.7 points per game remain second in the Big Ten in scoring, just behind Purdue's Zach Edey (21.8) and ahead of MSU guard Tyson Walker (20.6). The one-time Texas Tech transfer also posted 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 51.4% in his 11 games before the indefinite suspension.

A hearing in Champaign initially was scheduled for Wednesday. However, on Tuesday, NCAA basketball reporter Jeff Goodman reported one of Shannon's attorneys said the case has been moved to federal court, with a hearing moved to 1:30 p.m. Friday.

That likely leaves Shannon out for Thursday's game against MSU.

“We're pretty much thinking about it as they're playing without him and they're gonna play the same way they've been playing the last couple games without him,” Sophomore center Carson Cooper said. "So we haven't even really been looking at the other gameplay or anything like that because they're playing a whole different way.”

Still, Izzo expects those three games of tape from Illinois playing without Shannon might not matter much. He anticipates Illini coach Brad Underwood will make additional adjustments following Friday’s loss to Purdue and a two-day head-start on preparing for an MSU team that fell 88-74 on Sunday at Northwestern.

“Whether he plays or not, we think there's gonna be a lot of changes for them,” Izzo said. “Because they've had a chance to now spend five days and especially a weekend where you can get two-a-days in or something. They don't have school this week. So we think there's going to be a lot of changes.”

Marcus Domask is averaging 14.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists for the season. But the 6-6, 215-pound senior forward has posted 23 points, 4 rebounds and 7.3 assists in the Illini's three games without Shannon. That included scoring 32 points against Northwestern and 26 against Purdue, plus posting 11 points and 11 assists against FDU.

Quincy Guerrier, a 6-7 senior forward, averages 11.5 points and a team-leading 7.6 rebounds, while 6-10 senior big man Coleman Hawkins is posting 10.4 points and 5.4 rebounds. Ty Rodgers, a 6-6 sophomore from Saginaw, posts 5.6 points and 5.4 rebounds for the deep, veteran-laden squad.

“I would say it's tough to prepare. The big thing is you never know what can happen,” junior guard Jaden Akins said. “We've been in the tournament when you have one-day or two-day preps. So I feel like we've got a good amount of time to prepare for them. ... We have to be ready to play for whatever, just be able to adapt.

“You gotta just come in there with a mindset that we're coming to win a game. Whatever they change, we just got to be better than them.”

Izzo wants change internally as well after he exited Evanston frustrated and fuming over his team’s lack of toughness, saying Tuesday that his Spartans did not respond to Northwestern’s “bully ball” approach.

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“One of the big things is he wants us to stop playing timid and just keep having that energy and stop playing as soft,” said Cooper, who had 10 points and six rebounds Sunday. “So for us, physicality and just having energy and having fun with each other is probably what's gonna help us.”

Izzo has continued to amp up his own intensity as well. He knows it is needed to salvage a slipping shot at a Big Ten title and to avoid falling out of the race at the quarter pole of the 20-game conference season.

“Nobody's come back and said, ‘We can't play,’” Izzo said. “We got a good team. We're not a great team yet, because we've had to overcome some things. And we haven't done a couple of things as well as I'd like to do. But it's a good basketball team.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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Next up: Illini

Matchup: Michigan State (9-6, 1-3 Big Ten) at No. 10 Illinois (11-3, 2-1).

Tipoff: 9 p.m. Thursday; State Farm Center, Champaign, Illinois.

TV/radio: FS1; WJR-AM (760).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball prepares for uncertainty at No. 10 Illinois