Illinois senior forward Jacob Grandison will not play in Sunday's game against No. 24 Iowa, Illinois announced, as the No. 20-ranked Illini (21-8, 14-5 Big Ten) won a share for Big Ten regulars. - Seasons Championship for the first time since 2005.
The starting forward, who is wearing a sling on his left shoulder/arm, suffered a shoulder injury late in Thursday's 60-55 win against Penn State and did not play for the final 2:32. Illinois coach Brad Underwood said Thursday that the injury was a sprain and said on Saturday that he was "day-to-day" with the injury.
Grandison is fourth on the Illini this season, averaging 10.3 points per game, while shooting three to 41.0 percent. So his absence may hinder the Illini offense, but Grandison is also a player Underwood trusts in all aspects on the court.
"He doesn't make a lot of mistakes," Underwood said. "He's very, very assignment sound on both ends. As a coach, there's tremendous trust with Jake. You know what you're getting. He never gets out of character. Very rarely does he play and out of character. He's done it a couple of times but everyone else does. For the most part, he's very much within himself."
Illinois will not have Grandison, but new player RJ Melendez will be available, Illinois confirmed, after missing the last three games due to an emergency appendectomy. Over the course of three games last month, Melendez emerged as a rotation player, scoring 32 points on 8-for-11 shooting, including a 4-for-6 out of three. Freshman Luke Goode, who has averaged just 6.1 minutes per game in eight games since scoring a season-high nine points against Michigan State, could play a big role on Sunday as well.
But with Melendez returning from a surgery, Illinois is likely to rely even more heavily on Coleman Hawkins, a 6-foot-10 forward, who replaces Illini with Iowa sophomore star and National Player of the Year candidate Keegan Murray (23.3 points). , 8.5 rebound). ) After playing a major role early in the season, Hawkins struggled to find play time from mid-January to mid-February. But the versatile, athletic sophistication has shown improvement recently, making some significant plays on both ends of the court, most recently in Michigan and in wins against Penn State. During the last five games, Hawkins has averaged 5.8 points (33.3% FG), 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals.
Underwood said, "He cares about winning. You have to find out at some point how much they care when people are struggling and people are down. In Coleman's case, he cares. Now this That's heart to heart and get him back to the gym, get him back to work, don't let adversity pile up. Moving on. Beat our adversity."