Penn State student section trolls Coleman Hawkins, Terrence Shannon prior to Illinois game

Prior to tip-off of Wednesday’s game against Illinois, the Penn State student section did its research on multiple Fighting Illini players. That includes Coleman Hawkins and Terrence Shannon, who were the subjects of the trolls in the guide.

The Legion of Blue put out its chant guide before the game, and it featured facts about the Illinois players for fans to know as they cheer on Penn State. For Hawkins, one of the trolls was about his NIL merchandise, which the student section said “looks like something from a Hot Topic.” It also pointed out the California native is a Chicago Bears fan – which hasn’t been the easiest thing in recent years.

For Shannon, the Legion of Blue noted he declared for the 2023 NBA Draft before opting to return to school and made fun of his first name. When looking at the stats, the student section made sure to remind fans Shannon also leads Illinois in blocks per game.

Opposition research on #illini from PSU student section. Tamer than I thought it’d be tbh. pic.twitter.com/1g0yUEA9Cd

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) February 21, 2024

Penn State entered Wednesday night on a three-game losing streak, with the most recent loss coming at Nebraska last week. The game against Illinois will also mark the Nittany Lions’ first since leading scorer Kanye Clary left the program, Mike Rhoades announced Wednesday.

“Kanye is no longer with the team,” Rhoades said, via BWI’s Nate Bauer. “Coach’s decision. We’re going to keep moving forward on the guys we got, the task at hand. It came to a point where we’re at that I made the decision as the head coach to move on. I’ll leave it at that.”

Clary struggled with injuries this month and didn’t reach double-digit points in any of his final three games. In fact, against Northwestern on Feb. 11, he didn’t score a point as Penn State fell to the Wildcats 68-63 in Evanston.

At the time of his departure, Clary was averaging 16.7 points per game to lead all Nittany Lions during his sophomore season. That means Penn State will have to replace that production moving forward, and it started with Wednesday night’s game against Illinois.

Without Clary in the lineup, points will be even tougher to come by for a Penn State team that hasn’t been great on the offensive end of the court. That issue has already been illustrated as PSU mustered just 49 total points in a blowout loss to Nebraska over the weekend when they didn’t have Kanye Clary in the lineup.

Alex Weber contributed to this report.