KARMA: Illinois Embarrassed Itself with Terrence Shannon Jersey Retirement

Karma reared its head in Champaign. The University of Illinois made a huge mistake and it compounded into ten more mistakes.

This time a year ago, Terrence Shannon was dodging sexual assault allegations to play basketball for the Fighting Illini. When he played, he was pretty good. He averaged 23.0 points per game and earned Third Team All-American honors while propelling Illinois to its first Elite Eight since 2005.

Illinois clearly did not know how to handle the success. They decided Shannon’s jersey should be retired one year later.

Why are schools in such a rush to hang up jerseys? Caitlin Clark is the kind of player who deserves to have her jersey retired within a year. She rewrote record books and took the program to new heights. You can let the cake bake until some time has passed to honor Terrence Shannon. Even he was surprised they decided to retire his jersey.

“I was shocked because I was only here for two years,” he told local media before the ceremony. “I was just happy. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to get my jersey up there.”

That’s right, Shannon spent more time in Lubbock than Champaign. That wasn’t even the most embarrassing part of the night.

An Upside-Down Terrence Shannon Banner

The plan was for Shannon to unveil the banner in a ceremony at halftime against Michigan State. The Minnesota Timberwolves’ rookie pulled the cord and saw an upside-down banner. The sound from the crowd is unlike any reaction you’ve ever heard.

Well, they’ll have to flip it around. But Terrence Shannon Jr. is forever an #Illini legend pic.twitter.com/b2MLKaAujp

— Glenn Kinley (@glenn_kinley) February 16, 2025

“Obviously, a really regrettable moment. It’s a shame that it happened that way. Of course, I didn’t hang the jersey, but I’m ultimately responsible for everything that happens in this building and ultimately that means that was on me tonight,” said Illinois AD Josh Whitman.

“We need to make sure we understand that in life, mistakes happen. But there are also certain moments where mistakes can’t happen. And tonight, we stole that moment from Terrence and that’s on us and something that we have apologized to him for, apologized to his mom. We want to make sure that we apologize to our fans and everybody who was excited to be a part of this experience tonight.”

Not only was it a bad mistake, it was a total buzzkill. Illinois led at halftime. They didn’t score one point in the final 8:29 of the game. How do you end a game on a one-quarter scoring drought? Illinois didn’t make a field goal or a free throw and let Michigan State close them out with a 15-0 run.

The Michigan State victory made Tom Izzo the winningest coach in Big Ten history. That’s something worth celebrating, unlike retiring Terrence Shannon’s jersey a few months after his departure.