Texas basketball vs. Illinois: 3 bold predictions for Jimmy V. Classic

Terrence Shannon Jr. is held to a season-low eight points

There are some familiar faces that Beard and the Longhorns will be matching up against in this game. Two of those familiar players to the Longhorns are a couple of the biggest additions for the Fighting Illini by way of the NCAA Transfer Portal during the offseason.

Former Texas Tech Red Raiders standout shooting guard/wing Terrence Shannon Jr. and former Baylor Bears guard/wing Matthew Mayer are both regulars in the starting five for Illinois this season. And both of these transfers played multiple games against the Longhorns in their collegiate careers thus far.

The matchup against Shannon is the part of this game that really intrigues me, though.

Shannon is a wing that Beard coached up for one season during their time together at Texas Tech. Beard is very familiar with Shannon’s game, and he knows how to defend it. That was put on full display last season when Shannon registered just eight points total in two outings against Beard and the Longhorns.

Granted, one of those games comes with an asterisk since Shannon was limited due to an injury issue that kept him to only playing six minutes.

Nonetheless, Texas still held Shannon to just six points in the full game that he did play against the Longhorns last season.

Texas has the wing defenders and switchable forwards to match up defensively against Shannon. If you can limit the frequency by which he gets to the charity stripe and the open looks he gets from beyond the arc, you can successfully limit Shannon’s effectiveness.

And that will be a major key to victory in this game for Texas as Shannon is Illinois’ leading scorer, at a mark of a career-best 19.8 points per game.