Former Illinois All-American ends 12-year drought of first round picks for the Illini program.

June 26, 2024

For the first time in a dozen years, a University of Illinois player has been selected in the first round of the National Basketball Association draft.

Terrence Shannon Jr. was picked No. 27 by the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night in the 2024 draft. Shannon, who was a first-team All-Big Ten Conference selection by the league’s coaches, media contingent, and The Associated Press, led the team in scoring, ranking second in the Big Ten and third in the NCAA at 23 points per game.

The last time an Illinois player was a first-round pick in the professional basketball draft was 2012 when Meyers Leonard went No. 11 overall to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Shannon, a native of Chicago who Played a year of prep school at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida before playing four years of high school basketball at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago, is the first Illini player to ever be drafted by the Timberwolves franchise.

Shannon Jr. recently saw all of his off-the-court issues that followed him for months be answered when he was found not guilty of felony rape and aggravated sexual assault by a jury in Douglas County, Kansas on June 13.

Shannon Jr., a 6-foot-6 wing, was selected as an All-American by four media outlets after helping leading Illinois to 29 wins - the third-winningest season in school history and the Illini program’s first appearance in a regional final of the NCAA Tournament since 2005. Shannon, who ranked third in Division I college basketball in scoring at 23 points per game - the highest scoring average by an Illini player in 51 years - was named the Big Ten Conference Tournament Most Outstanding Player along with being a first-team All-Big Ten selection by the coaches, media, and The Associated Press.

Shannon was watching the draft Wednesday night at a private party in Chicago with all of the Illinois men’s basketball coaching staff and his former Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard, who is currently the head coach at the University of Mississippi, in attendance. Illinois head coach Brad Underwood hadn’t been able to boast a first-round selection from any of his college rosters as a head coach. The only NBA draft picks that came from an Underwood-led program were Oklahoma State point guard Jawun Evans and Ayo Dosunmu both being picked early in the second round. For Underwood’s continued rebuild of the Illini basketball brand, a first-round pick would be just another resume line as he continues to look for nationally relevant talent at the high school and transfer portal markets.

“There’s been a lot of (NBA) teams that have been around here throughout the spring doing their research, talking to everybody in town,” Underwood told local media inside the Ubben Basketball Facility in Champaign on Monday. “They’ve all found out the same thing — what a wonderful young man Terrence is and what a great teammate he is.”

After being known as a perennial lottery team, Minnesota has now made three consecutive playoff appearances including a trip to the Western Conference Finals this past season after they knocked out the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets in seven-game series in the Western Conference semifinals. The Timberwolves, led by 22-year-old guard Anthony Edwards, 32-year-old center Rudy Gobert and 28-year-old forward Karl-Anthony Towns, are slated to have all five starters return from the 2023-24 squad that advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in twenty years. Shannon’s role as a rookie on a team looking to be a playoff contender again in 2024-25 may likely be to provide bench depth to a team that gave sparring minutes to its reserve wing players such as two-way contract guard Wendell Moore Jr. and 25-year-old Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who Minnesota only holds under contract for one more season.