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Illinois basketball shuffles starting lineup vs. St. Francis
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Illinois basketball is making an adjustment to its starting lineup for Saturday’s game vs. St. Francis (PA).
For the game, head coach Brad Underwood is rolling with Trent Frazier, Da’Monte Williams, Alfonso Plummer, Jacob Grandison, and Kofi Cockburn. Andre Curbelo remains sidelined while Grandison draws his first start since Nov. 22 vs. Cincinnati.
The key adjustment to that starting lineup is Grandison in place of Coleman Hawkins. Hawkins was the lone Illini player to start all 10 games to open the season. No reason has been announced for the switch, and he was the first Illini off the bench with 14:28 left in the first half.
Hawkins started the year strong with double-digit performances in the first 3 games and 4 times out of the first 6 of the season. Unfortunately, he has not hit double digits in the past 4 games with outings of 4 points and 0 points in that stretch.
In the loss to Arizona, Hawkins started but played a season-low of 12 minutes with 3 fouls while going 0-for-3 from the field. We will see if coming off the bench starts a spark for Hawkins.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.