Illinois’ Terrence Shannon Jr. is — like it or not — back on the court and already dominating again

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Social media is teeming with (ahem) legal experts who won’t wait for Terrence Shannon Jr.’s criminal case to play out before rendering their verdicts about whether Illinois’ star guard has any business being back on the basketball court.

Some were outraged by his presence in an 86-63 victory Sunday against Rutgers in Champaign. Shannon, 23, is facing a rape charge in Kansas and was suspended by Illinois for six games until a U.S. District Court judge ruled Friday that the school had violated his civil rights and granted a preliminary injunction that allowed for his immediate reinstatement.

Many others — Illini fans, naturally — have piled in to defend Shannon’s due process. Some of these folks even are going so far as to proclaim Shannon’s innocence, despite the tiny fact they have utterly no idea what’s true or isn’t about the case.

Either way, a preliminary hearing is set for Feb. 23. And — for the time being, at least — Shannon, one of the best players in the country, is back at it.

‘‘I am grateful for the opportunity to rejoin my teammates and get back to work,’’ Shannon tweeted Friday.

Against the Scarlet Knights, the 6-6 Chicago native came out flying, reminding all those watching of why the No. 14 Illini (14-4) are strong enough, when whole, to give favorite Purdue a run for the Big Ten championship money.

The first two times Shannon touched the ball after coming off the bench a little more than two minutes into the game he raced up the open floor on breaks and fed teammate Coleman Hawkins for dunks. Shannon made his first bucket on a one-on-two break. One possession after that, the lefty drove and scored over — count ’em — three defenders. Later, he converted a three-point play off the break and scored his final two points on an emphatic dunk to end with 16 points in 28 minutes.

Shannon, who shot 10 free throws, has the giddy-up that few Illini players of recent vintage — Dee Brown, Ayo Dosunmu — have had. Without him, the Illini are a tough out in the Big Ten. With him, they have Final Four potential.

‘‘It’s amazing,’’ said guard Justin Harmon, who led the Illini with 18 points. ‘‘It just makes the whole team feel whole again because we’ve got our best player back.’’

For now, they do. For how long, we’ll see. As to whether he should be out there, well, it’s certainly more complicated than the pretend experts say. . . . 

Who’s going to win the men’s national championship? Anybody. Or maybe everybody.

With No. 10 Memphis losing Sunday at Tulane, there now have been 22 losses by top-10 teams on the road against unranked opponents this season. According to ESPN, that’s the most through January in the Associated Press poll era, which dates to the late 1940s. That should tell you how up for grabs this nutty season is. . . . 

Wake up and smell the coffee Loyola is brewing. After winning Saturday at Fordham, the Ramblers are 13-6 overall and 5-1 in the Atlantic 10. It’s a gigantic improvement from a season ago — their first in the A-10 — when they started 0-6 in league play on the way to finishing alone in 15th (last) place. And that doesn’t even paint a picture of how awful it was because each of those six losses was by double digits and most were blowouts.

Transfers Des Watson and Dame Adelekun have — along with the vast improvement of Jayden Dawson — ignited a team that is far from spectacular but leads the conference in assists and defensive rebounding. The backbone is strong. . . . 

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It was a treat Sunday to get the Caitlin Clark Show as an NBC lead-in to Buccaneers-Lions. Iowa lost at Ohio State in overtime, but Clark scored 45 points. She’s on track to move into third place all-time on the women’s career scoring list a couple of games from now at Northwestern. It won’t take more than a handful after that for her to pass former Washington star Kelsey Plum for first. . . . 

Indiana’s men’s teams have lost 20 games in a row at Wisconsin, which has to be the craziest streak in college basketball. Some of us went to school in Madison as the pitiful Badgers were dropping 31 in a row to the once-mighty Hoosiers. . . . 

A tip of the headband to the NBA for its ‘‘65-game rule,’’ which requires players to appear in at least that many games to qualify for All-NBA, MVP and other individual honors. Next time someone half your age barks about how lame players used to be, let them know that All-Stars in the Jordan era missed an average of about 10 games apiece and that the number swelled to about 14 games in the 2000s, 18 games in the 2010s and an unconscionable 24 games this decade — until now. . . . 

The Bulls’ Zach LaVine, on the other hand, already has missed 18 games, leaving him with a max played of 64. In case anyone was wondering about his MVP chances. . . . 

There’s sappy sentimentality, then there’s St. Louis, where MLB’s Cardinals just signed 38-year-old Matt Carpenter — who played there in 2011-21 — to a one-year deal. What, were Ray Lankford and Tom Pagnozzi too busy? . . . 

Nothing is funnier than Alabama football fans (many of them fanboy media types) whining about ‘‘tampering’’ as opposing schools raid the roster for transfers, which is allowed when there’s a coaching change.

As if Alabama didn’t tamper at world-record levels in working with super-agent Jimmy Sexton as his client Nick Saban was preparing to step down. Who quickly got Saban’s former job? Sexton client Kalen DeBoer of Washington. Who was on the supposed list of candidates and got raises to stay where they were? Florida State’s Mike Norvell, Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, also Sexton clients. Nice work if you can get it. . . . 

Such a shame about the Packers losing 24-21 to the 49ers in the divisional round as rookie Anders Carlson missed his 13th kick of the season. See? Forget quarterbacks. The Bears will take their Cairo Santos edge at the all-important kicker position, thank you very much. . . .

My ballot for the new AP Top 25, which comes out Monday: 1. UConn, 2. Purdue, 3. Houston, 4. North Carolina, 5. Kentucky, 6. Tennessee, 7. Auburn, 8. Kansas, 9. Illinois, 10. Wisconsin, 11. Oklahoma, 12. Duke, 13. Marquette, 14. Utah State, 15. Baylor, 16. Creighton, 17. Memphis, 18. Texas Tech, 19. New Mexico, 20. Dayton, 21. Colorado State, 22. San Diego State, 23. Florida Atlantic, 24. BYU, 25. Seton Hall.