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What were the biggest stories in 2023?

scott richey, the news-gazette, champaign-urbana, ill.
·6 min read

Dec. 31—Beat writer Scott Richey looks back at some of the biggest stories in college sports in Champaign-Urbana in the last year:

1. Shannon's suspension

The trajectory of the Illinois men's basketball team and the rise of Terrence Shannon Jr. coincided during the final two months of 2023. Only for all of it to have a giant question surrounding both heading into 2024 with Thursday's jaw-dropping news of Shannon's indefinite suspension from the Illini while he faces a charge of rape during an alleged incident in Kansas in September. Shannon was touted as a likely All-American, potential Big Ten Player of the Year and future first-round NBA draft pick. Now, we have to wait and see what will come of this situation and Shannon's future.

2. Football was back?

A rare New Year's Day bowl game — OK, it was Jan. 2 based on the calendar — kicked off 2023 for Illinois. Landing a bowl game was rare enough. Having enough success to avoid a lower-tier offering in December hadn't happened since the 2007 Rose Bowl. While the Illini lost their ReliaQuest Bowl showdown in Tampa, Fla., with Mississippi State, that it even happened sparked an offseason of hype for Bret Bielema's program high enough to generate 10,000 new season ticket holders. Holding on to said season ticket holders might be tricky after a 5-7 record this fall.

3. Season-defining night

Terrence Shannon Jr. and Coleman Hawkins took their NBA draft decisions down to the wire before separate 11th-hour announcements they would return to Illinois for the 2023-24 season. It's not hyperbolic to say that those May 31 decisions determined the the fate of the Illini's season. There wasn't another Shannon available in the transfer portal by that point of the offseason. Or another Hawkins. Getting both back for another season pushed Illinois from a team that might — and let's stress that, might — finish in the top 50 nationally to a team that's now just outside of the top 10.

4. National spotlight

Devon Witherspoon put Illinois football in the bright lights in April — literally — when he walked across the NFL draft stage in Kansas City, Mo., as the No. 5 overall pick. The All-American cornerback was long considered a high first-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft, but skyrocketing into the top five was a bit of a surprise. Witherspoon became the Illini's first top-five pick since Kevin Hardy and Simeon Rice went second and third, respectively, in 1996. That he was followed over the next two days by Quan Martin, Sydney Brown and Chase Brown made it Illinois' most successful draft in a decade.

5. Immediate turnaround

Expectations around the Illinois women's basketball program had been exceedingly low in the last decade (or two). The last coach to leave Champaign with a winning record was Hall of Famer Theresa Grentz, and Jolette Law, Matt Bollant and Nancy Fahey were a combined 114 games below .500 in five seasons apiece as coach. Then, Shauna Green arrived. A year after Fahey's Illini went 7-20 and finished last in the Big Ten, Green had them at 22-10 with the program's first NCAA tournament appearance since 2003. The bar has been set higher and is proving trickier to reach in the back end of 2023.

6. Singular spotlight

Illinois wasn't without numerous standout individual performances in 2023. Olivia Howell on the track. Crystal Wang on the golf course. National champions Ian Skirkey and Ashton Amaya on the pommel horse and still rings, respectively. But no one — not even All-American defensive tackle and likely first-round pick Johnny Newton — captured the attention of the fan base quite like John Paddock. The backup quarterback is often times the most popular player on a football team simply because he's not the starter, but Paddock's late-game heroics against Minnesota and Indiana will live on for years.

7. Winning big

Illinois had one of the best middle-distance runners in the country in 2023. Olivia Howell had a career full of success on the track well before last March. Then she entered rarefied athlete air with a surprise win in the indoor mile at the NCAA championship. Howell wasn't the national title favorite, but she set a facility record at the Albuquerque Convention Center (held for more than a decade by three-time Olympia Shannon Rowbury) by eking out a win by 24-hundredths of a second. The fact Howell transferred to Texas this summer, of course, means the Illini won't get a repeat.

8. Proving it on the course

Illinois is not quite jokingly referred to as a golf school. Mostly in times when football and basketball leave the fan base frustrated. But that doesn't mean there isn't truth in those references. Mike Small's Illini have dominated men's golf in the Big Ten for more than a decade. Dominance Illinois doubled down on in late spring. A week before the men's team won its eighth straight Big Ten championship — and 13th in the last 14 held — Crystal Wang eviscerated the women's field by 12 strokes for an individual title that gave Renee Slone's team its first ever Big Ten championship. Golf school, indeed.

9. Welcome back

All Bill Self did in three seasons as Illinois men's basketball coach was win. Self was 78-24 with the Illini, won two Big Ten championships and made three NCAA tournament appearances (including an Elite Eight in 2001). Then he left for Kansas and has won 571 games, 17 Big 12 titles and a pair of national championships. But Self was warmly welcomed back to State Farm Center in late October after he and and Brad Underwood worked out a charity exhibition game between their teams at State Farm Center. A charity exhibition Illinois won and had some thinking big things about potential success in 2024.

10. Cobras crushed it

Here's the quick examination of just how successful 2023 was for Parkland College. The seven Cobras teams that post a win-loss record combined to go 186-49-2. That put them 137 games above .500 with an overall program winning percentage of 78.9 percent. And national-level success, too. The men's golf team placed second at the NJCAA championship, while the softball team was fifth and the volleyball team reached the national tournament for the 16th straight season. Throw in a No. 1-ranked men's basketball team and No. 7-ranked women's basketball team, and all is well on the north side of Champaign.