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Illinois Basketball Tops Madrid All-Stars in Opening Exhibition

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Mar 16, 2023; Des Moines, IA, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini guard Terrence Shannon Jr. (0) dunks against the Arkansas Razorbacks during the first half at Wells Fargo Arena. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports

Illinois Basketball Tops Madrid All-Stars in Opening Exhibition

Illinois Basketball is back! The Illinois Basketball squad opened up their season with an exhibition game against the Madrid All-stars. Not only are the players back in action, however the fanbase is back in full force. After Illinois Basketball announced the starting lineup including AJ Redd, many fans were confused and questioning the reason why. It really did not help that the game was not publicized via stream or highlights. To pour gas on the fire, Illinois trailed 37-39 going into the half.

Despite this, Illinois Basketball won their game 84-73.  The Madrid All-star team has some experience as they lost to Nebraska by a similar margin not too long ago. It kind of brings a smile to my face looking back on the mild freak-out at the half, however that is the beauty of the Illinois fanbase.

What we know?

Madrid All-Stars was trailing Nebraska basketball by 3 with a minute left. Take that what you will as that Nebraska team is missing literally all of their main players. Keisei Tominaga, Juwan Gary and Rienk Mast were all missing from that game. Illinois seems to have only missed Marcus Domask, however I am sure they were experimenting with different lineups. I do remember Illinois Basketball trying players like Samson Olademiji and Tyler Underwood in the starting lineup during the previous tour to Italy. Though they were missing Kofi Cockburn and Andres Feliz at the time, seeing AJ Redd in the starting line up is not ground breaking.

I wish that we had some statistics to go along, however I did try to find more about the Madrid All-stars. I did find out that their point guard is 26 years old. 

What’s next

Illinois will now travel to Valencia to play the Valencia All-stars. Again, this team lost to Nebraska by 3 points. Again, not much is known about anything going into this game. I assume that this team is also older, and I do know that Chester Frazier will coach. Until then, we will keep an eye on the half-time score and starting lineup. Congratulations to Tim Anderson on his head coaching win!

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Alex is the Owner of Armchairillini.com, your go-to source for in depth coverage of the Illinois Fighting Illini. Alex is also the lead content creator and lead editor of all articles on Armchair Illini. He has had articles featured in top media publications like Bleacher Report, YardBarker, Verbal Commits, CBS Sports and more.

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