It appears that Illinois basketball has avoided the plague -- for now. On Saturday, Khalid Lewis returned to practice after 'serving' a five-day quarantine that resulted from a diagnosis of the mumps. The senior guard was forced to miss Wednesday's 78-68 loss to Michigan, which led to Jaylon Tate playing a career-high 34 minutes.
Despite averaging a mere 3.7 points and 3.2 assists, Lewis has recently taken over most of the point guard responsibilities for the Illini. According to KenPom, the La Salle transfer was receiving 53% of the total minutes at the position over the last five games (that figure includes the Michigan game).