Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk Cleared for Action, on “minutes restriction” for Practice & Games

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk made the trip with the team, will be active and in uniform when Illinois plays at Duke tonight.

The redshirt freshman forward, who made the trip to Indianapolis last week when Illinois lost 82-69 to No. 2 Baylor, is still trying to fully recover from a second injury to his foot but Illini head coach Brad Underwood said he’s progressing his way back into the back end of the team’s rotation.

“He’s on minute restrictions right now coming back,” Underwood said. “We get him for bits and pieces (in practice). We thought it was important that he’d be in a uniform, go through warmups, get the feel of that gameday emotion again.”

Bosmans-Verdonk, who was part of Illinois’ 2019 recruiting class but took a redshirt last year after missing the last 22 games of last season due to a stress fracture in his foot. The Belgium native re-injured a different part of the same foot during summer workouts and was unable to be active for the Illini’s preseason practice schedule.

“He’s not going through a complete practice yet. They’re slowing, I guess, being very conservative with his play back to full-go,We get him every day a little more in practice. What that timeline looks like, hopefully it’s sooner than later.”

Don’t expect Bosmans-Verdonk to get in the game tonight when No. 6 Illinois (3-1) play at No. 10 Duke (2-1) in a 8:30 p.m. tip on ESPN as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge but the 6-foot-8 forward remains a developmental prospect in Underwood’s system as a future contributor at the four spot in future seasons. The Illinois staff has really liked what they seen out of 6-foot-10 freshman Coleman Hawkins off the bench at the 4 spot.

Also, the Illini’s fourth-year head coach suggested Monday that his staff is having Bezhanishvili work more at the four spot of the lineup alongside center Kofi Cockburn instead of having the junior forward guarding the 7-foot, 290-pounder with the second-team.

Underwood has discussed Hawkins' learning curve being so steep, through no fault of his own, as compared to most first-year players because of his versatility to play and specifically guard multiple positions on the floor.

“It’s the old saying right, that the best thing about freshmen is they eventually become sophomores,” Underwood said. “I play freshmen. I love our freshmen and our freshmen are going to be terrific. How do you get them experience? You put them in games against a Baylor, a Duke, an Ohio and against good teams.”