photo by: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

Illinois guard Terrence Shannon Jr. shoots a free throw during an NCAA college basketball game against Colgate Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023, in Champaign, Illinois.

A University of Illinois basketball player accused of rape for an incident at a Lawrence bar is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing next month.

A preliminary hearing is where a judge decides whether there’s enough evidence to order a defendant to stand trial.

The player, Terrence Edward Shannon, 23, of Champaign, Illinois, is charged in Douglas County District Court with one felony count of rape or, in the alternative, one misdemeanor count of sexual battery, according to charging documents. The incident is alleged to have occurred on Sept. 9, 2023, at the Jayhawk Cafe, 1340 Ohio St., while Shannon was in Kansas to attend a KU football game against Illinois.

Shannon appeared via Zoom Thursday in Douglas County District Court, where his attorney Tricia Bath, of Leawood, entered a not guilty plea on his behalf and asked the court for the earliest available date for a preliminary hearing. Judge Sally Pokorny set the hearing for Feb. 23 for a half day. Shannon is currently free on a $50,000 bond.

According to a police affidavit in support of Shannon’s arrest, the accuser saw Shannon at the bar and Shannon called her over to where he was seated next to several KU basketball players. When she approached Shannon, she said, he grabbed her buttocks, put his hand in her underwear and sexually assaulted her, as the Journal-World reported.

An arrest affidavit is a sworn document detailing the probable cause behind a person’s arrest. Allegations in affidavits have not been proved in court.

Shannon, a star player, was suspended from the Illinois basketball program after the charge was made public and has since sued the university to be allowed to resume playing for the team in an effort to preserve his status in the upcoming NBA draft.