By MATT SCHUCKMAN
and BLAKE TOPPMEYER
Herald-Whig Sports Writers
With the Illinois girls struggling to score in the second half of Saturday night's McDonald's/Herald-Whig Classic, Illini West coach Zach Keene bent the ear of one of his honorary assistant coaches for advice.
Keene's 5-year-old son, Justice, sat on the Illinois bench, drawing up plays on the dry-erase board and acting like a coach.
So Keene turned to his son and asked, "What do you think we should do to score more?"
Acting like he was reading a stat sheet, Justice ignored his dad at first.
Finally, after folding the sheet in half, Justice turned to the coach and said, "Shoot."
Keene smiled.
"I agree," he said.
The Illinois girls shot plenty. They just didn't make enough. They shot 29.2 percent from the field and 18.2 percent from the line in a 69-58 loss to Missouri.
It wasn't because Justice didn't try to help.
Once during the second half, Keene got up from his chair and knelt on the sideline. Justice mimicked him. During each timeout, Justice knelt alongside his dad as he gave out instructions. Justice pointed to the players as if he was the one giving instructions.
Only one thing made him leave the bench at any point. That was to get some nachos from his mom seated in the first row.
