SPRINGFIELD — Tuesday night’s crowd at Lanphier High School was simply a basketball crowd. The host Lions might not have been on the schedule for the first day of the Adam Lopez Thanksgiving Tournament, but that didn’t keep the bleachers from filling for the nightcap between Champaign Central and East St. Louis.
There was just enough orange and blue and visible Block I’s — hats, T-shirts and jackets — intermixed in the capacity crowd to tell the story of why. Illinois fans wanted to get a look at East St. Louis senior center Jeremiah Tilmon, who signed with the Illini a week ago to give them the No.