CHAMPAIGN — Khalid Lewis was noticeably absent from State Farm Center on Wednesday afternoon. The fifth-year point guard contracted mumps when he returned to campus following the team’s holiday break after last week’s Braggin’ Rights victory, and Illinois coach John Groce said he was in at least his third day of isolation — standard protocol to deal with the highly contagious mumps virus.
“He did practice one time and kind of got surprised by it a little bit,” Groce said. “I’m not necessarily a mumps expert. Some of the stuff we’ve gone through, you think you’ve seen it all, and then it’s just like ‘whoa.