Matic Vesel was an unknown quantity when he signed with Illinois coming from Slovenia. It was clear by his highlight tape that he had some decent athletic ability and good size, but he was seen largely as a project player who needed to add more weight and strength to be able to handle playing high-level college basketball.
In an ideal world, Vesel would have taken a redshirt in 2017-18 rather than being thrown right into action. We don’t live in an ideal world, however.
Illinois needed minutes from big men, and Underwood chose to play Vesel early knowing he wasn’t quite ready with the hope that he would improve as the season went on.