Beverly Poindexter was in her moment as she sat in the bleachers staring at her son, Chris Hicks, in his final home game at Assembly Hall. Nothing could steal her attention from the Illini’s reserve guard - “Christopher” she called him - as her face lit up and a smile, one that runs in the family, broke wide open.
“This has been exciting for all of us, especially him,” she said, fixated as he took a seat on the Illinois bench. The orange shirts in the stands and the action on the court only served as a backdrop to her own personal show: tracking her son and everything he did in his final minutes in the building. “I know all of this is hitting him hard. But it has been so much fun being here, with the game, with the team and everything.”
The crowd started to rumble as halftime in Saturday’s home game against Minnesota came to a close. The Illini led for much of the game, but Chris was in his usual spot at the end of the bench, scoreless and minuteless. The senior walk-on, the fan-favorite, the “funny dude” as senior center Shaun Pruitt called him, would get his chance.

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