Wow, sorry if I am not understanding this fully. How many years did he play with the Illini? Just comparing, we just retired Don Chaney’s jersey recently. Puzzling.
After reading, finding context, and slant from the article. It sounds like the young man may have been wronged and the university felt compelled to demonstrate some regret. Not to take away from the young man’s accomplishments in no way on my part.
They hung his jersey upside down at his jersey retirement… 
Wtf?? No way that was a “mistake.”
Guy played there for two years (played at TxTech for three), was charged with sexual assault and sued the school. Led the team to a S16. And they retire his jersey? Sad state of Illini basketball.
From your response, the gaffe was intentional?
However, Illini basketball should be ashamed. All parties also from what I can draw from the article (alleged victim maybe).
Looking into it some, it looks like they don’t retire numbers but just honor them. Lot of repeat numbers. Seems like they’ve done about 30 of these.