Luther Head, Aaron Spears and Richard McBride will not play when the Illinois men's basketball team opens the season on Saturday against Western Illinois.

Head coach Bruce Weber decided to extend the suspensions of Head and Spears for two more games to include the Western Illinois game and the Wednesday, Nov. 26, home game against Mercer.

Head and Spears missed the Illini's two exhibition games for violating team rules.

"Over the Thanksgiving holiday we'll revisit it and kind of see where their situation is," Weber said. "If we feel the penalty has been sufficient and they understand the importance of making sure they're doing the right thing, then after that we would go on. It would be a done deal and they'd get back playing and hopefully helping us have a great season."

The soonest McBride could play would be Dec. 9 in Chicago against Arkansas. McBride received a four-game suspension that will start when the bone bruise on his right foot heals. He did not practice Wednesday.

"It's pretty much tied to the same thing," Weber said. "As we met with the kids and talked with the two guys, the discussion came to our attention that Rich is also not following the rules like we had talked about before. He's under the same rules as everyone else, so he will sit out also."