This will only be our third meeting all-time vs. Syracuse, with anyone old enough (unfortunately, this does not include me!) obviously remembering a great Elite Eight victory in 1989 for the Flyin' Illini! Interestingly, Illinois will be ranked in the top 20 for all four matchups historically, including 2022-23:
2022-23: Syracuse at #16 Illinois in Champaign, IL (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
1995-96: #13 Syracuse 75, #12 Illinois 64 in Honolulu, HI (Rainbow Classic)
1988-89: (1) #3 Illinois 89, (2) #7 Syracuse 86 in Minneapolis, MN (Elite Eight)
1978-79: #15 Illinois 64, #8 Syracuse 61 in Lexington, KY (Kentucky Invitational)
By the way, I never realized how epically we collapsed in the 1979 season ... holy moly! 15-0 (3-0) on January 13th, ranked #4 in the nation and just beat Magic Johnson and #1 Michigan State ... we then lost in OT to unranked Ohio State in Champaign and lost 11 of our final 15 games (including our last 5 in a row) to finish unranked at 19-11 (7-11). That's some 2011 Illinois football-level loss of mojo!