Illini Basketball 2025-2026

[Dan]

Welcome to the Illini Basketball thread

Tickets | Schedule | Roster

Single game general public tickets go on sale in October.

Tennessee game in Nashville (Sat, Dec 6) general public tickets on sale now at Ticketmaster.


Last year, the Big Ten schedule was released on September 19th, times & TV info was released on October 9th.

Date	Opponent	Time/TV
Sun, Oct 19	Illinois State (Exhibition Game)
Mon, Nov 3	Jackson State
Fri, Nov 7	Florida Gulf Coast
Tue, Nov 11	Texas Tech
Fri, Nov 14	Colgate
Wed, Nov 19	Alabama (Chicago)
Sat, Nov 22	Long Island
Mon, Nov 24	UT Rio Grande Valley
Fri, Nov 28	UConn (New York)
Sat, Dec 6	Tennessee (Nashville)
Mon, Dec 22	Missouri (St. Louis)
Mon, Dec 29	Southern

Illinois' Big Ten opponents for 2025-2026

Home & Away – Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern
Home Only – Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Rutgers, Washington, Wisconsin
Away Only – Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, UCLA, USC

 

[phats22]

 

[aveseaboy]

are we to expect the non con schedule within the next few weeks?

 

[Dan]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1952368931403886867

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1952357371021255003

 

[Brosky]

Welcome to the Illini Basketball thread


IL Returnees
Ty Rodgers
Kylan Boswell
Jake Davis
Tomislav Ivisic
Ben Humrichous
Jason Jakstys
AJ Redd

IL Signees
Keaton Wagler
Brandon Lee
Zvonimir Ivisic
Andrej Stojakovic
David Mirkovic
Blake Fagbemi
Mihailo Petrovic


Tickets
Tickets Info (fightingillini.com)
Single game general public tickets go on sale in October.
Tennessee game in Nashville Dec. 6th general public tickets on sale now at Ticketmaster.


Reported Non-Conference Games

Date	Opponent	Location	Info
Tue, Nov 11	Texas Tech	Champaign (State Farm Center)	Link
Wed, Nov 19	Alabama	Chicago (United Center)	Link
Sat, Nov 22	LIU	Champaign (State Farm Center)	Link
Fri, Nov 28	UConn	New York (Madison Square Garden)	Link
Sat, Dec 6	Tennessee	Nashville (Bridgestone Arena)	Link
Mon, Dec 22	Missouri	St. Louis (Enterprise Center)	Link

Illinois' Big Ten opponents for 2025-2026

Home & Away – Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern
Home Only – Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Rutgers, Washington, Wisconsin
Away Only – Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, UCLA, USC


Last year, the non-conference schedule was released on August 20th, the Big Ten schedule released on September 19th.

This is a freakin' meatgrinder. Where are the Cupcakes? As Henson always said, the non-con schedule needs to include at least a few teams you "should beat."

 

[Brosky]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1952357371021255003

Cool!

 

[Grandpa]

Away only B1G games look tough, but besides Mich St and Purdue, are there any returners on those teams?

 

[aveseaboy]

Away only B1G games look tough, but besides Mich St and Purdue, are there any returners on those teams?

yes osu and ucla have decent returners especially the latter

 

[NarrowJ]

yes osu and ucla have decent returners especially the latter

Yes - UCLA didn't lose much and added one of the best players in CBB (Dent)

They'll be a problem

 

[CoalCity]

This is a freakin' meatgrinder. Where are the Cupcakes? As Henson always said, the non-con schedule needs to include at least a few teams you "should beat."

So you would prefer 50 point blowouts against a bunch of irrelevant schools in the 300's that you have to watch on BTN+ that make no difference whatsoever in your season (unless you somehow lose) over exciting games against Top 20 teams in primetime on a national network? That help you if you win and don't really hurt you if you lose?

Gimme the top competition every day. Iron sharpens iron.

 

[WyattEarp]

This is a freakin' meatgrinder. Where are the Cupcakes? As Henson always said, the non-con schedule needs to include at least a few teams you "should beat."

And John Groce apparently said: “ Gimme cupcakes all day long; and I’ll wash it down with 5 cups of coffee and a Mountain Dew”

 

[JKR]

So you would prefer 50 point blowouts against a bunch of irrelevant schools in the 300's that you have to watch on BTN+ that make no difference whatsoever in your season (unless you somehow lose) over exciting games against Top 20 teams in primetime on a national network? That help you if you win and don't really hurt you if you lose?

Gimme the top competition every day. Iron sharpens iron.

I got more pleasure from our 112-67 blowout of EIU than our 67-110 loss to Duke. We need a mix of irrelevant and Top 20.

 

[OrangeBlue98]

So you would prefer 50 point blowouts against a bunch of irrelevant schools in the 300's that you have to watch on BTN+ that make no difference whatsoever in your season (unless you somehow lose) over exciting games against Top 20 teams in primetime on a national network? That help you if you win and don't really hurt you if you lose?

Gimme the top competition every day. Iron sharpens iron.

In my opinion, you need 3-4 games against lower competition. That’s where you can experiment and get some players additional playing time without the risk of negative repercussions.

As I’ve heard before, you just want to avoid those Quad 2 home non-con games. Stay on the edges of the spectrum.

 

[Bigtex]

Playing quality non con teams and losing doesn't help the team and not sure how it prepared them either. The best four non conference teams they played - they lost.

L vs Alabama n
W vs Arkansas n
L vs Tennessee h
W vs Missouri n
L vs Duke n
L vs Kentucky (Ncaa)

 

[Calvin]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1952357371021255003

Honestly, that was a really good play for Iowa. Murray (nearly 39%) slipped out for a wide open look and got the ball. On the miss, they had a chance at the put-back. Can't quite tell from the video, but maybe RJ got the box out to seal it.

 

[GTL Adam]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1952357371021255003

Joe Davis is an excellent announcer all around, and I miss when he did college basketball games.

 

[NorthShoreIllini]

Playing quality non con teams and losing doesn't help the team and not sure how it prepared them either. The best four non conference teams they played - they lost.

L vs Alabama n
W vs Arkansas n
L vs Tennessee h
W vs Missouri n
L vs Duke n
L vs Kentucky (Ncaa)

Couldn't disagree with this more. The positive impact playing (and having a chance to win) a handful of strong non conference games in lieu of cupcakes has on your SOS/KenPom/NET etc alone is worth it for seeding, bubble implications, etc. And yeah those 4 teams who beat us were just better than us. We weren't less prepared to play Kentucky because we lost to Duke/Bama/Tennessee than we would've been had we beat 3 150+ net teams and won. Nor would those 3 wins instead of those 3 regular season losses improved our resume, at all.

 

[PleaseMakeABowlGame]

Honestly, that was a really good play for Iowa. Murray (nearly 39%) slipped out for a wide open look and got the ball. On the miss, they had a chance at the put-back. Can't quite tell from the video, but maybe RJ got the box out to seal it.

I literally remember the sequence. Illinois up by 5 with around one minute, Iowa gets an and one to cut it to two. Then a bad turnover and Keegan Murray getting fouled on a three, but he only goes 1/3 so and it remains a one point lead. Then DaMonte getting fouled, going 1/2, and then that final play.

A game that you both absolutely should have won, but also should not have (like our Rutgers game in football).

 

[aveseaboy]

Playing quality non con teams and losing doesn't help the team and not sure how it prepared them either. The best four non conference teams they played - they lost.

L vs Alabama n
W vs Arkansas n
L vs Tennessee h
W vs Missouri n
L vs Duke n
L vs Kentucky (Ncaa)

I promise you that these losses and playing against quality teams helps us significantly more than EIU and Chicago St. You're telling me that to be the best of the best you shouldn't be playing the best of the best?

 

[IlliniFanTX]

Playing quality non con teams and losing doesn't help the team and not sure how it prepared them either. The best four non conference teams they played - they lost.

L vs Alabama n
W vs Arkansas n
L vs Tennessee h
W vs Missouri n
L vs Duke n
L vs Kentucky (Ncaa)

Bad, bad take.

You'd rather play 3 terrible teams and get a worse SOS, NET ranking, and following that logic, tournament seed? ICYMI Bama, Tennessee and Duke were all HISTORICALLY good last year. I don't get the argument for NOT playing those games. Beating up on cupcakes doesn't prepare you for tournament time any more than losing to good teams does.

 

[Bigtex]

what good came out of losing to Duke by 40? what good came out of losing to Tennessee at home? There are enough tough games in the B1G that prepare the team for March.

 

[the juiceman cometh]

Playing quality non con teams and losing doesn't help the team and not sure how it prepared them either. The best four non conference teams they played - they lost.

L vs Alabama n
W vs Arkansas n
L vs Tennessee h
W vs Missouri n
L vs Duke n
L vs Kentucky (Ncaa)

Let's say you take all our non-cons last year and convert them to cupcake wins. You end up with a 25-10 record, Q1 record of 6-7 (instead of 8-10), your conference record is still 12-8, your SOS is way worse. Is that really a better resume? And that's the absolute best case scenario. What if you manage to drop one of those Q4 cupcake games? Not likely, but this is sports and they play the games for a reason.

what good came out of losing to Duke by 40? what good came out of losing to Tennessee at home? There are enough tough games in the B1G that prepare the team for March.

But you can't retroactively choose the games that went poorly to jettison. You'd have to get rid of all tough opponents to ensure you don't get that result, which means you're giving up opportunities to add Q1 wins.

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

I literally remember the sequence. Illinois up by 5 with around one minute, Iowa gets an and one to cut it to two. Then a bad turnover and Keegan Murray getting fouled on a three, but he only goes 1/3 so and it remains a one point lead. Then DaMonte getting fouled, going 1/2, and then that final play.

A game that you both absolutely should have won, but also should not have (like our Rutgers game in football).

Also quite the hectic swing of going nuts rooting for Purdue to win @Wiscy, them losing on a Hepburn three, then 3-16 Nebby going in and winning without their best player right before our game.

 

[IlliniCub 16]

what good came out of losing to Duke by 40? what good came out of losing to Tennessee at home? There are enough tough games in the B1G that prepare the team for March.

No good comes from those losses really, but not much bad comes from them either. The Duke loss was embarrassing but still probably didn't hurt as much as you'd think in the grand scheme.

But if you look at Tennessee, if we hang on to win that one, it would have been very beneficial. That's why you play them, to give you that big potential upside without much downside.