Illini Basketball 2025-2026

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#1      

Dan

Dan
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Dan
Welcome to the Illini Basketball thread :illinois:

Tickets | Schedule | Roster

Tickets on sale now-
Home Games
Parking for Home Games
Mini Plans
Alabama game in Chicago (Wed, Nov 19)
UConn game in New York (Fri, Nov 28)
Tennessee game in Nashville (Sat, Dec 6)


Illini Basketball 2025-2026
DateOpponentTime/TV
Mon, Nov 3Jackson State7:30pm BTN
Fri, Nov 7Florida Gulf Coast7:30pm Peacock
Tue, Nov 11Texas Tech7:30pm FS1
Fri, Nov 14Colgate8:00pm B1G+
Wed, Nov 19Alabama
(Chicago)		8:00pm FS1
Sat, Nov 22Long IslandBTN/B1G+
Mon, Nov 24UT Rio Grande Valley7:00pm BTN
Fri, Nov 28UConn
(New York)		11:30am FOX
Sat, Dec 6Tennessee
(Nashville)		7:00pm ESPN
Tue, Dec 9at Ohio State6:30pm Peacock
Sat, Dec 13Nebraska3:00pm Peacock
Mon, Dec 22Missouri
(St. Louis)		7:00pm FS1
Mon, Dec 29Southern2:00pm BTN
Sat, Jan 3at Penn State
(Philadelphia)		6:00pm BTN
Thu, Jan 8Rutgers7:30pm BTN
Sun, Jan 11at Iowa11am/3:30pm FOX
Wed, Jan 14at Northwestern7:30pm BTN
Sat, Jan 17Minnesota11:00am BTN
Wed, Jan 21Maryland6:00pm BTN
Sat, Jan 24at Purdue2:00pm FOX
Thu, Jan 29Washington8:00pm FS1
Sun, Feb 1at Nebraska3:00pm FS1
Wed, Feb 4Northwestern8:00pm BTN
Sat, Feb 7at Michigan State7:00pm FOX
Tue, Feb 10Wisconsin7:00pm Peacock
Sun, Feb 15Indiana12:00pm CBS
Wed, Feb 18at USC9:00pm BTN
Sat, Feb 21at UCLA7:00pm FOX
Fri, Feb 27Michigan7:00pm FOX
Tue, Mar 3Oregon8:00pm Peacock
Sun, Mar 8at Maryland2:00pm FOX

All times CT
 
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#2      
phats22
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#9      
illinifan1987
Hopefully Orange will be at least 70/30. I'm sure Bama fans travel well, especially over the last few years.
 
#12      
Fighter of the Nightman
illinifan1987 said:
Hopefully Orange will be at least 70/30. I'm sure Bama fans travel well, especially over the last few years.
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On a weekday, I think it will be well over 70% orange. Even if it were on a Saturday, I am not sure that 'Bama hoops fans are quite as crazy as their football fans, haha. Our annual UC game died a slow, painful and unnecessary death during the dark days of the Groce years, and I remember a lot of fans developing the fatalistic attitude that it was just not a good idea. I am glad that JW and Co. realize the value in this game and are confident enough in the program's current standing to bring it back!

As a reminder, THIS is what the UC game looked like for the last halfway decent team (2012-13) to host a home game there...

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#13      
illinifan1987
Fighter of the Nightman said:
On a weekday, I think it will be well over 70% orange. Even if it were on a Saturday, I am not sure that 'Bama hoops fans are quite as crazy as their football fans, haha. Our annual UC game died a slow, painful and unnecessary death during the dark days of the Groce years, and I remember a lot of fans developing the fatalistic attitude that it was just not a good idea. I am glad that JW and Co. realize the value in this game and are confident enough in the program's current standing to bring it back!

As a reminder, THIS is what the UC game looked like for the last halfway decent team (2012-13) to host a home game there...

convert
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And what an excellent game that was! I wish I could've been there. At least I was at the Loosier game that year. There were several big moments that season (the buzzer beating 3 @ Hawaii) and some heartbreakers (Miami rule change :poop:).
 
#14      
Konnie
It will be interesting to see if Illinois can draw a good crowd at the UC on a weekday night. I checked the ticket availability, and there are plenty of seats left in every section except the 200 level. Will the game draw over 10,000?
 
#17      
Fighter of the Nightman
Konnie said:
It will be interesting to see if Illinois can draw a good crowd at the UC on a weekday night. I checked the ticket availability, and there are plenty of seats left in every section except the 200 level. Will the game draw over 10,000?
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FWIW, this game was almost ALWAYS on a Saturday back in the day ... so it is really difficult to draw many comparisons. With that said, we drew 15,415 (so nearly selling out SFC in Champaign) for a Monday night game vs. UIC during the 2003-04 season. 🤷‍♂️

I would say this game would draw a huge crowd (19k+) if it were on a Saturday, but guessing for a Wednesday night is tricky. It's worth keeping in mind that Chicago Area fans have not had the chance to see the Illini host a home game at the UC in 7 years, and they haven't gotten to see a RANKED Illinois team here in almost 14 years!! That previous time was the picture I posted above vs. Auburn in 2012-13, and we drew over 18k for that one ... though again, it was on a Saturday.

There will certainly be tickets available right up until tipoff that are not overly expensive, so I think we could actually see a bigger late uptick in attendance than usual depending on how we start ... which pretty much means if we can beat Texas Tech in Champaign. There are enough Illini fans in the Chicago MSA to sell out the United Center dozens of times over, so the "base" is there (in addition to fans coming from out of town).

Below are my total guesses. Some facts to keep in mind as we consider this:
- Our all-time average attendance in games we hosted at the UC is about 15,300 ... and that includes a few crowds of only 5k in the Groce years before we cancelled it.
- Before attendance cratered in the Groce years, objectively bad Illini teams always drew at least 13k at the UC, including when we were playing UIC.
- Decent Illini teams almost always surpassed 15k or 16k, regardless of opponent.
- Illini games at the UC vs. a big-time opponent VERY regularly got up past 18k, with crowds surpassing 20k four different times.
- I tried to discount everything given that those numbers are mostly from Saturday games, and this is on a Wednesday...

Attendance Floor: 14K (13K Illini fans and 1K Alabama fans)
Illini Start 3-1: 15.5K (1.5K additional Illini fans buy late)
Illini Start 4-0: 17K (3K additional Illini fans buy late)
 
#18      
RollChief
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Below are my total guesses. Some facts to keep in mind as we consider this:
- Our all-time average attendance in games we hosted at the UC is about 15,300 ... and that includes a few crowds of only 5k in the Groce years before we cancelled it.
- Before attendance cratered in the Groce years, objectively bad Illini teams always drew at least 13k at the UC, including when we were playing UIC.
- Decent Illini teams almost always surpassed 15k or 16k, regardless of opponent.
- Illini games at the UC vs. a big-time opponent VERY regularly got up past 18k, with crowds surpassing 20k four different times.
- I tried to discount everything given that those numbers are mostly from Saturday games, and this is on a Wednesday...

Attendance Floor: 14K (13K Illini fans and 1K Alabama fans)
Illini Start 3-1: 15.5K (1.5K additional Illini fans buy late)
Illini Start 4-0: 17K (3K additional Illini fans buy late)
Click to expand...

I think one thing that you may be understating in your guess is the amount of Bama alumni in Chicago. My best guess is that there are probably 10K-15K Bama alumni living in Chicago currently. For a good part of the 2010s, Alabama had very lax guidelines for full-ride scholarships, which attracted a lot of Chicago/Illinois students.

At one point, Illinois accounted for the second largest group of students by state after Alabama for total enrollment. I would venture to guess that 80-90% of those students ended back up in Chicago after graduation. Alabama tightened up the parameters for these scholarships, so Illinois enrollment at Bama has dropped to 5th (was 3rd in 2022) to around 1,500 students, but there is still a pretty healthy Bama alumni base in Chicago.

My point is that you probably have more fans than you think who don't have to travel all the way from Alabama for this game. Certainly way more Bama fans in Chicago than BYU, Oregon, Auburn, UNLV, Gonzaga, Georgia, Arizona, or any others on the list of teams the Illini have played at the United Center (outside of B1G teams).
 
#19      
Fighter of the Nightman
^ Very fair point, I was not aware of that about 'Bama alumni. This actually isn't too hard for me to believe, though. I think I have shared before that my wife and I have this running note on our phone of college apparel we see in Chicago, and it has been going since we moved here five years ago. :ROFLMAO: Alabama is actually pretty high up the list, but I guess I had always just assumed that was your garden variety bandwagoner ... makes more sense that they'd have a sizable alumni base here!
 
#20      
RollChief
Fighter of the Nightman said:
^ Very fair point, I was not aware of that about 'Bama alumni. This actually isn't too hard for me to believe, though. I think I have shared before that my wife and I have this running note on our phone of college apparel we see in Chicago, and it has been going since we moved here five years ago. :ROFLMAO: Alabama is actually pretty high up the list, but I guess I had always just assumed that was your garden variety bandwagoner ... makes more sense that they'd have a sizable alumni base here!
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I recall the list, would be interested in seeing an updated version at some point haha. Gonzo statistician!
 
#22      
Fighter of the Nightman
RollChief said:
I recall the list, would be interested in seeing an updated version at some point haha. Gonzo statistician!
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Ask and you shall receive! :ROFLMAO: I won't post the whole thing, but I'll post the top 26, since there were four schools tied with 10! A reminder that our list is going to be slightly biased toward the Gold Coast (lived there for 3 years), Roscoe Village (have lived there for the past 2 years) and the northwest suburbs (i.e., license plates I see on the way to work). We also have a whole list of rules I won't get into right now, but they include things like not counting anyone we know and having a max of three for one "group" (so we avoid a scenario where we stumble upon, say, a Virginia Tech bar on a Saturday and they get like 30 added, haha).

Illinois - 386
Michigan - 155
Iowa - 145
Notre Dame - 114
Wisconsin - 107
Indiana - 94
Northwestern - 77
Michigan State - 74
Purdue - 54
Ohio State - 45
Marquette - 34
DePaul - 25
Illinois State - 25
Kansas - 21
Missouri - 18
Miami (OH) - 16
Alabama - 15
Northern Illinois - 14
Tennessee - 14
Loyola Chicago - 13
Iowa State - 13
Texas - 12
Colorado - 10
Dayton - 10
Kentucky - 10
Minnesota - 10

Biggest surprises for us as far as being undercounted were obviously Notre Dame and also MSU. Biggest surprises as far as being overcounted were Michigan (at least just how easily they were in second) and Miami (OH).
 
#23      
Barfolomew
Fun stuff. I also like watching a schools' enrollment change following a good sports year.

TOP OUT-OF-STATE SCHOOLS FOR ILLINOIS RESIDENTS ENROLLED AS FRESHMEN
Five out of the top six out-of-state schools for Illinois residents have been public universities.

2012 -- University of Iowa 1,490 - University of Missouri 1,370 - Indiana University 917 - Marquette University 717 - Iowa State University 682 - Purdue University 636
2014 -- University of MIssouri 1,437 - University of Iowa 1,378 - Indiana University 1,016 - Iowa State University 853 - Marquette University 758 - University of Wisconsin 599
2016 -- University of Iowa 1,690 - Iowa State University 1,017 - Indiana University 901 - University of Missouri 894 - Marquette University 822 - Purdue University 653

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education DataSystem (IPEDS), Fall Enrollment component.
 
#24      
Battle89
Fighter of the Nightman said:
^ Very fair point, I was not aware of that about 'Bama alumni. This actually isn't too hard for me to believe, though. I think I have shared before that my wife and I have this running note on our phone of college apparel we see in Chicago, and it has been going since we moved here five years ago. :ROFLMAO: Alabama is actually pretty high up the list, but I guess I had always just assumed that was your garden variety bandwagoner ... makes more sense that they'd have a sizable alumni base here!
Click to expand...
But you are assuming an Alabama grad can even locate the United Center. Half of them will probably end up at Terminal 1 at O'Hare.
 
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