Illini Basketball 2026-2027

Big Jack said:

Yea I was hold for 30 minutes with the app open watching all of the 2 seat options go away, went on app and had it pick the best, lol it gave me the tickets that showed being sold already on the seating chart go figure. Plus as an IFund member it would no t let me buy 2 tickets in a row with 3 left it wouldn't leave a single seat in a row that was bull.

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Live look at me yesterday trying to buy tickets for the UNC game in Nashville when the presale opened:

HoopsterMan said:

Fairly universal at this point that Illinois is seen as the 3rd best team in the country, a perceived shade behind Florida and Duke. It's a year where we have potentially the best litmus test possible seeing UConn & Duke, we should know early what this teams upside is. I'm not sure winning is 100% necessary, simply seeing we cracked the code on UConn and can play Duke tough at Cameron.

I don't want to be chasing double digits deficits early to UConn where it's clear their system has us by the cajones again. It would be nice to actually play from a lead. I saw some tweets from their exhibition against Syracuse and their transfer big is a terrorist. He is not going to be an easy matchup. Tomi may be big, but this kid is explosive and nasty.

Beating Duke at Cameron is a big ask, but I think we match up well.

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It's interesting to compare the cadence of games these teams have to start out. For simplicity's sake, I will just use FOX's preseason rankings since they were very recent.

Week One
Nov. 2 - Fairleigh Dickinson at #3 Illinois
Nov. 2 - Army at #2 Duke
Nov. 2 - Miami (FL) vs. #1 Florida (Tampa, FL)
Nov. 5 - Penn at #3 Illinois
Nov. 5 - Coastal Carolina at #2 Duke

Week Two
Nov. 10 - #3 Illinois at #24 Texas Tech
Nov. 10 - #4 Michigan State vs. #2 Duke (Chicago, IL)
Nov. 10 - #1 Florida at Florida State
Nov. 13 - Sam Houston at #3 Illinois
Nov. 13 - SIU Edwardsville at #2 Duke
Nov. 13 - Merrimack at #1 Florida

And then in Week Three on November 17, the Illini will play at Duke. While not likely, if...
(A) We are able to pick up a W in Lubbock and go into Durham undefeated...
(B) Duke is able to take down MSU at the United Center and go into our matchup undefeated...
(C) Florida stumbles out of the gates and loses to either of its instate rivals away from home...

There is at least a possibility that we could have the Illini/Duke game be #1 vs. #2 ... that would be so epic!

Fighter of the Nightman said:

It's interesting to compare the cadence of games these teams have to start out. For simplicity's sake, I will just use FOX's preseason rankings since they were very recent.

Week One
Nov. 2 - Fairleigh Dickinson at #3 Illinois
Nov. 2 - Army at #2 Duke
Nov. 2 - Miami (FL) vs. #1 Florida (Tampa, FL)
Nov. 5 - Penn at #3 Illinois
Nov. 5 - Coastal Carolina at #2 Duke

Week Two
Nov. 10 - #3 Illinois at #24 Texas Tech
Nov. 10 - #4 Michigan State vs. #2 Duke (Chicago, IL)
Nov. 10 - #1 Florida at Florida State
Nov. 13 - Sam Houston at #3 Illinois
Nov. 13 - SIU Edwardsville at #2 Duke
Nov. 13 - Merrimack at #1 Florida

And then in Week Three on November 17, the Illini will play at Duke. While not likely, if...
(A) We are able to pick up a W in Lubbock and go into Durham undefeated...
(B) Duke is able to take down MSU at the United Center and go into our matchup undefeated...
(C) Florida stumbles out of the gates and loses to either of its instate rivals away from home...

There is at least a possibility that we could have the Illini/Duke game be #1 vs. #2 ... that would be so epic!

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I think a #1 vs. #3 is very likely here, but not sure I see Florida falling to Miami or FSU.

TTU is one of the 2 regular-season games we aren't favored in according to KenPom, but I would be shocked if Vegas has us as an underdog in this game. I think the preseason analytics favor TTU because 1) TTU is ranked #3 in all of CBB in home-court advantage, and 2) I believe the analytics sites are factoring in that JT Toppin is playing.

JT Toppin tore his ACL 8 months ago. I don't see a world where he's back by November 10th, and McCasland has been pretty open about the fact that he cares about having Toppin back at the end of the season way more than the beginning and will be conservative with him.

We may or may not have Mirk back 100% by that point, but honestly I don't know how TTU would develop a game plan against us without Toppin regardless of Mirk, considering the size difference between the two teams. We'll be 3 inches taller than them on average across all positions, and if last year's Houston team didn't have the horsepower to out-athletic the size difference, I don't think a Toppinless TTU will have the horsepower to either. If Mirk is back, Illinois by 15+ easily.

Also, random trivia ... but if our trip to Durham constitutes a top 5 matchup as we expect (hope), we should all appreciate how incredibly rare and awesome that is ... as far as I can tell, we have only played in 12 top 5 regular season matchups EVER and only 6 in the last 40 years.

Good news is that once we add in the postseason, we have actually won 4 of the last 6 top 5 matchups in which we have played.

2020-2021
W 82-71 vs. #5 Iowa (ILL #3) [BTT Semifinals - Indianapolis, IN]
W 76-53 at #2 Michigan (ILL #4)
L 69-82 vs. #2 Baylor (ILL #5) [Indianapolis, IN]

2004-2005
L 70-75 vs. #3 North Carolina (ILL #1) [NCAAT Championship - St. Louis, MO]
W 72-57 vs. #4 Louisville (ILL #1) [NCAAT Final Four - St. Louis, MO]
W 91-73 vs. #1 Wake Forest (ILL #5)

2001-2002
L 63-76 at #5 Maryland (ILL #2)

2000-2001
L 81-87 vs. #5 Arizona (ILL #4) [NCAAT Elite Eight - San Antonio, TX]

1989-1990
W 101-93 vs #4 Missouri (ILL #5) [St. Louis, MO]

1986-1987
L 77-90 at #4 North Carolina (ILL #5)

1984-1985
W 81-64 vs. #5 Oklahoma (ILL #2) [Springfield, MA]

1978-1979
W 57-55 vs. #1 Michigan State (ILL #4)

1962-1963
L 53-62 vs. #1 Cincinnati (ILL #4) [Chicago, IL]
W 90-78 vs. #5 Ohio State (ILL #5) ... guess we were tied??

1951-1952
W 74-68 vs. #4 Duquesne (ILL #2) [NCAAT Elite Eight - Chicago, IL]
W 78-62 vs. #4 Iowa (ILL #5)
W 78-66 vs. #4 Indiana (ILL #2)

1950-1951
L 74-76 vs. #1 Kentucky (ILL #5) [NCAAT Final Four - New York, NY]
W 79-71 vs. #3 Columbia (ILL #5) [NCAAT Sweet Sixteen - New York, NY]

1948-1949
L 47-76 vs. #1 Kentucky (ILL #4) [NCAAT Final Four - New York, NY]