The Fighting Illini follow Tuesday’s home win over #20 Wisconsin with a non-conference matchup vs. No. 1-ranked Tennessee on Saturday at sold-out State Farm Center (4:30 p.m. CT / FOX).
Saturday’s matchup with the top-ranked Volunteers has been designated Illinois’ annual Stripe State Farm Center game, presented by InvescoQQQ. More information available on Page 4.
Illinois is No. 12 in the NCAA NET rankings through games played Dec. 11. The Illini rank first in the Big Ten.
The Illini are in search of the program’s fourth win all-time over a No. 1-ranked team. All three previous victories over top-ranked opponents have come at State Farm Center.
Illinois’ last victory over a No. 1-ranked opponent occurred on Feb. 7, 2013 in Champaign, when Tyler Griffey’s layup at the buzzer lifted the Illini to a 74-72 win over Indiana.
Saturday marks the third time head coach Brad Underwood will lead the Illini against a No. 1-ranked team. Last season, the Illini fell at No. 1 Purdue in conference play and closed the season in the Elite Eight with a loss to eventual national champion UConn. The Illini defeated last year’s preseason No. 1, Kansas, in a charity exhibition matchup.
Illinois has won six straight home games to open the season. The Illini have won their last 10 home games against nonconference opponents, and are 1-0 this season at State Farm Center vs. ranked opponents after Tuesday’s 86-80 win over #20 Wisconsin.
Tennessee is making a return trip to Champaign after the Illini traveled to Knoxville last season. The No. 17-ranked Volunteers defeated the 20th-ranked Illini, 86-79, in front of a capacity crowd of 21,678 at UT’s Food City Center.
Saturday’s contest is the first of back-to-back nonconference matchups vs. SEC foes. Next up, Illini face Missouri on Dec. 22 in St. Louis for the annual Braggin’ Rights game (12 p.m. CT / ESPN).
The Illini are 1-1 this season vs. SEC foes, falling to then-No. 8 Alabama (100-87) in Birmingham on Nov. 20 before earning a 90-77 victory over then-No. 19 Arkansas on Thanksgiving Day in Kansas City.
Illinois is the winningest team in the Big Ten since 2019-20, registering a 70-32 (.686) mark in league play. And when including the conference tournament, the Illini have a league-best 76 wins during this time span. The Illini won the 2024 Big Ten Tournament championship as the #2 seed, captured the regular season championship in 2022, and led the conference in wins while adding a B1G Tournament crown in 2021.
Head coach Brad Underwood has also led Illinois to the Big Ten’s best road record since the start of the 2019-20 season. During that span, the Illini are 29-22 (.569) in conference road matchups, and have finished .500 or better in four of the last five seasons.
Illinois’ victory over No. 20 Wisconsin on Tuesday marked the 150th victory of Brad Underwood‘s Illini tenure. In his eighth season in Champaign, Underwood now ranks fifth on the Illinois all-time coaching wins list, and is just one win away from a tie for fourth place.
Brad Underwood has led the Fighting Illini program to AP Top-25 rankings in six consecutive seasons. The Illini are receiving votes in the latest AP and coaches polls released Monday.
The Illini rank ninth in the nation with a scoring margin of +21.8 points per game. Illinois’ 13-point win vs. #19 Arkansas was the largest by an unranked Illinois team over a top-25 foe under head coach Brad Underwood. Prior to the matchup with the Razorbacks, the Illini were coming off of the team’s two largest victory margins of the season – vs. UMES (+47, 87-40) and vs. Little Rock (+58, 92-34).
Following the 2024 Elite Eight appearance and Big Ten Tournament Championship, Illinois has a dramatically different roster this season. The program returns just one rotation player – last year’s ninth-leading scorer Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn – and returns just 2.9% of its minutes, 2.2% of its points, and 2.0% of its rebounds overall.
Newcomers to the Illini roster have accounted for 92.7% of the team’s scoring so far (719 of 776 total points), with UI freshmen accounting for 39.7% of those points (308).
Illinois’ top three scorers and rebounders are all in their first year of collegiate basketball. Freshman G Kasparas Jakucionis ranks first in scoring (15.4 ppg) and third in rebounding (6.4 rpg). Sophomore C Tomislav Ivisic nearly averages a double-double at 15.3 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. Freshman F Will Riley is the Illini’s No. 3 scorer at 13.9 points per game. And Freshman F Morez Johnson Jr. ranks second on the team at 6.4 rebounds per game.
Kasparas Jakucionis has scored 20+ points in four consecutive games, the first Illini freshman to do so in program history. Over that span, he is averaging 22.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game while knocking down 15 3-pointers at a 55.6% clip.
Jakucionis is the fifth freshman of the Brad Underwood Era to record at least four total 20-point games in his rookie season, joining Ayo Dosunmu (7 in 2018-19), Trent Frazier (5 in 2017-18), Giorgi Bezhanishvili (5 in 2018-19), and Kofi Cockburn (5 in 2019-20).
Illinois leads the Big Ten and ranks among the NCAA leaders in: 3-point attempts per game (4th in NCAA, 33.8), 3-pointers made per game (8th, 11.3), total rebounds per game (1st, 46.6), defensive rebounds per game (1st; 33.0), rebound margin (4th, +13.1), offensive rebounds per game (44th, 13.6), 3-point percentage defense (8th; .265), field goal percentage defense (11th; .374), and blocks per game (31st, 5.0). The Illini also rank ninth in the NCAA and third in the B1G in scoring margin (+21.8), while sitting at 16th in the NCAA and second in the Big Ten in scoring average (86.2 ppg).
KenPom.com ranks the Illini 15th in adjusted efficiency rating (+21.87). Illinois is one of 13 programs nationally to rank in the top 30 in both defensive efficiency (17th, 94.7) and offensive efficiency (28th, 116.5).
According to KenPom, the Illini rank eighth nationally, and second among Power Conference programs, with a 3-point attempt rate (3-point attempts/total field goal attempts) of 52.1%. The Illini boast the best overall offensive efficiency rating (116.5) among the top 25 programs in 3-point attempt percentage.
The Illini’s scoring average of 86.2 ppg is the team’s highest since the 1988-89 Flyin’ Illini averaged 86.4 ppg.
Illinois’ scoring margin of +21.8 points per game is on pace for the program record. The 1942-43 Illini outscored opponents by 20.6 points per game. The team’s top mark since 1960 is +15.9 set in 2004-05.
Illinois leads the nation in rebounding at 46.6 boards per game, on pace for the program’s best average in 50 seasons, since posting 47.0 rebounds per contest in 1974-75. The Orange and Blue have outrebounded their opponents in all nine games this season.
