Previewing the Illini’s 4 largest non-conference video games

Illinois males’s basketball head coach Brad Underwood went big-game looking when scheduling his crew’s non-conference schedule for the 2026-27 season.

This is one thing that’s been a theme for Underwood and the Illini in recent times, because it offers the crew early alternatives to see what issues may seem like in extremely contested video games come March.

However, within the upcoming season, there might be a handful of really premier matchups in opposition to among the blue-blood packages in school basketball.

Let’s take an early have a look at the Illini’s 4 largest non-conference video games in 2026-27.

For the second installment of a home-and-home sequence in opposition to the Texas Tech Red Raiders, the Illini might be touring to Lubbock in early November for his or her first true check of the season.

Last yr, the 2 groups confronted off on the State Farm Center in Champaign, the place Illinois received by a rating of 81-77. The star of the sport for the Red Raiders was ahead JT Toppin, who dominated down low and put up a powerful stat line of 35 factors and 11 rebounds.

Toppin was an All-American in 2026, and whereas it appeared like he’d be out of eligibility, indicators level to him donning the pink and black as soon as extra because of the NCAA’s new 5-for-5 rule. However, he tore his ACL in February, so his standing could also be up within the air in November.

Illinois followers will acknowledge a well-recognized face on this sport as Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, who performed in Champaign for 2 seasons and was a member of the Illini’s Elite Eight crew in 2024, now performs for Texas Tech.

The Blue Devils are coming off a powerful season through which they went 35-3 and received each the ACC regular-season and event championships earlier than shedding to the UConn Huskies within the Elite Eight. Now, they sit because the No. 2 crew within the nation in ESPN’s newest preseason top-25 with a comparatively revamped roster.

Their largest addition of the offseason ought to add some gas to the hearth on this one, as they locked down former Wisconsin guard John Blackwell, whom the Illini had been reportedly in heavy pursuit of. In his two video games in opposition to Illinois final yr, Blackwell averaged 27.5 factors and led the Badgers to 2 victories.

Last time Illinois and Duke went head-to-head, issues didn’t go properly for the blokes in orange and blue. Under the brilliant lights at Madison Square Garden, Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel led the Blue Devils to a dominant 110-67 victory over Kasparas Jackucionis and Will Riley’s Illini in 2025.

Things will definitely have a unique really feel this season, as the sport is going down at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina, one of the vital raucous environments within the sport.

v.s. UConn, Dec. 4 — United Center, Chicago

The Illini will get one other likelihood to take down their boogeyman in recent times, the UConn Huskies. It all began within the Elite Eight in 2024 when the Huskies went on a painfully spectacular 30-0 run to start out the second half and lock up the win, and since then they’ve had Illinois’s quantity.

Last season, UConn beat the Illini two totally different occasions, as soon as in a regular-season non-conference sport at Madison Square Garden and once more within the Final Four, the place they put an finish to the deepest Illinois postseason run since 2005.

Getting one other likelihood to go up in opposition to probably the greatest (and most animated) head coaches in school basketball in Dan Hurley is at all times a great factor for the Illini and Underwood, albeit the newfound rivalry has been fairly one-sided thus far.

UConn misplaced two core items over the offseason to the NBA in Alex Karaban and Tarris Reed Jr., however has retooled and can return Silas Demary Jr. and Braylon Mullins, two 10+ factors per sport scorers final yr, on prime of that. According to ESPN’s most up-to-date preseason top-25 checklist, UConn is the No. 5 crew within the nation.

v.s. North Carolina, Jan. 30 — Bridgestone Arena, Nashville

For the primary time since 2010, Illinois can have a showdown in opposition to one of the vital iconic packages in all of faculty basketball, the North Carolina Tarheels.

It would be the first yr of a brand new period for UNC, as they made a splash in the course of the offseason by hiring Michael Malone to be their new head coach. Despite not having a lot of a background teaching on the collegiate degree, Malone has 23 years of teaching within the NBA and received a title in 2023 as head coach of the Denver Nuggets.

The Tarheels are one of many winningest packages within the sport, as they boast a document 21 Final Four appearances and over 2,400 wins. The crew might be full of latest faces, as some prime recruits and switch portal acquisitions might be donning the Carolina Blue.

Illinois performed in a non-conference sport in Bridgestone Arena final season, once they defeated the Tennessee Volunteers, 75-62, and this iconic clip of Illini heart Tomislav Ivisic was born.