March Showdown: #14 Illinois vs. #13 Tennessee in Nashville

Head Coach Brad Underwood

Profession Report: 280-130 (.683), thirteenth yr
At Illinois: 171-103 (.624), ninth yr
Massive Ten: 92-66 (.580)

Sequence Historical past vs. Tennessee

All-Time Report / Streak: Tennessee leads 4-1 / Tennessee W-2
Final Assembly: #1 Tennessee 66, Illinois 64 (Dec. 14, 2024 at Champaign)
Report at Impartial Websites: First assembly
Underwood vs. Tennessee: 0-2

OPENING TIPS

• No. 14 Illinois (6-2) returns to the courtroom for the primary time in eight days to face No. 13 Tennessee (7-2) within the Music Metropolis Insanity showdown Saturday night time at Bridgestone Area in Nashville (7 p.m. CT / ESPN). 
• The No. 13 Volunteers are the final of 4 top-15 ranked nonconference opponents in a seven-game stretch on the Illini’s schedule. Illinois defeated No. 11 Texas Tech, 81-77, at residence on Nov. 11, and misplaced to No. 11 Alabama, 90-86, on Nov. 19 on the United Middle in Chicago, adopted by a 74-61 setback vs. No. 5 UConn at Madison Sq. Backyard on Nov. 28. Illinois can be slated to face 8-1 Mizzou on Dec. 22 in St. Louis. 
• Head coach Brad Underwood has led Illinois to twenty-eight wins over top-25 opponents since 2019-20. That is tied for ninth-most within the NCAA throughout that span and consists of 19 wins in ranked-vs.-ranked matchups. 
• Saturday’s contest is Illinois’ third recreation away from residence this season. Illinois is 6-0 at State Farm Middle, having received every residence recreation with a median scoring margin of +30.0, however is in search of it its first win outdoors of Champaign after neutral-site losses to No. 11 Alabama and No. 5 UConn. 
• Illinois enters Saturday’s matchup seeking to snap a five-game skid in opposition to ranked opponents at impartial websites. The Illini’s final ranked win on a impartial ground got here final season on Thanksgiving Day with a 90-77 victory over No. 19 Arkansas in Kansas Metropolis. 
• Illinois’ final win at a impartial website in a ranked-vs.-ranked matchup got here on March 28, 2024, when No. 10 Illinois defeated No. 4 Iowa State, 72-69, to advance to the NCAA Event Elite Eight. 
• Illinois is presently ranked No. 14 within the AP ballot and No. 15 within the coaches ballot, and reached as excessive as No. 8 on Nov. 17. The Illini have been ranked within the AP Prime 25 in every of the final seven seasons underneath Brad Underwood. 
• Illinois is No. 27 within the NCAA NET rankings via video games performed Dec. 3. 
• After main the Massive Ten in scoring final season (83.6 ppg), Illinois is presently averaging 90.4 factors. At this early tempo, the Illini would turn out to be the third group in program historical past to common 90+ factors per recreation behind the 1964-65 (92.2 ppg) and 1955-56 (90.7) groups. 
• The Illini opened this season with seven straight video games of 80+ factors. It marked essentially the most such video games to open a marketing campaign because the 1988-89 Flyin’ Illini scored 80+ in every of their first 12 contests. 
• Illinois leads the Massive Ten and ranks third within the nation in rebound margin (+14.0 rpg). Illinois can be second within the Massive Ten in whole rebounds per recreation (44.5 rpg) and defensive rebounds per recreation (30.6 rpg), rating eighth and ninth, respectively, within the NCAA. The Illini rank among the many high 10 within the nation, and second within the convention, committing simply 13.5 fouls per recreation.  
• Illinois is No. 17 within the kenpom rankings with a internet score of +24.91. The Illini function the No. 14-rated offense (122.1) and the No. 21 defensive score (97.2) within the nation. The Illini have had an total kenpom score of thirty fifth or higher every of the final six years underneath Brad Underwood with a excessive of No. 4 (2020-21). Illinois posted consecutive top-20 rankings in 2023-24 (Tenth) and 2024-25 (seventeenth).
• The Preventing Illini offense options 5 gamers averaging double figures in scoring – Kylan Boswell (17.3 ppg), Andrej Stojakovic (16.3), David Mirkovic (14.3), Keaton Wagler (13.5), and Tomislav Ivisic (10.8) – rating second within the Massive Ten and tied for the fifth-most within the nation. 
• Junior G Andrej Stojakovic transferred to Illinois with a status as a prolific scorer, and he has began off robust, averaging 16.3 factors on 55.4% capturing. Stojakovic has 4 20-point performances within the final six video games, highlighted by a season-high 26 factors vs. #11 Alabama. Stojakovic additionally posted 23 factors the win over #11 Texas Tech, and scored 20 and 24, respectively, in Illinois’ most up-to-date wins over LIU and UTRGV. 
• Freshman F David Mirkovic is one in every of solely two freshman within the nation, together with North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson, averaging at the very least 14 factors and 10 rebounds per contest (via Dec. 3).
• Mirkovic leads the Massive Ten and is among the many nationwide high 25 in a number of classes, rating first within the convention with 4 double-doubles (14th in NCAA), 80 whole rebounds (eleventh), and seven.25 defensive rebounds per recreation (eleventh). His 10.0 rebounds per recreation rank second within the Massive Ten and twenty second nationally.
• Senior G Kylan Boswell is the one participant within the Massive Ten averaging higher than 17.0 factors, 4.0 rebounds and three.5 assists per recreation (via Dec. 3). Within the Illini’s final outing vs. #5 UConn, Boswell poured in a game-high 25 factors, his fourth 20+-point recreation this season. He’s the Illini’s lively chief with 1,076 profession factors (568 at Illinois), with seven 20+-point video games and 31 profession double-digit scoring video games in Orange and Blue. 
• Illinois is 1-2 this season vs. Prime 25 groups, with a house win over No. 11 Texas Tech (81-77) on Nov. 11, and losses to #11 Alabama (90-86) on Nov. 19 at Chicago’s United Middle and #5 UConn (74-61) at Madison Sq. Backyard on Nov. 28. With a nonconference contest remaining vs. #13 Tennessee, plus 5 ranked Massive Ten opponents, the Illini are presently projected to play as many as 9 ranked video games in the course of the common season.
• Illinois is the winningest group in Massive Ten Convention play since 2019-20, with 81 league wins over the earlier six seasons, tied with Purdue. Throughout that stretch, the Illini lead the convention with 34 highway wins in league play. When together with the convention match, Illinois can be tied with Purdue for essentially the most whole wins in opposition to Massive Ten opponents over this span with 88.

ILLINOIS VS. TENNESSEE

• This the sixth all-time assembly between Illinois and Tennessee, and the third in as many seasons.
• Following Saturday’s matchup in Nashville, the present UI-UT collection will conclude in the course of the 2027-28 season with a recreation on the United Middle in Chicago.
• Illinois is 1-4 in its earlier 5 conferences vs. Tennessee, however the two most up-to-date matchups have been shut battles through which the Volunteers edged out the Illini by a mixed 9 factors. 
• Final season, the No. 1 Volunteers escaped a sold-out State Farm Middle with a 66-64 victory on a driving layup as time expired. Kasparas Jakucionis knotted the sport with a free-throw with simply 5 seconds to play earlier than UT’s Jordan Gainey hit the profitable bucket.  
• Throughout the 2023-24 marketing campaign, Illinois traveled to Knoxville the place the No. 17-ranked Volunteers defeated the Twentieth-ranked Illini, 86-79, in entrance of a capability crowd of 21,678 at UT’s Meals Metropolis Middle.
• The Illini fell 66-42 in Knoxville within the preliminary matchup, Dec. 15, 1967, as a part of the Volunteer Basic.
• The Tenth-ranked Illini additionally dropped a 54-51 choice at Tennessee on Dec. 10, 1985.
• Two seasons later, the No. 20-ranked Illini defeated the Vols in Champaign, 103-79, on Jan. 17, 1988, in Tennessee’s first go to to State Farm Middle. 

UNDERWOOD-BARNES HISTORY

• Saturday’s matchup between #13 Tennessee and #14 Illinois marks simply the fourth time that Preventing Illini head coach Brad Underwood has squared off in opposition to Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes, with three of these conferences coming within the final three seasons. 
• Underwood, in his first season on the helm of the Stephen F. Austin program in 2013-14, misplaced to Barnes’ Texas squad, 72-62, in simply his third recreation as a Division I head coach, Nov. 15, 2013 in Austin, Texas. Saturday’s contest is the 411th of Underwood’s profession.
• The loss in 2013-14 was one in every of simply three on the season for the Lumberjacks, who completed 32-3 and superior to the NCAA Spherical of 32 after a victory over No. 5 seed VCU within the opening spherical; Underwood earned the Joe B. Corridor award, given to the nation’s high first-year coach.
• The 2023-24 matchup, an 86-79 loss for the No. 20 Illini at No. 17 Tennessee, was Illinois’ solely setback in a 10-game stretch in the course of a marketing campaign that culminated with the third-winningest season in program historical past (29-9), the 2024 Massive Ten Event championship, this system’s first Elite Eight look since 2005, and a last rating of No. 6 within the AP Prime 25, one spot behind the Volunteers.
• Final season’s buzzer-beating loss to the No. 1-ranked Vols, 66-64, at State Farm Middle led to a five-game win streak for the Illini that included an 80-77 Braggin’ Rights win over Mizzou, and a 109-77 highway win at No. 9 Oregon that marked the most important highway win over an AP top-10 opponent in faculty basketball historical past. The Illini went on to win 22 video games and advance to the NCAA Event Spherical of 32. 

ILLINI IN THE NET

• Illinois is No. 27 within the NCAA NET rating although video games performed Dec. 3. 
• The Preventing Illini’s No. 27 score is the sixth-best mark within the Massive Ten Convention. 
• By way of eight video games, the Illini are: 0-2 vs. Quad 1, 1-0 vs. Quad 2, 1-0 vs. Quad 3, and 4-0 vs. Quad 4.
• The Illini’s remaining 23-game regular-season schedule would function 16 video games vs. Quad 1 or Quad 2 opponents, with three Quad 3 and 4 Quad 4 matchups remaining.  
  » Quad 1s (11): vs. Tennessee (22) in Nashville, at Ohio State (63), at Iowa (34), at Northwestern (60), at Purdue (3), at Nebraska (32), at Michigan State (10), vs. Indiana (23), at USC (25), at UCLA (25), and vs. Michigan (1).  
  » Quad 2s (5): vs. Nebraska (32), vs. Missouri (65) in St. Louis, vs. Penn State (81) in Philadelphia, vs. Northwestern (60), and vs. Wisconsin (53).
  » Quad 3s (3): vs. Minnesota (123), vs. Washington (88), and at Maryland (178)
  » Quad 4s (4): vs. Southern (260), vs. Rutgers (189), vs. Maryland (178), and vs. Oregon (176)

ILLINI IN TOP-25 MATCHUPS

• Saturday vs. No. 13 Tennessee at Bridgestone Area in Nashville is Illinois’ fourth ranked-vs.-ranked matchup via the group’s first 9 contests of the season. 
• Illinois is 112-110 all-time when each groups are ranked, together with a 42-38 mark in impartial website video games. 
• Illinois’ final victory in a ranked-vs.-ranked matchup got here when the No. 14 Illini defeated No. 11 Texas Tech, 81-77, at State Farm Middle on Nov. 11. 
• Illinois’ final neutral-site victory in a ranked-vs.-ranked matchup got here on March 28, 2024 at TD Backyard in Boston when the No. 10 Illinois defeated No. 4 Iowa State, 72-69, to advance to the NCAA Event Elite Eight. Since that win over the Cyclones, Illinois has misplaced its final 5 ranked-vs.-ranked video games at impartial websites. 
• Beneath head coach Brad Underwood, Illinois is 19-23 in ranked-vs.-ranked contests, with a 6-9 mark at impartial websites.