Mike Cagley, Co-Host Sports Spectacular

December 8, 2025

The Illini used a big second half to beat Tennessee 75-62 in a non-conference matchup that was broadcast on ESPN.

The Illini will play those same Tennessee Volunteers but in the Music City Bowl on December 30^th. This will be a rare chance for the Illini to perform a “sweep” against an SEC team in the two major revenue sports in the same month.

Hail Mary #1 – Illini in Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl

The Fighting Illini football team will play Tennessee in the Music City Bowl on December 30^th. This provides the Illini with the opportunity to win their 19^th game in the last two seasons. If they do so that will be the highest number of wins for Illini football teams in back-to-back seasons.

The Illini odds of winning would be greatly enhanced by the decisions of Luke Altmyer, Gabe Jacas, and Hank Beatty. Will they play, or will they protect themselves physically and prepare for the NFL Draft?

While bowl games are often characterized as meaningless, this bowl will be big for both teams. Expect an excellent game as both teams had visions of playing in CFP games before the season. Those expectations were not met, leaving a bowl win as the next best way to end the season. Both the Illini and the Vols will be looking for a 9^th win this season. The Vols will have a partisan crowd with the Memphis location essentially making this a road game for the Illini.

Heat Check #1 – Illini Basketball Surges to Beat Tennessee

The Illini used tough defense and improved rebounding in the second half to defeat Tennessee. The Illini rebounded toe-to-toe against the Vols in the second half after being dominated by Tennessee on the boards in the first half. The combination of fewer rebounds meaning fewer shooting opportunities and less possessions for the Vols doomed Tennessee as the stiff Illini defense held them to 32.3% shooting for the half and 36.9% shooting for the game.

The Illini got an excellent performance out of Tomislav Ivisic, who has been nursing an injury and recovering from a tonsillectomy. Ivišić had 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. He established himself as an inside force early and then popped out to the three-point line to hit 2-6 from beyond the arc. This ability to play in the paint and at the three-point line created matchup issues that allowed him to get shooters open for passes and encouraged the Illini to move the ball and not let it slow up and stop the flow of the offense as has been the case recently.

The Illini only got 5 combined points and 2 rebounds from Stojakovic and Petrovic. This means the team has a higher ceiling than many had predicted, but that is assuming the two plays start to get more comfortable and consistent soon.

Additionally, there are rumblings that Ty Rodgers is moving better and may be looking at a return sometime in January. If that happens the Illini defense and rebounding will get a boost.

There are a lot of things to be optimistic about in the State Farm Center.

Hail Mary #2 – Illini Football Schedule

The Fighting Illini ended up with a 2-2 record against teams playing games on Conference Championship Saturday. That speaks well for an 8-4 team that may have missed out on its long-shot chance at making the College Football Playoff (CFP).

The Illini defeated both Western Michigan and Duke by wide margins. Those wins look even better in the light of the fact that both teams won conference championship games. The Illini also lost to Indiana and Ohio State.

Duke finished an up-and-down season that proves that a team needs more than just a quarterback to win consistently. Still the Blue Devils finished 8-5 after defeating Virginia in OT in the ACC championship game. The Blue Devils suffered their worst loss of the year to the Illini. The Illini allowed the high-powered Duke offense only 19 points, it’s 3^rd worst point total of the season. Duke also had losses where they scored 18 and 17 points.

Western Michigan finished the season 9-4 and won the MAC conference championship by beating Miami of Ohio. The Illini’s 38-0 shutout victory over the Western Michigan looks much better in hindsight than it did in real time. Sometimes, one must back away from an event to decide what it means. In this case, 3 months is enough time to feel better about this win. Western Michigan’s worst loss was to the Illini, and it gave the Illini a 2-2 record versus teams playing this past Saturday.

Heat Check #2 – B1G Basketball with Big Non-Conference Matchups

The B1G conference has a lot of talented teams this season. Look at the Top 25 rankings of last week with team rankings in the AP and Coaches polls:

• Purdue #1/#1
• Michigan #3/#2
• Michigan State #7/#8
• Illinois #14/#15
• Indiana #22/#19
• USC #24/nr
• Iowa nr/#25

How good is the B1G? Last weekend’s results have shed some light on this question as key matchups against highly ranked non-conference teams gave us more data points to interpret.

• Purdue lost 81-58 at home to #10 Iowa State as the Cyclones had a strong second half to cruise to a victory in Mackey Arena. Purdue’s dynamic guard duo of Smith and Loyer were held to 16 points on a combined 7-17 shooting, 11 assists and 9 turnovers. Each guard was 0-1 from the free throw line. Purdue is not invincible, even at home in Mackey.
• Michigan State also lost at home against #4 Duke as the cold-shooting Blue Devils (38%) outscored an even colder-shooting Spartan team (32%). The Blue Devils closed out the last 3:59 of the game with a 14-7 advantage turning a 53-52 Spartan lead into a 66-60 win. The Spartans played tough defense but could not put the ball in the basket as often as they would have liked.
• Indiana lost 87-78 to the #6 Louisville Cardinals after the Hoosiers started out the game down 16-0 and didn’t score their first points until a dunk with 13:28 left in the first half. Getting off to a horrid start needs a team to create stops to catch up and Indiana couldn’t do much more than play even for the rest of the game.
• Illinois used a huge second half to pull away from #13 Tennessee in Nashville, winning the game 75-62. The Illini were dominated on the boards in the first half. By simply keeping pace with the Vols in the 2^nd half on the boards, the Illini cruised to the win.

All in all, we found out that the B1G Is a talented league, but media hype saying it was clearly the best league in the country may be a bit over the top. We did learn that the Michigan Wolverines are the current early season favorite to win the B1G title. Yes, the Wolverines struggled with Wake Forest, but the destroyed #21 Auburn and #12 Gonzaga by a combined 70 points.

Right now, if I had to bet on a B1G team to win the conference, I’d bet on the Wolverines. The fact that the Boilermakers and Spartans can be beat at home also means that none of these B1G teams are bulletproof. The Illini may have a secret advantage in that they have more room for improvement than other teams. We will see, but if the Illini roster plays close to its potential, they will be a factor to the very end.

This should make for an entertaining basketball season for B1G and college basketball fans.