Illinois Athletics

September 19, 2024

Champaign, ILL. – The Big Ten announced the conference basketball schedule live on BTN Thursday, completing the 2024-25 Illinois schedule. Illinois previously released its non-conference schedule on Aug. 30.

Support a B1G Winner

Illinois is the Big Ten's winningest team in conference play over the last five years, with Head Coach Brad Underwood directing the program to a 69-31 record and Big Ten championships in three of the last four seasons. During this stretch the Illini have made four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, own five straight 20-win regular seasons, and have recorded five straight top-five Big Ten finishes highlighted by a league-best 16 wins and tournament title in 2021, 15 wins en route to the regular season crown in 2022, and 14 wins and tournament title in 2024. Illinois is coming off an NCAA Elite Eight appearance and No. 6 finish in the AP poll, its second top-10 final ranking in the last four years.

Be There to Help Defend Our Homecourt

The Fighting Illini set their sights on 2024-25 with a reloaded roster. With Ty Rodgers and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn returning, Head Coach Brad Underwood and his staff added five players from the transfer portal in Champaign native Kylan Boswell (Arizona), Ben Humrichous (Evansville), Tre White (Louisville), Carey Booth (Notre Dame) and Jake Davis (Mercer). Illinois also welcomes a talented group of newcomers headlined by 2024 Illinois Mr. Basketball Morez Johnson Jr. and five-star recruit Will Riley along with international standouts Kasparas Jakucionis and Tomislav Ivisic.

Illinois Big Ten Schedule Notes

• For the seventh straight year, Big Ten teams will compete in a 20-game conference schedule.
• With the addition of UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington, the new 18-team scheduling format calls for each school to play three teams both home and away, and 14 teams once (seven home and seven away).
• Three teams Illinois plays twice (home and away): Michigan State, Northwestern, Wisconsin.
• Seven teams Illinois plays only at home: Iowa, Maryland, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, UCLA, USC.
• Seven teams Illinois plays only on the road: Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Rutgers, Washington.
• Illinois plays nine league games against teams that participated in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
• Illinois opens Big Ten play on the road for the third straight season, Dec. 6 at Northwestern.
• The Illini's second early season conference game is home on Dec. 10 vs. Wisconsin.
• Illinois starts the new year with a trip to the Pacific Northwest, playing at Oregon on Jan. 2 and at Washington on Jan. 5.
• The Illini then have consecutive home games vs. Penn State on Jan. 8 and USC on Saturday, Jan. 11.
• Back-to-back road games lie ahead the following week at Indiana on Jan. 14 and at Michigan State on Jan. 19.
• The sequence continues with Illinois returning to State Farm Center for a two-game home stand against Maryland on Jan. 23 and Northwestern on Jan. 26.
• The Illini close out the month of January at Nebraska (Jan. 30), before returning to Champaign to host Ohio State on Sunday, Feb. 2.
• Illinois has a final set of consecutive road games Feb. 5 at Rutgers and Feb. 8 at Minnesota.
• Back-to-back home games follow, with the Illini welcoming UCLA on Feb. 11 and Michigan State on Saturday, Feb. 15.
• The Illini carry a four-game winning streak at Wisconsin into the Feb. 18 trip to Madison before returning to Champaign to face Iowa on Feb. 25.
• Illinois also has a four-game winning streak at Michigan heading into its March 2 trip to Ann Arbor.
• Illinois closes out the regular season at home against Purdue, with Senior Night set for Friday, March 7 at State Farm Center.
• The Big Ten Tournament returns to Indianapolis in 2025, set for March 12-16 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.