Illinois reportedly adds premier home non-conference battle against Texas Tech in early November

June 5, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois men’s basketball program has reportedly found a marketable home game at State Farm Center for the upcoming 2025-26 season.

CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein has reported the Illini have agreed to a home-and-home series with Texas Tech over the next two seasons where Illinois will host Texas Tech on Nov. 11 with the return game in Lubbock, Texas, set for the 2026-27 season.

The matchup with Texas Tech is the fifth known nonconference game on Illinois' 2025-26 schedule. The Illini will play Alabama on Nov. 19 in Chicago, will travel to Madison Square Garden on Black Friday, Nov. 28, to play Connecticut, will play Tennessee on Dec. 6 in Nashville, Tenn., and the annual game against Missouri is expected to take place in St. Louis at some point before Christmas.

Texas Tech went 28-9 last season while reaching the regional final of the 2025 NCAA Tournament before losing to eventual national champion Florida 84-75 just one round short of the Final Four in the second season for Red Raiders head coach Grant McCasland. The Red Raiders return a national player of the year candidate in third-year forward JT Toppin, who was the Big 12 Player of the Year and a consensus second team All-American last season. Toppin recorded a double-double in all four NCAA Tournament games and had a double-double in eight of the last 10 games this past season.

The Red Raiders’ makeshift roster includes transfer additions such as LeJuan Watts (13.7 points per game at Washington State), Donovan Atwell (13.3 ppg at UNC-Greensboro), Tyeree Bryan (10.4 ppg at Santa Clara), Luke Bamgboye (3.8 ppg at VCU) and Josiah Moseley (1.9 ppg at Villanova).

"It's been interesting and eye-opening to see how quickly McCasland's been able to ensure Texas Tech's standing on a national level in college basketball, and I've enjoyed seeing how Grant's shown a bit more of his personality, too,” CBS Sports college basketball reporter Matt Norlander said. “The Red Raiders are operating like a top 10 program in the sport — and have the resources to back that up. Now they get to enter next season with a national player of the year candidate and will rate among the most compelling teams, especially after coming so close to making the Final Four.”

The Illini roster transformation includes the transfer additions of Arkansas center Zvonimir Ivišić and California guard Andrej Stojaković along with Serbian newcomer Mihailo Petrovic, Montenegro native David Mirkovic at forward and four-star guard Brandon Lee from The Patrick School in New Jersey.

The leaking to Rothstein of the Illini’s highlighted matchups for the 2025-26 season continues a trend of Illinois head coach Brad Underwood scheduling powerhouse programs in his program’s non-conference slate. Illinois played Alabama in Birmingham, Tennessee in Champaign, Duke in New York City and Missouri in St. Louis during the non-conference portion of its 2024-25 schedule. Alabama, Tennessee and Duke all reached the Elite Eight of the 2025 NCAA Tournament and helped propel Illinois to the 49th most difficult non-conference strength of schedule among 364 Division I men’s basketball programs.

“I think we’ve outdone ourselves in terms of what we put together with the non-conference schedule,” Underwood said in Aug. 2024. “I think this is by far and away our best schedule. I’m excited about the opponents. I’m excited about the games. I’m excited about the venues.”