Illini Basketball 2024-2025

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#1      

Dan

Dan
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Dan
Welcome to the Illini Basketball 2024-2025 & College Basketball news thread :illinois:


Season Tickets | Schedule | Roster

Single game home tickets on sale to general public on Oct. 24th.


2024-2025 Illini Basketball Schedule

DateOpponentTime/TV
Sun, Oct 27at Ole Miss
(Charity Exhibition Game)
1:00pm
Mon, Nov 4Eastern Illinois
Fri, Nov 8SIU-Edwardsville
Wed, Nov 13Oakland
Wed, Nov 20Alabama
(Birmingham)
Sat, Nov 23Maryland-Eastern Shore
Mon, Nov 25Little Rock
Thu, Nov 28Arkansas
(Kansas City)		3:00pm CBS
Sat, Dec 14Tennessee
Sun, Dec 22Missouri
(Braggin' Rights, St. Louis)
Sun, Dec 29Chicago State
Sat, Feb 22Duke
(New York)		FOX

All times CT. The Big Ten schedule will be posted when announced.

Big Ten opponents-
Home Only – Iowa, Maryland, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, UCLA, USC,
Away Only – Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Rutgers, Washington
Home & Away – Michigan State, Northwestern, Wisconsin
 
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#5      
Chad Fleck
Has football started yet? That's basically a sign that basketball is starting soon to me. 😊
 
#9      
grue2
spotter said:
The non-conference schedule is no cake walk.
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The non-con looks bi-polar.

The home games are mostly a cake walk.
Eastern Illinois (Nov 4)
SIU-Edwardsville (Nov 8)
Maryland Eastern Shore (Nov 23)
Arkansas-Little Rock (Nov 25)

I'd like to see the Nov 23/25 games be closer to Oakland in difficulty. It is hard to get players in the mindset of every play counts, every ball needs to be fought for, when you are playing so far below your level. (And for the bureaucrats: I would not buy tickets to these, even if I was in CU.)

With 1 respectable, and 1 hard inclusion.
Oakland (Nov 13)
Tennessee (Saturday, December 14th)

The road games are tough. This scheduling is impressive.
Arkansas in KC (Nov 28)
Duke in MSG (Feb 22)
Alabama @AL (Nov 20)

Well, mostly tough.
Missouri in STL (Dec 22)
 
#10      
battle
disappointed that 4 non-conf home games are Mon/Fri/Wed vs. weekend. will be very tough to make the 4+ hour drive there on that many work days . they couldn't even schedule the EIU game on Sun after the Minny football game or the Oakland game in conjuction with MSU game.
 
#14      
Illinicpa14
grue2 said:
The non-con looks bi-polar.

The home games are mostly a cake walk.
Eastern Illinois (Nov 4)
SIU-Edwardsville (Nov 8)
Maryland Eastern Shore (Nov 23)
Arkansas-Little Rock (Nov 25)

I'd like to see the Nov 23/25 games be closer to Oakland in difficulty. It is hard to get players in the mindset of every play counts, every ball needs to be fought for, when you are playing so far below your level. (And for the bureaucrats: I would not buy tickets to these, even if I was in CU.)

With 1 respectable, and 1 hard inclusion.
Oakland (Nov 13)
Tennessee (Saturday, December 14th)

The road games are tough. This scheduling is impressive.
Arkansas in KC (Nov 28)
Duke in MSG (Feb 22)
Alabama @AL (Nov 20)

Well, mostly tough.
Missouri in STL (Dec 22)
Click to expand...
If you played those Nov 23/25 against any more quality competition that would be 4 hard games in a 9 day stretch while traveling via plane twice, which is more then most of the big ten slate. Playing a top mid major in that stretch would be asking for an upset.

This team with all its new parts likely needs more games to learn to gel and different combinations. We knew going into last year TSJ and Coleman at a minimum we’re going to be playing 35 minutes a night when the games mattered. This team will learn a lot from the Nov 20 game, practice it against two easier opponents and then we’ll see if they can bring the learnings to the Nov 28th game.
 
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#15      
grue2
Illinicpa14 said:
If you played those Nov 23/25 against any more quality competition that would be 4 hard games in a 9 day stretch while traveling via plane twice, which is more then most of the big ten slate. Playing a top mid major in that stretch would be asking for an upset.

This team with all its new parts likely needs more games to learn to gel and different combinations. We knew going into last year TSJ and Coleman at a minimum we’re going to be playing 35 minutes a night when the games mattered. This team will learn a lot from the Nov 20 game, practice it against two easier opponents and then we’ll see if they can bring the learnings to the Nov 28th game.
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Do we differ on terms? I agree that a St. Marys or New Mexico would be too much at that point. I'm looking at someone in the kenpom 125-150 range vs. a kenpom 300. e.g. One of the better teams from CUSA, MAC or Horizon. (Oakland was Kenpom 135 last year.)

I'm also a fan of the Izzo strategy (not Izzo himself) of start with a really hard game. Let the players see early how far they have to go. No one cares if you lose your season opener to a strong opponent.
 
#16      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
This is a little nitpick on my part but the school hasn't been called Arkansas-Little Rock for 9 years now. The athletic teams at the school have gone by the school name of Little Rock since July 2015.
 
#17      
AZILL
Screenshot 2024-08-20 at 21-23-34 About UA Little Rock - About Us - UA Little Rock.png
 
#19      
ILLFAN67
I would like to see them schedule more home and home games against these Power 5 schools.
 
#20      
Captain Bubbles
Echoing some of the comments here. Would've liked to have seen a mix of home and away games against the Power 5 opponents. However, I feel like these are good road opportunities for Illinois, going to new places that the team has never been (cue Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again"), and a learning experience for the freshman on the squad.

Iron sharpens iron. Overall, think it's a solid non-conference schedule.
 
#21      
ILLINI76
So it looks like we will be playing 2 BIG TEN games between are Arkansas and Tennessee.
 
#23      
Guest
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
This is a little nitpick on my part but the school hasn't been called Arkansas-Little Rock for 9 years now. The athletic teams at the school have gone by the school name of Little Rock since July 2015.
Click to expand...
This is a little confusing. I looked this up on Wikipedia and it seems that the school itself is called the University of Arkansas at Little Rock but the sports teams are called Little Rock Trojans. Quote from Wikipedia, "The Little Rock Trojans are the athletic teams representing the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.” And this, "On July 1, 2015, the Trojans officially announced they would no longer be branded as "Arkansas–Little Rock" or "UALR," but will be the Little Rock Trojans effective immediately”. Interesting but kind of weird. Learned something new today thanks to “IlliniFaninHoosierLand”. Thanks
 
#25      
whatahack
The mizzery game will be interesting. Despite going O-fer in the SEC last year, they have a strong recruiting class
 
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