Kentucky will face 6-seed Illinois in Round of 32 on Sunday

by:Zack Geoghegan•about 11 hours•

ZGeogheganKSR

Will Riley - Mont Dawson, Kentucky Sports Radio

For the first time in over 40 years, the Kentucky Wildcats will play a basketball game against Illinois.

The Fighting Illini, a 6-seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, defeated 11-seed Xavier 86-73 on Friday night in Milwaukee. The win advanced Illinois to the second round of the Big Dance, setting up a Round of 32 matchup with Mark Pope‘s Wildcats. Kentucky, a 3-seed, took care of business in the game before with a 76-57 win over 14-seed Troy.

Kentucky vs. Illinois is set for Sunday at Fiserv Forum with tipoff scheduled for 5:15 p.m. ET on CBS.

Illinois is fueled by a pair of ESPN’s projected first-round NBA Draft picks. Freshman point guard Kasparas Jakucionis is the star with per-game averages of 15 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists. Freshman wing Will Riley, once a Kentucky target back in the summer, checks in averaging 12.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per contest.

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Those two combined to record 38 points and 14 rebounds against Xavier. Jakucionis also chipped in nine assists. Guards Kylan Boswell and Tre White, who also averaged double-digits in scoring this season, added 22 points and 12 rebounds in the win. They’re all joined by floor-spacing center Tomislav Ivisic, the brother of former Wildcat Zvonimir Ivisic, who averages 12.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per outing this season. He went for 20 points and 10 rebounds against the Musketeers. Former Kentucky assistant coach Orlando Antigua is also on staff at Illinois.

Kentucky and Illinois have gone head-to-head 15 times throughout history, according to BigBlueHistory, but haven’t faced off since 1984. UK owns the all-time series 11-4, having won the previous meeting 54-51 in the 1984 NCAA Tournament’s Elite 8. The two programs also played each other in 1983 and 1982 — both wins for the Wildcats — with Illinois’ most recent win coming in 1966.

The very first meeting between UK and Illinois dates all the way back to 1925 when the Fighting Illini won a barnburner, 36-26. This will be the fifth matchup in the NCAA Tournament.