Live Updates: No. 1 Tennessee Basketball at Illinois
Tennessee Basketball passed its first test as the new No. 1 team in the country on Tuesday, beating Miami 75-62 in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden. Now the Vols are back on the road at Illinois Saturday afternoon.
No. 1 Tennessee (9-0) and Illinois (7-2) are scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time start at State Farm Center. The game will be televised by FOX.
Illinois is No. 12 in the NET and No. 16 overall in the KenPom.com ratings. The Illini are No. 16 in adjusted defensive efficiency and No. 28 in adjusted offensive efficiency. Tennessee is No. 2 in both the NET and KenPom. The Vols are No. 2 in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency and No. 10 in adjusted offensive efficiency.
No. 1 Tennessee vs. Illinois: How To Watch
Start Time: Saturday, 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time
TV: FOX
Streaming: FOXSports.com or FOX Sports App
Radio: WNML-FM 99.1 in Knoxville. The Vol Network radio broadcast can be heard on local affiliates across the state of Tennessee.
KenPom Prediction: Tennessee 74, Illinois 71 (61% Vols win)
The Line: Tennessee -1.5
Last Season: Tennessee 86, Illinois 79
Tennessee beat Illinois 86-79 in front of a capacity crowd of 21,678 at Food City Center last December, in the first game of the home-and-home.
Dalton Knecht scored 21 points to lead the Vols in the win. Jonas Aidoo scored 14, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi had 12 each and Zakai Zeigler scored 11. Terrence Shannon and Quincy Guerrier scored 22 each for Illinois and Coleman Hawkins had 12.
Both teams would advance to the Elite Eight last March. Tennessee lost to Purdue in the Midwest Regional final and Illinois lost to UConn in the East Regional final after going through Morehead State, Duquesne and Iowa State.
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Tennessee assistant coach Rod Clark on Thursday described this season’s Illinois team “very different” compared to the one that played in Knoxville last season.
“Stylistically, some things are similar,” Clark said. “Last year, they were older. Obviously a lot of guys that have played a lot of college basketball games. You had somebody like Terrence Shannon, who was just a bull in a China shop driving a basketball. He was one of the toughest guys in the country to guard year after year. Obviously, he’s an All American. So replacing him, obviously, is different.”
How They Got Here: Tennessee vs. Illinois
Illinios won six of its first seven games this season, with the lone loss coming against No. 7 Alabama, 100-87, in Birmingham, and the run ending with a 90-77 win over Arkansas in Kansas City.
Illinois started Big Ten play with an overtime loss at Northwestern on December 6 and bounced back with an 86-80 win over Wisconsin on December 10.
Tennessee’s 9-0 start is its best under Rick Barnes and the program’s best since 2000-01. The Vols started the 1999-2000 season 10-0. It’s only the third time Tennessee has been ranked No. 1 and the second time under Barnes.
