Throughout Brad Underwood's tenure at Illinois, the program has seen great success, and some would say it is somewhat of a golden era.
The Illini are coming off their fifth straight NCAA tournament appearance, and it would have been six straight if it weren’t for a worldwide pandemic. Things are going pretty well for this program under Underwood.
A noticeable improvement Underwood has made for the program is playing tough competition, especially during the non-conference slate. Illinois has taken on some of the best teams in the country, and just this last season, we played Arkansas, Tennessee, and Duke.
Illinois also played the first home-and-home game against Alabama. We headed down to Birmingham for that game, and the Crimson Tide beat us by 13 points. In 2025-26, Alabama is now coming up north to take on the Illini.
On Thursday, the Illinois men’s basketball social media account posted that the game against Alabama next season will take place in Chicago at the United Center. The game is scheduled for November 19.
As I mentioned earlier, Illinois dropped the game against the Crimson Tide last season, 100-87. This was the fourth straight loss against Alabama, and Illinois is just 1-4 all-time against the traditional football powerhouse.
Despite having The Friendly Confines, Chicago has not been nice to the Illinois basketball program
Underwood has done plenty of winning while the head coach of the Illini. The run of NCAA tournament appearances has been impressive, but when the program heads up to Chicago, we get another version of the talented coach.
Illinois has played five games in Chicago while Underwood has been the head coach. The program is 1-4 in those five games. The only win came against the team that claims to be Chicago’s Big Ten team, Northwestern.
The most recent game for the Illini in Chicago was back on March 9, 2023. We took on Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament, and the Nittany Lions beat us, 79-76.
Illinois has a chance to start turning the tide with the success in Chicago. A talented Alabama squad is going to be coming to town, and it is time to start winning again in the Windy City. This would be a big resume builder as well. I love these big-time non-conference matchups.