Tennessee basketball schedules home-and-home with Big Ten opponent
Tennessee basketball announced on Tuesday that the Vols have scheduled a home-and-home series with Illinois. The two-game set will start with a game at Thompson-Boling Arena next season, scheduled for December 9, 2023. Tennessee will play at Illinois on December 14, 2024.
Tennessee and Illinois have met just three times on the basketball court. Illinois won 103-79 at home in 1988, after the Vols won in Knoxville, 54-51, in 1985. Tennessee beat Illinois 66-42 in a Volunteer Classic game in Knoxville in December 1967.
No. 6 Tennessee (9-1) plays at No. 9 Arizona (8-1) on Saturday (10:30 p.m. Eastern Time; TV: ESPN2), finishing a home-and-home series that started with a 77-73 win for the Vols at Thompson-Boling Arena last season.
The Big 12-SEC Challenge game against No. 7 Texas on January 28 in Knoxville is the only marquee non-conference home game for Tennessee this season, which included other home dates against Tennessee Tech, Florida Gulf Coast, McNeese State, Alcorn State, Eastern Kentucky and Austin Peay.
The Vols have been busy scheduling home-and-home contracts during the Rick Barnes era, with a list that includes Arizona along with North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Wisconsin and Colorado.
Vols will host Illinois next season, play at Illinois in 2024
Tennessee finished a three-year deal with Colorado that included a game in Knoxville, a game in Boulder and a neutral-site game at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. It started with two Tennessee wins, but the Buffaloes answered with a 78-66 win in Nashville on November 13, the only loss for the Vols so far this season.
Tennessee also had a home-and-home series with Wisconsin, losing to the Badgers in Knoxville in December 2019, but the return trip to Madison has yet to happen after COVID altered the 2020-21 basketball season.
It was announced earlier this month that the SEC and the ACC will begin an annual series next season, adding an ACC opponent to Tennessee’s schedules moving forward. It will replace the Big 12-SEC Challenge and the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
Up Next: No. 6 Tennessee at No. 9 Arizona, Saturday, 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
One of his first scheduling moves for Barnes with the Vols was signing a four-year deal with Georgia Tech, with each team getting two home games. Later he added a home-and-home with North Carolina, something Tennessee had not done since the 1947 and 1949 seasons, and a home-and-home with Wake Forest, something that had not been done since 1967 and 1970.
Tennessee has also played North Carolina, North Carolina State, Louisville and Florida State in holiday tournaments in November in recent seasons.
