{"id":293075,"date":"2025-09-20T01:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T01:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/293075\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T01:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T01:44:10","slug":"tipoff-time-reportedly-set-for-premier-tennessee-basketball-non-conference-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/293075\/","title":{"rendered":"Tipoff Time Reportedly Set For Premier Tennessee Basketball Non Conference Matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>Photo By Andrew Ferguson\/Tennessee Athletics<\/p>\n

The tipoff time is reportedly set for one of Tennessee basketball\u2019s premier non conference matchups on its 2025-26 schedule. Tennessee\u2019s matchup against Illinois at Bridgestone Arena will reportedly tip off at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 6 according to Matt Sarzyniak.<\/a><\/p>\n

ESPN holds the broadcasting rights to the game meaning it will be on one of their channels. It seems unlikely that it would be ESPN since the game in on college football conference championship Saturday. Though the night cap conference championship games are typically the ACC and Big 12.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first of a two-game series between Tennessee and Illinois. After the meeting in Nashville, Tennessee will make a trip to Chicago to face Illinois during the 2027-28 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur program is really looking forward to this matchup with Illinois,\u201d Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said in a statement when the game was announced over the summer. \u201cWe have a great deal of respect for Brad Underwood and the Illini, and we know playing them will help prepare us for SEC action. The opportunity to compete in Nashville, a city filled with diehard Tennessee fans, is always special and we can\u2019t wait to see Vol Nation pack Bridgestone Arena.\u201d<\/p>\n

More From RTI:\u00a0Four-Star Shooting Guard Unofficially Visiting Tennessee Basketball This Weekend<\/a><\/p>\n

Tennessee and Illinois are fresh off of playing a home-and-home series each of the last two years. The Vols knocked off Illinois 86-79 in Knoxville in December 2023 before defeating the Fighting Illini 66-64 in Champaign last season.<\/p>\n

Tennessee\u2019s win at the State Farm Center was one of its most notable last season as Jordan Gainey made a game winning layup as time expired. The road win was the breakout party for one of the SEC\u2019s best sixth men a season ago. Gainey scored 23 points to lead the Vols to the victory while Zakai Zeigler and Chaz Lanier battled foul trouble.<\/p>\n

The Vols\u2019 wins over Illinois the last two years proved extremely beneficial for their resume, and the Fighting Illini appear to present another extremely challenging task again next season. Illinois currently ranks No. 7 in\u00a0Bart Torvik\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0analytics based rankings while\u00a0ESPN\u2019s Jeff Borzello<\/a>\u00a0has the Fighting Illini No. 16 in his way-too-early rankings. For comparison, Tennessee lands at No. 13 and No. 23 in those rankings.<\/p>\n

Tennessee\u2019s matchup against Illinois is one of six marquee non conference matchups on its 2026-27 schedule. The Vols travel to Syracuse for the ACC-SEC Challenge, host Louisville at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. Tennessee will also travel to Las Vegas for the Players Era Tournament where they\u2019ll face Rutgers, Houston and a third team that is not yet set. Tennessee will open up its 2025-26 campaign again Mercer on Nov. 3 at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center in Knoxville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo By Andrew Ferguson\/Tennessee Athletics The tipoff time is reportedly set for one of Tennessee basketball\u2019s premier non…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,48044,16526,7926,1919],"class_list":{"0":"post-293075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bridgeston-arena","10":"tag-illinois-basketball","11":"tag-rick-barnes","12":"tag-tennessee-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115234096172420681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}