After its first loss of the season, Alabama basketball looks to bounce back against 25. Illinois in front of an Alabama-heavy crowd in Birmingham.
Alabama and Illinois are matched up in the C.M. Newton Classic, with both teams making appearances in the Elite Eight a season ago. This is the second of seven straight away from Tuscaloosa for the Tide, with a trip out west in Las Vegas in a week. Alabama leads the all-time series against Illinois 3-1, with Alabama winning the last matchup in 2015 with a 79-58 win.
“They are a super super-talented team, good program, and have been one of the best Big 10 teams in the last five seasons,” said head coach Nate Oats on Illinois.
General Information:
Teams: Alabama (3-1) and Illinois (3-0)
Tip time: 9 p.m. EST
Watch: SEC Network
Listen:Â Tide 100.9
What to know about Illinois:
The Fighting Illini are coming off the season 3-0 with a ton of new faces on the roster. Illinois’ roster consists of 10 transfers or freshmen, losing all of its production from this past season with Coleman Hawkins transferring and Terrance Shannon Jr. going to the NBA. The Illini are led by Will Riley, who reclassified from the 2025 class and picked Illinois over the Tide. Riley leads the team in scoring, averaging 17.7 PPG.
In its last game, Illinois defeated Oakland 66-54. 7’1 “Center Tomislav Ivsic from Croatia took over the game and led all scorers with 20 points.
Illinois is shooting 36% as a team from the outside, averaging around 89 PPG. Defensively, the team allows around 59.6 PPG and is a top-30 defense by the metrics.
The Illini are now ranked 25th after being added to the AP Â poll on Monday
Latest on Alabama basketball:
Alabama is coming off its first loss on Friday, 87-78, where the team could not get stops late on the defensive end. The bright spots Alabama can take from the Purdue game and into the Illinois game have been the performances of Grant Nelson, who had a double-double, and Labaron Philon, who led the team with 18 points. The Tide’s presence down low has been much improved from a season ago, but would still like to see Clifford Omoruyi continue to get more minutes as the transfer continues to get used to playing in the fast-paced style of play.
The key for Alabama to win this game is to feed off of its fans in the neutral site, which will be mainly Alabama fans with the game being so close to Tuscaloosa. Alabama needs to find more of a rhythm and identity on the offensive end, with the guys still getting used to one another and building chemistry. Alabama must get stops on the defensive end and win the rebounding battle against a tough Illini squad.
Alabama needs to get shooters like Mark Sears, Latrell Wrightsell Jr., Aden Holloway, and Jarin Stevenson out of slumps and continue to create open looks to open up the offense.
The analytics for Alabama show that the team is scoring 87 PPG and shooting 30.4% from three. Defensively, the team is allowing 71 PPG and is ranked 44th by the metrics.
Alabama dropped six spots after the loss to 8th in the AP poll.