Return of Illini Classic?: COVID-19 Scheduling Issues May Bring Multi-Team Event to Champaign
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The ongoing coronavirus epidemic creating uncertainty and rapid change for college basketball scheduling may create a return to a longstanding two-day event hosted by the University of Illinois basketball program.
College Basketball insider Jon Rothstein reported Monday afternoon that Illinois has decided to host a multi-team event inside State Farm Center from Nov. 25-27, which is the date the NCAA Division I Council approved last month as the start date for the upcoming 2020-21 season.
Officials at the University of Illinois athletics department declined to comment on Rothstein’s report except to say that the 2020-21 schedule is still in flux as the 14 Big Ten Conference programs continue to wait for the dates and games on the league slate.
All Division I programs can begin preseason practice Oct. 14 and will have 42 days to conduct a maximum of 30 practices.
However, a mult-team event isn’t exactly a foreign concept as the “Illini Classic” four-team event was first formed in 1976 by then-head coach Lou Henson in his second year of his tenure with the Illini when Illinois defeated Cleveland State and Cal-Poly on Dec. 13 and Dec. 17. From 1980 to 1996, the event would be a four-team, two-day event with different programs coming to Champaign for an in-season event guaranteeing all four teams two games inside the then-called Assembly Hall. Illinois went a perfect 34-0 in the Illini Classic event with most of the game involving the Illini being blowout wins but some championship games involved competitive games against quality programs including a 107-103 overtime win in 1987 over an Auburn team that had two future NBA veterans (Chris Morris and Matt Geiger) and would advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
The national anthem is preformed prior to the first half before a 2020 game between the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Maryland Terrapins at State Farm Center.
Patrick Gorski/USA TODAY Sports
The final game of the Illini Classic Dec. 7, 1996 in the event final when Illinois defeated Tennessee State 86-73 in the first year of Lon Kruger’s head-coaching tenure with the program. Kruger preferred for Illinois to play in more neutral site events guaranteeing the Illini games against power programs on national television and the Illini Classic event was eventually retired.
However, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic causing havoc with non-conference scheduling for nearly all Division I schools, more power programs are finding a shift to the past and hosting multi-team events in its arena could solve scheduling issues while guaranteeing medical safety guidelines for all teams involved.
The 2020 Emerald Coast Classic tournament in Niceville, Fla., which was a four-team event featuring first round games of Illinois vs. Florida and Iowa State vs. Oregon, has been canceled this year.
Illinois also announced the postponement of the return game in Champaign of the home-and-home contract with Arizona until a mutually agreed upon date in the 2021-22 season. The Arizona-Illinois game was originally scheduled for this season on Dec. 12, 2020.
While the 2020 Illini Classic multi-team event and teams have yet to be announced, one in-state option to keep in mind is Eastern Illinois as Illini head coach Brad Underwood and EIU head coach Jay Spoonhour have a relatively close relationship and a connection to the beginning of Underwood’s tenure in Champaign.
Before the 2017-18 season, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria plowed through southeast Texas, Florida and the Caribbean. Therefore, the NCAA allowed college basketball programs to play an extra exhibition game against another Division I program with the proceeds going to disaster relief charity organizations. Illinois agreed to make its first and only trip to Lantz Arena to play EIU for an exhibition game on Nov. 3, 2017 to mark the first game Underwood would be on the bench for the Illini. EIU won 80-67 in front of a solid-out crowd in the 5,400-seat complex in what Underwood called “an opportunity to get our players in front of fans but also an opportunity, quite frankly, to be honest, that we’re never going to go during a regular season tilt”.
EIU has made six appearances in Champaign to play the Illini (1986, 1990, 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2002) but none have come in a multi-team event.
Another in-state option is Western Illinois, where Underwood was an assistant coach from 1992-2003. Underwood made four losing trips to Assembly Hall as an opposing coach on Jim Kerwin's bench. Illinois has a connection to the WIU staff as new Leathernecks head coach Rob Jeter hired Nick Irvin, a former head coach at Morgan Park High School in Chicago where he coached current Illinois guard Ayo Dosunmu and Adam Miller at the prep level where they won back-to-back IHSA Class 3A state titles in 2017 and 2018.