Illinois and Duke have agreed to a home-and-home men’s basketball series that will start next season.
The Illini will travel to Durham, N.C., on Nov. 17 to play at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and the Blue Devils will visit the State Farm Center on Dec. 4, 2027, in Champaign. It will be Duke’s first visit to Illinois.
The programs last met in February 2025 at Madison Square Garden, where Duke won 110-67. The Blue Devils lead the all-time series 6-3, though Illinois won the last two at Cameron, including an 83-68 victory in December 2020.
Both teams are coming off strong seasons. Duke, under coach Jon Scheyer, the former Mr. Basketball of Illinois at Glenbrook North, finished 35-3 and made the Elite Eight. Illinois finished 28-9 and advanced to the Final Four.
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Coach Brad Underwood said during Illinois’ NCAA Tournament run that he planned to put together a tough nonconference schedule. This will be the fourth home-and-home series against a power-conference team in his tenure; the others were Arizona, Tennessee and Texas Tech.
The Illini will visit Texas Tech next season and also will play Connecticut at the United Center in a Final Four rematch.
Illinois made the announcement Wednesday morning as a large Illini contingent gathered at Wintrust Arena for the NBA draft combine, where three Illinois players — Keaton Wagler, Andrej Stojaković and Kylan Boswell — are going through workouts. Stojaković has maintained his college eligibility and could return to a team that has four other key players back: David Mirković, Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivišić and Jake Davis.
Cameron Boozer, a projected top-four pick, is among the Duke players participating in the combine.