The start of NCAA March Madness 2025 is still eight months away. But if you’re a fan of the Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team, it’s never too early to start looking ahead to the NCAA March Madness schedule and, more specifically, the Illinois NCAA March Madness schedule, right? It won’t be long before you’re sitting down to enjoy a free bet without deposit to bet on Illinois’ games in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

Illinois fans have reason to be excited about the team’s next NCAA March Madness campaign, too. After struggling to make it beyond the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament in recent seasons, the Fighting Illini finally did it in 2024 thanks to the heroics of Terrence Shannon Jr., who would go on to be drafted in the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Even though Illinois would eventually get blown by UConn, the 2024 March Madness champions, in the Elite Eight, it hasn’t stopped Fighting Illini fans from looking forward to the future of the Illinois program.

Illinois will face a tough schedule in the months leading up to NCAA March Madness 2025. It’ll feature the usual slate of Big Ten games along with a handful of non-conference contests against the likes of college basketball powerhouses like Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, and Duke. The Fighting Illini will need to bring their A-game from the first game of the season right up through the Big Ten Tournament to put themselves in a position even to make it to the NCAA Tournament.

However, the hope is that Illinois head coach Brad Underwood has done enough in recruiting to replace Shannon Jr. and keep the Fighting Illini near the top of the Big Ten for another season. Underwood has put together a top 20 class for 2024 by signing prized recruits like Morez Johnson Jr., Jason Jakstys, and Jase Butler as Illinois aims to reach the 2025 NCAA Tournament and make noise during it once again. The team has also retooled its roster by adding players from college basketball’s transfer portal, such as Kylan Boswell from Arizona, Carey Booth from Notre Dame, and Ben Humrichous from Evansville.

Still, that doesn’t mean Illinois won’t face challenges in the season ahead. While the Fighting Illini added a few top-notch players through the transfer portal, it also lost players who chose to add their names to the portal, including Coleman Hawkins. He’s heading to Kansas State after averaging 12.1 points and 6.1 rebounds for Illinois last season.

But even with all the changes being made in Champaign, it won’t be surprising to see Illinois’ name called when the 2025 NCAA March Madness schedule tips off on March 16, 2025, with Selection Sunday. From there, it’ll be up to Underwood and his players to try to top their performance in the 2024 NCAA Tournament by attempting to work their way to the Final Four, which starts on April 5, 2025, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.