After grabbing head coach Brad Underwood’s first-ever road win at Maryland last weekend, No. 12 Illinois men’s basketball is back on the road for its first meeting with Penn State this season. The Nittany Lions enter Wednesday night 12-14 overall and are 11th in the Big Ten thanks to a 6-9 conference record.
The only constant across these program’s historic matchups is prolonged win streaks. The Illini have won 32 of 54 total meetings, but the Nittany Lions had their number last season and beat them three times in three months. Before that three-game losing streak, Illinois won four straight, lost six straight and won four straight.
Much has changed for Penn State since last season, when it finished 23-14, reached the Big Ten tournament finals and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Nittany Lions are currently nowhere to be found in ESPN’s projected NCAA tournament bracket and are on pace to miss the Big Dance altogether.
Their situation got even worse on Monday, when it was announced that sophomore guard Kanye Clary had been dismissed from the team. Clary was averaging 16.7 points per game, the most on the team and seventh highest in the Big Ten. His absence was felt in Penn State’s first game without him, a 19-point loss at Nebraska on Saturday (68-49).
Illinois is heading into a rowdy atmosphere, as Penn State’s crowd will be participating in a white-out on top of the game being held in Rec Hall. Penn State men’s and women’s basketball are hosting games in their throwback arena this week, whose capacity sits at about 6,500 compared to 15,250 in Bryce Jordan Center. Rec Hall has not hosted basketball in an official setting since 2015 so the Illini are facing a much more condensed and personal experience with the away crowd.
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Despite collecting his missing Big Ten road win on Saturday, Penn State moved out of Rec Hall prior to Underwood being hired at Illinois and he was upfront about not knowing what to expect.
“We’re moving into Rec Hall to play this game,” Underwood said. “Something I know very little about other than it’s small and quaint. I’m sure it will help provide a very good home-court advantage from a fan’s perspective. I’ve not been in it, I’ve not seen it other than online, but (they’re) a team that has a very, very good point guard. A team that can turn you over at a high rate. A team that scores a tremendous amount of points on cuts.”
No. 12 Illinois men’s basketball is looking for its 20th win of the season at Penn State this Wednesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
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