REPORT: Illinois Basketball to Host Multi-Team Event in Late November

*Article was updated on 10/15/30 at 8:30 AM CT with additional teams

There’s a great deal of hype surrounding the 2020-21 Illinois basketball team. After star players Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn announced that they would return to Champaign for their junior and sophomore seasons, respectively, the Illini instantly became a Big Ten favorite. Illinois also received a great deal of praise from national media, as Andy Katz listed them as a top-five team in his latest ‘Power 36’ preseason rankings.

Given all the hype surrounding Illinois basketball, the team is expected to be a focal point of the NCAA’s 2020-21 season tip-off. John Rothstein of CBS Sports reported today that Illinois will host a multi-team event from November 25-27.

Last month, the NCAA announced that the 2020-21 basketball season will begin on November 25th. In the proposed details of this early-season event, Illinois would host three other teams and they would each play three round-robin games in as many days. Matt Norlander of CBS Sports reports that the other teams will be Wright State, Ohio, and North Carolina A&T.

The reported multi-team event would be a replacement of sorts on the Illini basketball schedule, as they were supposed to partake in the Emerald Coast Classic on November 27th and 29th. That event has now been canceled.

Illinois basketball is expected to make plenty of noise this year. They’ll have the spotlight on them from day one of the 2020-21 season if this multi-team event comes to fruition.