No. 19 Iowa vs. No. 16 Illinois men’s basketball glance: Time/TV/game info (Jan. 11, 2026)

What: No. 19 Iowa (12-3, 2-2 Big Ten) vs. No. 16 Illinois (12-3, 3-1 Big Ten), men’s basketball

When/where: Sunday 11 a.m., Carver-Hawkeye Arena

TV: Fox (Jason Benetti, Steve Smith)

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network affiliates

Series: Illinois leads the all-time series, 94-77, with Iowa leading the series in Iowa City, 57-44.

Iowa’s next game: Tuesday, Jan. 14 at Purdue at 5:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network

What to know: Iowa men’s basketball returns home after a one-game trip up north that ended in a 70-67 loss to unranked Minnesota on Tuesday night. The last left the Hawkeyes without a true road win so far this season, and gave the Gophers their second ranked win of the year.

The Hawkeyes now face No. 16 Illinois in a top 20 matchup — and Iowa’s annual Gold Out, where fans are encouraged to wear gold for the game.

Iowa guard Bennett Stirtz recorded 21 second-half points in the loss to Minnesota, but it continued a three-game streak of the Hawkeyes scoring at least 20 points every game. He now averages 18 points per game.

Illinois heads to Iowa City on a four-game streak, including wins over Missouri, Southern, Penn State and most recently, Rutgers. The Illini’s last loss was against No. 23 Nebraska, in an 83-80 defeat.

Illinois averages 86.7 points per game, and have already made over 150 triples this season. The teams’ defense allows less than 70 points per game so far.

Led by freshman guard Keaton Wagler, Illinois has four players averaging double figures this season. Wagler leads the pack with 15.5, followed by guard Kylan Boswell with 14.5, guard Andrej Stojakovic with 14.4 points and freshman forward David Mirkovic averaging 12.7 points per game.

Illinois has also been out-rebounding its opponents per game by an average of 11.5.

“You have to be creative, you have to play with a little more pace,” Iowa head coach Ben McCollum said about learning from the Minnesota loss. “And part of that is being at an intense level consistently ... and making sure that we move forward, because it’s still the Big Ten.”

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