How to Watch No. 13 Illinois vs. USC

Game Time: 11 a.m. Saturday

TV Channel: Big Ten Network

Online Streaming: FoxSportsGO

Radio: All Illinois basketball games air live on radio in the Champaign (WDWS-AM 1400) and Chicago (WLS-AM 890) markets. The game will also be broadcasted on other networks throughout the state; check the Fighting Illini Radio Network for more information.

Odds: N/A

Quick Hits

Illinois Fighting Illini (12-3, 4-1 Big Ten)

Head Coach: Brad Underwood (8th Season)

Last Game: 91-52 win over Penn State

Gameday Reading:

USC Trojans (9-6, 1-3 Big Ten)

Head Coach: Eric Musselman (1st season)

Last Game: 82-69 loss to Indiana

What Happened The Last Time These Two Played?

Nov. 19, 2012: Illinois 94, USC 64

LAHAINA, Hawaii — Brandon Paul scored 26 points and Illinois used a hot first half to ride to an easy 94-64 win over USC Monday night at the Maui Invitational.

Illinois shot just under 69 percent in the first half on its way to a 31-point lead at the break. USC pulled no closer than 18 points in the second half despite some sloppy play from Illinois, which finished with 20 turnovers.

The Illini (4-0), who never trailed, also got 13 points from DJ Richardson, 11 from Tracy Abrams and 10 from Tyler Griffey.

USC (2-1) was led by Eric Wise with 13 points.

Illinois plays host team Chaminade on Tuesday. The Division II school knocked off Texas earlier Monday.

By the way, this is weird. Our “GameThread” on TCR (it’s something we used to do for games, you may remember), included this:

“By the time this game is over both USC and the entire state of Hawaii may be in the Big Ten.”

Uhhhhh, good call, Tom Fornelli!

Ben Humrichous scored a season-high 21 points, Thornton grad Morez Johnson Jr. had a career-high 20 points with 11 rebounds and No. 13 Illinois beat Penn State 91-52 on Wednesday night at State Farm Center in Champaign for its fifth consecutive victory.

Tre White also had 20 points to help Illinois (12-3, 4-1 Big Ten) win with scoring leader Kasparas Jakucionis sidelined by a bruised forearm.

Penn State star Ace Baldwin Jr. aggravated a back injury early in the first half and didn’t play in the second half. He didn’t score, missing all six of his shots.

Nick Kern Jr. had 13 points for the Nittany Lions (12-4, 2-3). Zach Hicks added 11.

Takeaways

Illinois: After sweeping No. 9 Oregon and Washington on a West Coast trip, Illinois was tasked with beating nemesis Penn State without Jakucionis, whose absence was announced just before the game. Humrichous and Johnson made up for the loss of Jakucionis.

Penn State: The Nittany Lions came into the night as the 10th-highest scoring team in the nation, averaging 86.8 points. They had scored a program record 80-plus points in six straight games. Penn State shot 31% against Illinois.

Key moment

A 21-2 Illini run in the first half gave them a 26-13 lead. Penn State missed nine straight shots during the stretch, going 7:56 without a field goal.

Up next

Illinois: Hosts Southern California on Saturday.

Penn State: Hosts No. 9 Oregon on Sunday.

SPRINGFIELD — After closing out a lame-duck legislative session tainted by internal strife, Illinois Democrats heralded a fresh start Wednesday as the latest class of the Illinois General Assembly enters a daunting budget season and prepares for the second presidency of Donald Trump.

“We meet here this afternoon at a critical moment in the history of our state and our country, and as the elected leaders from our communities, we have some difficult things to do in the days and months ahead,” Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said at his chamber’s inauguration ceremony at the University of Illinois-Springfield.

“Trying to build connection, compassion and community in a time fraught with division and discord — these are challenges created and exacerbated by many factors beyond our control,” Welch said, nodding toward a second Trump administration at odds with Illinois’ supermajority Democratic Party. “The people who sent you here, who gave us this moment, expect us to move forward as one.”

But the Hillside Democrat’s caucus saw discord of its own in a lame-duck session confrontation that enraged Gov. JB Pritzker.

Several House Democrats shouted down Pritzker agency heads during a Monday caucus meeting over a controversial hemp regulation bill, in a heated encounter that ended with at least one staffer in tears and one of Pritzker’s top legislative priorities tanked.

The governor’s office criticized Welch for allowing the berating to happen, while Pritzker publicly slammed Welch for not calling a floor vote for the bill that would have effectively banned most sales of hemp-derived THC products like delta-8.

Pritzker demanded apologies to his staff, and on Wednesday he said “a little of that has happened,” while downplaying the possibility of any bad blood transitioning to the new legislative session as lawmakers grapple with an estimated $3 billion budget deficit.

“Every day is a new day to do the right thing,” Pritzker told reporters after presiding over the Illinois Senate’s inauguration. “People can make mistakes, and certainly mistakes were made and behavior was improper during that caucus. But people can make amends and we can all get along.”

Senate President Don Harmon preached a similar message of unity as he was sworn in for a third full term at the helm of the upper chamber. He advised his colleagues to “treat your neighbors well, stay humble [and] be kind.”

“Your seatmates, the members of your caucus, are your neighbors in the Senate. Your time here will be much more pleasant if you are good to them,” Harmon said inside a newly renovated chamber. “The Senate is an active laboratory for coalition building. Forge those bonds and look out for one another.”

Neither leader, nor Pritzker, went far into specifics on their legislative agendas heading into the spring session. While lawmakers ended the previous General Assembly without advancing legislation intended to preempt policies from the incoming Trump administration, “we’re all going to have to be on guard for what the impact of that will be in the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said.

He suggested Trump tariff policies and potential Medicaid cuts could exacerbate the state’s looming budget deficit.

“We don’t know what they’re going to do,” Pritzker said. “We know that we have a gap that we need to fill or that we need to manage in order to have a balanced budget, and I’m confident that we will do that. But it is true that there’s some unpredictable results that may come from Washington.”

The governor has until the end of May to hammer out a budget with lawmakers. He’ll deliver his initial proposal next month.

Other legislators floated their priorities for the upcoming session, including South Side state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, who highlighted the need for a broad transit funding reform bill to avert a fiscal cliff; and Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who wants to add safeguards around the use of artificial intelligence in health care.

Republicans, who remain relegated to superminority status in Springfield, voiced frustration with the Democrats’ iron grip on the State Capitol.

“Illinois is a great place to live, and Illinois has always been a state of possibilities, but one-party control has stifled that success,” said House Minority Leader Tony McCombie. Republicans have been outnumbered in the House since 1994, and the Senate since 2000.

“I, like many, was disappointed with our election outcomes, and the ability for us to secure more Republican seats to bring some balance to the General Assembly,” McCombie said. “However, this was not due to a lack of good candidates or hard work, but due to special interests and Illinois’s gerrymandered maps, the most outrageous maps in the nation.”

With over $600 million raised in campaign contributions across all political campaigns in 2024, neither party had much to show for their time and money. The state House and Senate saw no party gain or lose a seat, as Democrats held onto their bicameral supermajority for four straight elections.

Republican Senate Minority Leader John Curran offered a cooperative hand in his chamber, praising Harmon “for making the table more open to the minority party. I look forward to that continued inclusion in the upcoming session.”