Illinois March Madness Schedule: When do the Fighting Illini play next?

For the fourth straight season, the Illinois Fighting Illini have punched their ticket into the NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament. That's pretty impressive for this school that had missed out on the tournament for each of the seven years prior to the 2020-21 campaign.

While Illinois has consistently appeared in the tournament of late, they haven't had much success. They have not made it past the first weekend of the tournament in this stretch, and lost in the Round of 64 last season. The school historically hasn't had much success in March. They've appeared in the tournament 34 times but have just five Final Four appearances and no National Championships.

Last season was disappointing, but Illinois was a nine-seed and lost to Arkansas. This time around, the Fighting Illini have a chance at making a deep run. They went 26-8 overall and 14-6 in conference play and wound up winning the Big 10 Conference Championship. With all of those accolades in play, the Fighting Illini were given the No. 3 seed in the East Region. They're led by senior Terrence Shannon Jr. who is averaging 23.0 points per game this season.

Let's take a look at Illinois' schedule for March Madness as they attempt to win their first-ever National Championship.

Illinois March Madness Schedule

Round of 64: vs. No. 14 Morehead State (Thursday, March 21 at 3:10 p.m. ET, truTV)

The first test for the Fighting Illini was against Morehead State. The Eagles definitely came ready to pull off an upset, trailing by just one point going into halftime. But Terrence Shannon Jr. exploded in the second frame along with a triple-double from Marcus Domask to help push Illinois to a comfortable 85-69 win and advance to the second round.

Round of 32: vs. No. 11 Duquesne (Saturday, March 23 - Time and TV info TBD)

After the win over Morehead State, the Illini will now face the Duquesne Dukes, a program that notched its first NCAA Tournament win in 55 years on Thursday, in the Second Round of March Madness.

Who will Illinois play next in March Madness?

As mentioned, Duquesne is the next March Madness opponent for Illinois basketball. The Dukes bucked history with their historic win, an upset of No. 6 seed BYU in the First Round. Duquesne led for most of the game, and then pulled away late to secure the victory and set up a date with the Fighting Illini.

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