No. 1 Tennessee Basketball at Illinois

Tennessee Basketball passed its first test as the new No. 1 team in the country on Tuesday, beating Miami 75-62 in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden. Now the Vols are back on the road at Illinois Saturday afternoon.

Stay tuned for all the live updates before, during and after today’s match at The General’s Quarters

No. 1 Tennessee (9-0) and Illinois (7-2) are scheduled for a 5:30 pm Eastern Time start at the State Farm Center. The game will be televised by FOX.

Illinois is No. 12 in NET and no. 16 collected in KenPom.com assessments. The Illini are No. 16 in adjusted defensive efficiency and no. 28 in adjusted offensive efficiency. Tennessee is No. 2 in both NET and KenPom. The Vols are No. 2 in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency and no. 10 in adjusted offensive efficiency.

No. 1 Tennessee vs. Illinois: This is how you see

Start time: Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time

TV: FOX

Streaming: FOXSports.com or FOX Sports App

Radio: WNML-FM 99.1 in Knoxville. The Vol Network radio broadcast can be heard on local affiliates throughout the state of Tennessee.

KenPom Prediction: Tennessee 74, Illinois 71 (61% vols win)

The line: Tennessee -1.5

Last season: Tennessee 86, Illinois 79

Tennessee beat Illinois 86-79 in front of a capacity crowd of 21,678 at the Food City Center last December, in the first game of the home-and-home.

Dalton Knecht scored 21 points to lead the Vols in the win. Jonas Aidoo scored 14, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi had 12 each and Zakai Zeigler scored 11. Terrence Shannon and Quincy Guerrier scored 22 each for Illinois and Coleman Hawkins had 12.

Both teams would advance to the Elite Eight last March. Tennessee lost to Purdue in the Midwest Regional final and Illinois lost to UConn in the East Regional final after going through Morehead State, Duquesne and Iowa State.

Tennessee assistant coach Rod Clark on Thursday described this season’s Illinois team as “very different” compared to the one that played in Knoxville last season.

“Stylistically, some things are similar,” Clark said. “Last year they were older. Obviously a lot of guys who have played a lot of college basketball games. You had someone like Terrence Shannon who was just a bull in a china shop driving a basketball. He was one of the toughest guys in the country to guard year after year. Obviously, he’s an American. So it’s obviously different to replace him.”

How They Got Here: Tennessee vs. Illinois

The Illinios won six of its first seven games this season, with the lone loss coming against No. 7 at Alabama, 100-87, in Birmingham, and the run ended with a 90-77 victory over Arkansas in Kansas City.

Illinois opened Big Ten play with an overtime loss at Northwestern on Dec. 6 and bounced back with an 86-80 win over Wisconsin on Dec. 10.

Tennessee’s 9-0 start is its best under Rick Barnes and the program’s best since 2000-01. The Vols started the 1999-2000 season 10-0. This is only the third time Tennessee has been ranked No. 1 and the second time under Barnes.