At long last, Illinois basketball has officially – if incompletely- returned. On Monday night, the Illini will take the State Farm Center floor for their first regular-season action since making their 2026 Final Four run. Can they replicate – or even better – that magical ride? It all starts with Fairleigh Dickinson in Champaign.
Illinois won't be operating at full capacity, though. Preseason All-American David Mirkovic remains sidelined (and his timeline was just extended). Andrej Stojakovic and Zvonimir Ivisic are both active, but each was recently banged up. Freshman Lincoln Williams is questionable.
Previewing Illinois basketball vs. FDU
One more sleep.
Nov. 2
FDU
7 pm CT
State Farm Center
BTN pic.twitter.com/mSA2B41ck0– Illinois Men's Basketball (@IlliniMBB) November 1, 2026
Put plainly: FDU is hardly a juggernaut. Illinois has some notably dangerous mid-major foes on its 2026-27 schedule – but the Knights aren't one of them. Entering its fourth season under coach Jack Castleberry, FDU has yet to finish a season above .500.
The Knights went just 11-21 (8-10 in NEC play) last season, and they return only 26.7 percent of their player minutes from 2025-26. The Knights are solid on the glass on both ends, though – which was a mild area of concern for the Illini in exhibition play.
Also, FDU tends to let it rip from deep (45.2 percent of its field goal attempts came beyond the arc last season). It will be interesting to see if Illinois can run the visitors off the line or essentially let the Knights get them up.
How to watch Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Fairleigh Dickinson Knights
The road to Detroit begins.
FDU
7 pm CT
State Farm Center
BTN pic.twitter.com/EPFqnOkX8K– Illinois Men's Basketball (@IlliniMBB) November 2, 2026
What's the event?
No. 3 Illinois will face Fairleigh Dickinson for the 2026-27 season opener.
Where and when are Illinois and FDU playing?
State Farm Center in Champaign, on Monday at 7 p.m. CT.
How to watch Illinois vs. FDU
Illinois vs. FDU will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
How to listen to Illinois vs. FDU
Local audio of the game can be heard on radio affiliates of the Busey Bank Illini Sports Network(Champaign: WDWS 93.9 FM or 1400 AM; Chicago: WLS 890 AM) and streamed atFighting Illini Productions and theVarsity Network App.
What happened when Illinois last played FDU?
Illinois is 2-0 in its meetings against FDU. Brad Underwood helmed the Illini in the previous matchup between the schools – a 104-71 late-December win in 2023. Illinois dominated the boards (54-27) in that outing, and a pair of reserves – Dain Dainja and Justin Harmon – led the way with 37 combined points.
Each of the trio of Ty Rodgers (10 points and 15 rebounds), Marcus Domask (11 points and 11 assists) and Quincy Guerrier (14 points and 11 rebounds) notched double-doubles.
Their only other meeting came in 2005, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Illini won that outing 67-55 en route to a national title appearance. That means that in both seasons Illinois has knocked off FDU, it has trekked to the Elite Eight at worst. Not a bad sign.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/illinois as How to Watch Illinois Basketball vs Fairleigh Dickinson.