The Illini play their home games at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois as members of the Big Ten Conference.

The Illini opened their season just outside of the preseason rankings and defeated the Eastern Illinois Panthers 112–67, led by a 31 point scoring performance from freshman Will Riley.

They defeated Ohio State, Nebraska, and Wisconsin to win the Big Ten tournament championship.

[3] This resulted in Sencire Harris, who had previously pledged to stay with the team, to enter the transfer portal, with Amani Hansberry soon following, as both were primarily recruited by Frazier.

[7] On September 20, the Illini announced that assistant coach Tim Anderson was taking an indefinite leave of absence, with Kwa Jones temporarily promoted to fill his position.