On a trip to Madison Square Garden for the Jimmy V Classic, the No. 2 Texas Longhorns face off against the No. 17 Illinois Fighting Illini on Tuesday evening in New York, the third top-25 matchup of the season for head coach Chris Beard’s team.
Texas enters the contest with wins over then-No. 2 Gonzaga and then No. 7 Creighton, but the Bulldogs have lost two games since then and the Bluejays had a bad loss at home to the rival Cornhuskers, raising questions about how much those wins will help the Longhorns in March.