Illinois and Indiana first met on January 20, 1906, with an Illinois victory, 27–24. The location of the game alternates between
Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in
Bloomington and the
State Farm Center, formerly Assembly Hall, in
Champaign. There have been a total of five overtime games in this series. In mid-1980s Indiana head coach
Bob Knight brought allegations to the
NCAA that Illinois assistant coaches had acted improperly in the recruitment of
Lowell Hamilton. Hamilton was the focus of a recruiting competition between Illinois and Indiana, and while the allegations of improper conduct were unfounded by the NCAA, the controversy had some level of impact on the games at the time.On March 10, 1991, after an Indiana victory in Champaign, a profanity-laced shouting match between Knight and Fighting Illini coach
Lou Henson erupted outside the team locker rooms. The incident started when Knight left the Assembly Hall court with seven seconds remaining in the game, skipping the traditional postgame handshake while laughing and waving to the Illinois crowd. This incident enraged Henson to the point of confronting Knight outside of the locker room. Henson's anger continued as he spoke out against Knight at the postgame press conference. In a game at Bloomington on February 25, 1998, Indiana head coach Bob Knight was issued two
technical fouls by referee
Ted Valentine for first arguing a call after a hard collision between Illinois
guard Sergio McClain and Indiana guard
Luke Recker in which McClain was issued a technical foul for touching the rim after blocking Recker's shot. Coach Knight argued the call should have been
goaltending. From the collision, Recker fell hard to the court in pain. To check on his player, Coach Knight rushed to the court for which he was issued the second technical foul by Valentine. Occasional feuds and incidents between the schools' programs have fueled the competition over the years. Illinois has dominated Indiana in the short history of the
Big Ten tournament. Since the onset of the conference tournament, Illinois and Indiana have played a total of 9 times. Illinois holds the record of 6–3 over Indiana. In the
1999 Big Ten tournament the Hoosiers and the Illini faced each other and Illinois won the game 82–66. Illinois would go on to win 4 of the next 5 tournament meetings. In 2007 there was a recruiting battle between the schools over Indiana Mr. Basketball,
Eric Gordon. Gordon initially verbally committed to play for Illinois. However, when
Mike Davis resigned as Indiana's head coach and
Kelvin Sampson was hired, Gordon decommitted and signed his
National Letter of Intent to play for Indiana. •
Through March 19, 2023 Game results • Denotes game played during the
Big Ten tournament By decade (through 2026) == Football ==