Preview: Illinois vs. Penn in the NCAA Tournament

What's the event?

No. 3 seed Illinois (24-8) will face No. 14 seed Penn (18-11) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament (South Region).

Where and when are they playing?

Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina, on Thursday at approximately 8:25 p.m. CT.

How to watch

Illinois vs. Penn will be broadcast on TNT. Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson will be on the call.

How to listen

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 at Fighting Illini Productions and the Varsity Network App.

What happened when Illinois last played Penn?

Well, it has been a minute. The Illini are 6-0 all time against Penn, an Ivy League hoops stalwart, but the teams haven't shared a court since Illinois' 78-71 win over the Quakers on Nov. 22, 2001, in the second round of the old Las Vegas Invitational. (In case you forgot, Frank Williams scored 22 points to bring the Illini back from an 11-point halftime deficit.)

It may be more relevant to return to Illinois' previous clash with McCaffery, back when he was still calling the shots for the Iowa Hawkeyes. That turned out to be a 106-94 Illini win in the second round of last year's Big Ten Tournament, in which current Illini Kylan Boswell (team-high 24 points) and Tomislav Ivisic (19) cut loose and McCaffery was tossed in his final game with the Hawkeyes. As defensively limited as that Iowa squad was, Penn figures to put up even less resistance against this Illinois crew.

What has changed since then?

Plenty. McCaffery is no longer in Iowa City, having returned to his alma mater in Philadelphia to jazz up Penn's offense and lead the Quakers to an Ivy League title. Meanwhile, Underwood has nearly turned over his roster since last season, adding more big, skilled Balkans (including David Mirkovic and Zvonimir Ivisic) and one astonishingly overlooked Kansan (Keaton Wagler) to the mix.

Quakers forward TJ Power is a former five-star recruit and a potential matchup problem for the Illini, and he is surrounded by shooters and a savvy, offensive-minded support group. But Penn is woefully undermanned in terms of size and athleticism in this matchup and, for all its firepower, simply isn't built to keep up with an Illinois outfit whose offense held down the No. 1 ranking in college basketball for most of the season.