Kentucky and Illinois will meet in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Sunday in Milwaukee (5:15 p.m. ET, CBS). Both teams won first-round games on Friday evening to earn the right to meet in Sunday’s contest.

The Cats topped Troy 76-57, while Illinois stopped Xavier 86-73. Now, the teams will meet for the first time in 41 years. That game was in the Mideast Regional championship game, which was played at Rupp Arena. In that contest, Melvin Turpin had 13 points and Sam Bowie added 11 as the Cats beat the Illini 54-51 to advance to the 1984 Final Four.

The 2024-25 Cats know that Illinois is a very talented team and that they must be prepared to bring their best on Sunday, according to forward Ansley Almonor.

“Illinois is a big physical team,” Almonor said. “We’ve been accustomed to playing in the SEC. So we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for the battles. It’s going to be a physical battle in the paint. We’ll have to be able to crash the boards offensively and defensively and keep them off the boards while we’re at it.”

UK freshman Trent Noah agreed with Almonor.

“Obviously Illinois is a really talented team,” Noah said. “They’re very well coached and they get up a lot of threes as well. So I just think the main thing is we have to keep them off the glass.”

While the Cats know that defending what Illinois does is very important, Kentucky knows that playing their type of game is perhaps even more crucial.

“We just have to do us,” Noah said. “We’ve got play our solid basketball, play our game, get out in transition, get our threes up and wedge.”

Fellow freshman Travis Perry emphasized the same points.

“(Just) play our game on offense, get out in transition, try and dictate the pace that we want to play at,” Perry said. “And that should lead to us being successful.”

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope knows that Illinois is a very talented team. The UK staff has spent time preparing for the Illini since Friday night.

“Last night we dug in a scout, kind of stayed there all night,” Pope said. “This morning met with the team, digging in on a scout this afternoon, had a really nice experience with our guys on the floor, and we’ll go back and keep trying to figure out this terrific Illinois team.”

Kentucky hopes to carry the momentum from Friday’s win into Saturday’s contest against Illinois.