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The Wake Forest Demon Deacons will welcome the Illinois Fighting Illini to Winston-Salem next year in the 2017 iteration of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
.@TieDyeNation to host Illinois in this year's #B1GACC Challenge. Date/Time/TV to be announced later/
— Wake Forest Sports (@DemonDeacons) June 8, 2017
INFO: https://t.co/jwJvmn15lU pic.twitter.com/EqhF662s65
The Deacs will seek to exact revenge on the Fighting Illini from 91-73 beatdown in December of 2004 when Wake Forest was ranked No. 1 in the country.
While dates, times, and networks will be announced at a later date, here is a complete look at the ACC-Big Ten matchups in its entirety.
The matchups for the 19th annual Big Ten/#ACC Challenge are set! https://t.co/d6VC1bl2nl #B1GACC #ACCMBB pic.twitter.com/VsCgNfSu0M
— ACC Men's Basketball (@accmbb) June 8, 2017
Illinois finished 2016 20-15 (8-10 in the Big Ten), and fired its head coach John Groce. The Illini did manage to make the quarterfinals of the NIT before a loss to UCF ended its season. Groce was replaced by former Stephen F. Austin and Oklahoma State head coach Brad Underwood, who will look to bring a high-paced, high pressure defense to Champaign.
The Fighting Illini lose a fair amount of seniors, so an early season game with a young team and a new coach should in theory be a good matchup for Wake Forest.
Wake Forest is 11-5 all-time in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.