A report by Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports said DePaul men’s basketball will play Illinois for the first time since 1957.
“Illinois will host DePaul in the 2017 Gavitt Games, per a source,” he said on Twitter Saturday.
The Gavitt Tipoff Games is a series of games played every year between eight members of the Big East against eight members of the Big 10 in honor of the first commissioner of the Big East conference Dave Gavitt. The series started in 2015 and DePaul has played in both series, losing to Penn State in 2015 and then falling to Rutgers in 2016.
Illinois went 20-15 last season and will have a new head coach heading into 2017-18 under the helm of Brad Underwood. In the Gavitt Games they are 0-1 after losing to Providence in 2015.
The Blue Demons and Fighting Illini played nine times in eight straight seasons from 1950-1957 and have not played since then. Illinois leads the series 7-2.
Rothstein also reported the remainder of the Gavitt Games matchups, which includes Northwestern hosting Creighton at Allstate Arena, Providence hosting Minnesota, St. John’s hosting Nebraska, Seton Hall hosting Indiana, Maryland hosting Butler and Wisconsin hosting Xavier.
Neither DePaul nor Illinois have confirmed this report.