Duke’s annual pilgrimage to New York City will happen later than usual in the upcoming basketball season.

The program announced Wednesday that it will play Illinois on Feb. 22, 2025, in a non-conference game at Madison Square Garden. The news of the game coming later in the season was initially reported back in May when Illini coach Brad Underwood spoke about it at the NBA Combine.

Playing the game later in the season is obviously a break from normal circumstances, when the Blue Devils have played in New York in November or December. Duke has played in the famed arena for 10 of the last 11 years, the exception being the 2020-21 season (in which Duke only played four non-conference games because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The game will be played on a Saturday and be broadcast on FOX. After this game, there will be two full weeks left of the ACC's regular season; the ACC tournament starts March 11 in Charlotte.

Illinois was 29-9 last season, winning the Big Ten tournament and losing to eventual champion Connecticut in the Elite 8 by a score of 77-52.

Illinois was an older team last season and lost its top four scorers, but reloaded in the transfer portal — including a couple of ACC imports, Tre White (Louisville) and Carey Booth (Notre Dame). Also in Illinois’ transfer class who’s familiar is guard Kylan Boswell, who spent the last two seasons at Arizona.

Duke has won seven straight games at MSG, including last season’s 78-70 win over Baylor on Dec. 20.