No. 5 Illinois visits No. 2 Baylor in an early season matchup Wednesday night from Bankers Life Fieldhousein the nightcap of the Jimmy V Classic at Indianapolis. 

Both teams earned victories in their last game. Baylor earned an 86-52 win in Las Vegas over Washington on Sunday, while Illinois won 77-75 at home against Ohio on Friday.

Baylor is expected to regain the services of head coach Scott Drew, who missed Baylor's impressive wins over Louisiana and Washington over the weekend in Las Vegas while completing his quarantine after contracting COVID-19. He used Zoom to participate in the Bears' scout sessions and pregame locker room discussions, but mostly volunteered to stand aside and let Jerome Tang run the show.

Illinois and Baylor both feature preseason All-American guards in their lineup in Ayo Dosunmu and Jared Butler.

Dosunmu dominated Illinois' multi-team event as he averaged 25.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists. Butler averaged a team-high 18.5 points along with 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals in the Bears' sweep. He canned 7 of 12 3-pointers, which fell in line with Baylor's 50 percent marksmanship on 3s (28 of 56) against the Ragin' Cajuns and Huskies.

If Dosunmu and Butler wind up canceling each other out, then it will come down to the others.

Illinois 7-footer Kofi Cockburn, named to the Big Ten's preseason all-league team, averaged 15.0 points and 11.7 rebounds in 22.3 minutes last week. He'll be a handful for Baylor forwards Flo Thamba (6-10, 245) and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua (6-8, 245).

Meanwhile, Illinois sharpshooter Adam Miller (18.0 ppg) and guard Trent Frazier will get a taste of Baylor guards Mark Vital and Davion Mitchell's defensive zeal. Vital piled up eight points, 15 rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots against Washington.