No. 2 Texas vs. No. 17 Illinois live updates

On a trip to Madison Square Garden for the Jimmy V Classic, the No. 2 Texas Longhorns face off against the No. 17 Illinois Fighting Illini on Tuesday evening in New York, the third top-25 matchup of the season for head coach Chris Beard’s team.

Texas enters the contest with wins over then-No. 2 Gonzaga and then No. 7 Creighton, but the Bulldogs have lost two games since then and the Bluejays had a bad loss at home to the rival Cornhuskers, raising questions about how much those wins will help the Longhorns in March.

But the Longhorns can’t control how teams play after beating them, so the focus will fully land on Brad Underwood’s Illini on Tuesday, a group that also has a defense-focused…