NCAA Tournament March Madness

#89 Illinois St

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Projection: likely out

Illinois State looks like it will miss the field because its résumé is a study in contrast: it owns meaningful wins away from home and at neutral sites, including victories at Murray State and Long Beach State and neutral-site wins over Charlotte and Furman, but those positives are outweighed by damaging setbacks such as a lopsided neutral loss to USC, road defeats at Ohio, Belmont and Evansville and costly home losses to Southern Illinois and Illinois Chicago. The defense has been a foundation and the home win over Northern Iowa shows the team can beat quality opponents, yet the accumulation of bad results both on the road and at home leaves too few signature victories. Remaining games, most notably a home date with Belmont and a road trip to Northern Iowa, are clear chances to improve the profile while trips to Bradley and Illinois Chicago are opportunities to avoid further harm, but as constructed today the résumé simply lacks the premium wins that secure an at-large berth.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/6@Ohio220L72-68
11/9Cornell146W76-65
11/14(N)USC49L87-67
11/16@Long Beach St240W82-80
11/23Coastal Car233W94-42
11/27(N)Charlotte177W79-69
11/28(N)Furman188W72-65
12/3E Kentucky271W89-78
12/6Chicago St350W95-53
12/13(N)Utah St25L83-78
12/18@S Illinois114W75-68
12/21Indiana St212W85-65
12/29@Drake202W73-56
1/1Evansville297W73-47
1/7@Valparaiso154L77-71
1/10IL Chicago122L63-59
1/14@Indiana St212L94-89
1/17Bradley134W88-62
1/21Northern Iowa88W59-54
1/24@Belmont61L80-69
1/28@Murray St108W70-65
2/3S Illinois114L54-50
2/6Drake202W86-76
2/9@Evansville297L88-80
2/12Valparaiso154W86-64
2/15@IL Chicago12250%
2/18Murray St10866%
2/21@Bradley13453%
2/25@Northern Iowa8839%
3/1Belmont6151%