NCAA Tournament March Madness

#7 Illinois

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Projected seed: 3

Illinois projects as a top seed because its resume combines dominant blowouts and eye-catching road and neutral victories with a few blemishes that keep it from absolute supremacy. The best moments are unmistakable: authoritative nonconference wins over Jackson State and FGCU, a neutral-site statement over Tennessee, and a résumé-defining road victory at Purdue complemented by strong road wins at Iowa and USC that show the team can win away from home. The worst moments are real and relevant to a committee that cares about consistency: neutral losses to Alabama and Connecticut, a surprising home loss to Nebraska, setbacks at Michigan and Michigan State, and narrow defeats at UCLA and to Wisconsin that create enough doubt to prevent the very top line. With the league slate still meaningful the clearest path to cementing or improving this position is to add more road or neutral wins against high-end conference rivals and follow that with an extended run in the conference tournament where an additional marquee victory or a clean stretch without another bad loss would erase lingering doubts.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3Jackson St341W113-55
11/7FGCU244W113-70
11/11Texas Tech20W81-77
11/14Colgate249W84-65
11/19(N)Alabama18L90-86
11/22LIU Brooklyn216W98-58
11/24UTRGV115W87-73
11/28(N)Connecticut11L74-61
12/6(N)Tennessee16W75-62
12/9@Ohio St26W88-80
12/13Nebraska14L83-80
12/22(N)Missouri52W91-48
12/29Southern Univ279W90-55
1/3@Penn St138W73-65
1/8Rutgers124W81-55
1/11@Iowa25W75-69
1/14@Northwestern57W79-68
1/17Minnesota77W77-67
1/21Maryland120W89-70
1/24@Purdue8W88-82
1/29Washington53W75-66
2/1@Nebraska14W78-69
2/4Northwestern57W84-44
2/7@Michigan St9L85-82
2/10Wisconsin22L92-90
2/15Indiana46W71-51
2/18@USC80W101-65
2/21@UCLA27L95-94
2/27Michigan3L84-70
3/3Oregon99W80-54
3/8@Maryland120W78-72
3/13(N)Wisconsin22L91-88