NCAA Tournament March Madness

#5 Illinois

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Projected seed: 3

Illinois' position makes sense because its offense has produced signature wins away from home and on neutral floors, most notably a road victory at Purdue and a neutral-site triumph over Tennessee, and the Illini have shown they can win in hostile environments with victories at Ohio State, Iowa and USC. The résumé is tempered by damaging setbacks such as neutral losses to Alabama and Connecticut, road defeats at Michigan State and UCLA and a home loss to Michigan, but those blemishes are balanced by a string of quality conference victories and decisive nonconference blowouts. A closing road game at Maryland provides a clear chance to strengthen the profile before selection, so the current placement reflects strong offensive resume-building, a handful of damaging losses and an obvious opportunity to improve.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3Jackson St342W113-55
11/7FGCU242W113-70
11/11Texas Tech14W81-77
11/14Colgate246W84-65
11/19(N)Alabama18L90-86
11/22LIU Brooklyn215W98-58
11/24UTRGV125W87-73
11/28(N)Connecticut9L74-61
12/6(N)Tennessee13W75-62
12/9@Ohio St27W88-80
12/13Nebraska12L83-80
12/22(N)Missouri51W91-48
12/29Southern Univ277W90-55
1/3@Penn St137W73-65
1/8Rutgers134W81-55
1/11@Iowa23W75-69
1/14@Northwestern65W79-68
1/17Minnesota72W77-67
1/21Maryland135W89-70
1/24@Purdue7W88-82
1/29Washington53W75-66
2/1@Nebraska12W78-69
2/4Northwestern65W84-44
2/7@Michigan St10L85-82
2/10Wisconsin25L92-90
2/15Indiana41W71-51
2/18@USC69W101-65
2/21@UCLA34L95-94
2/27Michigan2L84-70
3/3Oregon101W80-54
3/8@Maryland13595%