NCAA Tournament March Madness

#333 N Illinois

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Northern Illinois’ profile shows a few eye-catching moments — a true road victory at Loyola‑Chicago and gritty wins at Buffalo, Central Michigan and Georgia State — but those are buried beneath a string of damaging losses and a concerning inability to win away from home. Blowout setbacks at major road and neutral sites like Wisconsin, Grand Canyon and Northern Iowa and late‑season collapses that include a thumping at Akron and harmful home defeats such as the loss to Ball State have erased the resume juice from the better results. With so few quality nonconference scalps and inconsistent league play, the team lacks the profile to be chosen on the bubble so the clear path to the national tournament runs through capturing the conference’s automatic bid.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3ULM351W102-82
11/7@Wisconsin22L97-72
11/10@Grand Canyon61L88-59
11/18@Northern Iowa72L70-57
11/21@Loyola-Chicago280W76-59
11/25@Austin Peay173L77-59
12/2Lindenwood267L99-64
12/6@Bradley123L84-55
12/13@Elon230L85-79
12/20C Michigan269W74-73
12/31Buffalo199L81-67
1/3@Kent148L77-73
1/6Toledo131L75-61
1/13@E Michigan239L77-59
1/17Massachusetts196W70-68
1/20@Ohio228L80-77
1/24@Ball St294L58-53
1/27W Michigan273W85-65
1/31@Miami OH93L85-61
2/7@Georgia St310W75-74
2/11Bowling Green147L68-52
2/14@C Michigan269L88-46
2/17@Buffalo199W72-70
2/21Ohio228L74-66
2/24@Toledo131L79-69
2/28Ball St294L79-43
3/3Kent148L102-76
3/6@Akron64L94-55