NCAA Tournament March Madness

#316 N Illinois

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Northern Illinois looks like a team that will have to earn its way in by winning the Mid‑American tournament because the résumé lacks a signature victory and carries several damaging losses. The program’s best moments are road wins at Loyola‑Chicago, Buffalo and Georgia State and solid home wins over Western Michigan, Central Michigan and Massachusetts, but those are muted by heavy defeats at Wisconsin, Grand Canyon and Northern Iowa and by blowout losses at Bradley and at Central Michigan along with a shocking home loss to Lindenwood. Those lopsided results erase much of the good work and leave the Huskies without a marquee neutral or true road win to sell to a committee. The remaining slate gives a clear path to improve with a home date against Ball State but trips to Toledo, Kent and Akron offer little margin for error, so the cleanest route to the NCAA tournament for this roster is an automatic qualifier from the conference tournament.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3ULM348W102-82
11/7@Wisconsin29L97-72
11/10@Grand Canyon62L88-59
11/18@Northern Iowa85L70-57
11/21@Loyola-Chicago312W76-59
11/25@Austin Peay141L77-59
12/2Lindenwood266L99-64
12/6@Bradley127L84-55
12/13@Elon211L85-79
12/20C Michigan276W74-73
12/31Buffalo192L81-67
1/3@Kent138L77-73
1/6Toledo152L75-61
1/13@E Michigan241L77-59
1/17Massachusetts194W70-68
1/20@Ohio223L80-77
1/24@Ball St325L58-53
1/27W Michigan286W85-65
1/31@Miami OH84L85-61
2/7@Georgia St296W75-74
2/11Bowling Green144L68-52
2/14@C Michigan276L88-46
2/17@Buffalo192W72-70
2/21Ohio223L74-66
2/24@Toledo15211%
2/28Ball St32564%
3/3Kent13824%
3/6@Akron683%