NCAA Tournament March Madness

#361 W Illinois

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Western Illinois looks like a team whose only realistic route to the NCAA field is the conference automatic bid because its résumé offers almost no signature wins and too many damaging road blowouts. The few bright spots — a gritty road victory at North Dakota and a home win over Eastern Illinois — are overshadowed by lopsided losses away at Drake and at Iowa plus heavy defeats at Tennessee Tech, and the nonconference trips to Radford and Cal Baptist also went poorly, so the committee will see a profile with scant evidence of the ability to win away from home. With remaining games that include a tough trip to SIUE and only a couple of winnable conference dates, there is limited opportunity to repair the résumé, which is why the straightforward path to the field runs through winning the conference tournament.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3@Radford236L80-75
11/7@Iowa24L77-58
11/11@CS Bakersfield316L74-58
11/14@Cal Baptist117L69-59
11/21Coastal Car233L84-64
11/23North Dakota291L78-69
12/2@Drake202L108-57
12/13@North Dakota291W69-66
12/18@Lindenwood252L92-76
12/22SIUE235L66-61
1/1@TN Martin198L67-60
1/3@SE Missouri St231L73-50
1/8Tennessee St260L90-68
1/10Tennessee Tech318L59-54
1/13@E Illinois320L57-55
1/17@Ark Little Rock307L86-79
1/22@Morehead St288L71-66
1/23@Southern Indiana342L96-64
1/29SE Missouri St231L78-74
1/31TN Martin198L84-44
2/5@Tennessee Tech318L97-72
2/7@Tennessee St260L83-56
2/10E Illinois320W79-70
2/12Ark Little Rock307L77-58
2/19Southern Indiana34243%
2/21Morehead St28824%
2/26@SIUE2356%
2/28Lindenwood25218%