Illinois coach Brad Underwood called the Big Ten “the best league in the country” Sunday after beating Wisconsin to win the conference tournament, then predicted the teams would “kill in the NCAA tournament.”
It’s going to take some convincing — and wins — to prove Underwood right, but the Illini certainly looked ready for the task Sunday. The Illini begin their quest at 2:10 p.m. Thursday (truTV) at the Omaha, Neb., regional, where they earned a No. 3 seed in the East Region and take on No. 14 Morehead State, the Ohio Valley Conference winner.
“We’ve got six more left to play, we need your support at all levels,” Underwood told fans at the Target Center in Minneapolis after winning the conference tournament for the second time in four seasons.
Northwestern, which lost to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, also was sent to the East Region, receiving a No. 9 seed. Making back-to-back appearances for the first time in school history, the Wildcats take on No. 8 Florida Atlantic at 11:15 a.m. Friday (CBS) in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Coach Chris Collins said Sunday they were confident they would get in, but the “chaos” of the last few days of tournament upsets was nerve-wracking. Fortunately, the Wildcats were announced quickly, ending any anxiety.
If Northwestern can upset FAU, it should get an opportunity to try and knock off defending champion UConn, the top overall seed. The Huskies are the probable opponent in a second-round matchup, assuming UConn gets past No. 16 Stetson. As top-seeded Purdue showed last year in its opening-round loss to No. 16 seed Farleigh Dickinson, it’s never wise to assume anything when it comes to March Madness.
Still, NU-UConn would be a David vs. Goliath type of matchup pitting the Big East power against an upwardly mobile program that has exceeded expectations the last two years behind Collins and guard Boo Buie.
Unlike UConn, the other three top seeds — Houston, Purdue and North Carolina — all lost in their conference tournaments, as did the top SEC team, Tennessee. With so many tournament upsets leading to a plethora of unexpected automatic bids, Loyola, which lost to St. Bonaventure in overtime in the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals, was snubbed by the committee on Selection Sunday.
The Ramblers never really had a chance, despite tying with Richmond for the regular-season conference title. Duquesne wound up winning the Atlantic 10 tournament and makes its first NCAA tourney appearance since 1977.
Loyola coach Drew Valentine repeatedly argued the Ramblers were one of the best 68 teams in the nation and deserving of an at-large bid, but the failure to win even one A-10 Tournament game doomed them. They will play Bradley in the National Invitation Tournament at 6 p.m. Wednesday (ESPN+) in Peoria.
The Big Ten, meanwhile, was rewarded with six teams, including top-seeded Purdue, which will face the winner of Wednesday’s play-in game between Grambling and Montana State at 6:25 p.m. Friday (TBS) in Indianapolis in the Midwest Region. No. 9 Michigan State meets No. 8 Mississippi State in the West Region at 11:15 a.m. Thursday (CBS), and No. 8 Nebraska and No. 5 Wisconsin head to the South Region, where the Cornhuskers take on No. 9 Texas A&M at 5:50 p.m. Friday (TNT) and the Badgers meet No. 12 James Madison at 8:40 p.m. Friday (CBS).
No Big Ten team has won an NCAA title since Michigan State in 2000, and the conference hasn’t exactly lived up to its lofty reputation over the last two decades. The Big 12 and SEC each have eight teams in the tourney and are considered stronger than the Big Ten.
So Illinois and Northwestern will represent the state, which has only won one NCAA title, the 1963 Loyola team.
Selection Sunday photos: No. 9 Northwestern will play No. 8 Florida Atlantic in NCAA Tournament
This could be the best shot an Illinois team has had since the 2005 team advanced to the title game, where it lost to North Carolina. Led by Terrence Shannon Jr., who scored 40 points Saturday in the semifinals and was named MVP of the Big Ten Tournament, and SIU transfer Marcus Domask, the Illini are an experienced team that didn’t let double-digit deficits bother them in their three tournament wins over Ohio State, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
After they came back against Nebraska in the semifinals despite looking lifeless in the first half, Underwood said his blood pressure rose in the halftime locker room.
“It was on them,” Underwood said after the win over the Cornhuskers. “It wasn’t me. It was all them deciding to play. That’s who we can be.”
On Sunday he let the players figure it out without any big speechifying in the halftime locker room.
“I had to see if they would respond,” Underwood told the Big Ten Network.
The results were obvious.
A lack of intensity has been a recurring theme that Underwood has vented about this season, particularly after a late-season loss to Purdue. The talent is there, and it’s up to Underwood to get the best effort out of the players. Shannon, likely a future NBA player, is head and shoulders the group leader and returned to the Illini instead of going into the draft last summer.
Last year the Illini were seeded No. 9 and fell to No. 8 Arkansas 73-63 in the opening round. Since they weren’t expected to go far, it wasn’t as difficult to stomach as the loss to Loyola in the second round of the 2021 tournament in Pittsburgh.
Illinois hasn’t advanced past the second round since the run of the 2005 team, but Illini Nation will be expecting an extended run this March, possibly to the Final Four in Phoenix.
If the Illini hold off Morehead State, as expected, they’ll play the winner of BYU-Duquesne on Saturday. If the seedings hold, No. 2 seed Iowa State would be a likely opponent for the Illini in the third round, followed by UConn for a chance to get to Phoenix.
Northwestern’s path is considerably tougher, starting with FAU, which brings back most of its players from last year’s Final Four team. That would probably set up a showdown with UConn, the consensus favorite which would bring experience and a hometown edge to the matchup.
Beating Purdue on Dec. 1 in Welsh-Ryan Arena was a sign of how good the Wildcats could be when everyone is focused and on their game. But 12 days later they lost to lowly Chicago State, an indication they have to stay focused the entire game to be tournament-ready.
Even with the loss of senior guard Ty Berry to a torn meniscus last month, the Wildcats still had enough left in the tank to finish in a third-place tie in the Big Ten. Buie became the all-time leading scorer in school history and made things happen.
The probable absence of center Matt Nicholson with a right foot injury is another obstacle, but at this point, the Wildcats are used to overcoming all odds. It’s part of their story, which makes them one of the teams to watch in what should be a wildly unpredictable tournament.