Illinois running out of NCAA spots?
INDIANAPOLIS -- Starting with its double-overtime loss to Ohio State in the first Big Ten tournament semifinal at Conseco Fieldhouse, not much went Illinois’ way on the NCAA Tournament bubble Saturday.
1) Houston’s win over UTEP in the Conference USA final stole a bubble spot.
2) Washington might have gotten in the NCAA Tournament anyway, but the Huskies ensured their spot with a Pac-10 title win over California.
3) Minnesota’s bludgeoning of Purdue in the second Big Ten semifinal improved their worthiness -- and also gives the Gophers a shot at an automatic berth.
4) Mississippi State knocked off Vanderbilt in an SEC semifinal to pull into the same situation as Minnesota.
Even if Utah State beats New Mexico State in the WAC final (9 p.m. CST), there’s not much room for the Illini in the field.
As I see it, Illinois is battling Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, UNLV, Minnesota and Seton Hall for a maximum of three spots. The Illini differentiate themselves in just one category: Quality Wins. Illinois owns two victories over Wisconsin (a top four team according to Pomeroy and Sagarin) as well as wins over Vanderbilt, Michigan State and Clemson.
Had the Illini gotten the Buckeyes today, we wouldn’t need this blog post and hand-wringing and constant refreshing of Joe Lunardi’s and Jerry Palm’s sites.
Both of those Bracketology gurus, by the way, say the Illini are out as of 7:20 p.m. Saturday.
LW
What was strange, was those clueless ESPN announcers saying on Friday after the Wisc. game, that ILL almost blew inspite of a 16 point lead with 6 minutes left, that Illinois was in and there was no way the committee could keep them out....aaah not so fast guys. SO LW whats up for you, stay in Indy or go sit with Bruce and company to get some quotes about how they stack up against NU in a great in state NIT game. Also might that be a possibility. Looking at your key Illini wins, aren't at least two of them against teams short-handed missing key players.After watching McCamey bungle the end of Regulation and OT I see why Weber has issues with him.