NCAA Tournament March Madness Bubble Watch: Illinois

NCAA Tournament March Madness

#17 Illinois

Bubble Watch | Bracketology

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Projected seed: 10 (automatic qualifier)

Illinois's résumé rests on a signature victory over Texas Tech and a string of routine wins over low-major opponents that boost the record but do little to sway judgment, while neutral-site losses to Alabama and Connecticut stand out as damaging tests that exposed inconsistency against top competition. Big Ten play has featured solid home results but uneven performances away from Champaign, and the remainder of the schedule includes high-leverage league trips to Ohio State, Purdue and Michigan State plus road tests at USC and UCLA that give Illinois clear avenues to add the kind of road or neutral victories the committee rewards. In short, the profile is anchored by a quality scalp yet marred by bad losses, and unless those upcoming opportunities produce signature wins the team will sit where it does because the positives and negatives remain in near balance.

Date	Opponent	Ranking	Outcome
11/3	Jackson St	319	W113-55
11/7	FGCU	168	W113-70
11/11	Texas Tech	30	W81-77
11/14	Colgate	164	W84-65
11/19	(N)Alabama	12	L90-86
11/22	LIU Brooklyn	233	W98-58
11/24	UTRGV	200	W87-73
11/28	(N)Connecticut	7	L74-61
12/6	(N)Tennessee	15	49%
12/9	@Ohio St	36	54%
12/13	Nebraska	48	80%
12/22	(N)Missouri	37	65%
12/29	Southern Univ	203	98%
1/3	(N)Penn St	96	86%
1/8	Rutgers	126	94%
1/11	@Iowa	32	52%
1/14	@Northwestern	56	65%
1/17	Minnesota	109	92%
1/21	Maryland	90	90%
1/24	@Purdue	2	22%
1/29	Washington	60	83%
2/1	@Nebraska	48	61%
2/4	Northwestern	56	83%
2/7	@Michigan St	11	33%
2/10	Wisconsin	27	71%
2/15	Indiana	24	70%
2/18	@USC	28	50%
2/21	@UCLA	33	53%
2/27	Michigan	1	35%
3/3	Oregon	83	89%
3/8	@Maryland	90	77%