NCAA Tournament March Madness

#357 W Illinois

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

The projection that Western Illinois will have to win the Ohio Valley tournament is hard to argue with because the resume lacks any truly resume-defining victories and is punctured by several damaging defeats. The team’s best moment is the road win at North Dakota and there are encouraging, close showings away at Arkansas Little Rock and Morehead State, but those competitive losses do not substitute for a marquee road or neutral win. The profile is marred by lopsided trips such as the outing at Drake and heavy losses at Southern Indiana and Tennessee State and by a steady string of defeats to ordinary opponents that gives the committee little to reward. Remaining conference dates, which include home chances against SE Missouri State, Tennessee Martin, Lindenwood, Southern Indiana, Morehead State and Eastern Illinois along with a difficult road trip to SIUE and further road tests at Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State, provide opportunities to improve the resume, but without a clear quality win the most reliable route onto the national field is claiming the automatic bid.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3@Radford257L80-75
11/7@Iowa23L77-58
11/11@CS Bakersfield303L74-58
11/14@Cal Baptist133L69-59
11/21Coastal Car234L84-64
11/23North Dakota280L78-69
12/2@Drake160L108-57
12/13@North Dakota280W69-66
12/18@Lindenwood242L92-76
12/22SIUE258L66-61
1/1@TN Martin211L67-60
1/3@SE Missouri St251L73-50
1/8Tennessee St239L90-68
1/10Tennessee Tech335L59-54
1/13@E Illinois309L57-55
1/17@Ark Little Rock291L86-79
1/22@Morehead St299L71-66
1/23@Southern Indiana324L96-64
1/29SE Missouri St25125%
1/31TN Martin21119%
2/5@Tennessee Tech33525%
2/7@Tennessee St2399%
2/10E Illinois30938%
2/12Ark Little Rock29133%
2/19Southern Indiana32442%
2/21Morehead St29935%
2/26@SIUE25812%
2/28Lindenwood24224%