CHAMPAIGN — Rest assured, Illinois fans.
Joe Lunardi sees you in his mentions. You’re hard to miss.
“I can tell you, on social media, there are teams that don’t raise a ripple,” the ESPN bracketology expert said. “The Illinois faithful are making it very clear how good they think their team is and that, perhaps, I should be saying more nice things about them. Consider it done, Illinois fans.”
Lunardi has had plenty of good things to say about Illinois this season. More so after the Illini ended the regular season by winning three consecutive road games against teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25. That included two without junior guard and First Team All-American Ayo Dosunmu, who was out with a broken nose and concussion.
The kicker was the 76-53 win at then-No. 2 Michigan on March 2. That win pushed Illinois to the No. 1 seed line in Lunardi’s projection of the NCAA tournament bracket. Following that up with a win at then-No. 7 Ohio State only solidified the Illini’s position.
“If there’s a team in the country that should feel really good about what direction it’s going in that’s not named Gonzaga, I would think it would have be the Illini,” Lunardi said. “To do it without, if not the best player arguably the most important player in the country, in those games has been extraordinary.”
It’s not just Illinois’ late-season surge that has impressed Lunardi. The abrupt turnaround in the program under Brad Underwood has, too. While the Illini would have made the NCAA tournament last year had it not been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, their berth this season will mark the first in eight years.
Lunardi had to think for a moment before he could come up with an analogue to a team missing out on the tournament for nearly a decade and then showing up as a No. 1 seed when it finally secures a berth.
Then he hit on Auburn. The Tigers snapped a 10-year NCAA tournament drought as a No. 1 seed in 1999.
“It’s a big deal what they’ve done and what he’s done,” Lunardi said of Illinois and Underwood. “For such a basketball-crazed place, it’s pretty cool to watch.”
Lunardi’s latest update has Illinois on the top seed line waiting to face the winner of a First Four matchup between Prairie View A&M and Appalachian State. An intriguing potential second-round showdown looms with Loyola Chicago and North Carolina in the 8/9 game in the Illini’s region under Lunardi’s latest projection.
Illinois’ status as a No. 1 seed is “extremely” solid in Lunardi’s estimation.
“I could give scenarios, I guess, where they lose right away and somebody else (rises),” Lunardi said about how this week’s Big Ten tournament could affect seeding. “On the men’s side, this is one of the easiest years for the ones. There’s always a cutoff point between the elite and just the really good. It’s accidental if it falls after four teams. Some years it’s two. Some years it’s six. This year it’s four, but I’m not giving any of my pay back.”
The only potential change when it comes to Illinois’ NCAA tournament seeding is if the Illini pass Michigan for the third No. 1 seed. Right now, they’re trailing the Wolverines in the fourth and final spot on the top line, according to Lunardi.
“If I was young enough to lie awake at night, I would say that I’d be lying awake thinking about the difference between Michigan and Illinois and their order on the top line,” Lunardi said. “They’re both clearly one seeds. It’s pretty hard to put Michigan third overall and Illinois fourth — yes, I saw the game where Illinois waxed them — but even with that and even with Sunday, Michigan has three losses and Illinois has six. I just think the body of work slightly favors the Wolverines at this point.”
Whether the outcome of the Big Ten tournament changes that order is to be determined.
“We’ll see if the committee works long enough into late Saturday and Sunday to switch that around if results at the Big Ten tournament warrant it,” Lunardi said. “We’ve seen it work many times where it seems like they kind of closed up shop and stopped adjusting before those late games.”
from WordPress https://ift.tt/3crV2qS
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment