Illinois Basketball: Illini opponents fare well in NCAA tournament first round
The struggles for the Illinois basketball team were real this season, but they also faced a tough schedule as well.
Illinois ended up playing a decent number of NCAA tournament teams throughout the season. A total of 14 out of the 33 games the Illini played were against teams currently playing in the Big Dance. That is 42.4-percent of the games. So, how are the teams the Illini played this season faring in the tournament?
Six out of the 10 teams that Illinois played in the season – we played four teams two times each – were slated to play on the first day of the NCAA tournament. The best seed of them all was No. 1 Gonzaga. The Bulldogs beat down Fairleigh Dickenson 87-49. This wasn’t a game from the tip, so they now move on to the round of 32. Illinois competed with Gonzaga during the Maui Invitational but fell just short.
Michigan and Michigan State both were No. 2 seeds in the tournament and both came away with wins in the first round. The Wolverines handled Montana fairly easily with a 74-55 victory. The Illini couldn’t handle Michigan this year either. We dropped our one game to the Wolverines by 10 points.
The Spartans struggled with Bradley throughout their game in the first round. I wasn’t too surprised when Michigan State eventually pulled away from the Braves and won the game 76-65. Illinois won their only matchup with the Spartans this season 79-74. That was easily the biggest win of the year for the Orange and Blue.
Purdue was a No. 3 seed and played in the late game on Thursday. They didn’t play great but still easily handled Old Dominion 61-48. This Boilermakers bunch didn’t have troubles with the Illini this season. They won their only matchup with Illinois, 73-56.
The next best seed for the Big Ten that played on Thursday was No. 6 seed Maryland. They were struggling greatly against Belmont. I thought this Terrapins team was going to lose by the way they were playing. Somehow, though, they pulled this game out 79-77. Illinois also played Maryland only once this season and came away with a victory, 78-67. This was the start of a nice little run by the Illini.
No. 10 Minnesota was the lowest seeded Big Ten team to play on Thursday. They were the only team that wasn’t seeded better than their opponent. But, the Golden Gophers were ready to play. They went into the game against Louisville and pounded the Cardinals, 86-76. Illinois split a series of two games with Minnesota this season.
So, Illinois had a bad record this season, but they also played some tough teams. Six of the teams the Illini played during the season suited up in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The six teams were 6-0 on the day. That is an impressive feat and it shows you how tough the Illini schedule really was this year.