There are so many bracketology experts out there and the Illinois basketball team is right in the middle of the conversation.
The main bracketology expert is Joe Lunardi of ESPN. He just updated his projected bracket and has the Illini as the No. 6 seed in the Midwest quarter of the bracket. They would be playing No. 11 Northern Iowa in Cleveland in round one. If we could win the first two rounds, we would then head to Indianapolis for the following rounds.
Jerry Palm of CBS Sports is another bracketology expert. He has Illinois a little higher than Lunardi, checking in as a No. 5 seed. He has them going up against No. 12 seed Stephen F. Austin in the East bracket. The first round would be played in Spokane, Washington. This would be a fitting matchup considering Illinois head coach, Brad Underwood, coached Stephen F. Austin for four seasons.
The next bracket from a bracketology expert is from Dave Ommen of NBC Sports. His feelings about Illinois are similar to Lunardi as Ommen has the Illini as a No. 6 seed. They would be matched up against the play-in No. 11 seed. This would either be North Carolina State or Arizona State. The section of the bracket would be the same as Lunardi’s too.
I looked at one more bracket and this was from Chris Dobbertean of SB Nation. His bracket is a combination of all of the other experts. He has Illinois heading out to Spokane and being the No. 6 seed. He has them going up against No. 11 BYU. This would be a tough matchup considering it is out on the west coast.
But are these brackets legit? What is the ceiling and floor for the Illini right now?
I think Illinois being a No. 6 seed is about right. They are hovering around that No. 5 or No. 6 seed. But there is a lot of potential to move up over the next few weeks.
While we are on a six-game winning streak, the next few weeks will be huge. Illinois has Minnesota in Champaign this Thursday. After that, we have five-straight ranked games, three of which are on the road. This will be a stretch of games that determines how high we can go.
If the Illini can manage to beat Minnesota and then win three out of the five ranked games, then I think we move up substantially. That would give Illinois at least three top 25 victories this season.
As of right now, Illinois has three quad-one wins. That number could increase with a solid stretch coming up. We have the potential to add five more quad-one wins over the next six games. That would be huge for the NCAA tournament standings moving forward. I would say the ceiling for the Illini is probably a No. 3 seed. I think we can get into the conversation for a No. 2 seed, but the strength of schedule just isn’t there.
The floor isn’t too low for the Orange and Blue. I guess we could technically lose every game on the way out, but that isn’t a likely scenario. I see the floor for the Illini being 7-4 to finish the season. This would make their overall record 22-9 and their Big Ten record 14-6. This would probably put them somewhere in the top 30 nationally. An eight seed is probably their floor right now, in my opinion.
There is a lot of work to do for the Illini to finish the season. We need to continue to play winning basketball if we want to have a great seeding come March. I am excited to see how high we can truly climb.