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Illinois Basketball: Illini in Joe Lunardi’s first bracket for 2020-21

By Rees Woodcock

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA - FEBRUARY 18: Trent Frazier #1 of the Illinois Fighting Illini celebrates a win after a college basketball game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at the Bryce Jordan Center on February 18, 2020 in University Park, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA - FEBRUARY 18: Trent Frazier #1 of the Illinois Fighting Illini celebrates a win after a college basketball game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at the Bryce Jordan Center on February 18, 2020 in University Park, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
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Illinois basketball fans didn’t get to watch their team play in the NCAA tournament this year, but could next season be just as successful?

The reason I bring up the prospects of next season is due to the fact that Joe Lunardi of ESPN has released his first Bracketology predictions for the 2020-2021 season. Yes, that is right, there is already a bracket out for the upcoming NCAA campaign.

In the bracket by Lunardi, he has the Illini as the No. 8 seed in the West Region. They would be taking on No. 9 UConn. This would be fitting because, I believe, UConn was one of the teams Kofi Cockburn was thinking about playing for before he committed to Illinois. The winner of this game would then take on, most likely, No. 1 Gonzaga.

A No. 8 seed isn’t terrible. The Illini were projected as a No. 7 seed in the final version of Lunardi’s 2019-2020 bracket, so this would be a slight drop off from the prior year. I would be curious to know if he has the Illini as the No. 8 seed with or without Ayo Dosunmu returning. I would assume this is without Ayo returning to the team.

Either way, I believe the No. 8 seed is probably Illinois’ floor for the upcoming campaign. Let’s go worst-case scenario and say Ayo departs for the NBA. That still leaves an experienced big man in Kofi at the No.5, an experienced Trent Frazier at the No. 2, Andre Curbelo and Adam Miller coming in who can play the No. 1 and No. 3, respectively and an experienced Da’Monte Williams who can play the No. 4 and be a lockdown defender.

To me, the team mentioned above is, at least, a No. 7 seed. Can you just imagine if Ayo came back, though? I would probably send Williams to the bench and shift Miller to the No. 4 spot. That lineup would have national title aspirations.

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It is fun to see what Lunardi thinks of the Illini as of right now. We are an NCAA tournament team in the preseason. I believe that preseason prediction will turn into a reality, though. This Illinois program will see the postseason once again.

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