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Illinois basketball looks at a great draw if the NCAA tournament started today

Buzz around the NCAA tournament is getting louder, and the Illinois basketball team is among the top teams making noise.
ByRees Woodcock|
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Feb 18, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood watches against the Southern California Trojans in the second half at Galen Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 18, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood watches against the Southern California Trojans in the second half at Galen Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

It isn’t every season that the Illinois basketball program can call themselves one of the best teams in the country.

Over the last 20 years, I can count the number of elite Illini teams on one hand, and we can add one more rendition to the mix.

The 2000-01 team, the 2004-05 team, the 2020-21 team, and the 2023-24 team all preceded what we are watching today. The 2025-26 Orange and Blue are full steam ahead when it comes to being elite, and Saturday’s NCAA tournament reveal only cemented this thought.

The NCAA tournament released what would be the top four seeds in each region of the bracket if the postseason started today.

Illinois is slotted in the East Region as a No. 2 seed. This would be a great region to be in, considering the other three top seeds in this section.

The No. 1 seed in Illinois’ region would be Duke. They might be the best team in the nation, but once you get to the top seeds, they are all interchangeable.

No. 3 Kansas and No. 4 Vanderbilt are the other two seeds in the East Region. That makes my mouth drool, as both programs aren’t nearly as good as those seedings make them out to be. Both programs kind of proved that on Saturday by losing a home game to unranked opponents.

There is still plenty of business left in the 2025-26 season for the Illinois basketball program

While these first NCAA tournament seedings are fun to look at and talk about, there is still work to do for the Illini.

As you can see by what Kansas and Vanderbilt did on Saturday, the bottom can drop out if you aren’t too careful. Those programs might be out of the top 16 seeds with those losses.

Illinois can’t falter down the stretch. A win at UCLA is a must on Saturday night, as well as the final two games against Oregon and at Maryland. Win those three games, and then the fourth game, No. 1 Michigan, is the doozy. We are sitting really well right now, but there is potential to move up and down drastically in the coming weeks.

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