Selection Sunday is here, and the Illinois basketball team will get to see who we play in the first round.
This is always an exciting time because the possibility of the Illini winning a national championship is a real thing. We will get a ticket, and that gives us, technically, a 1-68 shot at winning it all.
It is also nerve-wracking, as getting past the first round is never easy. For teams seeded in the range of No. 4 through No. 6, upset alert is a real thing that those programs try to avoid. That is where Illinois will end up being seeded.
Illinois basketball needs to avoid these teams in the 1st and 2nd round of the NCAA tournament
Drake Bulldogs – 30-3 overall, 17-3 Missouri Valley
Currently, Joe Lunardi has Illinois taking on Drake in the first round of the NCAA tournament. He has the Bulldogs entering the postseason as the No. 11 seed.
The main reason I wouldn’t want to take on Drake is that they are a confident team that knows what winning tastes like. That is a scary combination for an underdog going up against one of the big boys.
In addition to the underdog mentality and being skilled at knowing how to win, Drake is also deadly accurate from beyond the three-point arc. They shoot 35% from three-point range as a team, which ranks No. 111 in the country. I hope that Lunardi is wrong, and Illinois doesn’t take on Drake in the first round.
BYU Cougars – 24-9 overall, 14-6 Big 12
If Illinois did end up playing BYU, it would be in the second round. Right now, Lunardi has BYU on the No. 5 seed line, but any program between No. 4 and No. 6 seems like they could fall anywhere.
BYU is a scary team, though. They started the season slowly, going 11-6. Since then, this Cougars program has been on fire. They finished the year going 13-3 with wins over Kansas, Arizona, and Iowa State twice.
The biggest scary part about BYU is that they are in the top 35 in the country in both three-point attempts per game and three-point percentage. That is a horrible combination for the Illini. Hard pass on BYU in the second round.
Liberty Flames – 28-6 overall, 13-5 Conference USA
I would argue that Liberty is the team I would like to play the least out of any program that Illinois could potentially face. This team scares me greatly.
The Flames did plenty of winning in 2024-25. They finished the season 28-6 overall and won the Conference USA tournament. They are also 14-2 in the last 16 games.
I keep coming back to this because Illinois hasn’t guarded well on the perimeter, but Liberty is a great three-point shooting program. They take 25.9 three-pointers per game, which ranks No. 62 in the country, and they hit them at a clip of 39.5%, which ranks No. 5 in the nation. I want to avoid Liberty at all costs.