CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois will limp into March Madness following a disastrous overtime loss to Wisconsin in the quarterfinal of the Big Ten tournament, and its quest for a tournament run will begin as a No. 3 seed against Fran McCaffery and No. 14 Penn on Thursday in Greenville, SC. Florida is the No. 1 seed in the South Region with Illinois.
The loss to Wisconsin became Illinois’ fifth Quad I loss in as many opportunities since early February. Before Friday, Illinois clung onto its two-seed hopes,
but after the loss and Purdue stringing together a remarkable run in the Big Ten Tournament, Illinois fell to the three-seed.
Illinois (24-8, 15-5 Big Ten) once had a chance to take a short trip to St. Louis and take on a lower seed; instead, the Illini find themselves searching for answers as the margin for error becomes increasingly small.
“Good news is we won’t have to see a Big Ten opponent anytime soon,” said Illinois head coach Brad Underwood after Friday’s loss.
And while anything can happen in the NCAA tournament, and Illinois’ stock is as low as it’s been in quite some, Illinois will open the tournament in Greenville, S.C., to take on the Quakers.
“If we do well in March Madness, everybody will forget about this, everybody will not talk about this,” center Tomislav Ivisic told TCR on Friday. “I don’t think it’s concerning at all.”
It’s an opportunity for Illinois to harness some of the angst that was developed last weekend, an opportunity to take advantage of what on paper should be an inferior team, but of course, the variance of a single-elimination tournament style looms.
Either way, it’s an incredible run for Underwood’s team since arriving in Champaign in 2017 with a program desperately craving success. Illinois is one of four programs (Gonzaga, Houston, SDSU) nationally with 20 wins in seven consecutive seasons, a streak that dates back to the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign. Underwood has also guided the Illini to six straight NCAA Tournament appearances, only second to a streak of eight from 2000-07.
An exact tip time and TV station will be announced later Sunday night. We’ll have all of those updates through this run right here on TCR.
