By Woodrow Carroll
What teams may perform well in the men’s collegiate basketball season and make the NCAA Tournament. March 15-April 4?
There are 13 Illinois schools playing Division I basketball. Schools in theory, could be part of the Big Dance final four tournament.
The University of Illinois heads up the list of Illinois schools. The Fighting Illini come into this week’s action sporting a 19-7 overall record and 12-4 in the Big Ten Conference record. There is a lot of blood-letting among the Big Ten schools. Thus, the four Conference losses suffered by the Illini only proves the strength of the conference. The Illini would have to hit the skids big time in the late going not to receive an NCAA berth.
Illinois’ fellow Big Ten member Northwestern is not so well positioned for a tournament berth. The Wildcats were 12-13 and 5-11 in the Big Ten.
Next up, the Loyola Ramblers have become a bit of a tournament darling in recent seasons with their Final Four run in 2018 when the team came into the tournament seeded No. 11. The Ramblers didn’t go as far a year ago. Still, by beating Georgia Tech then Illinois, especially the Illini, before falling to Oregon State last season, resonated well with Rambler fans.
Coming into this week, Loyola 20-6 overall and 11-4 in Missouri Valley Conference, is the State’s winningest team.
Four schools out of the Missouri Valley call Illinois home. In addition to Loyola, are Bradley inPeoria, Southern Illinois-Carbondale, and Illinois State in Normal as Moissouri Valley members.
Twice Bradley has reached the championship game of the NCAA Tournament only to finish in second each time. The Braves lost to CCNY (City College of New York) in 1950 and to LaSalle in 1954. At present, the Braves are having a solid season at 16-12 (10-6 MVC). Fans might keep an eye on Bradley in the tournament.
Southern Illinois-Carbondale and Illinois State don’t figure to catch fire any time soon. The Salukis of Southern Illinois are 15-13 (8-8) and the Redbirds are 11-17 (4-11).
Raw numbers might put one of the Illinois teams from the Missouri Valley in the NCAA Tournament given the four league members and the that anything might happen in conference tournament.
Closer to home we have Northern Illinois. At 8-17 (5-10 in the Mid-American Conference, the Huskies have a long way to go. A couple of nice road victories in conference of late have raised the team’s image slightly. But, that is about it.
Take a look at the DePaul Blue Demons. A favorable early schedule allowed DePaul a fast start. Overall, DePaul was 12-14, only 3-13 in the grind-you-down Big East Conference. Do the math and you will see that the Blue Demons were 9-1 prior to conference action.
Western Illinois inMacomb was 15-13 and 5-10 in the Summit League.
Illinois-Chicago, 11-15 and 7-10 in the Horizon League, is an afterthought Care to guess which two teams are the cellar dwellers in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC)? Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 9-19 (3-12 OVC) and Eastern Illinois (Charleston) 5-23 (3-12) would be the correct answer.
Last and maybe least we have Chicago State. The Cougars, confined to the Western Athletic Conference, were 6-21 and 2-12 in Conference. ‘Aloha’ which means both hello and so long is what Cougars basketball merits.
Illinois should qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The other 12 Illinois teams have their work cut out for them. Most likely work is in the form of winning their respective conference/league tournaments championshps. We all know the NCAA men’s basketball tournament will have a few surprise entrants.
Why not an Illinois team or two?