I think that group was on a high horse and it bit them in the ass
***Official 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Thread***
- Thread starter ClonesTwenty1
- Start date
The amount of 'experts' that have Illinois going far in their brackets is mindboggling to me. They aren't bad but they aren't great. I have this weird sense they kind of remind me of our season we lost to UAB. Team that was 'hot' late winning their league title and everyone jumped on the bandwagon and many had us going very far that year. Dunno...not saying they are gonna lose to Morehead State but I really really don't see them beating BYU.
Yea, the Illini are a puzzling team. They have some weird losses on their schedule, like losing @ Penn State, and Maryland at home. They also barely got by OSU in the Big 10 tournament. They were down to Nebraska and Wisconsin by double digits in both of their other tournament games before pulling away late.
I do see some similarities to that ISU team, where they had some weird losses, and ISU barely squeaked by Texas in the Big 12 tournament. Illinois seems a little stronger than that team, but it all depends on which team shows up, or if their opponent gets up and just doesn't let them back like everyone else has.
I wouldn't be shocked to see BYU take them out, that feels like a 50/50 game.
First Four isn't making the NCAA tournament. They are play-in games.
The tournament starts Thursday morning.
The tournament starts Thursday morning.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
That team had a trend of getting punked just when it looked like they had it figured out and then it happened again at the worst time after the Big 12 tourney in which they needed some big come backs to even win.
Perhaps the premium boards have more about it but there were indications that the group had some dysfunction.
This ISU team may very well get beat with a bad day of shooting or the opponent hitting everything but it would be surprising if it didn't include them diving on the floor and leaving it all out there in the process.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
Wait, now … you’re saying teams should be selected purely by their performance? By metrics and scoring and wins and losses? Why - that’s crazy talk. You might as well have a computer spit out the brackets, then. We must have input from human beings, a committee that can weigh the theoretical impact of injuries, that can dismiss parts of a team’s schedule they feel are less important while emphasizing the opponents they played in November, that can do mind experiments about the outcome of imaginary neutral-site games between schools as a way to make seedlings/selections, that can figure into the equation the name and conference badge on the front of the uniform … wait, did we saw that last part out loud? Disregard that, we didn’t mean that, trust us.
Sincerely, both the basketball and football selection committees
You have to take in the Brad Underwood factor. Can we call him Brad Underwhelm?
Illinois to me looks like the most talented B1G team but still lost the regular season conference by 3 games.
Cyclonepride
Thought Police
When you don't play defense, you're going to have those wild swings and puzzling losses. I think BYU takes them out, but I hope Illinois is our matchup if we get that far.
In the tournament, they only beat a marginal Ohio State team by 3, required a huge comeback against Nebraska and won a close one against a so-so Wisconsin team. And in all those games it required Shannon to go crazy to win. They've got losses to Northwestern, Michigan State, Maryland and Penn State and their best win is probably against FAU in November. I'd agree they are overhyped.
