Where will the Illini be seeded? (with poll)
There is some feeling that Chester Frazier’s injury and uncertain status for next weekend might have an impact. What about Saturday’s loss to a team also vying for better seeding?
On Saturday, the Illini had the following projections:
ESPN.com: No. 5
Realtimerpi.com: No. 4
Collegerpi.com: No. 5
Foxsports.com: No. 5
Those were all before the loss but it’s hard to believe that one defeat, even one as lopsided as Saturday’s, will have any impact. Mike Davis clearly had been looking at the Internet projections.
“If we’d won we probably would be higher seeded than losing,’’ he said. “Hopefully we’ll be a 5 seed because we had a good schedule and beat tough teams. We’ll get what we deserve. I hope we get a 5 seed.’’
Coach Bruce Weber was tired of the seeding talk and tried to downplay the outcome.
“We had a pretty good season,’’ he said. “They talk about total package and we had good wins in nonconference, on the road, neutral sites. We played a lot of people from leagues and won on the road.
“There were a lot of teams in conferences that lost – Kansas, Washington, UCLA. Every league. North Carolina lost today. I would think they’re well-educated. They talk about the whole season and we’ve given them a good resume. I don’t know if we’re a 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.’’
Illinois emerged from Saturday’s loss at No. 22 in the ratings percentage index and No. 25 in strength of schedule. The Illini have nine wins over teams in the top 50 of the RPI. The Post-Dispatch is projecting a No. 6 seed.
What do you think?
Where will the Illini be seeded for the NCAA Tournament?
- No. 5 (46%, 36 Votes)
- No. 6 (33%, 26 Votes)
- No. 8 (10%, 8 Votes)
- No. 7 (8%, 6 Votes)
- No. 4 (3%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 78
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The really unfortunate part about the Illinois-Purdue series this year is that in all three games, neither team was at full strength due to injury. It would be a real shame if yesterday’s loss contributes to a lower seed than what was previously expected considering that you can’t really tell for sure which team, at full strength, is truly the better team. I can see that maybe Illinois gets shifted to a different pod that might be further away. A six seed? I would consider that a slap in the face considering our only non-conference loss was to a Clemson team that sat in the top 25 for nearly the entire season after that. At this point, every team UI has lost to is getting NCAA consideration. Doesn’t that mean there were really no bad losses?