Illinois

RPI #'s updated as of 3/14/10, 12:30 am.

 

 

Illinois Fighting Illini

Big Ten Conference (19-14, 10-8)

 

 

Georgia Tech (Beat Maryland)

Illinois (Beat Wisconsin)

Minnesota (Beat Michigan St)

Mississippi St (Beat Florida)

Rhode Island (Beat St Louis)

With four clear-cut big-dancers, the Big Ten oozes front-end quality.  But with lower-seeded teams providing late season scares to perennial powers – see Michigan State barely escaping Penn State in East Lansing last week - look for some drama to unfold this Thursday thru Sunday in Indianapolis.

 

Illinois

Michigan St

Ohio St

Purdue

Wisconsin

Other (Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn St)

The Bracketology field is based on how the tourney looks "as of today." The field below is not based on who I think deserves to be in, but a prediction of what the committee would do as things stand. This week, I'll post a Bracketology update again on Friday. Next week I'll do daily updates.

 

Had Cincinnati, Florida or Illinois won on Tuesday night they'd be the main story in the recap. However with all three dropping opportunities to vault themselves either into the NCAA Tournament or onto the bubble they could all look back at this night as the one that helped keep them out of the Field of 65. The Bearcats and Gators both hosted ranked teams at home and both fell by four points. Cincinnati held Scottie Reynolds scoreless in the first half but they most they could manage was a tie going into the locker room.

While three leagues begin conference tournament play on Tuesday there's also plenty of things to be settled in conferences who won't start their tourneys until next week. Florida and Illinois are two teams that look to be in good shape as of right now but both are faced with ranked opponents who would vault them into the Big Dance for sure were they to win. The Gators host Vanderbilt, a team that's still got designs on the SEC's overall title, in a game they can win provided guards Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton make sound decisions with the basketball.

Illinois (9-4, at Purdue, at Ohio St)

Michigan St (10-3, vs Ohio St, at Purdue)

Ohio St (10-3, vs Purdue, at Michigan St)

Purdue (9-3, at Ohio St, vs Michigan St)

Wisconsin (9-4, at Minnesota, at Illinois)

The Bracketology field is based on how the tourney looks "as of this moment." The field below is not based on who I think deserves to be in, but a prediction of what the committee would do as things stand. For the next few weeks, I'll be posting Bracketology updates every Tuesday & Friday.  In late February, I release Bracketology updates daily as the season enters crunch time.