The Illini are in

Well the Illini made it into the NCAA tournament. I was positive that the Illini would get in regardless of what happened in the conference tournament, but it's pretty apparent that had they not beaten Indiana, or had they gotten their shit handed to them by Wisconsin from the beginning, then Illinois would have been left out in the cold. But they're not.

Here's what I don't like though. Illinois was obviously one of the last 4 teams to get into the tournament. This is bullshit. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we're in. But why did we get the fuckjob?

You take a team like Purdue and put them at a 9-seed. What does Purdue have to show for themself? An inability to win any big games on the road, plus the ability to lose in Minnesota, zero quality wins, and a worse strength of schedule and RPI than the Illini. And yet, somehow, all of those things translate into a higher seed. Good work selection committee.

Then there's Michigan State. I understand that they helped themselves by beating Wisconsin at home and almost beating both Wisconsin and OSU on the road. But what about bad losses? The Illini beat the shit out of them when they played at Champaign.

Then you had people arguing for Drexel. I watched Bracketology on ESPN before the selection show, and the guys there said that Drexel would only be in if you put in Old Dominion. ODU just played better in conference. It says a lot for a Drexel team to play a strong out of conference schedule (and catch teams early in the season, hello Georgetown), but you've gotta back up that play in the weak conferences or you're screwed. I would have liked to see Drexel make it though, in favor of:

Stanford. Why the fuck does Stanford get in? Is it the terrible RPI? The 18-12 record? The 4-4 record vs. the 51-100 RPI teams? And they get a better seed than Illinois? I understand that Stanford did fairly well in the Pac-10, but they also got their asses kicked by an Air Force team that got left out of the field of 65. And everyone beat up on each other in the Pac-10. It's not like beating UCLA alone is enough to put you in the field either (right West Virginia?)

And Indiana gets a 7? They're RPI is one better than the Illini, and their Strength of Schedule is 52 compared to the Illini's 24. Illinois also won the series 2-1. And let's look at the quality wins that Indiana had: SIU, Wisconsin. Does beating the Illini count as a quality win also? Indiana was 5-8 vs. teams in the RPI top 50, Illinois was 4-9. Illinois beat Indiana twice. Shouldn't Illinois be closer than just one of the final four teams to be in the tournament if Indiana got in as a 7?

None of this is to say that any of these teams shouldn't have gotten in, except for Stanford. I was especially annoyed yesterday when Billy Packer was bitching about how this is the year when the fewest mid-major teams have gotten in in the past 6 years or something. You know what Packer? Just because you say things doesn't make them true. Maybe it's related to the level of play. When you've got mid-major conferences beating up on each other, the teams that stand out are the teams that are going to get at-large bids. But, maybe you're right. Maybe we should just pick the teams who haven't really played quality competition (or who have, but haven't been able to match the intensity within their own conference) as opposed to those who have. You jackass.

I'm just glad that Illinois didn't get the fuckjob I was so terrified they were going to get, even after beating Indiana. Some point before Thursday I'll go through and look at the matchups Illinois has, and I'll take a (most likely very, very optimistic) look at their chances for advancing. But until games start, I'll probably continue to bitch about the Illini not getting a better seed.