Crapping out in Vegas bankrupts Illini
If only what happened to Illinois in Las Vegas had been kept a secret from the NCAA Tournament committee.
The Illini fell just short of their 10th NCAA bid in 11 years due, in no small part, to their Lost Weekend in Vegas over Thanksgiving.
When Illinois fell by a combined 6 points to Utah and Bradley in a 24-hour span, it gave the NCAA committee a way to differentiate Bruce Weber's club from the fistfuls of other teams battling for the final at-large spots.
Minnesota (11 seed), UTEP (12) and Utah State (12) made the cut, but the Illini (19-14) settled for a No. 1 seed in the NIT.
The Illini must travel to eighth-seeded Stony Brook at 8 p.m. Wednesday (ESPNU) because Cirque du Soleil performs at Assembly Hall this week.
"One of the most disappointing settings I've ever been around in my life," said junior forward Bill Cole, who watched the Selection Sunday show surrounded by his teammates.
"We figured those games out in Vegas would come back to haunt us if we didn't make a run at the Big Ten tournament. Looking back, those 2 losses out in Vegas really did come back to haunt us."
UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, the NCAA Tournament committee chairman, didn't pinpoint those games specifically, but they were Illinois' worst nonconference losses of the year.
"Illinois' certainly one of those teams that merited strong, strong consideration," Guerrero said. "They were on the board for a long time. We certainly talked and deliberated about them in comparison to many of the other teams. They did impress to some degree, obviously, in their performance in the Big Ten tournament.
"But when you looked at the entire body of work in a general sense, they have some situations where they lost to some teams below 100 on the RPI."
Utah finished with a 156 RPI, while Bradley wound up at 106. Other bad losses included Northwestern (116) and Georgia (106).
Those weren't the team's only issues. The Illini played 16 games against NCAA Tournament teams, but won just six.
"They were below .500 vs. teams in the Top 100," Guerrero said. "And their nonconference strength of schedule was not necessarily the strongest (134 compared to Minnesota's 57)."
Illinois settled for its first NIT bid since 1996. The Illini received one of the four No. 1 seeds in the 32-team NIT and need 3 wins to reach the final four at Madison Square Garden.
The Seawolves (22-9) earned a bid as the America East's regular-season champ. They boast the league's player of the year in 6-foot-5 senior guard Muhammed El-Amin (16.7 ppg), but they faced just one NCAA Tournament team all year (Lehigh).