Illinois, NU clinging to postseason hopes

INDIANAPOLIS — Heading into Selection Sunday last March, Illinois owned a 19-14 record with 6 losses in its last eight games.

Following Illinois’ come-from-ahead, 60-55 loss to Michigan in Big Ten quarterfinal play Friday, the Illini tumble toward Selection Sunday with a 19-13 record and 5 losses in their last eight games.

Hauntingly familiar, no?

While Illinois missed the NCAA Tournament last year, the players hope this year’s superior schedule gets them into the 68-team field.

Last year’s crew went 4-11 against top 50 teams (per Jeff Sagarin’s ratings) while this year’s group stands 6-9.

“I feel like last year we might have got robbed a little bit,” said sophomore guard Brandon Paul. “This year, we’ve had a lot of key wins. We had a lot of ups and downs, obviously, but as a whole we got better as a team.”

Illinois’ early exit gave coach Bruce Weber an unexpected opportunity to go recruiting Friday night.

The coaches kept the team together in Indianapolis overnight to try to restore confidence for what comes next.

“We could have taken care of business for ourselves today and really solidified it and maybe did something special,” Weber said.

Northwestern’s NIT chances, meanwhile, are primarily at the mercy of the small conferences.

Every time a regular-season champion fails to win its postseason tournament — such as the MEAC’s Bethune-Cookman on Friday night — another one of the NIT’s 32 spots eludes the Wildcats.

At best, Northwestern appears to be on the bubble for a third consecutive NIT appearance. Unless the committee offers extra weight to the Wildcats’ games against top-ranked Ohio State.

John Templon’s NIT Bracketology predicts NU as a No. 6 seed with one of the final four at-large berths.

“I know we’re all hoping as a team we can continue to play together,” sophomore Drew Crawford said. “We really don’t want this to end now.”

“I think we have a nice resume,” NU coach Bill Carmody said. “And we certainly passed the eye test people talk about. We’ll see what happens on Sunday evening.”