College basketball in Illinois

[BUSongwriter]

It's looking very likely that our state, which is known historically for some pretty good basketball, will have no teams in the NCAA tournament in 2015.

No Illinois team is above .500 in their conference.

It's unlikely to me that the Illini, after their home loss to Indiana, will finish above .500 in conference play. They have a couple of nice wins, but without Rice I think they're a lower half of the conference team.

After that the next best team at this point is Loyola at 13-5, 3-3 in the Valley. A respectable 62 RPI, but today's loss to SIU will kill that.

ISU is a middle of the conference team. Northwestern is 1-4 in the Big Ten. Northern is 6-8. And then......some really gosh-awful RPIs with Bradley (259), Western (290), SIU (297), SIUE (338 ) and Chicago State (1-15, 339).

Am I missing anyone? I wonder when the good old days might return to college hoops in Illinois.....

[Braves2006]

Eastern Illinois, DePaul, UIC...none of whom will make the tournament.

[BUSongwriter]

Geez, DePaul. And they ARE above .500 in the Big East (4-2), though their RPI is 176. Thanks. Guess I'm not on top of MY game, either!

[Da Coach]

And I believe no team from Illinois made it into the NCAA tournament in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014.

Here are the last times the 13 Division I schools in Illinois made the NCAA Tournament-

Illinois- 2013 (also made it in 2011, 2009, 2007)
SIU- 2007
Bradley- 2006
UIC- 2004
DePaul- 2004
EIU- 2001
ILL State- 1998
NIU- 1996
Loyola- 1985
Northwestern- Never
Chicago State- Never
WIU- Never
SIUE Never

[saluki762]

I'm only 36 but I can't say that Illinois has had historically good basketball in my lifetime. Good for high school recruiting maybe. NCAA basketball has always been fairly mediocre.

[Vent]

I'm only 36 but I can't say that Illinois has had historically good basketball in my lifetime. Good for high school recruiting maybe. NCAA basketball has always been fairly mediocre.

Generally the state of Illinois has only one team in the NCAA. I've followed Bradley for parts of 6 decades and they've only gone 5 times. Versace (2), Albeck, Molinari and Les each took a team there.

[tornado]

Versace gets credit for at least half of Albeck's NCAA appearance plus he ought to get 1/2 credit for 1982 when BU was robbed by Dave Gavitt so he could put his own team in