Regarding Illinois - Excuses will be Made
Illinois apologists on internet claim their draw was "unfair".
Although both teams were playing the game at a high level, the college basketball world couldn’t help but be frustrated.
Sel. committee chair Mitch Barnhart said the cmte leaned more on results-based metrics to select and leaned more on predictive metrics to seed. This was not exclusively true. Loyola was the No. 9 team in KenPom and received a No. 8 seed, and we’re seeing why seeding matters.
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 21, 2021
Srsly.
Sissy fan base. Just eat the big ten loss, and this ass blasting.
Don’t lose then
Once again they failed to anticipate their own failure and neglected to start whining before the fact. I guess they didn't want to admit how afraid they were of little Loyola before the game.
Am I missing the point? Don’t the 9- and 8-seeds play each other in round 1? Illinois inevitably was going to play a 9- or 8-seed in round 2.
Edit: tweet says no. 8 team, not 8-seed (which I confused) so Loyola should have probably been a 2-seed based on that.
Karma is real, and it's a bitch.
WEARELAUGHING.GIF
By the end of today the BIG will down to three teams: MD, Iowa and Michigan.
Don't sleep on Rutger tonight!
I personally don't care how the big 10 does in the tournament! I only care about Michigan. I feel if the others big 10 schools go far it only helps there recruiting and brand!
By the end of the day tomorrow, there will be only one BIG team left, at most.
I have Rutgers advancing in my Bracket
Thanks for telling us. I'll have to keep an eye on your bracket to see how awesome you are.
IL is the same team they've been for the last couple of decades: a lot of physical talent but poorly coached and normally play with their heads halfway up their arses.
If you want to win a national championship you're going to have to win a game like this whether the seedings fair or not. Illinois didn't even show up.
They were supposed to win the national championship cause they are the best team so why does it matter who they play and at what seed?
Underwood is allowed to cry this year .... this will probably be the best Illini team he will ever put on the court and they lose to a team "we were lucky to get in the Final 4"
Indiana should back the truck up for Porter Moser
I mean it's true Loyola was under seeded, however if any team Illinois included wants to win the title you are going to beat good to very good teams, so on that note they should quit their bitching.
My wife is an IL fan. So are her brothers. They're saying they came out flat and never hit their groove. They're saying they got their @$$es handed to them by a team that was playing at their their peak performance level. They're saying "That's sports." No whining. No excuses.
And now they're all rooting for the rest of the Big Ten and Michigan.
Although one of them had to chime in that Oral Roberts has more wins against OSU than Jim Harbaugh......
Well, I am sure if OSU's football team were only decent to good and and not great like their basketball team UM would have at least won two of those games. And that's rich an Illinois fan talking junk about college football. You might want to remind them of their pecking order position in college football.
"they came out flat and never hit their groove"
That's what you do in November. You do it in March, you go home. Deservedly so.
You can't play like it matters in the NCAA freaking tournament? What else are you waiting for?
They played like it mattered. They just couldn't get anything going, and Loyola kept it rolling. "Came out flat" was a poor choice of words implying lack of effort or not taking the opponent seriously. I didn't see lack of effort. I just didn't see anyone stepping up. Not an unusual phenomenon. We see it every tournament.
Fun Fact: Loyola still has more national championships than Illinois.
“You play to win the game”
- a MAN
Also, this is not how you do it. You don’t bitch about your loss. You represent yourself in a manner that gives credence to the tournament; if you won the whole thing, despite not actually beating every team in the field, you still claim victory and number 1 over all. Same goes for losing. You lost to a team in the field. You weren’t the best team. Byyyyyeeee
I mean the #1 should be able to beat the 8 and 9 seed hence the ranking. No excuse.
They've always been, and always will be a bunch of undisciplined and unfocused playground players who will underperform in the end despite whatever amount of talent they have. That's their identity at Illinois.
Truly, they are less than the sum of their parts.
Just like MSU!
It's not a wrong sentiment, seeding really does matter.
That said, Illinois was one of the hottest teams down the stretch & was the better seed & team sooooooooooooo...
They will settle for a co-national championship with the eventual champion.
They will settle for a co-national championship with the eventual champion.
Yes, this is dumb. A loss in the tournament is a loss. I get that it's more embarrassing to lose this week versus a week from now, but they still lost a game a true 1 seed shouldn't lose. If you can't beat UMBC this weekend, what difference does it really make if you lose to them next weekend? The bottom line is that, regardless of seeding, you can't lose to any of the other 63 teams or you're out.
And if you're MSU, you're team #68, so you don't even figure in this.
OK maybe Loyola should have been a seed line or two higher - but unless they were above the 4 line, Illinois would be seeing someone at least as highly ranked in the next round. So is it that much less disappointing if they had lost in the Sweet 16? Either way Illinois failing to play up to their seed was a bigger deal than Loyola playing above theirs.
Illinois fans are the absolute worst in college sports.
In other news, I received a Master’s Degree from Loyola 18 years ago. Go Ramblers!
March 21st, 2021 at 10:08 PM ^
Avoid and advance?
March 21st, 2021 at 11:28 PM ^
Could have been far worse: they could have been floor slapping while down by 10.
[God that will never, ever, get old. Thank you MSU for that moment.]
March 21st, 2021 at 11:30 PM ^
Worst coaching performance of the tourney. Loyola ran the same action - big guy hands to guard coming off the wing at the elbow - 50 times. Illini tried to fight thru and just couldn’t. Left Kofi in a tough spot, and he clearly didn’t know how to play it. Zero adjustments to it.
And the energy from Ayo and Kofi just wasn’t there. It was the same Illini team that lost to State, not the one that beat Michigan.
Their fans just pissed because they know their best chance to win everything just went right out the window to the tune of Sister Jean.