Flag planting time. Illinois can reach at 1 seed now that UConn has stumbled and Houston/Iowa State/Arizona are beating each other up in the Big XII. But they need statement road wins for the committee, not just a DUB, but a blowout, bury Mick Cronin kind of game. Boswell is back and shaking off the rust. I played them against USC earlier this week in a 36 point win. They stayed out in LA, so the travel is a non-factor making the 20 minute cross town drive. And Cronin’s defense has fallen off a god damn cliff this month. Per Torvik, the Bruins are 182nd in adjusted defensive efficiency. And now they have to contend with Illinois’ pick and roll clinic. Underwood and his staff emphasis matchup hunting, putting opponents worst defenders in conflict and attacking relentlessly. This Illinois team has all the weapons you could ever want, an unselfish attitude on shot distribution and an edge from Underwood. I think this is blood in the water time. The Fightin’ Illini’s KenPom O rating is 132.5, that’s 1.5% better than the second best recorded rating in the KenPom database going back to 1997. Duke last year btw.

DK Alt Line, the roof caving in on Cronin is a distinct possibility.

Coming back for one more

Wyoming has one true road win this year and it was at Air Force who is cheeks. The Antelopes are hot, they just knocked off San Diego State at Vee-ah-Haas arena, a really tough place to win. They’ve been a strong double digit favorite this year, and they went to Laramie and handed this Cowboy team a 12 point loss at altitude. Bryce Drew is an elite mid-major coach, he won big at Valpo, crashed and burned at Vandy and is reborn in the desert with a team that has shown little to no effect of moving up from the WAC to the Mountain West. They’re special defensively, they can rebound on both ends, and their Turkish freshman Efe Demirel is really coming on late. They are one of the biggest mid-majors in teh country in terms of overall size, Demirel at 7’1”, Breidenback off the bench at 6’10”. I still think for them to win the MWC Tournament, they’re gonna need Brian Moore Jr to play like he did at Norfolk where he had a green light to shoot a lot from long range. He’s shot 39% in back to back years, but he’s maxed out at 4 attempts this year in game, I want to see him double that.