Illinois Basketball starts December in Top 10 of NET rankings

To start off the month of December, the NET rankings of college basketball have been released. The NET rankings are a strong tool to use to help give fans an idea of a team’s NCAA tournament resume and how March Madness seeds would look. Typically, teams that have strong records in the first two quadrants and zero to few losses in Quadrants three and four are safely in the NCAA tournament. Though it has only been seven games for Illinois basketball, they have already made a decently strong statement. They own a quadrant two victory on a neutral site vs Arkansas. In addition, they have a relatively close loss in a quad-one game vs Alabama. With all that being said, Illinois starts off its daunting December ranked number 10 in the NET rankings.

Just the beginning

Based on these net rankings, four out of five games in December are quadrant one opportunities. In fact, the Illini play four quad-one games in a row. Brad Underwood certainly made a concerted effort to test his team before Big Ten play and that non-conference slate shows it. Though these NET rankings will change throughout the season, Illinois will play 16 more quadrant one games out of their 24 remaining games. Only three of their remaining games are against teams in quadrants three and four. The Illini have to be ready for an absolute gammet of a schedule. Illinois basketball is certain to have no questions about their opponents when Selection Sunday arrives.

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