NCAA royally screwed Illinois basketball by putting Loyola in their region

1-seed Illinois basketball was upset by Loyola in this year’s March Madness but this matchup should’ve never happened, at least not this soon.

March Madness is upon us.

Saturday saw several highly-ranked teams fall to the 40-minute test. No. 4 ranked Virginia lost to a 13-seed in Ohio. Shaka Smart and the fourth-seeded Texas Longhorns are also now at home after falling to No. 14 seeded Abilene Christian. Ohio State, a two seed, found itself the butt of all kinds of Twitter jokes after falling to Oral Roberts, who came in as a 15-seed.

Now, on Sunday, Illinois was just upset by Sister Jean’s team, Loyola, in a brutal No. 9 versus No. 1 matchup in the second round of the tournament. The game seems to be your typical March Madness upset but the seeding of these teams was worth taking a look at.

Loyola is continuing to impress in this year’s tournament but it could be their seeding that is leading college basketball fans to believe that they aren’t as good as they really are.

Loyola is an 8=seed in this year’s tournament but let’s take a look at how they might’ve gotten that ranking.

Ken Pomeroy’s rankings account for the strength of schedule, game by game possessions and other details that give us a very solid understanding of how good a college basketball team really is.

Loyola came into the  NCAA Tournament as the nation’s ninth-best team, according to KenPom. They owned the top-ranked defense and it showed in the upset over the Illini. And after the win, they moved up to No. 7 in KenPom. The NCAA’s NET also had the Ramblers as a top-10 team.

So how do they end up as an 8-seed?

The NCAA clearly made a mistake in their selection and seeding processes and Illinois unfortunately was the team that paid for it. But it was also unfair that Loyola had to play a team that good in the Round of 32. This type of matchup would have been better in the Sweet 16 and more fair for both teams.

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