Illinois, Northwestern punch NCAA tourney tickets originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The Land of Lincoln will have both of its Big Ten teams in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, as the Northwestern Wildcats earned a No. 7 seed and the Illinois Fighting Illini took down the No. 9 seed in the West Region.
The Wildcats, who had the third-best regular season record in the Big Ten thanks to a 12-8 run through the conference, won 21 games overall and made their way back into the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2017.
They will take on Boise State on Thursday in Sacramento. If they were to win the game, they would then face the winner of a battle between UCLA and UNC-Asheville.
As for the Illini, they will take on the SEC’s Arkansas Razorbacks on Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. They have earned a berth in the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive season under head coach Brad Underwood.
Illinois will hope to perform better than they have in the last two tournaments, as they were upset by Loyola-Chicago in the second round of the 2021 edition of March Madness and lost to No. 1-seed Houston in the second round in 2022.
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Elsewhere in the Big Ten, Purdue earned the No. 1 seed in the East Region, and will take on the winner of the Texas Southern vs. Fairleigh Dickinson play-in contest. The Boilermakers will open their tournament on Friday in Columbus.
Indiana earned the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region, and will play Kent State in Albany on Friday.
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Michigan State earned a No. 7 seed in the East Region, making it 25 consecutive tournament appearances for Tom Izzo and company. They will take on USC in the first round.
Iowa will play Auburn in the first round, while Penn State earned a No. 10 seed and a date with Texas A&M.
Alabama earned the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament, while Kansas and Houston also earned top seeds.
