Ep. 1140 - Evaluating the Illini's 2026 NCAA Tournament draw
Illini Inquirer Podcast: An Illinois Fighting Illini athletics podcast
247Sports, Illinois, Illinois Football, Illinois Basketball, Illinois Athletics, College Football, C
4.9 • 574 Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2026
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Illini Inquirer's Jeremy Werner and Kyle Tausk react to Illinois earning a No. 3 seed in the South Region of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The guys discuss the first-round matchup against No. 14 seed Penn and Fran McCaffery in Greenville (S.C.) and a possible second-round matchup against No. 6 seed North Carolina and a potential Sweet Sixteen matchup against Houston. The guys also discuss what must happen for the team to get through to the second weekend. SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good evening and welcome into March Madness. It is the Alana Inquirer podcast, Jeremy Warner, Kyle Tosk, it is Selection Sunday, and this day |
| 0:22.6 | never gets old. And we got a lot to talk about. We're going to break down the Alinai's draw, |
| 0:28.3 | getting the number three seed in the South region. They will play number 14 seed pen, which had a |
| 0:34.0 | monstrous game today. Just to get into the tournament, We'll talk about their superstar who had a phenomenal game today. |
| 0:40.8 | But Illinois heading all the way to Greenville, South Carolina. |
| 0:43.6 | No, not heading to St. Louis. Purdue comes and steals that two seed to get to St. Louis. |
| 0:50.0 | What a weekend for the boiler makers to win the Big Ten tournament. |
| 0:53.3 | But Illinois, in a pod with North Carolina, the six-seed. |
| 0:56.7 | Oh, they're in the Carolinas playing potentially Carolina. |
| 0:59.2 | And then 11-seed VCU, which snuck into the tournament, basically, by winning its conference tournament there at the end. |
| 1:06.7 | Kyle, I do want to start here. |
| 1:09.2 | We will break down what we think of this draw, which I don't think is too bad for Illinois. |
| 1:14.2 | We'll break down what Joey Wagner got from some of the players, Kyle and Boswell, |
| 1:18.4 | some interesting insight. |
| 1:19.5 | You'll hear from Brad Underwood here in just a moment. |
| 1:22.2 | But Illinois just made it six straight NCAA tournament. |
| 1:25.5 | Illinois is a top four seed in that NCAA tournament for a four |
| 1:29.8 | straight year, or for a fourth time in six years. And despite a really concerning end to the season, |
| 1:37.9 | all that did was drop Illinois to a number three seed, Kyle. So it's always worth putting a |
| 1:43.7 | perspective of where Illinois basketball is, |
| 1:46.2 | what the expectations are now, |
| 1:48.0 | and that Illinois is still set up with a potentially advantageous path to the second weekend. |
... |
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