Introducing: The ILLHoops Tournament

With the NCAA Tournament underway, I wanted to hold a tournament of my own to see who was the best basketball team in the state of Illinois. In most cases, one would simply look to the rankings to answer that question. However, things such as injuries and the lack of intrastate matchups during the season keep us from being absolutely certain just who reigns supreme in the Land of Lincoln.

With that, I figured I would use the SimMatchup tool over at whatifsports.com to settle the score. Over the next few days, you will see the results unfold as I find out who the best in the Prairie State truly is.

Today, I simulated a round robin. All thirteen schools faced one another in a home-and-home. I used the rosters as they were on the site, meaning almost everyone was playing at full strength. However, Northwestern's roster lacked the presence of Drew Crawford. If I am able to add him during the tournament phase, I will let you know. With that aside, below are the results:

1. Illinois State: 19-5 (10-2 home, 9-3 road)
2. DePaul: 18-6 (9-3 home, 9-3 road)
3. Western Illinois: 18-6 (9-3 home, 9-3 road)
4. Illinois: 15-9 (9-3 home, 6-6 road)
5. Bradley: 14-10 (6-6 home, 8-4 road)
6. Loyola: 14-10 (7-5 home, 7-5 road)
7. Northwestern: 12-12 (7-5 home, 5-7 road)
8. UIC: 10-14 (6-6 home, 4-8 road)
9. Southern Illinois: 10-14 (5-7 home, 5-7 road)
10. Eastern Illinois: 9-15 (5-7 home, 4-8 road)
11. Chicago State: 8-16 (5-7 home, 3-9 road)
12. SIU Edwardsville: 7-17 (3-9 home, 4-8 road)
13. Northern Illinois: 2-22 (2-10 home, 0-12 road)

DePaul held the tiebreaker over WIU due to beating them 2-0 in their matchups. After splitting their series and having identical records against the top two teams, Bradley beat out Loyola because they went 1-1 against 3rd place Western while the Ramblers went 0-2. UIC beat out SIU because they went 1-1 against DePaul while the Salukis went 0-2.

With these standings in place, these schools will now face off in a single elimination tournament. With the top three teams receiving First Round byes, the opening matchups will be as follows:

#4 Illinois vs. #13 Northern Illinois; winner will face the Bradley/SIUE winner in the next round

#5 Bradley vs. #12 SIU Edwardsville; winner will face the U of I/NIU winner in the next round

#6 Loyola vs. #11 Chicago State; winner will face Western in the next round

#7 Northwestern vs. #10 Eastern Illinois; winner will face DePaul in the next round

#8 UIC vs. #9 Southern Illinois; winner will face Illinois State in the next round

The First Round will be tomorrow at the campus sites of the higher seed. The Quarterfinals on Friday and Semifinals on Saturday will be held at Illinois State. The Finals will be on Sunday at the site of the highest remaining seed.

The winner of the tournament will earn an automatic bid into the Coliseum Invitational, which will basically be the national version of this.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. I really like doing these simulation tournaments at the end of each college basketball season. It will be fun to see where this thing leads.