Leatherneck Nation

Iowa has 3 teams in the NCAA Tournament: Iowa, Iowa State, and Northern Iowa.

Western fans without a favorite team in the tournament may consider rooting for Stephen F. Austin. Their coach is Brad Underwood who was an assistant coach at Western (under Jim Kerwin) for 10 years.
http://www.sfajacks.com/sports/m-baskbl ... 45080.html

Holy Crap! Where are the Ray Meyers and Lou Hensons when you need them?

So, that's 0 out of 13 teams in Illinois, but 3 out of 4 from Iowa (only Drake didn't make the tournament).

Illinois and Illinois State are both in the NIT.
Loyola (Chicago) is in the CBI.
Eastern Illinois is in the CIT.

As for Summit League teams:
North Dakota State got the Summit auto-bid and is #15 seed in the South bracket playing against #2 seeded Gonzaga in the first round of the NCAA tournament (March 20th at 8:50 PM on TNT)
South Dakota State got the 8th (last) seed in their quarter of the NIT bracket and will play #1 seeded Colorado State in the first round (March 18th at 9 PM on ESPNU)
Oral Roberts plays UC Santa Barbara (at home) in the first round of the CBI (March 18th at 7 PM)
IPFW plays at Evansville in the first round of the CIT (March 18th at 9 PM)

The CBI and CIT have agreements with the CBS Sports Network, but the CIT is also supposed to be shown here (http://www.watchcollegeinsider.com/watch/) courtesy of Sidearm Sports.

Just looked at other championship brackets (DII, DIII, NAIA). Illinois schools participating included:

Lewis (DII)
Augustana (DIII) *
Ill Wesleyan (DIII)
Olivet Nazarene (NAIA-II)
St. Francis (NAIA-II)

* Augie is still alive playing in Final Four this weekend in Salem, VA.

Land of Lincoln has some work to do.

Sad not being able to watch WIU in the post season and I really do not see it happening next year either. Here is to hoping I am wrong! Who's ready for football!

So, in first round results for the teams discussed earlier (Illinois teams and Summit League teams)....

NIT - Illinois got destroyed by Alabama, 79-58
NIT - Illinois State beat Green Bay, 69-56
NIT - SDSU represented the Summit League well, taking down #1 seeded Colorado State, 86-76

Illinois State will play #1 seed Old Dominion next Monday (23rd) at 8 PM on ESPNU
SDSU will play #5 seed Vanderbilt on Friday (20th) at 9:30 PM on ESPNU

CBI - Loyola beat Rider, 62-59
CBI - Oral Roberts took down UC Santa Barbara, 91-87

CIT - Eastern Illinois beat former Summit League member, Oakland, 97-91
CIT - IPFW lost to Evansville, 82-77

CBI and CIT do not use a standard bracket format. Second round pairings will be announced after all first round games have finished.

So, SDSU and Oral Roberts are both still alive in their respective tournaments, with NDSU still set to take on Gonzaga in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday.

A friend of mine (who is also a Marching Leatherneck alum) noticed this during the Wisconsin game and posted it on facebook:

ST_Lawson wrote:A friend of mine (who is also a Marching Leatherneck alum) noticed this during the Wisconsin game and posted it on facebook:

If I had my choice of some stat to lead the nation, this is definitely not the one I would go with. Two-edge sword. Fouling can wear down an opponent and put added pressure on guys who don't shoot FTs well.

Wisconsin's approach seems to be working well for them so far this season.