ESPN Bracketology: Lunardi Has Us Dancing

Joe Lunardi puts Illinois in his first mock bracket of 2014 as a 10-seed.

By Jack Cassidy Jan 2, 2014, 8:21pm CST

The opinion of this site will not change, but when you're excited about Illini hoops, you overlook the meaninglessness. You obsess. Thus, I cheer because Joey Brackets and his fake brackets are currently gentle.

We're a 10-seed.

Illinois resume includes an RPI top 20 win (Missouri) and two top 100 wins in UNLV and Indiana, the latter of which you have to believe will improve as the Big Ten season advances. The remainder of the wins fall into the RPI +150 category.

The eyesore of the resume, obviously, is the loss to Georgia Tech, who per RPI, is worse than Valparaiso. That'll hurt come March when the selection committee decides your worth. And to Lunardi, it's clearly the reason our seed (10) is higher than our RPI (9). Take consolation, though: it's all fake.

The fake seeding has Illinois in a fake matchup with UCLA in the fake West bracket, reigned over by probably-true-to-life No. 1 seed, Arizona.