Illinois Representatives

Since my park district basketball season ended (we lost in the first round of the playoffs) last week, I now get to spend my weekends watching college basketball. So we saw Kentucky beat Texas A&M, Villanova stomp Georgetown and Indiana beat Ohio State after giving up a million point lead and then coming back to win. 

Then Illinois lost, ruining my day. With their loss to Rutgers (to RUTGERS), the Fighting Illini are certainly eliminated from tournament contention. 

So now we Illinoisans have to bank on Northwestern and Illinois State to represent us in the NCAAs. The state of Illinois hasn't had a tournament team since 2013, so hey it's progress, right? But that leads to another point: Illinois State is really good. They are the 1 seed in the Missouri Valley tournament (Arch Madness), and they have beaten Wichita State once. Paris Lee is a Cinderella leader waiting to explode in March, so I plead the committee to put them in even if they lose in Arch Madness. This team deserves the opportunity.