Illinois embarrasses USC, starts California trip on the right foot

It was a complete annihilation of a basketball game the moment Illinois and USC tipped off. Illinois started the game on an 8-0 run with two Jake Davis corner threes, and Illinois did not look back even for a tenth of a second. In game one of Illinois' west coast trip, the Illini overtook the Galen Center and destroyed USC 101-65. There was even a hypothetical "nuggets" chant aired out in the home of USC. Illinois fans travelled well and completely embarrassed a team who if the season ended today would likely be playing in the NCAA Tournament.

USC is a tournament hopeful team. Now at 18-8, they are getting closer and closer the bubble line. Illinois' dominance will not be a good look for USC come Selection Sunday. USC was in desperate need of a marquee win, and Illinois sucked the life out of the Trojans from the first possession of the night. Illinois has not had their full 8-man rotation healthy since the Minnesota game on January 17th. Illinois suffered a couple of overtime heartbreakers, but now that their fully healthy once again, they just reminded the entire country just how dangerous they can be.

It was a balanced scoring attack for Illinois. Seven Illini reached double figures. Andrej Stojakovic led the team in scoring with 22 points and only needed 7 shots to do so. USC simply had no answers for Illinois' limitless options on offense. It was one of the best offensive showings all season, and Illinois' metrics took a significant leap because of it. It is the most efficient offense in the history of KenPom for a reason.

Illinois' defense also seemed to make the trip to southern California as well. Kylan Boswell's return has allowed for Illinois to unleash everything. The first possession in the game resulted in a USC shot clock violation. The energy and communication were present for Illinois all night and it showed. Kylan Boswell made Alijah Arenas' night uncomfortable. The future NBA player was held to 8 points on 7 shots. Illinois' defensive ace is finally back, and the results are indicative of it. Boswell also had a nasty putback dunk with his right hand on the final possession of the first half to give Illinois a 22-point lead heading into the break. Whatever chances USC had of coming back were gone immediately. Illinois went up 31 points with 13 minutes left and forced Eric Musselman to call his final timeout that early into the second half. It was complete and utter domination from Illinois for all 40 minutes.

What this means:

Illinois improves to 22-5 overall and 13-3 in the Big Ten. Illinois is in firm control of second place in the conference. With the Michigan game looming, Illinois is not out of the Big Ten race, but they would still need some help even if they were to win the final four games. Illinois is a full two games behind Michigan, so someone else would have to beat Michigan for Illinois to even have a chance at a share of the title. Michigan just beat Purdue in Mackey Arena, which was their biggest chance of a loss to any non-Illini team. Regardless, Illinois should feel really good about getting a triple-bye in the Big Ten Tournament, which means they would not have to play until the Friday of Champ Week.

Illinois has 4 games remaining in the regular season and is firmly on the 2-seed line. We will know for sure where Illinois stands on Saturday when the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee releases the top 16 overall seeds. Illinois will be somewhere ranked 5-8. I believe it will be 7, but we will know on Saturday morning. With Michigan almost being a lock for a 1 seed, I don't see a realistic path for Illinois to be put in the Midwest region, so the inverse 2005 path is likely dead. Illinois is still in great position to be sent to St. Louis for the opening two rounds of the tournament, however.

For those who do not know how it works, it's pretty simple. If you are a protected seed, you get asked where you would like to be put for the pod. Determining what region is more difficult because they have to look at many more factors such as what conference a team is in. For the first and second round pods, it is much simpler. It's just the first two teams to claim a host site gets it

Here is a hypothetical seed list for practice. The committee would go down the list and ask where each school would like to be placed.

The opening sites are Buffalo, Greenville, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Portland, Tampa, Philadelphia, and San Diego.

1. Michigan - Buffalo, NY

2. Duke - Greenville, SC

3. Arizona - San Diego, CA

4. Houston - Oklahoma City, OK

5. UConn - Philadelphia, PA

6. Iowa State - St. Louis, MO

7. Illinois - St. Louis, MO

8. Purdue - Buffalo, NY

9. Florida - Tampa, FL

10. Kansas - Oklahoma City, Ok

I think you get the point now. There are 4 teams in position to get St. Louis as their first choice in my opinion. They are Iowa State, Illinois, Purdue, and Kansas. It is imperative that Illinois stays above 2 of them. Iowa State has a really strong resume with their win over Houston earlier in the week. They are going to be tough to jump. Many Illinois fans were Purdue fans on Tuesday night for the Big Ten picture, but for Illinois' chances of getting St. Louis, Michigan winning was by far the best outcome. Illinois' win in Mackey Arena gives Illinois some breathing room over Purdue. Kansas only becomes a threat if they beat Houston and/or Arizona to close the season. I think as long as Illinois wins against either UCLA or Michigan, beats Maryland and Oregon, and makes it to at least the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament, Illinois will be a 2-seed and get to play in St. Louis for the opening rounds. Illinois' win over Purdue was absolutely magnificent in this regard. There is still a lot of basketball to be played, so Illinois will have to earn the right to be a 2-seed and get sent to St. Louis. For the regional, the I don't see the committee sending Illinois to the Midwest if Michigan is the 1-seed in that region. I think being sent to the West with Arizona as the 1-seed would make the most sense currently. Illinois fans will travel anywhere if they reach the second weekend, but San Jose, CA will get the best turnout in my opinion for Illinois. We already saw how well Illinois fans travelled to LA in Wednesday's game with USC.

Stay tuned for Saturday morning when the committee releases the current seed outline because there will be plenty to learn about. Illinois will take on UCLA later that night.