O.C. Dooley
Illinois +8.5
It was eight long years ago when Bill Self left the Illinois program and to this day fans of the Illini have been haunted by his exit. This evening for the first time in that 8-year span Illinois has a shot to face their ex-head coach adding almost a Hollywood type script. Ever since arriving at Illinois Bruce Weber has always had to deal with Bill Self comparisons in coaching style, recruiting prowess and personality to this can be called a "signature" game for him. One of the keys to this selection surrounds what happened to these pair of squads in Friday opening-round tilts as Illinois shot a SEASON-HIGH 60% from the field, while Kansas going into halftime led by only FOUR points on the scoreboard even though matched against a #16 seed. One of the problems that the Jayhawks have had to deal with is the constant pressure of expectations which has led to inflated price tags. In the past two years after reeling off 9 consecutive outright vicotries, Kansas has actually struggled (6-15 ATS) where it counts. As mentioned earlier this is a rare Kansas/Illinois series matchup and it should be noted that Illinois has managed to COVER the spread in each of the past four clashes. For Illinois to even be at this stage of the NCAA Tournament is notable since they did not make a Big Dance appearance in 2010 and were upset in the opening round by Western Kentucky two years ago. One of the main reasons why Illinois is such a dangerous underdog tonight is due to the fact that they have constantly been "tested" having gone against 8 different "top five ranked" opponents including Ohio State