Illini Lose To Northwestern, NCAA Tournament In Serious Jeopardy

The Illini lost to Northwestern 73-68 last night, another tough L in a winnable game. The Illini defense - which as Mark Tupper points out allowed Northwestern to score on each of its final 14 possessions - made John Schurna and Jeremy Nash look like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

Laughable if it wasn't so horribly true.

The Illini have dug themselves a major hole now having lost each one of a series of winnable games. Had they not lost to Utah and Bradley, had they not blown a lead to Georgia, had they completed their comeback against Gonzaga, had they held onto second half leads against Northwestern or Purdue, had they managed to win just one or two of those games, the Illini would still be in fair position to make the tourney.

Now it doesn't look so good.

The Illini are going to have some must win games in their future.

That future starts Wednesday at Penn St.