Bracket has Illini feeling at home

Illinois couldn't have a better draw unless the NCAA tournament was moved to Assembly Hall.

The top-ranked Illini drew the overall No. 1 seed and the Chicago Regional on Sunday, essentially giving them homecourt advantage for the entire NCAA tournament. All three rounds are a three-hour drive or less from campus, and the regional finals are in Chicago, where most of the players grew up.

"It gives us a great advantage," Roger Powell Jr. said. "Our fan support is so strong. Even if we went far away, I'm sure they all would have came. This just makes it easier on their gas money, you might say."

Illinois set its sights on a No. 1 seed months ago, with Nick Smith saying in October, "It's St. Louis or bust." Which No. 1 really didn't matter, though the Illini know their geography as well as anybody else.

And the Illini made it easy on the selection committee, going 32-1, spending almost the entire season at No. 1 and winning the Big Ten title and conference tournament.

Even a loss in the regular-season finale didn't hurt them, though it had seemed to reinforce what doubters had been saying all along: The big men are weak, there is little, if any, depth and the Big Ten isn't the ACC. The Illini may have kept their No. 1 ranking last week, but 22 voters preferred North Carolina.

But Illinois won the Big Ten tournament Sunday after North Carolina lost to Georgia Tech in the ACC semifinals. The Tar Heels finished the year 27-4. All the other top schools finished with at least four losses.

"We put ourselves in the position we wanted to be in. All we have to do is take advantage of it," said James Augustine, the most valuable player in the Big Ten tournament. "We're happy with the position we're in."

They should be. While other tournament teams will be spending much of their time traveling -- Alabama-Birmingham was sent to Boise, Idaho, for the opening round -- the Illini could hitch rides and still make it with time to spare.

Indianapolis, where the Illini will play 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday, is a two-hour drive. Chicago is less than 2 1/2 hours away, and St. Louis is on the state line, a mere three-hour jaunt.

And talk about fan-friendly. When Illinois played in the Wooden Classic in December, Illini fans overran the city. Chicago is merely an extension of Champaign, home to eight players and the largest concentration of alumni.

On Sunday, the entire arena was awash in orange except for two small sections. They're not shy about their allegiance, either. They even booed the clips of Wisconsin fans singing their fight song that flashed on the scoreboard.

"Hopefully our people have been on the phones, buying up tickets," coach Bruce Weber said. "We talked about having a chance to go to Indy, to go to Chicago. We're pleased with that. At the same time, I told the kids I was part of a No. 1 seed at Purdue and we got upset in the second round. So you can't take anything for granted."

Don't worry about that, Deron Williams said.

"We're not Purdue. We're trying to write our own stories," he said. "We're going to be focused. We've got Fairleigh Dickinson first. We're going to concentrate on them."

Great, just what the Knights wanted to hear. FDU won the Northeast Conference championship to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament for the first time in seven years. The Knights (20-12) knew they'd be facing a No. 1 team; they just didn't think it would be Illinois.

"They are definitely feeding us to the lions," Fairleigh Dickinson coach Tom Green said.

Illinois isn't the only team in the Chicago Regional with a friendly travel schedule. Oklahoma State was tapped as the No. 2 seed after winning the Big 12 tournament, and drew Oklahoma City for the opening round.

The Cowboys (24-6) play 15th-seeded Southeast Louisiana (24-8) on Friday.

"We really wanted to go to Oklahoma City. We have a very good chance there," Daniel Bobek said. "If we make it to Chicago, it is the same thing that we faced last year, when we had to go play in New Jersey, which is like playing St. Joe's at home."

For those not keeping score, the Cowboys knocked off top-seeded Saint Joseph's in the regional finals to advance to the Final Four.

"I think we have a good bracket, considering the other teams in the Big 12," Joey Graham said. "We have a great opportunity."

While the Illini and Cowboys had no complaints with their seedings, Boston College was more than a little bitter. Back when they were 20-0 and ranked third in the country, the Eagles were in line for a No. 1 seed.

But after going 4-4 in their last eight games -- including a loss to West Virginia in their first game of the Big East tournament -- the Eagles found themselves seeded fourth in the Chicago regional.

Worse, they got shipped to Cleveland for the opening round instead of nearby Worcester. When the Eagles saw their No. 4 seed, they sat stone-faced while students watching the selection show with them booed.

BC will play 13th-seeded Pennsylvania (20-8) on Thursday.

"I'm disappointed because we had it in our hands, being 20-0, and let it slip away," forward Jared Dudley said. "But you can cry about it, or you can do something about it."

Other games in the region include: No. 3 Arizona (27-6) vs. 14th-seeded Utah State (24-7); fifth-seeded Alabama (24-7) vs. No. 12 Wisconsin-Milwaukee (24-5); No. 6 LSU (20-9) vs. 11th-seeded Alabama-Birmingham (21-10); No. 7 Southern Illinois (26-7) vs. 10th-seeded St. Mary's (25-8); and No. 8 Texas (20-10) vs. ninth-seeded Nevada (24-6).