Illinois vs Penn: Upset Alert?

0:00On March 17th, the third-seated Illinois Fighting Aligny faced the 14th-seated Penn Quakers in the opening round of the NCAA tournament Thursday night at 8.25pm, Central Time on TNT in Greenville, South Carolina. This matchup looks like a classic early-upset watch, but Illinois enters as a massive favorite. Illinois coach Brad Underwood is sending a clear message to his players, reminding them that Penn is a champion in their own right and deserves full. Respect heading into March madness. Analysts back that caution with cold hard numbers as ESPN's matchup predictor gives Illinois a 97.3% chance of victory in this round of 64 clash. Penn sits around 150th in key efficiency ratings with an offense outside the top 200 and a defense not much better. Plus, they're severely undersized against the tallest squad in college basketball, the Aligny. Even so, tournament history shows wild things can happen this time of year, keeping every game on edge as the brackets start to shake out.