After being the laughing stock of the Big Ten for the whole season, the Illinois men’s basketball team just moved one game away from winning the conference tournament and back-dooring into the NCAA tournament.

If they get in, ESPN’s Laurence Holmes from WSCR-AM 670 wants them to be sent to a play-in game with Howard. Would you really do that to a team that’s one of the top 40 teams in the nation, Laurence?

That’s right, folks. People far, far smarter than me say that Illinois is the No. 37 team in the country. Over at basketball prospectus, the same folks who brought you the brilliant Rob Laird-bookmarked baseball prospectus also bring you one for college basketball.

Using their weird equation that I’m not going to even try to explain, Illinois is not only the unluckiest team in the nation (by a wide margin), they are the 37th-best following Friday’s upset over Purdue, which wasn’t that big of an upset if you consider Purdue is ranked just 12 spots higher at 25th by the same system.

FYI, before you think this website is crazy, they were all over George Mason in 2006 and VCU last year. This year, it likes New Mexico, although that team’s in danger of not even making the tournament this year. It looks like the big schools are the teams to choose in brackets this year.