Western Illinois’ NCAA tournament run in Year 26, continued

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks in the first round of the NCAA tournament, here’s a recap of everything that has happened so far this season:

Here’s a look at our roster entering the 2033 NCAA tournament:

The mission for this season has been clear from the start: win back-to-back national championships for the first time in program history. We’ll have to buck our dubious history as defending champions to get it done. In the previous four times we’ve entered the NCAA tournament looking to defend our national championship, we haven’t made it further than the round of 32.

This team absolutely has the talent to repeat. We only lost one player from last year, starting big man Dick Copeland, who left after his redshirt junior year as a projected top pick in the NBA draft. Everyone else is back with another year of experience under their belt. There’s a strong case to be made that this is our best team yet since I took over as head coach at Western Illinois ahead of the 2007-2008 season.

All five of our starters are projected first round NBA draft picks. True junior 7-foot center Cecil Sinville and 6’4 redshirt junior shooting guard Albert Jagla are each projected as top picks. They are joined by a trio of standout redshirt seniors who played a vital role off the bench in our Year 23 national championship team, and then helped power another national title winer last year. Those players: 6’5 point guard Alexis Willingham, 6’9, 260-pound wing Skip Clemmons, and 6’8 do-it-all forward J.J. Bracy. I also reintroduced the starters in the regular season post if you’re new here.

How good is this group? On our subreddit, reader Kyle made the case that all five starters are top five players at their position in Leathernecks history. Bracy’s game is so multi-faceted at power forward that he often draws comparisons to Draymond Green and had reader 808s and Milkshakes writing a case for why we should play him at point guard.

Western Illinois enters the 2033 NCAA tournament rated as a 100 overall in every category but head coach. Our opponent is Stanford, the rare power-five squad to sneak into the dance as a No. 13 seed. Here’s how the two teams matchup:

This really feels like the last dance for this particular core knowing that we’re going to lose all five starters to graduation/the league when this run is over. We have some nice talent on the bench in the form of wing duo Nic Cummings and Neil Modrovich, but it’s possible this is our last title shot for a long time. We want to go back-to-back with perhaps our greatest core ever. We need to go back-to-back while they’re still here. But first, we must beat Stanford.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. As always, I’m not controlling Western Illinois; we’re watching a simulated game. Let’s go!

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Win, 125-74! That was one of the most dominant offensive performances I’ve ever seen from our ‘Necks.

This game was actually close for the opening minutes. We were tied at 20-20 midway through the first half before we went on a run to break the game open. Despite struggling to shoot from three in the first half (3-of-12 as a team), we found an offensive rhythm by working the ball inside. Cecil Sinville was an absolute monster, finishing with all 19 of his points in the first half. The only reason he didn’t score after halftime is because we pulled our starters two minutes into the second half when the game had already turned into a blowout.

We kept hunting for the mismatch to get Sinville the ball in position to score, and he delivered time and time again:

Bracy was also excellent, finishing with 14 points, eight rebounds, and three stocks in 21 minutes. The bench took over from there. We had a 23-point lead when the starters were pulled. All we did was win by 51. It shows just how deep this team is, and perhaps how I’m underrating our future even after we lose all five starters following this tournament run.

Every member of the bench scored in double-figures, led by true sophomore shooting guard Neil Modrovich’s 17 points. This was also our first extended look at our two redshirt freshmen in the front court, 7’3 center Daron Coulter, and center-turned-power forward C.J. Cesar. I thought each provided a nice presence in the paint and on the glass on both ends of the floor. When the game was over, we had eight different players score in double-figures, and also scored 125 points as a team without anyone even scoring 20. This was truly egalitarian basketball, which is always the vision for the ‘Necks.

The win sets up a second round matchup with No. 5 seed Georgetown.

Georgetown enters the second round as knocking off Ivy champion Dartmouth in round one. The Hoyas are rated as a 96 overall, which is three points higher than Stanford.

Not going to lie, I’m a little worried about this game. Georgetown has some good looking bigs who might be able to bother Sinville a little bit, and they have a superstar senior shooting guard. More than anything, I’m worried because we always lose in this round during our repeat bids. Just getting to the Sweet 16 for the first time as defending champions would be such a relief.

We looked amazing in round one against Stanford; I’m just hoping we can keep up that level of play. We watched the simulated game against Georgetown on Twitch on Sunday night. Let’s go!

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Win, 95-75! WE’RE GOING TO THE SWEET 16.

Credit Georgetown for hanging tight with us throughout the first half. This was a much more competitive game than our tournament opener, but eventually our distinct talent advantage led us to a pretty easy win.

We could use this space to talk about the all-around brilliance of Alexis Willingham, who finished with 19 points and 11 assists and was the best player on the floor all game long. We could talk about Sinville, who scored 19 points for the second game in a row and made it look effortless. We could talk about Modrovich stepping up off the bench with a couple big threes to finish with 12 points, or we could talk how the rest of the team picked up Albert Jagla as he again struggled to get going offensively.

Instead, I just want to talk about dunks. We seemingly went like 3-4 seasons in a row without seeing a Leathernecks player dunk the ball in a stream game, but we had two sick dunks in this one.

First, here’s a nasty alley-oop slam by Nic Cummings in the first half.

Fun fact: Cummings has what I believe is the highest dunk rating in program history at 95 overall. We finally got to see what that looked like during a game.

And after we had pretty much wrapped up the win, J.J. Bracy decided to one-up Cummings with a ridiculous alley-oop slam of his own late in the second left. I have never seen anything like this during my time at Western Illinois:

The skyward point! The skyward point after the dunk really got me.

Western Illinois is running into the Sweet 16 with the dream of back-to-back national championships still alive. Our win over Georgetown sets up a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 1 seed Florida State.

The Seminoles are legit: they enter at 25-6 on the season, they’re rated as a 98 overall, and they were No. 1 in the country in the RPI.

Florida State has three players rated in the 90s, and they’re deep at every position. The matchups just keep getting a little tougher after every win so far on this tournament run, and this will be our biggest test yet.

We really need to get Jagla going. You might remember he averaged more than 24 points per game on our run to the national title last year. He’s averaging only six points per game through our first two wins this year. I don’t think we can keep winning without him as a major part of our offense. I’m also interested in how our team defense will survive against a really good FSU squad.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. A trip to the Elite Eight is on the line. Let’s gooooooo.

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Win 116-95. We’re one win away from the Final Four!

Oh my, Skip Clemmons. We had lacked a signature individual performance throughout this tournament run so far, but Clemmons just delivered it. He scored 25 of his 30 points in the first half, and finished 9-of-14 shooting from the floor and 5-of-10 shooting from three-point range. I had a good feeling about his performance from the very start of the game: he scored our first eight points, including a three-pointer immediately off the opening tip:

I think we truly forget just how huge Skip is. This man is 6’9, 260 pounds as a natural shooting guard. He weighs one (1) pound less than our center Sinville, who is the heaviest guy on the team. We moved Clemmons to the three when we landed Jagla in the next recruiting class, but it’s wild to see someone with this combination of size and ball skills.

Clemmons has struggled a bit when we put him at the four, but there’s no denying how beneficial his strength is against smaller wings. This looked like a ‘96 MJ move:

Skip was so locked in throughout the first half that I honestly thought he was going to score 50. Instead, it was his backup at small forward who did some serious damage out of halftime.

Nic Cummings is a redshirt sophomore wing out of San Jose. He’s developed nicely over the years and is now our sixth man rated as an 89 overall. Cummings is going to be the future of this team, but because our starting lineup is both so talented and so experienced, we haven’t needed him too much yet. Against Florida State, he finally showed what he can do.

Cummings finished with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and 4-of-6 shooting from three to help key the win. He’s not a great shooter (77 rating from three-point range), but his size and athleticism are really a plus. His performance has me more excited for next year. We also needed it during a game when Sinville struggled (six points on 2-of-8 shooting) and our backup bigs didn’t give us anything either.

We’re on to the Elite Eight, where our opponent will be No. 6 seed Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt’s run to this point is pretty incredible: they beat three really good teams in Wisconsin, Maryland, and Arizona to reach the Elite Eight.

While it seems like we caught a break here because Vandy is only a No. 6 seed, they enter with the same overall rating as top-seed Florida State: 98. This team has a superstar shooting guard and a really talented two-way center who looks like Cliff Robinson (RIP). I have a feeling this isn’t going to be an easy game.

Western Illinois has been the Final Four seven times in my first 25 years. We have five national titles, but we still haven’t gone back-to-back. We’re been working all year for this moment, and we think we have the team to get it done. We just know we can’t afford to have an off night on a stage this big.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. Because of a technical error, the game is split up into two videos. Final Four on the line. Let’s go!

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Win, 97-78! Western Illinois is back in the Final Four!

Oh my, Vandy gave us all we can handle. After a relatively stress-free road to get to this point, Vanderbilt had us sweating in the final five minutes. For the first time on this tournament run, I made manual subs. For the first time on this tournament run, I made an in-game coaching adjustment. I’m not sure if win this one without those moves.

Up four points with 3:52 left, I re-inserted the starting lineup back in the game after a brief rest to make sure they weren’t gassed in crunch time. We also went with a 1-2-1-1 full court press with the hope of stringing together a few stops to turn a close game into a blowout. That’s exactly what happened.

Skip Clemmons — who was incredible defensively all night, finishing with six steals — swiped this pass to kick-start the break for an impressive Albert Jagla layup. Then J.J. Bracy stole the inbounds pass and finished with the layup:

It was a wrap from there. We played far from a perfect game, but we did achieve a pretty much ideal balance throughout the starting lineup.

I thought Cecil Sinville was excellent again, finishing with 22 points and 12 rebounds on 8-of-12 shooting from the field. He’s moving up the list of all-time great centers in program history. Just the fact that a) he’s our only No. 1-rated center recruit in program history, b) he’s poised to leave as a top pick after only three years on campus, c) he helped win us one national title already, puts him in the running. But he’s also arguably been our best player on another potential title run. I can’t say for certain that we’ve had a better natural talent in the middle.

Clemmons is another all-timer, and he turned in another masterful performance on both ends. Jagla finally had his best offensive game, and Willingham was very good again, too. While Draymond Bracy did have a rough night, we’ll let him make it up to us in the Final Four.

Here’s a bonus Willingham three-pointer, just because I clipped it:

Western Illinois has won the national title in Year 8, Year 13, Year 20, Year 23, and Year 25. If we want title No. 6 in Year 26, we’re going to have to beat No. 1 seed BYU to get there.

Our opponent in the Final Four is BYU. Yes, you will remember we beat the Cougars in a true road game that we streamed on Twitch during this regular season when they were ranked No. 1 in the polls. That game was close throughout and I think this is going to be another battle.

BYU enters the game rated as a 100 overall. Here’s how the two teams matchup.

On the other side of the bracket, No. 10 seed Georgia Tech defeated No. 9 seed UNC. The Yellow Jackets await the winner in the national title game.

Alexis Willingham has always shined in big games like this one since entering the rotation as a redshirt freshman, and we’re going to need him against BYU. Poor point guard play has sabotaged us in the Final Four in the past, but there’s no one I’d rather have controlling the action than Willingham. I’m also interested to see how we compete against a talented BYU front court, which includes a 95 overall power forward. We need to clean up the glass, avoid bad turnovers, and hit our threes.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. As always, I’m not controlling Western Illinois, we’re watching a simulated game. National title No. 6 is within sight, but we can’t afford a let down here. Let’s go!

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Win, 105-77! Beatdown! We’re going to the national title game.

While I was worried about BYU’s talent level coming into the game, it’s clear my players were not. We opened the game on a 19-4 run that turned this into a blowout from the opening minutes. We never looked back. The closest BYU made the game was 22-10 with about 12 minutes left in the first half. We responded with a 20-5 run that made the game 42-15 still early in the first half. It was a wrap from there, and the bench basically played twice as many minutes as the starters with such a big lead in hand.

We identified Willingham as someone who needed to step up pregame, and he did exactly that. The senior guard popped off for 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting. I loved the offensive action on this early play. We ran Jagla and Sinville off pindown screens to try to get them open for three before Willingham finally got free from one and knocked down the shot.

We had the starters pulled with five minutes left in the first half. In a Final Four game! That gave us a good opportunity to see what our young bench looked like on such a big stage, which is huge considering we’re expected to lose all five starters after this season.

Next season’s team is going to be led by Neil Modrovich and Nic Cummings, so it was great to see both ball out in the second half. Modrovich was absolutely incredible, scoring 23 points by going 6-for-6 from deep. Many of these were contested looks that he just drained. My Tyler Herro comp is looking better and better:

Cummings was also awesome, finishing with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor and 3-of-5 from three. How about this facial dunk?

The win puts us in the national title game, where we’ll face No. 10 seed Georgia Tech.

It feels like we dodged a major bullet drawing Georgia Tech in the title game because they’re merely a No. 10 seed, but the Yellow Jackets’ roster is undeniably talented. They have three players ranked 92 overall or above on the perimeter. There’s only one problem: they don’t have much size inside.

GT enters the game ranked as a 97 overall. We’re ranked as a 100 overall in every category.

We’ve been fighting all year to repeat as national champions for the first time in school history. Everyone but starting big man Dick Copeland was back from last season’s champs. We had depth, we had size, we had shooting everywhere, and we had championship experience. We enter this game at 35-2 on the season. With one more victory, I think there’s a strong case that this is the best Western Illinois team of all-time.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. LET’S GO!

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Win, 94-66! For the sixth time in program history, the Western Illinois Leathernecks are national champs!

Back-to-back, bayyybeeeee. GOAT ‘Necks team. Straight up kicking ass throughout the whole tournament.

We branded ourselves as a second half team in this dynasty decades ago. We certainly lived up to it against Georgia Tech. The first half was tooth-and-nail the whole way. We took only a one point lead going into the break. But as the second half began, so did the onslaught. We scored the first nine points out of the break and the blowout was on from there.

It’s time Cecil Sinville is discussed among the all-time greats in ‘Necks history. He ended this game with 20 points, 17 rebounds, and six assists, a comically dominant performance that should cap his brilliant career. Sinville was the first No. 1 ranked center recruit we ever landed, and he’s now poised to become the first Leatherneck to bounce for the NBA after only three years in school.

Sinville was named Most Outstanding Player after the tournament. He was the only choice.

This team was just so damn good the entire tournament run — the only reason their per game numbers look modest is because the game kept pulling the starters every time we’d open a lead of more than 20. Simply the most dominant Leathernecks starting five ever. With all five projected to be first round draft picks, let’s run through the boys one last time.

We need to watch one last SKIP RIP on our way out. What a team.

That’s banner No. 6. That’s back-to-back national titles. That’s three titles in the last four years, and four in the last seven.

Most importantly, I now surpass Coach K on the all-time titles list. Images via reader Josh:

We also now are tied with North Carolina for the third most national championships by a men’s college basketball program. Kentucky and UCLA are within sight before the game makes me retire after Year 40.

This was such a special team, and we honor them while also acknowledging the future is a lot more unknowable. With all five starters gone and four open scholarships, this offseason will go a long way towards shaping what Western Illinois looks like in the future. Let’s get to it.

We enter recruiting with four open scholarships. This class is NOT going well so far and we need to remedy that right now. We do have one recruit at 99 percent interest — top 40 overall prospect Vakeaton Sykes, a 6’4 shooting guard out of Michigan. If Sykes had 1 percet more interest he would have committed right away, which is killing me. The question is if we want to use our lone flight this week to visit him, or if we should assume a phone call will lock him up and use the flight to visit someone else.

I decide to use the flight to visit Elvin King, the No. 2 ranked center recruit we’ve been chasing for a while. As long as Sykes doesn’t get another offer, we should land him.

NOOOOOOOOO.

Sykes picked Xavier, the team we faced in the national title game last season in Year 25. UGH. That one stings ... a lot. We need to rebound, though. I’m going all out after King. We also have offers out to No. 10 overall prospect shooting guard Sammy Yan and No. 11 overall prospect point guard Elliot Ortega. Either would surpass Jagla as the highest rank recruit in program history. We also offer Dave Dearman, a highly regarded three-star power forward.

After a few weeks with no bites, we finally land our first recruit in this cycle. Elvin King. The 7-foot center out of Clearwater, Florida.

As we get down to the last week of recruiting, Yan is at 88 percent interest. Ortega is at 82 percent interest. Neither have other offers. All we can do is hope to land them. After an anxious seven days, we get some news: Sammy Yan is a ‘Neck. The 6’4 shooting guard out of Vallejo, CA is now our highest-ranked recruit in program history at No. 10 overall. He’s also the No. 3 ranked two guard in the class.

That means we are rolling over two scholarships for next year for a total of four. I’m super pleased that we salvaged recruiting a bit with two high impact players, but I’d love a more complete class next year.

Let’s set the schedule real quick. We’re going with an easier non-con slate next year heavy on Horizon League opponents. Here’s what we got:

vs. Illinois Chicago, @ Louisville, @ Villanova, Great Alaskan Shootout, vs. Valpo, vs. Wright State, vs. Cleveland State, @ Loyola, @ UW Green Bay.

Here’s a first look at the roster for Year 27:

A few things that jump out:

We’re going to stream the regular season of Year 26 on Friday, Nov. 20 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Twitch. Here’s how you can watch:

What we’re watching: Western Illinois Year 27 regular season stream. We’ll watch one regular season game, recruit for four scholarships, and sim to the NCAA tournament.

How to watch: My Twitch channel

Date: Friday, November 20

Tip-off time: 8:30 p.m. ET

See you there. Go ‘Necks.