The start of Western Illinois' NCAA tournament run in Year 18, continued
Welcome back to Western Illinois’ chase for greatness in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons at the About page of this website. Share it with a friend!
We pick up with our Leathernecks in the first round of the 2025 NCAA tournament. Here’s a recap of everything that has happened this season so far:
We started the year ranked No. 18 in the preseason polls and rated as a 99 overall with four returning starters. We dropped only one game — to No. 5 Stanford — during the regular season and then won the Summit League tournament once again.
We earned a No. 4 seed to the NCAA tournament (our second highest seed ever) and drew a first round matchup with No. 13 seed Florida Atlantic.
We recruited for four scholarships and failed to land anyone in the early signing period.
READ: Western Illinois, Year 18, 2024-2025
Here’s a look at our roster heading into the NCAA tournament:
The expectations for this year were set at the start of this season: championship or bust. Coming off back-to-back NCAA tournament runs that ended in the Elite Eight, there’s a lot of pressure on our Leathernecks to breakthrough this season. We could potentially lose the top six players off this team to the draft and graduation at the end of the year. This is our shot.
There’s a full breakdown of the roster in the Year 18 regular season post, but here’s my 10,000-foot view:
I feel confident saying this is the best front court we’ve ever had. Dupre (94 overall) is an elite rim protector who also finishes strong when he gets the ball inside. Fulton (94 overall) is great at jumping the passing lanes defensively and has a reliable three-point stroke. Timon “Chewy” Suotamo (91 overall) is an incredible luxury to have as a backup center. There’s also two promising freshmen in the mix in Allan Cunningham and Pat Giddens.
The guards could make-or-break this tournament run. Brandin Price (93 overall) is in his third year as a starter and has made the transition from point guard to the two. He has a super slow release on his jumper, but he’s a great shooter and passer. We’re going to need him to get hot to beat the best teams in this tournament field. Angel Keita (88 overall) is our lone new starter. He will likely be outclassed by other point guards if we make a deep tournament run; we just need him to hold his own.
I really like our young bench. Wilky Henry is a 6’7 shooter, Cunningham is comically large at 6’11, 275 pounds and he has a shooting stroke, we already talked about how good Chewy is. There’s also freshman point guard Tron Whaley, who has emerged as a fan favorite.
I believe the No. 4 seed next to our name is our second highest seed ever. Our journey in March Madness begins against No. 13 seed Florida Atlantic. Fighting out of the Sun Belt, the Owls enter the game as an 85 overall. We are rated as a 100 overall.
We streamed this game on Twitch on Thursday night. As always, we’re watching a simulated game between the computer — I’m not actually playing any of the games in this series. I only do the recruiting and set the coaching strategies.
The game should begin when you press play, but if not go to the 19-minute mark. Let’s go!
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Win, 101-68. And we’re off to the round of 32.
This was a beatdown from the opening tip — we got out to an 8-0 run to start the game, and built the lead to 16-4 less than seven minutes into the first half. It was a wrap from there. The starters combined for like two minutes of playing time in the second half and it didn’t even matter. Our young bench balled out, gave us a promising glimpse at our future, and pushed us into the second round without any drama.
Some fun clips from this one via reader Abby (WHO IS GETTING MARRIED (edit: NOT) THIS WEEKEND, CONGRATS ABBY):
Allan Cunningham for three — a young big man with a smooth stroke
I haven’t mentioned ‘Silky’ Wilky Henry yet and all he did was earn Player of the Game honors with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting. The future is bright, but the present is brighter.
Our opponent in the round of 32 will be No. 5 seed San Diego State.
Western Illinois vs. San Diego State, round of 32, 2025 NCAA tournament
The Aztecs defeated UNC Wilmington in the dreaded 5-12 matchup in round one to get here. SDSU enters as a 92 overall.
You can take a look at the San Diego State roster here. You may remember that we once recruited their shooting guard Jud McDonald. I’m more into their 7’1 power forward Laurence Stevens, who should provide a challenge for Fulton based on his size alone.
We streamed this game on Twitch. We have made the second weekend of the NCAA tournament three straight season — let’s book No. 4 right now. Let’s go!
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Win, 106-75! We’re back in the Sweet 16 (at least) for the fourth straight year.
This game was actually pretty close through the first half. San Diego State was able to hang tough even without Stevens, who was put on the bench because of early foul trouble. I was actually getting nervous for a minute there as the Aztecs matched us shot for shot throughout most of the first half.
Whatever, everyone knows the ‘Necks are forever a second half team. We lived up to that billing once again in a big way.
I’m pretty sure Vernard Fulton single-handedly swung this game in our favor. Just watch this stretch early in the second half: he scores a layup, then gets a pick-six for another layup, steals the ball again and outlets the ball to Keita for a layup, then steals the ball again and ends the ensuing possession with a three. King shit.
It was over just like that. I thought all of the starters save for Price (who barely played) were really good, especially Medina in the first half. Suotamo was great off the bench for us, finishing with 14 points, 13 rebounds, and five assists. It’s always good to see Vino — a senior who never started but has had a nice career as a consummate glue guy — knock down a couple threes.
But I really want to talk about Cunningham. Because ….
Cunningham aka Honey Ham aka The Ham Man aka The Big Nickname is essentially a Mountain Man with Dancer’s Feet. He is going to be so good in the near future, and I’m happy to see his breakout happening in the tournament as a freshman.
We are set to face the winner of No. 1 seed Gonzaga vs. No. 8 seed Louisville in the Sweet 16 and …. to our surprise, the Cards pulled the upset. Bring on U of L!
Western Illinois vs. Louisville, Sweet 16, 2025 NCAA tournament
Despite being the No. 8 seed, the Cards still look really good. They’ll enter the game as a 97 overall. Here’s how we matchup:
You can find the Cards’ roster here. Our roster also had some improvement this week: Keita goes up one point to 89 overall, Giddens goes up a point to 84 overall, and true freshman Wilbur Ager (who is redshirting) goes up one point to 80 overall.
We’re streaming this game on Saturday night on Twitch at 8:30 p.m. ET. The winner gets the winner of UConn/Florida …. and wooo boy, both of those teams are absolutely loaded.
How to watch Western Illinois vs. Louisville in the Sweet 16
Game: No. 4 seed Western Illinois vs. No. 8 seed Louisville, Sweet 16, 2025 NCAA tournament
How to watch: My Twitch channel
Date: Saturday, Aug. 1
Tip-off time: 8:30 p.m. ET // 7:30 p.m. CT. The stream will start a little earlier.
If we win: Elite Eight game vs. the winner of Florida/UConn will follow immediately after.
Come hang out on Saturday! The streams have been super fun because we have a great community of people commenting every game. Huge weekend coming up for our program. I can’t wait.
Bracket contest update
We had 130 entrants in the bracket contest this year — a new record. For full results, check out Sean’s app, which works on desktop and mobile. Here are the current leaders:
Literally everyone picked the Leathernecks to make the Sweet 16 and a whole bunch of y’all picked us to win it all. Thanks to everyone for entering, this has been a fun addition to the project.
Winner gets to create themselves or a character as a five-star recruit in the game. Will someone finally pick a non-Atlantic-10 school???
A few more notes:
Still giving out some paid subscriptions to Matt Ellentuck’s newsletter. I mean, who doesn’t want this guy in their inbox? Send me an email with your favorite WNBA team/player/and favorite moment.
Reader Luke is doing a kick ass college football version of our thing in NCAA 14. He’s done two newsletters so far on his Akron dynasty and I have read every word of both of them. Subscribe here.
THE SECOND INSTALLMENT OF THE DEKE VAN SERIES IS OUT. I hope you liked it. People have asked if they can still buy a Deke Van t-shirt from Homefield Apparel — hell yes, you can.
The Reddit page for our Western Illinois project has been dope. Subscribe! I will also shout-out the @Leathernecks_Nation page on Instagram. Feel free to keep commenting on the web version of the newsletter, but longer stuff can go on the Reddit page, too. It’s cool to see it take off a little!
WESTERN ILLINOIS VS. LOUISVILLE
SWEET 16
SATURDAY AUG. 1 AT 8:30 P.M. ET ON TWITCH
SEE YOU THEN.
GO ‘NECKS
Keita might be fine for the team with so much production coming from the big men, but individually he's been a somewhat of a dud imo. His numbers are the same whether he's playing 15 mins or 30. For such a low-scoring guard, I'd hope for more steals and assists. He's an efficient scorer which helps balance Price's streakiness. But the two times the 'Necks have won the chip it's been behind stand out guard play. You gotta recruit a top notch PG!
It is possible that the 3 best remaining teams/rosters are all in WIU's bracket? Florida has the highest top end, UConn is the deepest and WIU is probably the next best combination of depth and top end. Even Louisville is probably in the top half of the remaining 16 teams. Looks like those first weekend cake walks were just a warm up for this brutal upcoming stretch.
Looking at the Louisville game, the 100 shooting (and 40% from 3) is a little scary. But, hopefully the Necks' relatively tall SG and SF positions can give them a defensive advantage. I think WIU's overall size and depth advantage, especially in the front court is going to have them owning the glass and limiting Louisville to one shot on each trip.