Agree. Picks and pick swaps with likely playoff teams just don't have as much value now with NIL keeping more players in college. Lottery picks always will be valuable, but later first round picks seem more like second round picks with a drop off in talent in later first round these days.
Were they? The way Smith said "in my opinion" or something similar, seemed like he was talking about the NCAA tourney. We were mathematically locked in to seeds 3-5 for the B1G tourney, no opinion needed.
Looks like most of the brackets on Bracket Matrix that had Illinois as a 3-seed also had Nebraska as a 2-seed, so tonight's results should make the Illini a really solid 2-seed when updates are done tomorrow.
I think only 1 of 4 were credited as an assist to Keaton since Jakeās 3 was after a fake and dribble. Still, great unselfish play by everyone down the stretch regardless of the stats.