By IlliniGuys Staff

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The 24th ranked Illinois men's basketball has earned a bid to the NCAA tournament for the fifth year in a row and will face either Texas or Xavier as the No. 6 seed in the Midwest Regional in their first round game Friday in Milwaukee.

The Illini learned of their pairing on CBS' Selection Sunday show. It's the program's longest NCAA tournament run since appearing in eight straight from 2000-07 under coaches Lon Kruger, Bill Self, and Bruce Weber.

Last year, the Illini earned a 3-seed and beat Morehead State, Duquesne, and Iowa State to earn their first Elite Eight berth since 2005, when they advanced to the national championship game. Only one player, reserve Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn, remains on the roster from that team.

Illinois finished this season at 21-12, becoming one of only four programs in Division I to record 20 or more wins in each of the last six seasons. It's also the sixth year in a row that head coach Brad Underwood guided the team to double-digit wins in Big Ten play. Illinois had reached .500 in conference play only twice in the nine-year prior, in 2011 under Weber and 2015 with John Groce calling the shots.

The Illini opened the season by winning 12 of their first 15 games before injuries and illness disrupted the season. Big Ten All-Freshman pick Kasparas Jakucionis (forearm), Big Ten honorable mention selection Tomislav Ivisic (mononucleosis, ankle, flu), Tre White, Gibbs-Lawhorn, Jake Davis (flu), and Morez Johnson Jr. (wrist) all missed parts or all of games in the final half of the season. Illinois lost five of 13 contests during that stretch before coming together to close the regular season with three straight wins.

Illinois became just the second team to score 100 points in a Big Ten game when they outshot Iowa 106-94 in the second round of the Big Ten tournament Thursday night before coming out flat against 11th ranked Maryland in the quarterfinals, 88-65.

Texas brings a 19-13 overall record into the tournament after tying for 13th in the 16-team Southeastern Conference with a 6-12 league mark. The Longhorns lost to Ohio State and two-time defending NCAA champ UConn in the non-conference portion of their schedule and were 5-11 in conference play against NCAA-bound teams, including an 82-78 win over Kentucky, the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Regional. But they surprised Vanderbilt and then nipped Texas A&M in a double-overtime thriller to advance to the SEC quarterfinals this weekend, where they lost to Tennessee. But those two wins clearly lifted Texas onto the right side of the bubble and landed them one of the last at-large bids.

Xavier finished 21-11 overall and 13-7 in the Big East, where they split games with UConn and lost two of three to Marquette, including their conference tournament on Thursday. The Musketeers lost a non-conference matchup to Big Ten tournament champion Michigan back in December.

These two will meet in the First Four games in Dayton Wednesday night. The winner will travel to Milwaukee to face Illinois on Friday at a time to be announced.

More on the Illini's upcoming NCAA tournament run here on IlliniGuys.com.