The NCAA Men's Basketball Committee will unveiled its initial top 16 seeds on Saturday on the Bracket Preview Show, with Illinois cracking the list at No. 15.

The committed currently has Illinois plugged in as the No. 4 seed in the South region of the tournament.

It will be another four weeks until the NCAA Tournament bracket is ready to be filled out by millions of fans across America, but the initial seeding is a good indicator for the Fighting Illini.

According to the NCAA press release, the Bracket Preview Show has proven to be a good indicator of teams being seeded favorably when the actual bracket is released on Selection Sunday. 80 of 96 have remained among the top four seeds when the actual brackets have been announced annually on Selection Sunday The practice began in 2017.

Illinois (17-6) is currently ranked No. 14 in the AP poll heading into Saturday's game at Maryland. They are No. 13 in the NET, the NCAA's primary sorting tool for evaluating teams. KenPom.com ranks Illinois No. 9.

Last season, Illinois secured the No. 9 seed in the West region, falling to No. 8 seed Arkansas in the first round at Wells Fargo Arena in DeMoines, Iowa. The highest seed of the Brad Underwood era was in 2020-21 season when the Illini entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest region.

1. Purdue

2. UConn

3. Houston

4. Arizona

5. North Carolina

6. Tennessee

7. Marquette

8. Kansas

9. Alabama

10. Baylor

11. Iowa State

12. Duke

13. Auburn

14. San Diego State

15. Illinois

16. Wisconsin