Illinois will open its 26th NCAA Tournament appearance and seventh in as many years, tonight at 6:25 p.m. when it meets Air Force at Cox Arena in San Diego.

The Illini enter the game with a 25-6 record and are the No. 4 seed in the Washington D.C. Regional. Air Force is 24-6 and is the 13th seed. Illinois had hoped to get a better seed in the tournament, but Illini head coach Bruce Weber said he has come to grips with Illinois’ seeding and is content with where the team is.

“We had made some strides and I thought we were playing really well, but then we lost on Friday,” he said, referring to Illinois’ 61-56 loss to Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals. “We didn’t play well and the committee dropped us, we have no one to blame but ourselves.”

Air Force didn’t even know if it would be invited to the NCAA Tournament after losing in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament, and head coach Jeff Bzdelik, a former assistant at Northwestern, was thrilled to see his team in the field of 65.

“I was there in front of the TV, and when I saw Air and then an F, I was running around and didn’t even know where we were playing,” he said.

The Falcons are loyal followers of the Princeton offense and share many characteristics with Bzdelik’s former team, Northwestern.

“They run their offense like Northwestern where they run off a lot of clock and look for back doors,” Weber said. “They also spread you and then go in and out because most of their shots are threes.”

Four players are currently averaging double figures for the Falcons, led by senior guard Antoine Hood at 14.8 points per game.

“They have a very balanced scoring attack,” Weber said. “They don’t make a lot of substitutions either; they pretty much stick with six players.”

Defensively, Air Force has some impressive statistics. They rank second among tournament teams – only Southern Illinois is better – in scoring defense at 64.0 points per game.

“They play a match up zone which can be somewhat hard to play against,” Weber said. “It can look like man one moment and then it’ll look like a straight zone. I don’t even know if they know sometimes.”

This could create struggles for Illinois’ offense, so Weber hopes to take advantage of any fast-break opportunity he can.

“They’re a tough match up for any team because of the way they make you grind out the game,” he said. “We are going to try and push it on them whenever we can.”

He added, “If we can get an eight to 10 point lead, it’s like having a 15 to 18 point lead on another team. They’re not used to scoring quick baskets.”