Indiana Basketball: What Indiana needs to do to get an at-large bid

3. Help from the other teams on the bubble

Arizona State. Temple. Seton Hall. TCU.

Those are the four teams who have secured a spot in the “last four in” category on the most updated ESPN Bracketology.

Breaking down their resumes first, all but TCU (54) have lower NET rankings than Indiana (55), with Arizona State being the lowest at 68.

Furthermore, Indiana ranks fifth in the NCAA with six quad 1 wins, previously had seven but Butler dropped from quad 1 to quad 2, while the next highest between those four is Seton Hall with four wins, but also four less quad 1 games played. The other three have a combined record of 6-16 against quad 1 opponents.

If Indiana can have a couple of those teams continue to lose, like TCU who has lost six of their last seven, then their resume would overpower the others.

Taking a look at remaining schedules, TCU has one regular season game left at Texas (currently a 9-seed), while Arizona State goes on the road to Arizona. In a rough season for the Wildcats, with their rival coming to town, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arizona pull that one off.

As for Seton Hall, they have the best chance to solidify their spot in the tournament, but also have the toughest two games remaining from any of the teams listed. They play host to both No. 16 Marquette and then No. 23 Villanova. On a three game losing streak right now, these last two games couldn’t come at a better, but also worse time. The only thing keeping them afloat are two non-confenrce wins against No. 9 Kentucky and at Maryland.

Lastly, despite being fourth in the AAC, Temple has the best chance of holding on to an at-large bid. With a win over No. 17 Houston earlier in the season, they have games at UCONN and at home against No. 25 UCF to finish their regular season. Though both are tricky, a down year for the Huskies and hosting the Central Florida game plays heavily in their favor compared to some of the other schedules. The only knock on the Owls though is their 1-6 record against quad 1 opponents, lowest out of the teams listed above.

The two sleeper teams out of all of this are Murray State and Furman, both of which are in a very strong non-power league and sitting in the ‘first four out’ category.

Furman, with a win over No. 8 Villanova, sits at 24-6 in a conference with Wofford (projected 7-seed) and UNC-Greensboro (26-5), and if they were able to make a run for the Southern Conference Tournament title, that would take one spot away from these bubble teams, as Wofford will receive an at-large bid either way.

When it comes to Murray State, they have top-5 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft Ja Morant, the biggest highlight reel behind Zion Williamson. They also hold a 25-4 record, with a NET ranking of 50. Tied for first in the regular season in their conference with Belmont, a current 12-seed in the projected NCAA Tournament field, the Racers could easily win their conference tournament or even fall to Belmont in the finals and still have a strong case to make it in.

There are a lot of different scenarios that could happen for the Hoosiers to make it in, but in order to take it out of the other bubble team’s hands, is to just continue to win.