The Indiana basketball team has lost their last two games but still sits easily in the NCAA tournament field in the latest bracketology.
The Hoosiers are looking to stop a mini two-game losing streak when they play Minnesota on Wednesday. Indiana lost their last two games on the road at Purdue and Illinois, but despite that, they are still one of the last four byes in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology.
In his latest version, the Hoosiers are sitting as a 10 seed in the Midwest region and face a first-round matchup with former head coach Kelvin Sampson and his Houston Cougars. It would be a very interesting game between the two teams and former coach, and one that we jokingly predicted in the best-case scenario for the Hoosiers season, although that prediction was in the second round.
Lunardi’s bracket would then have the Hoosiers looking at a potential game with second-seeded Seton Hall in the second round if they could win. The Midwest would also include Big Ten foes Ohio State, Penn State, and Illinois. The region would be one of the tougher ones with overall number one team Kansas and perennial power Louisville also in that section of the draw.
It looks like Lunardi is still taking into account the Hoosiers big home win over Penn State two weeks ago and not counting the road losses that much against them. They did drop a seed line after the losses but are still in a much better place then they were just two weeks ago when they were on the wrong side of the bubble.
The only thing that could keep the Hoosiers out of the tournament is losing their next two games at home and they could possibly even survive that if they got a win in the Big Ten tournament. But if the Hoosier can pick up the season sweep of Minnesota they should be in great shape. Win that and beat Wisconsin in the regular-season finale and that would definitely sew up a spot in the dance.
Again that Hoosiers are benefitting from having zero bad losses on their resume and a good amount of wins over ranked opponents, including Michigan State, Florida State, Ohio State, Iowa, and Penn State. Not many bubble teams can boast the same type of resume and that should be enough to get the Hoosiers in.
Hoosiers fans still don’t know what team will show up from game to game, but as long as you get into the tournament you have a shot. Stranger things have happened.