Indiana basketball: Hoosiers hold 4-seed in latest ESPN bracketology update

Every year, Indiana basketball, and all other Division I college basketball programs, are looking to forge their path to earn a bid to play in March Madness and compete for a national championship. ESPN’s “bracketologist”, Joe Lunardi, puts together his top 68 teams for the college basketball season that will earn an automatic bid via winning their conference tournament, or earn an at-large bid due to their regular season and conference tournament play.

Though Indiana basketball will be, hopefully, in a much better spot for the upcoming season and seemingly make its way into a top 7 seed in the tournament come March, Lunardi has tended to lower the seeds of the Hoosiers in recent years for whatever reason. For his August edition, Lunardi has the Hoosiers seeded fourth and facing off against the 13-seeded Toledo Rockets out of the MAC in the South Region. The South Region also contains 1-seeded Kentucky, 2-seeded Kansas (defending champs), 3-seeded Duke, and 5-seeded Virginia.

The Big Ten has tied for the most teams (seven) in Lunardi’s projected bracket, with Indiana earning the highest seed of all Big Ten teams. The other Big Ten teams in the projected field are Illinois (6-seed), Michigan (7-seed), Michigan State (8-seed), Purdue (8-seed), Iowa (10-seed), and Ohio State (10-seed).

After last season’s win in the First Four against Wyoming and following that up with a blowout loss to St. Mary’s, Indiana basketball is looking to finally turn things around and make its way to the second weekend (and beyond) with a top-16 ranking from most major projections in the media. If the Hoosiers can earn a 4-seed (or better), it would be its highest seed since 2013, where Tom Crean and IU were the number 1 seed in the East region and lost to 4-seeded Syracuse in the Sweet 16.

With the return Trayce Jackson-Davis and the second-year of Mike Woodson who got a quality season under his belt, the Hoosiers have added some high level talent from the 2022 recruiting class with Jalen Hood-Schifino, Malik Reneau, Kaleb Banks, and C.J. Gunn and bring back Jackson-Davis’ running mates, Race Thompson and Xavier Johnson, Hoosier Nation is in for a treat this upcoming season. Hopefully this upcoming NCAA Tournament, Indiana basketball can have a different headline and “legend” in the making than what occurred last March.