After a game that was a little too close for comfort against Penn State on Wednesday night, the Hoosiers are officially finding themselves getting into the NCAA Tournament in ESPN NCAA Tournament expert Joe Lunardi's Bracketology prediction.
After weeks of being out of the bubble or being either one of the first four teams out or the next four teams out, Indiana is starting to look a little more comfortable on the bubble. In Lunardi's latest Bracketology release on Friday, February 28, he has the Hosiers as the second team in the "Last Four In" group.
As part of the last your-in-the group, Indiana would have to play in a play-in game before the first round of the NCAA Tournament. That means that in order to get their first-round opponent, the Hoosiers would have to play an extra game to see who would get what the projected 11-seed in this came.
Lunardi is projecting Indiana would play Oklahoma in this game as of right now. Indiana at this point has earned this with their ranked wins over Michigan State and Purdue over the last two weeks and then taking care of business against Penn State earlier this week.
Now is not the time to let the foot off the pedal for the Hoosiers, though, as a loss in the last three games of the season could be detrimental to Indiana's March Madness hopes.
The Hoosiers have three games left this season against Washington, Oregon, and Ohio State. Two of those games, Oregon and Ohio State, would be huge wins for Indiana, especially over Ohio State, who is the team just behind the Hoosiers right now.
Even though there are only three games left in the regular season, there is still the Big Ten Tournament as well. There is a lot of basketball left to be played, and if Indiana gets the job done, they can still book their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.