You are not going to win them all. That being said, the 20-point road loss at Illinois was a bit of a tough pill to swallow for Darian DeVries' Indiana Hoosiers. IU had begun to feel itself in the heart of Big Ten play. After getting lower-quality wins over Wisconsin and Oregon previously, the Hoosiers came crashing back to earth vs. Illinois. Fortunately, this was not reflected as such regarding Bracketology.
After the latest Bracketology update for ESPN, Joe Lunardi once again has Indiana as a No. 9 seed. This is the fourth update in a row where Lunardi has had the Hoosiers at a No. 9 seed. They would be taking on No. 8 Auburn in the Philadelphia quadrant of the South Region running through Houston. If they were to win that hypothetical matchup over Auburn, they would face a No. 1 seed in UConn next.
On the year, Indiana is 17-9 overall and 8-7 in Big Ten play with a NET rating of 34. While they only have a 2-8 record vs. Quad 1 teams, the Hoosiers are 2-1 vs. Quad 2 opponents, and an unblemished 13-0 in Quad 3 and 4 games. In short, Indiana is doing a great job of beating up on lesser opponents, but still seems to be riding him on that big home win over arch rival Purdue from earlier in the season.
Let's take a look at what Indiana will need to do the rest of the way to make the NCAA Tournament.
Indiana Hoosiers' pathway into the NCAA Tournament in the final weeks
Looking at who Indiana still has to play the rest of the way, the Hoosiers have three more Quad 1 games and two more dates vs. Quad 3 opponents. As long as they win their two Quad 3 games over Northwestern (Feb. 24) and Minnesota at home (March 4), Indiana should remain comfortably above the cut line. That being said, is potentially a 2-11 record vs. Quad 1 opponents worthy of making it in?
Indiana gets a little bit of extra rest before it takes on Purdue in West Lafayette on Friday, Feb. 20. The Hoosiers also have a Quad 1 home date vs. Michigan State on March 1, as well as a Quad 1 road game at Ohio State to end the regular season on March 7. To potentially sweep Purdue on the year will get IU in the top-half of the bracket for sure. The same thing applies to a win over Michigan State.
Right now, Indiana being a No. 9 seed with only five games left suggests that barring an unforeseen loss at home to either Northwestern or Minnesota that the Hoosiers will be making the tournament. A home defeat to either the Wildcats or the Golden Gophers will drop IU down a seed and approaching the NCAA Tournament bubble. They have played a brutal schedule so far, but it cannot mess around.
Overall, it is going to take a plethora of chaos for Indiana to not make the field of 68 in about a month.