The Indiana Hoosiers are hanging on to their NCAA Tournament hopes - but barely. The Hoosiers lost five of their final six regular season games, which put them firmly on the March Madness bubble heading into this week's Big Ten Tournament in Chicago.
Big Ten Tournament could present perfect revenge opportunity for Indiana
Saturday's regular season finale at Ohio State was a major disappointment for Darian DeVries' team. The Hoosiers fell to the Buckeyes by a score of 91-78 in a game that was never in doubt. Ohio State led for over 36 minutes and cruised to a 13-point victory to knock the Hoosiers down to 9-11 in Big Ten play.
The loss hurt Indiana's NCAA Tournament hopes even more, but thankfully, there weren't the only bubble team to struggle over the weekend.
Indiana's March Madness dreams are hanging by a thread
Joe Lunardi's bracket projection heading into the weekend had IU on the outside looking in as one of the teams in the "First Four Out" category. But the Hoosiers got some much-needed help with other bubble teams failing to secure wins over the weekend.
Of Lunardi's last seven at-large teams and his first five teams out of the 68-team field, nine played on Saturday. All of them lost.
Along with Indiana, bubble teams Missouri, Texas, SMU, New Mexico, Auburn, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, and Cal all lost their respective games on Saturday.
Of @ESPNLunardi's last seven at-large teams and his first five teams out of the field, nine were in action today.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) March 8, 2026
All nine lost.
Missouri
Texas
SMU
Indiana
New Mexico
Auburn
Virginia Tech
Cincinnati
California
0-9 today.
Indiana may have underperformed, but so did these nine other bubble teams. Those losses have the Hoosiers still hanging around in the NCAA Tournament picture, but they still have their work cut out for them in the Big Ten Tournament.
Following this weekend's action, Lunardi's latest March Madness bracket projection has Indiana once again listed among the teams in the "First Four Out" category. Other teams in that category include Stanford, Virginia Tech, and New Mexico. Teams included in the "Last Four In" category include Santa Clara, VCU, SMU, and Auburn.
As the No. 10 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, Indiana will face the winner of Northwestern vs. Penn State on Wednesday, March 11. Tip-off is slated for 6:30 p.m. ET. No matter who they play, that is essentially must-win game for the Hoosiers if they want to stay in the hunt for the NCAA Tournament.