Malik Reneau leads Indiana Hoosiers MBB to another late season victory, defeating Washington 78-62

With only a little over a week left before March Madness truly kicks off with the NCAA Tournament "bubble teams" are vying for an at large bid after the conference tournaments are wrapped up.

Oklahoma, Ohio State, Texas and Indiana are listed as the last four in on ESPN's Bracketology latest report. North Carolina, Georgia, Nebraska and SMU are currently the odd teams out but all four have big games upcoming against Quad 1 opponents and ranked teams.

There isn't much room for error left in the 2024-25 season for the bubble teams, including Indiana but the Hoosiers are one of the hotter bubble teams on the nation winning four of their last five.

Indiana men's basketball avoided a major let down against the Big Ten’s last place team on Saturday with a 78-62 win over Washington.

The Indiana Hoosiers (18-11; 9-9 Big Ten) defeated the Washington Huskies (13-16; 4-14) at Alaska Airlines Arena, led by a dominate performance by Malik Reneau with 22 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists.

Luke Goode also added 18 points and 4 rebounds as the teams second leading scorer. Myles Rice and Mackenzie Mgbako were the other scorers in double digits they added 10 points a piece.

The Hoosiers set the tone early with a 44-30 lead at halftime, shooting 51.5% in the first half and committed just five turnovers total.

Reneau was a perfect 6-of-6 from the field in the first half and the Indiana defense held the Huskies to 36.2% for the game. with 13 turnovers in the first half. This was the Hoosiers first double-digit halftime lead in almsot three months. The last was early in conference play at home against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in December.

“Every season has its ups and downs,” Luke Goode said. “Our down was a little longer than we would’ve liked throughout those five or six games we lost in a row. But we’re building momentum at the right time. We’re on the up-slope at the right time. And we just got to keep it going.”

Indiana will stay on the west coast as they take on the Oregon Ducks (21-8, 10-8) on the road in Eugene, Oregon at the Matthew Knight Arena.