Will Indiana make the NCAA Tournament?

Indiana basketball is on the NCAA Tournament bubble as March Madness approaches. What does the bracketology say about the Hoosiers’ chances?

February started out as a rough month for the Indiana Hoosiers with five straight losses putting their NCAA Tournament hopes at risk. Now with just two games left to play in the regular season and the conference tournament looming, it’s crunch time.

UPDATE 3/14: After beating Illinois to get to the Big Ten Tournament Final and nearly beating Iowa, the Hoosiers are off the bubble and should be in the NCAA Tournament.

Will the Hoosiers have a good enough resume to convince the selection committee to put them in?

Indiana basketball: Hoosiers bracketology and where we stand

Indiana is 18-10 thanks to wins over Maryland and Minnesota that stopped the bleeding from their losing streak. They will finish out the regular season against Rutgers on Wednesday and No. 8 Purdue on Saturday.

Wins in those games would be essential to a March Madness berth at this point.

Bracket Matrix, which compiles data from more than 100 brackets from around the internet, gives Indiana an average seed of 11.29. However, only 69 of the 106 brackets include them in the fray.

They’re missing from Jerry Palm’s bracket from Feb. 28 as one of the First Four Out.

On the other hand, Joe Lunardi of ESPN had them among the Last Four In when he last updated his bracket on Feb. 25, before Indiana beat Minnesota.

Brian Bennett of The Athletic is also positive about Indiana’s chances of making it in. On Feb. 25, he projected the Hoosiers as a No. 12 seed in the First Four.

That’s the same case for Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated.

So all in all, respected bracketologists seem to expect the Hoosiers to pull through and punch their ticket to the big dance.

However, things can change quickly and even one more slip-up could be the end of Indiana’s tournament dream. It’s not how they started February that matters now. It’s how they start March.

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