It’s in the NCAA Tournament Committee’s hands now.
Indiana appears to have played its way back into the NCAA Tournament picture with two wins at this week’s Big Ten Tournament.
Now, Selection Sunday is here (6 p.m. Eastern / CBS), so let’s take one final look to see where the Hoosiers stand in the eyes of the bracketologists.
Our favorite resource for bracket predictions is bracketmatrix.com, an aggregation site that compiles dozens of prognostications and produces an average.
Currently at Bracket Matrix, Indiana is a No. 11 seed in the Big Dance. After two wins and a loss this week (vs. Michigan, vs. Illinois, vs. Iowa), Indiana moved back in the mix from the first four out position. Only a week ago, the clear consensus was that IU had played its way out of the field after losing seven of nine to close the regular season. But their last gasp effort in Indianapolis, fueled primarily by a win over No. 1 seed Illinois, appears to have them dancing after missing the event for five consecutive seasons.
Through Saturday action, 127 of 131 brackets at Bracket Matrix have IU in the field. While four still have them out, the most favorable outlets have Indiana as a No. 9 or 10 seed.
Some of the best known bracketologists include the following, all updated since the win over Illinois:
- ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has IU as a No. 11 seed in the West playing St. Mary’s.
- Bracketville’s Dave Ommen has IU as a No. 11 in the West playing Alabama.
- CBS’s Jerry Palm has IU as a No. 11 seed in the East playing LSU.
- Indiana based Delphi Bracketology has IU as a No. 11 seed playing Colorado State in the West.
- Bart Torvik has the Hoosiers in as a No. 11 seed.
- Haslametrics has the Hoosiers in as a No. 10 seed.
IU is the lowest No. 11 seed at Bracket Matrix, so right on the 11/12 line. That means it has likely done enough to avoid the No. 12 seed play-in game at Dayton, but that remains a possibility as well. Indiana’s most likely opponents are the following projected No. 5 and No. 6 seeds according to Bracket Matrix:
- 5- Houston
- 5- UConn
- 5- St. Mary’s
- 5- Iowa
- 6- Texas
- 6- LSU
- 6- Alabama
- 6- Colorado St.
If they landed in the No. 11 or 12 play-in games, some possible opponents could include Wyoming, Texas A&M, SMU, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Oklahoma, Xavier and Wake Forest.
The 2021-22 men’s basketball season marks the fourth season of the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings, which replaced the RPI prior to the 2018-19 season as the primary sorting tool for evaluating teams.
The NCAA Tournament Committee uses the NET to facilitate the selection of the field. The Hoosiers are currently No. 39 in today’s NET rankings, reflecting a five spot move up since our update last week.
Last season’s No. 39 team was Utah State. They were a No. 11 seed. All teams in the top-41 made it last seasons.
Using the quadrant system for the NET, the quality of wins and losses is organized based on game location and the opponent’s NET ranking.
- Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
- Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
- Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
- Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353
Indiana (20-13) has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2016. Here is their record this season by quadrant:
- Quadrant 1: 4-8
- Quadrant 2: 4-4
- Quadrant 3: 5-1
- Quadrant 4: 7-0
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