Updated Indiana Basketball Bracket Projections

With two games left in the regular season, most bracketologists have started to feature the Indiana Hoosiers as a tournament team.

Per Bracket Matrix, Indiana is now in 100 of the 104 brackets surveyed. The Hoosiers have inched closer to a 10 seed, but the average seeding of 10.81 has them as the second 11 seed, behind VCU.

Bart Torvik currently gives Indiana a 50.2% chance of making the field of 68, something it could presumably improve on with a win in either of the remaining two games.

A win at Oregon would bring Indiana to 5-11 in Quad One games, which would be a nice piece for its tournament hopes. On the Tuesday matchup, Jerry Palm wrote, “This is a chance at a quality win away from home. The Hoosiers have already won at Michigan State, but you cannot have too many good road wins.”

More significant though will be the Ohio State game in Assembly Hall.

Unless the Buckeyes can jump six spots in the NET rankings in their home matchup with Nebraska, they will come to Indiana as a Quad Two opponent. Indiana is 4-0 in Quad Two games, a perfect record it will want to preserve to stay in the field of 68.

Ohio State also sits just behind Indiana as an 11 seed, as do the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Both the Buckeyes and Hoosiers will have a lot on the line when they meet Saturday in Bloomington, so expect an intense game.

Then there’s the Big Ten Tournament, which should also give Indiana a chance at a quality win. The Hoosiers currently have a nine seed, which would earn them a first round bye and a rematch with Oregon, if the standings hold.

Conference tournament seeding only underscores how much can change over these next two games though. A win tonight would bring Indiana into a tie with Oregon and give them the tiebreaker, but Ohio State is right behind the Hoosiers in the Big Ten standings as well.

Indiana has done well to win three straight and get itself back into the tournament conversation, but the Hoosiers are still far from a lock.

Winning at least one of the remaining regular season games and then one game in the Big Ten Tournament would probably be enough to get Indiana more firmly into the NCAA Tournament, but the most straightforward path would be to win three straight.