In just a little over 24 hours, IU basketball will know their faith when it comes to making the NCAA tournament. For the last few days, the Hoosiers have been one of the few teams that have been sweating since their Big Ten Tournament loss to Oregon this past Thursday.
The Hoosiers end out the conference portion of the season just 19-14 and with an overall Quad 1 record of 4-12. The saving grace for the Hoosiers when it comes to defending their NCAA tournament resume is that they have no bad losses. IU basketball did not lose to any teams in the Quad 2-4 category.
When you compare them to other bubble teams, their resume is not as bad when you look at the bigger picture. The problem that IU basketball has is their lack of Quad 1 wins.
“We haven’t lost a quad two thru four game all season,” senior wing Luke Goode said postgame. “I don’t know when the last time when a team wouldn’t make the tournament with that resume. Regardless of quad one, I think we’ve done enough work here, for sure.”
As it stands right now, IU basketball is in 88 of 113 brackets in the Bracket Matrix. One of the more popular brackets that most people look at comes from ESPN’s Bracketology by Joe Lunardi. According to Lunardi, IU basketball is viewed as the “First Team Out,” this projected to barely miss the NCAA Tournament.
Delphi Bracketology has Indiana in the “First Four Out”, while CBS Sports has IU in the “Last Four In”.
The Hoosiers did get some help, however. With hardly any “bid thieves” and the bubble teams such as Xavier, Texas, and even North Carolina losing, the Hoosiers still have a pulse.
“We know that we should be a tournament team,” Trey Galloway said. “There’s a lot of opportunity for that. I think just those crucial losses that we had that were just so tight, one-possession games. The way we’ve been playing the last month and a half, we’ve been playing like a tournament team. I just think us just coming together and finding ways to get better. We haven’t played our best basketball until now.”
Critical games to keep an eye on for the bubble today are VCU, Boise State, Memphis — all of which would help Indiana with wins.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Show is set for 6 p.m. ET this Sunday on CBS.
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