It’s that time of year when famed bracketologist Joe Lunardi makes his predictions for the NCAA Tournament field. Lunardi’s latest edition of the NCAA Tournament brackets were updated on Monday as most teams prepare for conference tournaments. But it wasn’t good news for the Indiana Hoosiers as far their NCAA Tournament hopes.
In Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology predictions, Indiana was the first team out, missing the NCAA Tournament. The other three teams among the first four out were Virginia Tech, Stanford and New Mexico. The next four out were Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Cal and San Diego State.
The teams Lunardi is predicting to skip the First Four games are NC State, Missouri, Texas and UCF. The teams he has as the last four in are Santa Clara, SMU, VCU and Auburn. Obviously it’s not an exact science, but Lunardi’s method is usually very accurate in terms of the selection committee’s choices.
That obviously does not bode well for Indiana. Should the Hoosiers miss out on March Madness, it will be their third consecutive season of not qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. Heading into the Big Ten Tournament, Indiana finished with an overall record of 18-13, and 9-11 in Big Ten play.
This is Darian DeVries’ first season at the helm as head coach, replacing Mike Woodson who was let go after last year. DeVries’ joined the program after one season at West Virginia where he ironically had nearly the exact same record as this year at 19-13. Prior to that, DeVries’ was the head coach at Drake where he guided the Bulldogs to three NCAA Tournament appearances in six seasons.
Indiana has a bye into the second round of the Big Ten Tournament where they await the winner between Penn State and Northwestern.
