ESPN's Joe Lunardi Still Has Indiana in NCAA Tournament Field
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — After a night of "watching Sesame Street with Archie Miller,'' ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi still has Indiana is his 68-team NCAA tournament field.
In his bracket released Sunday morning after a full day of surprising results across the country on Saturday, Lunardi now has Indiana as one of the "Last Four In,'' and would play Stanford in a No. 11-seed play-in game in Dayton, Ohio. Texas and N.C. State are the other two teams in Lunardi's last four.
His "First Four Out" include Richmond, Xavier, Cincinnati and Wichita State. Purdue is in his "Next Four Out,'' along with Northern Iowa, Memphis and Mississippi State.
Indiana fell a few notches after its 60-56 home loss to Wisconsin on Saturday at Simon Skojdt Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers had a seven-point lead late but let it slip away. A win would have almost certainly guaranteed the Hoosiers a spot in the field,
Now, sitting right on the edge of the proverbial bubble, the Hoosiers likely will need to have some success in the Big Ten tournament in indianapolis that starts on Wdnesday. Indiana, locked in as the No. 11 seed, will play bottom-seed Nebraska in the opening round, and if they win, they'll probably play either Ohio State or Penn State as the No. 6 seed.
Most of the seeds are still to be determined today. Three of the four final Big Ten games today can still impact the seedings quite a bit. Only the Minnesota-Nebraska doesn't matter. The Gophers are No. 12 and No. 14 seeds respectively.
Here are the other three games today:
- Michigan at Maryland, Noon ET (TV: FOX)
- Ohio State at Michigan State, 4:30 p.m. ET (TV:CBS)
- Iowa at Illinois, 7 p.m. ET (TV: Big Ten Network)
CBSSports' Jerry Palm still has Indiana in the field as well. He has them as a 10-seed, playing No. 7 Virginia in Cleveland.