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As a result of Indiana’s loss to Wisconsin, the Hoosiers are now without any real path to the NCAA Tournament.
After a season that failed to meet expectations, the Hoosiers now seem bound to take part in the NIT Tournament.
There aren’t many media outlets that make NIT projections, but NYC Buckets has been keeping track of lesser tournaments for a little while now.
As of March 11th at 12:45 a.m., NYC Buckets has Indiana slotted as a three seed in the 32-team tournament.
The biggest complication to NIT projections comes from the nature of automatic qualifiers. Any team that leads their conference at the end of the regular season, but fails to win in the conference tournament has an automatic bid. Any upset in a conference tournament final can decrease the number of at-large bids offered.
With that said, even with some early upsets such as Monmouth and Belmont, Indiana seems safely in at this point.
The question also remains if Indiana will take the bid if offered. According to Zach Osterman, Indiana will.
For everyone asking, Indiana WILL participate in the NIT. That was always the plan. Nothing has changed. #iubb
— Zach Osterman (@ZachOsterman) March 11, 2017
If NYC Brackets’ projections are correct, Indiana should have a fun matchup against Fresno State in Bloomington. I mean, Bulldogs are always fun.