IU basketball “first four out” in latest ESPN bracketology projection for 2026 NCAA tournament

  • 3h ago
 

College basketball rosters for the 2025-26 season are continuing to take shape and longtime ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi has released his latest projections for the 2026 NCAA tournament.

After being listed as a No. 10 seed in Lunardi’s first projections last month, the Hoosiers have fallen out of his projected field.

Indiana has undergone a complete roster overhaul this offseason, following Mike Woodson’s departure from the program and the hiring of Darian DeVries just over two months ago.

The Hoosiers have added 10 transfer portal commitments for the 2025-26 season, including Tayton Conerway, Tucker DeVries, Lamar Wilkerson and Reed Bailey.

In the latest Lunardi projection, Indiana is listed as the third team out of the field in the “first four out” category. The Hoosiers are joined by Texas A&M, Nebraska and Washington.

IU basketball missed the NCAA tournament the last two seasons under Woodson. Dating back to the 2016-17 season, the Hoosiers have only made two of the previous eight March Madness fields.

The Big Ten teams included in the projected field include Purdue (No. 1 seed), Michigan (No. 2), Michigan State (No. 4), UCLA (No. 4), Ohio State (No. 4), Illinois (No. 5), USC (No. 5), Wisconsin (No. 6), Iowa (No. 8), Oregon (No. 9) and Maryland (No. 10).

The three projected No. 1 seeds besides Purdue are Duke, Houston and UConn.

Four Big Ten programs had coaching changes earlier this spring. DeVries took over for Woodson, Ben McCollum replaced Fran McCaffery at Iowa, Buzz Williams is the new Maryland coach after Kevin Willard left for Villanova and Niko Medved is in at Minnesota after Ben Johnson’s dismissal.

Buffalo, Greenville, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Portland, San Diego, St. Louis and Tampa are the first and second round sites for the 2026 NCAA tournament.

The regionals will be held in Chicago, Houston, San Jose and Washington D.C. and the Final Four site is Indianapolis.

Category: Media

Filed to: ,