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IU basketball remains in “first four out” in latest ESPN Bracketology for 2026 NCAA tournament

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IU basketball guard Lamar Wilkerson in practice at Cook Hall.

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi released his latest projections for the 2026 NCAA tournament on Tuesday afternoon.

IU basketball, entering its first season under coach Darian DeVries, remained in the first four teams out of Lunardi’s projected field, along with Washington, Marquette and Nebraska. The last four teams in are Iowa, Texas A&M, Miami (FL) and SMU.

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

The Hoosiers finished a recent exhibition trip to Puerto Rico with a 3-0 record.

IU also added three freshmen in Trent Sisley, Aleksa Ristic and Andrej Acimovic.

The program missed the NCAA tournament in 2024 and 2025 under former coach Mike Woodson. Dating back to the 2016-17 season, the Hoosiers have only made two of the previous eight March Madness fields.

Lunardi’s No. 1 seeds remained the same: Houston, Duke, Florida and Purdue.

The 11 Big Ten teams included in the projected field include Purdue (No. 1 seed), Michigan (No. 2), UCLA (No. 4), Illinois (No. 4), Michigan State (No. 5), Ohio State (No. 6), Wisconsin (No. 7), USC (No. 7), Oregon (No. 7), Maryland (No. 9) and Iowa (No. 11).

Lunardi projects 14 SEC teams to make the 2026 NCAA tournament.

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 will take place in Indianapolis.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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