With Indiana men’s basketball out of the Big Ten Tournament, the Hoosiers will be watching scoreboards leading up to Selection Sunday.
IU sits squarely on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament, and needs to hope results go its way in conference tournaments around the country. Essentially, the Hoosiers need to root against chaos — they need to pull for any teams comfortably in the field of 68 facing teams slated to miss the tournament, and they need to root for other bubble teams to lose.
Indiana got a lot of good results on Friday. Texas and North Carolina both lost, and VCU, Liberty, Memphis, and UCSD all won. Boise State’s comeback win over New Mexico hurt, though. The Broncos now face Colorado State in the Mountain West title game, with both teams on the at-large bubble and New Mexico surely a tournament team. This game doesn’t really matter for Indiana now — either way, a bubble team secures an auto-bid.
Here are the relevant games across the country on Saturday, with the team IU should be rooting for in bold.
- VCU vs. Loyola Chicago, 1 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network
- The Rams profile as a likely at-large team if they don’t win the A-10 title. A VCU loss would be the only way the A-10 isn’t a one-bid league. Indiana should be rooting hard for the Rams.
- Memphis vs. Tulane, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN2
- Just like the A-10, the AAC looks like a one-bid league. But the Tigers are making the NCAA Tournament regardless. So the Hoosiers need Memphis to win the conference title to prevent anyone from stealing their potential bid.
- Liberty vs. Jacksonville State, 8:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network
- Liberty wouldn’t have as strong an at-large case as VCU and Memphis, but it could be in the mix if Jacksonville State pulls the upset on Saturday. Indiana should hope it doesn’t even come to that.
- UC San Diego vs. UC Irvine, 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
- Both UC San Diego and UC Irvine could be in the at-large mix if they lose the Big West title game. The Tritons probably have a stronger at-large case than the Anteaters, so IU should probably be rooting for UCSD.
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