Indiana Basketball Included In First ESPN Bracketology Prediction

Apparently, it’s never too early for bracketology.

Though teams aren’t finished building their rosters and that we’re less than a month removed from the end of the 2024-25 season, the soothsayers are at work trying to ascertain the 2025-26 field.

Joe Lunardi, ESPN’s pioneer of bracketology, released his first bracket for the 2025-26 season this week. Based on what Indiana coach Darian DeVries has added to the Hoosiers, Lunardi is feeling somewhat bullish about Indiana’s chances to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2023.

Lunardi isn’t gung ho on Indiana’s chances. He has the Hoosiers in as a First Four team. He has Indiana paired with Marquette in a battle of 10-seeds.

Lunardi has the winner advancing to play Mississippi State in a first round game at Portland. That would be a repeat of the 2022 NCAA Tournament when Indiana advanced from Dayton to play Saint Mary’s in Portland.

It’s not likely Indiana would play Marquette in the NCAA Tournament. The Hoosiers and Golden Eagles play one another in the regular season and the NCAA tries to avoid regular season matchups in the early rounds.

Of course, it’s early bracketology, so all of the above is speculatory by nature anyway.

Lunardi has 12 Big Ten teams in his field. He has Purdue as a No. 1 seed. Also included are Michigan (No. 2), Michigan State (No. 4), UCLA (No. 4), USC (No. 4), Ohio State (No. 5), Wisconsin (No. 6) Illinois (No. 7), Oregon (No. 8), Iowa (No. 9) and Maryland (No. 10).

Indiana did not make the tournament in the past two seasons despite having rosters that had good individual talent.

DeVries has added 10 players via the transfer portal. Sam Alexis (Florida), Reed Bailey (Davidson), Tayton Conerway (Troy), Tucker DeVries (West Virginia), Nick Dorn (Elon), Jason Drake (Drexel), Conor Enright (DePaul), Josh Harris (North Florida), Jasai Miles (North Florida) and Lamar Wilkerson (Sam Houston) were all added.

Indiana will also have true freshman Trent Sisley and might have Luke Goode back. Goode’s waiver request for his sophomore season at Illinois has not yet been addressed.