Where Indiana Sits in Latest Bracketology Following Ohio State Loss

There was good news and bad news for Indiana basketball over the weekend.

Where do you want to start?

Alright, let's start this Monday morning positively and look at what went right for the Hoosiers.

Positives for Indiana Basketball Over the Weekend

Boy, if you're looking at Saturday's loss at Ohio State, it'll be hard to take much good away. I will say this though.

We've seen Indiana teams entirely quit when games start going like Saturdays did. Ohio State clearly wasn't playing with the same intensity down the stretch, but Indiana didn't just fold up, either.

I guess if we're really digging for something positive from the game, that's it.

As for the rest of college basketball, Indiana received a bit of a gift. While the Hoosiers did nothing themselves to improve their odds of making the NCAA Tournament, they didn't get crushed, either.

You look around college basketball and see other bubble teams like Missouri, Texas, SMU, New Mexico, Cincinnati, California, and Virginia Tech all lose.

That's all good news for the Hoosiers in terms of making the NCAA Tournament.

The Bad News for Indiana Basketball

That's great that Indiana didn't quit and made Saturday's game a bit more competitive down the stretch, but does it really matter?

The Hoosiers started slow, were getting run out of the gym, and still didn't exactly make things competitive. What also didn't help Indiana's case nationally is that by the time they started to chip away at Ohio State's massive lead, Duke and North Carolina had already tipped in Durham.

Indiana hasn't just lost on the road, but been highly non-competitive.

At 18-13 overall there is a case, but the best win the Hoosiers have continues to look less impressive with each Purdue loss that comes (it happened again Saturday).

Indiana failed to win a road game the entire month of February and didn't stop the bleeding in that regard at Ohio State. Heck, it hasn't been competitive in a road game since February 3, when it played USC within four points.

More of the same is the bad news for Indiana.

Hoosiers in Latest ESPN Bracketology

For the first time in quite some time, Indiana sits on the outside of the NCAA Tournament bubble looking in, according to Joe Lunardi.

Lunardi calls Indiana his "first team out" in his updated Bracketology that was released Sunday night.

What Indiana Needs to Do in Big Ten Tournament

It's seemingly a coin-flip at this point for Indiana to make it into the NCAA Tournament or not. It will play the winner of Northwestern and Penn State on Wednesday, for a trip to Round 12 of the Big Ten Tournament on the line.

Beating either of those teams is an absolute must, and after that, beating Purdue to earn a trip to the quarterfinals would make me think the Hoosiers have done enough, but there are no guarantees.

Indiana is lucky to have as good of chance of making the tournament as it currently does.

In this world of expanded playoffs and tournaments, isn't this Indiana team being on the bubble even proof enough that we already have enough teams in it?