Bracketology Update: Hoosiers' NCAA Seed Improves After Big Win over No. 4 Purdue

Indiana desperately wants to get back to the NCAA Tournament after a six-year drought, and Thursday night's win over No. 4-ranked Purdue has helped their cause dramatically. They are in the field now as a No. 8 or No. 9 seed according to the three recent brackets released by ESPN, FOX Sports and CBS Sports.

It's been six long years since Indiana has played in the NCAA Tournament, but it looks like Thursday night's win over No. 4 Purdue is helping the Hoosiers' cause in a big way.

The Hoosiers, who are now 14-4 overall and 5-3 in the Big Ten, beat the Boilermakers 68-65 at Assembly Hall, their second win over a ranked team this season. They also beat then-No. 13 Ohio State on Jan. 6.

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi updated his projected brackets on Friday morning, and he has the Hoosiers as the No. 8 seed in the West Region. Indiana would play No. 9 seed San Diego State in the first round in Portland, Ore., with No. 1 seed — and the current No. 1-ranked team in the country — Gonzaga awaiting in the second round.

Lunardi has seven Big Ten teams in the field as of Friday morning. He has Wisconsin and Purdue as No. 2 seeds, Illinois as a No. 4 seed, Michigan State and a fifth-seed, Ohio State as a sixth-seed and Iowa as a No. 7 seed. Lunardi has Michigan in his list of "Next Four Out.''

The eight first-round sites around the country are in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Portland, Greenville, S.C., Buffalo, N.Y., San Diego, Milwaukee and Fort Worth, Texas.

Regional sites are in Chicago, San Francisco, Philadephia and San Antonio, Texas. The Final Four is in New Orleans on April 2-4.

Mike DeCoursy from FOX Sports, who's also seen often on the Big Ten Network, updated his bracket on Friday as well. He has Indiana as the No. 9 seed in the East Regional, taking on No. 8 seed Tennessee, with No. 1 seed and defending national champion Baylor waiting in the second round. DeCoursy doesn't add locations in his projection.

CBS Sports' Jerry Palm has Indiana as a No. 8 seed in the West Regional in Portland as well, playing No. 9 seed Iona. 

Teams are going to be moving up and down in the brackets every day. The next update will certainly reflect that as well after Wisconsin lost to Michigan State on Friday night.

It's likely that we'll see the next round of bracket updates on Monday.

Related stories on Indiana basketball

• BIG TEN ROUNDUP (Jan. 21): No. 14 Michigan State goes into Madison and knocks off No. 8 Wisconsin, and Illinois struggles at Maryland without Kofi Cockburn, who's out with a concussion. Here's our roundup of Friday games, plus the schedule for the rest of the week. CLICK HERE
• ROUNDTABLE PODCAST: This week's Big Ten Roundtable podcast features Wisconsin guard Brad Davison talking about the big showdown with Michigan State on Friday night, and BuckeyesNow.com publisher Brendan Gulick talking Ohio State football. CLICK HERE
• POWER RANKINGS: The national pollsters still might think that Purdue should be the highest-ranked Big Ten team, but Tom Brew's second conference power rankings have knocked the Boilermakers down a notch after a second league loss.x CLICK HERE
• TV RATINGS RECORD: There were a lot of eyeballs on Indiana's big in-state showdown with No. 4-ranked Purdue on Thursday night, with more than 954,000 people watching on FOX Sports 1. It was the largest viewer number ever for a game on the network. CLICK HERE
• INDIANA BEATS NO. 4 PURDUE: Lafayette native Rob Phinisee had the game of his life on Thursday night, scoring 20 points and hitting the game-winning three-pointer to beat No. 4 Purdue 68-65. It snapped a nine-game losing streak to his hometown school, and finally gave him some bragging rights. CLICK HERE