Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Bubble Banter: Somehow, Indiana is still in the tournament mix

Penn State v Indiana

BLOOMINGTON, IN - FEBRUARY 01: Josh Newkirk #2 of the Indiana Hoosiers shoots the ball against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Assembly Hall on February 1, 2017 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Here is the latest NBC Sports Bracketology. This is where the rankings you see below are from. This post will be updated throughout the night.

WINNERS

Seton Hall (RPI: 48, KenPom: 57, play-in game): It wasn’t easy, but Seton Hall got the win that they needed on Tuesday night against Georgetown. At this point, I think that the Pirates need one more win to feel comfortable, either at Butler on Saturday or in the first round of the Big East tournament, meaning that they don’t take a bad loss in the Big East tournament. It’s pretty impressive work from Kevin Willard to be able to get this group back to the brink of the Big Dance without Isaiah Whitehead on the roster.

Providence (RPI: 53, KenPom: 55, No. 10 seed): The Friars just about locked up a bid to the NCAA tournament with a win over DePaul on Tuesday night. The bottom line for the Friars is that they cannot afford another bad loss and still get in. Beat St. John’s on Saturday, which is something that should be easy to do, and they should be good.

Georgia Tech (RPI: 93, KenPom: 77, bubble): The Yellow Jackets kept themselves in the mix for an at-large bid by landing their eighth win in ACC play over Pitt at home. They probably need to win at Syracuse on Saturday to really have a chance, and I’m not convinced that will be enough. But they’re close enough that two more wins will make things very interesting on Selection Sunday

LOSERS

Indiana (RPI: 87, KenPom: 49, next four out): A sign of how weak the bubble is this season is that the Hoosiers, despite all of their warts, had a chance to get into the NCAA tournament if they had landed a win at Purdue on Tuesday night. They didn’t, which, hopefully, means that we can finally -- mercifully -- put the at-large hopes of the Hoosiers to bed for good.

Vanderbilt (RPI: 47, KenPom: 46, first four out): The ‘Dores were up by 19 points in the first half and by double-figures in the second half at Kentucky and somehow managed to lose. That was the win they needed to get onto the right side of the bubble. That one is going to sting for a while.