BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – With just over three weeks until the official tip-off of college basketball season, preseason honors and projections continue to roll in from the national media.
The latest comes from ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi, who released his latest NCAA Tournament Bracket projection ahead of the season.
Indiana is listed as one of the last four byes in the field, a 10-seed in the East region.
This comes after the Hoosiers were voted to finish sixth in official/unofficial league preseason media poll by a poll of 28 voters, but the range of projected finishes for Indiana stretched from fourth to ninth in the league.
Indiana projects to be one of the most intriguing teams to watch in the conference entering into the season, looking to replace production with 10 new faces on this year's roster. Among those, senior captains Xavier Johnson and Trey Galloway, intriguing freshmen such as Mackenzie Mgbako (picked as the runaway favorite for Freshman of the Year in the aforementioned poll) and Gabe Cupps, and other key contributors looking to put their fingerprints all over this year's iteration of Hoosier basketball.
With so much uncertainty, Indiana's variance in what they'll project to be is reasonable. But Indiana has the schedule to battle test them – facing nine (and the potential for 10) of the projected field of 68 in Lunardi's latest projections.
There's going to be a lot of attention and a lot of discourse surrounding this year's Indiana basketball team, and in some eyes, they're already starting the season on the bubble.
Buckle up.
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