After climbing all the way up to a No. 6 seed and looking like there was a chance to keep ascending, the Iowa Hawkeyes men’s basketball team has seen a recent slide cost them some valuable wins and hurt their NCAA Tournament resume.
After two straight Big Ten losses to Minnesota and Illinois, the Hawkeyes have little chance to catch their breath with two big matchups on deck. Iowa makes consecutive road trips this week. The first is a trip to take on the Purdue Boilermakers, one of the top teams in the nation, followed by a trip to Indiana to take on a Hoosiers team fighting for tournament life.
As the Big Ten season enters the thick of its gauntlet and the grind, check out ESPN’s latest NCAA Tournament Bracketology.
Iowa Hawkeyes‘ seed
- Seed: No. 8 seed
- Opponent: No. 9 NC State
Bracket
- No. 1 Iowa State vs. No. 16 Prairie View / No. 16 UMES
- No. 8 Iowa vs. No. 9 NC State
- No. 5 Virginia vs. No. 12 Murray State
- No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 13 ETSU
- No. 6 Villanova vs. No. 11 Texas A&M / No. 11 Ohio State
- No. 3 BYU vs. No. 14 North Dakota State
- No. 7 SMU vs. No. 10 Kentucky
- No. 2 Purdue vs. No. 15 Portland State
Top Seeds
- No. 1 seeds: Arizona, Michigan, Iowa State, UConn
- No. 2 seeds: Vanderbilt, Gonzaga, Duke, Purdue
- No. 3 seeds: BYU, Nebraska, Illinois, Houston
- No. 4 seeds: Texas Tech, Florida, Michigan State, Alabama
Bubble Watch
- Last Four Byes: USC, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Indiana
- Last Four In: Texas A&M, Ohio State, UCLA, New Mexico
- First Four Out: TCU, Creighton, LSU, Baylor
- Next Four Out: Oklahoma State, San Diego State, Stanford, Virginia Tech
Conference Breakdown
- Big Ten: 11
- SEC: 9
- ACC: 8
- Big 12: 7
- Big East: 4
- West Coast: 2
- Mountain West: 2
- Atlantaic 10: 2
This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Iowa basketball skid sets up Cy-Hawk rematch in new ESPN Bracketology
