Rutgers basketball: How the win over Michigan impacts the Bracketology update from ESPN

For Rutgers basketball, 62-50 win over Michigan in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament was good news for the Scarlet Knights. It puts Rutgers as one of the last four teams into the tournament according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.

And if playing in the ‘First Four’ is the basement for Rutgers, that is good news given the slide the team has been on the past month. Coming into this week’s Big Ten Tournament, Rutgers had lost three of their last four games.

In his Bracketology update on Thursday evening (several hours after Rutgers’ win over Michigan), ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi has Rutgers as a No. 11 seed, with them projected to play No. 11 Utah State in the play-in game.

The projection from Lunardi has Rutgers in the NCAA Tournament but not in the field proper for what would be a second straight season.

On Thursday at noon, Rutgers is playing Purdue, the top seed in the Big Ten Tournament. A win would certainly upgrade the NCAA Tournament outlook for the Scarlet Knights but even a close, tightly contested game would likely put Rutgers in a strong position to make the field.

Purdue is a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament according to Lunardi.

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Penn State, who beat Illinois in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament, are also included in Lunardi’s ‘Last Four In.’ They are projected to play No. 11 Oklahoma State in a play-in game.

Michigan is not in Lunardi’s projections and are the ‘Next Four Out.’

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Story originally appeared on Rutgers Wire