Bracketology roundup: Badgers projected seed keeps climbing
We are officially less than two weeks away from Selection Sunday.
Most of the resume building is complete for the Wisconsin Badgers, who have two conference tune-ups remaining on their schedule before the Big Ten tournament begins.
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Tied for second place in the conference with a 12-6 record (19-10 overall), the Badgers have all but punched their ticket to the big dance, thanks in large part to their recent 7-1 run in February.
So, like most college basketball fans, we’ll fast forward to March 15 when the brackets will be set and view where the experts think the Badgers will be slotted in the 68-team tournament.
To help us out, we turn to Bracket Matrix, a site dedicated to tracking predictions around the web ranging from national sites like ESPN to the smaller college basketball-focused blogs.
Of the 108 submissions that Bracket Matrix is tracking, the Badgers were included in the NCAA tournament field in all 108. Based on the average of all 108 brackets, Wisconsin is expected to be a 6 seed in the tournament along with Butler, Colorado and Michigan.
The Badgers are one of 10 teams currently projected to make the field from the Big Ten, joining Maryland (2 seed), Michigan State (4), Penn State (5), Ohio State (5), Iowa (5), Michigan (6), Illinois (8), Indiana (10) and Rutgers (11).
Wisconsin’s lowest ranking was an 8 seed by a blog entitled “Bracket Predictions.” The highest was “Bracketville USA,” which may or may not be based out of Madison looking at the 4 seed it gave the Badgers.
Among the bigger outlets, the Badgers are slotted at a 5 seed by Joe Lunardi of ESPN. FOX Sports, CBS, SB Nation, Sporting News and TeamRankings.com all have Wisconsin at a 6 seed.
No matter the seeding, the Badgers will be searching for their first win in the NCAA tournament since the 2016-17 campaign when Ethan Happ, Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig beat Virginia Tech 84-74 in the first round and upset No. 1 Villanova 65-62 in the second.
Wisconsin made the tournament field last season as a 5 seed but fell 72-54 to No. 12 Oregon in the opening round.
The program has made the NCAA tournament twice since Greg Gard’s first full season as head coach in 2016.
