Wisconsin basketball suffered its worst loss of the season at the most inopportune time: the final game of the season. They had a lot to play for: a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament, a two-seed in the NCAA tournament, and the Milwaukee pod site may hinge on the outcome of this terrible loss. Penn State had nothing to play for. Win or lose, their season is most likely done.
Wisconsin came out hot but then fell flat at the end of the first half and could never quite get it going again. It was hard to watch and frustrating for fans to endure as they watched a good team look like a bad team for about 30 minutes of basketball. Here’s the question: We know the loss to Penn State cost Wisconsin the double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament (they are seeded 5th no matter what), but did it cost them the Milwaukee pod site, too?
According to one bracketologist it certainly did (for now).
Wisconsin cost themselves the Milwaukee pod site for now. The Big Ten Tournament could change it.
The Badgers are currently out of the Milwaukee site and it’s because of the Penn State loss. Iowa State has passed them up on the seeding list and they will get priority for that location over Wisconsin. According to the NCAA, this is how it works:
“”Teams will remain in or as close to their areas of natural interest as possible, as determined by mileage from campus to the venue. A team moved out of its natural area will be placed in the next closest region to the extent possible. If two teams from the same natural region are in contention for the same bracket position, the team ranked higher in the seed list shall remain in its natural region
This means that they need to finish ahead of Iowa State and at least one of Michigan or Michigan State. They are currently only ahead of Michigan, which has also fallen a bit in their last stretch of games. They still have one more big one today against Michigan State.
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