The Wisconsin Badgers decided to have their worst game of the season as their final regular season game. It was a brutal and frustrating loss in which Wisconsin looked lost and confused for half the game and couldn’t drop shots. They also added another injury to their report in Nolan Winter, who had something happen in his shoulder on a dunk. It was layers of frustration and disappointment.
The AP Top 25 also recognized it as a bad day for the Badgers, dropping them six spots from No. 12 to No. 18. The Badgers don’t look like the same team from February and hopefully getting Max Klesmit back from injury will make a huge difference and get the trajectory of the post season on the right track. The sky is the limit for this team, but they also know how to play in the basement.
Fans definitely feel the team deserved to be dropped in the polls, and some are frustrated enough to wonder how they are still ranked. However, the Badgers’ resume is still as strong as that of any top-15 team in the country. They only have one Quad-2 loss and six Quad-1 wins. That’s elite still even with a clunker to end the season against Penn State.
The Badgers are still projected to be a three-seed in the NCAA tournament, and they are currently in the five-seed spot for the Big Ten Tournament. While in years past, Big Ten Tournament games didn’t change a resume much, winning the whole thing would go a long way for the Wisconsin Badgers, not only for momentum into the NCAA Tournament but also for seeding.
The Wisconsin Badgers’ first game (second round) in the Big Ten Tournament is Thursday, March 13, against the winner of the No. 12 Minnesota Golden Gophers and the No. 13 Northwestern Wildcats.
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