It’s been 12 weeks, but the Wisconsin Badgers are finally back in the AP Top 25, coming in at No. 24 on Monday after their wins over the Michigan State Spartans and the Illinois Fighting Illini last week.
It was an amazing week for the Badgers, who had been lacking Quad 1 wins, having secured only one when they upset the Michigan Wolverines 91-88 on the road. But they picked up another pair of Quad 1A wins and had an emphatic statement in a 92-71 blowout of Michigan State at home, cementing themselves
as a team to watch over the final month of the regular season.
Wisconsin was one of two teams to join the rankings alongside Alabama, and is the sixth Big Ten team in the rankings, joining Michigan (No. 1), Purdue (No. 7), Nebraska (No. 9), Illinois (No. 10), and Michigan State (No. 24).
The Badgers have some more opportunities to move up the rankings this week, as they face the Ohio State Buckeyes on the road and the Iowa Hawkeyes at home. Both teams are coming off losses. The Buckeyes fell to No. 15 Virginia, while Iowa had an ugly loss to Maryland before losing to Purdue over the weekend.
If Wisconsin is able to go undefeated this week, it could finish the season really strongly. They’re now on a two-game winning streak, which would jump to four with wins over Ohio State and Iowa. Then, they take a road trip to the West Coast for games against Oregon and Washington, who are 2-12 and 5-10 in the Big Ten, respectively. That’s followed by a home game against 3-11 Maryland.
Wisconsin might be favored in every game in that stretch, perhaps aside from Ohio State. That would put them on a seven-game winning streak heading into the season finale against Purdue. Not to mention, that would give the Badgers 15 conference wins, which likely has them in the Top 4, earning them a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament.
But the Badgers are back in the Top 25 with room to grow after a pretty, pretty good week.
