While it’s fair to say that my recent track record on prognostications has been far from perfect, I’m going to push forward here and offer up some bold calls for four Wisconsin Badgers squads as we finish
up winter and head into spring.
Men’s Basketball makes the Sweet Sixteen as a 10-seed
I see the Badgers losing five more games before the Big Ten Tourney, which will probably keep them near the March Madness bubble, but also mean that they’ll end up seeded somewhere between the 8 and 11 lines, given their surging strength of schedule. I’ll go with a 10-seed, which will at least allow them to dodge a No. 1 on the first weekend.
This squad has too many warts to think they’ll steamroll through a brutal February/March schedule (at Indiana, at Illinois, vs. Michigan State, at Ohio State, Iowa, at Oregon, at Washington, Maryland, at Purdue), but enough talent and moxie to finish 8th or 9th in the Big Ten and roll into the NCAA Tourney as a dangerous upset team that nobody wants to face.
So, I see Greg Gard finally breaking through to the Sweet Sixteen, this time as an underdog, after a nine year absence.
Women’s Hockey loses again, but wins the NCAA title
As proud as Coach Mark Johnson is to have so many current players in the Olympics (Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Ava McNaughton, and Kirsten Simms), it’s a bit of a headache to deal with as the Badgers’ season rolls on. This manifested itself last weekend, when No. 3 Minnesota knocked off Wisconsin in overtime, 3-2, in Minneapolis.
While the Badgers righted the ship with a 6-1 beat-down of the Gophers the following day, it showed that things will be tough for a bit, as the Women’s Hockey Gold Medal game is still over three weeks away.
This means the Badgers will be massively shorthanded for the next three series, including at No. 2 Ohio State next weekend (although the Buckeyes are missing several players of their own). While I don’t see the 24-2-2 and No. 1-ranked Badgers going undefeated the rest of the way, I still think they will claim NCAA title No. 9 in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, this March.
Slumping Men’s Hockey steadies the ship to land an NCAA Tournament bid
While there are some tangible reasons why Mike Hastings’ lads have struggled, including injuries and absences, the fact remains that they’ve been one of the worst teams in college hockey in 2026, dropping six straight Big Ten contests, including a road sweep to a subpar Gophers unit last weekend.
Goaltending and the penalty kill have been especially brutal lately, and have Hastings and his boys (who were No. 2 in the country when the calendar flipped to 2026) looking for answers.
While I no longer believe this is a team that will challenge for a Big Ten (or NCAA) title this season, I still see them turning it around enough to land a spot in the NCAA field. They were too good for too long to be as bad as they’ve looked. That push begins this weekend at last-place Notre Dame.
Football has a wild spring
If nothing else, I get some points here for being vague. Let me see if I can firm this up a bit.
With the elimination of the spring transfer portal, we won’t have the tricky and challenging moments like needing to find a starting left tackle and tight end somewhere outside the current roster in April. But we will get a vibe for where things stand for some positional depth charts, as well as witness a few exciting breakout guys show their stuff.
While we’ve seen spring camp fool’s gold before, there are simply far more new faces in that room right now, and I’m predicting that a handful of those guys will make huge impressions that we weren’t banking on, putting their names firmly into discussion for being a big piece for the team this fall.
Here are a few possible under-the-radar candidates to whet your appetite: Wide receiver Zion Kearney, cornerback Bryce West, edge Nicolas Clayton, and edge Liam Danitz.
