The Wisconsin Badgers have seen their NCAA Tournament projections go up and down over the past couple of weeks, and they took a hit this week after the team’s 86-69 road loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Wisconsin, which was trending on the six-seed line after its wins over the Illinois Fighting Illini and Michigan State Spartans, has now fallen to the bottom of the eight-seed line in ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology predictions.
While Wisconsin is still heavily projected
to make the tournament with its resume, its potential seed in the tournament remains quite unclear. That’s why Sunday’s game against the Iowa Hawkeyes is quite crucial for the Badgers.
A win would allow them to rebound potentially back up to the seven-seed line, setting the tone to finish the season strong and end as a top-six seed. However, another loss, this time at home, could bump Wisconsin back to the nine or ten-seed lines, where they had been teetering prior to their strong wins last week.
Following Sunday, the Badgers have three games against the Oregon Ducks, Washington Huskies, and the Maryland Terrapins, who are all in the bottom half of the Big Ten, before finishing the season on the road against the No. 7 Purdue Boilermakers.
Had Wisconsin beaten Ohio State, they would’ve been one of the hottest risers and potentially even gotten into the conversation for a top-four seed with a win against Iowa. Now, the tides have shifted quite a bit, making Sunday’s game all that much more important.
