Well, that happened fast. The Wisconsin Badgers went from a popular dark horse Big Ten title contender to an “outside looking in” on every major Bracketology in the span of a few weeks earlier in December.
So, it’s high time to do an updated Best/Worst/Most Likely Scenario for the squad heading into conference play.
Best Case
Here, Wisconsin puts the injury issues behind them and somehow summons the right amount of buy-in and defensive effort to pull itself out of its season-long doldrums against good
teams.
Related: John Blackwell not only gets healthy but finds a way to up his defensive intensity and successfully coexist with Nick Boyd. While I don’t think there are personality issues between them, the Blackwell/Boyd dynamic has been objectively less than ideal on the court.
Verdict: 5th-7th place in the Big Ten, No. 5 or No. 6 seed in NCAA Tournament with a Sweet 16 ceiling.
Worst Case
The things I noted in the “Best Case” don’t come to pass, and this team settles into a role as a talented but soft squad that has both chemistry and injury problems.
Teams like Purdue, Illinois, and Michigan State eat their lunch due to Wisconsin’s lack of defensive intensity and rebounding. While they’ll win some games and look good occasionally, the Badgers never feel like a real threat to play their way into the NCAA Tournament.
Verdict: 10th-12th place in the Big Ten, NIT ceiling.
Most Likely Case
Although I suspect there will be one more follow-up article on this topic early in 2026, here’s where I am now.
Presuming that no injuries linger, this team figures things out to an extent and has moments where it looks very dangerous.
But consistency, especially on defense, remains an issue, with wild swings ranging from incredible games where they look like a legit tourney troublemaker to stinkers where they’re awful and disjointed.
Verdict: 8th-9th place in the Big Ten, NCAA Bubble Team that sneaks in late as a 10 or 11-seed.
