The Wisconsin Badgers had a good bounce-back week, beating the Minnesota Gophers and Ohio State Buckeyes to improve to 16-6 and 8-3 in conference play.
However, the two wins didn’t do much for them with
AP Top 25 votes, as Wisconsin is still quite far away from cracking the polls. The Badgers got just one vote this week, good for the 12th-best team receiving votes. That matches up with where they currently rank in the NET rankings (41st), which measures the strength of victories and losses.
This week, there were five Big Ten teams cracking the top 25: Michigan (No. 2), Illinois (No. 5), Nebraska (No. 9), Michigan State (No. 10), and Purdue (No. 12). Iowa was the third team out of the polls, receiving 39 votes, and Wisconsin was the only other Big Ten team to receive a vote.
Wisconsin got only one vote last week as well, which came after a 1-1 week where they blew out Penn State, but lost a nail-biter at home to USC to mark their second Quad 2 loss. Two weeks ago, the Badgers were tied for the top team outside of the Top 25, and seemed poised to break back into the polls, riding a four-game win streak at the time.
Unfortunately, the USC loss derailed those hopes. But Wisconsin has a prime opportunity to crack back into the Top 25 over the next two weeks. They face Indiana on the road this weekend, which classifies as a Quad 1 opportunity. Then, they get No. 5 Illinois on the road before facing No. 10 Michigan State at home on February 13th.
Can they get hot and find a way off the NCAA Tournament bubble with just over a month left in the regular season?
