The Wisconsin Badgers earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, being ranked as the No. 20 overall seed, which placed them in the West Region, where they’ll take on the No. 12 High Point Panthers.
It was a good day for the Badgers, who jumped into the five-seed line after a strong showing at the Big Ten Tournament, where Wisconsin got wins over the Washington Huskies and Illinois Fighting Illini before falling short in a three-point loss to the Michigan Wolverines.
In the West Region, Wisconsin will
head to the Portland regional to play High Point, with No. 4 Arkansas vs. No. 13 Hawai’i being the other matchup. Should they advance, they’d face the winner of that game.
Wisconsin and Arkansas has been touted as one of the best potential matchups of the entire tournament, let alone the Round of 32, given how hot both teams are running heading into March Madness. It will be a tough matchup for the Badgers, just due to the sheer dominance of Darius Acuff Jr., who has been elite and might be the best guard in the country.
But Wisconsin does have a size advantage there and it is a more favorable matchup than some other No. 4 and No. 5 seeds out there in the bracket. So, it wasn’t a surprise that a majority of fans projected the Badgers to reach the Sweet Sixteen this season in our weekly Reacts poll.
53 percent of fans predicted Wisconsin to reach the Sweet Sixteen. 26 percent see the Badgers winning their first-round game against High Point before bowing out to Arkansas. Another 17 percent see Wisconsin doing the improbable and upsetting the No. 1 Arizona Wildcats (likely) to make the Elite Eight (which might be a trendy pick in brackets this year). And 4 percent of fans have the Badgers bowing out in the first round.
With the bracket set, is this Wisconsin’s best chance at a run in the NCAA Tournament? They haven’t made the Sweet Sixteen since 2017, but have had a couple of talented teams in the last few years. We’ll see if this is the group that can finally buck that trend.
