Wisconsin Basketball: Badgers Bracketology Week 3
By Tyler Hunt
Breaking down the Badgers Potential Seeding come March
Wisconsin Basketball racked up their seventh straight win yesterday as Badgers took down Indiana once again 65-60 to remain the lead dog in the up and down Big Ten Conference as Maryland suffered their second conference loss to Purdue on Saturday afternoon. Despite the offense yet to play their best basketball this season the Badgers have continued to scratch and claw and sit alone a top the Big Ten. The ultimate decider of the conference will likely fall on February 19th as the Badgers play host to Maryland at the Kohl Center.
While much of the focus is on how Wisconsin Basketball will finish down the stretch of the Big Ten season, many more are beginning to look toward the lines of March to see just where the Badgers will fall. If you recall the first segment of this series, the Badgers came in at a five seed. Over the course of the week Wisconsin climbed into a #4 seed, scheduled to play the first weekend in Milwaukee. As we turn to the latest version of bracketology, the Badgers have held strong as Joe Lunardi of ESPN kept Wisconsin at the same #4 line to take on Valpo in game number one. Its an interesting bracket that would possibly set the Badgers up with a second round date with Duke who currently sits at the 5 seed.
Despite moving up in the polls to #7, Wisconsin remains stagnant in terms of March seeding which has Badger fans a bit upset. While you could argue Wisconsin should be ahead of a #3 seed like West Virginia, but I don’t really see the point. It’s time to face the facts, unless Wisconsin wins the rest of their games they are not getting to the one line. At that point, wouldn’t you rather two home games at the Bradley Center vs being a higher seed and having to travel? If i’m the Badgers, i’m content at where I am the rest of the way unless a significantly easier road presents itself, which it doesn’t at the time.
Next: Badgers Up to #7 in Latest Poll
The Badgers take on Nebraska and a tough Northwestern this week, so the opportunity to pick up an easy and a RPI Game is there this week. If Wisconsin can take care of business this week there are a few teams that could fall ahead of them allowing for movement, but i’m not sure that would really be a positive.