The Wisconsin Badgers dropped a frustrating one to Minnesota on Saturday, but have three big wins on their resume. The Badgers have beaten Michigan State, Nebraska, and Oregon. All top-25 NET wins. That's really helpful for any chance to make it to the NCAA. The reality is, the NCAA Tournament feels and has felt like a long shot this season, even with those big wins. Yet, Autumn Johnson has them as one of the first teams on the outside looking in.
That puts the Wisconsin women's basketball team a lot closer than most fans thought. Many Wisconsin fans were hoping and maybe still are hoping for a WNIT birth, which would be a huge step forward, but on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament is incredible.
🔮 FIRST BRACKET PREDICTION 🔮
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) January 26, 2026
Autumn Johnson drops her first bracket prediction of the 2025–26 season.
First Four OUT:
1️⃣ Kansas State
2️⃣ Virginia Tech
3️⃣ Wisconsin
4️⃣ South Dakota State#NCAAWBB #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/iQ0dHl5rta
Wisconsin women's basketball is considered a bubble team by one NCAA Tournament expert
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Johnson is the lead women's basketball reporter for NCAA.com. Thus, this isn't some sort of out of left field, or homer take, this is one of the analysts that follows it all closely. So is there hope? Sure, and the games are actually in front of them. That's also the problem.
Wisconsin women have eight regular-season games left, and half of them are against currently ranked teams. They will see No. 11 Ohio State, No. 25 Washington, No. 2 UCLA, and No. 8 Iowa. However, the other four games are no walk in the park either.
Indiana is the lowest-ranked NET team in their remaining games, sitting at 61, which is 14 spots higher than Wisconsin at 75. Illinois is at NET 35, and Minnesota (which isn't currently ranked) is NET 13. That's the team that just beat them.
It feels like a lot to ask to even go 4-4 in these final games, much less 5-3 or 6-2. It's probably realistic to assume they only grab two and maybe at most three wins over the final eight. Which would still be a huge improvement from last season and a homerun for Robin Pingeton's first season.
This is why many fans are not only surprised to see Wisconsin that high, but also have decided that a WNIT would be a great goal to finish the season. However, they could get in, especially if they perform well over the final stretch.