Matt Norlander, the resident basketball expert for CBS Sports, published his preseason rankings for up to 101 teams. He has the Badgers dramatically lower than the AP Poll, even though he says really nice things about them in his paragraph description. He's one of many national experts that has yet to fully believe in Greg Gard's ability to do more with less.
Wisconsin is ranked No. 24 in the AP Top 25 Poll, but Norlander has them all the way down at 32, with teams like Marquette, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Oregon ahead of them. Some will see this as good news because it's fun for Wisconsin fans to see Gard prove the doubters wrong. For others, it will be seen as a sign of disrespect for a program that continues to be one of the best in the Big Ten.
Norlander did have some nice things to say about the Badgers in the article. He predicts the Badgers will make the tournament comfortably, but mostly focuses on the players like John Blackwell, Nolan Winter, and Nick Boyd. Calling the addition of Boyd important, "Bringing him and Andrew Rohde from Virginia should keep Wisconsin safely in the top half of the Big Ten."
Greg Gard is still working to get his Badgers ready for the season
Related: Greg Gard tests a new lineup in the exhibition — and it goes horribly awry
Greg Gard's Badgers are still gelling as a team and working toward a semblance of a balanced offense and defense. After two exhibitions, Gard said, "We still have a long way to go."
The good news is they start the season with four straight Quad-4 teams before they see their first top-tier program in BYU, which knocked the Badgers out of the NCAA Tournament last season. They also have an early December matchup set up for Marquette that will be an important litmus test for this team.
Norlander may not be fully bought into this team, but Wisconsin fans are happy it's finally basketball season after a brutal first half of the football season.