Wisconsin basketball this season is weird. It's hard to describe a team that can walk into Ann Arbor and pull off an upset of the now-ranked No. 1 Michigan Wolverines, but then also throw up an absolute dud versus Ohio State. This lackluster showing against the Buckeyes came on the back of dismantling Michigan State. A strange season that head coach Greg Gard says falls on the back of effort, physicality, and having a "bite."
It might be that Wisconsin is better suited to be the hunter, not the hunted, as one commenter noted. They don't want to be the big dog; they would rather be the snack in the grass that bites the big dog. The good news is, one major bracketologist said that the Ohio State game won't matter much for Wisconsin's NCAA Tournament resume.
Wisconsin won’t drop a ton with how weak the areas are below them.
— T3™️ (@T3Bracketology) February 18, 2026
Ohio St could enter the field, even without a Q1 win. At least they have a good win now, not everyone left on the bubble does. Still have work to do to feel any sense of safety
Wisconsin needs to move on and put the Ohio State game in the throwaway pile
Related: What seed Wisconsin sits at in all the major bracket projections before Ohio St tip
T3 Bracketology thinks it won't matter much for Wisconsin down the stretch, as winning on the road in the Big Ten is a problem. Yesterday alone featured six upsets in the top-25 and every road Big Ten team (besides Michigan) lost. That's part of why it will end up being mostly ignored for Wisconsin.
It also helps that Ohio State is a bubble team with a NET 39 resume. It's not one of Wisconsin's worst losses; it's actually one of their better ones. It's a quad-1 loss due to it being on the road. That's important for the resume. The Badgers still don't have a bad loss on their resume. They've only lost one quad-2 game: USC at home.
Now, the Wisconsin Badgers can't continue to put together back-to-back poor showings. It will catch up to them. Hopefully, they learned the lesson they haven't learned all year, which is, you can't keep showing up lazy and effortless and still win. Ohio State wasn't going to let them.
They take on the Iowa Hawkeyes next, who just knocked off the Nebraska Cornhuskers. It'll be a battle at home.