Wisconsin basketball surges while other top teams falter—What will the Badgers be ranked?

The AP voters will have their hands full this week trying to figure out how to make sense of the chaos. There were 19 ranked teams that lost this week which is over 75% of the ranked teams. That's only half the problem because some of those ranked teams beat other ranked teams. Teams like No. 4 Alabama lost to No. 21 Ole Miss but then turned around and beat No. 8 Kentucky. It's a mess. The good news for Wisconsin fans is that UW is not one of those teams to lose. They won both of their games this week, thus the question, how high will the go up the rankings?

Wisconsin is one of just a few ranked teams that didn't lose this week.

Typically, for these prediction posts, we only need to go about five or so spots in front (or behind in case of a loss) of Wisconsin to figure out the drop. However, there was so much chaos this week in the rankings that it might be prudent to go from 15-25 as a recap and see where exactly Wisconsin fits in. There's no chance a team will rise more than that unless they beat two top-five teams or something crazy. Wisconsin's wins are nice amid a sea of chaos, but they are still two unranked wins.

No. 15 Mississippi State -- Lost to No. 1 Auburn, beat No. 21 Ole Miss
No. 16 Gonzaga -- Lost to Oregon State and Santa Clara
No. 17 Purdue -- Beat Washington and No. 12 Oregon
No. 18 Memphis -- Lost to Temple, beat Charlotte
No. 19 Illinois -- Beat Indiana, Lost to Michigan State
No. 20 Michigan -- Lost to Minnesota, beat Northwestern
No. 21 Ole Miss -- Beat No. 4 Alabama, lost to No. 15 Mississippi State
No. 22 Utah State -- Lost to UNLV
No. 23 Georgia -- Lost to No. 6 Tennessee and No. 1 Auburn
No. 24 Wisconsin -- Beat Ohio State and USC
No. 25 Baylor -- Lost to Arizona and to TCU

Wisconsin won't find themselves soaring up to 15. That's too big of a jump, and as you can tell, there's chaos in those 15. For example, Mississippi State Bulldogs may hang right around 15, with their loss being to the No. 1 team and their win being over a ranked team, Ole Miss. Purdue will jump. Gonzaga should drop out; Oklahoma did last week after two losses and being ranked 17th. Let's be real: Gonzaga's two losses were worse than the two that the Sooners faced.

There's room for Wisconsin to move up. However, they only beat Ohio State, NET ranked 36, and USC, 75. Neither win is a huge needle mover, even if the USC one was on the road. They will move up thanks to those two wins and the chaos around them, but it will be somewhere around 20.

Prediction: Wisconsin moves to No. 20.