Wisconsin catapulted its own resume forward with a huge win over No. 8 Illinois. It was actually their second top-5 NET win of the season. Giving them two quad-1a wins: beating Michigan in Ann Arbor (who is NET 1) and now Illinois in Champaign (NET 5). Those alone boosted the resume to new heights and single-handedly (barring a collapse) sent the Wisconsin Badgers to the NCAA Tournament.
However, one other win happened last night that helped tremendously, while Wisconsin fans were celebrating, TCU knocked off No. 5 Iowa State to get their own top-10 NET win. This is important in so many ways for Wisconsin.
TCU knocked off No. 5 Iowa State and propelled the Horned Frogs inside the NET 50
Related: Brad Underwood was chock-full of excuses after Wisconsin's upset of Illinois
First, TCU was Wisconsin's worst loss of the season until last night. They were the only team north of 50 on the NET list in the Badgers' loss column. That changed, TCU jumped to 48 with the big win, and now Wisconsin's worst loss is USC, whose NET is 49.
This is important because a NET 50 and under loss is not bad at all. Wisconsin now only has quad-1 losses and one quad-2 loss (losing to USC at home). That's an incredible gift to the resume, as now it looks like this:
Wisconsin's Current NCAA Tournament Resume:
NET: 37
KenPom: 36
Quad 1: 2-6
Quad 2: 5-1
Quad 3/4: 10-0
Those two wins are both considered quad-1(A), which means they are in the upper echelon of wins. You can't have a bigger win than Wisconsin has with the Michigan on the road win.
TCU and USC, being the worst losses, are both great as both are firmly on the bubble. Wisconsin has avoided disaster this season by losing to anyone that would kill their resume. And the schedule down the stretch can't do much to hurt them unless they lose to Oregon and Maryland. It can do a lot to help, though, with five more quad-1 opportunities.