Wisconsin Basketball: Bracketology resume breakdown for the Badgers

MADISON, WISCONSIN - DECEMBER 22: Khalil Iverson #21, Nate Reuvers #35, Ethan Happ #22 and D'Mitrik Trice #0 of the Wisconsin Badgers walk onto the court to start the second half against the Grambling State Tigers at Kohl Center on December 22, 2018 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) /

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MADISON, WISCONSIN – DECEMBER 22: Trice handles. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) /

Wisconsin basketball has struggled a bit over the past few weeks but it is far from time to panic. The Badgers’ NCAA Tournament resume is still strong.

After starting this season with a scorching 10-2 record, Wisconsin basketball has dropped four of its last five games and fans are starting to hit the panic button. And while this most recent stretch has certainly been concerning, especially on the offensive end, the team is still in great shape with regards to bracketology. In terms of where they stand overall, the Badgers are featured in all 75 projected fields on the Bracket Matrix (as of Jan. 15) while exhibiting an average seed of 6.56. They were also awarded a No. 5 seed in my most recent bracketology field from Jan. 11 (prior to losses against Purdue and Maryland).

Of course, no fanbase wants to see its favorite team lose a bunch of games in a row but it is also important to put everything in perspective. And with two months remaining in the season, Wisconsin is in very strong position to not only secure an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament but to also land a favorable seed. In order for this to happen, though, the Badgers will need to put this recent stretch of play behind them as they look forward to the rest of conference play. Sure, it might be possible that Wisconsin just isn’t very good this season and will continue to drop games but predictive metrics do not expect that to occur.

With a superstar senior in Ethan Happ leading the way, along with a few other key cogs from a couple of years ago, this is a team with a fair amount of experience and enough talent to compete near the top of the Big Ten. That might not be evident from looking at the box scores from the past few games but let’s not suddenly forget that this team was a top-25 team just a couple of weeks ago. With that said, despite being a Wisconsin fan since birth, I am fairly neutral on this team. The Badgers, in my opinion, overachieved in non-conference play a bit and have underachieved since. There should be a middle-ground in there and hopefully they return to the mean soon.

For now, though, let’s take a quick look at where Wisconsin’s resume stands to feel a bit better about this most recent stretch of play.

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