NCAA Basketball: Predicting all 32 autobids for 2022 NCAA Tournament
By Bryan Mauro
Big Ten
Winner: Wisconsin Badgers
The Badgers being in a position to win the Big Ten tournament and receive a top 16 seed in the NCAA tournament is not something many thought would happen. The Badgers went from one of the oldest teams in the country a season ago, to one of the youngest. Wisconsin also entered the season with a ton of question marks about their depth and talent outside of Brad Davison.
What happened is Wisconsin likely has the NCAA player of the year and for sure Big Ten Player of the Year in Johnny Davis, and they pair that with a team who doesn’t make mistakes, plays good defense and has good senior leadership with Brad Davison. Given how the brawl versus Michigan played out something just tells me that Wisconsin is going to use that for motivation to make a huge run. Wisconsin is a legitimate final four contender.
Sleeper: Michigan Wolverines
Is it too much to ask for another game between Juwan Howard and Greg Gard. Howard will be back for the Big Ten tournament and don’t think for one second that the Wolverines are not going to be motivated. Michigan is going to literally be playing for a spot in the NCAA tournament and if they win a few games in the league tournament could find themselves in the field.
The team has way too much talent to go quietly into the night. Hunter Dickinson and Caleb Houstan are going to put on a show in Indianapolis and lead Michigan to the semifinals and beyond of this tournament. The Wolverines are going to show up and play well, they always do come Big Ten tournament time, but is it too little too late?