It’s been an eventful few weeks for the Wisconsin Badgers. They added St John’s AJ Storr and lost Jordan Davis to the transfer portal. Davis recently announced he has committed to Illinois State. They also had Wyoming transfer Noah Reynolds. However, Reynolds de-committed and joined UW-Green Bay where his brother coaches. Ever since the college basketball season ended a few weeks ago, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has released a few bracketology updates. It doesn’t matter now since the season won’t start until November, but it’s interesting to see where teams currently stand before summer and fall.
Where Does Wisconsin Stand?
In today’s release, Lunardi has Wisconsin has a 5 seed in the South region. Two weeks ago, Lunardi thought the Badgers were a 7 seed. In this latest release, Wisconsin would have to travel to Spokane to take in 12 seed S.F. Austin. S.F. Austin is always a tough out in the NCAA Tournament so this would be a tough draw. The 4-13 game would consist of Texas A&M and Vermont.
What I found interesting in this was Marquette was the number one seed in this region. That means you would have had a potential sweet 16 battle between the Badgers and Golden Eagles. What a game that would be.
Lunardi included nine Big Ten teams in this latest version. That is the most of any conference. Michigan State was included as a number one seed. This is no surprise as the Spartans should be a top team coming into the 2023-2024 season. Purdue was a two seed, Maryland a six seed, Ohio State, Rutgers, and Northwestern were 10 seeds. Illinois and Indiana came in as 11 seeds. Illinois was included as one of the last four teams in the bracket.
Initial Thoughts
I think Lunardi was a big fan of the Storr pickup for Wisconsin. Storr is an immediate starter and his 6’6 body makes him a potential mis-match on the wing. I think he becomes a go-to scorer with Connor Essegian. Besides that, UW did not make any additional moves, but does add a solid recruiting class.
The way this bracket was set up makes me believe Lunardi thinks the Big Ten will be a battle again this year. So many teams this past season had identical records and identical low seeds in the NCAA Tournament. I do think Wisconsin has a chance to be an upper level team in the Big Ten this season and they should get back to the big dance.
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