The bracket reveal is nearly here folks!
Wisconsin’s time in Indianapolis was short-lived as the Badgers fell in their opening game of the Big Ten Tournament to Michigan State. That loss puts a final chapter in what has been a tremendous regular season for the Badgers, despite the tough results at the very end.
Now Wisconsin, as well as 67 other teams, will start with a clean slate heading into the Big Dance. The Badgers now wait until this evening (5 p.m. CT on CBS) for Selection Sunday to see where they end up in the NCAA tournament. Where do the experts project them in their final update? Let’s take a look.
We’ll start with ESPN’s Joe Lunardi who has had Wisconsin bouncing back and forth between the two and three seed line for most of the regular season. In his final reveal the Badgers are currently slated as a 3-seed in the Midwest Region. He projects Wisconsin to take on the Akron Zips who won the MAC Tournament as the 4-seed of their conference. The winner of that contest would take on the winner of the 6/11 game between Texas and Miami. Can you imagine another nail-biter between the Badgers and Longhorns?
Now we turn to CBS Sports Bracketologist Jerry Palm who has a very similar projection to Lunardi’s. According to Palm, the Badgers are also a 3-seed taking on Akron in the Midwest Region. The winner of that contest would take on the winner of the 6/11 game between Colorado State and the winner of the play-in game between San Francisco and Notre Dame.
Lastly, we take a look at SB Nation’s very own Blogging the Bracket projections have the Badgers pegged in the same spot as the other two. According to them, Wisconsin is also a 3-seed but projected to take on 14-seed Delaware, winners of the Colonial Athletic Conference. They project the winner of that would take on the 6/11 winner between USC and Iowa State.
Overall, it appears that all outlets have the Badgers placed on the 3-seed line. More importantly, the Badgers are picked to be playing in Milwaukee in all three of these projections which would be a huge home-court advantage in the opening two rounds. Additionally, as part of the Midwest Region, the Badgers would stay close to home if they advanced to the second weekend as the Sweet 16/Elite 8 games would be played in Chicago at the United Center.
Not a far trip to follow the boys should they make it that far!