Wisconsin women’s basketball: UW is the 11-seed in the Big Ten Tournament

The Badgers will open the tournament on Wednesday afternoon against Illinois.

After the final game ended on Sunday evening and Ohio State and Iowa were crowned co-champions, the bracket for the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament was set and released. The Wisconsin Badgers (8-20 overall, 5-13 Big Ten) earned the No. 11 seed and will open the tourney on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. CT against the No. 14 seed Illinois Fighting Illini.

Big Ten Conference

The winner of Wisconsin/Illinois plays the No. 6 seed Nebraska Cornhuskers on Thursday night. All games will be televised by Big Ten Network, except for the championship game which will air on ESPN2.

The Badgers are 15-28 in 28 years of conference tournament play. Wisconsin has been the No. 11 seed four other times, including most recently in 2017, and are 2-4 in the tournament when seeded eleventh. UW’s best finishes in the Big Ten Tournament came in 2002, 2009 and 2010 as the team qualified for the semifinals. UW was the sixth seed in 2002 and made it to the semis as a seventh seed in 2009 and 2010.

This season, the Badgers and Illini split their series with each team winning at home. Illinois beat Wisconsin by 21 points while UW beat the Illini by eight in Madison. A neutral site game is the perfect way to break this tie.