Wisconsin fading from NCAA Tournament projections amid slump
MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin men's basketball team continues to fade further from its postseason aspirations.
Stuck in a midseason tailspin, the Badgers have been performing like a team many predicted to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten Conference instead of one that defied those expectations early on. They started 11-2, climbed to No. 14 in the Associated Press Top 25 and looked like a safe bet to reach the NCAA Tournament.
The Badgers (12-8, 4-6 Big Ten) don't play again until their road matchup against Ohio State (11-10, 3-7) at 6 p.m. Thursday. They enter their first contest of February as losers of six of seven games and out of the NCAA Tournament field in most recent projections. With Selection Sunday 41 days out, head coach Greg Gard and his team don't have much more room for error.
"We have to get back to being who you are," Gard said Saturday after a 61-51 loss to Illinois at the Kohl Center. "You can't fix everything, but the number one thing has been what we are not doing defensively. That has to be part of who we are with this team. That has to be consistent. It has to be 40 minutes — it can't be 32. Offensively, the game has to come to each individual. We can't press. But getting the defensive mindset back to where we have been in the first step."
ESPN's Joe Lunardi had the Badgers playing in the First Four before their loss on Saturday. He has since moved them into his "First Four Out," along with Nevada, Penn State and Arizona State. Lunardi has Kentucky, Pittsburgh, Texas A&M and Oklahoma in the First Four. West Virginia, Maryland, USC and Memphis have the last four byes.
CBS Sports' Jerry Palm and Bracektville also have the Badgers on the outside looking in. Additionally, they rank outside of the top 64 in the NCAA NET (74), KenPom (74) and ESPN BPI rankings (69).
The NET is one of the tools the selection committee uses to determine the NCAA Tournament field. The rankings factor in winning percentage, game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency and quality of wins/losses. Committee members can also consider games missed by key players or coaches, travel difficulties and other effects of specific games.
Neither Gard nor the players have made excuses, but uncontrollable factors have not been on their side lately. Senior forwardTyler Wahlsuffered an ankle injury in a victory over Minnesota earlier this month and missed three games. Junior guardMax Klesmit, another starter, suffered an upper-body injury when Wahl returned against Penn State.The Wofford transfer, who missed two games, received stitches to repair his upper left lip after taking an elbow to the face.
The Badgers have lost all five games they've played without a starter this season. On the other hand, they are 12-3 at full strength and have played the fourth-toughest schedule in the NCAA, according to the Sagarin Ratings.
"This is the Big Ten," Wahl said. "You're going to go through some spurts where things don't go your way. It's about how you respond. We all rely on each other. We have to pick each other up, show up at practice and work hard."
A schedule crunch last week forced the Badgers into three games in six days. Their game against Northwestern was moved from Jan. 21 to Jan. 23 due to NU's COVID-19 issues. They played at Maryland 48 hours later, returned to Madison Thursday morning and started preparing for Illinois.
"It's not a situation I'd want to go through again," Grad said. "As I told the team, that's on me. I shouldn’t have — although we had no choice — put them in that position because we were at a disadvantage. But it was either that or we're not playing the game, and it would have been a no-contest."
The Badgers lost games to Illinois on the road, Michigan State at home and Indiana on the road at the beginning of this rut. They had won six straight games before that, securing some of their best victories of the season over Marquette, Maryland and Iowa.
Another loss Thursday would give the Badgers seven losses in eight games for the first time since 2017-18. That team missed the NCAA Tournament, and this one will meet the same fate if the bleeding doesn’t stop.
"I think these off days will be nice," Wahl said. "We kind of get a little mental break (before playing Ohio State). We have to show up at practice, know what we have to work on and translate it to the game."
