Wisconsin will be the No. 5 seed in the Big Ten Tournament

March 10, 2024
|In Badgers
|By Zach Heilprin

Wisconsin’s postseason will get going Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament.

Following the Badgers loss at Purdue on Sunday, along with wins by Northwestern and Nebraska, coach Greg Gard’s club will be the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament in Minneapolis. It means they will see the winner of Wednesday’s game between 12th-seeded Maryland and 13th-seeded Rutgers, with tip slated to come around 1:30 p.m. A win would send them to Friday, where they would face fourth-seeded Northwestern.

Wisconsin went 2-1 against the Terrapins and Scarlet Knights during the season, splitting with Rutgers and beating Maryland in the lone meeting between the two schools. The Badgers beat the Wildcats at the Kohl Center in January, which was also the only time they played.

UW hasn’t won more than one game at the conference tournament since 2016-17 when it made it to the championship game before losing to Michigan. A run like that seems unlikely, as the Badgers are still reeling from a brutal six-week stretch that saw them lose eight of their final 11 games. It dropped them from No. 6 in the country and being in first place in the Big Ten to unranked and not getting one of the four double byes at the conference tournament.

Despite that slide, Wisconsin is still comfortably in the NCAA Tournament, with most bracketologists having the Badgers a No. 6 or No. 7 seed.