Wisconsin basketball suffered its worst loss since early January on Tuesday, falling 86-69 to the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Greg Gard’s team now sits at 18-8 (10-5 Big Ten) on the season, 4 1/2 games behind Michigan for first place in the conference standings. The Badgers still have two important end-of-season races, even with a conference regular-season title now out of the picture.
The first is the battle for a coveted double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament. Those go to the top four teams in the conference standings; Wisconsin currently trails third-place Nebraska, Purdue, and Michigan State by one game. Two of those four teams will likely claim those double-bye slots.
The second, and arguably more important, race is for NCAA Tournament seeding. Wisconsin recently bolstered its position with top-10 wins over Illinois and Michigan State. The question is no longer if the team will make the tournament, but instead where it will be seeded. The Badgers are a No. 7 seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology update. They can still improve that standing with a strong stretch to close the year.
One key indicator for tournament seeding is the NCAA NET Rankings. Here is where the Badgers now stand following their loss to Ohio State.
Wisconsin basketball’s updated NCAA NET ranking after Ohio State loss
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This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: Where Wisconsin stands in NCAA NET Rankings after Ohio State loss
Reporting by Ben Kenney, Badgers Wire / Badgers Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
