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For the sixth consecutive year, the Wisconsin Badgers are ranked in the AP Top 25 to open the season, earning the second-highest preseason ranking in school history on Monday as the No. 9 team in the country.
Coming off a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2015-16, the Badgers return 99.8 percent of their minutes to become the highest-ranked Big Ten team.
The only time in school history that Wisconsin opened the season ranked higher was to kick off the 2014-15 Final Four campaign ranked No. 3.
Indiana (No. 11) is the next-highest ranked Big Ten team, followed by Michigan State (No. 12), Purdue (No. 15) and Maryland (No. 25). Ohio State and Michigan also received votes.
A plethora of recent Wisconsin NCAA tournament opponents are in the Top 10: Duke (No. 1), Kentucky (No. 2), Oregon (No. 5), North Carolina (No. 6), Xavier (No. 7) and Arizona (No. 10).
Here’s the full rankings table:
| RK | TEAM | RECORD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duke (58) | 0-0 | 1,612 |
| 2 | Kentucky (2) | 0-0 | 1,479 |
| 3 | Kansas | 0-0 | 1,476 |
| 4 | Villanova (4) | 0-0 | 1,465 |
| 5 | Oregon (1) | 0-0 | 1,343 |
| 6 | North Carolina | 0-0 | 1,314 |
| 7 | Xavier | 0-0 | 1,167 |
| 8 | Virginia | 0-0 | 1,149 |
| 9 | Wisconsin | 0-0 | 1,135 |
| 10 | Arizona | 0-0 | 1,004 |
| 11 | Indiana | 0-0 | 917 |
| 12 | Michigan State | 0-0 | 903 |
| 13 | Louisville | 0-0 | 755 |
| 14 | Gonzaga | 0-0 | 699 |
| 15 | Purdue | 0-0 | 672 |
| 16 | UCLA | 0-0 | 540 |
| 17 | Saint Mary's | 0-0 | 512 |
| 18 | Connecticut | 0-0 | 504 |
| 19 | Syracuse | 0-0 | 464 |
| 20 | West Virginia | 0-0 | 360 |
| 21 | Texas | 0-0 | 250 |
| 22 | Creighton | 0-0 | 231 |
| 23 | Rhode Island | 0-0 | 199 |
| 24 | Iowa State | 0-0 | 168 |
| 25 | Maryland | 0-0 | 144 |
| Others receiving votes: Cincinnati 110, Dayton 98, Florida State 88, California 74, San Diego State 48, Miami 35, NC State 29, Butler 21, Wichita St 21, Ohio State 18, Virginia Tech 18, Florida 18, Texas A&M 14, Mississippi State 14, Oklahoma 11, Colorado 10, Michigan 8, Monmouth 7, Notre Dame 6, Washington 5, Seton Hall 5, Princeton 2, Ohio 1, Vanderbilt 1, Harvard 1 | |||