Wisconsin moves up in latest AP Top 25 basketball poll

Following a second-place finish at this year’s Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team moved up three spots in this week’s AP Top 25 poll to No. 22.

The Badgers dispatched of the Oklahoma Sooners and the Stanford Cardinal in the Bahamas before falling to the Virginia Cavaliers in a closely contested final. Virginia, for that matter, held its spot at No. 4 this week.

It is worth noting that the Badgers currently sit one spot ahead of the defending national champion Villanova Wildcats in the rankings. What does that mean? Well, I think it’s pretty obvious that it means the Badgers are currently playing pretty dang well.

Joining UW in the rankings from the Big Ten are No. 7 Michigan, No. 9 Michigan State, No. 14 Iowa, No. 16 Ohio State, No. 19 Purdue and No. 24 Maryland. Indiana, Minnesota and Nebraska all sit amongst the “others receiving votes” as the Big Ten attempts to become the first conference in history to have every team ranked at the same time (GET IT TOGETHER, RUTGERS!).

There was a bit of a shakeup at the top of the polls as Gonzaga replaced Duke as the No. 1 team in the land after beating the Blue Devils in Maui. Kansas, Duke, Virginia and Nevada round out the top-five.

The Badgers have two great chances this week for quality wins. They face off against North Carolina State on Tuesday night (8 p.m. CT, ESPN2) at the Kohl Center as part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge before traveling to Iowa City on Friday (7 p.m. CT, BTN) to open conference play and battle a high-flying Hawkeyes team.