Wisconsin basketball: one idiot, one absolute fool, is still voting for the Badgers in the AP Top-25

If you run into Seth Davis, college basketball analyst for CBS and Sports Illustrated, this week you should buy him a drink. He is the only person in the country who currently thinks the Wisconsin Badgers (12-8 overall, 5-4 B1G) should be ranked. It is likely because of this view that Davis has the second most extreme ballot of any of the voters according to College Poll Trackers.

The Badgers walloped Nebraska at home last week but then ended the week by getting walloped by Purdue on the road and are clearly inspiring less and less confidence in the voters by the game.

Anyways, the Badgers aren’t ranked but plenty of other B1G teams are! The Michigan State Spartans lead the way at No. 14 in the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll, the Maryland Terrapins are right behind them at No. 15/15, the Iowa Hawkeyes are at No. 18/18, the Illinois Fighting Illini are No. 19/19, the Penn State Nittany Lions are No. 24/23 and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights round everything out at No. 25/25.

The Ohio State Buckeyes, Indiana Hoosiers, Purdue Boilermakers and Wisconsin are receiving votes in the AP Poll while just Ohio State and Indiana are receiving votes in the Coaches Poll.

The AP’s top-five didn’t change at all, with the Baylor Bears remaining No. 1 followed by the Gonzaga Bulldogs, Kansas Jayhawks, San Diego State Aztecs and Florida State Seminoles. The only thing that changed in the Coaches Poll was that Baylor leapfrogged Gonzaga to be No. 1 in both polls. KU, SDSU and the Louisville Cardinals round out the coaches’ top-five.

As far as other, more analytically inclined rankings go here is where Wisconsin is ranked (through 1/27/20):

• KenPom - No. 31
• T-Rank - No. 25
• NET - No. 30

Wisconsin is still rated well by the advanced numbers, mostly based on their difficult schedule and the five Quad 1 wins they’ve accumulated. They will, however, need to start piecing together a few more of those wins because the schedule isn’t getting any easier and the competition for an at-large spot in the NCAA Tournament should be heated this year.

The Badgers play at No. 18 Iowa on Monday night (aka tonight) and then host No. 14 Michigan State on Saturday afternoon. Win both of those and surely more than one person will think the Badgers should be ranked. Lose both? Well, another discussion will have to be had.