Wisconsin men’s basketball: Badgers ranked No. 7 in preseason AP Poll

The Associated Press has been ranking college sports since 1949 and today they released their preseason poll for the 2020-2021 college basketball season. Like college football, hoops will be one surrounded with uncertainty all season but hopefully for Badger basketball it will get off the ground better than Badger football did.

If they do, they’ll have high hopes, and high expectations, starting the season ranked No. 7 in the preseason AP Poll. The AP Polls ranking agrees with the KenPom ranking for the Badgers. If you’d like to hear KenPom’s break down of the Badgers be sure to click the link below.

With the Badgers starting out at No. 7 this will be the highest ranking Wisconsin basketball has had to start a season since 2014-2015. While the Badgers sit very high in the rankings, they aren’t the highest Big Ten team as the Iowa Hawkeyes sit at No. 5 in the country. Right behind the Badgers at No. 8 is the Illinois Fighting Illini followed by the Duke Blue Devils and Kentucky Wildcats.

Yes, the Badgers, Hawkeyes, and Illini are ranked higher than Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, and Michigan State to start the season.... who are the blue bloods in this dang sport again?

Speaking of Michigan State they also come in ranked wayyyyy down below at No. 13. Following that the Big Ten brings in three more teams as Ohio State sits at No. 23, Rutgers sits at No. 24, and Michigan sits at No. 25. Indiana received votes. That means the Big Ten will start with seven teams in the top 25. It’s fair to say the depth of the conference will again be there in 2020-2021.

The top ranked team in the AP Poll is once again the Gonzaga Bulldogs who spent a lot of time occupying the top spot last season. Coming in at No. 2 is Baylor, No. 3 is Villanova, No. 4 is Virginia, and rounding out the top five is Iowa.

Overall, these rankings mean little but it’s always fun to see. Now it’s time to prove it on the court as college basketball rapidly approaches. We still don’t have a schedule but there’s still time... albeit not a lot as the season gets closer and closer. Whoever the Badgers face, we’ll be excited to see them soon!