Wisconsin basketball: Bracketology? Bracketology!

Some might say that talking about Bracketology in September is a bit premature. To those people I say: September is too late! Let’s talk about brackets all year! Especially this year, when we missed out on the 2020 NCAA Tournament and brackets have been sorely missing from my life, we need some early predictions.

ESPN’s Chief Bracketologist Joe Lunardi has been updating his bracket throughout the summer, his last update came on August 10th, and he sees the Wisconsin Badgers grabbing a high seed in the Midwest Region, where the regional semifinals and finals will take place in nearby Minneapolis, Minn. Here is where Lunardi has the Big Ten teams seeded:

• No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers vs. No. 15 Colgate Raiders in Midwest
• No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes vs. No. 15 Siena Saints in South
• No. 3 Michigan State Spartans vs. No. 14 Buffalo Bulls in West
• No. 4 Illinois Fighting Illini vs. No. 13 Georgia State Panthers in West
• No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes vs. No. 13 Yale Bulldogs in East
• No. 6 Rutgers Scarlet Knights vs. No. 11 Memphis/Providence in East
• No. 7 Michigan Wolverines vs. No. 10 Ole Miss Rebels in East
• No. 7 Indiana Hoosiers vs. No. 10 Saint Louis Billikens in West
• No. 8 Purdue Boilermakers vs. No. 9 Arizona Wildcats in Midwest

Getting nine teams into the tourney would be an extremely successful season for the B1G and isn’t out of the realm of possibilities since it should be the best conference in the country again. One would imagine that Illinois will move up in Lunardi’s updated rankings, whenever they come out.

Andy Katz, of NCAA.com, released his newly updated bracket on Tuesday and also has the Badgers slotted in as a 2-seed. Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin are all in the top-six of his overall seeds. Here is where he sees the whole conference seeded:

• No. 1 Illinois Fighting Illini vs. No. 16 Prairie View A&M/St. Francis (PA) in Midwest
• No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes vs. No. 15 Wright State Raiders in East
• No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers vs. No. 15 North Dakota State Bison in South
• No. 3 Michigan State Spartans vs. No. 14 Hofstra Pride in West
• No. 4 Rutgers Scarlet Knights vs. No. 13 East Tennessee State Buccaneers in East
• No. 5 Michigan Wolverines vs. No. 12 Iona Gaels in South
• No. 5 Indiana Hoosiers vs. No. 12 Louisville/San Diego State in West
• No. 7 Richmond Spiders vs. No. 10 Ohio State Buckeyes in Midwest
• No. 8 Purdue Boilermakers vs. No. 9 Saint Louis Billikens in East

This is the first time I’ve seen a B1G team as a 1-seed in any bracket and Katz also has Rutgers higher than other brackets I’ve seen.

As we’ve been saying all offseason, this should be a fun, if shortened, season. Esepcially once conference play starts.