Wisconsin men’s basketball: let’s overreact to some preseason projections

Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way right away: Bart Torvik’s preseason projections for the 2021-22 season are for entertainment purposes only and also aren’t even fully ready since there are still so many players left in the transfer portal, exploring their professional options, etc.

That being said...IT IS TIME TO FREAK THE HELL OUT!!!!!

The Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team is going to look VASTLY different next year than it has for, oh, the last three years. D’Mitrik Trice, Nate Reuvers, Micah Potter, Aleem Ford, Trevor Anderson? Yup, they’re all gone. Brad Davison? We don’t know yet, but he may be sick and tired of being shouted at online for his style of play.

Jonathan Davis and Tyler Wahl are the only two rotational pieces back and the rest of the roster is brand new, untested or not even on the roster yet.

With sophomore wing Carter Gilmore recently being bumped up to a scholarship player it looks like the Badgers still have two scholarships available for the upcoming season. It would behoove them to find one veteran ball handler and one veteran big to help balance out an extremely young and unproven roster.

Bart Torvik

Torvik still projects the Wisconsin defense to be solid (No. 27 in the country) but the offense? Hoo boy, it ain’t pretty. Currently Torvik has the UW offense rated as the No. 169 in the land. Only Penn State, Minnesota and Rutgers are rated worse in the Big Ten. Those two rankings place the Badgers at No. 71 overall and have them projected to finish one game under .500 for the season.

As far as his Big Ten rankings, Torvik currently sees the conference shaking out like this (with overall rank listed):

No. 7 Michigan
No. 9 Maryland
No. 10 Michigan State
No. 12 Purdue
No. 18 Indiana
No. 20 Illinois
No. 24 Ohio State
No. 34 Northwestern
No. 48 Nebraska
No. 71 Wisconsin
No. 88 Iowa
No. 109 Rutgers
No. 121 Minnesota
No. 131 Penn State

Now, it should be reiterated that many of these teams still have holes on their roster that will be filled this offseason, well before practice starts up again, but it is an important look at where Wisconsin fans should expect to see the Badgers in any other preseason projections.

As opposed to this past season where UW entered the year with top-10 rankings and Final Four aspirations which, obviously, were not met, this season should see the Badgers ranked squarely in the middle of the Big Ten race this preseason and, honestly probably closer to the bottom third of the league.