Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany went to the University of North Carolina. He could tell you that the idea of North Carolina or Duke being a top-four seed in 14 straight ACC Tournaments is not ludicrous. That’s DUKE. That’s CAROLINA. Of course they would be in the top four. Duke or Carolina finishing third or fourth in the ACC is a down year. Not being a top-four seed in the ACC Tournament is cause for alarm.
However, we can appreciate that Duke and North Carolina are college basketball royalty. Kentucky is king in the SEC. UCLA and Arizona are big brand names in the Pac-12. Kansas is the colossus of the Big 12. Villanova is the giant in the Big East. If you were to tell me that any of those programs gained a top-four seed in 14 consecutive conference tournaments, I would not express surprise or shock. I would say that is expected of those schools in their respective conference tournaments.
Yet, of those schools mentioned above, only Kansas has — in this century — made at least 14 straight conference tournament appearances with a top-four seed. Duke and North Carolina both had multiple years earlier this century in which they fell out of the top four in the ACC. Kentucky slipped in 2009 under Billy Gillispie, falling to seventh in the SEC. The Wildcats were the fourth seed in the SEC East, back at a time when the two divisions had their own separate seeds. Kentucky would have been the No. 7 or 8 seed under current SEC Tournament seeding rules.
UCLA and Arizona have both stumbled at times in the Pac-12 (formerly Pac-10) this century. Villanova wasn’t a top-four seed with great regularity until Jay Wright turned the corner midway through the 2010s. Kansas is the only member of this blue-blood group which actually did remain in the top seeding tier of its conference tournament for at least 14 straight seasons.
Guess who can make the same claim of top-four seeding consistency as Kansas? Yup, Wisconsin.
From 2002 through 2015, Bo Ryan had the Badgers in the top four at the Big Ten Tournament. Wisconsin never did play a Wednesday or Thursday game. It always got the full amount of byes and played on Friday. Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, UCLA, Arizona, and Villanova could not match the Wisconsin basketball program in any 14-year period this century. Imagine writing that sentence anytime before 2005 and thinking that was remotely possible. This run of consecutive top-four seeds at the Big Ten Tournament will long remain one of the Badgers’ greatest athletic feats in 21st-century collegiate athletics.