Much has been written about the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s impressive finish to the 2019-20 season and what could have been had the team gotten the chance to play postseason basketball.
These queries are warranted, as the team’s No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and potential No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament had them in a great position to achieve the postseason success we haven’t seen from the program in the past two years.
Nevertheless, the team ending the season with a 21-10 record after an eight-game winning streak, paired with Brevin Pritzl being the team’s only notable departure and head coach Greg Gard getting ready to welcome in a stellar freshman class, has Badger fans’ hopes high as we enter the long offseason.
Well, Sports Illustrated’s released a way-too-early top-25 for the 2020-21 season yesterday and their ranking is enough to continue that optimism as they have the Badgers pegged in at No. 14.
For context, if Gard’s unit was to start the season at No. 14 it would be their highest preseason ranking since 2016-17 and their fourth-highest in the history of the program.
Furthermore, of the five times the team has received a top-15 preseason ranking they have made the tournament and won at least one game every single time, with one of those trips ending in the national championship defeat to Duke in 2015.
Other Big Ten teams included in Sports Illustrated’s early rankings include Iowa at No. 8, Michigan State at No. 11, Ohio State at No. 16, Michigan at No. 20 and Rutgers at No. 24.
The Big Ten-winning Badgers will have a long time to wait until that preseason ranking becomes official and the 2020-21 season tips off.