The Wisconsin Badgers 84-71 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes secured their spot as a ‘lock’ for the NCAA Tournament in ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology predictions.
Heading into the game, Wisconsin was as close to a ‘lock’ as you could get, but the game had serious implications for the Badgers’ potential seeding. Wisconsin had just lost to the Ohio State Buckeyes, which dropped their projections after a big week with wins over the Illinois Fighting Illini and Michigan State Spartans.
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A loss to Iowa would’ve further spiraled those projections, and Wisconsin didn’t have any other major opportunities to make up ground until the season finale on the road against the Purdue Boilermakers. But the win over Iowa gave the Badgers their fifth Quad 1 win of the season and secured them as the sixth ‘lock’ in the Big Ten in Lunardi’s projections.
Here’s what classifies as a lock, according to Lunardi.
“Teams that have nearly a 100% chance to be called by the committee as an at-large selection (if necessary). They would need a significant change in momentum to miss the cut.”
The other five current ‘locks’ in a deep Big Ten so far are Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State, Michigan, and Nebraska.
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Currently, the Badgers are trending as a No. 7 seed in Lunardi’s latest projections, putting them on the same line as NC State, Villanova, and Utah State. As for the Big Ten teams ahead of them, here’s their current projected seed lines:
Michigan (No. 1 seed)
Purdue (No. 2 seed)
Illinois (No. 2 seed)
Nebraska (No. 3 seed)
Michigan State (No. 4 seed)
