How low can Wisconsin go? Badgers at will of selection committee
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Bo Ryan has what seems like a practiced nonchalance about NCAA tournament seeding, bracketology and the churning speculation surrounding where his Wisconsin Badgers team will end up on Selection Sunday.
“I know Johnny Appleseed, but I wouldn’t know about a one seed,” he said Sunday after Wisconsin massacred Ohio State, 72-48. “I wouldn’t know Joe Lunardi if he was standing right here, right now. We always turn the channel when they start talking seeds.”
He’s going to have to shut the TV off completely for the next week, as the debate stirs over whether Wisconsin belongs among the top four teams in the country heading into the NCAA tournament. It’s a hot one.
The humans who put together mock brackets at Yahoo Sports, CBS and ESPN all entered Sunday with a top seed line of Kentucky (duh), Virginia, Duke and Villanova. All had the Badgers as a No. 2 seed. The number crunchers – Ken Pomeroy, Jeff Sagarin, Kevin Pauga – all currently rank Wisconsin as a top-four team.
A key element of the debate about where to seed the Badgers is the abnormally suspect nature of the Big Ten this season. In most years, a dominant, 28-3 champion of that league would be a lock No. 1 seed – but this isn’t most years.
Maryland may be the only other member of the 14-team league to earn a top-four NCAA seed. After the Badgers and Terrapins, the lineup is rife with mediocrity. That has limited the number of top-shelf victories Wisconsin has been able to accrue since playing a rigorous non-conference schedule.
Take, for instance, this game Sunday. Wisconsin was customarily precise and controlled, power-mulching the Buckeyes early and answering a small second-half run with a 20-2 haymaker. It’s the kind of performance that helps Wisconsin – but not as much as it would if this were a vintage Ohio State team.
Ryan’s team does present a compelling injury excuse for the NCAA Selection Committee to consider. Starting guard Traevon Jackson has missed 14 games with a broken foot, including two of Wisconsin’s three losses – he is scheduled to resume drills this week and may not play in the Big Ten tournament, but the Badgers are hopeful he will play in the Big Dance.
Oh, and All-American center Frank Kaminsky also didn’t play when the Badgers shockingly lost at abysmal Rutgers. Ryan, who supposedly doesn’t pay any attention to seeding, pointed out Sunday what his absence meant in that loss.
“You see how much Frank Kaminsky means to us, and how he is able to impact those around him,” Ryan said. “It magnifies how great a player he really is.”
Kaminsky scored 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting in 31 minutes against Ohio State, another relentlessly efficient performance to add to his national Player of the Year resume. The entire Wisconsin performance was a compelling case for why this team merits strong consideration for a top seed.
It’s a thin line between being the fourth No. 1 and the first No. 2, but an important one.
Everyone wants to avoid Kentucky for as long as possible. And if you are a No. 1 seed, the earliest you could face the undefeated Wildcats would be the Final Four in Indianapolis. A No. 2 seed in Kentucky’s region would be in line for a showdown in the regional final.
And guess where all the bracketologists have second-seeded Wisconsin? In the Midwest Region, along with Kentucky. They’re forecasting a potential meeting in Cleveland in the Elite Eight.
The problem with that, from a Wisconsin perspective: potentially playing the deepest team in the country on two days’ rest, with a team of suspect depth, is not ideal. The Badgers would much rather have a week to prepare – physically and mentally – for the challenge of Kentucky.
“I think collectively we’d rather have them in the Final Four or in the national championship game,” said guard Bronson Koenig.
But make no mistake, Wisconsin wants Kentucky wherever the bracket brings them together. It wants another shot at the team that ended the Badgers’ national championship dreams in painful fashion last April in the Final Four.
The sight of Aaron Harrison finding a glimmer of daylight and rising for the winning 3-point shot with 5.7 seconds left is burned into the psyches of all the Badgers. Senior forward Duje Dukan said that loss has been spurring Wisconsin since last summer.
“We can’t let that happen,” Dukan said Sunday. “Coach has been preaching how important one possession is, because that’s what it came down to last year. One possession.”
When Kaminsky and forward Sam Dekker both spurned the NBA draft and returned to school, it crystallized Wisconsin as a national title contender. In fact, it looked for a brief time in the spring like the Badgers might begin this season as the team to beat – until five Kentucky players (the Harrison twins, Willie Cauley-Stein, Alex Poythress and Dakari Johnson) all decided to return to school as well.
Both teams have performed well enough to remain at the forefront of the game.
“This year, we had more expectations than questions,” Kaminsky said. “I think we’ve lived up to the expectations.”
Wisconsin’s own expectation is to play for a national championship. If the Badgers meet up with kingpin Kentucky and can gain a measure of revenge for last season along the way, so much the better.
But they’d much rather have that rematch in the Final Four than anywhere earlier in the NCAA tournament.
