For anyone that doesn’t remember, this year’s Wisconsin Badgers team entered the season with minimal expectations from the media. Greg Gard and his young Badgers team were picked to finish no better than 10th by just about every reputable news outlet you can imagine.

The low expectations for UW were easy to understand on the surface. Wisconsin needed to replace 71% of the teams total points scored, and 3,597 minutes from a season ago. That production was going to be replaced by a roster that consisted of 70% first or second-year players in the program – which is far from the norm in Madison.

It’s safe to say at this point that any doubts people may have had about the Badgers have since been thrown to the wind.

Wisconsin has been well coached, played great defense, and has a legitimate superstar in Johnny Davis leading this team – which is the perfect recipe for success.

Related: Johnny Davis is making a case for national player of the year.

Wisconsin’s tournament resume:

The No. 23 Wisconsin Badgers (11-2) are fresh off a 74-69 victory on the road against the No. 3 Purdue Boilermakers. This gave Wisconsin their 3rd quad 1 victory of the season, which is the third most in the entire country.

They’ve also accumulated six victories over programs ranked top 100 in the NET rankings:

• Marquette 83 (at home)

• Texas A&M 62 (neutral site)

• Indiana 48 (at home)

• Saint Mary’s 41 (neutral site)

• Purdue 11 (road game)

• Houston 3 (neutral site)

Entering the season, simply making the NCAA tournament was going to be viewed as a victory. Well, it’s time to raise expectations because the Badgers are putting together a fantastic tournament resume early in the season.

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