The Badgers tied the Illinois Fighting Illini, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans and Maryland Terrapins for the highest mark in the conference. Composed by ESPN college basketball analyst Myron Metcalf, the criteria were somewhat simple.
“Part of this process is straightforward: A good team that played like a good team will earn a strong grade, and one that played like a bad team will not,” Metcalf wrote. “But it will be complicated for certain teams. Some had championship dreams. Others hoped to win just a few games. Either way, we are judging each squad’s season based on preseason expectations while offering grace on a case-by-case basis for any unfortunate midseason events.”
It’s safe to say the Badgers landed in the ‘hoped to win just a few games’ category based on the program’s preseason expectations. Projected to struggle during this past season by several pundits, Wisconsin went on to collect 27 wins and a No. 3 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Courtesy of a high-powered offensive attack, Wisconsin landed in the AP Top 25 throughout most of the 2024-25 slate. It earned wins over some of the most respected teams in the nation, including No. 9 Arizona on Nov. 15, No. 7 Purdue on Feb. 15 and Michigan State on March 15.
Here’s more of Metcalf’s analysis on the Badgers’ 2024-25 output.
“Greg Gard tends to do his best work amid doubts about his team. That was certainly true in 2024-25, when his Badgers finished in a tie for third place in the Big Ten and won 27 games after losing three of their top five scorers from the previous season, including Chucky Hepburn, who went on to earn AP All-American honorable mention honors at Louisville.
One media preseason poll picked Wisconsin to finish 12th in the conference standings. But John Tonje emerged as one of the biggest surprises of the college basketball season. Injuries had forced him to miss the bulk of 2023-24 at Missouri before he transferred to Wisconsin, where he earned AP second-team All-America honors (19.6 PPG).”
Tonje, a Naismith Player of the Year Semifinalist and 2025 First Team All-Big Ten team selection, now looks towards the 2025 NBA draft in June.
The Wisconsin Badgers will look much different this coming fall with veteran players, including Tonje, Steven Crowl and Max Klesmit, gone, plus incoming transfers Nick Boyd, Austin Rapp and Andrew Rhode entering the fold. Nonetheless, Wisconsin exceeded virtually every preseason expectation with Tonje and sophomore guard John Blackwell at the helm. Gard will look to replicate that effort with a new-look lineup during the 2025-26 season.
