Wisconsin basketball is slotted as a No. 6 seed in Joe Lunardi’s way-too-early bracketology for the 2025-26 college basketball season.
The Badgers are notably one of 12 Big Ten teams in the projected field, along with Purdue (No. 1-seed), Michigan (No. 2), Michigan State (No. 4), USC (No. 4), UCLA (No. 4), Ohio State (No. 5), Illinois (No. 7), Oregon (No. 8), Iowa (No. 9), Maryland (No. 10) and Indiana (No. 10). They are the seventh-highest-ranked of that group.
Lunardi’s tempered projection for the Badgers follows a busy month of roster movement. The program said goodbye to a significant senior class, including All-American wing John Tonje, starters Max Klesmit and Steven Crowl, and key role players Kamari McGee and Carter Gilmore. It then responded with an impressive transfer haul: Virginia wing Andrew Rohde, Portland forward Austin Rapp, San Diego State guard Nick Boyd and Tulsa guard Braeden Carrington.
Those incoming players join a promising incoming high school recruiting class, headlined by four-star shooting guard Zach Kinziger and international signees Hayden Jones and Aleksas Bieliauskas.
Wisconsin is looking to replicate its 2024-25 campaign, which saw it finish 27-10, contend for the Big Ten title and earn a No. 3 seed in the tournament. A repeat of that season would be a success, especially if the team reaches the tournament’s second weekend for the first time since 2017.
On paper, the 2025-26 Badgers line up extremely well. Rohde, Rapp and Boyd join rising stars John Blackwell (if he withdraws from the NBA draft) and Nolan Winter, forming a starting lineup that should be among the best in the Big Ten. With the emergence of a few key depth pieces, Wisconsin should again enter the conversation for a conference regular-season title.
While it remains to be seen how those transfers mesh on the court, which is always a legitimate question, Wisconsin will be expected to earn better than a No. 6 seed. That ranking should quickly rise once the season tips off in November.
