The latest Associated Press top-25 college basketball rankings are out, and, for the first time this season, the rankings are inclusive of the (8-2) Wisconsin Badgers.
Checking in at number-22, the Badgers are 2-0 in Big Ten play with wins over Maryland and Iowa. Earlier this season, the Badgers took third-ranked Kansas to overtime only to lose by one point. A win over Marquette is also considered a quality win.
Quality wins were supposed to be few and far between for a Badgers team that lost All-American Johnny Davis to the NBA.
We’ve seen this movie before: The Badgers lose an all-league performer and other experienced leaders and are left for dead by so-called experts tasked with predicting who will finish where when the dust of the conference season ends.
Under Bo Ryan’s direction, every time the Badgers were projected to finish in the back half of the Big Ten, they ended the season in the top-four.
This isn’t a commentary on style of play or national championships. It’s about remarkable consistency – from Ryan to Greg Gard – in the toughest conference in college basketball.
