The Wisconsin Badgers season is winding down as the NCAA tournament is right around the corner. They finished with a 11-9 record, 14-3 at home, with their home losses against Illinois, Purdue and Tennessee. They did not do well last month, losing 6 of 8 games, but they are playing well lately.

“I feel like the Badgers can do a lot better than what they did in February. Some of their losses were against bad teams that they should easily beat,” junior Ben Turner said.

In the NCAA tournament, the Wisconsin Badgers beat Northwestern, and then went on to upset Purdue in Overtime, and then they lost to Illinois in the title game.

“The Badgers versus the Purdue game was one of the best games I’ve seen in a long time. The ending had me a little bit nervous but we ended up with the win. I think this will set the tone for the Badgers in the March Madness tournament,” sophomore Brayden Dolkiewicz said.

The Badgers got the number five seed in the southern part of the bracket. They go up against the number two seed James Madison who is 31-3. If the Badgers win they will then have to either play Duke or Vermont. 

“A lot of people have the Badger losing in the first round because of their record. But also a lot of people have Badgers going for the big upset,” sophomore Thomas Hanlon said.

The Marquette Golden Eagles finished the regular season with a record of 23-8. They had some injuries throughout the season, the biggest one being Tyler Kolek, who suffered an oblique injury and missed the last two games in the regualr season. In the Eagles last 2 regular season games they finished 1-1 without Kolek. They beat Xavier by 6 and lost to UConn by 13. 

“I was really upset that Tyler Kolek got injured at the end of the regular season. I felt that we were going to lose the last two but we came out to be 1-1 which is good,” junior Cooper Smith said.

In the Big East tournament Marquette beat Villanova by 6 and then beat Providence by 11. In the following game they played Uconn and lost by 16.

Marquette got the number two seed for the south bracket in the NCAA tournament. They will face number 15 seed Western Kentucky. If Marquette wins, they will play either Florida or Boise St./Colorado.

“I personally think Marquette will beat Western Kentucky by at least 10 if Tyler Kolek plays. This game should be really good based on the close records,” junior Colin Granberg said.

Most people think that Marquette will do really well in the March Madness tournament because of how well they did last year. When Kolek comes back people say the Golden Eagles will go far, many predicted them go to the Elite Eight.

“I think Marquette will go farther than the Elite Eight in the March Madness tournament if they play well and come mentally prepared,” sophomore Tyler Roche said.