Badgers men’s basketball makes NIT after not being selected to NCAA Tournament

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - The Badgers men’s basketball team is heading to the National Invitation Tournament as a No. 2 seed and will face the Bradley Braves Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. CT.

The bid comes after the Badgers were not selected to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018.

Wisconsin’s record (17-14, 9-11 Big Ten) just wasn’t good enough for the NCAA committee, so Bucky will be on the outside looking in this year.

The Badgers season has certainly seen its ups and downs this season, and it really seemed that at any moment UW was ready to get things going in the right direction.

Early on in the season, the Badgers went down to the Bahamas at the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament and almost upset then-No. 3 Kansas in OT but lost on a last-second shot. They still came back and beat the South Carolina Gamecocks the next day.

The team’s biggest win of the season arguably came in December when they beat the Marquette Golden Eagles at Fiserv Forum, 80-77. That actually started a 5-game winning streak for Wisconsin, including a road win against the Iowa Hawkeyes, and the Badgers were looking good as they started Big Ten play once again after the holiday break. Forward Tyler Wahl got hurt and some may say the team was never the same again. Wisconsin then dropped three straight games to Illinois, Michigan State, and Indiana.

After that stretch, head coach Greg Gard and the Badgers never really regained form, even with Wahl back in the line-up. In fact, the Badgers never won two straight games after Dec. 30.

After the Badgers finished the regular season, they lost in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament to Ohio State, 65-57, at the United Center in Chicago.

Click here to download the NBC15 News app or our NBC15 First Alert weather app.