Welcome back to the SnoTapWI Bracket Watch. We did a version of this right before I left for Europe, and things have changed a bit for both State of Wisconsin teams. After that post, Marquette went on to lose three straight Big East games but then won against Georgetown. Wisconsin is on complete fire with four straight wins including one last night against Michigan. If you forgot how we do this, I look at both Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm’s bracket with a splash of Bracket Matrix thrown in there. With March approaching on Sunday, let’s see where Badgers and Golden Eagles stack up.

Wisconsin Badgers
Lunardi is buying into the Badgers’ hot streak, and Palm is not. This is the trend throughout the season. Remember, Palm had Wisconsin out of the tournament at the start of the month. Bracket Matrix is more on the Palm side with the average seed among 80 or so brackets. Wisconsin is at 7.23, right behind Marquette.

Lunardi puts them at five out in Spokane facing off against Yale in the first round. That’s an excellent matchup for the Badgers. And if they were to advance, a rematch against Oregon would be looming. I do like Wisconsin better versus the Ducks this year with no Kerry Wooten. If they were to get the Sweet 16, Los Angeles would be the destination which was good to the Badgers before. Palm puts in Greensboro against Virginia then a Big 10 matchup with Maryland. Tony Bennett, the Wisconsin native, has had the Badgers’ number throughout the years. If they advance to weekend two, Wisconsin will be in Indianapolis which… doesn’t have as many great times.

Marquette Golden Eagles
The win against Georgetown was a sigh of relief, and the brackets showed it too. Once again, Lunardi and Palm differ in their opinion with the Golden Eagles. Palm has been higher on the Golden Eagles all year, and he puts them at the six seed. Lunardi checks them in at seven. Bracket Matrix is more favorable to Palm’s side of the argument with a total seed of 6.93. With a big game versus Seton Hall looming, a win could change things.

Palm has Marquette in Greensboro, and they will await whether they play Richmond or Arkansas. The numbers of teams playing the play-in teams are not great for the higher seed. Richmond fans do not have a long trip to Greensboro. If Marquette wins, we get the chance for Wojo versus Coach K against Duke. Trust me, the bracket people are going to try to make this happen as they did in 2017. If Marquette got past them, it would be Houston. Lunardi puts Golden Eagles in Tampa to play East Tennessee State, one of everyone’s favorite mid-majors ala Murray State. If they advanced, Florida State would be the team. Again, Golden Eagles would be in Houston for the second weekend.

There is so much that can happen in the next few weeks. Marquette and Wisconsin can both make their move up the bracket in their next three games plus the conference tournaments. The same goes for the negative and things could get ugly. The good news is they’re both in. No matter what.

Charlie.