What you will not see here is Marquette higher than a six seed. But the momentum around Marquette is building as a tournament team. Right now, the Golden Eagles are the top seventh seed per Bracket Matrix. Right now, Marquette is mostly a six or seven seed. But if they beat Butler, the bracketologists might move the seed line for Marquette up to the five or four seed. This is a big game for them to make a push especially when a road game against Villanova looms on Wednesday that could be a scheduled loss. Let’s look at how both Marquette and Wisconsin are shaping up this week.

Marquette Golden Eagles
Jerry Palm and Joe Lunardi are split on where to place the Golden Eagles. Palm kept the Golden Eagles in the same spot they were last week. Marquette is in the East and would head to Greensboro to start their tournament journey. They will play one of the play-in opponents which would be Florida or Memphis. That would be a high-profile first-round game. If Golden Eagles advance, they would have a rematch with Maryland which I think might be different with Jayce Johnson on the floor.

Lunardi decided to move Marquette down despite not playing a single game. They would take on Stanford in the first round in Cleveland in the South region. A definite clash of styles in that one without question. If Marquette wins, they would take on Dayton which is a low-key, sneaky rivalry among Marquette fans.

Wisconsin Badgers
Palm decided to put Wisconsin back into the tournament after kicking them out for a week. By the way, that still felt bizarre to me. Badgers head out to Spokane to face Wichita State with a matchup with Gonzaga looming. To me, the eight/nine line you don’t want is the one with Gonzaga and Spokane. Wichita State is not a bad matchup for Wisconsin though.

Lunardi has been higher on Wisconsin all year long. He puts them on the eight line facing off against Arkansas in the first round in Omaha. That’s an easy travel spot for Badgers fans. And if they win, they would have a matchup with Kansas. While I believe the Jayhawks are good, that’s a team that Wisconsin could handle. Also, they’re in the Midwest region which means Indianapolis for the Sweet 16. Both Wisconsin and Marquette want to be in that Midwest region.

Until next week!

Charlie.