Wisconsin Badgers find out their seed and opponent in the 2026 NCAA Tournament

A rough start to the season and blowout losses against power-conference schools made it appear like the University of Wisconsin would be hard pressed to hear its name called on Selection Sunday.

As it turns out, the Badgers were only warming up.

Thanks to eight Quad-1 wins, a top-five finish in the Big Ten, and surging computer numbers, Wisconsin was awarded a No.5 seed in the West Region, earning a Thursday trip to Portland, Ore., to play No.12-seed High Point in the NCAA Tournament first round.

Tip time and television channel will be announced later this evening.

Got our dancing shoes ready pic.twitter.com/3Tq7yzacAt
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) March 15, 2026

The winner will play the winner of No.4 Arkasnas and No.13 Hawaii on Saturday. The winners will advance to the Regional Semifinals in San Jose, Calif.

It's the eighth bid in 10 NCAA Tournament under head coach Greg Gard and the 26th bid in the last 28 tournament for the Badgers, who enter the tournament ranked No.19 in Wins Above Bubble, No.22 in KenPom and KPI, and No.25 in the NCAA NET rankings.

It's a sharp turn from where the Badgers at the end of December, sitting at No.64 in the NET rankings with no Quad-1 wins and zero victories against the Top 75 of the NCAA NET rankings. Since losing to No.5 Purdue at the Kohl Center, the Badgers have beaten five AP Top-15 teams, four of them ranked in the top 10 and four coming away from home.

"This group is battle tested, and I think hungry to make a deep run," Gard said. "We know we start with one game, but I couldn't be prouder of how this group has grown together over this season, and we've turned into one of the better teams in the country."

Gard's proclamation was back up by Wisconsin's play in the this past weekend's Big Ten Tournament. Although failing to advance to the championship game for a third consecutive year, and playing with junior center Nolan Winter, the Badgers beat Washington and No.9 Illinois in overtime and lost to No.3 Michigan on Big Ten Player of the year Yaxel Lendeborg's three-point shot with 0.4 remaining.

Wisconsin went 3-1 without Winter, who is expected back for the start of the NCAA Tournament, because guards John Blackwell (26.0 ppg) and Nick Boyd (25.0 ppg) mostly carried the offense.

"When you have Nick Boyd and John Blackwell, you're a tough matchup for 364 teams in the country," Michigan coach Dusty May said.

The Badgers are 41-27 (.603) in 28 previous appearances in the NCAA Tournament and is 19-7 in the round of 64. UW has won at least one game in five of its seven appearances under Gard but is 4-4 as the lower-seeded team and is searching for its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2017.