Wisconsin Badgers see a jump in their computer rankings before big road test

Wisconsin Badgers play their first true road game on Wednesday against No.22 Nebraska

Wisconsin guard John Blackwell (25) and guard Nick Boyd (2) are shown during the waning moment of their game Saturday, December 6, 2025 at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Wisconsin beat Marquette 96-76. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

MADISON, Wis. - Two dominant victories have helped Wisconsin start to boost its sagging computer numbers

Winning a pair of games last week over power-conference schools by a combined 32 points, the Badgers sit at No.55 in Monday's NCAA NET rankings, a jump of 14 spots compared to last week's initial rankings.

After getting battered around during a three-game, 12-day road trip, including being held to a season-low 63 points on a season-worst 34.5 percent shooting in a loss to TCU, Wisconsin regained its offensive touch in home victories over Northwestern on Wednesday and Marquette on Saturday.

From yesterday, Wisconsin scored the most points it ever had against Marquette in a 96-76 beating at the Kohl Center
Recap: https://t.co/A15hq0JJzH
Notes: https://t.co/xH1MDPHOTo#Badgers Takeaways: https://t.co/MBEf5KzwkS

— Benjamin Worgull (@TheBadgerNation) December 7, 2025

The 85-73 victory over the Wildcats was the Badgers largest victory over NU since a 68-51 (+17) win on 2/21/21. UW was better against its in-state rivalries, as UW's 20-point win was the largest over Marquette in 73 years. It was the most points scored by Wisconsin in the series' 132-game history and the biggest margin of victory for either side in over 44 years.

"We've got a lot of weapons. We're not solely dependent ... We have different options and a good team tries to find ways and other ways. When one thing is taken away, we have to go to plan b, plan c, plan d. It's important tthat you have an unselfish team, that we move the ball."

The Badgers had 19 assists on 28 field goals against Northwestern and 18 assists on 29 field goals against Marquette.

Wisconsin's victory over Northwestern was a Quad-2 win (a home victory over a team ranked 31-75) and had its neutral-site win over Providence was upgraded to a Quad-2 (neutral-site win over a team ranked 51-100). The win over Marquette was UW's fifth Quad-4 victory of the season.

The Badgers received 24 votes and are unranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the third straight week, receiving 18 more votes than last week.

Michigan is the Big Ten's highest-ranked team at No.2. Purdue fell five spots to No.6 after losing by 23 points at home to Iowa State. Michigan State (9), Illinois (13), Nebraska (23), and UCLA (25) are the other conference teams ranked.

Wisconsin has a chance for its first Quad-1 win of the season when it faces Nebraska in its final Big Ten game of the early December schedule on Wednesday. Soundly beating in-state Creighton on Sunday, the Huskers are 9-0 for the third time in school history. Dating back to last season, the Huskers have won 13 games in a row, the longest in the nation.

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