(UW ATHLETICS) – The Wisconsin men’s basketball team received the No. 5 seed in the West Region and will face 12-seeded High Point in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 19 at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore. The game time and TV designation will be announced later.
The Badgers are making their 29th trip to the Big Dance overall and are one of just five schools to appear in 25 of the last 27 NCAA tournaments. This is Wisconsin’s third-consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament and the eighth under head coach Greg Gard. Nationally, only eight schools have been to more NCAA Tourneys than Wisconsin during the Gard era (2016-present).
Wisconsin will play in Portland for the first time in its NCAA Tournament history. The Badgers will play in the West Regional for the seventh time in program history, having advanced to the 2000, 2014, 2015 Final Fours from that Region.
The Badgers will take on No. 12 High Point (30-4, 15-1), the Big South Conference Tournament champion. The two teams have never met in men’s basketball. The winner of the first-round match-up will face the winner of a game between No. 4 seed Arkansas and No. 13 seed Hawaii in the Round of 32 on Saturday, March 21.
Wisconsin earned a top-5 seed in the Big Dance for the 11th time in its last 14 appearances dating back to 2010. The Badgers are 41-27 (.603) all-time in the NCAA tournament, reaching 10 Sweet 16s, four Final Fours and winning the 1941 National Championship.
Big Ten tournament ends in loss to Illinois: The 5th-seeded Wisconsin men’s basketball team fell 68-65 in a thriller to top-seeded Michigan on Saturday in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals at the United Center in Chicago.
Austin Rapp had a game-high 18 points off of six second-half three-pointers. Nick Boyd had 14 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, while John Blackwell added 13 points. True freshman Aleksas Bieliauskas was an anchor in the frontcourt with 10 points, 6 boards and 3 assists, nailing three triples as well.
Both teams struggled out of the gate, with each making one shot in the first five minutes. UW turned up the tempo out of the 16-minute media break, nailing triples on three straight possessions. The treys kept pouring in thanks to three from Bieliauskas and two from Blackwell early on. The Badgers connected on seven triples by the four-minute media timeout and held an eight-point lead. Michigan came out of that break on a 7-0 run to get things near even, but a Boyd up-and-under layup tied the halftime score at 28-28.
The Wolverines threw the first punch out of the locker room, starting on a 6-0 run. Blackwell’s jumper stopped the spurt, but Michigan pushed the lead to double figures on two consecutive buckets.
Blackwell drove to the rim on the next possession, earning an and-one, while Carrington’s first three of the night gave UW life. Carrington used that momentum to hit back-to-back treys, followed by three straight triples from Rapp to get the Badgers back even. The 17-2 surge forced a Michigan timeout and was highlighted by six straight makes from deep.
The Wolverines momentarily stopped the bleeding with a slam before Rapp connected on his fifth straight triple to take the lead and set up a thrilling finish. Rapp had a 15-2 solo run during the scintillating stretch.
Michigan responded with a triple of its own, taking a three-point lead with 45 seconds to play. In true Badger fashion, UW stepped up to the adversity as Boyd drilled a pull-up triple to get even. The Badgers fought hard on the other end but couldn’t lock down as Michigan scrambled to hit a last-second three and take the win.
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