Heading into the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the Wisconsin Badgers have seen an eerily similar ending to their regular season as they did a season ago.
They had a slow stretch to end the year, resulting in the No. 5 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. They won three games to reach the Big Ten Championship Game, beating Northwestern, the No. 1 team in the conference (Purdue in 2024, Michigan State in 2025), and a team thanks to elite shooting (Maryland in 2024, UCLA in 2025).
They then lost a close six-point game in the Big Ten Championship to Michigan, just as they did to Illinois a year ago.