There is no sugarcoating the situation of the Wisconsin Badgers. They are likely not going to be earning the nod of the committee come Selection Sunday based on the body of work they put together back in the regular season. Wisconsin basketball has a resume that just seems not convincing enough to warrant a unanimous nod to get an at-large bid invite to the Big Dance. If the Badgers are to make it to the 2023 NCAA tournament, they are going to need to go on a Cinderella run in the upcoming Big Ten tournament that kicks off this coming Wednesday.

Wisconsin basketball actually started the 2022-23 college basketball season like a house on fire, winning 11 of its 13 games — including all of their first three contests in Big Ten play. They started the conference action with a win against the Maryland Terrapins before taking down the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Minnesota Golden Gophers. From there, the Badgers were only able to win five more games against Big Ten teams, thus ending up with a 9-11 conference record.

The Badgers nearly pulled off a massive win toward the end of the regular season that would have probably pushed them above the bubble label. Just before Wisconsin basketball punctuated their regular-season schedule with another win over the Golden Gophers, the Badgers lost by only two points at home to Zach Edey and the Purdue Boilermakers, who ended up winning the conference's regular-season title.

2. Just play Wisconsin basketball

At this point, the Badgers will have to live and die with how they have played basketball all season long. They have won big games this season by playing the same deliberate and excruciatingly slow pace that has allowed Wisconsin basketball to become one of the toughest teams to score a bunch of points on. The Badgers finished the regular season ranked 26th in the nation with just 63.8 points allowed per game despite opposing teams posting a 50.0 eFG%. When they beat the high-scoring Marquette Golden Eagles, 80-77, via overtime on the road back in December, the Badgers allowed just 53 attempts from the field. The Badgers even had more shots than Marquette, which ended the regular season 31st overall in Division I basketball with 60.8 attempts from the field per outing.

On the season, Wisconsin is 348th overall in the nation in adjusted tempi and 325th in defensive average possession length, according to KenPom. On offense, the Badgers also love to kill the clock more than nearly all teams, as they are 349th in offensive average possession length.

The Badgers aren't so much of a disruptive force on defense in the sense that they don't register high steals and block rates, but Wisconsin basketball is so good at making teams delay their offensive setups. That style can really be infuriating to deal with for most teams.

1. Go on a Cinderella run in the Big Ten tournament

Like all the other teams in the bubble, the only sure cure to Wisconsin's bubble anxiety is to win the conference tournament. It's going to be easier said than done, obviously, but the Badgers have shown that they can be a tough customer against any team. Remember that Wisconsin had losses to the likes of the Kansas Jayhawks, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and the aforementioned Boilermakers by just a combined margin of four points. A few calls could have gone the Badgers' favor in those games to give them the Quadrant 1 win (or wins) for a March Madness case.

At the moment, Wisconsin basketball is ranked 78th in the NET rankings. The Badgers have a 6-7 Quadrant 1 record and a 5-5 slate in Quadrant 2 matchups. Wisconsin avoided a Quadrant 4 loss but is 1-1 in the two Quadrant 3 games it had back in the regular season. The Badgers will have a shot at landing a Quadrant 1 win right from the get-go of the Big Ten tournament as they will be on a date with Ohio State in the first round. It's a matchup the Badgers truly feel they can get over, having already defeated the Buckeyes, 65-60, in Columbus back in February.

A win against Ohio State would mean that Wisconsin basketball will get to face the Iowa Hawkeyes in the second round, and it's another team the Badgers had victimized in the regular season not just once, but twice. Having shown mastery of the first two hurdles in the Big Ten tournament, Wisconsin could have all the momentum and confidence it needs to push them past the quarterfinals against the Michigan State Spartans, who beat the Badgers in January by only four points. That's a long way from where they are at the moment, but the Badgers have a reason to believe that by the end of the Big Ten tournament, they will have significantly boosted their resume.