MADISON, Wis. - Tyler Wahl was composed at the beginning of his Wednesday press conference, although it was evident that he was suppressing frustrations as he searched for words to explain another disheartening loss. But by the end of his four minutes on the podium, Wahl was doing his best to hold back his emotions, knowing full well this could be the end.

“It hurts because we knew what we were getting ourselves into,” Wahl said. “We know the position we put ourselves into, and we had to come out here and win the game. We definitely did not start with the urgency that we needed to. I do like the way that we fought back, but at the end of the day, we've just got to be better.”

Searching for “better” has been the elusive goal for Wisconsin (17-14) over the last two months, a stretch that saw them go 6-12 without winning consecutive games.

UW has made 22 of the last 23 NCAA Tournaments and usually earned its bid with room to spare. Of the 19 selections in which Wisconsin was an at-large pick, the Badgers were a top-five seed 10 times and a double-digit seed only once (a No.12 in 2009).

The Badgers would love to see their name and any number pop up during the selection show. UW entered the week with six Quad-1 wins (15th in the country) and an 11-13 record in Quad 1/2 games. They beat Marquette (NET ranking 12) on the road, notched a home victory over Maryland (28), and swept likely NCAA Tournament teams Iowa (40) and Penn State (54).

However, the Badgers are being bogged down by a sub.500 record in Big Ten play, and a one-and-done performance in the conference tournament, not to mention a plethora of losses that could have changed UW’s outlook for the better had the results been flipped.

Not missing a boxout against No.3 Kansas in overtime? Giving up 32 points to Wake Forest’s Tyree Appleby in a home Quad-3 loss? Going 0-5 in games missed by Wahl and starting guard Max Klesmit (going 17-9 with them both starting)?

What if UW didn’t go ice cold down the stretch in games against Illinois, Northwestern (twice), and Rutgers? What if UW didn’t blow a 17-point lead in the second half at Nebraska or properly defend Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson on the final possession of regulation?

These are all games that are likely racing through players' heads now and will continue through Sunday night.

“I'm not a bracketologist. You can look around and find differing opinions,” head coach Greg Gard said. “If we are (in), we'll get ready to go and do that, and if we're not, we've had a lot of opportunities to put ourselves in position.

“So résumé comparison and all that stuff -- we wanted to come in here and try to win this thing. That was the goal that we talked about. Then you end up wherever you are after that. I said to this group hopefully we have more basketball to play. We'll find out in due time.”

Gard said he hadn’t given much thought to the NIT as of Wednesday night, an event the Badgers have only played in four times and not since 1996. Back to its pre-pandemic selection process, the NIT will select 32 teams to participate in opening-round games Tuesday and Wednesday on campus sites. The semifinals and finals will be played on March 28 and 30 in Las Vegas.

Teams that win a regular-season conference championship but aren’t selected for the NCAA Tournament get an automatic bid to the NIT. That number currently stands at six teams, shrinking the at-large field further with nine more mid-major tournaments to go. Ten automatic bids were handed out last season and only three teams with a NET ranking over 75 made the field.

UW players will wait to see if they make the cut, hoping for one more chance to put any kind of a run together.

“We know who we got in the locker room,” guard Connor Essegian said. “We know the talent within the locker room. We're here for a reason, and I know there's a lot more that we could have done this season so far. I'm just hoping we're able to really prove people wrong.”

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