Former Wisconsin Badgers star and Naismith Player of the Year Frank Kaminsky didn’t like his alma mater’s tie in the NCAA tournament and felt the committee had done UW a disservice over the years.
He’s not the only one frustrated with the fifth-seeded Badgers heading out West to battle 12th-seeded High Point, a 30-win team, before potentially facing SEC champion Arkansas in the second round.
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The competition will be held in Portland, Oregon, with advance notice starting on March 19th and arriving by 11 a.m. local time on the first day of competition.
More: Can Wisconsin basketball make it to the Final Four in March Madness? our predictions
“It’s funny how everyone knew the selection committee disliked Wisconsin so much but did nothing about it,” Kaminsky wrote on X.
He wasn’t the only one who frowned at the task, or even looked forward to it.
There’s some recent history that could explain some of the anger. In 2025, the Badgers traveled to Denver four days after playing in the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game and had one of the earliest snaps of the tournament, before noon local.
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Wisconsin was a No. 3 seed last year and narrowly missed out on the assignment in the backyard of Milwaukee’s Feather Forum, instead heading to a location more geographically favorable to first-round opponent Montana State and second-round opponent BYU.
BYU defeated Wisconsin 91-89 in the second round.
The year before that, the fifth-seeded Badgers were sent to Brooklyn to face 12th-seeded James Madison as a hot upset, a prediction that came true in a 72-61 loss. Again, this location is a significantly shorter trip for the higher-ranked teams.
In 2019, Wisconsin was also sent west to San Jose as a fifth seed to face No. 12 Oregon State, another matchup that favored the opponent geographically. But Wisconsin does play in Milwaukee in 2022.
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Of the year’s first weekend venues, only St. Louis offers an option within a six-hour drive of Madison, and any assignment requires a hike.
While High Point has a gaudy record, the program also doesn’t face any top-tier competition this year, and it will be further away from North Carolina.
This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Is the Wisconsin NCAA Lottery Bad? Frank Kaminsky and others think so
