How many wins get the Badgers in the NCAA Tournament?

We're closing in on the end of the college basketball regular season and the Badgers find themselves firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble. After dispatching Nebraska last night 71-62 at the Kohl Center, the Badgers have only 7 games remaining. How many games will it take to put them over the hump to extend their streak of 17 consecutive (tied with Gonzaga for 4th longest in the country) NCAA tournament appearances to 18?
The answer? It depends. It's not about the number of wins, whether that's overall or in conference play. Rather, it's who you beat and where you beat them as well as who you lose to and where. There isn't some magic number of wins that will get a team in the tournament. Looking at Wisconsin's upcoming schedule there are however some games that they simply can not afford to lose. Here is the remaining schedule:

2/13 @ Maryland
2/18 @ Michigan State
2/21 Illinois
2/24 @ Iowa
2/28 Michigan
3/2 @ Minnesota
3/5-3/6 @ Purdue

Of those 7, 3 are for sure must win games, Illinois at home, Michigan (who might have star guard Caris Levert back by then) at home and Minnesota (currently winless in the Big Ten) on the road. Should the badgers drop one of these games they will probably have to win 2, maybe 3 of the other 4 road games, a daunting task as all four of Iowa, Michigan State, Purdue, and Maryland have Final Four potential.

If the Badgers can hold serve in those three winnable games, it might only take 1 win against the upper echelon of the Big Ten. Win two of those and I'd like to think the Badgers will be a lock come Selection Sunday.

Of course, there is still the Big Ten tournament to play as well. Wisconsin can't afford a loss to a lesser team there, but could still squeak in with a loss to a high quality opponent.

So if someone asks who how many wins gets the Badgers into the NCAA tournament, tell them it depends on who we are able to beat down the stretch, not simply how many wins it will take.