Dec 10 Hour 1: BadgerMBB, BadgerWBB, and some Packer Talk

Send us a text

A gritty rivalry win reframes the Jordan Love debate as we break down his command versus the blitz, the Packers’ offensive line gains, and Christian Watson’s ceiling. We pivot to Badger football’s small class and portal plan, then celebrate big strides in men’s and women’s hoops.

• Love’s numbers against pressure and late-game drive
• Offensive line continuity and assignments
• Christian Watson’s health and WR1 traits
• Badger football class size, rankings context, and portal priorities
• NIL dynamics, targets by position, and timeline
• Transfer departures and depth chart impact
• Women’s basketball upset and recruiting momentum
• Men’s win over Marquette, guard synergy, and frontcourt roles
• Nebraska preview and Big Ten big-man matchups
• Bucks tension narratives questioned ahead of Hour Two

Support the show, support support kids, everything in between. Check them out there. JBC screen printing and embroidery. Five dollars from your purchase will go to Warm Kids, Wisconsin there. Help a kid stay warm this winter season

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
This is Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade.
Your place for all thingsWisconsin Sports.
Now, your host, Trage.

SPEAKER_03 (00:18):
How are we doing, everybody?
And welcome into WisconsinSports on the Go with Trage.
I'm your host, Trage, as we comein for the December 10th edition
of the show here.
I hope you guys are enjoyingyour Wednesday so far.
I hope you guys are enjoyingyour week better than better
than I am, to be honest withyou.
The snow is only the uh the tipof the iceberg for the week,

(00:39):
right?
It I I think it was Tuesday,Tuesday.
I uh on the way to work, I founda deer.
I found a deer with the workvan.
So I ended up messing up theradiator on that.
So now I got uh another, adifferent work van I'm driving
around now, not as uh not aspristine as my original work
van.
There I got the spare one, andthe spare one is it's in it's

(01:00):
it's rough.
It's rough.
But you know, I'm I'm thankfulthat we got work fans driving
around.
But that's been my week.
Hit a deer.
Wife had the windshield wiperbreak on the car on her.
It's just it's been uh been ahectic week.
And then this lovely snow on topof that.
So it's been a uh a week forsure, and that is coming off of
a fantastic weekend in Wisconsinsports.

(01:21):
I mean, my goodness, across theboard.
Wisconsin men's basketball, hugewin against Marquette.
We're gonna dive into that gamehere today on the show, talk
about that a little bit.
We're gonna kind of talk aboutthat game coming with Nebraska
tonight, and then the women'sbasketball team got a huge upset
win over Michigan State.
We're gonna die, we're gonnatalk about that a little bit
today here on the show.
We have some uh footballrecruiting talk we want to get

(01:43):
into with Badger football.
We're gonna talk about thatactually next year on the show.
We got Packers coming up, ofcourse.
We gotta talk Packers.
Packers with a statement win insome eyes, a huge win in some
eyes.
Some people are still, I waswatching, I think it was on
first take on ESPN.

(02:04):
Why on first take was theconversation after the Packers
beat the Bears?
Why was the conversation theywere talking about can you trust
Jordan Love in a big game?
And I said to myself, okay,because we love to be all about

(02:28):
recent and recency bias, youright?
Jordan Love just orchestrated agame winning drive, take the
lead drive, against the ChicagoBears, after the Bears tied it
at 21.
Jordan Love said, hold this fora second.

(02:50):
I'm gonna go finish this gameoff for you, and took the
Packers down the field and theysaid made some big time throws
in that game, three touchdownsin total, through an
interception, an uglyinterception.
We're gonna get more into thePackers later on here, through
an ugly interception, I willadmit.
I will say, like, it was an uglyinterception.

(03:11):
But all in all, after the Bearstied it at 21, they went Jordan
Love did his business, took thePackers down the field and and
punched it in.
Eight plays, 65 yards, fourminutes and 28 seconds.
What else did you what else didyou want in a big game?
That was a big game.
I don't know what a big game isto you, but that was a big game.

(03:35):
And then they went on to talkabout all what Jordan Love does
against pressure, right?
Against pressure, against theBrowns and against the Panthers,
and you know, against theCowboys.
All those teams pressured him,yes.
Do you not think the Bearspressured him?
Do you don't think he feltpressure in this game?
And against the Blitz in thisgame, Jordan Love was 9 for 12

(03:57):
for 171 yards and threetouchdowns, had a passer rating
of 156 versus the Blitz.
In a heated rivalry game.
Not gonna count that as a biggame.
Not gonna count that as a bigtime performance in a big game.
Now, are there things that Ilook back on in this game and
I'm like, yeah, Jordan Love hasto clean him up?
Sure, yeah, 100%.

(04:19):
17 for 25, 234.
Three touchdowns, oneinterception.
Not a bad day at the office.
Not a bad day at the officewhatsoever.
So do you trust Jordan Love in abig game?
What has he done this seasonthat hasn't 22 touchdowns, four
interceptions?
Everybody's talking about, oh,he makes these ill-advised

(04:41):
throws and he makes theseill-advised throws.
Four picks on the year.
Four.
Can you imagine?
And I saw I saw somebody, Ican't remember who who was
talking about this, but can youimagine if Jordan Love would
have had the night that JalenHurts had last night?
Four interceptions.
Four.

(05:03):
Can you imagine?
The sports, everybody would haveblown up.
They'd have been like, well,Jordan Love ain't that guy.
Right up in the who was thatJeff Saturday said that?
Jordan Love ain't that guy.
What's he saying now?
Is he still not that guy?
Still not that guy for you.
Like, I don't understand.
How can you go week by weekchanging your narrative on
things?
Like, oh, Jordan Love's the guythis week, but he's not next

(05:25):
week.
The Packers are a Super Bowlcontender this week, but they're
not that next week because theylost that game.
That's not how it works.
That's not just how it works.
And you just see all these majorlike sports analysts and that
they're just like, oh yeah,like, oh well, this week, you
know, Jordan Love ain't thatguy, but that next week he's
that guy.
Stop it.
Stop it.
If Jordan Love had this JalenHurts performance, you guys are

(05:46):
blown up.
But because it was a Jalen Hurtsthat did it, it's whatever.
I the way that they approach thePackers and the way that they
approach Jordan Love.
Jordan Love is the only greatquarterback in the NFL.
I think it was Colin Coward whosaid that.
Jordan Love is the only greatquarterback in the NFL that they
do not crown as great.

(06:06):
They won't let him be crowned asgreat.
They hold him almost to adifferent standard.
I don't know if it's because heplays in Green Bay.
I don't know what it is.
But everybody tries to hold himto this different standard than
other quarterbacks around theleague.
I mean, they talk about JustinHerbert in a better light than
what they talk about, JordanLove.
And like I said, Jalen Hurts.
Nobody's killing him as much asthey would kill Jordan Love for

(06:27):
that.
Yeah, people are still talkingabout Jalen Hurts in a bad way,
but they're not doing it as badas what they would have if it
was Jordan Love.
A hundred percent.
I believe that a hundredpercent.
I don't know why he gets held tothis bigger standard than
everyone else.
But I saw Bears fans coming offthat game against the uh against
the Packers, and they're like,you would take Caleb Williams

(06:48):
for the next, you know, how manyyears over Jordan Love.
No, not even.
If you're watching CalebWilliams and you're telling me
you love what you're seeing outof him in the passing game, I
would call you crazy.
I I would.
I would I would fight anybodywho not not physically fight,
but I would fight him with wordsof anybody who would say that

(07:09):
they'd take Cale Williams overJordan Love.
I would ask you to show me andprove to me why, because I would
not be able to understand it atthe end of the day.
I wouldn't.
I would not.
So yeah, that's that was kind ofirking me coming off that
Packers Bears matchup was justthe media's initial take.
And then you had ESPN, Milwaukeeor whoever that was, that Homer
guy down there blowing up allthe defense and everything.

(07:31):
And it's like everybody justsettled down.
They won 28-21.
Got the got the NFC North backin their hands, control their
own destiny just the way thatyou want it.
It's it was good.
It was good.
It was a good win all the wayaround.
We're gonna talk about thattoday.
So we got Packers Bears to talkabout.
We got Bucks talk coming uplater here.
The Wisco Fanatic guys are gonnastop by for that.
We're gonna talk about that.
Um we're stopping by for thePackers.

(07:52):
Christian will be stopping bynext to talk some badger
football.
We're gonna start badgerfootball recruiting, and then
we're gonna get badgerbasketball right after it there.
So we're gonna come back here onWisconsin Sports on the Go with
Trade.
Christian's gonna be here.
We're gonna talk some badgerfootball on the backside of the
eye break.
We'll be right back here onWisconsin Sports.
Welcome back into WisconsinSports on the Go with Trade.
I am your host, Trage, as wecome back here on this

(08:12):
Wednesday.
And hey, this next segment isbrought to you by Casa M Spice.
Are you craving bold gourmetflavor without the MSG fillers
or excess salts?
Meet Casa M Spice Company, theaward-winning spice blend born
in Texas.
You'll ignite your taste budsand create fresh flavors meal
after meal.
This stuff is fantastic.
You can try it on anything.
You put on your steak, eggs,hamburgers, whatever you want.

(08:34):
Try it on there.
I'm telling you, get down toform it's any ace hardware or
search them up online, Casa M.
Spice.
You will not regret it.
I promise you that.
Check them out there.
Casa M Spice Company.
So Christian is here tonight.
Christian, how are we doing?
The weather outside is it'sfrightful.
It's crappy.
It's terrible.
The snow is back.
That that's that crap's back.
But Christian, how are you doingon this Wednesday?

SPEAKER_01 (08:56):
We're good.
We're good.
It's uh the badges look better,Wisconsin's basketball looks
better, women's basketball looksbetter.
I'm good.

SPEAKER_03 (09:04):
Football, and that's where we want to.
Football is well, yeah.
Yeah, we're not the quit thereyet.
Football is football.
We're not gonna get to that yet.
We want to get to, before we getto that, any of that nonsense.
We want to get to our Casa M.
Spice, bold player of the week.
So, Christian, who do you gotfor me for this week?
Your Casa M.
Spice, bold player of the week.

SPEAKER_01 (09:24):
Uh, give me John Blackwell.
Dude, I like that.

SPEAKER_03 (09:27):
I watched that.

SPEAKER_01 (09:29):
Oh, I got I watched, I was at the game on Saturday.
I got to watch him just torchlittle brother Marquette.
So that was that was fun.
He was he was on fire.
And Roadie.

SPEAKER_03 (09:40):
I I I message you because you you you posted about
Roadie hitting that big threefrom the low or from the
culverse logo there.
And I was like, somebody had totake over to giving the uh the
uh I don't want it, the belt touh Marquette there and from Max
Klesman.
Because Klesmet was always healways went off when it came to
Marquette.
So somebody's got to take thatover.
Roadie had a fantastic gamethere.

(10:00):
I'm gonna go with this.
Is gonna, it might tick off alot of people, or it might not.
I'm gonna be reasonable here.
Give me Keyshawn Nixon for thePackers.
And I know everybody's gonnasay, oh, that tight end was open
if he threw it, if CalebWilliams threw the ball right.
You're right.
Keyshawn Nixon wasn't incoverage on that guy.
He had DJ Moore.
He had DJ Moore.

(10:21):
He saw Kemet drop back there andhe said, Oh boy, I gotta get
back.
And that was what was the mostimpressive part was he read the
play and said, I gotta get thisdeep guy.
And Evan Williams even admittedit after the game.
He's like, He saved me.
He's like, he saved me on thatplay.
And play bailing off DJ Moore,maybe DJ Moore would have caught
it for a touchdown, but you hadmore of a chance to get him down

(10:42):
than the guy standing in the endzone.
So what a play by Keyshawn Nixonin that one.
I loved what he displayed therementally in that moment.

SPEAKER_01 (10:51):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 (10:51):
Oh, 100%.
That was that was awesome.
That was that was awesome.
I know a lot of people he gets alot of hates.
I don't think one of thepersonal fellows should have
been there because he got chokedout and then somehow still got
the flag on him.
But he had a he's such an up anddown player for people, but that
play right there was like, yes,that is what I wanted to see
from him.
Is a is a step it up play rightthere from Keyshawn Nixon.
So let's get to badger footballhere because we're like, what do

(11:14):
we want to talk about first?
Badger basketball, badgerfootball.
We're like, might as well justget to badge of football out of
the way.
Talk about this recruiting classthat we saw.
We just gotta get it out of theway, just push it to the side
here.

SPEAKER_01 (11:23):
Um obligated to talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 (11:25):
We just we're we're out, yeah.
Obligated is a strong word.
Like we should talk about it,but we should talk about it.
So we're just gonna, I don'tknow.
So we're just gonna do it.
Badger football, the earlysigning period's done now.
We see the transfer starting tojump into the transfer border
there from Wisconsin.
We've seen some guys jump in.

(11:46):
Let's start with the signees.
Who's coming into this classhere?
What do they got?
14 guys that are on the uh onthe list here.
14 guys.
The class comes in at overall 72according to 24-7 Sports,
composite rank of 70.
Not so great when it comes tothe ranking wise.
Christian, were there any guysthat stuck out to you in this

(12:08):
class that the badgers havecoming in?

SPEAKER_01 (12:10):
I think, well, before we get into that, I mean,
I think the Breesino is you knowsmaller, so you can choose to
believe this or not.
Um, fickle said this class wassmaller by design.
A lot of people are prettyskeptical about that.
They think he just whiffed on alot of people.
Um, but I mean, so his thoughtwas, you know, you don't get 22

(12:31):
draft picks in the NFL, whichmakes sense, right?
So and with the transfer portalbeing what's being like, you see
Greg Guard doing this, you don'treally prioritize high school
recruiting.
Granted, football, you need alot more bodies, so you need
guys coming in.
Um, but I he's even admittedthat the transfer portal this
year is gonna be big.
So I think and part you couldalso argue he's doing that
because he needs to save his jobfor next year.

(12:54):
So I mean, you're not gonna relyon a bunch of true incoming
freshmen to save your job nextyear when you need to at least
make a bowl game, probably,right?
100%.

SPEAKER_03 (13:03):
I'm right with you on that.
Like, I I see I see 100% whatyou're saying, because you know,
like you said, there perfectlywas the draft pick portion of
it, where you're not gonna relyon draft picks to carry your
team.
Well, if you're Luke Fickle, youcan't go into uh you're tough
season, basically, right?
You're this is it kind of andtrying to rely on uh okay, we
have this guy, the three-starcoming out of wherever

(13:25):
Chattanooga.
I can't rely on him to be thatstar for me right now, right?
But you need other guys to be inthat room.

SPEAKER_01 (13:33):
Hey, Keyshawn Tabateau is gonna be pretty
good.

SPEAKER_03 (13:35):
I think the Chattanooga's the first guy I
saw on the list, and I was atop-rated recruit.
Yes, he is.
I'm like, I don't want to forthis guy, but he's the first guy
on the list.

SPEAKER_01 (13:46):
He was all right.
Well, that guy was committed toVanderbilt and they flipped him,
and Vanderbilt is pretty danggood, and they got decent class.
But I think the reason they'reall the way down at 70 or 72,
depending on what you're lookingat, is because they only have 14
guys.
There's let's you let's pick onWest Virginia because I'm sore
at them anyway for the crap theypulled with Lat with Amario
Latimer anyway.

(14:07):
But they they get they'rebringing in 45 true freshmen
next year.
Like so when you're and it's Ithink oh god, out of the 45, I
think 40 of them are threestars.
So it's like it that that's it.
Is it quality or quantity?
Do you want right?
So I mean the the recruitingrankings are you know, you got
to take them with a grain ofsalt, they're all different.

(14:28):
Um, a lot of classes are in the20 guy range, so like 14 is a
very small class.
Um, but again, it's I think italso I think they did realize
okay, we're missing out a lot ofour top guys.
Do you want to just sign guys tosign guys?
Or do you just want to likelet's get quality players we
think are actually good, whichis what Fickle said.
He said he thinks a lot of theseguys could actually contribute
next year as true freshmen.

(14:50):
I don't know if I believe that,but um, I think there's a couple
guys who probably could, likemaybe some of the the edge guys,
or um maybe even the running therunning back, Quantavius
Wiggins.
That's a that's an awesome name.
Um, I love that name.
But I think there's a coupleguys in here that could actually
do something next year, at leastat least get into the too deep

(15:12):
and just be a backup.
Um, but otherwise, it's gonna Ithink they're gonna rely a lot
on the transfer portal, hencethe 30 million dollars, the
reported number that you know isthrown out there that Kellner
was, you know, the big donor wastalking about.
And so we'll see what happenswith that.
But so I think you got to takethe great rankings with a grain
of salt, and I think you know,it's obviously not this is

(15:32):
Fickle's quote unquote worstclass, but it's also his
smallest class.
And I don't know, you had youhad two studs committed since
June that bailed out on you inthe last month.
So I mean, I mean you're kind ofleft scrambling a little bit,
but I mean Tabato Tabateau is isuh Jaden Pettit's uh

(15:54):
replacement.
I mean, and Pettit bailed outbecause he didn't necessarily
think his fit with the offensewas good because let's be
honest, our offense lookedterrible.
Like, do you blame the guy?
Yeah, he had offers fromOklahoma who was pushing him
really hard.
Look at Oklahoma.
I would probably do the samething.
But then the whole Amari Latimerdrama, I don't know if anyone
knows about that, but you know,sounds like when sounds like

(16:16):
Tuesday night going into theearly signing period, he him and
Wisconsin were solid, they feltreally good about it, all that.
And then Wednesday morning comesaround and they were expecting
him to be one of the firstpeople to send in there his you
know signed letter of intent,and it just never came.
And then they tried to reach outto him, and it was he was pretty
much just like ghosting them allday.
And that so it just didn't lookgood, and then it sounds like

(16:38):
things got pretty like theythought they had Tennessee and
Miami beat out, which they did,and then here comes West
Virginia, who apparently justdecides they're gonna start
throwing money around likecrazy.
One depending on what youbelieve, I've seen numbers of
like you know, 900 to up to athousand, up to a million
dollars, they wrote him a checkfor just to go there, and he's
like one of five or six runningbacks in their class.

(17:00):
Like they're literally WestVirginia right now is just
throwing money at their problem,which a lot of people aren't
like Wisconsin to do, right?
But I think you I think youthrow money at the portal, yeah.
Because those are like those areproven players, you know what
you're getting with that.
Whereas you got all these highschool kids coming in, like, you
don't know.
I mean, you you got a good idea,but like you have no clue like
if they're actually gonna dowell, and that's why you see

(17:21):
like a lot of three stars whoend up being really good, and a
lot of four and five stars whojust burn out and aren't
anything, right?

SPEAKER_03 (17:26):
No, 100%.
If you can get that, you know,half a mil or one mil on a
proven, like you said, runningback, I'd take that any day over
a young running back who youdon't know about at this point.
You've seen you have no tapeexcept for high school tape, and
that high school tape can it canlook great, and then it can also
show it might be some flawsthere you aren't seeing at the
very competition either.

(17:47):
Exactly.
You might not be seeing thecompetition that you're gonna be
seeing at the Big Ten level oret cetera.
So I mean, I completely agree.
And you know what?
Honestly, he's had greatrecruiting classes over the past
how many years?
How's it turned out?
Like, how's it really turned outfor Wisconsin?
Not great, not great to thispoint.

SPEAKER_01 (18:02):
But I mean, I mean, it Mason Post looks great.
I mean, he's cool with Kettle onhim.

SPEAKER_03 (18:05):
He's got his guys, right?
And we we expect Kevin Haywoodto look like we expect Kevin
Haywood to look good whenDillion Jones gets out on the
field.
You expect him to look good,right?
You expect those guys toactually be able to play, but
you need to stay healthy, right?
That's the big thing.
And that's where if you go intothis transfer portal, you're
gonna attack.
You don't want an unprovenoffensive lineman.
You want to go fortify theoffensive line with guys who've

(18:26):
been in the been in collegefootball for a year or two,
right?
And then you want to go look ata quarterback.
You want to get a guy who's alittle bit more proven.
Otherwise, you already haveCarter Smith.
Otherwise, you're just gonnathrow him out there.
I mean, you want to go get theproven guys, like you're saying.
I'm completely with you on that,especially, and we've said it a
million times, but Luke Fickleis going into a I need this
year, and you have a schedulethat you can win.

(18:47):
You don't want to have growingpains and a schedule that you
can win.
You want to go in with studslike Mason Rieger that you grab
and just go and get them.
And that's what he's aiming forin this one.
So, I mean, we can worry aboutthe class, but we can also look
at it and say, how many of thoseguys?
Honestly, I look at all thethree stars going to West
Virginia, how many of those guysare gonna be at West Virginia

(19:09):
next year?
Half?

SPEAKER_01 (19:10):
Other half are gonna transfer out, half, half will
transfer out, absolutely.
So look at Wisconsin.
They're literally just what'swhat's the saying?
They're throwing crap at a wall,right?
And just seeing what stickspretty much, you know, and then
what what doesn't all rightsteal it, or you know, and
they're out of there.
So it's like me, it's it's ait's a technique, it's a tactic,
I guess, but we'll see if itworks out for good old Rich
Rodriguez.

SPEAKER_03 (19:31):
It makes you wonder if they're trying to take the
approach of being the steppingstone.
I know what last week we jokedabout Wisconsin being the
stepping stone, but someuniversities some universities
might take it as maybe we can besuccessful by being a stepping
stone where we just like guystransfer from us.
We know they're going to, but wecan be that first stop for them
where they can for sure get theplaying time this year, and then

(19:54):
next year they can they're gonnaend up leaving anyway, so they
can go off to their biggerschool.
Maybe that's the approachthey're taking out.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 (20:01):
Or maybe, or maybe it's because what are they?
Oh, is West Virginia in the Big12?

SPEAKER_03 (20:05):
Yes.
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (20:07):
Yes.
Okay.
See see geographically, I'm soscrewed up on now.
In my head, I'm thinking, oh,they're in the ACC, which is
terrible.
Duke just won the ACC with fivelosses.
Like maybe they're thinking,hey, if Duke can do it, yeah,
they don't have much of a shotin uh the Big 12, I don't think,
with BYU and Texas Tech.
And I mean, even without withoutTexas or Oklahoma, I think the
B, I think I don't know, I thinkBig 12 is still pretty solid.

SPEAKER_03 (20:29):
Yeah, isn't Utah?
Utah's in there too now, aren'tthey?
Utah's in there and Utah's inthe Colorado.
Utah's in it.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (20:35):
Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 (20:36):
You got some good opponents in there.
Arizona State just went to theCouch 12 playoff last year
there.
So I mean there's there's somereally good opponents in there.
So I don't know.
Who knows what West Virginia istrying to do with that stuff
there.
But Wisconsin.
So we talked a little bit aboutthe recruiting class there.
It's a smaller size.
I mean, we're not too up in armsabout it because we're trying to
believe, I guess, what LukeFickles.

SPEAKER_01 (20:57):
And plus the 20, the 2027 class had like the state of
Wisconsin, like has like five orsix four-star kids who are gonna
be who look like they're gonnabe really good.
And Wisconsin, from what I'veheard, is in a pretty good spot
with multiple of them.
One of them is already going toNotre Dame.
He's a legacy kid, his brotherwent to Notre Dame, whatever.
But like there's four or fiveother kids that are pretty dang

(21:20):
good that Wisconsin's alreadygot the inside track on, and
probably because everyone wascomplaining about how they don't
do any in-state recruiting.
Right, it's nice pushing it.
Sound, yeah, but it sounds likewell, this is the class to do
it.
This is kind of like I don'tknow, was it like 2020, 2021,
whatever it is.
Like that was where Joe Brunner,who we got, but then it was uh
was it Braille and Allen, but Ithink he reclassified, but it

(21:42):
was also um yeah, the that guy,there's a guard from Notre Dame
who went there, Billy Schroth,and then there was Carson
Hintsman, the center for OhioState.
Like there's and Jerry JerryCross was uh tight end.
He went to Penn State.
I don't I think he's at Memphisor something now.
But like there, they had like abunch of it's that class had

(22:03):
like a bunch of four or fivestar guys, and Wisconsin only
got one of them.
But yeah, anyways, no peoplethat like to say Paul Chris does
you know does way better thanFickle did.
Like Christ only got one ofthose guys.

SPEAKER_03 (22:13):
Well, two, I guess if you don't brain allen too,
but they just look at the yearsof Paul Christ and say that it
was better because of therecord.
Yeah, everyone loves yeah,because of the record was there,
and it's like, okay, the recordwas better, yes.
It's just dude.
I threw it's a different kind oflandscape now.
It is, it's a different kind oflandscape.

SPEAKER_01 (22:29):
I just threw some just to meander a little too far
off of this a little bit longer.
I threw some tweet up justtalking about, you know, because
the NFL released like the fanvote, like Pro Bowl getters.
I'm just like, oh cool, sixformer badgers are on, and I
list all the badgers and allthe, and of course, everyone's
making it about oh, weird, it'sall Paul Christ guys, blah blah
blah blah blah.

(22:50):
I'm like, okay, Kevin Zeitlerisn't a Paul Christ guy, like
that was a Brett Vila McGuire,you know, whatever.
Someone else, oh, they're allfrom Wisconsin.
I'm like, Jonathan Taylor's fromNew Jersey, they're not all from
like everyone just loves to liketry to like twist that narrative
so it's like fickle's bad, Chriswas way better.
We never should have fired him,and it's just whatever.
By the end, by the end ofChris's tenure, his recruiting

(23:12):
classes were absolutely garbage.
So right.

SPEAKER_03 (23:15):
Who knows?
That's all I know is who knowsat this point.
So one last thing before we gotto hit a break, and we'll come
back.
We went off on a tape.
We went way off.
That's my bad.
That's okay.
That's okay.
One last thing before we got tohit a break here.
The transfer is going out, Iguess.
Any surprises so far?
We saw being the big one,probably Yakimele, uh Atticus

(23:35):
Bertram's is going out.
They're the punter.
Uh, outside of that, just youngguys.
Is there anybody surprising, Iguess, to you at this point?

SPEAKER_01 (23:43):
No, not at all.
Um, Cody Raymond, whatever hedidn't play.
Cayenne Barry Johnson, guy hadtalent, but couldn't get in.
He had some other stuff goingon, I think.
Remington Moss, I didn't thinkhe was ever really a big 10
safety.
Uh, Bertram's you said,Yacomelli.
I think I think that guy is hegot the shaft for the bat, lack

(24:04):
of a better word.
He uh I think he's a guy thatprobably could have earned more
snaps than he actually got forwhatever reason.
I think maybe the staff justliked their guys with Dupree and
Jones and uh Gideon Atuka, whichwhatever that's you know their
prerogative, that's their guys,but so I'd like to see him be
successful somewhere next year.
Now Joseph Griffin Jr.
couldn't really get on the fielda whole lot.

(24:25):
Tackett Curtis.
That's a dude I was superexcited about coming from USC.
But like, I don't know.
He lost his job.
You got Mason Posa and CooperCatalano.
Like he's not gonna stick aroundone year just to back him up,
right?

SPEAKER_03 (24:37):
No, 100%, 100%.
And like you just named off theguys, there's really nobody that
surprises you on that listbecause they're just not gonna
have the playing time here inMadison.
So, like Tagged Curtis andYakamelli and those guys,
they're not gonna waste a yearin Madison because they know the
job's not there for themanymore.
They're gonna move on, see whatthey can do out in the open
market there.
So, we're gonna hit a break.

(24:58):
We're gonna come back here.
Kristen's gonna stick around,we're gonna talk badger men's
hoops, we're gonna talk badger'swomen's hoops on the backside of
the i break here.
We'll be right back here.
I'm back here.
Wisconsin sports on the gotrade.
I'm your host, Trage.
This next segment here isbrought to you by JBC Screen
Printing and Embroidery.
They take pride in their workbecause your image is their
business.
Check them out there, search uswhen you get to the website

(25:20):
there, or you can go to theFacebook page, Wisconsin Sports
on the Go Trade.
Click my pinned, uh, whateveryou call it there, the pinned
post.
You click into that, you get thelink.
You can go straight to ourapparel store right there on JBC
Screen Printing.
Five dollars from your purchase.
We'll go to Warm Kids, Wisconsinthere.
Help a kid stay warm this winterseason.
I'm telling you, what could bebetter than that?
You get a t-shirt, you get ahat, maybe a stocking cap, maybe

(25:40):
a trucker hat, whatever youneed, and you help a kid stay
warm this winter season.
I can't think of anythingbetter.
Support the show, supportsupport kids, everything in
between.
Check them out there.
JBC screen printing andembroidery.
So Christian has stuck around inhere.
We're gonna talk a little badgerhoops now, but first we have to
talk about our good, bad, andugly coming off the weekend
there.
Our good, we have settled onjust basically every Wisconsin

(26:04):
sports team outside of our bad.
So we're talking women'svolleyball, right?
They got the big, they got thewin over North Carolina there.
They're gonna be taking onStanford now coming up here.
That's Friday, I believe.
There, they got Stanford there.
And then we're talking women's,uh, what was it, women's
basketball?
Goodness.
I mean, they Michigan State gotthe win over Michigan State.
They're seven and three now.
We were looking at it, it'scrazy.

(26:26):
I don't want to seem terrible,but the last time Wisconsin's
women's basketball had a winningrecord, you have to go back to
2010.
So what Robin has done, RobinPingington, what however
pington?
Pingeton, I don't, I knew Ithink that's a pinchon.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
It's like Bielakowskis.
Everybody says it different.
It doesn't even matter.
Belialskis.

(26:47):
Beelowskis.
Whoever says it, I say I tellmyself every year.
I'm like, however, Matt LePaysays it is the right way.
That's all I need.
However, Matt LePay tells me howto say it is how I'm gonna say
it.
So, but she has done fantasticturning the narrative around of
this program.
I love to see it, and I can'twait to talk about some good
things with this women's teammoving forward.
So we got that going on.
We got rest the wrestling teamis at 21 in the country right

(27:10):
now in the coaches.
Are they really?
That's impressive.
I mean, where that program wasto now, where they are, good.
They had their first shutout, Ibelieve.
I if it's been a long time sincethey had a shutout.
They just shut out over theweekend there.
I can't, I was gonna slip mymind here.
I don't have time to look it up.
But they had their first shutoutin a very long time over the
weekend there.
So they have been impressive.
Wisconsin wrestling.

(27:30):
So that's awesome to see there.
And then, I mean, Badger men'sbasketball, the big knockout
punch they gave to Marquette.
It seems like Marquette.
Marquette is going to be in ourbad coming off the weekend
because Marquette is justfalling apart at the seams.
And we kind of talked aboutcommercial breaks.
We're like, who are we gonna dofor our bad?
And we both said, God, you know,Marquette.
Well, we had a whole bunch ofdifferent things we were talking
about, but we said we we settledon Marquette and we said, you

(27:53):
know, we respect Shaka Smart forwanting to still do the
traditional route of recruitinghis guys and building his
program.
We respect that.
But in this day and age ofcollege sports, you have to be
able to sprinkle in a transferhere and there to stay
competitive, and that is notwhat he's doing right now, so
it's not going well there.
And then our ugly has got to bethe Milwaukee Bucks.
That is not getting better atthe moment.

(28:15):
And we have Shams telling usthat Giannis still wants to
leave, even though, yeah, I justheard I just heard Shams on ESPN
yesterday say that he heard fromthere's tension in the locker
room because of how they'refeeling about Giannis wanting to
leave.
And then Kevin Porter Jr.
and Bobby Portis have both beenon record saying that Giannis
does nothing but reassure themin the locker room that he wants

(28:37):
to be there with that team andhe wants to continue to build
it.
I don't know where Shams getshis stories from anymore, but
it's driving me up.
Well, I can't wait for the guysfrom Wisco Fanatics to hop on
later because they're I knowTyler is gonna go off about it.
So make sure you guys arechecking out our number two of
the show tonight here.
They're gonna be hopping on.
He's gonna go off on Shams herelater in the show.
So make sure you guys stick outfor that.

SPEAKER_01 (28:57):
It's like Brian Windhorst like saying the same
thing, and then literally a dayor two later he goes on ESPN
Milwaukee or something.
He's just like, Yeah, he didn'tactually say the words I want to
be traded.
And it's just like, so what arewe doing?
Yeah, so what are we doing here?

SPEAKER_03 (29:08):
Yeah, no, we're just like I lied.
I lied, I'm sorry.
Like, didn't even say I'm sorry.
It's like I lied.
Like, it's just it's such badjournalism at this point.
It's like, okay, so who do youwho can you believe?
You guys are just rumors now.
That's basically what you'retelling me.
Is all you guys want to talkabout is rumors.
It's terrible.
We're gonna like I said, theWisco Fanatics guys are gonna
hop on later.
And I'm telling you what, if youwant to hear somebody rant about
it, you just wait until Tylercomes on.

(29:30):
You're from Wisco Fanatics, he'sgonna blow a lid off of ESPN and
the analysts that are goingabout it right now.
So, anyways, there is our good,bad, and ugly coming off the
weekend.
Let's start right away.
Let's just, I mean, this women'sbasketball team, Christian, what
we've seen.
I mean, these came off theweekend.
They're number 20 Michigan Stategot the win.
I mean, it's been a while since,and I mean, just a couple weeks

(29:52):
before that, they had hung withwho was it there?
It was Ole Miss.
Ole Miss pretty mad rankings.

SPEAKER_01 (29:57):
It was like, yeah, they were up there.

SPEAKER_03 (30:00):
Yeah, pretty good game there.
Then James Madison, they gotbeat pretty good by James
Madison.
But then they ended up beatingMichigan State back at home,
beat them by 14.
I mean, the direction of thisprogram, and we don't have to
dive too deep into it here, butthe direction of this program, I
mean, it's enticing.
It really is to see what, and Imean, this is gonna make Chris
McIntosh look good for a hire,right?
That he had a good hire here,but I mean, it's looking like a

(30:21):
good hire because we're seeingwe're seeing productivity, we're
seeing a program that looks likeit's building into something.

SPEAKER_01 (30:29):
And that's losing Sarah Williams, too.
Like, she was like the onlydecent player they had.
Now she's at UConn, of course,but like she's doing really
well.
They're good for her.
But but it's but like I don'tknow.
And the other thing too, I thinkthat I really like Robin
Pinchon's doing is she'sactually getting recruits from
Wisconsin.
Like, she's not getting all ofthem, but like Wisconsin girls
basketball has a lot of likewhen you when you check it out

(30:49):
on ESPN their top like 100,there's always like at least two
or three girls from Wisconsinthat are pretty high up.
Naturally, they all eitherthey've been going to like
Yukon, like KK Arnold, and youknow, but there's one going to
Minnesota now next year that gotaway, and like one snuck down to
Iowa, but otherwise, they'vegotten a like there's two or
three that are already committedto Wisconsin.

(31:09):
So credit to her, man.
She's at least getting theWisconsin girls to come in.
I heard not to get too again.
Here I am getting sidetracked.
No, you're good, you're good.
Marissa Mosley, so uh Mike is itMike Wilkinson?
He was a badger uh basketballplayer years ago, right?
Yep, you know what I'm talkingabout.
His daughter, his daughter, Ithink I think she was an

(31:30):
arrowhead like a year or twoago, and I heard she wanted to
like she wanted to just walk on,like do whatever, and I think
she was actually pretty good,but like I don't think Marissa
Mosley even like gave her a shotand basically just said thanks,
but no thanks.
Like she literally would havelike this girl's pretty good,
she's a Wisconsin legacy.
You don't do like almost anyin-state recruiting, and she

(31:51):
wanted to come to Wisconsin, youjust basically turned her away.
It just looked really bad.

SPEAKER_03 (31:55):
She she was like the onions on my my cheeseburger.
Like, I just want to pick themoff and get rid of them.
Like, I just she was just a shewas just terrible at her job.

SPEAKER_01 (32:06):
Well, wasn't she wasn't she like a Gino disciple
or something?
Like she like to under him for awhile, and then and then she
went to like and then she wentto like yeah, but Boston and did
okay there.
I mean, I don't think she didanything great, but I think they
hired her because she's like, Ohyeah, she was a coach under
Gino, so she's probably reallygood.
And I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 (32:23):
I think we did I think they just kind of looked
at it and said, I think see,that's the problem, is I think
now they're finally looking atthe program and saying, let's
fix it, right?
Before it was like, oh,whatever.
It's what you know, it's like ohlet's go.
Women's basketball doesn't bringany money in.
Yeah, and now it's like, okay,now we're bringing it to the,
you know, Kate, like, I don'twant to get too long-winded
here, but Caitlin Cart broughtwomen's basketball in the
forefront.
Then you had Paige Beckers, andthen you had all them great

(32:45):
athletes come through there, andnow we're starting to see
women's sports come back intoit.
So they're like, hey, let's geta good team on the court here
and let's see what we can dohere at Wisconsin because we
have a good men's team, let'sget a good women's team now and
see what you can do together.
So I mean, I love, like yousaid, bringing in recruits from
the state of Wisconsin, bringingin some good transfers to fit
into the system.
Love what we're seeing there outof the women's basketball team.
I believe they're next on thecourt against San Diego.

(33:07):
Such a weird schedule.
They got San Diego.
Badgers play in San Diego at SanDiego, like this.
Who is it?
It's San Diego.
Uh it's like San Diego theToreros.
I think it's the actualuniversity out there in San
Diego.
So it's where Wisconsin playedthat little thing with
Providence and then TCU.
Oh, yeah.
They're playing them, likethey're playing San Diego.

(33:28):
So I mean it's it's interesting,it's quite interesting.
But yeah, they have them.
That's gonna be coming uptomorrow there at the call 11
a.m.
Really, like that's women'sbath.
Women's basketball does that.
They have the weird early starttimes.
So this is an 11 o'clock gamehere in the morning.
So, because I know they havetheir their next game on the
21st is at 11 a.m.
too.
So the badgers will playback-to-back games at 11 a.m.

(33:48):
That's weird.
I don't like that.
That's weird.
But Big Ten Plus.
So if you guys can make sure youcheck that out because they've
they're the program is lookinggood.
They're looking good as of latehere.
So make sure you guys arechecking them out there.
So let's flip over men'sbasketball.
What a win against Marquette.
You were down there at the callcenter.
Tell me about the atmosphere,tell me about the vibes coming
out of that game.

SPEAKER_01 (34:07):
Well, they so they got to uh debut their red their
alternate red jerseys, which Ithink look pretty slick, by the
way.
That's true.
I'm a sucker, I'm a sucker forthose, anyways.
So they had their red out,almost everyone was wearing red.
I mean, I was the only othergame I've been to so far this
year was the Campbell game, thevery first one.
Not that many people there, butright.
So I mean it was the atmospherewas a lot better.
There was a there was a goodchunk of Marquette fans too, but

(34:29):
mostly Wisconsin fans.
And I don't know, I thought thethe and especially the uh are
the students on break yet?

SPEAKER_03 (34:37):
It's gotta be close.

SPEAKER_01 (34:38):
They gotta be, but like they it was pretty full.
So that was that was awesome tosee too.
So they it was rowdy, it wasawesome.
Um bit of a slow start for thebadgers.
It's like three turnovers andonly like one made field goal in
the first like five minutes ofthe game.
So that was a littleuncharacteristic of them.
Um, but then once uh I think itwas once Blackwell hit a three,

(34:59):
kind of just opened everythingup, and meanwhile, Marquette
just still couldn't hitanything.
So it was they shut down ChaseRoss, and like I think he is
like him and Ben Gold are theonly two guys on that roster I
could have named.
So there's a bunch of guys Idon't know, and Wisconsin just
you know took it to him, andJohn Blackwell just pretty much
did whatever he wanted theentire game.

(35:19):
So that was and there was a fewtimes too where they hit a
couple threes in a row, and thenthere was like a third one went
up, and you could just tell,like if that went in, the whole
place would have just absolutelygone crazy, but of course didn't
fall.
But either way, awesomeenvironment.
I mean, that's really what Iwanted to go to the game for
because like I saw I would loveto go to a Marquette game,
right?
I mean, it's too bad they it'stoo bad they aren't good this

(35:41):
year, but I don't know.
It's it was it was fun to watch,fun to see them, but I think
we'll see if things are gonnaget a lot tougher for them
coming up here now.

SPEAKER_03 (35:51):
100%, 100%.
You know, just watching itthere, they did the little
things right in this game,right?
They they took away the pointsin the paint for Marquette.
That's where they wanted to get.
Chase Ross, those guys, theydon't want to finish on the
outside, they want to finishinside.
The badgers did a really goodjob denying them the paint,
keeping them out of there.
They ended up, I know they endedup with 40 points in the paint,
but you that's a skewed numberbecause it ended up ballooning

(36:12):
to a big lead, and then it got alittle crazy on Wisconsin there
a little bit.
So numbers do get kind of fudgedin that area.
But I thought they did a greatjob in the first half
controlling that paint area.
They we finally saw a completegame out of the Badgers where
they just looked good wire towire on both ends of the court,
I thought, in this game.
Like they look good on both endsof the court there.

(36:32):
John Blackwell and Nick Boyd inthis game, I thought they
finally clicked together.
And that's kind of something Iwant to talk about.
So we've talked about it allseason long now, where we were
like, both these guys arefantastic, but can they figure
out how to play on the courttogether?
And I thought in this game wefinally saw Nick Boyd notice

(36:52):
John Blackwell and say, I shouldflip you the basketball because
I know you can hit shots.
I mean, is that something thatyou also saw in this one?

SPEAKER_01 (37:01):
See, I think I know I don't want to yeah, I mean, I
think I don't want to say herealized Nick Boyd realized he's
you know not the top guy becauseI think he still could be, you
know, but like I think herealized, yeah, John, John
Blackwell is that dude.
Like this is his team.
Um I think Boyd, I mean, lookingback like after at the post-game

(37:22):
notes, you're like, this isWisconsin is one of two teams in
the country that has two playersaveraging 20 points a game or
more.
It's them and USC, but it'sBlackwell and it's and it's
Boyd.
And I think again, I think thenight the nice thing about Boyd
too, though, is if Blackwell'shaving an off night or the
defense is just absolutelysmothering him, denying him, not
letting them get shots ofanything like that, then you got

(37:44):
him, you know.
So I think I think they kind ofjust looked at who has the
easier matchup, and I think itwas definitely probably
Blackwell in this game.
So I think they took advantageof that, and I think they played
really well off of each other,to your point.

SPEAKER_03 (37:57):
Yeah, no, and that I love to see it in a game like
this, and I thought there'sanother duo that I think plays
way better together, and it'sBielowskis and Winter.
Because when rap is out there,Winter is forced to be more of
the five, more of the physicalbig, and that was, and I know we
loved it.
We always everybody loved tohate on Steven Crowl.

(38:19):
But when Steven Crowell wasthere, I thought he took that
off of Nolan Winter, where thenhe was the big no one was able
to play more of that four role,more of that, you know, more of
that athletic big guy.
And I think with Bielawskis outthere, he's not an athletic guy,
he's a big guy.
He doesn't really want to be outlike he can knock down the shots
on the perimeter.
We saw that there at the end.
He just started ripping him atthe end there and he couldn't

(38:41):
slow him down.
But I mean, you you watch himout there, and he's a good
defending big, he can get downto the post, he can do the dirty
things for you.
Bielowskus can, which issurprising because it's like you
don't usually see young guysstep into such a big role like
he has already.
10 rebounds, he would have hadthe 10 rebounds already.
The points wouldn't have cameunless he started burying threes
at the end there.

(39:02):
But and he ended up with adouble double, which is awesome
to see.
But just seeing a guy who's ableto do that kind of stuff for you
in that natural big guy role, Ilove it because I don't need
another scorer in the all in thestarting role, right?
I have Blackwell, I have Boyd, Ihave Noan Winter, and I have
Roadie.
And we saw Roadie in this gamefinally have a great game

(39:23):
shooting the basketball.
I don't need Bielowskis to be anall-the-time scorer.
I need a guy who can get down tothe post, play good defense on
some big guys, and also becauseyou're gonna have guys like Trey
Coffer and Ren, right?
You're gonna take on him andPurdue.
You're gonna have to be able toslow him down in the post.
You have the big guys fromMichigan, you're gonna go across
the board.
You have Kohler from MichiganState there.

(39:43):
You're gonna have the big guysthat you have to be able to
control from these big 10 teamsthat you have coming up.
Uh, who's that?
Um, I can't remember the guyfrom UCLA.
Is it it's not Beatty.
Beatty played for Oregon, Ibelieve.
I can't remember who the who thebig guy is there, 32 from UCLA.
I can see it on my head rightnow, but I can't remember it's.
Name is, but um uh Biddle Biddlewas the guy from Oregon there.
From Oregon, yeah, very fromOregon.

(40:05):
I can't remember who the heckthe guy is from UCLA, but you
got some good bigs that you hadto bang up against.
Yeah, I love that Bielowskis isout there now and getting those
starter minutes because I thinkhe he is good in that role.
Whereas I'm gonna give you thiscomp and I want to hear what you
think.
Austin Rapp is Connor Assesian,just a bigger version.
He is Keish.

SPEAKER_01 (40:22):
Keyship and doesn't play defense.

SPEAKER_03 (40:24):
100%.
That's Connor Assegian, isn'tit?
I mean, it's just a biggerversion of Connor Assegian.

SPEAKER_01 (40:29):
But I think the difference there is I think Rap
is going to probably I thinkhe's gonna be more like willing
to learn to play defense andwork his butt off to play
defense.
Whereas I think Asijin reallyhad no interest in that.

SPEAKER_03 (40:41):
Right.
No, 100%.
I 100% agree.
It's just when a Sejin, when hetried because to fire him up,
he'd start to foul.
So I hope that I hope that Rapdoesn't try to push himself to
the point where now he's foulingguys, which we saw a little bit
there.
He gets in the last couplegames, he's had a little bit of
a not a huge foul issue, he onlyhad three in this game, but he
got him quick in that gameagainst Marquette.

(41:01):
He got him like back to back,basically.
So, like that's something tokeep an eye on there is if he
starts to press it on thedefensive end because he's not
in that starting role, becausehe mentioned it after the game,
he's like, I've only been usedto being a starter, I've never
really been in this role before.
So it's just somethinginteresting to keep an eye on
there.

SPEAKER_01 (41:16):
Yeah, and going back to kind of what you're talking
about with like the bigs thatthey're gonna be running into.
So, I mean, with recorder withtechnically Wednesday, tonight
when the Badgers play Nebraska,that rank masked guy is really
good.
Like he's gonna be he'sabsolutely gonna be a problem.
They're gonna need Winter,they're gonna need Bele Alskis,
they're gonna need God, theymight even need Will Garlic down

(41:37):
there to guard him a little bit,maybe just to you know, maybe
take a foul or two if they needto.
But I think that's that's theBig Ten, though.
Like you're gonna be runninginto that all year.

SPEAKER_03 (41:47):
So that wasn't a dynamite transition to the next
point.
That was dynamite, the gamecoming up against Nebraska
tonight.
There you go.
I think you're 100% right withthe rank mass thing.
I think it's gonna be a lot onNolan Winter tonight to control
him because I don't thinkBielowskis, because rank mass is
a good three-point shooter, Idon't know if Bialowskis can get
out on him there because hemight be get beat off the

(42:08):
bounce.
I think it's gonna be a lot onNolan Winter.
Maybe even a guy like I don'tknow if you you would sacrifice
a little bit of height therewith a guy like Braden
Carrington, may you know, just alittle or roadie?
Yeah, a little bit of, I mean, alittle bit of height, but rank
mass loves to play out on theperimeter a little bit.
So if you can keep him out ofthe post area, maybe you'd be
fine in that sense there.
But I mean, this is a goodNebraska team coming into this

(42:28):
one.
They've had a a good season sofar, they're undefeated right
now.
You're heading.

SPEAKER_01 (42:32):
No connerseion, though.

SPEAKER_03 (42:34):
No contrastion, darn it, darn it, right?
Darn it.

SPEAKER_01 (42:37):
Kind of wish he was in there.
Let him let him launch seven oreight threes and maybe hit one
or two.

SPEAKER_03 (42:42):
I know.
I want to see him try to beatWisconsin by himself and end up
failing there.
So, so Christian, I gotta runhere.
Make sure you guys checking outthat badger game tonight here.
Eight o'clock, though.
Should be a fantastic game.
Christian's gonna be back onSaturday.
Saturday here.
He's gonna be back on Saturday.
We're gonna talk about the game.
We're gonna recap that game andthen we're gonna look ahead to
who do they got coming up after?

(43:02):
What do they got coming up thisweek?

SPEAKER_01 (43:03):
Is it is it Milwaukee?
No, I can't remember off the topof my head.

SPEAKER_03 (43:07):
Oh, isn't it some weird team?
Villanova.
Villanova coming up.
Oh, they got Nova?

SPEAKER_01 (43:12):
Oh, yeah.
Nova just got smoked byMichigan.

SPEAKER_03 (43:15):
Nova just got smoked by Michigan.
So we're gonna find out whatWisconsin can do against
Michigan after that one there.
So we're gonna recap thisNebraska game coming up on
Saturday here on the show foryou guys.
So, Christian, let thank you asalways for hopping on tonight.
Let the people know where tofind you out there across social
media.

SPEAKER_01 (43:29):
Absolutely.
At Christian Borman on all mysocial media stuff, and make
sure you check out and subscribeto the Badger Backer.

SPEAKER_03 (43:36):
Make sure you guys do it there.
He has got fantastic stuff.
He's tracking the transferportal for you guys right now
for Wisconsin football.
Keeping an eye on thatrecruiting portal, that
everything.
Everything in between withWisconsin football.
He's got that covered.
He's got Wisconsin sports downto a T.
So make sure you guys check himout there.
Badger Backer across allplatforms there.
So we're gonna come back here.
We're gonna wrap up our numberone.

(43:57):
Look ahead to our number twowhen we come back here.
Wisconsin sports on the go withTrage.
I'm your host, Trage, as we comeback here on this Wednesday.
And hey, this next segment,Ummer is stopping by.
We're gonna talk a littlepackers here.
This next segment is brought toyou by Marshfield Motor
Speedway, the half mile pavedtrack, just three miles west of
Marshfield on County Road H.
Find upcoming events and racesat marshfieldspeedway.com.

(44:18):
That is marshfieldspeedway.comthere.
So Ummer is here tonight.
Ummer, how are we doing on thisWednesday?
I mean, we got snow here inWisconsin.
How are you guys doing outthere?

SPEAKER_02 (44:26):
It's freezing.
It is cold, cold, cold, but nosnow.
Um, but definitely uh how howcold is it for you guys?
We're like in uh between the 20sand 30s.

SPEAKER_03 (44:35):
How cold is it for us?
Well, yesterday, yesterday wassuper cold.
Uh yesterday it was about 29.
I believe this weekend,Saturday, the feels like
temperature is supposed to bedown to like negative 30, is
what I thought I saw.
I think the actual temperatureis like five, the overnight's
like negative 10.
So it's gonna get cold fast.
And then next week I sawWednesday's like 35 degrees.

(44:57):
So I don't know what's going on.
I can't my body can't handlethat.
You're all over the place, rightnow.
It can't handle that.
My body needs once it gets cold.
I tell I tell us my co-workersat work, I'm like, for the first
week when it gets super cold,I'm gonna be useless.
Yeah, because I need to my bodyneeds to accustom itself to the
cold.
I need to like get I need to getready for it.
And then once I get accustomedto it, I'm fine for the rest of

(45:17):
the winter.
But I cannot handle thefluctuant temperatures because
then my body gets thrown for aloop.
I don't know what to do.
It's just madness.
It's just madness there.
This is madness, anyways.
Enough about my body and what'sgoing on with that crazy mess.
Let's talk some Packers becausethere was a there was an awesome
game that we watched this lastweekend here.
A nail biter, gritty, I mean, anNFC North battle, right?

(45:38):
And that's what I think I wantto start with.
I loved it because it was an NFCNorth battle between, I say it
for the first time in a longtime, the Bears are a good
football team.
And thank goodness, thankgoodness, it makes it all
better.
Like, honestly, everybody'slike, well, what do you would
you rather have the Bears be badfor this?

(45:59):
No, I don't want the Bears to bebad for the rivalry.
It's not where you have rivalrywhen it's one-sided, right?
I want to see where you havesome good football games, you
have two heated teams going ateach other.
That's what I want to see.
Like, that's that's the that'sthe fan in me.
I want to see good games.
I want to see like Wisconsin andMarquette this last weekend, the
in-state rivalry.
Wisconsin beat him by 20.
I don't want to see that.
Like it was awesome to see themblow them out, like that's cool

(46:21):
and all, because I'm big badgerfans, don't really like
Marquette.
But at the same time, like, Iwant to see a good game, and I'm
glad it's back.
I mean, Umer, are you kind of inthat same boat where you want to
see the rivalry be good?
You want to see the Bears begood because it adds the extra
juice.

SPEAKER_02 (46:34):
Yeah, I'm I'm opposite of that.

SPEAKER_03 (46:37):
You're the opposite.
What?

SPEAKER_02 (46:38):
Yeah, so I'm like you sound a lot like Jason
Woldy.
Waldy says the same thing.
He goes, I want a good rivalry,I want a good game, I want I
want it to come back.
Me, no, I want total domination.
I want total domination.
I get it, like I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_03 (46:52):
Good team though, like I agree, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (46:53):
But if you don't want it, makes you better.
Adverse team makes you better.
So if you're playing teams thatare as they're just as good as
you or a little bit under you,it helps you prepare for
playoffs.
I think for many, many yearsthat our division had its
moments, but there are times itdidn't.
So that we were going toplayoffs and just you know,
we're playing a different typeof caliber of teams, right?
And so because of that, uh Ifeel like you know it has maybe

(47:17):
softened us a little bit.
And I think what the Packershave gone through this year has
really showed them someresiliency, right?
I mean, that Chicago game wasgood.
I don't think Chicago's goingaway.
I mean, with me being sayingthat, Chicago's not going away.
Like they're here for a longrun, you know, Ben Johnson and
Cal Caleb Wills are gonna get itright.
You know, that defense isopportunistic and it's gonna be

(47:39):
a battle for years to come.
I'm just hoping that LaFleur andJordan can keep up their success
against them.

SPEAKER_03 (47:46):
Yeah, yeah, 100%.
100%.
I agree with you there.
And so let's start right there.
Let's start right there.
You're talking about the defensefor the Bears, let's talk about
the offense for the Packers alittle bit.
Jordan Love in that game.
I still see the national mediacoming off that.
They they talked about it toopen up the show today.
That, you know, I saw the videoof Cam Newton on first take
talking about Jordan Love and doyou trust him in big games?
And he's like, I've seen himagainst the Panthers and Browns

(48:08):
and Cowboys, and he couldn't doanything in there.
He can't handle the pressure.
I was like, what do you mean hecan't handle the pressure?
He was nine for 12 against theBlitz against the Bears.
He was fantastic.
Like, I don't know, threetouchdowns against the Blitz in
that game against the Bears.
I don't know what else you wantfrom the guy in a big moment in
a big game.
But, anyways, that's enoughabout that.
Jordan Love in this game had theone bad interception.

(48:28):
Outside of that, he played apretty good game.
I want to go, let's start withthe offensive line, though, for
the Packers.
Have you, I mean, have you seenthe same thing as I have where I
love the combo of Sean Ryan andAnthony Belton up the middle?
Just that combo since EltonJenkins went out, and I love

(48:49):
Elton Jenkins, but man oh man,Sean Ryan has played fantastic
at the center spot, and thenAnthony Belton right next to him
has been huge for him.
Zach Tom's been good.
Aaron Banks is playing better.
Actually, the only one I haveany kind of problem with is
Rasheed Walker because a videothat Andy Herman put out there,
I believe it was Andy Hermanthat put it out there where he

(49:10):
was kind of dogging it on a playand kind of just let a guy go
around him where it just seemedlike he's like whatever.
And it's kind of odd in thecontract year.
But let's start right there withthe offensive line.
We'll work to Jordan Love, workto the rest of the offense.
Let's start with the offensiveline.
What have you liked from themfrom what you've seen?
Because I've just been totallyimpressed.

SPEAKER_02 (49:25):
Honestly, I'll the one thing that got me about that
offensive line is like you justsaid, with Ryan and Belton being
kind of incorporated into theoffensive line, we really have
seen some continuity finallyacross the line.
Our run game for the most part.
I just feel like it's I'm notsaying it's 100% better, it just
feels better because you'reright.
Because Rasheed Walker missedlike four run blocks in that

(49:49):
game, and Aaron Banks playedpretty decent.
I think Ryan and Belton arehaving their their their their
like you know learning curve, alittle bit bumps in the road as
they're you know, trial by firekind of stuff.
Zach Tom is legit Zach Tom, butoverall, like the offensive line
has made it to where I felt likebefore it was where it is right
now, Jordan's eyes were goingdown.

(50:11):
He wasn't looking downfield withthe if the pocket was coming
around him and he would getscared, he'd bail out, he'd try
to throw off his back foot,which he does really well, but
he would rush throws or he'd tryto throw deep balls and he just
wasn't gaining a little bitenough into it.
I see him in a Detroit game andin this game, as well as at both
Detroit, Minnesota, the allthese games, he's seeing the

(50:32):
pocket kind of come around him,and he's not he's not in it's
not impacting his ability to seedown the field.
And he's he's seeing guys, he'sthrowing the ball downfield,
he's having pressure directly inhis face.
And in the beginning of theyear, when that not beginning of
the year, but like after RashiUm Jaden Reed got hurt, and then
when Tucker got hurt too, whenhe would have that pressure in

(50:52):
his face, he would take a sackor you know, he'd make a bad
throw.
He's not doing that now.
I mean, he had a guy, a rusher,a clean rusher coming right at
him, and he was able to throw adart to Lucas Luke Musgrave.
I got, I mean, I I think becausethe offensive line where it is
right now, you're starting tosee what Jordan really can be.
Because the thing this year wasif you had a clean pocket with

(51:14):
no pressure, one of the bestquarterbacks in the league.
But if you have pressure and hewas being blitzed, one of the
worst quarterbacks in theleague.
These last four or five games,he's number one in both
situations with a clean pocketand against the blitz.
And I think a lot has to do withthat continuity on the offensive
line.

SPEAKER_03 (51:29):
Yeah, 100%.
And you can see it in thecommand that he has in the
offense right now, right?
I love that command.
And you saw it in a coupledifferent plays.
The hot routes that he's callingas of late here, seeing the
coverage, seeing what'shappening.
I mean, that Christian Watsontouchdown, he called it.
He told him, like, you got manto man.
Christian Watson's like, yeah, Igot man to man.
And he called that little slantto him there, hit him, boom,
gone.
And Christian Watson, I justwant to hit that before we got

(51:50):
to hit a little break.
Yeah, you gotta come, you gotta,you gotta show him his love.
Christian Watson, I'm gonna tellyou this now, and I'm gonna tell
I'm I want to hear what peoplehave to say.
Hit me up.
715-990-4914.
715-990-4914.
Christian Watson, knock on wood,stay healthy for five minutes.
He could be a number one widereceiver.
Easily.
He might be the number one widereceiver.

(52:11):
He might be the Packers fans,everything in between, have been
complaining about not having awide receiver one for years now.
It's because he's been hurt.
It's because he's been down.
He's there, and we're seeing itright now.
The explosive place, turningwhat was just a slant route
across the middle, what we'veseen in the past, the Dobbs or
Wicks or anybody like that, to atouchdown, just like that.

(52:32):
That's what Christian Watson cando.
He can blow the top off ofdefense, he can also do some
things across the middle.
They had him in the backfield.
I mean, he's everywhere.
So, I mean, we're gonna talkmore about that.
I want to get your opinion onthat, Elmer, here, when we come
back from the break.
We're gonna hit the break here.
We're gonna come back.
Hour number two of WisconsinSports on the Go trade.
It's coming at you after thisquick commercial break.