Nov 26 Hour 1: Badgers Men's Hoops and Badger Football

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A cathartic field storm, a defense with bite, and a quarterback who stood in to deliver under fire—our latest show dives into why Wisconsin’s win over Illinois felt like more than a ranked scalp. We talk about the shift in energy around Luke Fickell, how a freshmen-led core is changing the Badgers’ identity, and what it will actually take to bring the Axe back from Minnesota. No slogans, just specifics: early-down control, run fits, edge heat, and freeing Carter Smith to show whether he’s a 2025 solution or a bridge.

Then we pivot to a hard truth on the hardwood. BYU exposed Wisconsin’s worst habits: rushed threes, transition leaks, and foul spirals. We break down how to fix it in time for Providence and a likely Florida matchup—more high-low action with Winter and Rapp, post-first touches to force rotations, and kick-out threes for Boyd, Blackwell, and Rohde as spot-ups, not bailouts. Winter’s toughness was a real step forward; now the guards need to turn that inside gravity into efficient looks and free throws that travel.

We also zoom out to the pros. The Packers found second-half steel, with Isaiah McDuffie everywhere and the pass rush closing strong. Bucks without Giannis remain a slog, a reminder of how much MVP gravity props up the edges. And to our friends in Chicago: close wins over weak schedules only carry you so far—the Eagles, Packers, Browns, 49ers, and Lions will answer the respect debate soon enough.

Come for the catharsis, stay for the adjustments. Tap play, send this to a Badger fan who needed that win, and drop your take: is your faith in Fickell restored, or do you need to see it again versus Minnesota? If you’re new here, hit follow, share with a friend, and leave a review so more Wisconsin fans can find the show.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:05):
This is Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade.
Your place for all thingsWisconsin Sports.
Now, your host, Trage.
How are we doing, everybody?
And welcome in to WisconsinSports on the Go with Trage.
I am your host, Trage, as wecome back here for the November

(00:26):
26th edition of the show here.
I hope you guys are enjoyingyour Wednesday so far here.
I hope you guys enjoyed yourweekend that was this uh past
weekend here.
It was a good weekend formyself.
A lot of good, a lot of goodsports, some bad, right?
Wisconsin men's basketballdropped that game to BYU.
We're gonna get into that game alittle bit here today.

(00:47):
We're gonna look ahead, see whatthis team's gonna do.
Because we finally, I thinkwe've been waiting for it with
the Badgers.
Um, we've been waiting to seethe bad because they have played
lesser opponents, I guess, forthe first four.
And it's it's hard to nitpick,right?
You wanna you wanna see what ateam, what they can do well,
what they don't do well, tryingto find the ugly.

(01:08):
And when you're playing lesseropponents, sometimes it's a
little bit harder to see that.
And I think we finally saw itagainst BYU.
Now it's a question of how dothey respond, how do they move
forward.
So we're gonna talk about thathere today on the show.
Badger football, wow.
I did not think I'd come off theweekend and say badger football
once again made my weekend, butthey did.

(01:29):
They did, they beat up on Bert.
It was fantastic.
Brett, he goes into the I Iloved when Bielama went into the
locker room at halftime, and hesaid, We have to start playing
our game, we have to stopplaying down to theirs.
And they ended up losing it 27to 10.
That was awesome.
I I loved every second of itbecause after he said that, I

(01:52):
said to myself, man, I hope thatthey just beat him now.
Then they beat him good.
And then, you know, you listenacross, I know the uh the ESPN
radio show on Sportsman Like wastalking about Evan Cohen.
Keeps joking out that uh thatMichelle Smallman about the uh
about the game because she's abig Illinois fan and he's big
Wisconsin.
And she's like, Oh, a blindsquirrel finds a nut every once

(02:14):
in a while, and this and that,and who's got the better record
and this.
I don't care, honestly.
I don't about the whole, youknow, oh blind squirrel.
It was 27 to 10, and I gotta behonest with you, it was
impressive because Illinois didnot look like they were the 21,
the 21st best team in the cut.
Like they like they should beranked number 21.

(02:34):
They did not look like that, andWisconsin's defense actually
made Illinois's offense look badin that game.
Look bad.
So I don't know how, if you'rean Illinois fan, I don't know
how you come off that game andsay to yourself, wow, like I
feel good.
I feel good.
Like, I feel good even saying,like, or joking with Wisconsin
fans at this point that you guysstink and this and that.

(02:55):
It's like, no, you're seven andfour, but you didn't look good
against us.
And let's look at your wins.
Let's look at your wins.
Let's look across the board atthe wins.
You beat USC, all good win, butyou beat Purdue, you beat
Rutgers, you beat Maryland.
Wisconsin lost to Maryland, so Ilike whatever.
But what I'm saying is, end ofthe day, end of the day, there's
a lot of teams on Wisconsin.

(03:16):
Look at Wisconsin's schedule.
We're gonna talk about thistoday, but I think I'm finally
coming around to thinking tomyself, wow, this schedule just
was really tough.
You didn't have your starters,you didn't have the guys you
went in the season think youwere gonna roll with.
Maybe this is what it wassupposed to look like.
It just took a while to getthere.
It took the freshmen beinginvolved to you know, allow it

(03:37):
to get there.
I don't know.
Christian and I are gonna talkabout it.
There's a lot to dive into withthat.
Because the question now is arewe turning the corner with
Fickle?
Are we feeling better about LukeFickle?
That's kind of where we're atright now.
So we'll we'll we're gonna diveinto that.
Christian's gonna stop by.
We're gonna have him on next,actually.
So when we hit the, we're gonnahit a break here and coming up
in a little bit.
And then second segment of theshow, Christian's gonna stop by.

(03:59):
We're gonna talk badger offootball, we're gonna talk
badger hoops.
So make sure you guys arechecking that one out.
So badger football, a fantasticanother top 25 win for this
badger football team.
And then I, you know, the thefield storm again, and I know
people are at a there's a mixedbatch, right?
Some people are like, well, whyare you you know storming the
field again?
You beat the 20, you know, thisteam that in Illinois that was

(04:21):
21st in the nation, nothingcrazy good.
I honestly I don't care.
Like, if you wanna Illinoishandled it very well, they had
their security out there, it wasvery good, got their guys off
the field.
That was good to see.
But I mean, fans want to feel uhstorm the field.
Wisconsin fans have gone througha lot in one year to have this

(04:44):
be the emotion now.
A lot in a couple years now tohave this be the emotion now.
So you know what?
They want to storm the field,let them.
I I I have nothing against it.
I have nothing against it atall.
They're hyped, fans are finallyhyped, they're back into it,
they're backing fickle again.
I I'm in with it.
I I like it, I like it.
The players deserve it.

(05:04):
It was an awesome performance.
So, you know what?
I'll take it.
So, whatever.
Whatever.
People who are against it,they're against it.
I'm all good with it.
If you want to storm the fieldafter beating a top 25 team and
you have a losing record, go forit in my book there.
So, badgers get the win there.
Packers, Packers with the bigwin over the uh over the Vikings
over the weekend there.

(05:24):
Good stuff there.
We're gonna talk about thatlater on in the show with Ummer.
I want to get into that.
We have some Bucks talk to getto.
Bucks, they they it's beenstruggle.
The Giannisless Bucks are astruggle bus at this point here.
So we're gonna talk about thatlater on with here with Kyle.
The big thing that I've beenseeing coming off the weekend is
Bears fans telling me that theyaren't getting enough respect.

(05:48):
This team isn't getting enoughrespect because they are leading
the division and nobody seesthem as this great team that's
you know a powerhouse, whatever.
They are not in these powerrankings, they're not near the
top in the power rankings.
You know what?
And I've been looking at thisand I look through the I look
through the schedule and I lookthrough who they've played, how

(06:11):
they've beat them, the stats,everything in between.
You've played a lot of closegames against a lot of bad
teams.
You haven't exactly played thebest teams to this point.
And when you have, like theLions in week two, you lost 52
to 21.
So I do agree.

(06:31):
A win's a win, right?
We say it all the time.
So win's a win, right?
I I completely agree.
A win's a win.
A win's a win until the pointwhere you're winning ugly all
the time.
Now it's a question of can youbeat good teams winning ugly?
Because you've beat bad teamswinning ugly.
And it's fine to win ugly.
I'm good with that.
I actually enjoy watching someteams win ugly.

(06:54):
That's just the MO of someteams.
But now it's a question of ifyou are the Chicago Bears, you
have the Eagles coming up, youhave the Packers coming up after
that, and then you have theBrowns, then you have the
Packers, 49ers, Lions.
Can you beat those teams playingas you are?
That's the question mark.
That's gonna answer the questionof are the Bears for real?
And do the Packers or Lions haveto worry about them in that race

(07:18):
for the top spot in the NFCNorth.
So we're gonna get to that.
We're gonna talk about thatlater with Ummer here on the
show.
We have a boatload of things todive into tonight here on the
show.
We have Christian stopping bynext.
We're gonna talk badgerfootball.
We're gonna talk badger hoops,and then Ummer's gonna stop by.
We're gonna talk a littlePackers, and then we got to get
Kyle on later, talk a littlebucks.
No Giannis, it's been astruggle.
We're gonna talk with him, andthen we got to get to our NFL

(07:38):
talk later on here in the show.
We have a loaded up show heregetting you ready for a
Thanksgiving, a feast week, asthey say on ESPN, right?
A feast week.
So we'll be right back here onWisconsin Sports on the Go with
Trade.
Christian stop by.
We have Badger Talk coming atyou back into Wisconsin Sports
on the Go with Trage.
I'm your host, Trage, as we comeback here on this Wednesday.
And hey, this next segment isbrought to you by 1891 Winery.

(07:59):
They celebrate history withflavors.
Sip on artisan wines, craft iton location, or grab a cold beer
and pair it with a giant pretzelor pizza right now.
Get down there, watch some livesports.
The Packers looking good.
Badger football.
Wow, right?
Wow.
And then we got, I mean, BadgerHoops.
We expect better things out ofBadger Hoops moving forward
there after that butt kickingthey took by BYU.

(08:21):
It should get better as theymove on here with the season.
Lots of good stuff happeningaround the sporting world, and
you can catch it all down thereat 1891 winery there in
Greenwood.
So Christian is here tonight.
Christian, how are we doing onthis Wednesday?

SPEAKER_00 (08:36):
We're good.
It's almost Thanksgiving.
I'm ready to eat, man.

SPEAKER_01 (08:38):
I was gonna ask you, I was gonna ask you, what are
the plans?
What are the plans forThanksgiving?
Are you are you cooking?
Is somebody else cooking?
Are you in charge?

SPEAKER_00 (08:45):
Uh I got two of them.
You know, I got fam, I got myside on Thanksgiving, heading up
to Stratford for that, and thengot uh the in-laws in Merrimack
the next weekend.
But I'm in charge of the turkeyfor them on Saturday.
So boy.
Fire up the Trager, man.

SPEAKER_01 (09:03):
Oh, he's got the Trager out.
Yes, yes.
I'm so we're going over to mywife's family on Thanksgiving.
And then I got I got a 19-poundturkey upstairs right now.
19-pound turkey right now.
That baby's going on thetragger, she is gonna cook.
It is gonna be fantastic.
Oh, I can't wait.
I I got excited.
When you said tragger, I waslike, let's let's go.

(09:25):
Let's that's a big bird.
That's a big bird.
I didn't realize that it wasthat big of a turkey until I uh
until I pulled it out of thefreezer.
And I'm like, oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 (09:31):
It's better hope that thing thaws out.

SPEAKER_01 (09:34):
That's the hope, right?
That's the we got it's it'llwork, it'll be okay, it'll work.
We gotta have fancy.
Okay, it's all the pressure inthe world when you gotta be the
guy cooking the turkey.
Like, that's the pressure.
Like it was always on mygrandma, and she did a fantastic
job of it, but it was always onher.
And now I invited her over onSaturday there because we won't
get over there.
So I was like, Oh, yeah, you cancome over here.
I'm like, okay, now thepressure's on me to make this

(09:56):
turkey.
So hopefully, hopefully, I canfigure it out.
I guess the pressure's on.
I'll let you guys know come nextweek.
If we failed, if we mastered it,I'll let you know.
But we're gonna have the costumespice on there.
So yeah, that'll be some goodstuff.
It'll be some good stuff.
So happy to hear that,Christian.
I mean, we're happy to see thebadgers right now.

SPEAKER_00 (10:13):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (10:13):
This badger football team.
I don't know.
Is it just okay, just hear meout on this one?
Is it a crazy coincidence thatright when the front office or
Chris McIntosh and theChancellor came out and they
said, We put full faith in LukeFickle, we're gonna give him the
funds, we support himwholeheartedly, everything like

(10:35):
that.
And then all of a sudden, justall of a sudden, this team
started playing.
It's like they just found thisnext gear, everything started to
click.
Luke Fickle was it's I don'tknow if he started having fun
again, but it looked like hewasn't coaching as much for a
job anymore.
It looked like he was justthrowing pieces out there to see
what it was.
He, you know, gave the runway toMason Posa and Catalano, and

(10:57):
he's got that defense, is justthey're fantastic.
If it would they had a decentoffense, I mean, goodness, watch
out.
And then I mean Carter Smithgets that runway, he's looked a
lot better.
Is it a coincidence?
It's crazy to think that.
I mean, a couple weeks ago wewere talking about wow, is this
team going to win another game?
And now they've won two top 25matchups at Camp Rand.
I mean, is it crazy to is itjust like what what happened?

(11:20):
I mean, what's going on?

SPEAKER_00 (11:22):
I don't know.
That's what I can't like.
Maybe it is the the uh thepressure is off now, but I don't
know.
It's just I think it's also Ithink maybe he you know he felt
that pressure, so he stuck withyou know the the upperclassmen,
you know, those kind of guyslike uh Take and Curtis, who I
was a hundred percent on boardwith.

(11:42):
And but I mean don't even thinkabout him anymore because he got
the two freshman linebackers,you know, and like I just feel
like maybe he just said, Allright, you know, whatever, I'm
good.
Like, let's let's just see whatthe like the season's done, like
we kind of talked about.
Let's just see what all theyoung guys have, you know, and
like holy crap, maybe they werejust way better than than the
other guys were, you know.
So, and then I don't know, maybeit's part of two, is like

(12:05):
everyone's kind of rallyingbehind Carter Smith, like they
really like him to play for him,you know, and like that kind of
thing, whereas I mean, this isjust complete, like, oh what if,
right?
Like, maybe they didn't feel thesame way about Danny O'Neill or
you know, Billy Edwards Jr.
and or you know, Hunter Simmons.
So I don't know what it is.
Maybe it's just because it's abunch of young guys playing,
they really they don't know anybetter, you know.

(12:27):
So it's just kind of like let'sjust go play with our like hair
on fire and just you know, ballout.

SPEAKER_01 (12:32):
I'll take it.

SPEAKER_00 (12:32):
I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 (12:33):
I'll take it any day of the week.
I'll take it.
I mean, every facet of this teamis starting to play better, and
it's it's crazy.
I mean, the running back room,the offensive line, we talked
about how banged up thatoffensive line is.
I mean, we got guys, they'rethird stringers out there at
this point here.
We don't we don't even know thenames of half of them, and they
were an afterthought at thestart of the year, and they're
like crazy right now.

(12:53):
They opened up a hole for DarienDupree to take off for 84 yards
down the field.
The best block of the nightwasn't even a block, it was
Eugene Hilton taking his cornerdown the field.

SPEAKER_00 (13:02):
Eugene Hilton blew in the fake, yeah.
Oh my god, that's awesome,wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 (13:07):
Just the the little things, and and like we were
talking about before at thebreak, we were talking about uh
Carter Smith, and I said to you,I said, you know what the best
throw of the night is, and youknew exactly what I was gonna
say.
It was the one to last LanceMason on the trick play, the
flea flicker, and it wasn't evena completion.
But what you saw in that throwwas a guy, he was getting
smoked.
There was a guy in his lap, itwas pressure right there, and he

(13:29):
he just made the throw, and itwas right on the money to Lance
Mason, and he got you know, hegot clocked and lost the
football, and it happens.
Like I'm not gonna say like heshouldn't have caught it, but
like you can see where hedropped it in that sense.
But we're seeing those littlethings that give you hope.
They give you that, okay.
Maybe just maybe this was areally I'm I'm gonna say

(13:52):
something crazy right nowbecause I know a lot of people
are gonna be like, you're you'renuts.
Maybe this was a really toughschedule, and maybe you did not
have a quarterback who wasready, and maybe you had a
banged up offensive line, andthat's what we need to take into
account here because I don'tthink Luke Fickle forgot how to

(14:12):
coach the game of football whenhe came to Madison.
I think, and from watching whatI've seen, and I'm not gonna
take back what I said because II think Luke Fickle, and this is
the I mean the big question isdo we have our faith back in
him, right?
And I I compare it to basicallylike when I touch a wire when
I'm wiring an outlet and I getshocked, right?
So I walk to the breaker paneland I shut, I think I shut it
off, but then I go back over andI test it with my tester like 14

(14:36):
times, knowing that every time Itest it, it's gonna be off.
But I'm still gonna check itbecause I don't have faith yet.
That's kind of where I'm at.
I'm still checking it out andI'm still like I'm excited now.
I'm watching this intently nowbecause I'm excited, but I don't
want to get overly excitedbecause I've seen rock bottom.
But you know what?
Right, I saw I saw a quote.
I saw a quote.

(14:56):
You know what rock bottom is?
When you hit rock bottom, it's abase for you to build something
stronger off of.
Maybe this program needed to hitrock bottom so that way they
could build something back.
Maybe they needed to hit thatrock bottom so they could build
the structure back the way thatLuke Fickel and Jeff Grimes want
to build it, and that's into aprogram that works for them.

(15:17):
Not a program that works forPhil Longo because that was a
mess.
Maybe it's something thatthey're structuring now with
these guys.
You're building your foundation.
This is your foundation now.
POSA, Catalano, Carter Smith.
Those guys are your foundation,a tuka, right?
Those guys are the foundationthat you're gonna build forward
now.
So I think that I that's whereI'm at right now.
Is like you hit rock bottom.

(15:38):
I didn't think it could go anydeeper, right?
I don't know, you couldn'treally get further down, but now
we're seeing it build itselfback, and that's what I like to
see.
So I guess where are you atright now?
Is is your faith there in LukeFickle, or are you kind of like
the same where I'm I am whereit's like, okay, I gotta I gotta
see it, right?
It's an eye test thing, and Ifeel good now, but I gotta see
it continue.

SPEAKER_00 (15:57):
Yep, and I think I don't know, it's it's definitely
higher than it was.
Um, especially if you know youget shut out back to back weeks,
37 nothing, 31 nothing, but Iowaand Ohio State.
I'm like, it's you know, youlose to Maryland, like it's low,
low, low, right?
Um, but then they beatWashington.
I'm like, okay, maybe Washingtonis just not that good, right?
On the road, bad weather, we gotlucky, whatever.

(16:20):
Then it was 10-7 at halftime toIndiana, and that's a team that
beat Illinois by 52.
And then, yeah, the wheels felloff.
We our offense, which is alreadylike brand new coordinator.
We're on our fourth quarterback,offensive line's banged up.
We have so many freshmenplaying, all this stuff's going
on.
Like the offense isn't gonna begood, right?

(16:40):
Um, but then so yeah, the wheelsfell off the second half, but
they played Indiana pretty dangwell, holding them to what 37 31
is out of us, 31 to 7.
That's really good.
They're like, I think they werethat one of the best, or if not
the top scoring team in theentire country.
So like holding them to that isawesome.
The offense, whatever, but thenIndiana or uh Illinois, what 21

(17:04):
coming in, 22, whatever theywere coming in.
Oh man, it felt so good to watchthem pants Brett Bielama.
Oh just just watching them runall over them and just like just
constantly make putting Altmireunder pressure, like that was
awesome, man.
So I think I I yeah, back toyour question, I guess.
I I think I'm more like you.

(17:26):
I want to see it.
Um if they come back and theyhave a game like Illinois
against Minnesota and they takeit to the Gophers who just lost
to Northwestern and like justreally take it to them and get
the hacks back, I'll be a lothigher going into next year.
I'll be a little more excited.
But if they lose, I'll be like,ah, well, maybe maybe they just

(17:46):
struck, you know, they got hot acouple games or something, or
got lucky a couple games.
I don't know, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 (17:52):
If they play like they did against Illinois
against Minnesota, it won't be agame.
It will be an absolute route.
They will route Minnesota.
I mean, the way Minnesota, Imean, you look at the last month
Minnesota has played, their onegood game, their win was against
Michigan State, and that teamhas no wins in the Big Ten.

SPEAKER_00 (18:11):
Yeah, yeah.
And that was like they were likelooting too, weren't they?
They had to come back inovertime.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (18:15):
Yep.
Other than that, I mean, theywent to a Northwestern, they
lost by three.
They lost Oregon worse than theBadgers at Oregon, and then they
got smoked by Iowa, same asWisconsin.
So, I mean, you look across theboard, there's nothing that like
their win came against Purdue.

SPEAKER_00 (18:29):
I think Wisconsin's Wisconsin's got the momentum.
And like you said, yeah,Minnesota did not have nearly as
tough of a schedule as Wisconsindid.

SPEAKER_01 (18:37):
No.

SPEAKER_00 (18:37):
Nor what?
What are they five, and we'refour and seven?
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (18:43):
And there's still a chance of a bowl game.
I did see, I did see ZachHyleprin tweeted out there for
the Badgers that they wouldneed, so this is what needs to
happen.
He's got the whole game.
He's got the whole list.
I saw the whole list.
The Badgers need to beatMinnesota and for Mississippi
State, Kansas, Buffalo, Temple,North Carolina, Delaware, Army,
Temple, Auburn, Kentucky,Florida State, Baylor, Kansas

(19:05):
State, UCF, Washington State,Rice, Louisiana, and Texas State
to combine for a three and fiverecord or worse next weekend.
So there you go.
If you guys need to know who toroot against, it's all those
teams.
That if they all lose the badteams.

SPEAKER_00 (19:20):
Combine for a three and five record.

SPEAKER_01 (19:22):
So they need they three and fifteen.
Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 (19:25):
I just like that's a lot of three and five.

SPEAKER_01 (19:28):
I was breaking it or worse next weekend.

SPEAKER_00 (19:30):
So you need to have at least well, Mississippi State
plays Ole Miss, so you canprobably chalk that up as a
loss, right?

SPEAKER_01 (19:36):
Okay, okay.
Well, who knows?
Because Lane Kiffen might bethere.
He might not have it.

SPEAKER_00 (19:42):
You think it's gonna be after the egg bowl, they
said.
Oh man, that's but there's thatbig distraction looming over
them, right?

SPEAKER_01 (19:49):
That's even a bigger disaster than what we thought we
had in Madison.
That whole down count LaneKiffen down there.
Like, is he gonna leave?
It's just a mess.
It's college football.

SPEAKER_00 (20:00):
Everyone's joking that it's literally just like
recruiting, but for a coachinstead of a player right now.

SPEAKER_01 (20:05):
Yes, a hundred percent.
I I don't I don't trulyunderstand how like college
football thing, like how the howthe NCAA thinks this is okay.
Like you can have a coach leaveor have talking to with other
programs before the season'seven over.

SPEAKER_00 (20:21):
Dude, it's such a mess.

SPEAKER_01 (20:22):
It is like and I've said it a million times.

SPEAKER_00 (20:24):
And like if you're a player for Ole Miss, how are you
not like are you seriously likedoing this in the middle of our
season right now when we're onthe hunt for a college football
playoff and you're entertainingother offers and your family's
traveling to LSU and all thisstuff?
I'd be like, Are you serious?

SPEAKER_01 (20:38):
I'd be like, No, I don't want you there because if
you're there, I'm not there.
Like, I'm not gonna play foryou.
Like, you're you're leaving me,like and you're gonna be like,
Oh, and I know for a fact whenyou get to Florida or LSU,
you're gonna call me and you'regonna say, Hey, I'm at Florida,
wanna come down here?
And it's like, I what?
Like, uh, I don't know how.

SPEAKER_00 (20:58):
But that's the thing, where's their loyalty?
Is it to their coach or is it totheir pro to their school, their
program?
Actually, at this point, whatare you what are you committing
to, a coach or a team or aprogram?

SPEAKER_01 (21:07):
In college these days, I don't know how much
loyalty there is left.
I I really don't.
You can get it from a few guys,you can get it from a few guys,
but I mean you look at guys likeAJ Store.
What is he at?
College number five.
He went to four high schools andfour colleges.

SPEAKER_00 (21:22):
Yeah, number eight and eight years.

SPEAKER_01 (21:24):
Eight pro eight different schools and eight
years of his like that'sbaffling.
That's baffling.
Yeah, like it it I don'tunderstand how we can.
That's a whole nother day ofwork right there to talk about
why the NCAA thinks that's okay.
We're not gonna get into that.
Back to the Badgers.
We're far away from the Badgersright now.
Let's get back to the Badgershere.
Badgers, they had that gameagainst Illinois.

(21:46):
I mean, let's just let's justtalk about some of the good.
Like what we saw that was goodin this game.
And like we're talking about thebig thing.
Yes, the pass rush, the defensethere, 100% for the badgers.
And it's everybody, right?
It's Daryl Peterson, it'sSebastian Cheeks getting
downhill.
It's all these guys for thisteam as of late here.
Sebastian Cheeks to uh to DarylPeterson to Mason Riger.

(22:07):
Mason Riger, that's the guy Iwas thinking of there.
Goodness, it's all Ben Barton'sbeen clogging up holes up the
middle.
Corey Walker's been playing goodoff the outside, so has Aaron
Witt.
I mean, there's a lot of guysstepping up across this defense,
and I just you watch this team,it's like, okay, we've seen this
though for weeks.
It's as the defense has alwaysbeen there all season long.

(22:27):
Have they been as good as whatthey've been as of late?
No, but the defense has beenthere.
It's just the offense, I thinkthat's kind of staggered.

SPEAKER_00 (22:35):
It's been on the defense to like consistently be
good when they're always on thefield.
Yes, right?
Like, how many times do we watchthe offense go three and out and
like, oh, there was 40 secondsoff the clock.
Defense, you're back in.
Like 100%.

SPEAKER_01 (22:50):
I think that's what I think that's what we've seen
now is that now that the offenseis slowly starting to find
something and being able tosustain drives and bring that
juice back.
Because when you're on defense,you're like, uh, we just got off
the field, the offense had athree and out.
Here we go.
Let's go stop again.
It's like, yeah, like do itagainst Indiana 14 times.
It's like, guys, we can't keepdoing this.

(23:12):
Fernando's gonna light us up atsome point here, and he did in
that second half.
But it's what we saw in thisIllinois game.
I mean, the defense, they hadsome juice to them because
Darien Dupree house takes thatone of the house.
They had that punt, the specialteams play that was massive
there.
I mean, they just had a coupledifferent times where there was
massive plays or massive drives.
That opening drive for theBadgers.

(23:33):
I mean, we saw, I thought thatwas the best opening drive that
I have seen from the WisconsinBadgers.
I don't even remember one thatwas better.

SPEAKER_00 (23:41):
Since Fickle's been there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (23:43):
I I can't remember one that's better.
I mean, we saw everything.
We saw the we saw the passinggame, we saw the run game, we
saw everything.
We saw holes getting opened up,we saw a push to the second
level.
That's the thing with theoffensive line, too, is they're
getting to the second level now.
It's not just like they'reblocking on the first level,
they're getting to the secondlevel and allowing these backs
to get through and also get acouple extra yards after it.

(24:03):
Like that is something wehaven't seen in weeks from this
team.
So I just love it all the wayaround.
What's okay?
So let's look ahead.
That's I mean, there's so manythings we could dive into as
line of game, but we got we gotto hit a break here.
So let's get to the Minnesotagame.
Looking ahead to the axe weekhere.
What are some of the things yougot to see from this Badger
team?
What do you want to see here?
Season finale in quotationscould be.

(24:25):
Question mark.
We don't know.
But I mean, what do you want tosee here against Minnesota as
the season wraps up?

SPEAKER_00 (24:30):
I want to see what we saw against Illinois.
I want to see the offensesustain some drives.
I want to see him let CarterCarter Smith let it loose a
little bit.
I know he's has I know peopleare just looking at him in these
last few games, like he's not avery good passing quarterback,
he's just a running quarterback.
But this dude lit it up inFlorida in his senior year.
He threw for a ton of yards,like he can do it.
And we saw him do it with LanceMason, right?

(24:52):
I mean, obviously you got toestablish the run first, but I
think I want to see him startthrowing it a little more.
I mean, I haven't dug intoMinnesota a whole lot yet, so I
have no idea what their passdefense is like or you know,
anything like that.
But um, I want to see some ofthat, but yeah, sustained
drives, keep the defense off thefield a little bit, so then they
can just, you know, go to worklike they would did against
Illinois and just what's theguy's name?

(25:14):
Drake Lindsay.
Is that their quarterback?
I want to see them like he's nothe's he is not nearly as good of
a quarterback as Luke Altmeyer.
So if they can contain theirrunning back and it's Darius
Taylor, he's a pretty goodrunning back, but I don't think
he's really done a whole lotthis year.
Um, anyways, 454 yards.
Yeah, and that's it.
Geez, this is like this is theprogram that had that uh

(25:35):
Mohammed Ibrahim and you know,whatever that like led the Big
Ten and rushing, you know, allthat stuff.
Like, I don't know.
I just think I want to see themcontain the run, which they've
done a great job of all yearwith that defensive line and
with Post and Catalano, and thenjust let the edge guys pin their
ears back and go.
Like, I think that's a hugereason why they're if their
secondary is their weakness dueto injuries or just you know,

(25:58):
not the best talent, you know,but like their their front eight
can make up for that, theirfront seven make up for that.
That's they can make things easyfor the secondary when they're
constantly getting to thequarterback.
Right, that's what I want to seeagainst Minnesota too.

SPEAKER_01 (26:11):
Right, 100%.
You're making them have to throwquick, they gotta throw some
quick passes, nothing reallydeveloping, no explosive plays,
right?
Trying to keep out of that kindof realm.
And like you said, control thatrun game.
Don't let the run game go crazyon in this one.
And then if you're Wisconsin onthe flip side of it offensively,
let it rip.
Just let it rip.
I I saw what I needed to see outof Carter Smith in that last
game where I trust him, where Idon't need to see Hunter Simmons

(26:35):
at the end of the first half totry and bust the drive down the
field.
Just let Carter Smith do it.
I'm done with seeing that.
Oh my! It's like we watched him.
No, we watched him throw.

SPEAKER_00 (26:47):
Like, what do you again?
It's here's our here's thething.
Ever since they lost to Indiana,really, but like, what do you
have to lose?
We don't have a bowl game.
This is literally the last game.
The only thing we have to loseis the axe, and like I would
rather go down swinging, beingsuper aggressive, and lose the
axe rather than be superconservative and then still
probably lose because we've seenthis all season.

SPEAKER_01 (27:06):
100%.
I don't here's the thing.
I don't care anymore.
I I just want to see CarterSmith in full fledged.
If I let him loose in a do ordie game, what does he do for
me?
That's what I want to know.
That's what I need.
That's all I need to know.

SPEAKER_00 (27:18):
And the other thing too is if you don't let him let
him go let loose, we reallydon't know what we have in him
right now as a passingquarterback.
So then what do you have to doin the offseason?
You almost have to bring inanother quarterback or two.
I mean, you're gonna have toanyway for backups, but that
changes the mindset.
Are you gonna be looking morefor you know a potential starter
or competition for Carter Smithin the portal, or are you

(27:40):
looking for depth?
Because you know Carter Smith'sthe guy.
Like, this is I think you gottalet him just let it rip, and so
you have an idea of what youhave going into next season.
I mean, granted, yes, they knowwhat they're gonna have from
practices and stuff like that,but like that's nothing compared
to like game snaps, real lifesnaps.

SPEAKER_01 (27:55):
They told me Braden Smith or not Brayden Smith,
Brayden Locke and uh don't saythat name.
They said him and Tyler Van Dykewere comparable coming out of
camp.
And I watched Tyler Van Dyke andhe wasn't great, but Bray's
Brayden Locke was not great atall.

SPEAKER_00 (28:08):
So like that just shows the level of quarterback
play they have, right?

SPEAKER_01 (28:12):
But that just shows that practice doesn't mean
anything.
Like you got to see it in agame, like you're saying.
And I mean, like you said,Carter Smith, we don't know what
he's got yet, but we could wecould start to get a picture.
We saw Brayden Locke, and that'swhat I was gonna say, make a
couple good throws down thefield, and we saw that out of
him a couple times.
Now it wasn't great after that,but we saw a couple good throws.

(28:32):
We want to see it on aconsistent level, and that's
what I think you want to see inthis game.
Get a guy like Vinny Anthonyinvolved, get Trekkicahuna
involved because he wasfantastic in that game.
I mean, my goodness, when youget him in opening.

SPEAKER_00 (28:46):
Did you see that one play in the red zone when Carter
Smith was rolling out and he wasjust he ran like a post out to
the corner just under the flagand he's just wide open?
Carter Smith missed on him.
It's like this dude has had afew of those plays this year
where he's wide open and thequarterback doesn't see him or
doesn't get him the ball.
He's got even so frustrated.

SPEAKER_01 (29:03):
Well, with Carter Smith, I just wonder if it's
like they're they got thetraining wheels on yet, and he
doesn't know if he's supposed tomake that throw.
This is where I pop the trainingwheels off and let him fall.
If he falls, he falls.
That's it's like a kid when youlet him out on the first time on
or me right now, because I'veridden a bike in so long, I'd
probably fall down too.
You let me go down the driveway,and when I tip over, that's
okay.

(29:23):
You tip me back up, we keepgoing.
That's what we want to see,Carter Smith on, and that's what
we're hoping for here.
So we got to hit a break.
We're gonna come back, we'regonna talk a little badger
basketball, men's basketball onthe backside of the ad break.
We'll be right back.
I'm your host, Trage, as we comeback here on this Wednesday.
And hey, this next segment here,we're talking badger hoops.

(29:44):
This next segment is brought toyou by Casa M.
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(30:05):
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So Christian is back here.

(30:26):
We're gonna talk a little badgerhoops.
We were talking at the breakwhen we were there, and he was
talking about his kid andgetting him to sit down and
watch some YouTube TV to watch alittle basketball there.
And we're like, oh, YouTube TVhas got the multi-view.
I was like, you blow his mindwith the four.
And he's like, yeah, he'dprobably, you know, lose his
interest really fast becauseit'd be overstimulating.
So we're talking about it.

(30:47):
How do you constructively watchfour games at one time?
So, Christian, how do you do it?
Like, if you were to explain tosomebody, because I always my
wife always asks me, she's like,How do you watch four basketball
games at the same time?
And I'm like, you have to, youhave to like pick the best spot
and avoid looking at the otherones.
You have to pick the one in thebest spot at the most crucial

(31:09):
point in each half and portionof the game.
What I mean, what do you tellpeople when they're like, How do
you watch four games at once?

SPEAKER_00 (31:16):
I'm not gonna man, I struggle with it anyway, as is,
because I like I told you, I sitand watch, I'm like, or like I
my eyes get drawn to like, likeyou said, the like most
important part of each game orwhatever, but then all of a
sudden I feel like I'm stillhearing the other game.
So it throws me off.
And I don't want to have to sitthere with my remote and like
move it around just so I cankeep hearing, you know,
whatever.
But I mean, yeah, I guess justkind of let your eyes kind of

(31:36):
wander.
Sometimes I'll even turn thevolume down a little bit just so
I can like focus a little more.
And then it's just like, okay,like you said, oh, is which
game's closer?
I'm gonna go to that one.
What always time winding down atthe half or you know, end of the
game?
I'm probably gonna get drawn tothat one, right?
But but again, you also need abig TV to do it too, so you're
not trying to watch because,like you said, if you're on like
a smaller TV and then you splitinto four screens, all of a

(31:58):
sudden it's like hard to see,right?
Like I have you also you alsoneed a big TV.

SPEAKER_01 (32:03):
Yeah, it's gotta be like 65 plus.
It's gotta be 65 plus becausethen then it's like you got four
like 42-inch TVs in a square,otherwise, it's like I got my
phone screen up there when yougot a 42-inch TV, and then that
just yeah, it's a disaster whenyou do it like that.
So we gotta talk some badgerhoops here, but before that, we
gotta hit our Casa M.

(32:24):
Spice bold player of the week.
So, Christian, who do you gotfor me?
Who is your Casa M.
Spice bold player of the week?

SPEAKER_00 (32:32):
All right, I'm just gonna go, I'm gonna stick with
the badger theme just because,but I'm gonna go Daryl Peterson.
The dude finally showed up.
Like he was I don't know wherehe's been the last three years.
Well, like you said, three and ahalf years.
He waited until the last likethree games to start going off.
He's got I don't know how manysacks now in the last three
games, but it's two and a half,three per game.
Like that guy, him.

SPEAKER_01 (32:54):
Yeah, I like that Daryl Peterson.
I like that.
There we go.
I like that one there.
I'm gonna have to go with giveme Isaiah McDuffie.
Give me Isaiah McDuffie.
Walker in that game, leads theteam in tackles, has a big
interception late in that game,has a half a sack.

(33:14):
He was fantastic.
He was all over the field, hewas big time in the Packers'
dominant defense, second halfdefensive performance that we
saw against the Vikings.
So I'm gonna have to give it toIsaiah McDuffie.
I know there's a boatload ofguys on that defense.
You can give it to MicahParsons, everybody in between.
Emmanuel Wilson had a huge game,but by Isaiah McDuffie has to be

(33:35):
my bold player of the week forthe way he stepped up in that
game for the Green Bay Packers.
So let's talk about a team thatdidn't really step up for us
here this last week, and thatwas on Friday, the weird tip
time behind a screen of$17 amonth for Peacock and a purple

(33:55):
court.
We saw the Badgers take on BYU.
Purple court.

unknown (34:00):
Purple court.

SPEAKER_01 (34:01):
That was just terrible.
That was just an idea.

SPEAKER_00 (34:03):
Well, the NBA game that, you know, whatever the NBA
game.

SPEAKER_01 (34:06):
Yeah, well, then host it at BYU.
I don't want to play at thispoint.
I know.
Why do we have a neutral sitegame that's basically at BYU?
That doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_00 (34:13):
Like, if you're gonna have a neutral game,
that's why Wisconsin's hostingsome games at Ficeer this year,
right?

SPEAKER_01 (34:18):
It's like, yeah, well, it doesn't even count as
neutral site at that point.
It's like it's in Milwaukee,it's right down the road.
Like it doesn't count as neutralsite.
You're gonna call it neutralsite, but it's really not.
I'm just like uh watching thisgame start, and I know you were
you were heading up to thecabin, so you weren't even able
to tune into the whole thing.
You saw the highlights and sawthe box score and everything
like that.

SPEAKER_00 (34:36):
But I listened to it.

SPEAKER_01 (34:39):
It was good, there was moments, and then it got
ugly fast.
And I'm gonna say the biggestthing that I had, I guess, in
this game, the the bad one of mybiggest bad takeaways was the
response of this team.
Because we talk about all thetime, we talk about teams.
How do they get punched in themouth?
How do they how do they battleback?
They didn't battle back, theythey actually got worse, they

(35:00):
actually got more aggressive andin not very smart ways.
They started reaching, theystarted doing these these little
things in this one.
They they got beat many, manystarted panicking a little bit.
Yep, started panicking, and thenyou saw the foul trouble.
And once they got into foultrouble, that's where BYU was
like, All right, here we go.
We got them now.
Just keep going.
When Roadie got into foultrouble, and then you had Boyd

(35:22):
get into foul trouble, and youhad Blackwell.
And I know none of them shotthat well in the night.
Besides, but I mean Boyd got tothe he got to the rim a lot, so
that I mean made him look alittle bit better.
But from beyond the arc, lookbad.
There was not a whole lot ofgood that came out of this game
outside of a lot of learninglessons.
You learned a lot about thisteam in this game.

(35:42):
I'm gonna say the biggest thingthat I had was that I don't
think the bench is as deep aswhat we thought it was because
the second that Hayden Jones gotin the game, BYU's bench started
screaming, go get him, and thenthey took the ball for him and
scored it.
That makes you a little nervousbecause he's a young guy, he's a

(36:03):
young, young guard yet.
But a team like BYU, they'reexperienced, they're gonna get
after you.
So my worry now is that okay,you go to the bench, that's
fine.
But I don't think it's as deepas okay, we need to run as deep
as Hayden Jones.
Will Garlic, maybe Bielkauskis,definitely.
Jack Janicki, yep, BrandonCarrington had a fantastic game.

(36:24):
So, yes.
But outside of that, I I don'tknow if you need to run any
deeper.
I mean, what were yourimpressions, your first
impressions watching thehighlights, seeing some of this
game here?
What was your first impressionscoming off of this one?

SPEAKER_00 (36:36):
Well, I mean, just kind of like what you were
saying, too.
Like it seems like they had alittle bit of a comeback, and
then uh DYU would drop anothereight, ten points in a row, and
then you know, it kind of seemslike they can't keep up with
them, you know.
And like they like you said,maybe I felt like they had some
that's I know that's the offensenow, but I felt like they had a
lot of really fast shots, likesome really quick shots in the

(36:58):
shot clock, like got the ballbefore, shot a three quick.
It's like, well, and I don'tknow.
Again, I'm not seeing it, so Idon't know how open they were.
I mean, I know what the offensesaid if you got an open three,
like this is a team full of guyswho should be able to shoot, you
shoot the three, right?
But a lot of it kind of seemedmaybe a little rushed, like they
started kind of getting a littlebit of a deficit, and then they
started panicking a little bit,so they're like starting to like

(37:19):
try to you know get all thepoints back quickly rather than
chipping away at it and justplaying smart defense, and you
know what I mean.
I also don't think they hadanyone that could have stuck
with you know what is his name,Dive Master or whatever.
I don't think they had anyonethat could stay with that guy,
and then that other dude thatRichie whatever.
Richie Saunders.
Oh, that guy killed us in theNCAA tournament last year,

(37:39):
killed us again this year.
I think we just we reallystruggle with like aggressive
teams, physically aggressive orjust like uh constantly
attacking the hoop aggressive.
I think they kind of depend onuh other teams that used to just
like they'll just sit outsideand just you know shoot threes
and you know whatever.
But like I don't know.
That's what that's the thingthat killed us at BYU last year

(38:01):
against BYU last year is likethey were just so they're
athletic and aggressive, and Ijust don't think we could really
match that.
And I was now they're onlybetter this year.

SPEAKER_01 (38:10):
Yep.
No, and yeah, it'd be crazy tothink, but if you go back,
listen to the podcast, go backon the podcast.
I said this before they wentinto this game.
I said, you cannot get into arun and gun match with this team
because there is too much talenton BYU, and they want you to go
down and shoot it fast becausethen you get out of sorts and
they can push the ball and theycan score in transition.

(38:32):
And what did the Wisconsin do?
They played right into BYU'shands, shots weren't falling,
they kept forcing them from theoutside, they couldn't get back
on defense.
What happened?
BYU just had a heyday, they wenton a 16-4 run, and then they
went on this kind of run.
You can't you can't battle backfrom that if you're Wisconsin,
especially if the shots aren'tfalling from the outside, as we

(38:53):
saw in this one.
I said it going in.
I said you watch the gameagainst UConn, BYU over helps,
they're going to allow a lot ofthrees.
The question was going to be canyou knock them down?

SPEAKER_00 (39:03):
They couldn't.

SPEAKER_01 (39:04):
Seven for 29.
And on a perfect day, they fall.
But when you have a guy likeAustin Rapp, what did he come in
for?
He's a good three-point shooter.
Oh for five.
He was zeros across the board onthe stats, basically.

SPEAKER_00 (39:15):
Yeah, he struggled.
He had a bad room.

SPEAKER_01 (39:18):
Yep, two free throws.
That's it.
Two free throws.
Outside of that, I mean, therewas not a whole lot of good to
write home about when you talkabout shooting behind the arc.
Your main three, Roadie,Blackwell, and Boyd, all go two
for twelve, I think that is twofor twelve there combined.
That's ugly.
Your one guy, no one winter, allfor five.
So you go from the starters, thestarters in that game, two made

(39:41):
threes in total, and they shotmore than two.
Like it was it was not a goodperformance.
So, all in all, my biggestconcern, and I kind of said this
in weeks past this team findingan offense when the threes
aren't falling.
Because it's been like this, andI'm gonna go back to last year,
too.
I thought it was last year too.

(40:02):
They fell in love with thethree, and when it was fallen,
it was great, it was magical.
But when it wasn't falling, itbecame a big question mark:
where are they gonna find theoffense?
Okay, John Tanjay, can you drivethe lane?
Can you get to the free throwline?
Can we win it with free throws?
Sometimes, but in a game likethis, they didn't shoot the free
throw well either.

(40:22):
17 for 26.
Now, I'm not gonna say thatmaking you know 80% of that was
going to put them right back inthis game, but it looks a heck
of a lot better, it keeps it aheck of a lot closer.
So that definitely didn't helpwas the free throw line.
But all in all, I mean, yeah,and that's that's where
Diabontis scored a lot of hispoints right off the bat was at
the free throw line.
11 for 12.
I mean, he got in foul trouble.

(40:42):
They they allowed him to get tothe line, but that was the
defense that was letting him getby him, that was transition
buckets trying to get stops intransition.
So those were the worries, thosewere the worries I have.
Your defense gave up 1.27 pointsper possession.
That's rough.
I don't want to say because BYUis a really good team.
There's a lot of NBA talent onthis team, there's a lot of

(41:03):
talent for G League, whateveryou want to say.
There's a lot of talent on thisteam.
But this is a team that you'regoing to have to beat if you
want to get to where you want tobe.
And I'm watching Michigan rightnow.
I've watched Michigan State atthis point, I've seen Illinois
at this point, I've seen Purdueat this point.
Now, I'm not gonna say thoseteams are all you know gonna

(41:24):
beat by BYU, but I think theycould.
I think they really I think theyprobably beat by BYU.
So you're going to have to facethere's just four right there.
If you want to be in the topfour in the Big Ten, you got to
beat one of them.

SPEAKER_00 (41:36):
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (41:37):
This was a measuring stick.
Now, the question now is what doyou show us against Providence?
That's where we're at.
What do you show us againstProvidence?
Because we saw the ugly, andthere was some good.
I don't want to say there wasn'tsome good, right?
We had Nolan Winter, 14 uhpoints, 14 rebounds, double
double.
And I thought, okay, let's goright there.

(41:57):
Let's just look at the good fora second here before we get to
Providence and looking ahead.
The good between BradenCarrington and Nolan Winter.
I thought Nolan Winter showed mea lot because he proved to me in
that game and proved to all ofus that he can bang with some
really good bigs.
That's what I wanted to see.
You know, we had this questionmark like can did Nolan Winter

(42:19):
progress inside?
Is he is he developing inside?
I thought in this game we sawit.
Four, he had 10 points in thepaint there, not an efficient
five for 11, but you have somegood shot blockers there, but
you had 14 rebounds.
You banged around some bigs.
You you battled down there wheneverything else was failing
around you, you battled.
Now it's a question of can weget the ball at the Nolan Winter

(42:40):
a little bit more down there atthe post and make things happen.
He's leaving some things shortright now.
That's kind of the strugglethere.
So, and it's finishing at therim.
Austin Rap finished at the rim,man.
And we watched the wide openlaneup, missed it.

SPEAKER_00 (42:51):
And that's I think for him, that's like the big
difference in competition.
I mean, the first four games, hehasn't been like lights out by
any means, but he's been solid,double-digit points, you know.
But right now, all of a sudden,like to get ready for the Big
Ten, now you're playing Big 12,you're playing the number nine
team in the country, or youknow, whatever they were.
You know, it's like this isn'tthe West Coast conference

(43:11):
anymore, you're whatever it is.
You're not in Portland State.

SPEAKER_01 (43:14):
You're right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (43:15):
You're in the big you're the big boys now, right?
So, like just I think that wasprobably a huge you know
learning opportunity for him.
I think he's got to get thatfigured out.
I think he I don't think he'llbe that bad all year.
I think he'll figure it out andbe at least serviceable.
But again, he's only asophomore, so he's got some time
yet, too.
But um I think he'll get settledand he'll be a lot better off

(43:39):
moving forward.
But again, that's why they wantto play these games.
They want to play uh BYUProvidence, potentially Florida
or TCU.
Um, and then who else do wehave?
Like Marquette's obviously onthere.
Yep.
These are one more, I thinkthere's one more pretty good
game on there, isn't there?

SPEAKER_01 (43:53):
Ah, Villanova is mixed in Villanova.

SPEAKER_00 (43:56):
Oh, there's Villanova.
And I mean, they're they'redown, they're not the same
Villanova, but still Villanova,you know.
I mean, I think it's they'rebetter than Campbell or you
know, Southern, you know,Northern Illinois.
So I think that's they have athey have a this is why they had
such a good non-conferenceschedule, so they get ready for
their conference schedule.

SPEAKER_01 (44:15):
And like we talked about going into this game, you
almost wish that you had aProvidence game or something
before this BYU game, somethingto get you ready because, like
you said, you went from like anAustin rap, you went from
playing at Portland, PortlandState, whatever, whatever,
Portland State, to now you'replaying in the Big Ten, but your
first four games aren't againstreally great competition.

(44:35):
And now you go play some of thebest competition you're gonna
see all season.

SPEAKER_00 (44:39):
It was a really big step.

SPEAKER_01 (44:40):
That's a big jump.
That's a big jump, and you'regonna see that, and you hope
that he develops.
So that's some of the things.
So let's look ahead toProvidence real quick before we
got to hit a break.
Some of the things I want to seeagainst Providence.
Find an offensive rhythm.
I don't think they found anoffensive rhythm.
I still think they're trying tofind that, you know, that uh
mesh between this team rightnow, kind of that, you know, I'm
feeling that, you know, becausewe see some good passes.
We see, like, oh, I'm feelingthis guy's gonna be here.

(45:02):
We got to see this team start toflow.
I don't think we've seen a greatoffensive flow.
I think we've seen them play badteams and find it.
So I think we got to see anoffensive rhythm be established
here against Providence.
Defense has got to start toimprove.
I don't care what it is.
I think we've seen it.
I we kind of talked about it inthose first four games.
It wasn't like they were gettingtested, but we saw some
performances where we even cameout often and said, ah, the

(45:25):
defense, the defense, and we'relike, okay, but they put up 90,
so it's okay.
You're not gonna always be ableto put up 90.
You gotta find ways to win a 70to 68 game if you have to,
because the offense isn't therethat night.
Are you gonna be able to dothat?
Because when March comes around,you got to be able to put
defensive performances together.
Will this team be able to startto make strides through that?
It's not gonna happen overnight,but I want to see this team

(45:46):
start to improve defensively,and I think that'll happen with
the mesh when they start to growtogether.
You have the size and length,use it.
This is a team with so muchsize, so much length, right?
They they have the ability, Ithink, to go with Florida
because they have Austin Rapp,Nolan Winter, Bielakowskis, and
Will Garlic.
They have size, they havelength, they have that
disruption that you can have inthe post area.

(46:07):
Utilize that size, put your backto the basket, bang around on
the boards, bang around in thepaint area, do those things, the
dirty things down low.
This big, the big guys gottathey gotta play like big guys.
I don't need them to step out onthe arc all the time.
I need them to be able to workback to the basket, down low, be
able to establish the post areabecause when you can work inside
out, kick out the shooters, whenthose shooters don't have to

(46:28):
create.
I tell you what, JohnBlackwell's a great shot
creator, but he's even a betterspot up shooter.
Uh, Aaron Andrew Roddy, greatspot up shooter.
Nick Boyd, great spot upshooter.
If you can work it inside,demand a post presence, demand a
double, like we saw many timeswith big Steve Crowell last
year, and he can kick to thecorner or wherever it was.
That's what you want to see.
So I gotta see that.
Austin Rapp has got to show mesomething in this game here.

(46:50):
He's got to show me something.
Otherwise, there is no reasonwhy I'm not looking at a guy
like Belakowskis to even say,hey, maybe I'll give you some
run every once in a while.
I don't know, maybe a little bitmore run.
Because Austin Rapp so farhasn't proved to me anything of
being the big guy that I needhim to be.
And I gotta see, and that's thisis right there.
I have to see some physicalityand some toughness out of this

(47:12):
team.
I gotta see some because what wesaw in that second half from
Wisconsin, they got it back toseven, down to seven there, and
then it was just done.
And you just saw it was likethat's it.
That was a problem with themental toughness of this team
and being able to overcome theadversity, right?
To be able to come back from thethe whatever that was that we
watched in that first half.

(47:33):
I just I didn't feel it.
I didn't feel it in that one.
I didn't feel that they had themental toughness in that one to
be able to come back on theroad.
It was just that kind ofenvironment for them.
I gotta see that in this one.
You're gonna have a very toughtournament.
You have Providence here comingup, you gotta be able to win
that one, and then probablyFlorida, I would assume.
So it's gonna be a very good twogames for you there.
I gotta see the mental toughnessand the physicality from this

(47:55):
team.
What are some of the things youwant to see there down against
Providence?

SPEAKER_00 (47:58):
I mean, a lot of the same stuff, right?
Like, I want to see defense.
I feel like that their defensehasn't even been great this
year.
Um, their offense is covered fora lot of that.
But again, so like when we'renot at the coal center, so a
neutral site definitely againstProvidence right now.
Are the shots gonna fall?
If not, where's the where's thescoring gonna come from?
Obviously, you think a lot ofit's gonna be Nick Boyd getting

(48:20):
to the hoop, right?
But I mean a lot of his game toois once teams start collapsing
in on him, once he's does that,he's got to kick it out, got to
hit threes again, right?
Um, I think I want to see a lotof like more like earlier in the
season, I saw a lot of two-mangame with rap and winter, like a
little high low there, and thatworked out really well.
I feel like that I didn't seeany of that against or hear
about any of that against BYU.

(48:41):
So I want to see that.
Um, but yeah, I thinkdefensively is the big thing I
want to see.
Like getting, I mean, I thinkhow many did they give up give
up a bunch of offensive reboundsagainst BYU?

SPEAKER_01 (48:52):
Um, yeah, it was offensive.
Richie Saunders was all over theground.

SPEAKER_00 (48:56):
There it is.
Like, so don't get out hustled,right?
Stuff like that.
And then if things aren't goinghow you want them to go, how how
do you respond?
Are you gonna get punched in theface and just stay down, or are
you gonna fight your way back,right?
And I don't think I like yousaid, I don't think they did
that against BYU at all, fromthe sounds of it.
So, I mean, against BYU andProvidence are gonna be two very

(49:16):
different teams, but doesn'tmean that BYU or Providence
can't take it to you too.
If they saw by what BYU did, whywouldn't they try to do it,
right?

SPEAKER_01 (49:24):
Right.
You got to see a response,right?
That's what we're kind oftalking about here.
Is you didn't see the responsein that game, but now it's about
how do you respond next gamebecause you're gonna have this
Providence game, and then it'show you respond a day later
because you don't have a big dayoff, right?
You have to hit it the next day.
So you have this is a big test.
I think this is a big test now.
You have Providence and then youhave Florida.
Don't look ahead to Florida,take care of your business with

(49:46):
Providence, then you worry aboutFlorida TCU.
You don't worry about that untilyou get there, and then you have
uh a lot of tough games, likeyou were just talking about
before.
I don't care what anybody says,Marquette will always be a good
game.
It doesn't matter what happens,it'll always be a good game.
You have Northwestern, theyalways play the Badgers tough.
You have Nebraska, they alwaysplay the Badgers tough.
And if you're not, I mean, thisschedule, I know Villanova is

(50:09):
not the greatest thing in theworld, but this schedule, if you
look ahead too far, you're gonnafall back and you're gonna get
knocked out.
So this is where right now yougot to start picking up some
wins here because once Big Tenplay starts, goodness, it's
gonna start to get crazy realfast.
A lot of ranked games, a lot ofranked teams, a lot of really
good teams.
Don't and I just want to end iton this.

(50:29):
Don't be alarmed that Wisconsindropped out of the top 25.
Because this season, betweenhaving to play, and I'm just
gonna, I mean, you can just lookat the schedule right now, and I
can mention that Purdue isranked number one, UCLA is
ranked number 18 right now,Michigan's number seven,
Indiana's number 25, Illinois'number 13, Michigan State's
number 11.
You want to talk about that'sall on Wisconsin's schedule

(50:51):
right there.
And that's not saying thatOregon couldn't jump, jump into
the top 25, or a team likeMaryland or Iowa, who's supposed
to be on the up and ups thisyear.
There is so much movement thatis gonna happen from now until
these games happen.
Don't even look to those games.
Stay right, stay in the path.
It's fine.
They dropped that top 25.
It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 (51:10):
They'll be fine, they'll work their way back into
it.

SPEAKER_01 (51:12):
Exactly.
It's fine.
We just trust, we just if LukeFickle can figure it out.
Greg Guard, you know what hedid?
You know what he did?
Luke Fickle took off that stupidteam vest.
And Greg Guard, he didn't wear asuit and tie to that game
against BYU.
So you know why they lost?
He had a jump suit.
Because he wasn't wearing a suitand you're the problem, Greg.
You're the problem.

SPEAKER_00 (51:30):
He wasn't wearing his suit and tie.

SPEAKER_01 (51:32):
No, it was a crap.
That's why it was a crap show.
I'm telling you.
I'm telling you, he screwed it.

SPEAKER_00 (51:37):
He better suit up the rest of the season.

SPEAKER_01 (51:39):
If he doesn't, I'm going out to Madison, and I'm
gonna be the one reporter downthere who's gonna be like, hey,
Greg, just what's up with theclub?

SPEAKER_00 (51:45):
We saw it, man.
It works for fickle.
Take off the team vest.
Why'd you wear a jumpsuit, man?

SPEAKER_01 (51:50):
Yeah, it's like they went in reverse.
He's like, homie, I'll just go.
That's wild to me.

SPEAKER_00 (51:52):
That is not Bo Ryan like at all.

SPEAKER_01 (51:54):
No, we need to call Bo.
We need to be like, hey, Bo, youneed to call Greg and chew him a
new one.
So, Christian, I gotta run here.
Thank you as always.
Let the people know we're gonnafind you out there across social
media.

SPEAKER_00 (52:06):
As always, find me at Christian Borman and find all
the stuff I'm doing at uh theBadger Backer.

SPEAKER_01 (52:11):
Make sure you guys are checking them out.
Fantastic stuff there.
A lot of badger talk.
He's got recruiting next week.
Huge week in recruiting nextweek.
So we're gonna get into thatnext week, the early signing
period.
We're gonna talk about that withChristian here on the show.
We got Badger Hoops full fledgedcoming up here third
Thanksgiving Day againstProvidence.
So make sure you guys arechecking that one out.
We're gonna talk about that onenext week here on the show.

(52:32):
So thank you guys, Christian,for stopping by.
We're gonna be back here afterthe quick commercial break.
We're gonna wrap up our numberone.
Look ahead to our number two.
We'll be right back here.
I'm your host, Trage, as we wrapup our number one here and look
ahead to our number two.
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(52:54):
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So in our number two, Ummer'sgonna stop by right off the bat.
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And then after that, Kyle'sgonna stop by.
We have some Bucks talk to getto yet tonight here.
We have some NFL talk to getinto.
Thanksgiving talk to get into.

(53:16):
We have our mellow yellow minuteand everything in between.
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(53:37):
So we'll be right back here.
Homer's gonna stop by.
We're gonna talk some packers.
We'll be back here on thebackside of the sad break.