Yankees' Beardless Era, Brewers Spring Training Preview, and Badgers' Basketball vs Oregon – Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trag - Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Wisconsin Sports On the Go with Trage,
your place for all thingsWisconsin Sports.
Now your host, trage, doingeverybody.

(00:25):
And welcome into wisconsinsports on the go with trage.
I'm your host, trage.
It's been a hot minute.
It has been a hot minute sincewe've been live.
I know, you know we got.
We're on the radio now, 92.3wosq.
Make sure you're checking thatout.
On wednesdays at 7 pm we're onthere.
But we just haven't had thetime to get live.
I was sick the past couple days.
I was thinking about going liveand I was like, oh crap, I, you
know I got six or throat,everything like that, still
feeling under the weather today.

(00:46):
But hey, we're here, I want totalk, we I.
There's a whole bunch of stuffhappening and I was like I can't
miss for this long.
I got to get back and talksports.
Aaron wanted to be here.
He's under the weather too.
I don't know if you couldtransmit, you know, sickness
through a computer, but aaron'ssick, I'm sick.
It's like maybe, maybe werubbed off on each other.
Kyle, I'm sorry if I rub off onyou tonight here, sorry about

(01:06):
that one.
He's giving the computer virusthere, but I got kyle with me
tonight.
Kyle how we doing.
It's friday night weekends here.
How we doing yeah, I'm good.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
You know been been a few weeks since I've been on um.
I think a lot has happenedsince then.
But you know, I'm definitelyglad to you know, be on here and
talk about you, feel like youknow super bowl over.
It's kind of a slow period,it's really not.
There's still a lot going on.
So you know, let's go ahead andget into it it's my favorite

(01:36):
time of year.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
It is baseball's back .
I mean we're talking aboutspring training.
I mean I already started, butthe brewers don't start until
tomorrow.
So like I really don't care upuntil tomorrow, but baseball is
back.
March is almost here.
The madness has almost started.
We got college basketball atthe Wazoo.
The Badgers are Kyle.
I don't know, we talked aboutthe Badgers.
It's been a while since you andme have talked about the
Badgers.
But this Wisconsin Badger teamis wow, just wow.

(02:00):
I mean the way the offensivelythey are lighting up the world
right now.
It is absolutely insane.
So love to see that they're outof the Badgers.
But we want to start with aninteresting one today the
Yankees.
You know it's kind of out ofour realm, but Devin Williams
right, devin Williams heads outto the Yankees and I don't know
if he looked like crap withoutfacial hair and that's why they

(02:21):
did this or what.
But the facial hair policy isgonna go away.
They went through years whereyou had to have, you know, no
beard, nothing.
You couldn't have facial hairat all.
I don't know if it was thewhole mustache thing or what.
They just they didn't feel likea beard looked good.
I don't, I thought it did.
You know matt carpenter, whenhe went out there and he didn't
have the beard, I was like whois this guy right?
And alex verdugo looked like hewas 12 when he shaved off there

(02:44):
.
Devin williams does look rough.
I.
I don't like devin williamswithout a beard there.
Um, he said that he hasn't beenclean, clean, shaven for six
years.
That's what devin williams said.
It's like james harden, right,if james harden was on the
yankees.
I remember when they he hadthat shaved beard when they
showed him with the look withthe shaved beard that was.
That was bad that was bad like.
There are some things thatyou're not meant to see in life.

(03:06):
James harden, without a beard,was one of them.
Devin williams, without a beard, is the second one.
I don't know, maybe he won'tblow playoff games if he's got a
clean, shaven face.
Just maybe, just maybe I don'tknow.
You know for yankees sake Ihope he does.
But I mean, kyle, this is rightin your division, this is right
in your division, this is rightin your backyard there in.
Boston A Red Sox fan there.
What do you think about theYankees?
This feels like this is wayoverdue, like why did it take

(03:30):
40-some years for the Yankees togo?
Everybody else is good with itaren't we Like?
I don't know what do you think?

Speaker 2 (03:38):
I mean, look, the first thing was waking up and
seeing that they had like anofficial statement for this.
I thought it was hilarious,because normally when you see an
official statement it's likesomebody big got fired official
statement, they acquiredsomebody big, official statement
.
But the fact that you'returning back on a policy which

(04:01):
was kind of done to begin withbecause Johnny Damon was also a
guy, had a beard went to theYankees, it's just like you
weren't winning anything thepast like 25 years with a little
shorter than that, but it'sbeen a while since you've won
anything.
I guess maybe they're justtrying to switch it up to fix
that and hope that now guys willbe themselves with their facial

(04:25):
hair and maybe they'll playlooser in the playoffs and
hopefully they win.
Uh, that that world seriestitle that they've been chasing
for a while, uh, yeah, like Isaw it.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I saw it on the bottom ticker and I was just
like the biggest non-story thatI needed today was to know that
the yankees aren't doing thebeard thing anymore this was
yankee news like this is whatyou needed, yeah, what you
needed right here on the yankees, I just thought, you know
they're still gonna have thepolicy it's got to be clean.
Though it's got to be clean.
You can't yeah, you can't befrizzly, you can't, you know,

(04:56):
walk out there looking rough,yet it's still got to kind of
clean up.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
You can't do the hockey beard right, right, so
right.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
So I mean I guess I guess good for the Yankees, good
for Yankees, good for Yankeeplayers.
Now I wonder can you AaronJudge?
I wonder if he can grow a beard.
I'd be interested in AaronJudge with a beard Like.
He looks like a lumberjackright now.
Give him a beard, right.
Maybe that's the key right forplayoffs.

(05:24):
Maybe don't drop a ball on theoutfield if you got a beer.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
I don't know.
I mean that play just killedYankee fans all over the place.
Oh, that whole inning Iremember watching the live feed
of them in the stadium.
When it happened they were justlike oh, that's the end of the
ending or something.
It's like wait what?
And then it just went downhillfrom there.
I watched it on TV, loved everysecond of it, but you know, oh,

(05:49):
that is.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
It's still living in their heads, rent-free at this
point, like that whole inningwas just a disaster after
disaster, after disaster, andthen, yeah, well, we see what
happens there the Dodgers winthe.
World Series, which is not goodfor anybody anyways.
Right, because the Dodgers winthe World Series, which is not
good for anybody anyways.
Right, because the Dodgers wedon't want the Dodgers to win
the World Series.
Well, I'm sick of baseball forthe simple fact of the payroll

(06:10):
and everything like that,because there was a quote the
other day and a lot of peopleout there and you can take this
quote any way you wanted to takeit, but it was misinterpreted,
it wasn't put out there right.
So what?
What I saw and this is what Isaw originally was the quote
from mark annanacio, and markannanacio essentially said that

(06:35):
the brewer what is what was?
It was what was his job?
Right?
And he said his job was was itto win a world series or was it
to put fans into the seats?
Was it to give families a goodenvironment to go to?
Essentially is what he said,and it was blown out of context.

(06:55):
So I have it right here.
My goal from an ownershipstandpoint is always to compete.
I don't like to talk about usbeing a small market.
We've certainly not played likea small market Since 2005,.
We have the fourth most wins inthe National League.
That was part of his job there,part of his quote, but the
quote that everybody's mad about.
I got it pulled up now, is myjob to win a World Series or is

(07:18):
my job to provide a summer ofentertainment and passion and a
way for families to cometogether?
So that's the quote that wastaken by us today, usa today,
and ran with right I think itwas, by some guy named, uh
something, nightingale was hisname.
Uh, let's, yeah something,nightingale.
Bob nightingale was the guy'sname there and he took it, ran
with it.
Good, okay, that's what he tookand ran and, oh my goodness,

(07:39):
brewer fans, radio hosts,everything just exploded.
The world was blowing up.
It was done Like everybody'sfreaking out about what Mark
Ananasio had to say and he wasnot entirely misquoted, right,
because he said that he didstate that in his presser or in
this interview that he had.
But that was only two lines.

(08:01):
There's the rest of it, right.
And he went on and he talkedabout the Dodgers and what the
Dodgers are able to do and whathe's not able to do and being a
small market team.
And you know he went on to talkabout we don't have financial
ability to bring in superstars.
We try to hold on to whatever.
Whatever we can there, you knowbringing it, you know having
guys like Jackson Churio anddifferent things, right?

(08:21):
So this thing went way longer,right?
So everybody's freaking out.
And then mike and anasio cameout and he said he was entirely
misquoted.
I was sitting in the room.
He said the goal is always towin a world series, but it's
also important, as a steward ofthe franchise, to provide a
summer of passion and excitementfor the fans so you don't lose
generations of fans like someteams do when you have a long

(08:43):
rebuild.
We always want to becompetitive to avoid that.
Very frustrating to see whatthe writer posted, which
completely was not in the spiritof the comments that were made.
So that's essentially what Mikehad to say.
I believe, and this is what I'mgoing to say Mark Ananasio
wants to win a World Series.
Anybody out there who believesthat Mark Ananasio doesn't want

(09:04):
to win a world series isabsolutely out of their mind I
don't understand how you couldsit there and go wow, this
brewer's owner does not want towant to win a world series.
If you had, if you were likethe a's owner doesn't sure I
believe you like if you asked methat I'd say the a's do not
want to win a world series.
Like watching them, seeing thecrap that's going on out there.
I would believe that marquetteanasio does what he can, right,

(09:25):
but this is the thing that Idon't understand.
So everybody's freaking out.
The brewers have made anoff-season move, right.
Brewers have made a move.
They have made a move.
Right.
Where's the brewers?
Glaring weakness, third base,right?
Okay, alex bregman signs withyour red socks, right?
Kyle got alex bregman out there.
Three years, 120 milliondollars, 60 mil deferred to the
back end of that deal.
The Brewers weren't going tocompete with that.

(09:48):
They weren't throwing that down.
You strap yourself up.
You don't have money to spend.
So this is what I realisticallywant to ask Brewer fans If
you're in the comments tonight,I'd love to hear what you got to
say.
What were you going to go get?
That would have excited you,right, yohan Mankata.
I was a big guy for YoanMankata.
I said let's go get him.
Let's see what he does.

(10:08):
Would he have been thedifference maker?
That would have made you go,wow, like whoa, mark Ananasu is
doing something.
No, paul DeYoung.
Paul DeYoung, was he going tobe the difference maker?
No, right, you were going tobring in guys.
They were going to be guys,right, but they weren't going to
be superstars.
You can't afford the superstars.
Juan Soto, you might have beenin the trade, right?

(10:31):
I don't believe for one second.
Mark Ananasio did not call.
It's not even Mark Ananasio,right, it's Matt Arnold.
Matt Arnold did not call andsay, hey, alex Bregman, what do
you want?
You want to come to milwaukee?
I don't believe for one secondthat the brewers aren't barking
up trees.
They want these guys, right,they want to compete.
Look at, look what they've doneover the years with having a

(10:53):
small payroll.
They've won the nl central,they've been to the nlcs,
they've been bounced in theplayoffs now a couple years
straight.
Right, but we can look back onthem and say, man, that all-star
closer that everybody'sfreaking out about that.
We just lost to the yankees andtraded away.
He blew it against the mats,josh hater, as much as it.

(11:15):
I hated that deal at the timeand I thought it screwed that
season over.
Josh hater was on the tail endof it when the Brewers traded
him.
David Stern saw that.
I believe that he saw it.
He saw what was happening withJosh Hader and he made that deal
and honestly, looking back onit now I don't know how we freak
out about that deal anymore,because we got Estrella Ruiz and

(11:37):
guess what?
We flipped him for WilliamContreras.
We screwed the Braves becausethey have sean murphy now.
We traded one guy and ended upwith the one of the best
catchers, if not the bestcatcher in all of baseball.
So yes, I will say it marcananasio's cheap.
I know that he doesn't flip alot of money into this

(11:59):
organization, but brewers arenot very high up on the TV
rights deals, right.
The Dodgers they get a lot ofdeals, japanese everything they
get a lot of deals for TV rights.
The Brewers don't.
We just got FanDuel back andFanDuel doesn't give you that
much money, right?
So they don't get much revenuethere.
Now my question is if MarkAnanasio is making this money

(12:23):
right, maybe he's making like 20million a year.
Do you want him to stick 20million into players or do you
want him sticking intodevelopmental leagues, right,
where they go down into theseforeign countries and they
develop guys, do you want tostick them into academies?
Do you want to stick them intoexperience, or would you rather
have them sticking in the team?
What do you want?
Right, because you have to.

(12:45):
As an owner, you have to weighall these little things.
It doesn't just, it doesn'tjust happen, you have to.
There's more financial thingsthat happen just outside of a
payroll.
Everybody's like let's justload up the payroll, right,
let's keep slapping it down.
What are you going to do with20 mil?
Right, you might be able to adda couple pictures here and
there, but are you going toreally add difference makers who
are going to blow the worldopen?
I don't think so.

(13:06):
I really don't.
I don't think you're going toadd the difference makers that
you think you're going to add.
And when you sit here and youjust grumble about it, it's like
the brewers are one of the mostconsistent franchises right now
in the national league andmaybe it comes to bite one year.
Right, maybe this is the yearthat the pieces just don't align
.
Right, because they've exceededexpectations the past couple
years.
Maybe they don't this year, butfrom what he's been able to do

(13:31):
build the young talent, see whatthe young talent can do.
What is the point of tylerblack and all these third base
prospects if we keep justbringing in third baseman and
just stop?
You know, stop gates.
Just bring him in, bring him inone year deal, one year deal,
one-year deal.
What's the point of him?
Let's see what Tyler Black cando.
If he can't do it, well, let'strade him away, let's find a
piece, right?
This isn't saying that theBrewers still can't go out and

(13:52):
make a move.
They can't make a trade, theycan't do something, they can't
swing anything.
This, I'm at the point whereit's like this is what the
Brewers are going to do and wehave to accept it, right?
So, aaron, I said Aaron, see, Iknew I was going to do it.
I knew I was going to do it.
Kyle, what are your thoughts?
I mean you hear that MarkAnanasio quote and I mean you

(14:13):
hear that basically misquote,taken out of context.
I mean, what are your thoughtson the Brewers Baseball?
Because I honestly think it's aDodger problem.
I think it's a Met problem, Ithink it's a baseball problem
that they don't have a salarycap or a salary floor in place
there.
What are your thoughts rightnow on this landscape, what the

(14:33):
Brewers have going on MarkInanasio and what baseball is at
right now in a whole?

Speaker 2 (14:38):
I mean, yeah, I feel, like for any front office
person, like there's more.
I mean I guess fans don't wantto hear but there's more that
goes into it than just spendingmoney and putting together a
team that's supposed to win itall, because you actually have
to worry about the fanexperience and everything like
that.
But in terms of, like you know,brewers and teams like them,

(15:03):
like the Brewers aren't so smallmarket that they're like the
white socks or something andactually the white socks are a
big market in chicago but I mean, like the, the rays to take the
race rays are like a legitsmall market team yeah they
don't get a lot of fans, whichis why their stadium isn't like
state of the art and they haveto be creative with the way that

(15:24):
they build their team and lookthrough that.
They've managed to stay relevantmost years when a lot of people
would just write them off.
So if milwaukee can sit hereand you know they spend money
but they don't spend on thedodger level, which nobody does
they may not spend on a Yankeelevel, which very few do, or on

(15:44):
a Red Sox level, but if you canspend the money correctly and
wisely and develop guys indouble-A and single-A correctly,
you don't have to have thebiggest payroll to win in
baseball.
It's just that it may put youin a tougher position with a
slimmer margin of error Because,like, if you're the Dodgers and

(16:07):
you let's say you like lostMookie Betts or something for a
couple of weeks, the Dodgershave the ability to swap him out
for another guy who wouldprobably start a lot of other
teams.
So I do agree with you that theDodgers are becoming a problem
and I think it's whether or notbaseball actually looks at it

(16:30):
that way, Because there issomething to say for a league
where everybody just hates thatone team and they try to do
everything they can to beat thatone team, on the hopes that if
you beat them, maybe you slowlybreak them up, Like it used to
be.
You know you built your team tobeat the Yankees in October.
Now it's like you build yourteam to beat, you know, whoever

(16:54):
like the Braves or one of theseteams that consistently are
there, consistently have a goodteam and I think Milwaukee is a
team like you said.
You look at the last few years.
Despite maybe not spending asmuch as fans may want, they've
been in the conversation yeahand you know, for baseball maybe
more so than other sports it'slike just get in and you have a

(17:19):
chance.
We've seen plenty of wild cardteams now get to the world
series.
So it's all about spending yourmoney correctly and wisely, not
just throwing money at a bunchof guys and then going oh we
spent the most, we're going towin Because Yankees have a top
three payroll for a lot of years.
Somehow they don't win.

(17:39):
Because, they're not spending itnecessarily in the right places
on the right types of guys.
For October baseball Like upuntil October baseball is much
different.
You get to October yourpitching staff more magnified,
situational play plays a biggerrole, which is kind of two of
the areas where the Yankees havekind of fallen short.

(18:00):
So but yeah, if I was a Brewersfan I'd be like kind of like
what we're doing right now, yougot young guys who are showing
out and you just have to hopethat one year you kind of break
through, because I mean, it'snot a guarantee that the Dodgers
will be there in the end justbecause they spent way more than

(18:20):
everybody.
They still have to playtogether 162 games and actually
play well enough.
So, yeah, the quote.
Yeah, like we know this day andage, if you can pull the juicy
part of a quote out and makethat the focal point that drives

(18:41):
traffic to your site, which iswhat a lot of people want to
look at.
So then, once you get on, thesite is up to you to either,
like, read the full article andget the full context of it, or
just read the headline, make adecision and go crazy.
So I'm not necessarily mad atthese reporters, who may phrase
it a certain way, to kind ofbuild some, I guess, interest

(19:05):
amongst their viewers or readers, because that's technically
what they're supposed to do.
Yeah, from what you read.
I didn't see anything terribleabout what he said.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
No and you don't.
If you took out of that quotethat you think that Mark
Ananasio does not want to win aWorld Series, he doesn't care
about winning a World Series, hejust cares about the money
aspect, I don't.
I don't believe that for onesecond.
I think Marc Ananasios is outthere to win a World Series.
I just think in the landscapethat baseball is currently at
right now, it makes it hard tospend money.

(19:36):
It does.
The Brewers payroll, I saw, isexpected to be like 116 mil for
the year so far, with all thecontracts and everything off of.
I mean they got I believe theyhave some contracts still on
from like last year, somedeferred contracts.
I think they still got to pay.
Like, oh, who do they got topay?
Yet I think they have.
Gary Sanchez is still on thereFrankie Montes, wade, miley,

(19:59):
colin, ray, devin, williams,montes and Junis.
I mean they still got theWilliams and Cortez trade.
I believe they have money onthat too.
They they ended up swappingmoney.
So I mean they have money stilltied up in a lot of different
places too.
So we we look at the payroll isjust what players are getting
paid, right, but you still havecontracts on top of that, I
still think that they owe, ifI'm not mistaken, and I think

(20:21):
they owe like lorenzo king yetor something, and they owe ryan
braun.
Mean, there's still.
You've got to remember that MLBteams, the payroll is not just
what the players are right now,it's, you know, outside of the
players, who do we owe money fora buyout from last year?
Who do we owe money for thisfor, you know, and everything
like that.
So you know, estimated payrollversus total is two different
things there.

(20:43):
John's in the comments Nice,what did john?
John's in the comments nice tosee you, john.
Uh, watch brewers make a splashnext year at first base and
sign vlad jr would definitelymove the needle, I agree.
I think I'd move the needle ifthey went and traded for him
this year, just said screw it.
I said screw it and went forhim.
But the question is at thispoint, what do you do with him?
Because you got reese hoskins?
It's like if you you have aright-handed first baseman, what
does a right-handed firstbaseman do for him?

(21:04):
I don't know, you know.
So we'll see.
I would not be opposed to thatmove whatsoever, john.
John, stick around.
We've got to talk Oregon laterhere, badgers-oregon coming up
tomorrow.
We've got to talk about this.
Make sure you're stickingaround.
We did have one across thetext-in line from the 650 there.
Maybe no more punching wallswithout a beard For De, for

(21:28):
devin williams some good stuffthere.
Good stuff, I mean for yankeesfans.
They hope, they hope right, nomore punching walls out there.
So great stuff there.
Marco danasio, I mean love them, hate them, love the brewers,
hate the brewers, whatever youwant to do, but I don't believe
for one second this guy isn'tout there to try and win the
brewers of world series.
He's gonna probably try and doit the cheapest way possible.
That's what you got to believeat this point.
He's going to try and do it thecheapest way possible there.
So in other contract news we didsee the badgers extend luke

(21:54):
fickle for a year and I saw itwas kind of like a formality,
like it's a.
It's a standard one yearextension that they do at the
conclusion of the season and soit's odd, like this is just kind
of formality.
This is what they do.
I don't understand why it's aformality, but from what I've
seen, that's what it is.
So Luke Fickle gets anotheryear.

(22:15):
He's getting extended through2032.
Now I don't know how Badgerfans feel about that one.
There's a lot of Badger fanswho don't uh, don't like that
deal.
To begin with.
He's got a lot of moneyguaranteed, I believe, and now
to add, add another year?
I do, uh, I don't know, let'ssee.

(22:37):
Let's see.
I got here's some comments.
Anytime you can extend fickle,who is 13 and 13, 8 and 10
conference and whom no one istrying to hire away, you simply
have to do it.
H&m's first ADs remain thebiggest mismatch in sports.
Yeah, okay, so that's a commentfor the college football
watcher.
Ryan Hickey said Luke Fickle isa good coach, but the reasoning

(22:59):
from Wisconsin for extendinghis contract is Looney Tunes.
Nobody in Madison would callthe first losing season since
2001 satisfactory performance.
That's what they said.
So I do see he quoted it here.
The move announced after a briefclosed session at the end of
the board's regular februarymeeting was all but a formality.
Fickle's contract says anannual one-year extension

(23:23):
requires satisfactoryperformance by fickle as judged
by the athletic trackers,recommendation and approval by
the athletic board.
I, chris mcintosh might getfired off of this if he counts
that as satisfactory.
That'd be like me going to myjob next week and just pitching
a tent and just sitting in acorner, like that's basically

(23:44):
the same thing as luke fickledoing his job right now.
So I mean Chris McIntoshgetting fired, and so is Luke
Fickle.
You're pretty darn smart.
Wow, okay, satisfactory.
I want to know what's notsatisfactory to Wisconsin.
If a craptastic season like theBadgers just had and like Ryan
Hickey said, they're the firstlosing season since 2001.

(24:06):
If that was satisfactory,satisfactory what is not?
Because our spectrums are twodifferent things.
If that was, I'm going, 500 islike good enough, like we're
still rebuilding.
500 is good enough.
I want you 500.
You lost some crap teams alongthe way.
Luke, like I don't know, that's, that's bad, that's bad.

(24:28):
Uh, let's see here, john sayshe ain't worth the almost eight
mil a year.
I would agree, I would athousand percent agree with you,
john, there.
Uh, I believe most of that isguaranteed money on his contract
too, and that's that's whereI'm saying right now.
This I don't know.
That is the dumbest thing I'veever seen.
Is when they said it wassatisfactory.
This guy, cameron Soren, onTwitter, said Luke Fickle's

(24:50):
agent is out here working magic.
It's like Kirk Cousins.
That's what I'm saying.
Luke Fickle's agent is likeKirk Cousins' agent.
That's my tweet.
Nobody steal that when we haveto run down here.
I'm tweeting that out becausethis is exhausting.
Here we go.
Brad powers.
Getting a seven-year extensionis by far fickle's biggest win

(25:12):
at wisconsin.
So there we go.
He got his biggest win so farat wisconsin.
Um, let's see here jordan lovebeliever still he's got any
quotes there still, okay, uh,this is absurd.
What is fickle done to deservean extension outside of wearing
a cool vest?
That's true, he just got theteam vest there.
Uh, louis vacher says this onecomes as a surprise to me.

(25:34):
At 13 and 13, I thought ficklewould be coaching for his job
this year.
Instead, wisconsin extends them.
Yeah, yeah, I would agree withthat.
So the comments just keep ongoing.
There's not a lot of bad fanshappy with this one here.
Um, I thought so too, to behonest with you.
I, you know they.
They told me like two years agohey, I gotta give him a year,

(25:56):
right.
So I gave him last year.
Last year it didn't look better.
I was like this year's the yearwhere I gotta put his seat on a
burner.
Like he is on a burner now, andnow we give him this extension.
I, I just don't know.
Like, the recruiting classesare good, right, he's been
having great recruiting classesand he's been getting guys in
his guys, but it hasn'ttranspired to anything.

(26:19):
So he fires phil longo.
Now we'll see.
Maybe phil longo was the problem.
I don't know, maybe it was theproblem with the offense.
They bring in a new uhoffensive coordinator there,
grimes.
Maybe that fixes the problem.
I don't know, maybe it was theproblem with the offense.
They bring in a new offensivecoordinator there, grimes.
Maybe that fixes the problem.
We can hope so.
But if it doesn't right, ifGrimes stinks and Trestle's
defense still stinks, then whatDo we just keep firing offensive

(26:41):
coordinators and defensivecoordinators before we say, hmm,
maybe there's another problemin the room, maybe it's the head
man, maybe it's the guy makingthe calls, I don't know.
Like I'm at that point rightnow.
I don't know.
Kyle, what do you think?

Speaker 2 (26:53):
I mean you're on the outside looking into this Badger
situation, but Luke Fickledefinitely has not done anything
to impress anybody in thecollege football world Outside
of maybe analysts or something,who are like, ah, he's still
doing a good job Outside of that, fans are not impressed.
Yeah, and look, it isinteresting that, being a 500

(27:16):
coach in that conference,knowing the competition that's
in there, that you get aone-year extension to just kind
of extend out your deal a year.
I feel like there's two thingsthat have to be at work here.
It's either in their mind theygo, if we replace Luke Fickle,
we're not going to get anybodybetter than Luke, so we might as

(27:38):
well keep him.
Or they think, because of howrecruiting has gone, do they
think this puts pressure onFickle to do better on the
sideline and withdecision-making on the staff?
And all that Because if you'reWisconsin, are you going to be

(27:58):
better than Ohio State?
Maybe not.
Are you going to be better thanOregon, who knows?
But if you can positionyourself to get into the playoff
, maybe you could go on an OhioState-like run.
Because Ryan Day we talkedabout.
Look, all last year was aboutRyan Day going to get fired at

(28:19):
the end of the season.
Can't win the big one, can'tmake the playoff.
They make the playoff, they getit done.
And now Ryan Day has extendedhis time at Ohio State, you feel
like.
So maybe that's the hope for alot of these schools.
It's like we hired this guy whowe thought was really good.
We still think they're reallygood, but the team is

(28:42):
underachieving and they'rewilling to give him a chance to
to turn it around and show sometype of improvement I'm just
hoping we don't finish in likethe bottom 10 of the big.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah, like that's kind of where I'm at at this
point here like middle of thepack at this point in the big 10
for the badgers would be ablessing in disguise.
Now he does have a lot of youngguys coming in carter smith,
young, you know.
So you have a lot of young guys.
It's a question of nowadays inthe college football world can
you retain guys right?
It's not just you know who canI recruit, it's after I recruit
them, will they stay, will theyallow me to develop them, or are

(29:19):
they going to run off?
Are they going to go to anoregon or an ohio state or
somebody else who's better orwell I shouldn't say't say
better, but in better position,because they have more money,
have more players, et cetera.
So we'll wait and see.
We'll see what kind of happensthere with the Badgers.
But Luke Fickle gets thatextension I forgot to mention
they did come out with thelineup card for the Brewers

(29:41):
opening game against the Redstomorrow.
So Terang is going to lead offsecond base.
Churrio is going to be in leftfield.
He's batting second.
Contreras at DH.
Mitchell is going to bat fourthand center field Bowers is at
first base batting fifth.
Ortiz playing shortstop.
Frelick in right field, hassidcatching tomorrow and then
Durbin, the new guy, calebDurbin will be playing third

(30:03):
base for the Brewers there.
So I mean interesting stuffthere, interesting stuff, and
then it looks like some of theyou know subs that they're going
to have Monasterio will bealong.
Heron Adams, luis Lara I'mexcited to see him.
He's definitely a greatoutfield prospect for the
Brewers.
Excited to see him.
Ernesto Martinez Jr You're usedto that name there.

(30:25):
He's been in the Brewer systemfor a while now here and he's
going to be down there.
So hopefully maybe you knoweverybody's freaking out about
first base Maybe Ernesto getsthat little nod there after
spring training.
We'll wait and see on him.
Capra is also going to be downthere, and then the rest of the
guys I could name off.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah, that's basically spring training.
Right there.
They are right there, you guys,and then you're hoping a couple
of guys wearing 60, 70, right?

Speaker 1 (30:53):
guys, you, and then get a better number for the
regular season.
That's what I found out aboutbrewer hicklin last year.
I was like brewer hicklin isthe definition of a brewer like
that.
I was hoping, like this guygets a spot there.
Uh, christian yelich, thoughhe's not playing tomorrow, is
expected to be ready for openingday, so that's good news there.
And then, like I talked aboutwith Woodruff the other day,
he's pitching.
He's throwing the live hitters,the fastball sitting at 92

(31:13):
right now.
He threw his whole repertoireof pitches there, so he's
working through it.
Hopefully get him back feelingbetter and great soon.
That'd be awesome.
That'd be awesome.
Get him back into that rotationthere.
So lots of good stuff.
Uh, nestor cortez, I believe,is not.

(31:33):
He won't be pitching tomorrow.
It's like who the heck ispitching?
Rodriguez is starting for thebrewers and then they're gonna
have spain wood.
Uh, guillarte is gonna be there.
It's just random guys, right.
So after rodriguez is a bunchof random guys.
But that's what you want.
That's what you want to see.
Some of these young the brewersdo great working with young
pitchers, developing guys,developing veterans who have
been kind of beat up over theyears.
So we'll wait and see.
Maybe some of these guys we seein spring here tomorrow will be
on the opening day roster whothe heck knows?

(31:54):
Who the heck knows at thispoint with the Milwaukee Brewers
, right, right, I completelyagree.
I completely agree.
So one more I want to get tothis before we get to the
Badgers and Oregon.
I wanted to talk about the BobbyPortis situation because it
stinks for Brewer fans.
I'm not Brewer fans, I'm justtalking about the Brewers.

(32:16):
I'm like Brewer fanstechnically right.
Bucs fans, right.
Because Giannis Dame both kindof banged up going into the
All-Star break, we get him back.
Bobby was playing before it,now Bobby's out.
We get Giannis and Dane back.
So you still don't have thefull cast of characters, right?
Because Bobby Portis is one ofthe best bench players in all of
the NBA.
So now you don't have one ofthe best bench players in the

(32:37):
NBA, so he's out.
He's that guy who comes in.
You don't notice what he doesuntil he's not there, right?
And you get Kyle Kuzma, andKuzma's been playing.
I mean, I did not expect this,kyle.
I'm going to be honest with you.
Kyle Kuzma's playing fantastic,like tonight here against the
Wizards.
He's got 19 points for the Bucs, 8 for 18 from the floor.

(32:58):
He's still not efficient, right, because the efficiency you're
like oh, 8 for 18 is not bad,right, it's not terrible, but
you'd want to see betterefficiency.
He's not there completely but Istill 19 points.
I take that.
I take that night that likethat's chris middleton what he
was contributing there.
So I like with kyle kuzma anddefensively, honestly, kyle

(33:20):
kuzma has been pretty gooddefensively for the box, like I
don't know.
You know you don't really putput defense and NBA in the same
sentence and throw it out there,but defensively Kyle Kuzma's
been pretty darn good.
Jericho Sims has been gettingmore run time now that Bobby's
been out.
I like Jericho Sims.
I liked him at Texas.
He's an athletic guy, can getafter it defensively.
I like him in the lineup.

(33:42):
They're just a more athleticguy behind Brooke Lopez there,
more athletic guy behind BrookeLopez there.
But I mean, all in all, bucswinning this game right now,
102-101.
Now, son of a gun, as I say,it's getting tight here against
the Wizards.
But I mean, what are wethinking about this Bobby Portis
situation?
He was, I can't.
I was trying to find the drugthere that he used.

(34:03):
Do you remember Tramadol?
Tramadol was what it was Treatsevere pain in adults is what
they said.
Um, according to representativefrom priority sports.
He said I am devastated forbobby right now because he made
an honest mistake and theramifications of it are
incredibly significant.

(34:24):
Um, bobby unintentionally tooka pain medication called
tramadol, thinking he was takinga pain medication called
toradol.
Toradol is an approved painmedication that he used
previously and that teams andplayers use for pain and
inflammation at times.
Um, and it goes on and on andwhatever you know, he had elbow
injury and stuff and that's whyhe took it.
Um, but this is going to be myquestion.

(34:46):
So the nba wants to have abetter league, right, and what's
going to make a better leagueis to keep your players on the
floor, right.
So I understand that he tookthis drug.
I do, I do but it's notsteroids.
Steroids longer lasting effect,right they're going to get you
jacked.
They're going to make you feelgreat for a while.
Right, you're hitting bombs,you're're a beating up guy,

(35:07):
whatever, right, this is just apain medication and honestly and
this is going to be my honestopinion, and I get he broke a
rule, right, you break rules,you get the ramifications, I get
that.
But for this I'd have been likeall right, bobby, you got to
get drug tested every singlenight this next week and we're

(35:27):
going to test you and if youtest positive again, you're done
Right, but it's a painmedication, right?
I mean, he took it for pain.
If he doesn't test positive forit again and he ends up
switching back to this otherstuff, and it's you know, good,
good to go, bobby, you're goodto go.
Go get them Right.

(35:49):
25 games just to me.
I and it like, don't get mewrong, I'm, I'm all for.
You know, a guy broke the rules.
You know, do your thing.
But at the same time I'm likethis was just he was trying to
play, like he was trying to,just, you know, get out there
and play.
You guys have a problem rightnow in the nba with guys not
wanting to play if this wasjoelle and bead.
If this was kaw Kawhi Leonard,those dudes wouldn't have played
.
They just sat on the bench andsat at home.

(36:09):
But you're going to penalizeBobby Portis because he took a
pain medication just to try andget out there and play.
Now he took the wrong one.
Was it an honest mistake?
Or was that just a ploy, likethey always say?
Like, oh, it was an honestmistake, right, you never know.
Right, bobby could have knownwhat he was taking.
But at the same time, it's likeokay, suspend him for a week

(36:29):
and then drug test him everysingle day and as long as he
doesn't test positive for itagain, you're good to go, go get
it.
We're gonna test you for anotherweek, right?
Or we're gonna have sporadic orrandom, you know drug testing,
right, and if we catch you again, bam, you're suspended for 25
games.
25 games for a you know a painmedication.
I I don't know what are yourthoughts on I.

(36:52):
I I don't like it just becauseit's a pain medication, like yes
, it's against the rules, but atthe same time, all he's doing
it for is to try and play in aleague where we have a problem
with guys who don't want to play, like it's just.
It seems like we're pulling twonarratives here right now.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, I feel like this is the same thing with the
steroids era.
You had some guys who tookstuff and people didn't actually
know what it was, but it wasperformance enhancing.
It was just like an umbrellaterm and looking at the Bobby
Porter stuff, it's like what hetook was like an opiate I don't
know what the league is lookingat it as Opiates being easy to

(37:30):
be addicted to and all this kindof stuff, and that gets real
tricky.
I mean, I can see what you'resaying.
25 games seems like a lot,especially when you have like
what, 30?
I think he's out to like thelast four games or something
like that.
Yeah, you're basically missingthe whole season and you're a

(37:51):
Bucs team that's fighting to bea top-four seed, hoping to maybe
move up a little bit.
It's definitely a big blow foryou.
But look, maybe this issomething where now you lean on
Kuzma a little bit more and,like you said, I think he's
doing well.
For me it was like if Kuzmacould be 18, 8, 5, I think it's

(38:16):
worth it for Milwaukee.
And I know, like I said, youdidn't like the trade to begin
with.
I feel like they traded for himhoping to get the Kuzma that
was in LA.
I feel like they traded for himhoping to get the Kuzma that
was in LA that showed that hecould be a rotation guy.
And you're hoping that himplaying off of Dame and Giannis

(38:41):
helps him to create mismatches,take some guys off the dribble
and doing all that.
So I think the Kuzma move isgoing to look better the deeper
we go into the season here.
But the Portis loss is going tobe important because I feel
like the Bucs are a team thatnecessarily wasn't all that deep
to begin with, especiallyknowing who Doc likes to play in

(39:05):
key situations.
Now you're taking somebody thatDoc wanted to rely on out of
the equation?
Where does he turn in terms ofa replacement?
Does it force his hand to playmaybe a young guy?
Does he change the lineup a bitto?
You know, like Giannis atcenter and you go like crazy
small with I don't know like.

(39:26):
I feel like you could do somethings.
But Portis is a, he's acontributor, if there's anything
you want to say.
He's a guy who comes off thebench.
He can score for you.
He brings physicality to thefloor, because Portis is a guy
who doesn't necessarily take alot of mess on the court.

(39:49):
He's not afraid to get mixed upwith guys on certain teams.
As Jory says, still don't trustKuzma.
Yep, yep, like.
The one thing he can only sayfor now is like, is Kuzma going
to do this in the playoffs?
It's well and good that he'sdoing it in the regular season,
but playoffs, when you're in aseven-game series with a Knicks

(40:10):
or a Celtics you know one ofthose teams it's like you're
going to need Kuzma to be arounda 20-point per game, 7'8
rebound type of guy, a guy whocan run the floor.
He needs to be able to knockdown.
You know perimeter shots.
When he has them, whether it'soff of like Dame penetration or
Giannis kickout, like that's allKuzma really has to do.

(40:38):
Knock down shots when you getthem, run the floor and create
easy uh opportunities foryourself.
Yep, I think he's down to agood start.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
He's got to show it uh consistently over the second
half of the season, for sureyeah, no, I would agree, and I
think it's going to be for now,a lot more jericho sims and
we're going to see him a lotmore than what we thought.
Offensively he doesn't reallygive you anything like.
He's not an offensive guydefensively.
That's where he's gonna be andhe's just gonna be a guy who's a
presence.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
That's about it, that's high flyer that's about
all you get out of them.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Uh, let's see here.
John did say I could see themdropping from fifth to eighth
with possibly six man of theyear out until April 8th their
fourth, last game of the regularseason there.
Yeah, they played theTimberwolves there.
When Bobby comes back, like yousaid, I think it's going to
test the Bucs.
I think it's going to test thedepth that they have.
Sometimes that's a good thing,right, you get to find out what

(41:31):
guys have.
Or maybe a guy gets to play alittle bit more and he shows you
something.
Maybe guys have, or maybe a guygets to play a little bit more
and he shows you something.
Maybe we see, like you said,some of the younger guys a
little bit more, who knows right, but it could be beneficial.
It could also screw the box andseating.
We don't know right, butsometimes it's just make it in
and see what happens.
So as long as you get in that'swhat you got to worry about is
being in a good position whenbobby portis does come back on
the back side of it there.

(41:52):
So I mean we'll wait and seethere.
I don't know you.
You mentioned somethinginteresting there about the uh,
about the opioids and if it wasaddictive or not, and that's why
they would suspend him.
I just wonder, in that 25 gamesuspension, do they test them
during that too, like becauseotherwise he could just be doing
it the whole time, like hecould just be popping pills the
whole time.
Nobody's testing him, he's notplaying, who cares, right, I

(42:14):
don't know?
Just uh, that's an interestingthing I thought I took from uh
which that's a good point.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Maybe they test him before he comes back, just to
make sure that he's not comingback yeah on the same stuff and
then you're like, well, we'regonna have to suspend him again.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
Well, do they test every day?
Like how does it work there?
Like was this just a randomdrug test that he had where he
just didn't pass?
At this time it seems odd.
It seems odd that Bobby Portiswas the one that's hit, but
you're telling me nobody else.
It's always the random guy.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
That's going to be the NBA's fear that Bobby.
Portis is just the first guy ina long line of players secretly
taking this, and they're notcatching it Exactly.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Go test LeBron every once in a while and see what
he's got going on.
Like you know, you never hearstar players.
It's always just a random guys,right, even with this whole
betting, like ring andeverything that was happening,
like it was just a random guys,like they were nothing to the
league and like, oh yeah, we'llsuspend them.
But it's like, do you ever lookat the other guys, like for a
second?
Just maybe, just maybe.
So I don't know, we'll see.

(43:19):
We'll see what happens.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
But Bobby, you know I love Bobby, but hopefully, but
even like to John's point aboutthe Bucs possibly slipping.
That's where this is alsointeresting, because I think
John said he sees them goinglike from fifth to eighth season
.
Going like from fifth to eighth, you have the pistons.
You're in a play-in game.

(43:40):
Now right, because you have thepistons like a game behind them
.
Now, depending on how much youtrust the pistons, in a position
they've never been in, now,getting to that part of the
calendar where games mean evenmore, can the pistons hold on
and potentially move past theBucs.
You have Orlando, who finallygot Ben Carroll back not too
long ago.

(44:00):
So there's a chance thatthey're going to start playing a
little bit better.
And they're only like two gameswell, I think, like three games
behind the Bucs.
So the Bucs can't necessarilysit here and go through like a
two-week stretch where theyreally struggle because they
could wake up one day and findthemselves seventh or even
eighth.
Well, eighth, they're the Heat.

(44:21):
I think the Heat has so manyproblems right now that the Bucs
don't have to worry about them.
But yeah if they fell out of theplayoffs and into the play-in.
That now creates a couple extragames you have to play.
It's already a veteran group.
I mean you did bring in Simsand Kuzma who are a little bit
younger, but the guys that Docrelies on are all veteran guys.

(44:43):
You don't want to necessarilyadd games to their schedule with
a play-in tournament to getinto the playoffs.
So for the Bucs, you've got totry to stay in the top six.
Bobby Portis comes back likethe last few games of the season
.
But in the top six, bobbyPortis comes back like the last
few games of the season.
You can now get him worked backin and kind of hit the ground
running in the playoffs,depending on who you play.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
Yeah, no, I would agree.
It's going to be interesting tosee what happens there.
Jory did say when youabsolutely need him is when I go
Trust him.
You don't need him late in game.
To be honest, like Dame's mycloser, dame and Giannis are my
closers.
Like I need Kuz, like you saidall game long, to give me 20.
Like just to be that roleplayer all game long.

(45:25):
When it gets late in the game,I go to Dame, I go to Giannis.
That's where it goes.
Like that's just how it is.
That's how it is it's going tobe.
Kuz has just got to be what youwere hoping Chris Middleton was
going to be and that's just,he's got to be a reliable.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
Yep, a guy to come along According to Jory's point,
he has to be a reliable numberthree.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
He can't give you a Torian Prince-type performance
where it's like six, eightpoints, he's out there.
It depends on the night rightWith him it's like one night, he
hits like six and it's sixthrees and it's like what is
going on?

Speaker 1 (45:58):
And the next night he's completely irrelevant to
the offense there, same with,like AJ Green.
He's the same way.
Aj Green's there for one nightand then all of a sudden it's
like gives you nothing andthere's no production.
So I agree Like he's got to bea reliable third, but late in
the game it's like that's, Idon't need him as much.

(46:19):
Late in the game, I need him tobe at 20 points a game.
I don't need him to be my lategame score, I guess, is what I'm
trying to say there.
What does John say there?
If Bucs possibly fall out, doesPortis save Rivers' job?
Possibly, possibly.
You know.
What I saw interesting was onthe buck schedule.

(46:39):
You're mentioning the pistonsthere.
Bobby portis comes back onapril 8th against timberwolves.
They have two games against thepistons to end the season back
to back.
So could be at that point forlike the six or the five,
whatever it is there, I mean theschedule for the bucks you
mentioned.
Like you know, the heat aren'tvery, uh, very much of a threat.
You don't think, but you havethe Heat on there.

(47:01):
You have Houston, denver,dallas twice Atlanta, orlando,
cleveland, pacers twice Lakers.
I mean they've got some toughgames.
They have some tough games toend in here, a lot of playoff
teams to end the season here.
So we'll see what the Bucs doseason here.
So we'll see what the bucks do.
I mean we'll see what the bucksdo there, uh, to end the season.
Maybe they get hot, maybe theygo on a run.
Maybe the bucks are betterbetter, get better for it, right

(47:24):
without bobby.
Maybe it makes this bucks teamtry to win games in different
ways.
It makes kyle kuzma step up,makes him, you know, turn into
that guy that was out in la.
Who knows right, that's.
That's kind of some of thecraziness that you see in
basketball.
Sometimes guys just turn it onand that's what you get there.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
So is this what the standing's like yep to?
To get to third.
They're kind of like sevengames back, so they're kind of
looking at this as if ourceiling is fourth, with
everything going well.
Now your path looks likepossibly like a Pacers first

(48:00):
round, Cavs second round, andyou avoid the Celtics until the
conference finals.
Or if you stuck at six, thenit's like Knicks first round,
potentially Celtics second round, to then get to the Cavs in the
conference finals.
So for them it's like seedingis going to be important because

(48:21):
the Celtics have shown that's ateam that kind of is a thorn in
their side.
But these other teams, ifyou're the Bucs, you're like
yeah, the Cavs are the one seed,but we'll take our chances
because the Cavs have a lot toprove in the playoffs as well.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Well, the Cavs have a lot to prove in the playoffs as
well.
Well, the Cavs are the onesthat can blow us out.
So for some reason we playclose with the Celtics.
We don't beat the Celtics, wejust lose by five.
Like that's just how it goes,we just lose by five there.
So I got to be honest with you.
I would not if the Bucs droppedout.
I would not want to see thisBucs team Giannis and Dame and

(48:59):
Kuz if he's feeling it and theyjust got Bobby and the reason
why they were struggling becauseno Bobby, and then Bobby comes
back and he's feeling it again.
I would not want to see thatteam, not at all.
But I wish the Bucs would haveknown this was going to happen,
because then maybe we could havemade a trade and got some young
guys and just kind of rebuiltinstead of trying to go.
You know what's the move we canmake to go all in.
We've been like let's sit pat.

(49:19):
Let's sit pat for a year andsee what happens there.
So I mean, we'll see.
Yeah, I agree, you know it'sgoing to be interesting to see
how these standings kind of workout there.
You know, the Pacers are only ahalf game up too.
So the who knows with theKnicks.
I mean the Knicks couldfluctuate there a little bit too
, and the Bucs could go on a run.
I mean we've seen crazier thingshappen before that Bucs team

(49:40):
back in, you know, when they wonthe finals there.
I mean they had PJ Tucker inthat too, and Middleton was
going off.
But I mean, outside of that,you take Dave, you take Giannis
and Kuz starts playing.
Well, I three-headed monster,you got brooke lopez still along
for the ride.
I.
I mean, what tells you?
What tells you it couldn't get,couldn't get wild there for the
box.
So we'll see what happens.
Bucks do get the win, thoughthey did get the win over the

(50:02):
wizards there.
I believe it was 104 to 101 wasthe final there.
Chris middleton playing for thewashington wizards, that's
still.
I still feel bad for that poorson of a gun.
He had 12 points.
I still feel bad.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
How motivated is he going to?
How motivated will he be inabout a month's time, playing in
Washington knowing full wellthey're not going anywhere?
No, they may end up sitting himbecause they don't want to win
for draft picks.
So it's just like, yeah, youfeel bad for him and, you know,
hopefully maybe he can find away out of there somehow and get
back to a contender to havesomething to actually play for,

(50:42):
because washington is not goingto be contending any time soon
who do you feel worse for?

Speaker 1 (50:47):
jordan pool or chris meddleton?
Like jordan pool came from theright after the warriors won the
finals basically, and then theyjust flip him like he's just
gone.
And then Chris Middleton I meanI feel bad for Chris Jordan
Poole's kind of eek.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
He's kind of all bent and heck kind of thing with him
.
Yeah, rudy Poole became like ahead case and that's kind of
what happened, like Middletonwas rehabbing, came back and
then it was like oh, guess what,we're kind of flipping you, sir
.
You're going to go play withthe Wizards.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Have fun in Washington.
You're going to play with oneof the worst teams in the NBA.
You get to go from us to theworst team.
Congratulations, buddy.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Go eat the crab cakes .
We hear they're pretty good,but other than that I don't know
, got nothing for you, oh God.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
nothing for you, oh god.
Well, at least the pressure'soff, right, the pressure's off
chris middleton, you go outthere and just ball out.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Maybe he's a little bit and somebody goes out and
gets him yeah, no, I would agree.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
I would agree 100 there.
So I want to get to the badgers.
John wants to get to thebadgers because he wants to talk
about this oregon team, so thebadgers just wanted to mention
it before we get to it.
Greg guard is now up for coachof the year.
Is that not great to hear?
Is that?
It is well deserved?
I I don't understand why ittook so long, this long, for us
to.
You know, throw him into the uh, into the conversation.

(52:07):
I gotta be honest with you.
I don't think that john shireshould win coach of the year.
He's coaching duke.
They have cooper flag, theyhave con canupo.
They have some of the bestrecruits in all of basketball.
Why should he be up for coachof the year?
Bruce pearl, he's returningessentially the.
I love bruce pearl.
I love bruce pearl.
He's returning essentially hisentire auburn team from last

(52:28):
year and one of the players ofthe year in janai brew.
Like good for you.
Greg guard's team was picked tofinish 12th in the Big Ten, 12th
in all of the Big Ten.
They weren't even a thought forthe NCAA tournament.
They weren't even a thought forthe Big Ten.
If Michigan State beatsMichigan tonight here, which

(52:48):
they're winning right now 62-53here with 7.20 to go.
Here they're playing inMichigan.
Both of those teams now havethree losses in the Big Ten.
If and this is I'm throwing alot of ifs at you If Michigan
State and Michigan play one moretime and it's going to be at
the Breslin Center in MichiganState If Michigan State wins

(53:10):
that game, michigan now has fourlosses.
If the Badgers beat MichiganState they have one game against
Michigan State they would havefour losses.
If the Badgers beat MichiganState they have one game against
Michigan State they would havefour losses and they'd be tied,
with all of that madness, forthat first place spot.
And that's not to mention.
That's not to mention.
That's not even all the games,like I'm just mentioning
Michigan State, wisconsin andMichigan all playing each other

(53:30):
in some way shape or form.
Michigan still has to playMaryland.
They still have a game againstMaryland.
They still play Illinois.
They still play Rutgers.
They still have Nebraska inthere.
They still play good teams.
Michigan State, outside of justhaving to play Wisconsin, still
plays in some good games.
Yet they have that game againstWisconsin.
They play Michigan.
They play Maryland.
Again, maryland is one of thebetter teams in the Big Ten Iowa

(53:53):
they have Iowa on the docket.
Wisconsin could still finish asthe number one team in the Big
10 iowa they have iowa on thedocket.
Wisconsin could still finish asthe number one team in the big
10.
First place, 12th to first yeah, that's.
That's pretty impressive who isjohn tanji before he came to
wisconsin.
I have no idea.
Now people are like this dudecould be steph curry.
Watch him sometime.

(54:15):
If you haven't watched and I Iknow you're Badger fans out
there so you probably havewatched John Tonje before, right
.
But if you're just watchingthis now and you're like I
haven't watched much collegebasketball this year, watch John
Tonje.
This guy's unreal, unreal whenhe shoots the basketball.
What he's been able to do witha whole lot of little this
season for Wisconsin Guys thatyou were like how are these

(54:38):
pieces?
You know you got this box with apuzzle in it.
You're like, how do thesepieces fit together?
Right, greg guard just tookthem and he's like, ah, we can
make her work, we can fit thispiece to this piece.
We can't.
You know, we got this cornerpiece here.
We can make it work.
It has just been impressiveoffensive efficiency.
I saw it.
Um, the top efficiencies inhalf court, saw the top
efficiencies in half court.
So the top efficiencies in allof college basketball.

(55:00):
In half court, Wisconsin hasthe number one offensive
efficiency in half court in allof basketball.
Number one Gonzaga's two,auburn's three, duke's four,
kentucky's five, uconn is six,villanova's seven and Purdue, I
believe, is eighth on that list,uconn is six, villanova seven
and Purdue, I believe, is eighthon that list, number one above

(55:23):
teams who have players of theyear candidates.
In Jani Broome and in CooperFlagg and Con Canupo the batters
have the best half-courtoffense efficiency-wise.
That doesn't just happen, notwith a bunch of no-name guys,
right.
If you would have told me dukewith cooper flag had the number
one, uh, efficient efficiency ofoffense in all college, I'd be

(55:44):
like yeah, sure, okay.
Like yeah, I get it.
Jedi broom and auburn, sure.
Florida, yeah, tennessee, surejohnson would not have believed
if he told me at the start ofthis season that was going to be
the Badgers.
But that's where we're at.
Greg Gard has taken this team,him and Kirk Penny.
He let Kirk Penny come in, he'sfrom overseas, came playing for

(56:05):
the Badgers, went back overseas, came back coached for
Wisconsin and Greg Gard saidshow me what you got, what do
you got for me?
And they run this dribble driveoffense.
Now.
A me what you got, what do yougot for me?
And they run this dribble driveoffense.

(56:26):
Now a whole lot of greatness,right.
But I'm gonna be honest withyou.
I I love what I'm seeing rightnow out of wisconsin majesty,
and I mean I was, I would say,outside of greg guard.
My other guy for coach of theyear would be rick patino, just
because John's has absoluteterrible offense and their
defense is just oh my.
They just won a game the othernight.
They shot like 33% from thefield.
That is ridiculous and you wina game by like 20.

(56:47):
It's just creating possessionsand just playing good basketball
.
So I mean, for me right now Idon't care if Greg Gard won
coach of the year in all ofcollege basketball.
I think it would be awesome,right.
I think it's well-deserved ifhe did, but I'm just glad he's
up for it and I think John Tonjeshould be up for player of the

(57:08):
year in college basketball.
I know Cooper Flagg willprobably win it because I mean I
can't turn on ESPN withoutgoing oh, cooper Flagg, yeah,
here he is good flag, oh yeahit's like every other commercial
of college basketball is cooperflag and I gotta hear about it.
everybody's talking like I getit.
Cooper flags, you know around,I get it right.
Or jenai broom right, jenaibroom is one of the most

(57:29):
dominant players in collegebasketball and I hear about
cooper flag more than I hearabout John Nyberg.
So, but yeah, there's that.
I don't care if John Tonjedoesn't win it.
I just am glad that finallyWisconsin is getting recognition
for what they've been able todo, because what they're doing
right now was not even a thoughtin anyone's mind.

(57:51):
And now everybody's like oh,I'm in love with Wisconsin
basketball.
It's like, dude, if you're nothere from the start, don't even
join us now.
Like, don't join the party,Don't join this party, just
because you're now joining itright, Just because you're now
seeing.
Or like oh yeah, John Tonje isactually a pretty good player.
Well, there was a lot of peopleand I think you were on the show
, Kyle, when we talked aboutafter the UW River Falls.

(58:13):
They had that exhibition gameand people were kind of blowing
up because it was a close gameat the half or whatever it was.
I think you were there for thatone.
People were blowing up and Iwas like you know it's
exhibition and everything.
But people were like thisseason we're going to suck, Like
everybody was blowing up.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
What do you think now ?
What do you think now, likethat's an exhibition game?
And what do you think now?
What do you think now, likethat, that's an exhibition game?
And this badger team has put alot of them haters to bed.
So I mean, kyle, what do youthink, looking on the outside,
looking into this badger team,how you, how do you like, how do
you see them, how do you likethem, like what you're seeing
right now?

Speaker 2 (58:47):
look, I think something that you were saying
there that really kind ofclicked for me was the fact that
they're really good at halfcourt offense.
That is something that I feellike is under the radar for
march.
A lot of times.
Teams that can execute in halfcourt in march do well, because

(59:09):
so much, so much of thetournament is filled with teams
like to run and gun and thenwhen they do that and their
shots not falling, and then nowthey're having to slow up and
take their possessions andcherish them a little bit more,
they don't know what to do.
If Wisconsin can excel in thatand continue that into March,
that makes them that much moreof a dangerous team.

(59:31):
Now, the fact that they alsowere, you know, picked to finish
pretty low in the big 10, whichwe know is not a conference
that you take lightly yeah, thatspeaks to.
Maybe they don't have the mostnotable players, but maybe this
is why the coaches and Coach ofthe Year consideration matters.

(59:53):
A good coach will take a goodgroup of players, get them to
play the correct way, to getthem wins, and I feel like
that's what you're seeing fromWisconsin.
I've seen like a couple of games.
You know, I've seen games whereyou know they just rain down
threes and they do really well.
I've seen games where theygrind out possessions in the
second half.
You know, maybe it's a one, twopoint lead and they come down,

(01:00:20):
get a couple of stops, get acouple of buckets and then that
turns into like six, seven,eight-point lead.
So I've seen them kind of doboth things and I think if they
can play well in March, they'rean interesting team.
Obviously it's going to matteron, you know, brackett and other
teams on their side and stufflike that, but they're a team

(01:00:41):
that can fly under the radar andI think there is something to
say for that.
That shows how good the coachis, how good you know Tonji and
some of these players.
Maybe they're playing a littleabove their head, who knows?
Or maybe they're just playingand people are just now noticing
that these guys they might be alittle bit better than than

(01:01:03):
people thought they were goingto be.
So they're a team I will bewatching in such like big 10
tournament that type, wherethat's one of those tournaments
that it takes a lot to getthrough.
I'd like to see wisconsin inthat kind of setting how they
play, because for these bigconferences.
You do well in your conferencetournament.
That can propel you on a marchrun as well.

(01:01:26):
So I think they're positioningthemselves to possibly have a
deep run, but we won't knowuntil we see it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
Yeah, no, and I would would say you mentioned
something there.
You know, can this team, canthey go into them hostile
environments, can they win thosegames in neutral sites?
You know what does a tournamentsetting look like for a team
like this?
And was this team for real?
Right, you didn't know if thisteam was for real.
I didn't know how good thisteam was until they went to

(01:02:00):
Purdue and they put up 94 points.
I honestly didn't know.
Like, I'm going through theseason and I'm like this is a
good Badgers team, like I saidit the whole way.
I said this is a good Badgersteam, this is a good Badgers
team.
They got a good team here.
John Tonday, john Blackwell,it's a good team and I kept
saying it, I kept saying it, Ikept saying it.
But I was like where's thatsignature road win?
Right, because they went toRutgers, they won.

(01:02:20):
It was like, eh, whatever, usc,eh, whatever.
They went on the road toMaryland, lost, went to
Northwestern, won that game.
They went to Iowa and won it.
And I'm like they still don'thave.
They have road wins, likesomething that they they didn't

(01:02:44):
have in the past was road wins.
They at least had road wins.
But I was like where's thatsignature, the signature win?
Right, they didn't just get asignature win on the season, and
it wasn't at home.
They got a signature win atpurdue, in mackie, a place
that's hard for the badges towin at or play at or anybody to
play at.
They put up 94 points on theroad.
If I had, if I had told you atthe start of the year the badges
are going to go into mackiethis season and put up 94 points

(01:03:04):
against number seven purdue,you would have laughed in my
face.
You'd have been like thereain't no way, no way, that's
what they did.
And then the very next game,they, they play Illinois back at
home and they put up 95 points,back-to-back games with 90-plus
points.
In those games They've put up90 points multiple times this

(01:03:27):
year 116 against Iowa.
There they put up 100 pointsagainst Arizona.
That Arizona win is nothing butimpressive at this point,
because Arizona continues to winbasketball games is nothing but
impressive at this point.
Arizona continues to winbasketball games.
I saw Jay Billis put out his top25 teams the other day.
I don't know if Jay Billis haswatched college basketball in a

(01:03:47):
while.
He had Purdue at 10 andWisconsin at 11.
This was after Wisconsin beatPurdue at Purdue and he still
had them ahead of him.
He had Kansas at 15.
After Kansas got smoked aroundby BYU, he put Kansas at Purdue
and he still had him ahead ofhim.
He had Kansas at 15.
After Kansas got smoked aroundby BYU, he put Kansas at 15.
I don't believe that Jay Billiswatches anything outside of
Duke basketball at this point,so I'm sick of watching him.

(01:04:08):
John Fanta had a pretty goodlist, so I think he had the
Badgers in there as like numbernine, I think, in his top 25.
So I thought that was a prettyone.
Uh for the badgers there.
But I mean wisconsin.
They have a big one, though Ithink it's gonna be a big game
coming up against oregon there.
Um, this is I don't know if it'sa quad one game, it might be
right on the verge of it.
I think it might be a quad twoat this point.

(01:04:28):
Badgers seven and five and quadone games.
Quad two games are seven and oh.
Quad three games are two and oh, and quad four, they're five
and oh.
So right, pretty good.
I mean not having a reallyterrible loss.
I guess you could say there uhfor wisconsin.
I believe their worst loss isagainst michigan.
Their worst like net rankingloss was michigan at home and I
think michigan at home was like17th in the rankings.

(01:04:51):
So like having michigan is yourworst loss on the season not
bad at all, not bad at allyou'll take that all day there,
uh, but badgers oregon.
Oregon's a pretty good team,like the record wouldn't show
that I know john's john's inhere right now.
The record wouldn't show thatoregon's got a pretty darn good
team out there.

(01:05:11):
But they've just kind of raninto a little bit of a tough
spell here in the month ofjanuary, late january, going
into February, they're 19-8overall.
They're 8-8 conference playthere.
But you know they beat TexasA&M, they beat Alabama, they
beat Maryland.
They have some good wins onthat schedule.
It's just the losses that camealong with it.
I mean they lost that game toMinnesota, they lost to Nebraska

(01:05:35):
, they have a loss to UCLA inthere.
They just have some toughlosses along the way.
They had a five-game losingstreak that will put a damper on
anybody's season.
I mean this was a team in Oregonwho was up in the top ten at
one point and now they went on afive-game losing streak.
You're 19-8 now.
They're still a tournament teambut just struggled as of late

(01:05:55):
here.
I mean this team can put uppoints.
I saw them in that.
Uh, they're playing michiganstate, I believe.
Yes, yes, it was that gameagainst michigan state.
It was at the breslin center.
So they're playing the eastlansing there and I mean they
put up 50 points oregon did inthe first half at the brussels.
I have not, I cannot remembermany teams who have put up 50

(01:06:15):
points at the breslin center anda half.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
That's a lot of points.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
That's a defensive-oriented team at Tom
Izzo I mean right now I'mwatching them hold Michigan in
Ann Arbor to 62 points right nowwith a minute to go in this
game.
Like it's a pretty gooddefensive team, a pretty
physical team in Michigan Stateand I mean did a pretty darn
good job there of putting upbuckets.
It's just the second half,michigan kind of clamped down or
michigan state clamped downthere and oregon was only able
to muster 24 points againstmichigan state there.

(01:06:40):
So that's kind of what we saw.
Um, I don't know michigan's I Idid see john just said michigan
state uh upsets michigan.
I I don't see it as an upset.
I 14 over 12 and I would sayokay, never mind, I would say
it's an upset because it's onthe road.
I would say it's an upsetbecause it's on the road there.
Michigan state going tomichigan.
I love seeing michigan fans hitthe, hit the.

(01:07:01):
Uh, hit the road early.
I love seeing that.
I love seeing pissed off fanstaking their way up to happy
street there and getting out.
Uh, getting out on the roadearly.
That's what makes me laughthere.
But uh, getting back to thisoregon team, they're a good team
.
They're a good team they justhave ran into some trouble as of
late, that five-game losingstreak.
They have a pretty darn goodscoring team and I want to get

(01:07:22):
to that here.
Some of the key players that Ihave going into this one
Shelstad, the guard there 13.3points per game, three rebounds,
three assists, 44% from thefield there and 38% from
downtown.
This guy, he can ring it up.
He can ring it up and he sharesthe basketball.
Sheldon Statt has beenfantastic.
Nate Middle, the seven-footerthere, he can hit it from
downtown a little bit 32% fromdowntown, 50% from the field,

(01:07:44):
12.9 points per game, sevenrebounds and two blocks.
So you've got to watch out forhim.
On the interior, tj Bomba, theguard there 10.3 points per game
, three assists.
Does not shoot it well from thefield though.
37 from the field.
It's kind of uh, not efficient.
Let's go with that.
Not efficient, but he does.
He's got a pretty good scorethere.
Uh, barth out bar.
Bar to bar to hell me, that'swhat we're calling there.

(01:08:06):
Bar to hell me, I don't knowhow to say his name there 9.7
points per game, 40 from 3 and41 from the.
Uh, three-point arc.
There he's been pretty darngood.
Uh, I mean offensively, this isa pretty darn good team, like
offensively.
They can put buckets up.
They have a pretty goodthree-point shooting team.
They can get to the free throwline.
They can score it.
They're not a bad team, it'sjust the record wouldn't show

(01:08:29):
you that.
And john says here um, oregonissue is they?
Uh, it looks like they taketheir foot off the gas in the
last five minutes of every game.
That could be a very bigproblem for them too.
I think intensity sometimesgets to them.
I thought Michigan State justplayed more physical than they
did in the Breslin Center.
That's the thing that Wisconsinis going to have to be careful
of.
Is that Wisconsin?

(01:08:49):
They're going to have to playphysical?
Oregon is a physical basketballteam.
They're going to get after you.
My worry and it's the constantworry I have with badgers is
they struggle with physical bigteams and biddle's a big fella.
He's gonna get after you.
How does stephen crowe andnolan winter play against that?
How do the badgers respond to aphysical team in oregon?
That's what I'm waiting to see.

(01:09:10):
So that's kind of what my bigtakeaway from this one is.
Is the physicality from oregon,some of the team stats 76
points per game for oregon, 44from the field 45 from the field
, 34 from three, 76 from thefree throw line.
There they have about 11turnovers per game and seven
steals.
So they get after you.
They don't turn the ball over alot and they can shoot it.

(01:09:32):
So this is a dangerous team inoregon.
If you take them lightly youcan lose this basketball game.
And I mean kyle, what are youseeing?
I mean from this match up here,wisconsin oregon.
I mean, if you got a prediction, give me your prediction, like
if you were a batman, who youtaking wisconsin oregon in
madison?

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
yeah.
So like when I'm looking at thenumbers, it's they are pretty
similar in a couple of instances, like in terms of rebounding.
Neither team is is like a greatrebounding team.
So that may be what it comesdown to is who can grab a
rebound, get out in transitionand get down, because both teams

(01:10:08):
, like you said, they can fillit up.
I think Wisconsin's a littlebit better offensively and I
think defensively in terms ofscoring-wise they're pretty
similar.
So this might be a game thatcomes down to, you know, like a
key rebound late, whether youcan grab it or not, and, I guess
, getting into your offense andrunning your stuff and creating

(01:10:31):
good opportunities, becauseneither team is like up there in
assists either.
So you can expect a game whereyou game, where maybe guys bring
it down the court, seeking outmismatches and looking to take
advantage, and not necessarilywinning it off of ball movement,
but just winning it off offinding the matchup and taking
advantage of it and when theopportunities are there on the

(01:10:54):
glass.
Even though both teams are badat rebounding, since they're
facing each other, somebody'sgot to win the rebounding battle
.
So that would be my thing tolook for in this one is who wins
the rebounding battle, probablywins this game.
If I had to make a prediction,I'll go Wisconsin wins this one

(01:11:15):
late, maybe by like you know,like a six-point spread or
something like that.
I think it's gonna be a gamethat's gonna be really highly
contested down to the to thewire, but I think I feel like
wisconsin pulls this one out Iwould agree.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
I would agree with that one there.
I think wisconsin wins this one.
I think it's by like 10.
I think the 10 comes late inthis game.
I think it's a physical game.
In madison it's 11 o'clock game.
The 10 comes late in this game.
I think it's a physical game.
In madison it's 11 o'clock game.
A weird, a weird tip time.
It feels like college footballalmost there about 11 o'clock
tip time.
Um, I think it's a physicalbattle.
I think the badgers do come outon top though in that one.
I think it's going to be heavilyreliant on, like I said, steven

(01:11:52):
crowell and nolan winter.
How do they defend on theinside there against Biddle and
can they control him on theoutside?
And then also it comes down toI mean, what does John Tonje and
John Blackwell have for anon-court performance?
Right, because those two, whenthey get going, it's magic.
It's magic.
They call them fire and ice fora reason there.
Right, fire and ice.
Max Klesman I think he's goingto my player of the game.

(01:12:21):
Here we go.
Player of the game, maxklissman.
He's gonna give me, he's gonnagive me 15 points, he's gonna
give me three, threes and he'sjust gonna be an assist machine
in this game here and it's justgonna be awesome.
It's just gonna be awesomethere.
So, uh, john did say, let me seehere, uh, wisconsin needs to go
back and study their lossagainst maryland.
Well, against maryland, johnblackwell had two fouls with
nine minutes to go, or whatever,in the first half, so he had to

(01:12:43):
sit.
And then John Tonje had twofouls with five minutes to go in
the first half and they wereplaying with I don't even know
who was out there at that point.
The lineup was kind of roughshape for the Badgers,
especially on the road, so thatdid not help at all.
Plus, I mean you had 11turnovers in that game or 10

(01:13:03):
turnovers in that game.
There you didn't shoot the balloverly well, the free throw
line wasn't your friend andMaryland came out of the half
hot.
So I mean it was just, yeah,that kind of game.
I.
The Maryland game was theMaryland game.
I think if you played themagain you played them in Madison
I think the badgers win.
I'm gonna be honest with you.
I did not come off the marylandgame and think to myself
wisconsin is not as good asmaryland.
I think maryland's a very goodteam, like don't get me wrong,
maryland's a very good team, butI did not come out of that game

(01:13:24):
thinking maryland was thebetter team, I guess is what I
would say.
So I mean, yeah, that I meanbadgers oregon coming up
tomorrow there.
That'll be an 11 o'clock tip.
Should be a good one there.
We did see Marquette lose toVillanova, so we'll give that
deserves one of them Round ofapplause there Round of applause
for Villanova.
I can't wait to see Marquettefans say well, the Big East is

(01:13:46):
just loaded.
That's what they'll tell me.
The Big East is just shut up.
The Big East is not loaded.
It is not loaded.

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
That is kind of a narrative you get every, every
year how deep the big east is.

Speaker 1 (01:13:55):
Yeah, they tell me that all the time it's like
yukon makes you guys deep.
That's it, yukon.
Winning two national titles isthe only thing that makes you
deep.
If you lost to st john's, surecreighton, sure yukon.
Maybe xavier's nine and seven,villanova is what nine and eight
in the?
Uh, in the big east you havegeorgetown's at seven-8, and

(01:14:15):
then Butler's 5-10.
Like none of these teams areoverly good.
Like Xavier's 17-10,villanova's 16-12.
Like great.

Speaker 2 (01:14:26):
Yeah, those are like records.
You like you called outGeorgetown, georgetown's.
Like your perpetual 16, 17, 18win type of team.
They're going to be on thebubble.
Everybody's going to say, well,the Big East, you know, should
you let them in because of howtough it is?
It's just like.
I agree with you.
Like Big East basketball is,you know, it's good for what it

(01:14:48):
is.
I don't know if it'snecessarily all that tough but,
like I said, uconn makes it seemtougher because UConn the
repeat champion and everythinglike that, but even UConn seems
like they're having a bit of adown year.
They're having a year where ifthey lose early in the
tournament, it may come allapart.

(01:15:10):
Hurley looks like he's ready tojust go off on anybody on a
given night, and I think it'shilarious.
I love it you can see thepressure of them winning these
couple of titles getting to them, because now they're getting,
they're getting everybody's bestshot and this year they're not
winning as much as they have thepast couple of years makes you

(01:15:32):
wonder if everybody just caughtback up.

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
You know like yukon was a little bit ahead all those
years and now everybody's justcatching back up.
You know like uconn was a littlebit ahead all those years and
now everybody's just catchingback up right.
Everybody's like, oh, we'rejust as good as you there.
I did see john said before um,just as we're wrapping up here,
uh, john said been saying it allyear my dark horses that will
make deep tournament runs,wisconsin, st john's, memphis I
I don't know about memphis, I'venever been high in memphis, st

(01:15:56):
john's.
There's something like Kylesaid about offensive efficiency
in the half court.
Defensive efficiency is anotherthing you've got to have in
mind.
St John's can win in the mostunorthodox ways.
They can shoot 33% from thefield and still beat you by 20.
That's impressive.
There has got to be a casestudy done on Rick Pitino

(01:16:19):
because I believe he's hadcouple final, his final four
teams that he had at louisville.
They had a shooting percentageof 33.
So like there's some kind ofcase study that needs to be done
on rick patino and his abilityto coach up a pretty darn good
defense.
So I agree there.
Um, let's see here.
John said thoughts on arizona,arizona I I don't know what to
think of arizona half like.

(01:16:39):
When I saw him early on in theyear I thought they had a lot of
growing to do.
I thought they were stilltrying to figure it out together
.
You know um Caleb Love, he'salways been hit or miss for me.
I thought they were very if Iwas going to say they're very
undisciplined.
When the Badgers saw him earlyon in the season there was a lot
of fouls.
If you remember, john Tonjeshot like 22 free throws in the

(01:17:01):
entire game.
Like they were veryundisciplined.
They were very up in your grillkind of team there and then
they kind of just settled in.
They settled in themselves.
They kind of rallied aroundeach other.
They got in a big 12 play.
They rattled off a few wins.

(01:17:22):
They've been just fine.
So I mean, right now I look atthe arizona team.
I think they're a good team.
I don't think they're a greatteam.
I think they're a good team.
I think they're a team thatwins the basketball games.
But I think if I'm it was Iwould I pick them to be like a
final four team.
Probably not like I'm not afinal four favorite with arizona
right now, but I would sayright now arizona I is the
second weekend team.
Like I think they can make itto the second weekend.
I think they got good enoughguard play with Love and Bradley
and KJ Lewis.
I just look at down low therewith Townsend and I love

(01:17:44):
Townsend and Awaka but I don'tknow if they're the guys who are
going to take you over the top.

Speaker 2 (01:17:55):
Yeah, I mean, I guess Arizona might just come down to
how far does Caleb Love takehim?
Caleb Love's a guy who's beenaround for a bit.
Yeah, it's the same Caleb Lovewho was at UNC and then moved on
to a couple places and now atArizona.
He's because there's one thingto say about upper-class players

(01:18:19):
in March that can work for youor it could work against you,
because we've seen some of thesefreshman sophomore-laden teams
beat upperclassmen-laden teamsbecause they just have more
energy and run around.
But I think Arizona's going tobe interesting to watch.
I agree with you.
I think they're probably like asecond weekend type of team and

(01:18:40):
then you wouldn't be surprisedif they were upset or something
like that yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:18:45):
Yeah they're one of those kind of teams for me at
this point here.
So we'll see.
We'll see on Arizona there, butI think that's all we got.
I mean, we got a holy crap.
We got into a lot tonight.
Bobby Portis suspended for 25games.
Luke Fickle gets an extension.
Mark Ananasio is the worstowner in all of baseball,
according to some Brewer fans.
As we heard, the Yankees areallowing you to have a beard now
and the Badgers are going tokick the crap out of the Ducks

(01:19:07):
tomorrow.
So that's all we need to know.
That's all we need to know here.
On twitter, twitch and tiktok.
You can find us at wisco sportson the go on facebook and
youtube.
You can find us at wisconsinsports on the go with trage.
You can also find us on 92.3wosq, the radio station here.

(01:19:28):
You can search it up online.
If you don't, if you aren'taround the central wisconsin
area, you can search up 92.3wosq.
You search it, you can listento it on the website so you can
hear the show there.
7 to 8 on Wednesday, 7 to 8Central Time pm on Wednesdays.
There you can find the show on92.3 WOSQ on Sports Radio there.

(01:19:49):
Also you can email the showwiscosportsonthego at gmailcom
and then also shoot us a text atthe text in line 715-990-4914.
That is 715-990-4914.
If you want to get involved inTrage's Mailbox, which on the
radio show the last 12 minutesof every show, we do Trage's

(01:20:11):
Mailbox.
If you want to be involved inthat, send your questions either
on any social media platformotherwise to the email or to the
text in line and I can readthem off on there and answer
your questions.
So that's what we want to getto there.
But, Kyle, let the people knowwhere to find you out there on
social media or wherever theycan find your stories.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
Yeah, I mean you can find me Chopping at the Bit from
my personal channel.
You can catch me over onIntegrity Sports Network.
I should be on with passion andprecision, uh, tomorrow.
Uh, then you know.
Yeah, I mean I'm on tiktok.
I think it's what chompingpodcast I.
I got the links on youtube.

Speaker 1 (01:20:50):
I can't sounds right, sounds right yeah, I'm on
tiktok.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
I'm on, like I said, youtube, youtube, facebook,
twitch.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
I'm out there.
You want to find a realist fan?
You go to Kyle.
That's what you got to do.

Speaker 2 (01:21:05):
If you want to find a realist.
I try to keep it real.

Speaker 1 (01:21:07):
If you want to find some unrealist fans, go watch
Kyle's show Sideline to Sidelineon Integrity and listen to them
.
Eagles guys tell you that thatwas the greatest team of all
time is the one we just watched.

Speaker 2 (01:21:20):
The Eagles fan base.
They're rabid.
They got their win.
They're going to enjoy itbecause the Sixers have been a
disappointment.
The Phillies haven't startedyet.
The Eagles are what they'regoing to hold on to.
I respect it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:38):
You win you win, I'll give it to you.
You were the best team infootball this year.
I will give that to you.
You won it all, but to callyourselves the best of all time
no, no, I can name.

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
You know how it is.
They like to have thoseconversations.
It's like you know Mahomes winsthe title.
Is he the greatest?
Is he on track to be thegreatest?

Speaker 1 (01:22:02):
Which conversation would have been worse, though?
Like which one's going to getmore annoying?
Would it have been Mahomes, oris it going to be the Eagles
fans trying to comparethemselves to, like the 2007
Patriots?
Like which one is going to beworse, because I think both
could have been bad.

Speaker 2 (01:22:20):
I think both will be bad in their own right.
I mean the Mahomes one.
It's interesting because youknow me being a Patriots fan.
It's like I recognize how goodMahomes is.
I still because I feel likethere's a lot of people, if he
wins one more, are ready to kindof put him past Brady.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:22:39):
I don't know if I can do that, because you know he's
lost a couple in kind of blowoutfashion, including one to Tom
Brady in Tampa Bay.
So it's just like I can havethe conversation, but I would
still lean Brady, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:22:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
Maybe the bigger conversation is has my homes
actually passed montana yet?
That might be a betterconversation, but I think a lot
of people put my homes past mypast people forget about montana
.

Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
That's the thing is like if you're not right away
from her.

Speaker 2 (01:23:14):
It's like montana is going to be slowly forgotten
about a little bit more, whichis tough because some of those
Niners teams were prettydominant.

Speaker 1 (01:23:23):
It's.
It honestly is in all thesports, like, if you don't,
outside of Michael Jordan, youforget about guys, you forget
about everybody else outside ofLeBron.
We're going to forget aboutguys, right, I don't, I don't
know.
See, that's what separatesLeBron and we're're gonna get in
a whole car, a toy, uh,tailspin on conversation here,
but, um, that's what separatesthe michael jordan era from this

(01:23:44):
era.
I don't think you're gonnaforget about a lot of the other
guys in the lebron era, like thesteps, like he was dominant.
The steph curry was dominant.
I don't think anybody was asdominant as michael jordan.
So it's like it's, you know,you got larry and you got magic
and you got those guys along theway there.
But I just you think of that oryou think of mike, like that's

(01:24:05):
what you think of.
You think of this era.
I think you can, like you canput a couple different guys like
I could think, if I think ofthis era, I'm like steph, he was
dominant, right, lebron's there.
But nowadays it's like when Ithink of the nba, I don't think
of lebron james.
I forget lebron james is stillin the nba.
Sometimes, to be honest withyou, like I'm like luca, like I
honestly think like luca,where's?

(01:24:26):
You know what's going on luca?
This you know tonight, whatever.
Jason tatum what's going ontatum?
Yannis, what's going on yannisthe joker, what's going on to
him?
It's like you forget aboutlebron, I don't know it's.
It's an interesting argument.
When you get into the goatconversation, you get into the
greatest of all timeconversations to think of
relevancy and to think of, youknow, like you said, joe montana
, we forget about them becauseit's like, oh you, just you skip

(01:24:49):
over montana and you gostraight to what is you know
what was tom brady?
Same with the nba.
I think too many guys skip overKobe and they go to LeBron and
MJ.
They don't go LeBron and Kobebecause I don't know if he wins
that debate.
I think Mike wins the debatebetween him and Kobe, but I
don't know if LeBron wins thedebate with him and Kobe.

(01:25:10):
So it's like, how do you skipover Kobe to go to Mike if you
don't even get past?
It's like I don't even get pastit's like I, I don't know
that's.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
That's kind of where I think it's a great point.
Like you said, it's probablysomething that you could
probably have a conversation onthe show.
It's just like because the well, with the introduction of
social media being kind of ayounger platform in an area
space, younger fans moreattached to LeBron have branched

(01:25:42):
out to people within LeBron'scircle and his era.
So when you talk Jordan, theyonly know Jordan because of the
Jordan-LeBron debate.
But Jordan's era you hadBarkley, you had Elijah Wan, who
was a guy I think getsforgotten about way too much,
way too often.
Yeah, and that's where theconversations get tricky,

(01:26:03):
because if you're havingconversations with just younger
people who only know LeBron'sera, it's hard to kind of
introduce them to guys whoplayed along Jordan that were
really good, like Carmeloneterrible person was a good
basketball player.
You know guys like Stockton orI don't know, like even Tracy

(01:26:27):
McGrady.
You could go through a laundrylist.
Like, tracy McGrady is a guythat people I feel like don't
really recognize how good thatguy was.

Speaker 1 (01:26:34):
Yep, my nickname was T-Mac growing up.
That's where my uncle got itfrom Grayson McGrady there.

Speaker 2 (01:26:39):
Yeah, he was.
He was a gift, like.
He was kind of like thatversion of Carmelo Anthony.

Speaker 1 (01:26:44):
Yep.
Oh we forget about him becausewe amplify one guy.
Yes, yep, but I agree, michaelGeorge should be amplified Like
he wasn't.
That was that new go.
We go a past guys.
Right, is lebron better thankobe?
I don't think so.
So, like, how can you go pastkobe and go straight to mike and
how do you have a goat debatebetween those two but you don't

(01:27:04):
include kobe?
It just doesn't make sense.
I honestly, this is what I'vealways said my greatest players
of all time and this is gonna Ialways irritate people when I
say this are guys who changedthe game.
Mike changed the game, kobechanged the game.
Steph changed the game.
Lebron didn't change the game.

(01:27:25):
He didn't.
Because if you really look athis game, what?
How much different is he thanKobe?
How much different is he thanMike?
He took his game was emulatedoff of their game, right?
Steph's game is not emulatedoff of their game, right,
steph's game is not emulated offof anybody.
Steph, I mean, what guy thoughtthat he could?
You know what short little guythought that he could play in

(01:27:46):
the NBA realistically,consistently?
Before Steph came in and did itand just gave a hope to a whole
different brand of basketballplayers who were like I can't
make the league, but now, when Ican bang threes like this, sure
I can make it.
Right, steph's pulling halfcourt shots like it's his job.
He changed the game.
There were guys who changed thegame and changed it for a good.

Speaker 2 (01:28:06):
I don't know what lebron has done to change the
game for me I think it's fairbecause if you're looking at
them you're like what's lebron'sgreatest skill?
And you could argue hisgreatest skill is that he's just
a big athletic guy.

Speaker 1 (01:28:23):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:28:24):
So then, if you're thinking of other big athletic
guys, is he as dominant as Shaq,who's a big athletic guy?
Maybe not, but like Jordan,it's like crazy intense
competitor Kobe, kind of thesame thing.
Lebron doesn't necessarily havethat aspect to him.
Like, don't get me wrong,lebron is a great player.

(01:28:47):
It's just that he's kind oflike really good at a lot of
things.
But if you had to say what waslike his go-to greatest skill, I
don't know.
Like some would say his passing,but I'd be like jason kitt was
a better passer.
Yep, you say he's a scoring.
I'd say jordan was a betterscorer yep, so that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (01:29:07):
That's what?

Speaker 2 (01:29:07):
yeah, that's where he kind of gets in the
conversations like he's reallygood at a lot of different
things, but he's not.
Yeah, yep, so it's, it's.
It's definitely one of thoseinteresting conversations that
will continue to happen once heretires as well.
You know that's going to happen.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
It should be soon I would hope so.
It should be very soon that heretires and just walks off into
the sunset.
John did say people forgotabout Bradshaw and titles
getting in the way.
Also, is Breeze really betterthan Marino?
There's an argument to be hadthere.
There's an argument to be hadthere.
There's an argument there.
Curry got his form fromNintendo game NBA Jam.
You're on fire.

(01:29:43):
Yeah, that's true.
That is true.
I remember that game.
No, I completely forgot aboutthe alley.
That's where Steph learned it.
That's where Steph learned itthere.
So, like I said before, you canfind us across social media on
Facebook, twitter, tiktok,youtube, twitch on Twitter and
Twitch and TikTok.
Find us at Wisco Sports on thego Facebook and YouTube.
Find us at Wisconsin Sports onthe go with Trage, and then you
can also email the show.

(01:30:04):
Get into Trage's mailbox, askus your questions.
We'll get to them on the radioon 92.3 WSQ there.
You can find us there.
Wiscosportsonthego at gmailcom.
You can email the show withyour questions concerns
everything you got, and then youcan also shoot us a text
715-990-4914.
That is 715-990-4914 find kyleacross social media.

(01:30:28):
Chomp it at the bit in any way,shape or form.
You can write it.
Shop it on the bit podcast.
You can find them across allplatforms out there.
Great content.
You want to get in there andtune into his stuff.
It's always great NBA,everything in between he gets
NFL and all of it.
You got to check him out there.
So with that, for Kyle andmyself this has been Wisconsin
Sports on the Go with Trage.
Thank you all for tuning in.
We'll catch you guys back herefor sure on Wednesday on the

(01:30:54):
radio there on 92.3 WSQ.
Before that I don't know aboutthe live, maybe back on Sunday
after the Badgers or maybetomorrow after the Badger game.
We'll see when we get back livehere, but until then see ya.

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