Could the winds of change be swirling through Wisconsin sports as fiercely as the unseasonable snow? Hey, it's Trag, and in this latest episode, we dig into the mysteries and debates rocking our favorite teams. Shohei Otani's cryptic press conference has the sports world buzzing with speculation, and we're cutting through the fog to examine the impact of his financial controversies. Then, as we look closer to home, we grapple with the Brewers' pitching predicaments and how Gary Mitchell's injury could shake up our roster strategies for the upcoming season.
The discussion gets heated when we turn to the Wisconsin Badgers, reflecting on a season of thrilling victories and heart-wrenching defeats. We'll deconstruct the pivotal moments that shaped their journey and stir up the debate on Coach Greg Gard's future. Is it time for a new face to lead the charge, or can Gard's playbook still secure success? As the Badgers' narrative unfolds, we assess the shifts needed to reignite their identity and secure their place in the fiercely competitive world of college basketball.
Finally, we turn our gaze to the hardwood, analyzing the Wisconsin basketball program's coaching and player movements. Could a coaching shakeup bring the fresh approach the Badgers need, or are we risking the stability of the program? As players step in and out of the limelight, I'll give you the insider updates on who's staying, who's going, and who might just change the game. Stay with me, and let's tackle the intricacies of roster dynamics and strategy that define the heart and soul of Wisconsin sports.
Could the winds of change be swirling through Wisconsin sports as fiercely as the unseasonable snow? Hey, it's Trag, and in this latest episode, we dig into the mysteries and debates rocking our favorite teams. Shohei Otani's cryptic press conference has the sports world buzzing with speculation, and we're cutting through the fog to examine the impact of his financial controversies. Then, as we look closer to home, we grapple with the Brewers' pitching predicaments and how Gary Mitchell's injury could shake up our roster strategies for the upcoming season.
The discussion gets heated when we turn to the Wisconsin Badgers, reflecting on a season of thrilling victories and heart-wrenching defeats. We'll deconstruct the pivotal moments that shaped their journey and stir up the debate on Coach Greg Gard's future. Is it time for a new face to lead the charge, or can Gard's playbook still secure success? As the Badgers' narrative unfolds, we assess the shifts needed to reignite their identity and secure their place in the fiercely competitive world of college basketball.
Finally, we turn our gaze to the hardwood, analyzing the Wisconsin basketball program's coaching and player movements. Could a coaching shakeup bring the fresh approach the Badgers need, or are we risking the stability of the program? As players step in and out of the limelight, I'll give you the insider updates on who's staying, who's going, and who might just change the game. Stay with me, and let's tackle the intricacies of roster dynamics and strategy that define the heart and soul of Wisconsin sports.
Thank you how we doing everybody, and welcome to wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage. It is tuesday, a fantastic tuesday. You know the weather in the state of Wisconsin has me feeling like it's not fantastic. We had some snow over the weekend there. We had snow on Sunday night, a little bit on Monday morning and then rain. It just kept raining and raining and raining yesterday and they're talking more rain today. So it's just going to add on to. It's supposed to warm up at least it's supposed to warm up here as the week goes on, talking about some sunshine on Thursday. So you know what? Hopefully this is it for the winter months in the state of Wisconsin, because, hey, brewer baseball is starting pretty soon here and I want there to be no snow on the ground. You know I it's hard to think baseball season's here when you got snow on the the ground outside. That's all I know. And this snow has put a damper on that opening day mood. But it's still opening day. It's still opening day.
Speaker 1:I'm still going to get excited. I'm still going to do my usual. We've got to break the grill out. We're going to have to grill up some Franks out there. I don't know, get your hot dog and stick right. We we're going to have to do something, weather permitting, something is going to happen. Whether I got a grill in the garage I'm just kidding, no grill in the garage I don't know what we're going to do, but we're going to make something happen.
Speaker 1:But, hey, lots to talk about today. Brewers we have more Badger talk. I want to talk about Badgers a little bit more today. Had a question out there on Facebook, had some answers. Want to get into those. Also, I want to look at something that came across on social media for me. So we're going to get into that today.
Speaker 1:And I want to open up a little bit here to the MLB. There's some hot topic right With the Shohei Otani talk in the MLB and hey, let's jump into it right away. Let's jump into the Shohei Otani talk. So yesterday Otani came out and he spoke right, if you're an innocent man, this is my biggest thing, if you're this gung-ho, that you're this innocent man. And yet every single time that you talk or anything like that, this press conference that we had just right, right, no cameras. There were going to be no cameras involved. Why? Why is it that secretive? Why is there no cameras being involved in this press conference.
Speaker 1:I don't get it. I don't get it. You know, are you trying? Is this the protection package from the MLB right now, where you just think that you're so high up there that you're not going to have cameras or anything like that there, that you're not going to have cameras or anything like I'm? It's just like you want.
Speaker 1:If you're a showy Otani fan, if you're a baseball fan and you like showy Otani or you think he's a great player or a phenom, right, you just want this to go away. That's what MLB wants. They want this. They just want this to get thrown away. They want the interpreter to take the entire thing and just the whole thing to go away.
Speaker 1:But my biggest thing is that, hey, if you want to put this baby to rest, maybe stop acting like you're guilty. That's the big thing. Maybe stop for five seconds and act like you're an innocent man no cameras or nothing. You're adding stipulations into press conferences. If I'm an innocent man, I'm like. You want to bring cameras, be my guest? Bring them in, bring them in. You want to ask whatever questions you want to ask? Bring them in, bring them in. I don't care who talks to me because I'm going to tell them the same thing over and over again. You can't be changing up stories either. Right, and now we got.
Speaker 1:He didn't know. I mean, there was two questions that weren't asked during this entire thing. How did he have access to the bank accounts? Right, because Shoya Ohtani said he had no idea this money was being taken out, right? How did he have access to these bank accounts? That's number one question that was not answered. Number two how do you not notice multiple $500,000 charges coming out of your bank account? I would notice a $5 charge coming out of my bank account. Yeah, maybe I'm not on the same level as showy otani, right, but I would notice the five dollars. You're telling me you you have x amount of dollars. I get it. You have a lot of money sitting in the bank account, but I've heard there's multiple bank accounts too, right, so not all of your money is sitting inside of this one bank account and yet you don't notice $500,000 coming out multiple times? Are you kidding me right now? You didn't notice that's ridiculous Somebody inside of Shoei Ohtani's room, his banker, whatever you want to say, I would think you know what If my banker, I don't care.
Speaker 1:If I gave somebody else access to my bank, right? If he's going in there and he's pulling out $500,000 at a time, I would hope my bank would call me and say, hey, just so you know, over the past couple of months there has been about $2 million or extra pulled out of your bank account. What's going on? What's going on? My bank account flags me when I spend over $300. They're like are you sure that you spent over $300? Like, yeah, I just spent. I'm sorry, I got to buy groceries these days, right, jug of milk costs $7 nowadays. You get a carton of eggs. You can't even afford them, right. So I mean, it's that kind of thing, right. And my bank flags me for that. You're telling me this guy's just walking in there and saying, yeah, I just won a half a million dollars out of Shoya Otani's bank account.
Speaker 1:I don't get it. I don't. I mean this whole thing is just a mess. It is, and there. You know, I've always thought in every story, right, in every case against somebody, there's one side, there's his side and there's the truth, right. I think we've gotten both sides now. We've gotten the interpreter's side, we've gotten Shoya Otani's multiple sides right, because he's told us multiple different stories now and we've heard both of their sides, but we still haven't heard the truth. That's the big kicker. We haven't heard the truth Because I just I can't put it into perspective that you wouldn't notice something like this going on in your bank account.
Speaker 1:That's the big thing that kicks me every time that I hear this story. I look into it is that X factor, the not noticing part? Are you just that? I don't want to say that you're dumb, but are you just that not there that you don't notice something like that? You're that busy in your life that you don't pay attention to financials. I mean, even if you had a financial advisor, right, your financial advisor is going to say hey, dude, just so you know, there's about $3 million being taken out of your bank account, not by you but by your interpreter. Maybe you should check in on that, right? But this happened for months, months on end and you're telling me nobody noticed this. I don't buy it. I don't buy it. I don't believe it. I got nothing.
Speaker 1:There was nothing said in that press conference yesterday that even remotely made me feel like Shoei Ohtani's innocent. There was nothing said in that press conference, nothing. All he did was pleaded innocent. We already heard that crap story. We heard you say yeah, I'm innocent. We've heard that. I heard nothing yesterday that solidified it, to say one way or another.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I'm leaning the other way right now because the truth didn't come out and it's still sketchy to me. So that's what I got out of theoya otani thing yesterday. I think it's still a disaster. I mean, all shoya said was I never have bet on baseball or any other sport. I have never gone through a bookmaker to bet on sports. Okay, if, if that's what you want to believe, that's what you want to believe. I did see uh, I believe it was pete rose then came out and said I wish I, pete rose came out then on social media and said I wish I'd had an interpreter. I'd be Scott free right now. That made me laugh. That made me laugh. Good old Pete Rose.
Speaker 1:I mean, this guy's been blacklisted by the MLB for doing the exact same thing, for doing the exact same thing long ago, and now it's like all this evidence is just pointing towards Joey Ohtani and they're just going to brush underneath the rug once again. That's all they're going to do. They're going to brush underneath the rug. They're going to get rid of it, because you can't ruin your golden boy, right? That's the golden boy At the end of the day, that's the golden boy, the MLB, and there's nothing that we can say, do or anything against that guy. They're going to do whatever they can to get him out there on the field and that's just how it's going to be. So Shoei Otani case as of right now, I don't expect anything to happen. I expect it all to be brushed away and everything to be gung-ho in Shoei Otani being there for opening day for the Dodgers. They will prolong this baby as long as they possibly can. So getting out of Shoei Otani.
Speaker 1:But but staying in baseball here, I want to talk about the brewers a little bit. Yesterday terrible news came out garrett mitchell is going to miss some time with a fractured left hand. It's looking like six to eight weeks possibly just to recover from that. So missing there, it just sucks for this guy. I mean garrett mitchell last season got injured, was out for basically all year, came back just a little bit but didn't make the postseason roster and now, looking like in spring this guy could have potentially been the leadoff guy for the Brewers. He was trending in that direction that he was hitting the baseball he was doing I mean pretty darn good in spring training, injured again out 68 weeks started as just a bruise. Right, we saw on the injury report they label it as a bruise and I read the injury report and it tells me doesn't look serious but he's going to have x-rays on Monday. Right, this was over the weekend he was hitting in the cage or whatever. That's when it happened and they posted it online and they said nothing too serious, whatever. So it's like oh okay. And then I just looked yesterday there after they reported the injury and it still stated the same thing. I'm like, well, it seemed to be a little serious, right. So I mean it sucks to see, really does suck to see, because I was expecting good things.
Speaker 1:I mean Gary Mitchell is a very good ball player, 100% a very good ball player. I mean he's got the speed, he's got the contact ability, he's got the great glove, good arm in the outfield, great range in the outfield. This guy's an all-around, he's got a lot of tools and just sucks to see him going to miss some time here to start the year, hopefully back sooner than what they expect. Six to eight weeks is about. I mean, eight weeks is to the extent. But then you got to remember he's got to come back, he's got to get.
Speaker 1:Miley is actually expected to miss some time Now. He's got left shoulder soreness is what we got out of it and he's expected to miss some time. Now Mid-April is about to return. But hopefully get him back before that, hopefully. I mean you're going to have that first start Brewers can maybe weather that first start storm there and then get him back there. You're going to have a little bit of time right Opening day and then you have a day off and then you're going to have another game after that. That's when the season kind of really takes off. So hopefully you get Wade Miley back there after that first little stretch to start the year and we see Wade Miley the rest of the way.
Speaker 1:But really concerning because over this spring training period we've seen Wade Miley injured, banged up a lot here. We didn't know if he'd actually be ready for opening day, did pitch in a spring training game, look good, but now we get this news. It really worries you of how much we're really going to have Wade Miley and this is where you know I think the Devin Williams injury actually puts a lot of pressure on the Brewers now. It puts a lot of pressure on that starting rotation, right, because now without Devin Williams at the back end of your bullpen, that's going to slide everything back, whether it's Pompous in the closer role, whether it's going to be a guy like Uribe, whether it's a close by committee. Right, you might have the likes of Trevor McGill and your rebate and pop, all in right, you might have a three guy, but pushes the bullpen back. So now you got to refigure out your middle innings because, we know it, colin Ray is a solid pitcher but he's gonna have outings right where I mean Colin Ray isn't over dominant. He's not to have outings right when I mean Colin Ray isn't over-dominant. He's not that dominant guy. Right, he can get outs. Surprisingly, his fastball seems to be unhittable, right, one of the best fastballs in the league, and I couldn't believe it because it's not like he throws that hard. But Colin Ray, you don't know if he's going to be an extendable guy, like a six inning kind of guy Wade Miley coming back. I don't know if Wade Miley is going to be over a four inning, five inning guy. We don't know that. And then you go along the lines there.
Speaker 1:Dl Hall I really do like DL Hall. I think he's got a boatload of upside right. He's got great fastball, great movement on his breaking stuff. The only thing that worries me is when he has a blow up inning. It seems like it all blows up and he can't find the command again. So what does DL Hall look like now in the starting role for the Brewers? I think he's looked fine so far in spring.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to say that this guy is not going to be good for the Brewers, I just think he's an unproven starter to this point, right. So you don't know what you're getting out of DL Hall at this point. I'm not saying he can't develop into that guy, it's just the worry that you have with an unproven rotation. Now you add more unproven guys in there, plus injury-prone guys like Wade Miley, like I said, and Freddy Peralta. I mean, if he can avoid the blow-up innings, it seems like with Freddy Peralta all the time, it's one inning that he gives up runs, right, it could be the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, whatever it is, but one inning he is going to give up two plus runs. That's just how it is. That's how it is with Freddie. I don't get it, this guy. He could be a Cy Young candidate if he could just put it all together, but he cannot. I mean, it just seems like there's that one inning where hitters get to him and then after that he settles back in. So freddie peralta, I believe, is going to be fine in there for you. It's just, you know, he hasn't been the ace of the rotation. The brewers had a opening day curse for a while there, right. So how does freddie peralta translate into now being the number one? Does that put more pressure on him? I don't think so. I mean, I think he'll be fine pressure wise in the situation. It just he's not proven to be an ace yet and it's just to me a lot of question marks in the starting rotation, right.
Speaker 1:And then your fifth spot. You're either going to have Joe Ross in there I don't know about the likes of Aaron Ashby at some point this year. I don't know if Aaron Ashby might get the call up now that Wade Miley might miss his first start. Maybe we see Aaron Ashby before we thought he did get optioned. Maybe he comes back for that start. Bryce Wilson's also another candidate, but then that takes a long reliever out of that bullpen there. So then you got to add a piece out there. It seems like there's just a lot of moving pieces and right now there's still a lot of viable options out there for starting pitchers in the free agent market. So maybe the Brewers look to add. Yet I know Michael Lorenzen was added. I believe the Rangers signed him as of late. That was a guy that I really liked for the Brewers.
Speaker 1:We all know Trevor Bauer is still out there. It doesn't seem like he just pitched the other day, I believe, against the Yankees now, and in both outings against the Yankees and Dodgers, he pitched great. I mean, he looked good. So I don't know about the Trevor Bauer thing, I don't. It's like could you get the baseball player without the rest of it, you know, because then I'd be fine, it'd be all going home. But I feel like there's something else behind there, right that MLB teams are avoiding right now and what that is it could be. I mean the baggage that comes with it. Could be that we don't. I mean he was proven not guilty, right, but there's still that back end. So how do I mean, how are teams weighing that. That's the big thing that I come that comes up with with Trevor Bauer right now is because you know he's taking league minimum, he's expecting league minimum. So it's not like teams wouldn't jump on that, because the guy still got talent. So why aren't teams? And I think that's a big thing when you look at it, what we're seeing right now. So that's the big thing with me for the Brewers right now, just looking at injury wise right now heading into, we're getting closer right.
Speaker 1:We have Brewers just played yesterday. They had the Rockies. They I mean 10 to 1 was the final score score on that one the Brewers. The bats started rolling again. I love the power numbers I've been seeing as of late with these Brewers. I mean we saw, I believe, four home runs yesterday for the Brewers. Yeah, reese Hoskins had a home run once again. And then we saw William Contreras go deep. We saw Joey Ortiz go deep. Eric Case this guy just keeps hitting. He's going to make the big league roster.
Speaker 1:I believe we're going to carry three catchers into the big league because Hayes is out of options. So you're going to have Sanchez, you're going to have Hayes and you're going to have Contreras. So those are the three guys I expect to carry, but we saw a great game out of Hayes once again and then he was one for one, three RBIs with that home run. Gary Sanchez two for three. On the day we had William Contreras he went one for five. So your catching room is very good at hitting the baseball right now. I think there's going to be a lot of combos right there with DH, and I mean some of these guys. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Gary Sanchez can play first base. I thought they gave him some work there, so maybe that's a guy who gets worked in there too.
Speaker 1:I think Joey Ortiz now, with the injury to Garrett Mitchell, I believe for sure Joey Ortiz will make the big league roster. I think he will play time at third base, right, we see Andrew Monasterio is going to make it. Blake Perkins I think your outfield is kind of set then with Frelick and Truro and Yelich and Perkins. I think your infield is going to have the likes of Ortiz and Adamas and Terang and Hoskins and then you're going to have Andrew Monasterio and then Hayes and Sanchez and William Contreras. I think those will be the guys that will be on the big league roster here to start it out hitting wise for the Brewers.
Speaker 1:Also, jake Bowers. I forgot about Jake Bowers. I believe Jake Bowers will be in there too. He's your backup first baseman. Also has the ability to play the outfield right. So you still have those five outfield, five outfielders possibility there and he uh allows Hoskins to have that day off to it. I believe Bowers could be a good hitter for the Brewers. He's a switch hitter right. He's got the ability to hit from both sides. He'll get the the days off for Hoskins and possibly days you want to throw Hoskins in the DH role if Bowers is hitting good. So I think that's going to be a big thing to watch out for there.
Speaker 1:Just looking at the lineup for the Brewers not much else shaking there. Willie Adamas stayed hot for the Brewers two for four in that game. He had two runs scored. Good to see Willie heating up right Game. Before this we saw three home runs. Now we see a two for four outing. Good to see Willie Adamas hitting the baseball here heading into the start of this year. And also jackson churro came up one for four in that game. So brewers all the way, all the way around, had a pretty good day hitting the baseball there.
Speaker 1:Looking at the pitching for the Brewers in that one Colin Ray looked good. I mean, he looked good in that game. Five and two thirds, two hits, no earned runs, two walks, five strikeouts, solid outing out of Colin Ray. We saw uh Pompous in that game there. He had a third of an inning, one hit, one strikeout came in for uh Ray there pitched great. And then we saw other than that. We saw Poguero. He's I, we saw Poguero. I mean we saw Poguero last year.
Speaker 1:I think this could be a solid. He's going to have to be a solid piece for the Brewers in the bullpen. One inning, one hit, nothing else across the board. Solid day for Poguero there. So great all the way around. Win there yesterday for the Brewers and they will have one more, one more spring training game before we have that day off.
Speaker 1:And then we get to opening day against the Mets. Right, can't wait. They got the Rockies coming up. That will be a 2-10 start for that game against the Rockies and it's just exciting. It's an exciting time of year, right, opening day of baseball is right around the corner. We will see Aaron Ashby. He will pitch for the Brewers against the Rockies there. That will be in Scottsdale at Salt River Fields at Talking Sticks, so should be a good way to.
Speaker 1:I'm hoping Brewers end this baby on a win and then head off to New York where they will face the Mets there in that opening series of the 2024 season. It's exciting. I mean right now we don't know. I was just looking today. We don't know the scheduled starter for game two of the Mets series. I believe last time I saw, yeah, we don't know the game two starter, but as of right now we have Freddie lined up for game one and I believe, colin Ray. Yeah, colin Ray is lined up for game two. So, or for game three, so we don't know the game two starter right now.
Speaker 1:I would imagine DL Hall. I really did think DL Hall. I believe that spot was saved for Wade Miley. Maybe they're seeing if Wade can get back and into that rotation, but I would expect DL Hall to be in that spot there on that second day against the Mets. I believe he pitched right after Freddie did, when they were doing their last starts there in spring. I believe he pitched that game against the Diamondbacks on Sunday and I thought Freddie pitched against the Cubs. If I'm not mistaken he had the Cubbies there the day. Oh no, wade, miley pitched against the Cubbies. We had Freddie the day before that. So the way that it was setting up, I think that's the way they wanted to shake it.
Speaker 1:I think now you kind of slot in DL Hall behind Freddie and in between Freddie and Ray there in game two and you just let it ride there. They have Severino on the mound. So Severino's making his comeback right now. Dl Hall's getting one of his first starts. Well, first start for the Brewers, and I mean he transitioned to the bullpen with the Orioles. So first start in a while there in the bigs in a regular season game for DL Hall. So maybe we see DL Hall slotted in there against Severino in game two. But it's exciting, right, we're getting closer and closer to opening day of baseball.
Speaker 1:But with that I've got to mention a couple more, a couple of our sponsors here, before we move on. First, game Day Supply in Onalaska. Do you have a sports club or team? Are you looking for some sweet custom uniforms or apparel? Check out our team. Are you looking for some sweet custom uniforms or apparel? Check out the awesome crew at game day supply in on alaska to help your team get the sweetest gear. Find them on facebook at game day supply or online at gamedaysupplynet. Also, pittsville farm and home center. At the store they serve you anything from hydraulic hoses to red roses. Stop in and see the awesome crew at pittsville farm and home center in Pittsville, wisconsin. Also, marshfield Motor Speedways, located just three miles outside of Marshfield on County Road H. It's getting close to summer, right. Once the snow's gone, summer's going to be here. You got to plan some fantastic summer days and nights at the racetrack down there. Tons of fun for everybody in the family down there. You got to get down there this summer. Marshfield motor speedways, located just outside of marshfield, wisconsin.
Speaker 1:But with that we got to get over into the badgers, right, and we kind of talked. We talked about the badgers yesterday. Right, we had a long discussion about the Badgers and that James Madison game and everything like that. But today I'm looking at the Badgers from a different perspective. Right, we're end of the season, we have our season and wrap-up. Right, we got to get into it a little bit here. I don't know if I'm going to get it all in today. We might spread this baby out. I don't know if I'm going to get it all in today we might spread this baby out. I don't know how it's going to work. So I mean this Badgers season, I really do.
Speaker 1:I sum up the Badgers season into the Nebraska game at the midseason point. Right, first half, everything's falling, it's fantastic, you're up 19. Second half, it all falls apart. That's the way that I sum up this entire year for the badgers in one game because they played that that exact game was when ever the screw, everything just fell apart. The. We were rolling down the track, right, we were just, I mean, number six in the country. We were doing this, this, we were doing that, we were shaking our money, shakers anywhere we could shake them, right. And all of a sudden, that second half of the Nebraska game, we just like, it's like we ran into a buzzsaw, but it was in the second half. Right, we're up 19. I get it, we're on the road. Right, it sucks, we're on the road. But I mean, just to see the difference in that game is the difference in this entire year for me, right?
Speaker 1:So, coming off that Nebraska game, that's when the season fell apart. Right, nothing seemed to go right. We lost to Michigan, I mean, we lost a blowout to Rut, and even in the, I believe we only won two games there in that stretch. But even in those two games that we won it still seemed like something was off. Right, we didn't win those games, like I don't want to say like you expected, right, that's not really the way to phrase it, but those games they were at the Kohl Center and it's just like the Badgers still Something was not there, they were missing something, everything was still wrong. I could never put my thumb on it, right, we watched this Badgers team and after that midseason point there was something that was just completely off with this team. Like I said, you lost it at Michigan. At Rutgers you beat that Ohio State team at home, but that game was still I mean it ended up 62 to 54, but Ohio State missed a lot of shots and they missed a lot of point-blank layups in that game, if you guys remember that. So that game, I mean that was on the verge of loss. You lost that game at Iowa. Then right after that, where I mean it was 88-86 was the final there. And then you had a game against Maryland back at home. For that one you won 74-70. Looked a lot closer because at the end Maryland hit a flurry of shots, but that's another case where it's like they're winning games, but it's, you know, not the way that we saw it. So something was still different with this team.
Speaker 1:Then you got into the Big Ten tournament and the Big Ten tournament started out fantastic, right, you blew the doors off Maryland. That game against Northwestern, you won it without Chucky and that was great. Then you play that game against Purdue and you're I mean you played a heck of a game against Purdue in that one Took that baby the whole time, won that game. Something the Badgers haven't been able to do in a while was beat that Purdue team and they won that game in. I mean it was a great all-around effort.
Speaker 1:You went against Illinois and I got to say I believe the Badgers might have actually had a better shot to win that game if they had not played already three games before that and four games in four days there. I think that really did tax that team. They looked gassed down the stretch there. They just ran out of gas in the tank. So you end the year right. You end the year right. You end the year. You're sitting there with a 22-13 record and it's just like the things that got away right. You could have easily.
Speaker 1:I mean this team was in question to make the tournament at one point and it's like I kept saying I'm like they're going to get in, they're going to get in, but why is this thing so in question? I mean it was that second half right. That second half of the year. The committee luckily weighed the top half a little bit heavier than the bottom half right, because bottom half of the schedule they lost to some iffy teams. You take that loss to Rutgers. You take that loss. I mean, at Indiana. Lots of crap happened in that game. I mean people can say that the fire alarm had nothing to do with it, but the Badgers were on a run when that fire alarm got pulled right and all of a sudden it's like it all went backwards then. So I mean you can't blame the fire alarm for losing that game, but still, I mean it was still one of those things where it was like I just don't know, you know, you take it back. I've never seen something like that in a college basketball game. And then at least in a long time.
Speaker 1:And then we had that, like I said, the loss to Michigan, the loss to Rutgers, that loss to Nebraska, that you were up 19 and you end up blowing that lead. And I mean, just along the way, there was those games in there where it was like that loss at Penn State that was a big one too. I mean you went to Penn State. This is not a good team. It's tough to win on the road in Big Ten, right, but not a great team, but you lost that game. So I mean I look at this season as a whole. You picked up your good wins early on, right, marquette, michigan State twice. You look at the Virginia win technically ended up as good, but at the same time a lot of people didn't like Virginia. So how do you weigh that win? I don't know. You had that blowout win against Nebraska. You had a big win against Iowa early on. Those are all.
Speaker 1:And then I mean you look at the early season, the loss to Tennessee and the loss to Providence. Providence just jumped you and you know you want to. If you want to think of two games right that were very similar in the Badgers way was Providence and James Madison. I gotta be honest, because you look at this Providence game, the Badgers ended up losing that game 72 to 50, 72 to 59. But the halftime score of that Providence Wisconsin game 37 to 21. And when I looked at that game, providence jumped all over the Badgers early on, right, and they just couldn't. It's the Badgers couldn't get anything going against James Madden or against Providence and it was the same thing against James Madison. Then you look at the second half. The Badgers played better in the second half.
Speaker 1:But it's two instances where this Badger team came off a loss of a good team. It's almost the same style as early on in the year, like what we saw. This Badger team came off of a a loss to a good team. Tennessee, it's the orange, right, it's got to be the orange this. The tennessee volunteers beat the badgers right. Then they traveled to providence for that gavin tip-off games and providence jumped all over them right away. The badgers couldn't get anything going and that just set up the rest of the game. They lost that game 72 to 59.
Speaker 1:And then you look at the game that Wisconsin had against James Madison 72-61. And you look at that game as a whole and you say to yourself okay, the score at the half was 33-20. Those two games are so similar. But what happened in both games. The Badgers were unprepared for what was happening. That's the big thing that I looked at when I looked at James Madison and I looked at Providence. Those two games as a whole, both teams jumped on the Badgers. The Badgers didn't know what to do. They were turning the basketball over left and right, they couldn't get anything going on the offensive end and then all of a sudden in the second half they figured out. You look at that game against Providence. Yeah, less turnovers than what they had against James Madison, but still 12 turnovers. That's not characteristic of the Badger teams, right though the ones we like to look back at, of this Badger team. That was a 12 turnover game too, and a lot of those turnovers in that game came early on. So I look at the two games and I say those two teams jumped on the Badgers, and that's the only games that I. I mean, that's just where I compared the two. That's just where I compared the two was the Providence game early on in the year compared to the James Madison game early on in the year. So that led me into my next question.
Speaker 1:I had a question out there on Facebook and I just wanted to kind of see where everybody was leaning with it. So I posted out there and I said Badger fans, trying to figure out my take on this for the upcoming show today here, I said tomorrow in the post but that was yesterday and I said, if you were the AD in Madison, are you bringing guard back or are you moving on and trying to find his replacement? And you know I was hoping get some replies. I had a lot of replies out there and this isn't me trying to be biased one way or another. This is me. I love and this is what I even quoted a guy who kept I mean, he kept asking why people kept talking about Greg guard being fired and he kept saying the same things over and over. I was like I get it, I get what you're saying, I said, but I love when you can have the conversation where one fan doesn't agree with another fan because they have their own takes, perspectives, all their opinions on the situation.
Speaker 1:I love hearing it from both sides because you learn things hearing it from both sides. I think a lot of fans get away from that. They think that it's got to be this way, because this is the way I believe you have to be able to hear from both sides because I believe, end of the day, you learn something and it sways me back and forth, right, I read some of these comments here that I'm going to read off to you guys and I'm reading them and I'm like I really can see it now from both sides why this person thinks that Greg Gard should stay, why now, from both sides, why this person thinks that Greg Gard should stay, why this person thinks that Greg Gard should go. So I'm going to get into the comments here. I had one guy, or Christy Conway Powers, came out and said, yes, I think he's a great coach.
Speaker 1:I think people are incredibly fickle and ridiculous about this whole thing. Did Gard go six for 20 for bunnies? Did he miss many free throws? I really think if guard was a jerk to many as a coach, yelling at the refs and screaming at the players, people wouldn't feel they have such a right to tear into him right and left. I mean, you could take that. I agree right, players have to execute when they're on the floor, but also preparing your players to execute on the floor, I believe James Madison did speed Wisconsin up in that game to the point where even the most comfortable shots right the little bunnies, the layups right next to the basket. Those even became uncomfortable because the Badgers were so rushed to get shots off right and I think that did affect them in that game. So being prepared for the game now that might not be all.
Speaker 1:On Greg Gard, right, you can only I said this yesterday you can only prepare so much for a team like James Madison that team. You can watch them on film all you want, you can practice, you can have your guys coming after you all you want. But until you get into the game speed with some of those really fast guards that James Madison had and they jumped all over you. I mean it's a liable thing to say talking about players and executing on the floor, but that also comes with preparation too. So you can look at that from both sides and say, is he preparing his guys well enough for games? Right, you can only prepare so much.
Speaker 1:And then you look at recruiting too, right, you went into this season and you say to yourself, okay, was Nolan Winter going to always be my backup center? I don't think so. And you look at guys like was Gus Buss supposed to be the guy? I don't think in this day and age of college basketball that you can realistically, realistically rely on freshmen to, unless if they're a star. But we've heard a lot of coaches say now that there's not a lot of freshmen who are going to come in there and be able to bang around with some of the better overall transfers that you can get in the university.
Speaker 1:So we got AJ Storr in the transfer portal and we got Klesmith the year before that, but I believe he did not touch into the right positions, right, and he might've tried to recruit in a forward or recruit in a center. But I would have taken just the Chris Voigt type, right, not a guy that's going to score me a lot of buckets, but a guy who can still put up a few while also playing solid defense and being a rim protector. Right, because Steven Crowell wasn't a great rim protector. You could have used somebody like that to be a rim protector in there. And a guy to give Tyler Wall off. Right, a lot of people didn't like the play of Marcus Overs I believe he's still got a long ways to go and Carter Gilmore, so you didn't have that guy to switch in there for Tyler Wall in that power forward position. So I believe maybe you can look at recruiting then and say, hey, you got to be better in this position because you were relying too heavily on freshmen coming in that they were going to be able to make that jump right away and that led to trouble because a lot of teams out there, as we've seen, are getting a lot of transfers in and that's how they're building their teams. So I think it's with the times. He's got to advance with the times.
Speaker 1:Definitely, there in Madison we had Rita. Rita Marie came out and said how are we going to cover the cost of letting him go after the football payout? Football and hockey I mean you've got two guys you're trying to pay off right now. So of hockey, I mean you got two guys you're trying to pay off right now. So I agree that $12 million contract will be an issue there, having to buy that out. I think it does get less after this year.
Speaker 1:So next we have Jamie. I'm sorry, jamie, if I butchered your last name, but it's Horshcott. I'm sorry if I just butchered your last name, but I've got no problem bringing back guard at all. No need to elaborate any further. He does, however, need to bounce back next year If the talent sticks around and the newcomers step up. I'm giving him a one-year leash. I can see that, right, if this team you lost Conor a season but you get everybody back. Say, aj Storer comes back, everybody's back right, and you get Daniel Freetag in and also Jack Robinson right, and this team's if, and let's just say you had a transfer right, a good transfer.
Speaker 1:I don't know who they're gonna grab right, there's forwards out there. There's, I mean, that guy from Rutgers, uh, uh, amuki, he's out there right now. Very good rim protector, right, 6-11 rim protector. I mean that'd be a fantastic ad, if you ask me, average, I believe, like 10. A game like this is a solid guy, really lanky, long athletic guy from Rutgers. I would love if the Badgers grabbed him.
Speaker 1:You also have a guard out there, noah Reynolds. Badgers tried to grab him. He ended up at Green Bay. He's testing the NBA waters, but I believe he'll come back to college, so maybe you jump back in on him. I don't know. You're going to have a lot of guards in the room. Right, I think you need to address the forward center position there. Get some solid guys. I believe Nolan Winter will take a jump, but the question mark is Gus Yeldon.
Speaker 1:Where is he at Right? I have. Last time we know he wasn't traveling with the team, so where's Gus going to be? We don't know. But I mean, I agree with that, I think you've got to tighten the leash right. We've loosened it after the extension. I think you've got to bring it back in a little bit. So I agree with that one there.
Speaker 1:Jody Meyer also came out and she said Unfortunately, I think it's time to move on. Something isn't working with either his coaching style or the way the players are responding to him. Too much talent to have the season go the way it did Can't have a program with maybe next year players will leave and not or not come at all. I mean, yeah, I agree, you can't stay stagnant, right, and I think that's this team needs to take the lead. We've been stagnant for long enough, year after year, whether we make the tournament or we don't, this team, you know they stay stagnant. There isn't that? We got to see that. Jump right. You have all these guys coming back. You're going to have a very experienced team. Now you have a guy that in, max Klesman, right, this was his first tournament, experienced the tournament. Aj Storer experienced in the tournament. A lot of these guys. I mean they haven't been in the tournament a lot in their college career. So lots of these guys experienced in the tournament for the first time. Now they get back there. Now they know, right, teams are going to jump on you. We saw that with James Madison. So you know, if you bring him back, if you don't, this team needs to take a jump in this next year, some kind of a jump.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying national championship, don't twist the words. I'm not saying national championship. I'm not even saying final four, but a second weekend. Right, you got to get to the second weekend. We haven't seen Greg guard make it to the second weekend. That's the biggest argument that you'll get out of Badger fans who don't want Greg guard back is his tournament record and that is not making it to the second weekend. He made it there with Greg guards or with Bo Ryan's guys, right, guys that Bo helped develop Bronson Canning, nigel Hayes, those guys his first two years. He took those guys sweet 16.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that wasn't guard coaching, I'm just saying now these are his guys. Now we have to see him take the leap with his guys. That's what I'm saying with Greg Gard. So I mean I'm with you. I'm with you on it completely. I mean, we got to see this team take the next step and we got to see Gard develop with the changing times in basketball right, because I believe at times he's trying to run old style, new style, both in a way. I mean it just seems like at times the offense isn't flowing and everything just seems like it's a mess. So how does that change if he comes back, moving into next year? I think that's a big thing to watch.
Speaker 1:We had Tim Gerrard. He said the Badgers were already behind the times by hiring guard. The longer you hold on to him, the harder it's going to be to catch up with modern basketball. Yeah, that exactly I. I kind of just stated that when I was going off of the last comment there, but I agree 100. You either greg guard has to advance with the times or he's got to pick a philosophy. At the end of the day, what are you going to recruit for? Right, because right now I believe you have recruits. You are well, you have guys in the room that can play one style and you have guys who can play another style and you try to run that style where it's quick and everything like that, and that takes away from what these other guys can do. So I believe you got to find the happy medium and recruit for that happy medium.
Speaker 1:Pat meyer, he says time to let him go. You can't see what, uh, his offense or defensive strategies are. This team has no real identity of for any aspect of the game. I agree with that. That's what kind of what I was just stating. There was that this team seems to be in a mess all the time and it just it doesn't seem like there's a true, like you're saying, their true identity to this team, and I think that's the thing that if they don't find, they will continue to falter on this path, and that's where I think Greg Gard has to advance. Otherwise, like we talked about a little bit ago, I think the leash has to. I mean tighten and tighten and tighten until that baby, we just let them loose and let them run and get out of here. I mean, that's the big thing with it.
Speaker 1:Amanda Ruff, she said no time for a change. Pretty straightforward she wants change. I'm not going to go both ways. I'm not going to say you know, I've seen it from both sides, so I'm not going to say completely what I'm thinking right this very second, but I can't say that a change would be bad for the Badgers at this point. So, going off a couple more of the comments here, we had Garth Seller. He came out and said no, garth has won six NCAA games in his eight seasons. Won 144 games, averaging 21 wins a year. Two conference championship, two big time uh, big 10 coach of the years and coming off a season where we were ranked in the top 10 nationally, advanced to the big 10 title game and advance to the NCAAs for the sixth time in eight years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we could throw around accolades all day long. I mean that's cool, that's all I got out of there. I got all those accolades. I mean I could look that up. That's the comment I got is, I could look all that up. I get that. I get what you're saying. I mean we got all the accolades there.
Speaker 1:But I think what a lot of people have ticked off about is the tournament success. Yeah, you have won six ncaa games in his eight seasons, right. But you look at the two seasons with bo ryan's guys, he made it to the sweet 16. So there's four of them, right, you got four wins right there out of there. I mean, and that's that's the thing. That's the thing. So I mean I can. I. I see what you're saying, right, you see all the accolades, you see what he's done. But I think when you look at the opposite side, people are just looking for the next step. I think that's kind of what's missing right now. We had Jeff Ostack. He said it was disturbing to hear Chucky Eppern saying in the postgame press conference that he wasn't ready to play. At least he admitted it.
Speaker 1:The rest of the team reverted back to their awful performances in January and February when one had to wonder if they were going to win another game. Jmu humiliating Wisconsin goes to the entire coaching staff. Why were they not ready In the back of their minds after a great showing in the Big Ten tournament? Were they overconfident, or were they not prepared to play an out-of-conference mid-major team? Duke took care of JMU by close to 50, and the Blue Devils are nowhere close to a Final Four squad.
Speaker 1:Nobody has supported Coach Gard more than I have over the years. He represents the best of the Badger head coach. But so did Paul Chris, both born in the state, coaching the largest university, like AD Chris McDush did by hiring Luke Fickle. That's a comment right there that I completely agree with. I was in the same boat. I supported Coach Gard over the years, and when I keep seeing these games where it's like the Badgers aren't prepared, it's like, okay, are we going to keep blaming the players in the room? Is that what we're going to keep doing? Because if it's the players in the room, then it still comes back to the head coach, right? Everything continuously will come back to the head coach at some point. We can keep blaming the players, all we want, but then it comes back to recruiting, then it comes back to getting the right guys in the room, then it comes back to leadership. Where does leadership start? That starts at the top. So I mean, yeah, it's 100% in this.
Speaker 1:It's like they came that Big Ten tournament. They came in there firing on all cylinders against Maryland, a team that they knew they should have beat right, and they were still came in there like they had something to prove. And the same against Northwestern, the same against Purdue. And then you go against a team like James Madison that Purdue would blow out of the water, and yet you get blown out. And I mean not blown out, but the game was never relatively that close. And you look at Duke then or on that Sunday, then they blow them out and like he said and like I said yesterday on the show, duke wasn't even that good this year. They're not fantastic. They're a good team, but they're not fantastic. They're not the Duke teams from the past. So I 100% agree with that comment.
Speaker 1:There we had Chad R Draper. He came out and he said he's a very good assistant, not a good head coach. He is a good recruiter but doesn't seem to develop the talent he recruited. He went to the Sweet 16 with Bo Ryan's team and hasn't been there since. It is time to move on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I agree he was a good assistant coach, he's a good recruiter, but the development in the Badger system seems to be a problem, right, and you can shake that one of two ways. Nowadays you can go to the transfer portal for all your ads, because then you don't have to develop much. Or if you keep going the way that you are, you got to be able to develop talents and I believe that is a struggle in madison. Whether you want to blame that on guard, you want to blame it on his assistants, I don't know. But then if it's on his assistants, then that's guard's job to get new assistants in the room right. If he doesn't feel they're doing the job right, that's his problem. So I look at it from that double way right there again. I mean you can look at it from both sides. But I agree that I don't believe that some of the guys have been uh developed as they should.
Speaker 1:In Madison I feel like some of these guys have actually regressed. So that is a problem. In Madison we had Dale Fiery. He came out and he said recruiting seems to be old school, old guard, pun intended. The team showed how good they were capable of being in through uh for stints throughout the season. Mental mistakes, lack of energy and discipline fall on coaching. Too many teams are advancing in this new nil and transfer portal that this team will continue to play catch up under guard 100. He's either got to advance with the times or you got to find somebody else right, you can't stay old school anymore. That's why a lot of these old coaches are getting out of college basketball and that's why Tom Izzo I mean you look at him after the Michigan State game he kind of hinted at that he was going to look more in the transfer portal because they know what they have to do to win nowadays and it's different than what it was in the past. So I agree 100%. There A lot of other comments here just basically telling me to get rid of guard.
Speaker 1:Uh, not all on guard, there is very little talent on the team. I don't agree with that. I don't agree with there wasn't much talent on the team there. So just getting into a couple more of the comments here uh, we did see scott sherman said the d. Uh, the defense of greg guard Gard with he's not on the court is so tiresome. He has paid $3.5 million per year to teach them to score from under the basket and limit turnovers.
Speaker 1:Every single aspect of what they do on the court falls underneath the responsibility of Greg Gard Having them prepared to play, teaching them to handle pressure, defense, rotation on offense, help, defense, everything. That is his job. Your logic on a coach not being accountable for what happens on the court pretty much states that he has a lifetime contracts and never replaced because they're not responsible for players mistakes in a game. He he was responding to another guy's comment inside of there, but I I agree with this 100%. I mean we, like I said before, we throw so much of this onto the players. That's the biggest thing. The biggest argument that I've seen for people not wanting to get rid of Greg Gard is that they blame it on the players. But that's preparation, then getting these players ready, teaching them the fundamentals. I mean it seems like a fundamental issue at halftime. You wouldn't think you have to teach that in college but it seems like a fundamental issue at halftime.
Speaker 1:The little things that the Badgers struggle with, the mental aspect I talked about. After that Nebraska game midseason the confidence was blown on this team that instills from the top down right. Your coach has to instill confidence in a team that instills from the top down right. Your coach has to instill confidence in a team and I think that's where the Badgers did lack this year was the confidence in total on this team. So I 100% agree with you on that one. We saw Eric Fisher. Eric Fisher came out and he said moving on is always a great idea until you have to find someone better than what you have.
Speaker 1:Sweet 16, elite eights are the expectation when guards took over and that's fallen off. But the culture of college hoops is totally different. Wisconsin was the best when they had juniors and seniors that were plug and play from the graduating class the year before. They'd out, slow you and perform you at that level. Now they've lost their identity and are trying to play young new guys and increase pace within the style of offense and aren't succeeding. Combine that with the academic standards and the lack of nil boosters really limits your talent pool of players who want to come and play in a cold weather area. Guard isn't solely the problem, but the brand of wisconsin basketball is no longer covering all the warts. I think it's the identity thing. I'm gonna be honest with you. You can get away. I mean Tony Bennett when he won the national championship in 2019, I know the landscape has changed since then, but the game of basketball hasn't changed that much. You can win basketball games playing the style that Wisconsin wanted to do, but now you look at, like you said, the plug-and-play juniors and seniors Are they developing like you would expect in Madison?
Speaker 1:Tyler Wall did not develop much of a game outside of the post in Madison, right, he didn't develop a jump shot. That's the big thing, right? He didn't develop outside of that post area, which really limited him to what he could do. Chucky Hepburn regressed from what we saw because late in the year Chucky got better shooting the basketball right but early on he wouldn't even shoot. Steven Crowell is hit or miss all the time. Carter Gilmore a lot of people got their opinions on Carter Gilmore but doesn't do a lot for the Badgers at this point.
Speaker 1:And then you had your guys like Max Kleisman who came in the transfer portal. He was a hit or miss shooter at times he was a very I mean, he's a good shooter but he's a hit or miss shooter. At times he goes cold. He had a cold stretch throughout the year. Aj Storr you got to see him develop more of a disciplined game. So I agree with you that now they're trying to play this different pace of offense. But the part with the juniors and seniors now that has to do a lot with development of these guys too, because you had a lot of juniors on this team and yet this team still struggled. You had senior. You had a senior in Tyler Wall who didn't develop much in his time at Madison.
Speaker 1:So you got to look at it from different perspectives there. But all in all I agree with you. I mean you know you're going to get a coaching change could benefit your team and could also fail your team. So you got to look at it from both sides. There we saw Ryan Larson. He said personally I think we've reached guard ceiling as a coach. He just can't seem to get over the hump. In March with his team, seemingly completely unprepared. He can't force guys to protect the ball, make shots and play defense. But when you claim someone like a Cesar isn't getting playing time because his defense efficiency but nobody else seems to be doing any better, I think that speaks volume to where he is a coach.
Speaker 1:That right there that that I can 100% agree with you because I said that all year long. I said that. I said that in yesterday's episode. I said it days before that Connor season. The one excuse we got was his defense Wasn't good enough.
Speaker 1:In the Badgers defense sucked. This year Sucked Perimeter interior didn't matter where you wanted to look. Aj Storr wasn't a great defender, chucky. I mean he got you some steals here and there. Klezman struggled. You had guys struggling left and right. But you're going to tell me that Conor Asijian's defense was that bad that he couldn't get blank time.
Speaker 1:I didn't get that one, never understood that one whatsoever. So I mean that was a lot of comments I had. Sorry if I didn't get to your comments on the post. They were all fantastic. I was going through them. I was like I can't read off all of these. I'm going through them all, but they were all fantastic. I'm hoping to be able to get back to all you guys on that. But thank you for everybody who did comment in and I hope you guys agreed with my takes on your comments because I thought they were all fantastic. They all brought good points up in this offseason now for the Badgers right Offseason coming up for the Badgers Transfer portal's open.
Speaker 1:So hopefully in the upcoming days we see guys being added to the Badgers and not a lot of guys walking out the door. Right, we don't want to see some of the big names walk out of the door in Madison, but we saw Conor Esiason go and now with AJ Storr, we don't know. We don't know it's up in the air with AJ Storr. So we're going to see in the upcoming weeks, months, whatever it's going to be, what happens with Wisconsin basketball. But with that, that's about all I got for today. We got to a lot. We got lots to get into here over this week. But with that this has been Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. Thank you guys for listening. We'll catch you guys back here tomorrow, but until then, deuces. Thank you.