Thank you how we doing, everybody, and welcome to Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host. Trage, it is Wednesday, a fantastic Wednesday here in the great state of Wisconsin, my voice slowly coming back right. Yesterday we had a little bit of issues with my voice coming and going. It's back kind of today, you know. So I mean we're going to get through it. We're going to get through it today A little bit shorter. Today I have a couple guests joining me. Tomorrow we're going to be talking about the NFL draft. Tomorrow here on the show we're going to get more into the Bucs tomorrow on the show and also the Brewers. So lots to get into tomorrow. A little bit shorter today here, just because, as you guys know, I shoot this thing at night. After all, the games are done. Game just got done here in Wisconsin. It's about 10.15 at night right now. So I mean we're going to get through this, though we're going to get through this, and I mean some of the games.
Speaker 1:I mean it was a rough day, a rough day for Wisconsin sports in general. I'm gonna be honest with you Brewers lost, bucks lost. I mean you can't get much worse than that, right. The only thing that could have made it worse was the Badgers lost, right. But I mean, and to start it out, just getting into the Badgers a little bit, right now I mean I am just, I don't know, truth be told, I'm waiting for a transfer to say I'm going to Madison. I mean, right now they I don't even hear, like I hear a whole bunch of names that the Badgers are looking at, right, and I get a million and one of those across social media. I'll be scrolling through Twitter, I'll scroll through Facebook, whatever it is, and I get a ton of oh, the Badgers are targeting this guy, oh, the Badgers are targeting this guy. Great, fantastic, they're targeting him. I mean we're targeting Tyrese Hunter. He's heading off to.
Speaker 1:Oh, I can't remember where the heck Tyrese Hunter is heading right now. I can't remember off the top of my head, but Tyrese Hunter committed elsewhere. We just saw Frankie Fidler. He's going to Michigan State. I saw Chucky Hepburn. I saw his projections. They have him projected for Louisville Interesting, louisville is actually throwing together a pretty good team right now.
Speaker 1:So I mean good for college basketball that Louisville is back on the rise, because I always believe college basketball was better when Syracuse was good. When Louisville was good. College basketball was good. But that turns us back to the Badgers right now. Right, I mean, yeah, people and I see a lot of those out there oh, we're not worried, right? Aj's Thor was this to us and Conor's season was nothing. And Chucky Hepburn all he did was dribble too much and did this and this wrong.
Speaker 1:And everybody else who left, they're just mid-major guys or whatever you want to say. Okay, you lost half the roster. I mean, you lost what? Connor Season, you lost Chucky, you've lost Tyler Wall and AJ Storr, so that's four guys. That's four guys right there. You also lost a couple guys Hurdle off your bench there and Isaac Lindsley off the bench. So six guys, six-plus guys. I might have missed a guy in there, but you've now lost six-plus guys in the room now. So you have to replace that. Yeah, you have two guys coming in Daniel Freetag, jack Robinson, whoop-de-doo. Right, you got two guys.
Speaker 1:You're replacing a roster right now and I love what I see out of Daniel Freetag, I love what I see out of Jack Robinson, but if you guys truthfully look at the makeup of college basketball now, you're not winning games with recruits anymore. John Calipari is not winning games. Well, now, he's gone from Kentucky, right, but he wasn't winning games with his recruits at Kentucky. That's just how it is. Now you put together an experienced roster. That's the big benefit of the transfer portal, right? The big benefit. You can throw together these teams. Look at UConn they went from a national championship team to in the next season they loaded up with transfers again and they ran that thing back. That's just how they did it. And now you look at Michigan. You're going to see Louisville in this upcoming season. You're going to see even a team like Florida and Indiana. They have three of the better transfers right now. I believe I was looking at the rankings. I'm pretty sure Indiana's near the top in transfer portal ads right now. I mean looking at the makeup of rosters now to win.
Speaker 1:Tom Izzo is a prime example of that, because Tom Izzo did not touch the transfer portal. That was not his forte, right? Tom Izzo is an older style coach who he's going to bring you into the system. He's going to work you for four years and then he's going to dump you off. Then he's going to send you wherever you go NBA, if you somehow get to the NBA, if you end up in a GE league, if you end up overseas, whatever it is, or you end up in the job force. That's how Tom Izzo worked. He's a four-year guy, but you saw him go out and get Frankie Fidler because he knows times are changing. We got to work with this transfer portal thing if we want to survive, and that's what a lot of teams have accustomed themselves to.
Speaker 1:So, yes, I love the additions of Daniel Freitag and I love the addition of Jack Robinson there, but they need something else. They need a score, they need depth, they need experienced pieces. Because you lost experienced pieces, you lost Chucky Hepburn. Now, I'm not going to say that Chucky Hepburn was like losing Frank Kaminsky, right. I'm not going to say that Chucky Hepburn was like losing Frank Kaminsky, right. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say he was like losing Sam Decker. But Chucky Hepburn was an experienced point guard, an experienced point guard in the Big Ten who played pretty good defense and was a pretty darn good ball handler for you, and he's gone now. Now you have to replace that. Can Daniel Freetag do that? I believe so, but is it going to take him a hot minute? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Are the Badgers going to go into this sort of a rebuild, as you would almost say, because now you look at the Big Ten, it's getting bigger. Right, it's getting bigger, and the competition is getting stiffer inside the Big Ten. So how does that work out? Now? I mean, I am waiting right now. I am waiting, waiting, waiting for some news to come across my social media that says the Badgers have gotten blank and blank in the transfer portal. That's what I am waiting for right now, because right now all I'm seeing is targeting, targeting this guy, targeting that guy, fantastic, fantastic. I try to shoot at the target all the time. Doesn't mean I hit it right, and that's where the Badgers are at. They're targeting a lot of guys, but they're missing wide right. They're missing wide left, nothing, nothing there. So I mean, that's just where I want to start for the day today.
Speaker 1:Was this Badger team? I mean they are right now. This is going to be a big testament to what Greg Gard can do, because he told us and I heard that's what I saw was that they've tripled the NIL money. So is money still the problem? If it is, then what the heck were we at before? Were we at one? Now we have $3. Like, what are we at? You know can. Are we at? Can we afford the Big Mac meal or are we stuck on the dollar menu? Where are we at right now as a program? That's what we really need to hear. I didn't hear numbers. I don't know if there was a number out there. I just heard that they added three times the NIL money. Where is it? Because if it's all about money these days and if that's what gets transfers in the door, then why can't we get them in the door? That's the biggest question.
Speaker 1:Does it come down to coaching? Are guys looking at greg guard and saying I don't think I could play for that coach. I don't think he's gonna put me over the edge. To where I want to be, I don't know. I I truthfully don't know. I don't want to sound like I don't think greg guard can do it and to where I want to be, I don't know. I truthfully don't know. I don't want to sound like I don't think Greg Gard can do it and I don't want to sound like here that I think Greg Gard can do it. What I'm saying is that I don't know. You know what is the mindset of these players. I want to hear from Frankie Fidler why Frankie Fidler did not go to Wisconsin Now, maybe because Chucky Eppern left, but I believe that Fiddler, he knocked out Wisconsin in his top four before he announced, like this was a week before, because Chucky Eppert he transferred Like a week before.
Speaker 1:I believe it was almost a week before we saw Frankie end up at Michigan State. So it leads me to believe that Chuck Yepper knew he wasn't coming and maybe that was it. Maybe that was it for Frank or for Chucky to say I'm out, I'm done, I'm done. You can't get this guy, you can't get. You know, one of these kind of guys. I'm, I'm out of here. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I I truthfully do not know what the heck is going on behind the scenes of Madison right now. But man oh man, they got to find something. They got to find something out there in the transfer portal right now, because it is getting it's. I mean, I shouldn't say it's getting late, but there's a lot of guys committing already and the Badgers aren't in on them right now. So how deep into the barrel will the Badgers, this Badgers team, have to dig before they find a guy? Will it be a five, will it be a four star, will it be a three star or Will it be a five? Will it be a four star? Will it be a three star or will it be worse? Where are you looking in the transfer portal right now? I don't know. I truthfully don't know. I see a lot of names are targeting. I don't see a lot of action coming into Madison right now. So hopefully, hopefully, we get some good news coming out of this Badger team coming up here in the upcoming weeks, some good news in the transfer portal front there that the Badgers are finding somebody out there.
Speaker 1:But with that, before we move on here, before we get into the brewers and the bucks for the day here, I just want to mention a few of the sponsors of the show here. Quick 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 the awesome crew at Game Day Supply in Onalaska to help your team get the sweetest gear. Find them on Facebook on Game Day Supply or online at gamedaysupplynet. Also, your hometown team, century 21 Gold Key Realty. Call Peggy Sue or Anna to find your dream home. Or if you're looking to sell, find them on Facebook at your hometown team, century 21 Gold Key Realty or stop in and see them at their location in Marshfield. Also, sport and Spying Clinic in Greenwood, wisconsin. If you've been injured recently whether it's at work, whether it's on the basketball court, baseball field, softball field, whatever it was and you need some physical therapy, stop in there at Sport and Spine Clinic and see Chad. He'll get you right. He'll get you back to work, back on the court, back on the field, whatever it was. He'll get you back from it. Sport and Spine Clinic in Greenwood, wisconsin.
Speaker 1:But with that I want to get into the Brewers here. The Brewers did drop game two of that series last night and it wasn't due to the pitching. It wasn't due to the pitching. Right now the Brewers' offense is going a little bit stagnant. It's going a little bit cold on us right now and it ain't looking too hot. I mean, you look at Brewers pitching.
Speaker 1:Last night Tobias Myers made his major league debut and he looked good. I mean outside of the first pitch of the game that he threw to McCutcheon, that McCutcheon put into the seats for a solo shot to lead off the game. I'm telling you what today in the game against the Pirates, I would not be opposed to them intentionally walking Andrew McCutcheon, because he's went back-to-back days with a lead off home run there on Monday and Tuesday. So I'm done with pitching to him to start the game here. If he plays you intentionally walk him, I'll put a guy on to start the game there. But Tobias Myers looks good. I mean he looks good.
Speaker 1:The fastball I mean everybody was talking about his fastball coming up. The off-speed stuff for Tobias Myers was working in this one and he I mean there was a lot of at-bats where they got extended. You know he wasn't like he was over the top, overpowering guys, but he did what he had to do to get out of innings and that's what we wanted. That's what we talked about yesterday here on the show. We need inning eaters right now in Milwaukee and Tobias Myers if you know, it's one start I have there's a lot of people out there on social media who are freaking out and they're like, well, yay, now we have four starters, blah, blah. I get it. I mean I'm hoping for the best out of Tobias Myers.
Speaker 1:I loved what I saw. What I'm saying is is that pump the brakes? We got to see what he does in his next appearance right. Pump the brakes off. We appearance right, pumped the brakes off. We've seen guys come out for fantastic. It's like Joe Ross, right? Joe Ross has pitched fantastic for this Brewers team so far Better than what was expected out of Joe Ross. But it's just one of those things where you got to pump the brakes with it. Pumped the brakes because we've seen the flip side, right, we've seen where it can get ugly, so pumped the brakes back. Let's see it in the next outing.
Speaker 1:But what I saw in his first outing now that's not to take away what I saw in his first outing, what I saw in his first outing this guy went five innings of four hit baseball, one earned run, one walk, four strikeouts, that one home run given up. It was a solid day, a great day for Tobias Myers, a great day. You just wish the offense could have backed him up a little bit there, because the dude's going to move to 0-1 in his first Major League start. He's going to get the loss and he only gave up one run in that appearance. He pitched great for this Brewers team, exactly what they needed. The offense just couldn't get it going in this one. So I'm not taking away from what Tobias Myers did in this game. I'm hoping that he can be a everyday starter for the Brewers. What I'm saying is that I'm still not opposed to adding depth to this team. I'm really not. I love what I saw to Tobias, but I really think the Brewers could still use some veteran depth. So Tobias goes five, four hit, one run baseball there.
Speaker 1:Then came in Koenig. There Koenig pitched solid. I mean he did not pitch bad at all, he gave up a run but he pitched solid in those two innings of relief there. Two innings, three hits, one earned run, 1k on his outing. I mean solid day out of Koenig there. And then Uribe came in for an inning. One walk, one strikeout for Uribe. So solid stuff there, solid stuff all the way around. For the Brewers pitching staff in that game. There Three guys used. They got through Two earned runs in total in this one. Not a bad day whatsoever.
Speaker 1:But then you look at the hitting Brewers. In this one they were held down once again. I mean you look at Churro 0-3. At the top of the order there. Contreras 0-3. Adamas 0-4. Hoskins 0-3. Perkins 0-4. Joey Ortiz 0-4. Hoskins 0-3. Perkins 0-4. Joey Ortiz 0-3. Sanchez did have that solo home run 1-3 on the day. Joey Weamer 1-2. Uh, frelick came in then 0-1 and Terang went 1-2.
Speaker 1:I gotta be honest with you, I don't care lefty, righty. I've talked about this before. I would play Sal Frelick over Weamer. Be honest with you. Weimer had a hit. I'm not going to take that away from Weimer, I'm not going to take it away from him. But I'm telling you what, right now, the Brewers offense did not need to experiment with this kind of stuff. I just don't. I would have kept Sal in there. I would have kept Sal in there. That's just me.
Speaker 1:I get the matchup thing, but the Brewers can't hit lefties. We know this. The Brewers cannot hit lefties. It's been this way for a long time now and in this game last night it proved true Once again. The Brewers still struggle against left-handed pitching. I don't know why. They haven't been able to figure it out. You would think when you throw a right-handed dominant lineup in there, it would take away from what the lefty can do. It's the exact opposite for the Brewers, because in this one three hits, 11 strikeouts in total and only three walks on the game the Brewers were held down by a lefty once again, and I mean the Pirates have some solid pitching, looking at Falter in that game seven innings, three hits, two walks, one earned run, eight strikeouts in that home run given up. Falter pitched great.
Speaker 1:You can't really knock what we saw out of Falter in this game for the Pirates. There he pitched fantastic and then their bullpen came in there. Holderman came in for an inning, two strikeouts. And then Bendar came in there for a strikeout inning there and got the save. I mean Brewers once again held down in this game Pirates. I mean there wasn't a lot of offense in total in this game here. Seven hits for the Pirates.
Speaker 1:In this one Brewers scratched across three hits in this one I mean it was all the way around. It was a pitching fest, that's all it was. It was a great. I mean two good pitching performances, kind of like what we saw the day before. There was pretty solid pitching. Same thing against in game two of the series there. So I mean good stuff. It was some good stuff All the way around for the Brewers pitching staff.
Speaker 1:The hitting has got to get going here and they have another lefty coming up today here That'll be going against Fleming there for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He'll take on Bryce Wilson. Bryce Wilson will get the start for the Brewers in game three of this series here, and I mean Wilson, 2-0 on the year 3.29 ERA. Guys up and down the Pirates lineup have seen Wilson. Mccutcheon has seen him 11 times, reynolds has seen him four times, 13 times for Tellez and then three times for Trillo, and all guys I mean outside of McCutcheon's bat, 182. Outside of that, 380 and above for the rest of these guys against Bryce Wilson there Not many Brewers have seen Fleming yet.
Speaker 1:Hoskins, he's seen him twice there. Owen Miller, he's had a bat against him there. And then Sanchez, three at-bats he's got two RBIs and a home run. And Bowers, in three at-bats he's got one RBI and he's hitting .333 against him. So not a lot of experience against Fleming
Speaker 1:there. But Brewers need to get it going against the lefty. They need to get it going here, otherwise they're going to risk dropping this series, a four-game series to the Pirates. I mean these are big games early on in the year, right, big games for the Brewers. You got to be able to find success somewhere in this Pirates series and kind of stave them off there and continue to ride the hot wave, because right now the offense is about the only thing that's carrying you until that pitching staff gets semi-healthy. Junis is going to be out for a little
Speaker 1:while. Now we don't know with Wade Miley. The way that he talked in his press conference about his elbow inflammation it kind of makes it seem like Wade Miley might be done for his career. That might have been career. We might have seen the last pitching of Wade Miley for his career. I'm not sure on that, I'm just hypothetically speaking of what we heard in his presser and that was a very upset. Wade Miley, who I don't know if he can battle back from this one, so I don't know what this Brewers pitching staff. I mean now you got Myers in the fold. Hopefully that continues to work out well. But I mean DL Hall is going to be out for a little while yet. And then I mean Mizorowski. I think he's like a year off yet. I think he's like a year off Gasser. Hopefully he gets back pretty soon and we can see maybe a guy like Robert Gasser work his way
Speaker 1:up. I don't know on Carlos Rodriguez, if he's going to be ready to go anytime soon here, just simply because he hasn't had a lot of time At the AAA level. I was just trying to find his pitching stats as of right now, he is sitting at 0-4 with an 8.34 ERA. So right now Carlos F Rodriguez is probably not the best option to be bringing up to the big league level at the moment. But I mean, you have options down there. It's just, are those options really going to benefit you at the big league level or would you be better off with a free agent pitcher coming in? And where do you find that guy? I mean, there's a couple of guys out there, but will they benefit your club? I don't know. That's a million dollar question right
Speaker 1:now. So Brewers trying to win game three of the series, that'll be a 540 start for that one coming to you on Valley Sports Wisconsin, also on WTMJ 620 and the Brewers Radio Network. Wherever you get the Brewers, you'll be able to check them out there. So good stuff there. Brewers Pirates coming up from PNC Park there in Pittsburgh. But with that I want to get to a couple more of our sponsors here quick before we move
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Speaker 1:wisconsin. But with that we got to get into the Bucs. Bucs take the 125-108 loss there in Game 2 of the series last night and it just the Bucs. They just couldn't stop the Pacers. The Bucs would put a run on. They got it down to two or three there in the third quarter and then it just seemed like right after that the Pacers went up 20. Like just as the Bucs had this like little glimpse of hope. It was gone. It was gone once again. You know that the South Park episode, right, where they put in the bank and he's like, and it's gone, you know, and it's gone, I mean that's just where it was at for the
Speaker 1:Bucs. In this one Bucs were just not able to weather the storm. That was the hot shooting of the Indiana Pacers. In this game here, pacers I mean outscored the Bucs every quarter of this game here, and that's I mean the Bucs played a good third quarter, right. I mean they allowed 32 points but they scored 28 themselves. So it's not like they had a down quarter, they just could not keep up with the Pacers in this one. So in this game here I mean, we saw Siakam go for 37 for the Pacers, miles Turner at 22. Nembhard had 20. Halliburton had 12. And Neesmith had 11 for him Off the bench there. Toppin had nine and then six and eight for McConnell and Shepard alike there. So Pacers score it well in this game here For the Buc saw Bobby go for 14, middleton with 15 in this one, brooke Lopez with 22, pat Bev gave five and then we saw Damian Lillard go for 34 points, once again off the bench there Crowder two points, five for Connington. Beasley added four, five for AJ Green and two for Andre Jackson
Speaker 1:Jr. In this game here, bucks shot it 40% from downtown. In this game here, 13 for 32. That was compared to 44% for the Pacers, 16 for 36 in this game here. But the big difference maker from the floor the Pacers shot 50 for 90 from the floor. In this one the Bucks shot 38 for 86, 44% compared to 55% for the
Speaker 1:Pacers. In this one, at the free throw line, bucs got there 21 times. It's a big thing that kept the Bucs in this game here 19 for 21 from the free throw line, compared to 9 for 14 from the Pacers. In this one, rebounding, bucs were out rebounded by five. In this game here, offensive glass the Bucs did out-rebound the Pacers on the offensive end. They had eight offensive rebounds in this game compared to seven for the Pacers in this one. Total assists though 38 for the
Speaker 1:Pacers. I mean they were hitting shots, that's about all you can say. They found wide open shooters, they found guys cutting down the lane and the Bucs were just not. I mean a couple of transition buckets here, a couple of transition buckets there, and the Bucs just weren't able to keep pace with this Pacers team in this one. Just looking, I was looking at fast break points there 14 fast break points for the Pacers I mean, but it seemed like a lot more. They got themselves out in transition, got the Bucs in awkward shifts and that's what they took advantage of it there. So speeding up the Bucs was definitely in the favor of this Pacers team, outscoring the Bucs in the paint 52-36 in this game here. That was another killer to this Bucs team. Other notable stats I mean turnovers not really a big problem for the Bucs in this one Six blocks though for the Pacers in this game and three steals. That's named off a bunch of big killers in their
Speaker 1:year. Fast break points. They held them down kind of in that first game there. Second game they get in double digits again in fast break points. But it seemed like there was a lot more fast break points in that. I know they're talking transition buckets there, but there was a lot more fast break points than that in this game here. I know they're talking transition buckets there, but there was a lot of, like I said, moments in this game where the Bucs got into all out of sorts on the defensive end because of what the Pacers were doing with momentum. So that was definitely a big swing in this game
Speaker 1:here. Bucs, I mean you know, watching this game I love and this is going to be controversial, but I love me some Pat Beth. I'll be honest with you. I love me some Pat Beth, but sometimes I think he gets too much out there. I'm going to be honest with you Because in this one the Bucs defensively weren't really doing anything. They weren't really doing anything defensively that was weathering this storm. So you're gonna have to lean on and say, okay, we need some offense, we need some offense. Is Beasley a better offensive player than Pat Bev? Probably, right, better shooter than what Pat Bev is? So I know I I get to those points where it's like, okay, pat Bev brings this different tenacity to this Bucs team. But the tenacity wasn't there. I mean, it's not like they were getting stops on defense, it's not like they were slowing down this Pacers
Speaker 1:team. Yes, pat Bev did help with Halliburton, but at some point you're going to have to sacrifice some defense for some offense because the rest of your defense was not playing well. So you had to sacrifice in one sense, and I think that was where you had to do it in this one was, I mean, putting your offense out there. Putting your offense out there and letting it run, because when you have the likes of when Pat Bev is the guy running the point and he's got to make the decisions for your team because Dame can't get the ball, you run into issues. You run into some issues out there. So I don't know if Beasley's the answer. I'll be honest with
Speaker 1:you. I thought Connington brought some really good things to this Bucs team Some really big buckets for the Bucs when they need them the most. He was the guy slashing the lane and getting in there. I mean, like I said, he had five points in this game. Doesn't seem like a lot, but there were some big moments for Cunnington in this game here. So I mean, I don't know, there's a lot to dissect from what we've seen in the first two games of this series so
Speaker 1:far. Like I said, I got a couple guys joining me tomorrow on the show here. We're going to get more into this Bucs series. Right, we're going to be talking about the Bucs. We're going to be talking about the bucks. We're gonna be talking about the brewers. We're gonna be talking about the end of the draft. So I'm gonna leave that stuff until tomorrow here because there's a lot to dissect
Speaker 1:there. I just wanted to go over the box here a little bit and first impressions of this game here, but we're gonna get into it tomorrow there because those guys they get hot when they're talking about the bucks and everything else. So I can't wait for that. But with that, that's about all I got for today. Like I said, it was going to be a little bit shorter today. We got a little bit longer of an episode coming tomorrow. We're going to be talking about a lot NFL draft, bucs, brewers we got to talk about it all tomorrow. So lots to talk about tomorrow. 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.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, my Lord, watch me sway. Darkness falls and we all pray, hoping for the light of day. Down to the river, I have held the devil's hand, felt the weight of my own sin, burdened by the heart of man.