Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
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Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Yankees' Beardless Era, Brewers Spring Training Preview, and Badgers' Basketball vs Oregon – Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trag
Wisconsin sports fans have plenty to celebrate and critique, from the Yankees' new facial hair policy to the implications of Bobby Portis's suspension for the Bucks. With the Brewers gearing up for baseball season and the Badgers taking on Oregon, the discussion highlights the highs and lows of Wisconsin sports. We dissect Mark Ananasio’s comments, Luke Fickle’s contract extension, and the upcoming challenges for the Badgers against a tough Oregon team.
• Yankees drop their facial hair policy
• Ananasio’s controversial comments spark debate
• Luke Fickle’s contract extension raises questions
• Upcoming Badgers vs. Oregon game preview
• Bobby Portis's suspension affects Bucks' playoff chances
This is Wisconsin Sports On the Go with Trage, your place for all things Wisconsin Sports. Now your host, trage, doing everybody. And welcome into wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage. It's been a hot minute. It has been a hot minute since we've been live. I know, you know we got. We're on the radio now, 92.3 wosq. Make sure you're checking that out. On wednesdays at 7 pm we're on there. But we just haven't had the time to get live.
Speaker 1:I was sick the past couple days. I was thinking about going live and I was like, oh crap, I, you know I got six or throat, everything like that, still feeling under the weather today. But hey, we're here, I want to talk, we I. There's a whole bunch of stuff happening and I was like I can't miss for this long. I got to get back and talk sports. Aaron wanted to be here. He's under the weather too. I don't know if you could transmit, you know, sickness through a computer, but aaron's sick, I'm sick. It's like maybe, maybe we rubbed off on each other. Kyle, I'm sorry if I rub off on you tonight here, sorry about that one. He's giving the computer virus there, 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:You know been been a few weeks since I've been on um. I think a lot has happened since then. But you know, I'm definitely glad to you know, be on here and talk about you, feel like you know 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 and get into it it's my favorite time of year.
Speaker 1:It is baseball's back. I mean we're talking about spring training. I mean I already started, but the brewers don't start until tomorrow. So like I really don't care up until tomorrow, but baseball is back. March is almost here. The madness has almost started. We got college basketball at the Wazoo. The Badgers are Kyle. I don't know, we talked about the Badgers. It's been a while since you and me have talked about the Badgers. But this Wisconsin Badger team is wow, just wow. I mean the way the offensively they are lighting up the world right now. It is absolutely insane. So love to see that they're out of the Badgers.
Speaker 1:But we want to start with an interesting one today the Yankees. You know it's kind of out of our realm, but Devin Williams right, devin Williams heads out to the Yankees and I don't know if he looked like crap without facial hair and that's why they did this or what. But the facial hair policy is gonna go away. They went through years where you had to have, you know, no beard, nothing. You couldn't have facial hair at all. I don't know if it was the whole mustache thing or what. They just they didn't feel like a beard looked good. I don't, I thought it did. You know matt carpenter, when he went out there and he didn't have the beard, I was like who is this guy right? And alex verdugo looked like he was 12 when he shaved off there.
Speaker 1:Devin williams does look rough. I. I don't like devin williams without a beard there. Um, he said that he hasn't been clean, 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 had that shaved beard when they showed him with the look with the shaved beard that was. That was bad that was bad like.
Speaker 1:There are some things that you're not meant to see in life. 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't blow playoff games if he's got a clean, shaven face. Just maybe, just maybe I don't know. You know for yankees sake I hope he does. But I mean, kyle, this is right in your division, this is right in your division, this is right in your backyard there in.
Speaker 1:Boston A Red Sox fan there. What do you think about the Yankees? This feels like this is way overdue, like why did it take 40-some years for the Yankees to go? Everybody else is good with it aren't we Like? I don't know what do you think?
Speaker 2:I mean, look, the first thing was waking up and seeing that they had like an official statement for this. I thought it was hilarious, because normally when you see an official statement it's like somebody big got fired official statement, they acquired somebody big, official statement. But the fact that you're turning back on a policy which was kind of done to begin with because Johnny Damon was also a guy, had a beard went to the Yankees, it's just like you weren't winning anything the past like 25 years with a little shorter than that, but it's been a while since you've won anything. I guess maybe they're just trying to switch it up to fix that and hope that now guys will be themselves with their facial hair and maybe they'll play looser in the playoffs and hopefully they win. Uh, that that world series title that they've been chasing for a while, uh, yeah, like I saw it.
Speaker 1:I saw it on the bottom ticker and I was just like the biggest non-story that I needed today was to know that the yankees aren't doing the beard thing anymore this was yankee news like this is what you needed, yeah, what you needed right here on the yankees, I just thought, you know they're still gonna have the policy it's got to be clean. Though it's got to be clean. You can't yeah, you can't be frizzly, you can't, you know, walk out there looking rough, yet it's still got to kind of clean up.
Speaker 2:You can't do the hockey beard right, right, so right.
Speaker 1:So I mean I guess I guess good for the Yankees, good for Yankees, good for Yankee players. Now I wonder can you Aaron Judge? I wonder if he can grow a beard. I'd be interested in Aaron Judge with a beard Like. He looks like a lumberjack right now. Give him a beard, right. Maybe that's the key right for playoffs. Maybe don't drop a ball on the outfield if you got a beer.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I mean that play just killed Yankee fans all over the place. Oh, that whole inning I remember watching the live feed of them in the stadium. When it happened they were just like oh, that's the end of the ending or something. It's like wait what? And then it just went downhill from there. I watched it on TV, loved every second of it, but you know, oh, that is.
Speaker 1:It's still living in their heads, rent-free at this point, like that whole inning was just a disaster after disaster, after disaster, and then, yeah, well, we see what happens there the Dodgers win the.
Speaker 1:World Series, which is not good for anybody anyways. Right, because the Dodgers win the World Series, which is not good for anybody anyways. Right, because the Dodgers we don't want the Dodgers to win the World Series. Well, I'm sick of baseball for the simple fact of the payroll and everything like that, because there was a quote the other day and a lot of people out there and you can take this quote any way you wanted to take it, but it was misinterpreted, it wasn't put out there right. So what? What I saw and this is what I saw originally was the quote from mark annanacio, and mark annanacio essentially said that the brewer what is what was? It was what was his job? Right? And he said his job was was it to win a world series or was it to put fans into the seats? Was it to give families a good environment to go to? Essentially is what he said, and it was blown out of context. So I have it right here. My goal from an ownership standpoint is always to compete. I don't like to talk about us being a small market. We've certainly not played like a small market Since 2005,. We have the fourth most wins in the 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 my job to win a World Series or is my job to provide a summer of entertainment and passion and a way for families to come together? So that's the quote that was taken by us today, usa today, and ran with right I think it was, by some guy named, uh something, nightingale was his name. Uh, let's, yeah something, nightingale. Bob nightingale was the guy's name there and he took it, ran with it. Good, okay, that's what he took and ran and, oh my goodness, brewer fans, radio hosts, everything just exploded. The world was blowing up. It was done Like everybody's freaking out about what Mark Ananasio had to say and he was not entirely misquoted, right, because he said that he did state that in his presser or in this interview that he had.
Speaker 1:But that was only two lines. There's the rest of it, right. And he went on and he talked about the Dodgers and what the Dodgers are able to do and what he's not able to do and being a small market team. And you know he went on to talk about we don't have financial ability to bring in superstars. We try to hold on to whatever. Whatever we can there, you know bringing it, you know having guys like Jackson Churio and different things, right? So this thing went way longer, right? So everybody's freaking out.
Speaker 1:And then mike and anasio came out and he said he was entirely misquoted. I was sitting in the room. He said the goal is always to win a world series, but it's also important, as a steward of the franchise, to provide a summer of passion and excitement for the fans so you don't lose generations of fans like some teams do when you have a long rebuild. We always want to be competitive to avoid that. Very frustrating to see what the writer posted, which completely was not in the spirit of the comments that were made. So that's essentially what Mike had to say. I believe, and this is what I'm going to say Mark Ananasio wants to win a World Series.
Speaker 1:Anybody out there who believes that Mark Ananasio doesn't want to win a world series is absolutely out of their mind I don't understand how you could sit there and go wow, this brewer's owner does not want to want to win a world series. If you had, if you were like the a's owner doesn't sure I believe you like if you asked me that I'd say the a's do not want to win a world series. Like watching them, seeing the crap that's going on out there. I would believe that marquette anasio does what he can, right, but this is the thing that I don't understand. So everybody's freaking out. The brewers have made an off-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 with your red socks, right? Kyle got alex bregman out there. Three years, 120 million dollars, 60 mil deferred to the back end of that deal. The Brewers weren't going to compete with that. They weren't throwing that down. You strap yourself up. You don't have money to spend. So this is what I realistically want to ask Brewer fans If you're in the comments tonight, I'd love to hear what you got to say.
Speaker 1:What were you going to go get? That would have excited you, right, yohan Mankata. I was a big guy for Yoan Mankata. I said let's go get him. Let's see what he does. Would he have been the difference maker? That would have made you go, wow, like whoa, mark Ananasu is doing something. No, paul DeYoung. Paul DeYoung, was he going to be the difference maker? No, right, you were going to bring 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 been in the trade, right? I don't believe for one second.
Speaker 1:Mark Ananasio did not call. It's not even Mark Ananasio, right, it's Matt Arnold. Matt Arnold did not call and say, hey, alex Bregman, what do you want? You want to come to milwaukee? I don't believe for one second that the brewers aren't barking up trees. They want these guys, right, they want to compete. Look at, look what they've done over the years with having a small payroll. They've won the nl central, they've been to the nlcs, they've been bounced in the playoffs now a couple years straight. Right, but we can look back on them and say, man, that all-star closer that everybody's freaking out about that.
Speaker 1:We just lost to the yankees and traded away. He blew it against the mats, josh hater, as much as it. I hated that deal at the time and I thought it screwed that season over. Josh hater was on the tail end of it when the Brewers traded him. David Stern saw that. I believe that he saw it. He saw what was happening with Josh Hader and he made that deal and honestly, looking back on it now I don't know how we freak out about that deal anymore, because we got Estrella Ruiz and guess what? We flipped him for William Contreras. We screwed the Braves because they have sean murphy now. We traded one guy and ended up with the one of the best catchers, if not the best catcher in all of baseball.
Speaker 1:So yes, I will say it marcan anasio's cheap. I know that he doesn't flip a lot of money into this organization, but brewers are not very high up on the TV rights deals, right. The Dodgers they get a lot of deals, japanese everything they get a lot of deals for TV rights. The Brewers don't. We just got FanDuel back and FanDuel doesn't give you that much money, right? So they don't get much revenue there.
Speaker 1:Now my question is if Mark Ananasio is making this money right, maybe he's making like 20 million a year. Do you want him to stick 20 million into players or do you want him sticking into developmental leagues, right, where they go down into these foreign countries and they develop guys, do you want to stick them into academies? Do you want to stick them into experience, or would you rather have them sticking in the team? What do you want? Right, because you have to. As an owner, you have to weigh all these little things. It doesn't just, it doesn't just happen, you have to. There's more financial things that happen just outside of a payroll. Everybody's like let's just load up the payroll, right, let's keep slapping it down. What are you going to do with 20 mil? Right, you might be able to add a couple pictures here and there, but are you going to really add difference makers who are going to blow the world open? I don't think so. I really don't. I don't think you're going to add the difference makers that you think you're going to add.
Speaker 1:And when you sit here and you just grumble about it, it's like the brewers are one of the most consistent franchises right now in the national league and maybe it comes to bite one year. Right, maybe this is the year that the pieces just don't align. Right, because they've exceeded expectations the past couple years. Maybe they don't this year, but from what he's been able to do build the young talent, see what the young talent can do. What is the point of tyler black and all these third base prospects if we keep just bringing in third baseman and just stop? You know, stop gates. Just bring him in, bring him in one year deal, one year deal, one-year deal. What's the point of him? Let's see what Tyler Black can do. If he can't do it, well, let's trade him away, let's find a piece, right?
Speaker 1:This isn't saying that the Brewers still can't go out and make a move. They can't make a trade, they can't do something, they can't swing anything. This, I'm at the point where it's like this is what the Brewers are going to do and we have to accept it, right? So, aaron, I said Aaron, see, I knew I was going to do it. I knew I was going to do it. Kyle, what are your thoughts? I mean you hear that Mark Ananasio quote and I mean you hear that basically misquote, taken out of context. I mean, what are your thoughts on the Brewers Baseball? Because I honestly think it's a Dodger problem. I think it's a Met problem, I think it's a baseball problem that they don't have a salary cap or a salary floor in place there. What are your thoughts right now on this landscape, what the Brewers have going on Mark Inanasio and what baseball is at right now in a whole?
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, I feel, like for any front office person, like there's more. I mean I guess fans don't want to hear but there's more that goes into it than just spending money and putting together a team that's supposed to win it all, because you actually have to worry about the fan experience and everything like that. But in terms of, like you know, brewers and teams like them, like the Brewers aren't so small market that they're like the white socks or something and actually the white socks are a big market in chicago but I mean, like the, the rays to take the race rays are like a legit small market team yeah they don't get a lot of fans, which is why their stadium isn't like state of the art and they have to be creative with the way that they build their team and look through that.
Speaker 2:They've managed to stay relevant most years when a lot of people would just write them off. So if milwaukee can sit here and you know they spend money but they don't spend on the dodger level, which nobody does they may not spend on a Yankee level, which very few do, or on a Red Sox level, but if you can spend the money correctly and wisely and develop guys in double-A and single-A correctly, you don't have to have the biggest payroll to win in baseball. It's just that it may put you in a tougher position with a slimmer margin of error Because, like, if you're the Dodgers and you let's say you like lost Mookie Betts or something for a couple of weeks, the Dodgers have the ability to swap him out for another guy who would probably start a lot of other teams. So I do agree with you that the Dodgers are becoming a problem and I think it's whether or not baseball actually looks at it that way, Because there is something to say for a league where everybody just hates that one team and they try to do everything they can to beat that one team, on the hopes that if you beat them, maybe you slowly break them up, Like it used to be.
Speaker 2:You know you built your team to beat the Yankees in October. Now it's like you build your team to beat, you know, whoever like the Braves or one of these teams that consistently are there, consistently have a good team and I think Milwaukee is a team like you said. You look at the last few years.
Speaker 2:Despite maybe not spending as much as fans may want, they've been in the conversation yeah and you know, for baseball maybe more so than other sports it's like just get in and you have a chance. We've seen plenty of wild card teams now get to the world series. So it's all about spending your money correctly and wisely, not just throwing money at a bunch of guys and then going oh we spent the most, we're going to win Because Yankees have a top three payroll for a lot of years. Somehow they don't win.
Speaker 2:Because, they're not spending it necessarily in the right places on the right types of guys. For October baseball Like up until October baseball is much different. You get to October your pitching staff more magnified, situational play plays a bigger role, which is kind of two of the areas where the Yankees have kind of fallen short. So but yeah, if I was a Brewers fan I'd be like kind of like what we're doing right now, you got young guys who are showing out and you just have to hope that one year you kind of break through, because I mean, it's not a guarantee that the Dodgers will be there in the end just because they spent way more than everybody. They still have to play together 162 games and actually play well enough.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, the quote. Yeah, like we know this day and age, if you can pull the juicy part of a quote out and make that the focal point that drives traffic to your site, which is what a lot of people want to look at. So then, once you get on, the site is up to you to either, like, read the full article and get the full context of it, or just read the headline, make a decision and go crazy. So I'm not necessarily mad at these reporters, who may phrase it a certain way, to kind of build some, I guess, interest amongst their viewers or readers, because that's technically what they're supposed to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, from what you read. I didn't see anything terrible about what he said.
Speaker 1:No and you don't. If you took out of that quote that you think that Mark Ananasio does not want to win a World Series, he doesn't care about winning a World Series, he just cares about the money aspect, I don't. I don't believe that for one second. I think Marc Ananasios is out there to win a World Series. I just think in the landscape that baseball is currently at right now, it makes it hard to spend money. It does.
Speaker 1:The Brewers payroll, I saw, is expected to be like 116 mil for the year so far, with all the contracts and everything off of. I mean they got I believe they have some contracts still on from like last year, some deferred contracts. I think they still got to pay. Like, oh, who do they got to pay? Yet I think they have. Gary Sanchez is still on there Frankie Montes, wade, miley, colin, ray, devin, williams, montes and Junis. I mean they still got the Williams and Cortez trade. I believe they have money on that too. They they ended up swapping money. So I mean they have money still tied up in a lot of different places too. So we we look at the payroll is just what players are getting paid, right, but you still have contracts on top of that, I still think that they owe, if I'm not mistaken, and I think they owe like lorenzo king yet or something, and they owe ryan braun. Mean, there's still. You've got to remember that MLB teams, the payroll is not just what the players are right now, it's, you know, outside of the players, who do we owe money for a buyout from last year? Who do we owe money for this for, you know, and everything like that. So you know, estimated payroll versus total is two different things there.
Speaker 1:John's in the comments Nice, what did john? John's in the comments nice to see you, john. Uh, watch brewers make a splash next year at first base and sign vlad jr would definitely move the needle, I agree. I think I'd move the needle if they went and traded for him this year, just said screw it. I said screw it and went for him. But the question is at this point, what do you do with him? Because you got reese hoskins? It's like if you you have a right-handed first baseman, what does a right-handed first baseman do for him? I don't know, you know. So we'll see. I would not be opposed to that move whatsoever, john. John, stick around. We've got to talk Oregon later here, badgers-oregon coming up tomorrow. We've got to talk about this. Make sure you're sticking around. We did have one across the text-in line from the 650 there. Maybe no more punching walls without a beard For De, for devin williams some good stuff there.
Speaker 1:Good stuff, I mean for yankees fans. They hope, they hope right, no more punching walls out there. So great stuff there. Marco danasio, I mean love them, hate them, love the brewers, hate the brewers, whatever you want to do, but I don't believe for one second this guy isn't out there to try and win the brewers of world series. He's gonna probably try and do it the cheapest way possible. That's what you got to believe at this point. He's going to try and do it the cheapest way possible there.
Speaker 1:So in other contract news we did see the badgers extend luke fickle for a year and I saw it was kind of like a formality, like it's a. It's a standard one year extension that they do at the conclusion of the season and so it's odd, like this is just kind of formality. This is what they do. I don't understand why it's a formality, but from what I've seen, that's what it is. So Luke Fickle gets another year. He's getting extended through 2032. Now I don't know how Badger fans feel about that one. There's a lot of Badger fans who don't uh, don't like that deal. To begin with. He's got a lot of money guaranteed, I believe, and now to add, add another year? I do, uh, I don't know, let's see. Let's see.
Speaker 1:I got here's some comments. Anytime you can extend fickle, who is 13 and 13, 8 and 10 conference and whom no one is trying to hire away, you simply have to do it. H&m's first ADs remain the biggest mismatch in sports. Yeah, okay, so that's a comment for the college football watcher. Ryan Hickey said Luke Fickle is a good coach, but the reasoning from Wisconsin for extending his contract is Looney Tunes. Nobody in Madison would call the first losing season since 2001 satisfactory performance. That's what they said. So I do see he quoted it here.
Speaker 1:The move announced after a brief closed session at the end of the board's regular february meeting was all but a formality. Fickle's contract says an annual one-year extension requires satisfactory performance by fickle as judged by the athletic trackers, recommendation and approval by the athletic board. I, chris mcintosh might get fired off of this if he counts that as satisfactory. That'd be like me going to my job next week and just pitching a tent and just sitting in a corner, like that's basically the same thing as luke fickle doing his job right now. So I mean Chris McIntosh getting fired, and so is Luke Fickle. You're pretty darn smart. Wow, okay, satisfactory.
Speaker 1:I want to know what's not satisfactory to Wisconsin. If a craptastic season like the Badgers just had and like Ryan Hickey said, they're the first losing season since 2001. If that was satisfactory, satisfactory what is not? Because our spectrums are two different things. If that was, I'm going, 500 is like good enough, like we're still rebuilding. 500 is good enough. I want you 500. You lost some crap teams along the way. Luke, like I don't know, that's, that's bad, that's bad. Uh, let's see here, john says he ain't worth the almost eight mil a year. I would agree, I would a thousand percent agree with you, john, there. Uh, I believe most of that is guaranteed money on his contract too, and that's that's where I'm saying right now. This I don't know. That is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Is when they said it was satisfactory.
Speaker 1:This guy, cameron Soren, on Twitter, said Luke Fickle's agent is out here working magic. It's like Kirk Cousins. That's what I'm saying. Luke Fickle's agent is like Kirk Cousins' agent. That's my tweet. Nobody steal that when we have to run down here. I'm tweeting that out because this is exhausting. Here we go. Brad powers.
Speaker 1:Getting a seven-year extension is by far fickle's biggest win at wisconsin. So there we go. He got his biggest win so far at wisconsin. Um, let's see here jordan love believer still he's got any quotes there still, okay, uh, this is absurd. What is fickle done to deserve an extension outside of wearing a cool vest? That's true, he just got the team vest there.
Speaker 1:Uh, louis vacher says this one comes as a surprise to me. At 13 and 13, I thought fickle would be coaching for his job this year. Instead, wisconsin extends them. Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that. So the comments just keep on going. There's not a lot of bad fans happy with this one here. Um, I thought so too, to be honest with you. I, you know they.
Speaker 1:They told me like two years ago hey, I gotta give him a year, right. So I gave him last year. Last year it didn't look better. I was like this year's the year where I gotta put his seat on a burner. Like he is on a burner now, and now we give him this extension. I, I just don't know. Like, the recruiting classes are good, right, he's been having great recruiting classes and he's been getting guys in his guys, but it hasn't transpired to anything. So he fires phil longo. Now we'll see.
Speaker 1:Maybe phil longo was the problem. I don't know, maybe it was the problem with the offense. They bring in a new uh offensive coordinator there, grimes. Maybe that fixes the problem. I don't know, maybe it was the problem with the offense. They bring in a new offensive coordinator there, grimes. Maybe that fixes the problem. We can hope so. But if it doesn't right, if Grimes stinks and Trestle's defense still stinks, then what Do we just keep firing offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators before we say, hmm, maybe there's another problem in the room, maybe it's the head man, maybe it's the guy making the calls, I don't know. Like I'm at that point right now. I don't know. Kyle, what do you think?
Speaker 2:I mean you're on the outside looking into this Badger situation, but Luke Fickle definitely has not done anything to impress anybody in the college 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 is interesting that, being a 500 coach in that conference, knowing the competition that's in there, that you get a one-year extension to just kind of extend out your deal a year. I feel like there's two things that have to be at work here. It's either in their mind they go, if we replace Luke Fickle, we're not going to get anybody better than Luke, so we might as well keep him. Or they think, because of how recruiting has gone, do they think this puts pressure on Fickle to do better on the sideline and with decision-making on the staff? And all that Because if you're Wisconsin, are you going to be better than Ohio State?
Speaker 2:Maybe not. Are you going to be better than Oregon, who knows? But if you can position yourself to get into the playoff, maybe you could go on an Ohio State-like run. Because Ryan Day we talked about. Look, all last year was about Ryan Day going to get fired at the end of the season. Can't win the big one, can't make the playoff. They make the playoff, they get it done. And now Ryan Day has extended his time at Ohio State, you feel like. So maybe that's the hope for a lot of these schools. It's like we hired this guy who we thought was really good. We still think they're really good, but the team is underachieving and they're willing to give him a chance to to turn it around and show some type of improvement I'm just hoping we don't finish in like the bottom 10 of the big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like that's kind of where I'm at at this point here like middle of the pack at this point in the big 10 for the badgers would be a blessing in disguise. Now he does have a lot of young guys coming in carter smith, young, you know. So you have a lot of young guys. It's a question of nowadays in the college football world can you retain guys right? It's not just you know who can I recruit, it's after I recruit them, will they stay, will they allow me to develop them, or are they going to run off? Are they going to go to an oregon or an ohio state or somebody else who's better or well 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 happens there with the Badgers. But Luke Fickle gets that extension I forgot to mention they did come out with the lineup card for the Brewers opening game against the Reds tomorrow. So Terang is going to lead off second base. Churrio is going to be in left field. He's batting second. Contreras at DH. Mitchell is going to bat fourth and center field Bowers is at first base batting fifth. Ortiz playing shortstop. Frelick in right field, hassid catching tomorrow and then Durbin, the new guy, caleb Durbin will be playing third base for the Brewers there. So I mean interesting stuff there, interesting stuff, and then it looks like some of the you know subs that they're going to have Monasterio will be along.
Speaker 1:Heron Adams, luis Lara I'm excited to see him. He's definitely a great outfield prospect for the Brewers. Excited to see him. Ernesto Martinez Jr You're used to that name there. He's been in the Brewer system for a while now here and he's going to be down there. So hopefully maybe you know everybody's freaking out about first base Maybe Ernesto gets that little nod there after spring training. We'll wait and see on him. Capra is also going to be down there, and then the rest of the guys I could name off.
Speaker 2: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:guys, you, and then get a better number for the regular season. That's what I found out about brewer hicklin last year. I was like brewer hicklin is the definition of a brewer like that. I was hoping, like this guy gets a spot there. Uh, christian yelich, though he's not playing tomorrow, is expected to be ready for opening day, so that's good news there. And then, like I talked about with Woodruff the other day, he's pitching. He's throwing the live hitters, the fastball sitting at 92 right now. He threw his whole repertoire of pitches there, so he's working through it. Hopefully get him back feeling better and great soon. That'd be awesome. That'd be awesome. Get him back into that rotation there. So lots of good stuff. Uh, nestor cortez, I believe, is not. He won't be pitching tomorrow. It's like who the heck is pitching? Rodriguez is starting for the brewers 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 bunch of random guys. But that's what you want. That's what you want to see. Some of these young the brewers do great working with young pitchers, developing guys, developing veterans who have been kind of beat up over the years. So we'll wait and see. Maybe some of these guys we see in spring here tomorrow will be on the opening day roster who the heck knows? Who the heck knows at this point with the Milwaukee Brewers, right, right, I completely agree. I completely agree. So one more I want to get to this before we get to the Badgers and Oregon.
Speaker 1:I wanted to talk about the Bobby Portis situation because it stinks for Brewer fans. I'm not Brewer fans, I'm just talking about the Brewers. I'm like Brewer fans technically right. Bucs fans, right. Because Giannis Dame both kind of 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 the full cast of characters, right? Because Bobby Portis is one of the best bench players in all of the NBA. So now you don't have one of the best bench players in the NBA, so he's out. He's that guy who comes in. You don't notice what he does until he's not there, right?
Speaker 1:And you get Kyle Kuzma, and Kuzma'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. 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 better efficiency. He's not there completely but I still 19 points. I take that. I take that night that like that's chris middleton what he was contributing there. So I like with kyle kuzma and defensively, honestly, kyle kuzma has been pretty good defensively for the box, like I don't know. You know you don't really put put defense and NBA in the same sentence and throw it out there, but defensively Kyle Kuzma's been pretty darn good.
Speaker 1:Jericho Sims has been getting more run time now that Bobby's been out. I like Jericho Sims. I liked him at Texas. He's an athletic guy, can get after it defensively. I like him in the lineup. They're just a more athletic guy behind Brooke Lopez there, more athletic guy behind Brooke Lopez there. But I mean, all in all, bucs winning 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 we thinking about this Bobby Portis situation? He was, I can't. I was trying to find the drug there that he used. Do you remember Tramadol? Tramadol was what it was Treat severe pain in adults is what they said. Um, according to representative from priority sports. He said I am devastated for bobby right now because he made an honest mistake and the ramifications of it are incredibly significant. Um, bobby unintentionally took a pain medication called tramadol, thinking he was taking a pain medication called toradol. Toradol is an approved pain medication that he used previously and that teams and players use for pain and inflammation at times.
Speaker 1:Um, and it goes on and on and whatever you know, he had elbow injury and stuff and that's why he took it. Um, but this is going to be my question. So the nba wants to have a better league, right, and what's going to make a better league is to keep your players on the floor, right. So I understand that he took this drug. I do, I do but it's not steroids. Steroids longer lasting effect, right they're going to get you jacked.
Speaker 1:They're going to make you feel great for a while. Right, you're hitting bombs, you're're a beating up guy, whatever, right, this is just a pain medication and honestly and this is going to be my honest opinion, 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 like all right, bobby, you got to get drug tested every single night this next week and we're going to test you and if you test positive again, you're done Right, but it's a pain medication, right? I mean, he took it for pain. If he doesn't test positive for it again and he ends up switching back to this other stuff, and it's you know, good, good to go, bobby, you're good to go.
Speaker 1:Go get them Right. 25 games just to me. I and it like, don't get me wrong, 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 like this 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 right now in the nba with guys not wanting to play if this was joelle and bead.
Speaker 1:If this was kaw Kawhi Leonard, those dudes wouldn't have played. They just sat on the bench and sat at home. But you're going to penalize Bobby Portis because he took a pain medication just to try and get out there and play. Now he took the wrong one. Was it an honest mistake? Or was that just a ploy, like they always say? Like, oh, it was an honest mistake, right, you never know. Right, bobby could have known what he was taking. But at the same time, it's like okay, suspend him for a week and then drug test him every single day and as long as he doesn't test positive for it again, you're good to go, go get it.
Speaker 1:We're gonna test you for another week, right? Or we're gonna have sporadic or random, 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 pain medication.
Speaker 1:I I don't know what are your thoughts on I. I I don't like it just because it's a pain medication, like yes, it's against the rules, but at the same time, all he's doing it for is to try and play in a league where we have a problem with guys who don't want to play, like it's just. It seems like we're pulling two narratives here right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like this is the same thing with the steroids era. You had some guys who took stuff and people didn't actually know what it was, but it was performance enhancing. It was just like an umbrella term and looking at the Bobby Porter stuff, it's like what he took was like an opiate I don't know what the league is looking at it as Opiates being easy to be addicted to and all this kind of stuff, and that gets real tricky. I mean, I can see what you're saying. 25 games seems like a lot, especially when you have like what, 30? I think he's out to like the last four games or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're basically missing the whole season and you're a Bucs team that's fighting to be a top-four seed, hoping to maybe move up a little bit. It's definitely a big blow for you. But look, maybe this is something 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 Kuzma could be 18, 8, 5, I think it's worth it for Milwaukee. And I know, like I said, you didn't like the trade to begin with. I feel like they traded for him hoping to get the Kuzma that was in LA. I feel like they traded for him hoping to get the Kuzma that was in LA that showed that he could be a rotation guy. And you're hoping that him playing off of Dame and Giannis helps him to create mismatches, take some guys off the dribble and doing all that. So I think the Kuzma move is going to look better the deeper we go into the season here. But the Portis loss is going to be important because I feel like the Bucs are a team that necessarily wasn't all that deep to begin with, especially knowing who Doc likes to play in key situations. Now you're taking somebody that Doc wanted to rely on out of the equation? Where does he turn in terms of a replacement? Does it force his hand to play maybe a young guy? Does he change the lineup a bit to? You know, like Giannis at center and you go like crazy small with I don't know like. I feel like you could do some things. But Portis is a, he's a contributor, if there's anything you want to say. He's a guy who comes off the bench. He can score for you. He brings physicality to the floor, because Portis is a guy who doesn't necessarily take a lot of mess on the court. He's not afraid to get mixed up with guys on certain teams.
Speaker 2:As Jory says, still don't trust Kuzma. Yep, yep, like. The one thing he can only say for now is like, is Kuzma going to do this in the playoffs? It's well and good that he's doing it in the regular season, but playoffs, when you're in a seven-game series with a Knicks or a Celtics you know one of those teams it's like you're going to need Kuzma to be around a 20-point per game, 7'8 rebound type of guy, a guy who can run the floor. He needs to be able to knock down. You know perimeter shots. When he has them, whether it's off of like Dame penetration or Giannis kickout, like that's all Kuzma really has to do. Knock down shots when you get them, run the floor and create easy uh opportunities for yourself. Yep, I think he's down to a good start.
Speaker 1:He's got to show it uh consistently over the second half of the season, for sure yeah, 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 lot more than what we thought. Offensively he doesn't really give you anything like. He's not an offensive guy defensively. That's where he's gonna be and he's just gonna be a guy who's a presence.
Speaker 2:That's about it, that's high flyer that's about all you get out of them.
Speaker 1:Uh, let's see here. John did say I could see them dropping from fifth to eighth with possibly six man of the year out until April 8th their fourth, last game of the regular season there. Yeah, they played the Timberwolves there. When Bobby comes back, like you said, I think it's going to test the Bucs. I think it's going to test the depth that they have.
Speaker 1:Sometimes that's a good thing, right, you get to find out what guys have. Or maybe a guy gets to play a little bit more and he shows you something. Maybe guys have, or maybe a guy gets 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 and seating. We don't know right, but sometimes it's just make it in and see what happens. So as long as you get in that's what you got to worry about is being in a good position when bobby portis does come back on the back side of it there. So I mean we'll wait and see there.
Speaker 1:I don't know you. You mentioned something interesting there about the uh, about the opioids and if it was addictive or not, and that's why they would suspend him. I just wonder, in that 25 game suspension, do they test them during that too, like because otherwise he could just be doing it the whole time, like he could just be popping pills the whole time. Nobody's testing him, he's not playing, who cares, right, I don't know? Just uh, that's an interesting thing I thought I took from uh which that's a good point.
Speaker 2:Maybe they test him before he comes back, just to make sure that he's not coming back yeah on the same stuff and then you're like, well, we're gonna have to suspend him again.
Speaker 1:Well, do they test every day? Like how does it work there? Like was this just a random drug test that he had where he just didn't pass? At this time it seems odd. It seems odd that Bobby Portis was the one that's hit, but you're telling me nobody else. It's always the random guy.
Speaker 2:That's going to be the NBA's fear that Bobby. Portis is just the first guy in a long line of players secretly taking this, and they're not catching it Exactly.
Speaker 1:Go test LeBron every once in a while and see what he's got going on. Like you know, you never hear star players. It's always just a random guys, right, even with this whole betting, like ring and everything that was happening, like it was just a random guys, like they were nothing to the league and like, oh yeah, we'll suspend them. But it's like, do you ever look at the other guys, like for a second? Just maybe, just maybe. So I don't know, we'll see. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 2:But Bobby, you know I love Bobby, but hopefully, but even like to John's point about the Bucs possibly slipping. That's where this is also interesting, because I think John said he sees them going like from fifth to eighth season. Going like from fifth to eighth, you have the pistons. You're in a play-in game. Now right, because you have the pistons like a game behind them. Now, depending on how much you trust the pistons, in a position they've never been in, now, getting to that part of the calendar where games mean even more, can the pistons hold on and potentially move past the Bucs.
Speaker 2:You have Orlando, who finally got Ben Carroll back not too long ago. So there's a chance that they're going to start playing a little bit better. And they're only like two games well, I think, like three games behind the Bucs. So the Bucs can't necessarily sit here and go through like a two-week stretch where they really struggle because they could wake up one day and find themselves seventh or even eighth. Well, eighth, they're the Heat. I think the Heat has so many problems right now that the Bucs don't have to worry about them.
Speaker 2:But yeah if they fell out of the playoffs and into the play-in. That now creates a couple extra games you have to play. It's already a veteran group. I mean you did bring in Sims and Kuzma who are a little bit younger, but the guys that Doc relies on are all veteran guys. You don't want to necessarily add games to their schedule with a play-in tournament to get into the playoffs. So for the Bucs, you've got to try to stay in the top six. Bobby Portis comes back like the last few games of the season. But in the top six, bobby Portis comes back like the last few games of the season. You can now get him worked back in and kind of hit the ground running in the playoffs, depending on who you play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I would agree. It's going to be interesting to see what happens there. Jory did say when you absolutely need him is when I go Trust him. You don't need him late in game. To be honest, like Dame's my closer, dame and Giannis are my closers. Like I need Kuz, like you said all game long, to give me 20. Like just to be that role player all game long. 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 to be. Kuz has just got to be what you were hoping Chris Middleton was going to be and that's just, he's got to be a reliable.
Speaker 2:Yep, a guy to come along According to Jory's point, he has to be a reliable number three.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:He can't give you a Torian Prince-type performance where it's like six, eight points, he's out there. It depends on the night right With him it's like one night, he hits like six and it's six threes and it's like what is going on?
Speaker 1: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 night and then all of a sudden it's like gives you nothing and there's no production. So I agree Like he's got to be a reliable third, but late in the game it's like that's, I don't need him as much. Late in the game, I need him to be at 20 points a game. I don't need him to be my late game score, I guess, is what I'm trying to say there. What does John say there? If Bucs possibly fall out, does Portis save Rivers' job? Possibly, possibly. You know.
Speaker 1:What I saw interesting was on the buck schedule. You're mentioning the pistons there. Bobby portis comes back on april 8th against timberwolves. They have two games against the pistons to end the season back to back. So could be at that point for like the six or the five, whatever it is there, I mean the schedule for the bucks you mentioned. Like you know, the heat aren't very, uh, very much of a threat. You don't think, but you have the Heat on there. You have Houston, denver, dallas twice Atlanta, orlando, cleveland, pacers twice Lakers. I mean they've got some tough games. They have some tough games to end in here, a lot of playoff teams to end the season here. So we'll see what the Bucs do season here. So we'll see what the bucks do.
Speaker 1:I mean we'll see what the bucks do there, uh, to end the season. Maybe they get hot, maybe they go on a run. Maybe the bucks are better better, get better for it, right without bobby. Maybe it makes this bucks team try 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 the craziness that you see in basketball. Sometimes guys just turn it on and that's what you get there.
Speaker 2:So is this what the standing's like yep to? To get to third. They're kind of like seven games back, so they're kind of looking at this as if our ceiling is fourth, with everything going well. Now your path looks like possibly like a Pacers first round, Cavs second round, and you avoid the Celtics until the conference finals. Or if you stuck at six, then it'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 seeding is going to be important because the Celtics have shown that's a team that kind of is a thorn in their side. But these other teams, if you'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 to prove in the playoffs as well.
Speaker 1:Well, the Cavs have a lot to prove in the playoffs as well. Well, the Cavs are the ones that can blow us out. So for some reason we play close with the Celtics. We don't beat the Celtics, we just lose by five. Like that's just how it goes, we just lose by five there.
Speaker 1:So I got to be honest with you. I would not if the Bucs dropped out. I would not want to see this Bucs team Giannis and Dame and Kuz if he's feeling it and they just got Bobby and the reason why they were struggling because no Bobby, and then Bobby comes back and he's feeling it again. I would not want to see that team, not at all. But I wish the Bucs would have known this was going to happen, because then maybe we could have made a trade and got some young guys and just kind of rebuilt instead of trying to go. You know what's the move we can make to go all in. We've been like let's sit pat. Let's sit pat for a year and see what happens there. So I mean, we'll see. Yeah, I agree, you know it's going to be interesting to see how these standings kind of work out there. You know, the Pacers are only a half game up too. So the who knows with the Knicks. I mean the Knicks could fluctuate there a little bit too, and the Bucs could go on a run.
Speaker 1:I mean we've seen crazier things happen before that Bucs team back in, you know, when they won the finals there. I mean they had PJ Tucker in that 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, though they did get the win over the wizards there. I believe it was 104 to 101 was the final there. Chris middleton playing for the washington wizards, that's still. I still feel bad for that poor son of a gun. He had 12 points. I still feel bad.
Speaker 2:How motivated is he going to? How motivated will he be in about a month's time, playing in Washington knowing full well they're not going anywhere? No, they may end up sitting him because they don't want to win for draft picks. So it's just like, yeah, you feel bad for him and, you know, hopefully maybe he can find a way out of there somehow and get back to a contender to have something to actually play for, because washington is not going to be contending any time soon who do you feel worse for?
Speaker 1:jordan pool or chris meddleton? Like jordan pool came from the right after the warriors won the finals basically, and then they just flip him like he's just gone. And then Chris Middleton I mean I feel bad for Chris Jordan Poole's kind of eek.
Speaker 2:He's kind of all bent and heck kind of thing with him. Yeah, rudy Poole became like a head case and that's kind of what happened, like Middleton was rehabbing, came back and then it was like oh, guess what, we're kind of flipping you, sir. You're going to go play with the Wizards.
Speaker 1:Have fun in Washington. You're going to play with one of the worst teams in the NBA. You get to go from us to the worst team. Congratulations, buddy.
Speaker 2: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:nothing for you, oh god. Well, at least the pressure's off, right, the pressure's off chris middleton, you go out there and just ball out.
Speaker 2:Maybe he's a little bit and somebody goes out and gets him yeah, no, I would agree.
Speaker 1:I would agree 100 there. So I want to get to the badgers. John wants to get to the badgers because he wants to talk about this oregon team, so the badgers just wanted to mention it before we get to it. Greg guard is now up for coach of the year. Is that not great to hear? Is that? It is well deserved? I I don't understand why it took so long, this long, for us to. You know, throw him into the uh, into the conversation. I gotta be honest with you. I don't think that john shire should win coach of the year. He's coaching duke. They have cooper flag, they have con canupo. They have some of the best recruits in all of basketball. Why should he be up for coach of the year? Bruce pearl, he's returning essentially the. I love bruce pearl. I love bruce pearl. He's returning essentially his entire auburn team from last year and one of the players of the year in janai brew. Like good for you.
Speaker 1:Greg guard's team was picked to finish 12th in the Big Ten, 12th in all of the Big Ten. They weren't even a thought for the NCAA tournament. They weren't even a thought for the Big Ten. If Michigan State beats Michigan tonight here, which they're winning right now 62-53 here with 7.20 to go. Here they're playing in Michigan. Both of those teams now have three losses in the Big Ten. If and this is I'm throwing a lot of ifs at you If Michigan State and Michigan play one more time and it's going to be at the Breslin Center in Michigan State If Michigan State wins that game, michigan now has four losses. If the Badgers beat Michigan State they have one game against Michigan State they would have four losses. If the Badgers beat Michigan State they have one game against Michigan State they would have four losses and they'd be tied, with all of that madness, for that 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 and Michigan all playing each other in some way shape or form.
Speaker 1:Michigan still has to play Maryland. They still have a game against Maryland. They still play Illinois. They still play Rutgers. They still have Nebraska in there. They still play good teams. Michigan State, outside of just having to play Wisconsin, still plays in some good games. Yet they have that game against Wisconsin. They play Michigan. They play Maryland. Again, maryland is one of the better teams in the Big Ten Iowa they have Iowa on the docket. Wisconsin could still finish as the number one team in the Big 10 iowa they have iowa on the docket. Wisconsin could still finish as the number one team in the big 10. First place, 12th to first yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:That's pretty impressive who is john tanji before he came to wisconsin. I have no idea. Now people are like this dude could be steph curry. Watch him sometime. If you haven't watched and I I know you're Badger fans out there so you probably have watched John Tonje before, right. But if you're just watching this now and you're like I haven't watched much college basketball this year, watch John Tonje. This guy's unreal, unreal when he shoots the basketball. What he's been able to do with a whole lot of little this season for Wisconsin Guys that you were like how are these pieces?
Speaker 1:You know you got this box with a puzzle in it. You're like, how do these pieces fit together? Right, greg guard just took them and he's like, ah, we can make her work, we can fit this piece to this piece. We can't. You know, we got this corner piece here. We can make it work.
Speaker 1:It has just been impressive offensive efficiency. I saw it. Um, the top efficiencies in half court, saw the top efficiencies in half court. So the top efficiencies in all of college basketball. In half court, Wisconsin has the number one offensive efficiency in half court in all of 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 eighth on that list, number one above teams who have players of the year candidates. In Jani Broome and in Cooper Flagg and Con Canupo the batters have the best half-court offense efficiency-wise. That doesn't just happen, not with a bunch of no-name guys, right. If you would have told me duke with cooper flag had the number one, uh, efficient efficiency of offense in all college, I'd be like yeah, sure, okay. Like yeah, I get it. Jedi broom and auburn, sure. Florida, yeah, tennessee, sure johnson would not have believed if he told me at the start of this season that was going to be the Badgers. But that's where we're at.
Speaker 1:Greg Gard has taken this team, him and Kirk Penny. He let Kirk Penny come in, he's from overseas, came playing for the Badgers, went back overseas, came back coached for Wisconsin and Greg Gard said show me what you got, what do you got for me? And they run this dribble drive offense. Now. A me what you got, what do you got for me? And they run this dribble drive offense. Now a whole lot of greatness, right. But I'm gonna be honest with you. I I love what I'm seeing right now out of wisconsin majesty, and I mean I was, I would say, outside of greg guard. My other guy for coach of the year would be rick patino, just because John's has absolute terrible offense and their defense is just oh my.
Speaker 1:They just won a game the other night. They shot like 33% from the field. That is ridiculous and you win a game by like 20. It's just creating possessions and just playing good basketball. So I mean, for me right now I don't care if Greg Gard won coach of the year in all of college basketball. I think it would be awesome, right. I think it's well-deserved if he did, but I'm just glad he's up for it and I think John Tonje should be up for player of the year in college basketball. I know Cooper Flagg will probably win it because I mean I can't turn on ESPN without going oh, cooper Flagg, yeah, here he is good flag, oh yeah it's like every other commercial of college basketball is cooper flag and I gotta hear about it.
Speaker 1:everybody's talking like I get it. Cooper flags, you know around, I get it right. Or jenai broom right, jenai broom is one of the most dominant players in college basketball and I hear about cooper flag more than I hear about John Nyberg. So, but yeah, there's that. I don't care if John Tonje doesn't win it. I just am glad that finally Wisconsin is getting recognition for what they've been able to do, because what they're doing right now was not even a thought in anyone's mind. And now everybody's like oh, I'm in love with Wisconsin basketball. It's like, dude, if you're not here 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 it right, Just because you're now seeing. Or like oh yeah, John Tonje is actually a pretty good player.
Speaker 1:Well, there was a lot of people and I think you were on the show, Kyle, when we talked about after the UW River Falls. They had that exhibition game and people were kind of blowing up because it was a close game at the half or whatever it was. I think you were there for that one. People were blowing up and I was like you know it's exhibition and everything. But people were like this season we're going to suck, Like everybody was blowing up.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What do you think now? What do you think now, like that's an exhibition game? And what do you think now? What do you think now, like that, that's an exhibition game? And this badger team has put a lot of them haters to bed. So I mean, kyle, what do you think, looking on the outside, looking into this badger team, how you, how do you like, how do you see them, how do you like them, like what you're seeing right now?
Speaker 2:look, I think something that you were saying there that really kind of clicked for me was the fact that they're really good at half court offense. That is something that I feel like is under the radar for march. A lot of times. Teams that can execute in half court in march do well, because so much, so much of the tournament is filled with teams like to run and gun and then when they do that and their shots not falling, and then now they're having to slow up and take their possessions and cherish them a little bit more, they don't know what to do. If Wisconsin can excel in that and continue that into March, that makes them that much more of a dangerous team. Now, the fact that they also were, you know, picked to finish pretty low in the big 10, which we know is not a conference that you take lightly yeah, that speaks to. Maybe they don't have the most notable players, but maybe this is why the coaches and Coach of the Year consideration matters. A good coach will take a good group of players, get them to play the correct way, to get them wins, and I feel like that's what you're seeing from Wisconsin.
Speaker 2:I've seen like a couple of games. You know, I've seen games where you know they just rain down threes and they do really well. I've seen games where they grind out possessions in the second half. You know, maybe it's a one, two point lead and they come down, get a couple of stops, get a couple of buckets and then that turns into like six, seven, eight-point lead. So I've seen them kind of do both things and I think if they can play well in March, they're an interesting team.
Speaker 2:Obviously it's going to matter on, you know, brackett and other teams on their side and stuff like that, but they're a team that can fly under the radar and I think there is something to say for that. That shows how good the coach is, how good you know Tonji and some of these players. Maybe they're playing a little above their head, who knows? Or maybe they're just playing and people are just now noticing that these guys they might be a little bit better than than people thought they were going to be. So they're a team I will be watching in such like big 10 tournament that type, where that's one of those tournaments that it takes a lot to get through. I'd like to see wisconsin in that kind of setting how they play, because for these big conferences. You do well in your conference tournament. That can propel you on a march run as well. So I think they're positioning themselves to possibly have a deep run, but we won't know until we see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and I would would say you mentioned something there. You know, can this team, can they go into them hostile environments, can they win those games in neutral sites? You know what does a tournament setting look like for a team like this? And was this team for real? Right, you didn't know if this team was for real. I didn't know how good this team was until they went to Purdue and they put up 94 points. I honestly didn't know. Like, I'm going through the season and I'm like this is a good Badgers team, like I said it the whole way. I said this is a good Badgers team, 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, I kept saying it. But I was like where's that signature road win? Right, because they went to Rutgers, they won. It was like, eh, whatever, usc, eh, whatever. They went on the road to Maryland, lost, went to Northwestern, won that game. They went to Iowa and won it. And I'm like they still don't have. They have road wins, like something that they they didn't have in the past was road wins. They at least had road wins. But I was like where's that signature, the signature win? Right, they didn't just get a signature win on the season, and it wasn't at home. They got a signature win at purdue, in mackie, a place that's hard for the badges to win at or play at or anybody to play at. They put up 94 points on the road. If I had, if I had told you at the start of the year the badges are going to go into mackie this season and put up 94 points against number seven purdue, you would have laughed in my face. You'd have been like there ain'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 up 90 points multiple times this year 116 against Iowa. There they put up 100 points against Arizona. That Arizona win is nothing but impressive at this point, because Arizona continues to win basketball games is nothing but impressive at this point. Arizona continues to win basketball games.
Speaker 1:I saw Jay Billis put out his top 25 teams the other day. I don't know if Jay Billis has watched college basketball in a while. He had Purdue at 10 and Wisconsin at 11. This was after Wisconsin beat Purdue at Purdue and he still had them ahead of him. He had Kansas at 15. After Kansas got smoked around by BYU, he put Kansas at Purdue and he still had him ahead of him. He had Kansas at 15. After Kansas got smoked around by BYU, he put Kansas at 15. I don't believe that Jay Billis watches anything outside of Duke basketball at this point, so I'm sick of watching him.
Speaker 1:John Fanta had a pretty good list, so I think he had the Badgers in there as like number nine, I think, in his top 25. So I thought that was a pretty one. Uh for the badgers there. But I mean wisconsin. They have a big one, though I think it's gonna be a big game coming up against oregon there.
Speaker 1:Um, this is I don't know if it's a quad one game, it might be right on the verge of it. I think it might be a quad two at this point. Badgers seven and five and quad one 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 really terrible loss. I guess you could say there uh for wisconsin. I believe their worst loss is against michigan. Their worst like net ranking loss was michigan at home and I think michigan at home was like 17th in the rankings. So like having michigan is your worst loss on the season not bad at all, not bad at all you'll take that all day there, uh, but badgers oregon.
Speaker 1:Oregon's a pretty good team, like the record wouldn't show that I know john's john's in here right now. The record wouldn't show that oregon's got a pretty darn good team out there. But they've just kind of ran into a little bit of a tough spell here in the month of january, late january, going into February, they're 19-8 overall.
Speaker 1:They're 8-8 conference play there. But you know they beat Texas A&M, they beat Alabama, they beat Maryland. They have some good wins on that schedule. It's just the losses that came along with it. I mean they lost that game to Minnesota, they lost to Nebraska, they have a loss to UCLA in there. They just have some tough losses along the way. They had a five-game losing streak that will put a damper on anybody's season.
Speaker 1:I mean this was a team in Oregon who was up in the top ten at one point and now they went on a five-game losing streak. You're 19-8 now. They're still a tournament team but just struggled as of late here. I mean this team can put up points. I saw them in that. Uh, they're playing michigan state, I believe. Yes, yes, it was that game against michigan state. It was at the breslin center. So they're playing the east lansing there and I mean they put up 50 points oregon did in the first half at the brussels. I have not, I cannot remember many teams who have put up 50 points at the breslin center and a half.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of points.
Speaker 1:That's a defensive-oriented team at Tom Izzo I mean right now I'm watching them hold Michigan in Ann Arbor to 62 points right now with a minute to go in this game. Like it's a pretty good defensive team, a pretty physical team in Michigan State and I mean did a pretty darn good job there of putting up buckets. It's just the second half, michigan kind of clamped down or michigan state clamped down there and oregon was only able to muster 24 points against michigan state there. So that's kind of what we saw. Um, I don't know michigan's I I did 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 say okay, never mind, I would say it's an upset because it's on the road. I would say it's an upset because it's on the road there. Michigan state going to michigan. I love seeing michigan fans hit the, hit the. Uh, hit the road early. I love seeing that. I love seeing pissed off fans taking their way up to happy street there and getting out. Uh, getting out on the road early. That's what makes me laugh there. But uh, getting back to this oregon team, they're a good team. They're a good team they just have ran into some trouble as of late, that five-game losing streak. They have a pretty darn good scoring team and I want to get to that here.
Speaker 1:Some of the key players that I have going into this one Shelstad, the guard there 13.3 points per game, three rebounds, three assists, 44% from the field there and 38% from downtown. This guy, he can ring it up. He can ring it up and he shares the basketball. Sheldon Statt has been fantastic. Nate Middle, the seven-footer there, he can hit it from downtown a little bit 32% from downtown, 50% from the field, 12.9 points per game, seven rebounds and two blocks. So you've got to watch out for him.
Speaker 1:On the interior, tj Bomba, the guard there 10.3 points per game, three assists. Does not shoot it well from the field 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 score there. Uh, barth out bar. Bar to bar to hell me, that's what we're calling there. Bar to hell me, I don't know how to say his name there 9.7 points per game, 40 from 3 and 41 from the. Uh, three-point arc. There he's been pretty darn good. Uh, I mean offensively, this is a pretty darn good team, like offensively. They can put buckets up. They have a pretty good three-point shooting team. They can get to the free throw line. They can score it. They're not a bad team, it's just the record wouldn't show you that.
Speaker 1:And john says here um, oregon issue is they? Uh, it looks like they take their foot off the gas in the last five minutes of every game. That could be a very big problem for them too. I think intensity sometimes gets to them.
Speaker 1:I thought Michigan State just played more physical than they did in the Breslin Center. That's the thing that Wisconsin is going to have to be careful of. Is that Wisconsin? They're going to have to play physical? Oregon is a physical basketball team. They're going to get after you.
Speaker 1:My worry and it's the constant worry I have with badgers is they struggle with physical big teams and biddle's a big fella. He's gonna get after you. How does stephen crowe and nolan winter play against that? How do the badgers respond to a physical team in oregon? That's what I'm waiting to see. So that's kind of what my big takeaway from this one is. Is the physicality from oregon, some of the team stats 76 points per game for oregon, 44 from the field 45 from the field, 34 from three, 76 from the free throw line. There they have about 11 turnovers per game and seven steals. So they get after you. They don't turn the ball over a lot and they can shoot it. So this is a dangerous team in oregon. If you take them lightly you can lose this basketball game. And I mean kyle, what are you seeing? 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 you taking wisconsin oregon in madison?
Speaker 2:yeah. So like when I'm looking at the numbers, it's they are pretty similar in a couple of instances, like in terms of rebounding. Neither team is is like a great rebounding team. So that may be what it comes down to is who can grab a rebound, get out in transition and get down, because both teams, like you said, they can fill it up. I think Wisconsin's a little bit better offensively and I think defensively in terms of scoring-wise they're pretty similar.
Speaker 2:So this might be a game that comes down to, you know, like a key rebound late, whether you can grab it or not, and, I guess, getting into your offense and running your stuff and creating good opportunities, because neither team is like up there in assists either.
Speaker 2:So you can expect a game where you game, where maybe guys bring it down the court, seeking out mismatches and looking to take advantage, and not necessarily winning it off of ball movement, but just winning it off of finding the matchup and taking advantage of it and when the opportunities are there on the glass. Even though both teams are bad at rebounding, since they're facing each other, somebody's got to win the rebounding battle. So that would be my thing to look for in this one is who wins the rebounding battle, probably wins this game. If I had to make a prediction, I'll go Wisconsin wins this one late, maybe by like you know, like a six-point spread or something like that. I think it's gonna be a game that's gonna be really highly contested down to the to the wire, but I think I feel like wisconsin pulls this one out I would agree.
Speaker 1: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 in this 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 football almost there about 11 o'clock tip time. Um, I think it's a physical battle. I think the badgers do come out on top though in that one.
Speaker 1:I think it's going to be heavily reliant on, like I said, steven crowell and nolan winter. How do they defend on the inside there against Biddle and can they control him on the outside? And then also it comes down to I mean, what does John Tonje and John Blackwell have for an on-court performance? Right, because those two, when they get going, it's magic. It's magic. They call them fire and ice for a reason there. Right, fire and ice. Max Klesman I think he's going to my player of the game. Here we go. Player of the game, max klissman. He's gonna give me, he's gonna give me 15 points, he's gonna give me three, threes and he's just gonna be an assist machine in this game here and it's just gonna be awesome. It's just gonna be awesome there.
Speaker 1:So, uh, john did say, let me see here, uh, wisconsin needs to go back and study their loss against maryland. Well, against maryland, john blackwell had two fouls with nine minutes to go, or whatever, in the first half, so he had to sit. And then John Tonje had two fouls with five minutes to go in the first half and they were playing with I don't even know who was out there at that point. The lineup was kind of rough shape for the Badgers, especially on the road, so that did not help at all. Plus, I mean you had 11 turnovers in that game or 10 turnovers in that game. There you didn't shoot the ball overly well, the free throw line wasn't your friend and Maryland came out of the half hot. So I mean it was just, yeah, that kind of game.
Speaker 1:I. The Maryland game was the Maryland game. I think if you played them again you played them in Madison I think the badgers win. I'm gonna be honest with you. I did not come off the maryland game and think to myself wisconsin is not as good as maryland. I think maryland's a very good team, like don't get me wrong, maryland's a very good team, but I did not come out of that game thinking maryland was the better team, I guess is what I would say. So I mean, yeah, that I mean badgers oregon coming up tomorrow there. That'll be an 11 o'clock tip. Should be a good one there. We did see Marquette lose to Villanova, so we'll give that deserves one of them Round of applause there Round of applause for Villanova.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to see Marquette fans say well, the Big East is 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:That is kind of a narrative you get every, every year how deep the big east is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they tell me that all the time it's like yukon makes you guys deep. That's it, yukon. Winning two national titles is the only thing that makes you deep. If you lost to st john's, sure creighton, sure yukon. Maybe xavier's nine and seven, villanova is what nine and eight in the? Uh, in the big east you have georgetown's at seven-8, and then Butler's 5-10. Like none of these teams are overly good. Like Xavier's 17-10, villanova's 16-12. Like great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those are like records. You like you called out Georgetown, georgetown's. Like your perpetual 16, 17, 18 win type of team. They're going to be on the bubble. Everybody's going to say, well, the Big East, you know, should you let them in because of how tough it is? It's just like. I agree with you. Like Big East basketball is, you know, it's good for what it is. I don't know if it's necessarily all that tough but, like I said, uconn makes it seem tougher because UConn the repeat champion and everything like that, but even UConn seems like they're having a bit of a down year.
Speaker 2:They're having a year where if they lose early in the tournament, it may come all apart. Hurley looks like he's ready to just go off on anybody on a given night, and I think it's hilarious. I love it you can see the pressure of them winning these couple of titles getting to them, because now they're getting, they're getting everybody's best shot and this year they're not winning as much as they have the past couple of years makes you wonder if everybody just caught back up.
Speaker 1:You know like yukon was a little bit ahead all those years and now everybody's just catching back up.
Speaker 1:You know like uconn was a little bit ahead all those years and now everybody's just catching back up right. Everybody's like, oh, we're just 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 all year my dark horses that will make deep tournament runs, wisconsin, st john's, memphis I I don't know about memphis, I've never been high in memphis, st john's. There's something like Kyle said about offensive efficiency in the half court. Defensive efficiency is another thing you've got to have in mind. St John's can win in the most unorthodox ways. They can shoot 33% from the field and still beat you by 20. That's impressive. There has got to be a case study done on Rick Pitino because I believe he's had couple final, his final four teams that he had at louisville. They had a shooting percentage of 33. So like there's some kind of case study that needs to be done on rick patino and his ability to coach up a pretty darn good defense. So I agree there. Um, let's see here.
Speaker 1:John said thoughts on arizona, arizona I I don't know what to think of arizona half like. When I saw him early on in the year I thought they had a lot of growing to do. I thought they were still trying to figure it out together. You know um Caleb Love, he's always been hit or miss for me. I thought they were very if I was going to say they're very undisciplined. When the Badgers saw him early on in the season there was a lot of fouls. If you remember, john Tonje shot like 22 free throws in the entire game. Like they were very undisciplined. They were very up in your grill kind of team there and then they kind of just settled in. They settled in themselves. They kind of rallied around each other. They got in a big 12 play. They rattled off a few wins. They've been just fine.
Speaker 1:So I mean, right now I look at the arizona team. I think they're a good team. I don't think they're a great team. I think they're a good team. I think they're a team that wins the basketball games. But I think if I'm it was I would I pick them to be like a final four team. Probably not like I'm not a final four favorite with arizona right now, but I would say right now arizona I is the second weekend team. Like I think they can make it to the second weekend. I think they got good enough guard play with Love and Bradley and KJ Lewis. I just look at down low there with Townsend and I love Townsend and Awaka but I don't know if they're the guys who are going to take you over the top.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I guess Arizona might just come down to how far does Caleb Love take him? Caleb Love's a guy who's been around for a bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the same Caleb Love who was at UNC and then moved on to a couple places and now at Arizona. He's because there's one thing to say about upper-class players in March that can work for you or it could work against you, because we've seen some of these freshman sophomore-laden teams beat upperclassmen-laden teams because they just have more energy and run around. But I think Arizona's going to be interesting to watch. I agree with you. I think they're probably like a second weekend type of team and then you wouldn't be surprised if they were upset or something like that yeah.
Speaker 1: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, but I think that's all we got. I mean, we got a holy crap. We got into a lot tonight. Bobby Portis suspended for 25 games. Luke Fickle gets an extension. Mark Ananasio is the worst owner in all of baseball, according to some Brewer fans. As we heard, the Yankees are allowing you to have a beard now and the Badgers are going to kick the crap out of the Ducks tomorrow.
Speaker 1: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 sports on the go on facebook and youtube. You can find us at wisconsin sports on the go with trage. You can also find us on 92.3 wosq, the radio station here. You can search it up online. If you don't, if you aren't around the central wisconsin area, you can search up 92.3 wosq. You search it, you can listen to it on the website so you can hear the show there.
Speaker 1:7 to 8 on Wednesday, 7 to 8 Central Time pm on Wednesdays. There you can find the show on 92.3 WOSQ on Sports Radio there. Also you can email the show wiscosportsonthego at gmailcom and then also shoot us a text at the text in line 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. If you want to get involved in Trage's Mailbox, which on the radio show the last 12 minutes of every show, we do Trage's Mailbox. If you want to be involved in that, send your questions either on any social media platform otherwise to the email or to the text in line and I can read them off on there and answer your questions. So that's what we want to get to there. But, Kyle, let the people know where to find you out there on social media or wherever they can find your stories.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you can find me Chopping at the Bit from my personal channel. You can catch me over on Integrity Sports Network. I should be on with passion and precision, uh, tomorrow. Uh, then you know. Yeah, I mean I'm on tiktok. I think it's what chomping podcast I. I got the links on youtube.
Speaker 1:I can't sounds right, sounds right yeah, I'm on tiktok.
Speaker 2:I'm on, like I said, youtube, youtube, facebook, twitch.
Speaker 1:I'm out there. You want to find a realist fan? You go to Kyle. That's what you got to do.
Speaker 2:If you want to find a realist. I try to keep it real.
Speaker 1:If you want to find some unrealist fans, go watch Kyle's show Sideline to Sideline on Integrity and listen to them. Eagles guys tell you that that was the greatest team of all time is the one we just watched.
Speaker 2:The Eagles fan base. They're rabid. They got their win. They're going to enjoy it because the Sixers have been a disappointment. The Phillies haven't started yet. The Eagles are what they're going to hold on to. I respect it.
Speaker 1:You win you win, I'll give it to you. You were the best team in football this year. I will give that to you. You won it all, but to call yourselves the best of all time no, no, I can name.
Speaker 2:You know how it is. They like to have those conversations. It's like you know Mahomes wins the title. Is he the greatest? Is he on track to be the greatest?
Speaker 1:Which conversation would have been worse, though? Like which one's going to get more annoying? Would it have been Mahomes, or is it going to be the Eagles fans trying to compare themselves to, like the 2007 Patriots? Like which one is going to be worse, because I think both could have been bad.
Speaker 2:I think both will be bad in their own right. I mean the Mahomes one. It's interesting because you know me being a Patriots fan. It's like I recognize how good Mahomes is. I still because I feel like there's a lot of people, if he wins one more, are ready to kind of put him past Brady.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I can do that, because you know he's lost a couple in kind of blowout fashion, including one to Tom Brady in Tampa Bay. So it's just like I can have the conversation, but I would still lean Brady, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Maybe the bigger conversation is has my homes actually passed montana yet? That might be a better conversation, but I think a lot of people put my homes past my past people forget about montana.
Speaker 1:That's the thing is like if you're not right away from her.
Speaker 2:It's like montana is going to be slowly forgotten about a little bit more, which is tough because some of those Niners teams were pretty dominant.
Speaker 1:It's. It honestly is in all the sports, like, if you don't, outside of Michael Jordan, you forget about guys, you forget about everybody else outside of LeBron. We're going to forget about guys, right, I don't, I don't know. See, that's what separates LeBron and we're're gonna get in a whole car, a toy, uh, tailspin on conversation here, but, um, that's what separates the michael jordan era from this era. I don't think you're gonna forget about a lot of the other guys in the lebron era, like the steps, like he was dominant. The steph curry was dominant. I don't think anybody was as dominant as michael jordan. So it's like it's, you know, you got larry and you got magic and you got those guys along the way there. But I just you think of that or you think of mike, like that's what you think of. You think of this era. I think you can, like you can put a couple different guys like I could think, if I think of this era, I'm like steph, he was dominant, right, lebron's there. But nowadays it's like when I think of the nba, I don't think of lebron james. I forget lebron james is still in the nba. Sometimes, to be honest with you, like I'm like luca, like I honestly think like luca, where's? You know what's going on luca? This you know tonight, whatever. Jason tatum what's going on tatum? Yannis, what's going on yannis the joker, what's going on to him? It's like you forget about lebron, I don't know it's.
Speaker 1:It's an interesting argument. When you get into the goat conversation, you get into the greatest of all time conversations to think of relevancy and to think of, you know, like you said, joe montana, we forget about them because it's like, oh you, just you skip over montana and you go straight to what is you know what was tom brady? Same with the nba. I think too many guys skip over Kobe and they go to LeBron and MJ. They don't go LeBron and Kobe because I don't know if he wins that debate. I think Mike wins the debate between him and Kobe, but I don't know if LeBron wins the debate with him and Kobe. So it's like, how do you skip over Kobe to go to Mike if you don't even get past? It's like I don't even get past it's like I, I don't know that's.
Speaker 2:That's kind of where I think it's a great point. Like you said, it's probably something that you could probably have a conversation on the show. It's just like because the well, with the introduction of social media being kind of a younger platform in an area space, younger fans more attached to LeBron have branched out to people within LeBron's circle and his era. So when you talk Jordan, they only know Jordan because of the Jordan-LeBron debate. But Jordan's era you had Barkley, you had Elijah Wan, who was a guy I think gets forgotten about way too much, way too often. Yeah, and that's where the conversations get tricky, because if you're having conversations with just younger people who only know LeBron's era, it's hard to kind of introduce them to guys who played along Jordan that were really good, like Carmelone terrible person was a good basketball player. You know guys like Stockton or I don't know, like even Tracy McGrady. You could go through a laundry list.
Speaker 2:Like, tracy McGrady is a guy that people I feel like don't really recognize how good that guy was.
Speaker 1:Yep, my nickname was T-Mac growing up. That's where my uncle got it from Grayson McGrady there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was. He was a gift, like. He was kind of like that version of Carmelo Anthony.
Speaker 1:Yep. Oh we forget about him because we amplify one guy. Yes, yep, but I agree, michael George should be amplified Like he wasn't. That was that new go.
Speaker 1:We go a past guys. Right, is lebron better than kobe? I don't think so. So, like, how can you go past kobe and go straight to mike and how do you have a goat debate between those two but you don't include kobe? It just doesn't make sense. I honestly, this is what I've always said my greatest players of all time and this is gonna I always irritate people when I say this are guys who changed the game. Mike changed the game, kobe changed the game. Steph changed the game. Lebron didn't change the game. He didn't.
Speaker 1:Because if you really look at his game, what? How much different is he than Kobe? How much different is he than Mike? He took his game was emulated off of their game, right? Steph's game is not emulated off of their game, right, steph's game is not emulated off of anybody. Steph, I mean, what guy thought that he could? You know what short little guy thought that he could play in the NBA realistically, consistently? Before Steph came in and did it and just gave a hope to a whole different brand of basketball players who were like I can't make the league, but now, when I can bang threes like this, sure I can make it. Right, steph's pulling half court shots like it's his job. He changed the game. There were guys who changed the game and changed it for a good.
Speaker 2:I don't know what lebron has done to change the game for me I think it's fair because if you're looking at them you're like what's lebron's greatest skill? And you could argue his greatest skill is that he's just a big athletic guy.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2: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 the same thing. Lebron doesn't necessarily have that aspect to him. Like, don't get me wrong, lebron is a great player. It's just that he's kind of like really good at a lot of things. But if you had to say what was like his go-to greatest skill, I don't know.
Speaker 2: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 better scorer yep, so that's the thing.
Speaker 1:That's what?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's where he kind of gets in the conversations like he's really good at a lot of different things, but he's not. Yeah, yep, so it's, it's. It's definitely one of those interesting conversations that will continue to happen once he retires as well. You know that's going to happen.
Speaker 1:It should be soon I would hope so. It should be very soon that he retires and just walks off into the sunset. John did say people forgot about Bradshaw and titles getting in the way. Also, is Breeze really better than Marino? There's an argument to be had there. There's an argument to be had there. There's an argument there. Curry got his form from Nintendo game NBA Jam. You're on fire. Yeah, that's true. That is true. I remember that game. No, I completely forgot about the alley. That's where Steph learned it. That's where Steph learned it there.
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