Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag is a podcast/radio show aiming at bringing you Wisconsin sports news and opinions! Find the show Wednesdays from 5-7 pm on Sports radio 92.3 WOSQ or here next day!
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Oct 22 Hour 1: Badgers Football and Mens Hoops, Brewers NLCS Reaction
This is Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. Your place for all things Wisconsin Sports. Now, your host, Trage.
SPEAKER_01:How are we doing, everybody? And welcome into Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back to you here on this October 22nd. We're at the end of the month. You guys know what that means. The sporting world is getting crazy. We got the World Series coming up, NBA is tipping off. College football is in well, the full swing of things, except if you're the Wisconsin Badgers. We don't even know what they're doing. Um, we got we got NFL going on. It's craziness. It's craziness. A men's college basketball is almost back. We got the Badgers coming up here soon, taking on Oklahoma and that exhibition game. We have it is wild. It is absolutely wild right now. Here it's so crazy. We're starting off the show tonight here with Christian. Gonna be hopping on right off the bat. So we're gonna get to him in a minute here. But right away, I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday so far. The Wednesday that is. It's been it's been a good week so far. It's been a good week so far. So I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday and your week. But Christian is here right off the bat tonight here. Christian, how are we doing? It's Wednesday. You're back from your two-week hiatus from us. We were like concerned. Badgers haven't scored a touchdown since you left. So it's been bad. I mean, it Christian, how are we doing on this Wednesday?
SPEAKER_04:We're good. We're good. I've uh yeah, I think I must be the bad luck guy, right? I'm gone and we don't score a point in two weeks.
SPEAKER_01:Uh I don't even know what it is anymore. We lost the Maryland man after that. After that Maryland loss, I don't know what's what.
SPEAKER_04:I think I think everyone fell off the wagon after the Maryland loss.
SPEAKER_01:Uh well, you know what? It didn't hurt, I guess, to lose to Ohio State because even that for the first touchdown pass of the game against Ohio State, they that was a great catch. Tate made a great catch over top of two guys. It was just a great throw, a great catch. Nothing you can really do about it in that one. Tate made a couple good plays. They actually did really good on Smith. It's just Tate had a good game. And Julian Saiyan was fantastic. I didn't think he was actually going to throw an incompletion on the day. The run defense looked good. So, I mean, there was some good, I guess, you can look at in that Ohio State game. But we're not gonna start there. We want to start with the direction of the program. And that's what Chris McIntosh came out and wrote us the letter, right? The letter from Chris McIntosh to Badger Faithful. Basically, to summarize the whole letter, if you haven't read it yet, I'm not gonna read the whole thing off because I just lose my mind reading it. But basically, to sum it all up, is Chris McIntosh said, he could have saved time. This is this is what Big Cat on Barstool said, too. He's like, he could have saved time and just said, I really want to keep my job, even though I've been objectively bad at it. So here's my here's my plan. Here's my plan, is what he said. He's gonna invest more money into the football program. He's gonna put more into this football program because Luke Fickle has his commitment. Christian, we read this letter, we hear Chris McIntosh kind of talk to us. Apparently, from what I heard, and this was just on the camp with Jesse Temple and Zach Heilpern, I was listening to, but apparently he told a player that uh Luke Fickle's gonna be back next year, which, if that's true, I don't know how you say that right now, with the rest of the schedule still in the docket here and a lot of badge of faithful already getting upset. You've already had ticket sales drop for next season already. I mean, it's just madness. Christian, you hear all this. What are your thoughts on Chris McIntosh basically telling us Luke Fickle's my guy and he's gonna stay?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean, I think he is gonna be back next year, right? Um, this that's everything I've heard too. But yeah, even uh I think I saw someone tweeted a video of uh Jake Renfro. He met with the met with the media this week and he you know got the same idea. He even basically said, you know, fickle and the coaching staff will be back next year. And I don't know, he said the the locker room was all fired up and they were hooting and hollering and doing all that. And I mean, I don't know. I guess if they won't, they're all you know, if they all like each other and everything, then I mean I guess that's good, right? But I don't know. For me, I just personally look at that, I go, how can you be super excited about you know, outside of I guess the inflow of potential cash coming to improve the roster or coaching staff. I don't know how you can be excited about you know where they're at right now, but I don't know. But as far as his uh his letter goes, I mean I think that just sounds like a guy who you know took a huge swing on his first hire. And I mean, let's be honest, like everyone thought it was a great hire, right? Yeah, I thought I was over the you know, I was over the moon, ecstatic about it because I thought like I didn't think Wisconsin would ever be able to get a guy like Fickle, someone who like was mentioned with like Notre Dame and you know things like that job, right? Um, but I think that sounds like a guy who's you know not quite ready to uh admit his he had a bad hire. Uh or I mean it's kind of like what you see with like GMs and quarterbacks in the NFL, you know, like or even head coaches, you know, like they make their hire, like that's their guy, and like you know, that's kind of your legacy, right? So like fickle is Macintosh's legacy, and I don't think he's quite ready to let it go. So he's trying to exhaust all the options before he actually has to fire him. So, you know, getting uh the Board of Regions, you know, all the higher ups like on board and convincing them that fickle's the guy and just saying, yeah, actually we need more money to fix this problem. I mean, it just sounds like a guy who's not quite ready to admit he was wrong.
SPEAKER_01:The biggest question is why wasn't it already there? Why wasn't this money if there's this money? Why wasn't it already invested into your football program? As your football program is supposed to be the thing that funds basically everything else, the more irrelevant the football program gets, the lesser it seems like this. I mean, it's it's what funds everything. Your football program is what makes you money as a university basically. Men's basketball can only do so much, the volleyball team can only do so much, football is your moneymaker, and if you don't have a football team, well, it's a problem. This is my okay. So I guess this is my question. If if Luke Fickle stays, and this was a question I heard, I can't remember who asked this question. It baffled maybe it was on maybe it was on the camp too. It's with uh Zach Howlprin and Jesse Temple, but they ask a question. I kind of wanted to talk about it here. If Luke Fickle stays, could it cause more problems? Could it actually hurt the program and make it go years now, years with more problems? Could it actually cause more problems giving him that extra year? Where it where it derails this program even further, where it's even more unfixable for the next hire. What do you what do you think? Like if you bring him back, could that be the case?
SPEAKER_04:I mean, I feel like it probably could. I mean, they're already going down, you know, downhill pretty quick, right? Um, I think part of that too is I think we talked about this a little bit too, is in-state recruiting. And I saw some like you know, Brad Nortman, uh, former Badger punter. Uh, he actually is like on the one of the ESPN walkie radio shows. I saw something with him today where he was like he was talking about like high school football coaches, like they say there's like no presence from fickle, like he doesn't talk to any of them. He you know, he won't go to these like fundraising events, all this stuff. I mean, how true that is, but um it doesn't really seem like he's putting in a ton of effort to like keep Wisconsin kids in state. So I mean, and because I think he's more about trying to like recruit nationally, you know, and I think because he talked about that when he was hired, he's like he didn't realize how big of a you know, how big of a brand the Wisconsin football brand was and how much recruiting power they had nationally. So I think that probably I don't know if it went to his head or what or he's just kind of says just thinks okay, I like the key the in-state kids will come. I gotta focus on you know the big boys nationally, you know. And I think, especially now, like the um the 2026 recruiting class in Wisconsin is absolutely loaded. It's just like that one that had Carson Hinsman and Joe Brunner and you know all those, and you know, it's just like that again. Like there's uh Cores Logan, I think is how you say his name, a kid from Iola, one of the best tight ends in the country. Uh Cole Reeder from somewhere in Spy Milwaukee. Like he's like they have they're loaded with like four-star talent, and I feel like I don't know how hard are they really going at him, you know? Yeah, um, so to answer your question, I guess. I mean, if he's not really if he just keeps continues to do the same thing, like how many in-state kids are gonna want to go play at Wisconsin? You know, and that was like the bread and butter under Barry Alvarez, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so even the even the guys after.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think you could definitely uh I mean, hard to say because you know, they've lost five in a row and they look like probably the worst power four team in the country, but like I think you could probably get worse, right? So, I mean, maybe if he if he continues doing what he's doing, maybe I don't know, maybe the transfer portal's the key to it too. More money coming in, they can buy better players and they can slap a big band-aid on it and salvage it. But I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and you know, the problem with letting the in-state guys go is where those guys are going, Minnesota, Iowa, they're going to these teams that are beating you now. Your guys that you that's the thing is like the guys Wisconsin used to recruit are going to Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, the guys that they used to target, the linemen, the tight ends, all of that. Now they're going to these schools who are now beating the snot out of you. So you are allowing them to leave now, leave the state, get out of the state, and go elsewhere. I saw a lineman that went to Notre Dame now. He's one of the better linemen in the country. He's on Notre Dame, he's from Wisconsin there. Just seeing guys like that and seeing them be successful elsewhere and knowing Wisconsin wasn't even in the running for him. Even like Paul Christ was going after those guys. Jim Leonard could have recruited the state of Wisconsin. He would have recruited the state of Wisconsin. He didn't want to travel to recruit, he would have recruited the state of Wisconsin because he's here. So he would have loved that. That's where I guess my biggest problem. One of my biggest problems with this badger program is they don't develop the talent that's here. Which guy, if you had to pick one where you looked at him in this badger program, which guy has gotten better? I can't think of one. Because when I look at Christian Allegro this year, did he really get better from last year? I don't think so. You look at guys like uh, well, I was just thinking of a guy off the top of my uh uh wide receiver, uh Vinny Anthony. Did he truly get better going into this year? I don't know. I don't think so.
SPEAKER_04:Like they can't even get him the ball. No, I mean so that's what's so hard to tell. Like you can't you can't you can't tell because like their offense is so dysfunctional. I mean, so offensively, I can't name one player. You'd like to say Joe Brunner, you'd like to say Riley Mulman.
SPEAKER_01:But does that start up front then? You have no offensive line who can block, so you start there. Did any of those guys get better in the offseason?
SPEAKER_04:No, like I honestly don't think so.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, no, and it's it is a health problem too. I can see that it is a health problem getting guys healthy, and maybe just maybe okay. Maybe if you have all your guys healthy, Billy Edwards never got hurt, Jake Renfro never got hurt, the offensive line's been steady a go, right? Maybe it looks a little bit better, but not 37 points to Iowa better. Oh man, not you know, 27 of 10 better against me. I don't think it looks better in those games.
SPEAKER_04:I don't feel like we see regression. Yeah, week after week. We're like what happened to Ricardo Hallman?
SPEAKER_01:That's that's another one. That's the guy I was thinking of when I was gonna say development of players. Ricardo Hallman got worse. He got worse last year this year.
SPEAKER_04:He was draftable, and now I just actually saw Dane Brugler from uh The Athletic just he, you know, he's the guy that like threw out that accusation that uh fickle is literally closing all practices to NFL scouts for some crazy reason. Like he's he's not letting any scouts in. The only time scouts ever get to see the Badgers players do anything is in a game and they look terrible. I mean, so and Fickle, you know, he said, Oh, he knows he's lying, or no, that's not Fickle, you know, he denied or then so there's I guess he's this dude's connected, he talks to scouts and they say, Yeah, he doesn't let us in. So I don't know. So, anyways, back to Ricardo Hallman. Like someone has said, like, I mean, is there even anyone draftable on this team? And he's like, No, pretty much not, but he's basically hurting the chances for any of his players to get a deal as an undrafted rookie, right? So, like now, specifically Ricardo Hallman. So I was like, Look, is he draftable? No, he's too small, too slow. Like, I don't know. The dudes, I feel like he was on track to be, you know, at least a sec day two pick, right? Yep, and now all of a sudden it's just like the dudes just getting burnt by everyone, everyone.
SPEAKER_01:It doesn't even matter, it doesn't even matter. It's a no-name guy, it is literally the no-game guys that are burning Ricardo Hallman at this point. And I really thought last season it was, yeah, like you said, he was good. It was like Ricardo Hallman, it was like his island out there. It was like at some points, I was like, you don't want to even throw this guy's way, he's that good, and now it's uh you could throw that way, it's fine. So I if that's if it's a regression of the team, maybe he's going down with them. But then if that's the case, man, we're ruining players.
SPEAKER_04:Like that's what's happening. Who's who's gonna want to come to Wisconsin if they don't get developed? That's that's what was that was what Kristen, you know, all those other coaches were good at. Yeah, we don't we didn't necessarily recruit at the highest level, but like they could develop players. Now I I know it's completely different because the transfer portal, and like you know, kids aren't gonna sit around and wait like they used to, right? But I feel like there's just almost no development, and I don't know if that's fickle's fault or if it's it if it honestly is because of the transport portal.
SPEAKER_01:But if you sit true to a kid though, like a like maybe bring like a three-star and you sit true to him as a freshman, you're like, I'll bring you in. I I picked you over top of these other good guys, but you're from Wisconsin, so I picked you, and you sit with them and you're like, Hey, you develop throughout the years. I think you can get loyalty from those guys, but when you're you know just bringing in these four stars from Florida, like Xavier Lucas, he has no ties to the state of Wisconsin, he doesn't care. That's the problem, I guess, where I have with the out of state recruiting, with you know, not targeting the state, is that when you don't target the state, I feel like those guys don't have that Wisconsin feeling where they're gonna be easily like, oh, I'll jump ship, I don't want to be here. Whereas if you get a guy from the Milwaukee area from the Madison, he's more prone to stay because he has that background of Wisconsin back, you know, he loves the state, he hates Minnesota, those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_04:Do you think Hunter Woller would have sticked around stuck around at all if he wasn't from Wisconsin? No, no, that's I I mean that's the thing. He's he's such a loyal guy, but like it's because he grew up a badger fan, right? I mean, he might have stuck around just because that's the kind of person he is, but and it's like the guy that like when you're talking about that, that's the guy that immediately jumped to my mind as like local kid, really good player. I mean, he was a higher-rated recruit, but like he stuck around because I mean, granted, he also had a really good junior year. He had like you know, racked up tackles like crazy in that defense, but I don't know, they weren't good. No, so it's I don't know, frustrating for him. But what about Daryl Peterson? There's a guy like he was a guy that Wisconsin supposedly beat Alabama for a long time. He's been playing since he was a funeral freshman.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they beat out where's the development, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Where's the development with him?
SPEAKER_01:They beat out Alabama for uh Graham Mertz, too. So that's I sometimes I feel like crazy.
SPEAKER_04:I'm a I'm a grand, I'm a Graham Mertz truther. I think he Wisconsin did not do right by him. No, no, I think they yeah, even Paul Christ like admitted after he was part of like, yeah, we just we didn't use him like we should have, we didn't use him the right way. Like I think I think he got the raw end of the deal. I think he looked halfway decent at Florida, but the problem with that is he was a lame duck quarterback because he was sitting in front of DJ Lagway.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, that's true. I I could definitely see that. I thought Graham Mertz was just not the right guy for what Wisconsin was trying to do, and it just did not it did not benefit him at all being in Madison. Maybe it changed like putting with Nick Saban and all them good wide receivers. All he had to do was just throw the ball. So I mean it could have could have definitely benefited him being down there. So I mean, just I guess final thoughts, Badger football, just the Luke Fickle situation moving forward. I feel like I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm gonna be honest with everybody right now. I don't think Luke Fickle's getting fired. I don't think he is. I think at least for this season, he's here, and I could honestly see him back next year. I think that Macintosh is a truther. I think he's going to invest everything he has into this football program because his job is tied to Luke Fickle and he's in desperation mode now. So he's throwing it all down on the table. Maybe they get some good talent in there, and then we see what happens for that. That's kind of where I'm at right now. What are your thoughts, Christian?
SPEAKER_04:I absolutely agree. I don't like for the like two a week or two ago, and Q asked me like thoughts about it. I'm like, I think maybe there's dragging him along. He can play Ohio State and Oregon and just get you know smoked, and then they can let the interim come in and get smoked by Indiana. But um, I'm with you now. I think they're absolutely gonna stick with them and into next year and at least give them another shot. Because I mean you can always blame the schedule too. Like, man, we got a the work hardest schedule in the you know in college football. And you know, your your starting quarterback got hurt again, and you know, there's all there's tons of excuses, and I don't know. Fans just absolutely want to be mad. I'm mad about it, right? But I mean, maybe maybe there was a little bit of truth to that, right? Maybe what if Billy Edwards was halfway decent and he could fix some of this stuff because Hunter Simmons looks terrible. Danny O'Brien look or Danny O'Brien, geez, going back a lot of years. Danny O'Neill also looks I mean, he had a few like flashes here and there, but otherwise he was overwhelmed, you know. I'm not gonna I don't know. I don't know if Billy Edwards Jr. would have been, you know, you know, he would have been the answer, but I think definitely things could have been better. But also loot, you know, you already have a very, very thin offensive line, and you lose your potential star left tackle in spring practice, and you have to bring Davis Heinz in, you're already starting at a disadvantage. So maybe it all of that, you know, perfect storm with with the super hard schedule, maybe everything just Murphy's law, everything that could have gone wrong did. Yeah. So I could see that, but also I don't know, man. I just I think he's gonna be back next year, and I don't really have the highest of hopes. The only glimmer of hope I have is like guys like Mason Posa or you know, like that those young guys that are flashing already. Um I'm I'm fully on board. Let's get let's get Carter Smith in. Let's see what he can do. My only problem is my only I'm only scared of what if he actually looks really good and all of a sudden we have a Xavier Lucas situation on our hands again and someone comes in and offers him a bag, even though he's not even in the portal and he just leaves.
SPEAKER_01:That would be that'd be the well, yeah. That's that's my fear.
SPEAKER_04:Like, let's just let's just keep stashing him away and we'll just throw you know Hunter Simmons out for the rest of the year or whatever, and just let him let the team flop their way to a two and nine record or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01:Let's just keep telling Carter Smith that he's bad. Let's just keep telling him he's bad. Let's just keep convincing him of that and that next year. Sorry, man.
SPEAKER_04:You just can't quite beat out Milos or Milosh or you know any of those guys. You're you're QB5 right now, man. Sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Next year, next year though, next year's your year. I promise you. Next year's your year. Your year there. I agree. I just there's just so many things pointing. And the energy that he showed after Ohio State, like after after the Iowa game, he looked defeated. He looked like he was broke. And then after they lost to Ohio State, he had this different kind of juice to him, a different kind of energy where he was kind of pumped up.
SPEAKER_04:I just not going anymore.
SPEAKER_01:He knows he's fine. He knows he's fine. He knows he was told he was fine, and I really think that's the case. So I know none of neither one of us is telling you guys out there, just so you know, and we'd love to hear your thoughts on this. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. Let us know your thoughts on badger football, the direction of the program. Neither one of us is telling you guys that we want him back next year. We're just telling you what we feel like is going to happen next year. Those are two different things. Our feel like, our wants, and what we think is gonna happen are two different things right now, and it's not that good. So we're gonna be back here. We're gonna hit a quick commercial break. We're gonna come back and we're gonna talk some badger hoops. A little bit better, right? Greg Guard's gonna make us feel better. We're gonna talk some badger hoops when we come back from the break. Christian's gonna stay, stick around. We'll be back here at KMC, Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment, we're gonna talk some badger hoops now. We're gonna get you guys feeling better after that badger football talk. This next segment is brought to you by Casa M Spice, the low sodium, clean label, no MSG, no fillers. This stuff is fantastic. You can put it on anything. You put it on steaks, ribs, eggs, anything in between, vegetables. If you're grilling, if you're tailgating, you need to add Casa M. Spice to your spice regimen there. So Christian is back here. We're gonna get to oh, before we get to this badge of basketball, we got to do our Casa M. Spice bold player of the week. And there can only be one man who we can give this Casa M Spice bold player of the week award to. And that has got to be our guy, Micah Parsons, there with the Green Bay Packers. He was fantastic. He had three sacks, he had four tackles for a loss. He was massive down the stretch for the Green Bay Packers there against the Cardinals. Christian, off top of your head, do you have a I'm just throwing this at you. I didn't even give you time to prepare. Do you have a Cost M Spice bold player of the week?
SPEAKER_04:Uh, if we want to talk bold, let's just do one bold play. We just talked about how about Sean West, the punter for the Badgers, huh? 19 on fourth and 19. He just decides, you know what, forget it. I'm like offense isn't doing anything. How about I just pick this up? And he literally went and picked it up, and Fickle fully admitted that the best offensive play of the game was not planned, and it was just West doing his own thing. So good for him. Just completely bucking the offense or bucking the uh you know the trend and you know, not really following what he's supposed to be doing, but he's picking up first downs for the badgers.
SPEAKER_01:That he might have had he like would it have really made us feel bad if that was the leading rusher of the game? Because our leading rusher was 35 yards, and that was it that Uka got.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, Gideon Ituka.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so he had 35 yards. That rush was for 19 yards. The punter almost almost had the longest rush of the game. 20 yards. There you go. His rush was actually registered as 20 yards. So K Yakamele rushed for 30, and that Gideon rushed for 35. He almost had the longest rush.
SPEAKER_04:West West also didn't have to run behind that starting offensive line unless the other guys did. So he's already at an advantage, right?
SPEAKER_01:We need to put the special teams. That punt line needs to be in on the offensive side of the football. That might do it. So let's get away from Badger football because I don't even want to think that this is bad. Oh my goodness. Like there was a somebody asked a question. They're like, Do you think the Badgers will rush for more yards this season than Melvin Gordon's uh how many yards Melvin Gordon had in that game against Nebraska, which was like 408? Yeah, so they asked if the Badgers would have more rushing yards on the season than he had in that one game. Currently, right now, they gotta be their leading rusher. They said they're leading rusher. Would their leading rusher would any of them hit 408 yards?
SPEAKER_04:Not a chance.
SPEAKER_01:So Dillion Jones has 300. So he's 108 yards away with five games to go against Indiana, uh, Minnesota, Washington, or Minnesota.
SPEAKER_04:That's the thing. It's hard, it's hard to rack up rushing yards when you're down 30 points every single game.
SPEAKER_01:That's true. You gotta throw the ball around a little bit. So you can't really get that far there. So that's just crazy to think that there's comparisons to see. Like, will a rusher on the season even touch what Melvin Gordon did in one game?
SPEAKER_04:That's really bad.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. I saw I heard Jesse Temple did one on Twitter. He asked if the Badgers would score more than three touchdowns on the season, uh, in what's left. And I I don't know. I don't know. Somebody had asked a question to him, and I think he said they might score three. And I was like, ah, that's I might be pushing it. I might be pushing it for what they can do next season.
SPEAKER_04:Maybe all against Minnesota. I don't think I don't think we're scoring anything against Illinois, Indiana, maybe Washington.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe Washington if we're lucky. Maybe Washington. They might find the end zone there. So let's get away from that. I don't even want to. Yeah, okay. Let's get out of there. Let's get out of there. Basketball. Basketball time. Greg Guard is gonna save the day for us. We watched that red-white scrimmage. That was I I wasn't able to watch a full game. I didn't get to over to Madison. It sounded like it was a great time. Everybody who went tweeted great things about it. Uh, but watching the highlights from what we saw. I love the look of this team. I love the depth of this team, what they look like right now. So we're gonna kind of dive into the depth here. Let's look at that. First, I want to look at that guard position because there's a couple guys that I want to tap into. Nick Boyd coming in, the transfer, the senior. He's been there, done that. He was on the FAU Final Four team. He's been there, done that guard. He looks like he's gonna be exciting. He looks like a guy who can push the pace, he looks like a great passer. And watching him in that red-white scrimmage, he can shoot it too. He can do it all for you. So I love watching him. And then Braden Carrington. I didn't know what to expect of him coming in or what to expect of him coming in. He's gonna be like a Kamari McGee serviceable guard that can come in there and fill some holes for you. So I love him in that guard spot. And then you got Jack Janicki coming in behind that. Loved it, loved what we saw from him last year. And I think he's just gonna progress from what we saw there. And then you have some other guys who could see some time in the guard role, maybe a guy like Zach Keynes or then a maybe a Jack Robinson if he doesn't fill into more of a uh three spot or something like that. You could maybe see him filling into a shooting guard spot. So I mean, Christian, when you look at or like hear about that guard spot there, what do you like in what you're seeing from these guys?
SPEAKER_04:Like you said, the depth. But I think also what I really like because everyone has kind of has a defined role already, right? Um Boyd's gonna come in and be. I mean, him and Blackwell are like option 1A and 1B for scoring, right? But I think Blackwell is gonna be the off, he's gonna be like the two now, right? He's not we're not gonna guard's not gonna be asking Blackwell necessarily to be the point guard. That's Boyd. Boyd's gonna run the offense, he's gonna be fast based, he's gonna be doing stuff that's gonna free Blackwell up, right? Last year we had like a combination of Blackwell and Clesmet as the point guard. We didn't really have a true point guard since Chucky left, right? So I like that. So like they have like defined roles there. Carrington, like you said, he's he's like a true three and D kind of guy. He's gonna hit threes and he's gonna play defense, kind of like Kamari McGee, only bigger. Um, but yeah, then I think so that's already like what three guys for two positions. So there's some depth there with Carrington coming off the bench. Um, I don't know. Can you count Roadie as a guard?
SPEAKER_01:And we're gonna well, maybe he could play, he could probably fill in there.
SPEAKER_04:That's I mean, that's the thing with him. Like all you know, practice and stuff. All you hear about is his passing ability. The dude's not gonna be lighting it up, but that's the thing. We don't need him to. He's gonna be passing the ball to Boyd, to Blackwell, you know, whoever needs to get it. I think he had two assists technically in the uh in the scrimmage, but he had three points and four rebounds. Like he's just kind of that guy that's gonna do a lot of the little things, and he'll score, but he that's not like they aren't gonna depend on him to be a primary scorer. So um, then I mean, like you said, you got Jack Janicki like butt burst on the scene last year. I know that the program kind of opened up their checkbook to keep him, him, uh Blackwell, and Winter were all from what I hear very well taken care of in the offseason to make sure they stick around. So, like we talk about now the football team's finally getting some money. Sorry to bring them back up, but like there has been money that has been put into the basketball program to keep their talent around. So um Janicki's, I think I'm assuming coming off the bench, he's gonna be you know, he's gonna be really good in that second unit, like a guy that they're absolutely gonna depend on. Um, and then Hayden Jones, that freshman from uh New Zealand we talked about, like he's already like halfway a professional, right? Because he's already played kind of some pro ball over New Zealand or you know, pretty close to it. Um, but yeah, so like as far as the guard position, like there's depth, which is really nice to see. Um, but again, I think everyone kind of has a defined role where everyone fits in and the chemistry is just looks good and you know, sounds good from everything we've been hearing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, I I love that. And you know, the the black, I didn't I didn't mention blackwell, I didn't want to mention Hayden Jones. I was kind of I was looping them into what I could see as the the one through three spots in this lineup are gonna be a rotational thing where I could see uh you could have a lineup, and I think this is gonna be a lineup with Boyd, with Blackwell, with Andrew Roadie, and then you're gonna see Rap and Winter because Greg Garfield is the two big guys in there. So I think that's gonna be a rotation there, and I think it could you could see you know guys slipping in there where Braden Cairn could fill into the two or the one, and then you can see a guy like Blackwell slide down into that three spot because Roadie's out of the game, and now you mix in a different guy like Janicki near that top of that guard rotation with those two. So I can see you know that kind of rotation working there. I love the ability of Blackwell to work off ball. Yeah, that is my favorite thing about this is having that true point guard. Is now Blackwell can facilitate off the ball. You have guys who can get him to open shots. You with having weapons like they do now, I think in the shooting, Austin Rapp, I think is gonna be the difference maker because, and this is my because Steven Crow, I love me some big Steve. Don't get me wrong, I love me some big Steve. He was not a three-level score. He was sometimes an outside scorer, sometimes an inside scorer, but not physical enough to be an all-the-time inside scorer and not consistent enough to be an outside score. And he was never a middle ground, which I think Austin Rapp and Nolan Winter are. They're three-level scores. They're not afraid to hit the jump shot on you. They're also not afraid to take you down on the little post, and they're not afraid to hit it from the outside, too. I think that's the difference that Austin Rapp's gonna bring into this. Is Steve was willing to do all of those, he just didn't do them at a high clip. And he was bullied, I think, down on the post at times. And that's something that I think now, Nolan Winter, I think he's put on a lot of upper body strength. I think he's gotten bigger. I think that's gonna be huge. And this Austin Rapp, he's a big fella. And they have a lot of big fellas coming in. Year. Austin Raps, he's big. I mean, he's what 238, 238. That's a that's a big dude to be pushing. That's a big guy. He's 238. Will Garlic's coming in at 243. That's a freshman. That is a freshman, seven foot. And then Austin Greppi's another guy. Elijah Gray. I don't know where he's gonna quite fill in. I think he's probably gonna be that guy to come in in that four spot at times if they try to go with like that.
SPEAKER_04:Is he gonna be like is he gonna be like that Xavier Amos last year? Except I don't think he can shoot as well as Amos could, but like he'll he'll be like emergency depth.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, just an emergency depth kind of defender kind of guy. You know, nothing, nothing crazy, nothing crazy with him, not a super talent, but they're never gonna depend on him. Yeah, and that's okay. You gotta have guys like that. Like you said, you don't want to have to depend on some of these guys in this rotation, they just have to be darn good rotational pieces. And I think that's where Elijah Gray might be. They have a lot of guys in this rotation, like a Jack Robinson who can shoot it from the outside. I love that stroke, that lefty stroke that he's got going. King Ainsur, the freshman coming in, he can shoot it. They have a lot of depth pieces that I really like, and I think they can utilize all of them. I don't think they're gonna go full Kentucky where they have two rotating blue and white team where they're like rotating five at a time. I don't think it's gonna be crazy like that, but I think they have the ability to go eight, nine. If you got crazy with it in a game because you needed it, you can maybe pull a tenth guy off the bench and put him in. But I think they're gonna have the rotation of three to four guys off their bench that they're gonna be able to go to, and you're not gonna take a huge step back. I think that's the big thing in years this Badger team has been lacking, is when they went to the bench, there wasn't the same scoring. There wasn't the same intensity. I think now that you have a Jack Janicki coming off the bench, you have a you're gonna have like a Braden Carrington coming off the bench there. I mean, there's there's a couple different guys where you can see them contributing into this, but I think that's gonna be the huge thing for me with this team. So I guess looking at the big guys, is there anything that stood out to you looking at those big fellas that we got now?
SPEAKER_04:I mean, like, I think you kind of hit the nail on a head there. Like, I think Winter is gonna take another step forward this year. I mean, he's he was always kind of like in the backseat to Crowl. I mean, not that he should have been, but like Crowl was the guy, right? Yeah, um I think he's gonna be, I think obviously the featured guy down low. Um, but I think rap is gonna be a really big part of this offense, a big guy that can step out and shoot and actually be a legitimate threat. Like you said, Crowell could hit threes, like he could hit a couple of games if he got hot, but otherwise there was games where he was just pounding the side of the packboard, you know. So um, I think rap will be f I think he had 15 points in the scrimmage. Um in so like you said, three-level score. He's he does really well with spacing. He I think he's gonna make life a heck of a lot easier for winter down low. So I just I don't know. I think he's I don't want to say the missing piece, but I think he's gonna be he's gonna bring an element to the badgers that they didn't have last year, is like with the four because I think that's what Xavier Amules was kind of supposed to be, but didn't really work out. And obviously Tanja just took over and was awesome, and then Blackwell was also awesome, so that helps. But um, and I think Will Garlic, that freshman, I think when they first had him come in, I think he was just gonna be like a guy, you know, and maybe in a year or two down the road, he get he gets some playing time. But guard seems super impressed with him and is very impressed with like how much he's developed in the short time he's been there. So I think he's gonna earn himself some playing time. He's definitely gonna be a rim protector. He's not gonna sit and probably shoot a bunch of threes, I would assume. Um, but then oh boy, let me let me just butcher this name. Uh Alexis uh Bielakalus Belaskus. I got to have someone I'm gonna have to have someone like drill into my head. It's gonna be like Giannis Anadacumpo when he first got drafted. I couldn't say his name at all, and Alexis, you know exactly what it is. But I think he's also gonna be he's I think he's a little raw from what I see. But I think he's if you get a guy like that coming off the bench, like I think you're looking pretty good there. So kind of like just like the guards, you got some depth, which is awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Especially in the Big Ten where fouls get crazy. You play some other teams with some good big guys where fouls like we saw last season when the Badgers played uh Danny, Danny, uh Danny Wolf and Matthew Golden. It got a little crazy because you got guys. Vlad Vlad Golden. Oh, Vlad. Who did I think?
SPEAKER_04:Matthew Golden. I don't think he was playing Big Ten basketball. Sorry, I could, I could, I could have I could have let that go, but I'm like, that's just a really fun thing. That was a really fun, that was just a really funny thought.
SPEAKER_02:He just thinks he knows what he's talking about over there, and he's like Matthew Golden. Matthew Golden just bodying up Steven Crow.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he doubled. He went and played football down at Texas, he was up in Michigan playing basketball. He was Matthew Golden was all over the place, Vlad Golden and Danny Wolf. It took me a while to think Danny Wolf, too. So I mean that's yeah, that's basketball's been so long. I get it back in basketball. But, anyways, you got into a game against guys like that. You needed that depth, you needed that physicality, and the badgers didn't have that. And I think now, and this is where I guess this is where I want to see this team get back to. I want to see this team getting back to that physicality down low in the post, in the having a post-presence. It's something that I feel like they've lacked for years. And I thought last season they lacked that, and I think that's one of the crutches. One of the problems that they had was that they didn't have a post-presence in some of those games. They didn't have a true rebounder, somebody to get down there, get dirty, get onto the glass, do the when the offense isn't clicking because you're gonna have nights where you can't score it from the outside, and you need to go inside. You gotta have that guy, and I think now they have that with an Austin rap, with a bigger and better Nolan Winter, and then some of the young guys that you mentioned there, even a guy like Ricardo Greppi in his second year now, and then you have, like you said, uh with Will Garlic, and also I'm not gonna say the name there, Alexis.
SPEAKER_03:A B.
SPEAKER_01:A B. We're gonna call him A B for now until Matt LePay tells us how to say it. Uh, the freshman there from Lithuania. You have guys like that coming in. I think those guys, if you can get because they have some big fellas. I mean, this is size that they haven't seen coming in in a while. Steven Crowell wasn't this big coming in, Frank Kaminsky wasn't this big coming in. You have some guys with some actual size, some built size coming in there. And I think that's something that's gonna be irreplaceable on a team like this is that physicality portion of it. And I think, and we've kind of talked about this at commercial, but bringing in a guy like Brad Davidson back to this program, I think he's gonna bring that energy, that juice. And I think that's going to also help on that defensive side where he's gonna help guys, you know, because watching highlights of him, you just you knew that he was always giving you 110, even when he was stinking on the offensive end, he was always giving it defensively. I mean, we had the charge game, right? I was just gonna ask you still driving them nuts.
SPEAKER_04:Who do you who do you think is gonna take the most charges this year because of Brad Davidson? Which player? Roadie. Really? Oh, I was gonna say Blackwell.
SPEAKER_01:Blackwell seems like that pesky guy that just likes to chirp all games gonna take a lot of haymakers, if anything.
SPEAKER_04:I don't think he's gonna take he's gonna be chirping and he's gonna be taking charges, and Brad Davidson's gonna be hyping him up from the sideline.
SPEAKER_01:Who was the one last year? Was that against Arizona? That was Caleb Love, wasn't it? Who shoved them down at that end?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he's good. You gotta love guys that talk that smoke. You gotta love guys that talk it, and then they just like uh they just not used to that with Wisconsin, are we?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean you like it. Brad Davidson, he was the he was the master of it. You knew they were Max Clesmont. I think not a lot of people like knew it, but Max Clesmont talked a lot of that too. Like he was he was a guy who trash talked a lot out there, and he he was it was fun. You know, you gotta have guys like that. So you love that. You you love that with him there. So I guess any uh any final thoughts you have about this badge basketball team. They open up, don't isn't it this Friday? Friday night, they're gonna open up at the Pfizer against Oklahoma. Is that this Friday or something?
SPEAKER_04:I think it's yep, the 24th, yep, this Friday. This Friday. So this Friday and Black on the big on Big Ten Plus, if anyone has that.
SPEAKER_02:They always make us have to pay for something more to watch back. So we're gonna all have to get Big Ten Plus.
SPEAKER_04:I think that's that's awesome. Oklahoma and an exhibition. Then they got then next. I love it. Wednesday they got Plattville and their normal YAC. They play one of them. So guard gets to coach against his brother, and then they officially open up the season November 3rd against Campbell.
SPEAKER_01:I like the Oklahoma because I think it gives you a different element than what Platteville does. Oh, yeah. You like, and it's should go without saying, I guess, but you don't get to like you get because the Oklahoma is gonna go into that game playing their guys because they also want to see it, and they're also gonna give 110% because they're also still playing for starting spots and stuff. So I mean, this is gonna be a game where you're gonna see two teams who are gonna be in the thick of things in their conferences, most likely, going at it here in the Pfizer, a big a big arena to an NBA arena. I mean, it's it's one of those like atmospheres where you're gonna get the best out of these two teams. So I love it too. I I absolutely love the thought of playing Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_04:I'm so jacked for this season. Like their schedule is so loaded. They got BYU. Then AJ Dybon was Daibenasta or whatever the he's the number one recruit in the country last year, goes to BYU because he's from Utah, got paid a ton of money, whatever. The team that knocked us out last year, like that's gonna be an awesome game. They played no Villanova, which who I know is down, whatever. But I mean, who do they have now? They got Willard, the guy who's uh is that what his name is the guy who was at uh Maryland last year? Maryland, yep, yep. Yep, he took over. I guarantee they're gonna be better. You got Purdue, you got oh man, do we have Purdue twice? The Big Ten slate's low. Do we have Purdue twice this year? Oh man, I'm just there's gonna be so many good games this year.
SPEAKER_01:And you could end the season at Purdue in a game that could be for a lot of things when it comes down to it at the end of the year.
SPEAKER_04:That's yeah, they end with I uh at Purdue, too. At Purdue. Oh, if that could have been a home game at the end of the year, that'd be fun.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun. I see the BYU games on Peacock at three o'clock in the afternoon. On a Friday?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, is that that's the Friday right after Thanksgiving, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yuck, yuck. Why is it on at a three o'clock on a Friday? Is it Peacock?
SPEAKER_04:No, it's the Friday before Thanksgiving. That's the Friday before opening Gugger.
SPEAKER_02:Of course, what are we doing on a Friday?
SPEAKER_04:We have day jobs, right?
SPEAKER_02:We're working day jobs.
SPEAKER_04:I'm gonna be driving up to the hunting cabin, man. Like, you think I'm gonna, I guess I'm just gonna have to listen to it.
SPEAKER_01:But you're just gonna have to listen to Matt LePay's sweet voice with Brian Butch tell you what's going on.
SPEAKER_04:Could be worse.
SPEAKER_01:It could be worse, it could be worse. You could have to listen on Peacock to uh who even knows who's gonna be the announcer that night.
SPEAKER_04:So we'll or just Wisconsin football.
SPEAKER_01:Or just Wisconsin football. We're jacked because we can talk something else in Wisconsin football when we talk about Wisconsin sports. So, Christian, thank you as always for stopping by tonight here on the show. Let people know where to find you out there across social media.
SPEAKER_04:You can find me at Christian Borman on pretty much all the social media things and check out the Badger Backer.
SPEAKER_01:He's gonna have great stuff. He's now excited again because Badger basketball's back, so he's got things to write about. Because, like, I was listening to it, it was uh, I think Zach Heilbrin said it. He said that there was a show from uh the Carolina Panthers where they like canceled their show because they had nothing good to talk about anymore with the Panthers. And he's like, We're not doing that yet, but it's it's there, it's it's there right now, and it's just like, yeah. So I mean, glad we got something else to talk about. So Christian's got other stuff there on Badger Backer. Make sure you guys are checking them out. Just a little bit to subscribe and everything. Like there ain't nothing to it, and you get great content. That's all you need to know. Christian Borman there on all social media platforms and then badger backer across all social media. So, Christian, thank you as always. We'll be back here after the quick commercial break. We're gonna talk some brewers. When we come back here from the break, we'll be back on Wisconsin's. Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment of the show here, we're gonna talk some brewers. After that great segment, we just had talking badgers there with Christian. We're gonna talk some brewers here. This next segment is brought to you by 1891 Winery. They celebrate history with flavor, sip on Artisan wines, craft it on location, or grab a cold beer and pair it with a giant pretzel or pizza. You can watch the badgers down there. Not the brewers anymore, but you can watch Packers, right? You can watch Packers. You got a whole bunch of slew of things you can watch down there. They got TVs, they got all kinds of stuff down there. They have live music, special events, planning something private. They book parties too. Check them out there. They're open Fridays from four to seven, Saturdays, 11 to 6, and Sundays 11 to 5. Follow them on Facebook for upcoming events there. 1891 Winery there in Greenwood, Wisconsin. So we got lots I want to dive into yet here tonight. I want to get to the Brewers now. Brewers dropped the series to the Dodgers four-game sweep. It was, as a lot of fans put it, devastating. Devastating. The end of the season was, and you have those fans that tell you it was what they expected. It is not what you expected. And then you have the other ones who say, well, if it they would have got Suarez, like I said, you know, they would have went. Oh, if they would have got this guy, like I said, yeah, whatever, a month ago or whatever, you were telling us that they didn't need Suarez, that he was struggling where he went to the Mariners, and it wasn't gonna be worth it anyways. They dodged a bullet. So whatever. Whatever. That's enough. Enough out of that. So we got those fans. We got fans all over the place telling us different things. Here's my thoughts on the way that it went. The way that it ended. The way that it ended was the way that it started. Blackluster. Nothing there. No spark. No energy. Nothing. Team looked lost. Looked like there was no fight, no give. That's what I saw. That is what I watched to end this thing. That's what I saw against the Yankees to start the year, and that's what I saw to end it against the Dodgers. They looked defeated. They looked like they didn't believe. They didn't look like they didn't believe they were good enough to be on that field with the Los Angeles Dodgers from game two on. You know how you want to talk about hitting-wise, they were never there from game three of the NLDS until the end. They weren't there. But I want to talk about the way that I watched you watch them emotionally. The way that they looked like their body language out there on the field. And the guy that I harped on it last week. I said Christian Yelich has got to do something eventually. He's the worst for it. Watch him. Just watch him. When he was struggling, he was head just oh, just walk back to the Duggo. Three pitches. Back to the Duggo. Well, I I want to, I really want to not like harp on it. I really because I know, I know just by hearing him talk and watching him, he carries a lot of this on his shoulders. I do. I understand that. I watch him, I see it, I can understand it. I hear it in his voice. I see it in the way that he talks. But after a while it begs the question, because they say, well, the Brewers have a star, right? In Christian Yalge. I think he's a veteran. I think he's a veteran presence. But I think he's a behind-the-scenes veteran presence in that locker room. I don't think he's a lead by example guy. I think they're missing that. I thought William Contreras could be that, but I thought William Contreras went away from what he wanted to do in this series. He just all these guys did. All these guys looked like all they want to do is hit the long ball. They thought that to win this series, they they gave in to the noise. To win this series, they had to slug it. They couldn't just win it putting the ball in play and doing what they did. Because I got in this argument with all these people out there. They said, well, you know, the Brewers, they haven't faced these pitchers like this yet. They haven't faced uh uh back-to-back with Snell, Yamamoto, Glass now, and Shoyotani. Not many teams have. That's it's a really tough four to have to deal with in a row. It really is. But the Brewers, they they didn't even work counts. They didn't the team that we watched all season long. What I loved about them the most was even in the losses, they would work counts to get to bullpen. We said it the whole time. If the Brewers could just get to that bullpen, the Brewers had the better bullpen and they would win those games. By the time they finally got to the bullpen, they were out. They were they were like, it just the team was defeated. They didn't care. They were like, it looked like they checked out. Seriously, that's what I saw. I don't know if you if you say let me know what your thoughts were on the end of the brewer season, the way that it went, everything like that. Let me know. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Brewers. Because the way that I saw it was this team checked out. There was no fight, there was nothing of that left. From certain guys, maybe Caleb Durbin, Jackson Churio. I saw it, Jared Caning. He pitched he pitched well. Aaron Ashby gave you everything I got. He was overused. He was 100% overused. You can look across the board, you can say Chad Patrick was fantastic. You can say he gave it everything he had in that series. I some guys, I maybe they did. They just didn't have it. And the fight looked like it was lost. Tyrangues and Freliks and Yelitches of the world. Contreras trying to do way too much. Just put the ball out there. Make the defense make mistakes, right? That was the biggest thing the Brews went through all season long. They didn't win a lot of their games because they hit the crap out of the ball. They didn't win a lot of their games because, oh, they were strongly the better team that day. They didn't win a lot of those games because they didn't face good pitching. They beat Paul Skeens twice. But how did they do it? Putting the ball in play, making the other team work. Paul Skins is the best pitcher in baseball. Has proven it. Year after year. And the Brewers somehow found a now it wasn't back-to-back-to-back nights, no. But if you're if the see the Brewers got beaten game one, and it was a according to some people, if Bryce Tarang would have taken the ball off his knee, they would have maybe won the game. Okay, whatever. Okay, so after losing game one, your excuse now is that they faced another good pitcher. You gotta learn how to hit good pitchers. And otherwise, it comes back to the point of a lot of fans saying that they didn't have enough good hitting. Which they had in the regular season, they just didn't have in the postseason again. So then it comes back to we all go full circle back to Mark Ananasio. And this is the we're are we at this point already where usually it's before the season where all the sports casters and everything in Wisconsin will complain because Mark Ananasio didn't spend enough money in the offseason. Did he do enough to get this team ready for the postseason? Hindsight, yeah, because at the moment, after the trade deadline and everything was done, what were every fan in Wisconsin saying? They won the trade deadline way before the trade deadline because they got Andrew Vaughn and Gwyn Priester. That was the consensus. They didn't do enough. What got them there was enough. But what got them there is what they went away from when they got into the postseason. And you can say, yes, they had there was I will admit, they had really good pitching across the way. Really good pitching between Otani and Glasnow and everybody in between. Really good pitching. They didn't battle counts, they didn't work anybody, they didn't put good at bats together. Constructive at bats. That's the thing. If if Yelich went up there as a crafty veteran and just followed some balls off, worked Blake Snell to a 10-pitch count, that's huge. But nobody did that. That was the problem in this series. Nobody went up to the plate and had a Blake Perkins game one of the NLDS against Matthew Boyd, work him to 12 pitches, single one to center. Because when you work a guy enough, and this is what the Brewers did better than anyone all season long against really good pitchers. They worked the counts, and when they got the count in their favor, because they got 12 pitches, they've seen everything this guy wants to give them. And at that point, the pitchers are so they're tired because they've thrown you everything they got. Now they're just trying to throw it by you. Now they got to give you something, and they're like, you're gonna hit it. It's just a matter of my defense makes a play. Taking advantage of mistakes when they're there. The Brewers didn't you're you want you want to tell me Blake Snell, Yamamoto, uh Glassnell, and Shoyotani, nobody had a mistake pitch in there. They didn't take advantage of mistakes, they didn't have an opportunity to hit with a guy in scoring position outside of game four when they had one run early. Outside of that, it was nothing. This team just the the way that they get the what they did to get there, they went away from. And that's what drove me nuts the most. So you want to hear that's my thoughts on the end. It began, it ended like it began, and that's the worst part. I if they would have won game three or four, I think we would have felt a lot better because we would have seen this team win one more time. But from the Cubs series that high to game one of the NLCS and then just a slow drop, that's what hurt. That's what hurt. This team just it was not what we watched for 163, four games, whatever you want to say. It wasn't what we watched. Maybe I saw this one. Maybe if you had a Reese Hoskins, maybe if you had a Reese Hoskins on the roster, having a guy who is a veteran been there, done that guy. Maybe I would it have hurt. No, I I honestly, to be honest with you guys, if I had a pick, end of the day, give me Reese Hoskins or Brandon Lockridge, why would you not have had Hoskins on the roster? Like that's just my honest of why what was Lockridge's purpose outside of running? He was a he's a pinch runner. You have Collins, you have Churio, you have Blake Perkins, you have Sal Freelick, you have Jake Bowers if you need him, and you had Christian Yelits, who can play the outfield. You have six guys already. Why do you need Lockridge? It just seemed crazy to have him there. So would A Reese Hoskins have helped maybe a crafty veteran, been there in the postseason, has hit in the postseason, been in big moments, had big moment hits. You didn't have a guy on the roster who had big moment hits in the postseason in in those kinds of situations against really good teams. Contreras had a big home run and a big moment, but I don't believe that any of those guys have had moments on top of moments where it was just consistent, right? They've been there, they've done that for years. A crafty veteran. I they were missing that, I believe. So maybe having a guy like that would have been in there. But I there was just it felt like there was something missing. It felt like the Brewers just kind of went away from what made them successful. And I think that out of all the things, I think that is what hurt the most to watch. It wasn't that they lost, it was the in the way that they lost, not playing their brand of baseball and trying to play what they had. You try to match firepower with firepower, they don't they just didn't have it. And you play a team like the Dodgers, and it it honestly, I just think it makes a team because we saw it with the Phillies, it makes a team believe the only way they're gonna beat the Dodgers is to play perfect, and they do things that they wouldn't normally do, they go away from things that they would normally do, and they try to play the game perfect. And the Brewers, the beautiful part about the Milwaukee Brewers of the 2025 season was they were imperfect. The things that they did, the way that they played the game was imperfect. And when you play a team like the Dodgers, sometimes it gets in your head that you need to be something that you're not. And I think that was another thing that coming off this series, I kind of looked at and I said, Man, I just feel like when you watch a team play the Dodgers, they try to change themselves when they don't have to. It's just when you look at that team, the firepower that they have in the lineup, on that pitching staff, it's just you look at it and you say, Wow, I have to be good. I have to be really good. That's what sometimes it takes you, it it takes you out of your game, out of your elements, and you get worse. And I think that's part of what we saw in this uh in this series here. So that that was something that I kind of went off of there. Um, outside of that the season didn't end in a world series, it didn't. How do you look back at this Milwaukee Brewer season? And that's a question I want to answer when I come back. The season didn't end in a world series, but how do you look at this season as a whole? As a whole. How do you grade it? Where do you look at it? How do you how do you feel after watching the 2025 Brewers? The way that the season went, how it ended, how do you feel? I love to hear it. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. Here we're gonna get to a little bit more brewers. We come back from the break here. We're gonna get to a commercial, we're gonna come back, we're gonna get to a little bit more brewers as we wrap up hour number one. We look ahead to hour number two. Lots of stuff to dive into yet here tonight on the show. We'll be right back here into Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. And hey, this next we're gonna wrap up hour number one. We're gonna look ahead to our number two. This little last segment is brought to you by Foreman's Hardware. They offer you everything from home essentials to farm supplies, house to farm, grills to drills, Foreman's hardware has got you covered. Visit today in Loyal Kobe or Metford, Wisconsin. Tell them I sent you, tell them trade sent you, get 5% off. Tell them I sent you down there, 5% off. If you need some tragger pellets, if you need maybe a tragger itself, maybe you need some gardening supplies yet. Uh they got tillers, they got lawnmowers, they got everything. Snowblowers coming up here. Don't want to talk about snow, but they got snowblowers, snow shovels, everything in between. Check them out there. Foreman's hardware in Loyal Kobe or Metford, Wisconsin. So we're gonna get to our number two. We're gonna have Ummer stopping by. We're gonna talk some packers, we got some Bucks talk to get to later on with Kyle. We got some NFL talk. We got all kinds of stuff to get to yet tonight here on the show. So make sure you're coming back. Hour number one is in the books. Hour number two coming at you after this quick commercial break.