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
Nov 26 Hour 1: Badgers Men's Hoops and Badger Football
A cathartic field storm, a defense with bite, and a quarterback who stood in to deliver under fire—our latest show dives into why Wisconsin’s win over Illinois felt like more than a ranked scalp. We talk about the shift in energy around Luke Fickell, how a freshmen-led core is changing the Badgers’ identity, and what it will actually take to bring the Axe back from Minnesota. No slogans, just specifics: early-down control, run fits, edge heat, and freeing Carter Smith to show whether he’s a 2025 solution or a bridge.
Then we pivot to a hard truth on the hardwood. BYU exposed Wisconsin’s worst habits: rushed threes, transition leaks, and foul spirals. We break down how to fix it in time for Providence and a likely Florida matchup—more high-low action with Winter and Rapp, post-first touches to force rotations, and kick-out threes for Boyd, Blackwell, and Rohde as spot-ups, not bailouts. Winter’s toughness was a real step forward; now the guards need to turn that inside gravity into efficient looks and free throws that travel.
We also zoom out to the pros. The Packers found second-half steel, with Isaiah McDuffie everywhere and the pass rush closing strong. Bucks without Giannis remain a slog, a reminder of how much MVP gravity props up the edges. And to our friends in Chicago: close wins over weak schedules only carry you so far—the Eagles, Packers, Browns, 49ers, and Lions will answer the respect debate soon enough.
Come for the catharsis, stay for the adjustments. Tap play, send this to a Badger fan who needed that win, and drop your take: is your faith in Fickell restored, or do you need to see it again versus Minnesota? If you’re new here, hit follow, share with a friend, and leave a review so more Wisconsin fans can find the show.
This is Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. Your place for all things Wisconsin Sports. Now, your host, Trage. How are we doing, everybody? And welcome in to Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I am your host, Trage, as we come back here for the November 26th edition of the show here. I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday so far here. I hope you guys enjoyed your weekend that was this uh past weekend here. It was a good weekend for myself. A lot of good, a lot of good sports, some bad, right? Wisconsin men's basketball dropped that game to BYU. We're gonna get into that game a little bit here today. We're gonna look ahead, see what this team's gonna do. Because we finally, I think we've been waiting for it with the Badgers. Um, we've been waiting to see the bad because they have played lesser opponents, I guess, for the first four. And it's it's hard to nitpick, right? You wanna you wanna see what a team, what they can do well, what they don't do well, trying to find the ugly. And when you're playing lesser opponents, sometimes it's a little bit harder to see that. And I think we finally saw it against BYU. Now it's a question of how do they respond, how do they move forward. So we're gonna talk about that here today on the show. Badger football, wow. I did not think I'd come off the weekend and say badger football once again made my weekend, but they did. They did, they beat up on Bert. It was fantastic. Brett, he goes into the I I loved when Bielama went into the locker room at halftime, and he said, We have to start playing our game, we have to stop playing down to theirs. And they ended up losing it 27 to 10. That was awesome. I I loved every second of it because after he said that, I said to myself, man, I hope that they just beat him now. Then they beat him good. And then, you know, you listen across, I know the uh the ESPN radio show on Sportsman Like was talking about Evan Cohen. Keeps joking out that uh that Michelle Smallman about the uh about the game because she's a big Illinois fan and he's big Wisconsin. And she's like, Oh, a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while, and this and that, and who's got the better record and this. I don't care, honestly. I don't about the whole, you know, oh blind squirrel. It was 27 to 10, and I gotta be honest with you, it was impressive because Illinois did not look like they were the 21, the 21st best team in the cut. Like they like they should be ranked number 21. They did not look like that, and Wisconsin's defense actually made Illinois's offense look bad in that game. Look bad. So I don't know how, if you're an Illinois fan, I don't know how you come off that game and say to yourself, wow, like I feel good. I feel good. Like, I feel good even saying, like, or joking with Wisconsin fans at this point that you guys stink and this and that. It's like, no, you're seven and four, but you didn't look good against us. And let's look at your wins. Let's look at your wins. Let's look across the board at the wins. You beat USC, all good win, but you beat Purdue, you beat Rutgers, you beat Maryland. Wisconsin lost to Maryland, so I like whatever. But what I'm saying is, end of the day, end of the day, there's a lot of teams on Wisconsin. Look at Wisconsin's schedule. We're gonna talk about this today, but I think I'm finally coming around to thinking to myself, wow, this schedule just was really tough. You didn't have your starters, you didn't have the guys you went in the season think you were gonna roll with. Maybe this is what it was supposed to look like. It just took a while to get there. It took the freshmen being involved to you know, allow it to get there. I don't know. Christian and I are gonna talk about it. There's a lot to dive into with that. Because the question now is are we turning the corner with Fickle? Are we feeling better about Luke Fickle? That's kind of where we're at right now. So we'll we'll we're gonna dive into that. Christian's gonna stop by. We're gonna have him on next, actually. So when we hit the, we're gonna hit a break here and coming up in a little bit. And then second segment of the show, Christian's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk badger of football, we're gonna talk badger hoops. So make sure you guys are checking that one out. So badger football, a fantastic another top 25 win for this badger football team. And then I, you know, the the field storm again, and I know people are at a there's a mixed batch, right? Some people are like, well, why are you you know storming the field again? You beat the 20, you know, this team that in Illinois that was 21st in the nation, nothing crazy good. I honestly I don't care. Like, if you wanna Illinois handled it very well, they had their security out there, it was very good, got their guys off the field. That was good to see. But I mean, fans want to feel uh storm the field. Wisconsin fans have gone through a lot in one year to have this be the emotion now. A lot in a couple years now to have this be the emotion now. So you know what? They want to storm the field, let them. I I I have nothing against it. I have nothing against it at all. They're hyped, fans are finally hyped, they're back into it, they're backing fickle again. I I'm in with it. I I like it, I like it. The players deserve it. It was an awesome performance. So, you know what? I'll take it. So, whatever. Whatever. People who are against it, they're against it. I'm all good with it. If you want to storm the field after beating a top 25 team and you have a losing record, go for it in my book there. So, badgers get the win there. Packers, Packers with the big win over the uh over the Vikings over the weekend there. Good stuff there. We're gonna talk about that later on in the show with Ummer. I want to get into that. We have some Bucks talk to get to. Bucks, they they it's been struggle. The Giannisless Bucks are a struggle bus at this point here. So we're gonna talk about that later on with here with Kyle. The big thing that I've been seeing coming off the weekend is Bears fans telling me that they aren't getting enough respect. This team isn't getting enough respect because they are leading the division and nobody sees them as this great team that's you know a powerhouse, whatever. They are not in these power rankings, they're not near the top in the power rankings. You know what? And I've been looking at this and I look through the I look through the schedule and I look through who they've played, how they've beat them, the stats, everything in between. You've played a lot of close games against a lot of bad teams. You haven't exactly played the best teams to this point. And when you have, like the Lions in week two, you lost 52 to 21. So I do agree. A win's a win, right? We say it all the time. So win's a win, right? I I completely agree. A win's a win. A win's a win until the point where you're winning ugly all the time. Now it's a question of can you beat good teams winning ugly? Because you've beat bad teams winning ugly. And it's fine to win ugly. I'm good with that. I actually enjoy watching some teams win ugly. That's just the MO of some teams. But now it's a question of if you are the Chicago Bears, you have the Eagles coming up, you have the Packers coming up after that, and then you have the Browns, then you have the Packers, 49ers, Lions. Can you beat those teams playing as you are? That's the question mark. That's gonna answer the question of are the Bears for real? And do the Packers or Lions have to worry about them in that race for the top spot in the NFC North. So we're gonna get to that. We're gonna talk about that later with Ummer here on the show. We have a boatload of things to dive into tonight here on the show. We have Christian stopping by next. We're gonna talk badger football. We're gonna talk badger hoops, and then Ummer's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk a little Packers, and then we got to get Kyle on later, talk a little bucks. No Giannis, it's been a struggle. We're gonna talk with him, and then we got to get to our NFL talk later on here in the show. We have a loaded up show here getting you ready for a Thanksgiving, a feast week, as they say on ESPN, right? A feast week. So we'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. Christian stop by. We have Badger Talk coming at you 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 is brought to you by 1891 Winery. They celebrate history with flavors. Sip on artisan wines, craft it on location, or grab a cold beer and pair it with a giant pretzel or pizza right now. Get down there, watch some live sports. The Packers looking good. Badger football. Wow, right? Wow. And then we got, I mean, Badger Hoops. We expect better things out of Badger Hoops moving forward there after that butt kicking they took by BYU. It should get better as they move on here with the season. Lots of good stuff happening around the sporting world, and you can catch it all down there at 1891 winery there in Greenwood. So Christian is here tonight. Christian, how are we doing on this Wednesday?
SPEAKER_00:We're good. It's almost Thanksgiving. I'm ready to eat, man.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna ask you, I was gonna ask you, what are the plans? What are the plans for Thanksgiving? Are you are you cooking? Is somebody else cooking? Are you in charge?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I got two of them. You know, I got fam, I got my side on Thanksgiving, heading up to Stratford for that, and then got uh the in-laws in Merrimack the next weekend. But I'm in charge of the turkey for them on Saturday. So boy. Fire up the Trager, man.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, he's got the Trager out. Yes, yes. I'm so we're going over to my wife's family on Thanksgiving. And then I got I got a 19-pound turkey upstairs right now. 19-pound turkey right now. That baby's going on the tragger, she is gonna cook. It is gonna be fantastic. Oh, I can't wait. I I got excited. When you said tragger, I was like, let's let's go. Let's that's a big bird. That's a big bird. I didn't realize that it was that big of a turkey until I uh until I pulled it out of the freezer. And I'm like, oh boy.
SPEAKER_00:It's better hope that thing thaws out.
SPEAKER_01:That's the hope, right? That's the we got it's it'll work, it'll be okay, it'll work. We gotta have fancy. Okay, it's all the pressure in the world when you gotta be the guy cooking the turkey. Like, that's the pressure. Like it was always on my grandma, and she did a fantastic job of it, but it was always on her. And now I invited her over on Saturday there because we won't get over there. So I was like, Oh, yeah, you can come over here. I'm like, okay, now the pressure's on me to make this turkey. So hopefully, hopefully, I can figure it out. I guess the pressure's on. I'll let you guys know come next week. If we failed, if we mastered it, I'll let you know. But we're gonna have the costume spice on there. So yeah, that'll be some good stuff. It'll be some good stuff. So happy to hear that, Christian. I mean, we're happy to see the badgers right now.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:This badger football team. I don't know. Is it just okay, just hear me out on this one? Is it a crazy coincidence that right when the front office or Chris McIntosh and the Chancellor came out and they said, We put full faith in Luke Fickle, we're gonna give him the funds, we support him wholeheartedly, everything like that. And then all of a sudden, just all of a sudden, this team started playing. It's like they just found this next gear, everything started to click. Luke Fickle was it's I don't know if he started having fun again, but it looked like he wasn't coaching as much for a job anymore. It looked like he was just throwing pieces out there to see what it was. He, you know, gave the runway to Mason Posa and Catalano, and he's got that defense, is just they're fantastic. If it would they had a decent offense, I mean, goodness, watch out. And then I mean Carter Smith gets that runway, he's looked a lot better. Is it a coincidence? It's crazy to think that. I mean, a couple weeks ago we were talking about wow, is this team going to win another game? And now they've won two top 25 matchups at Camp Rand. I mean, is it crazy to is it just like what what happened? I mean, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00:I don't know. That's what I can't like. Maybe it is the the uh the pressure is off now, but I don't know. It's just I think it's also I think maybe he you know he felt that pressure, so he stuck with you know the the upperclassmen, you know, those kind of guys like uh Take and Curtis, who I was a hundred percent on board with. And but I mean don't even think about him anymore because he got the two freshman linebackers, you know, and like I just feel like maybe he just said, All right, you know, whatever, I'm good. Like, let's let's just see what the like the season's done, like we kind of talked about. Let's just see what all the young guys have, you know, and like holy crap, maybe they were just way better than than the other guys were, you know. So, and then I don't know, maybe it's part of two, is like everyone's kind of rallying behind Carter Smith, like they really like him to play for him, you know, and like that kind of thing, whereas I mean, this is just complete, like, oh what if, right? Like, maybe they didn't feel the same way about Danny O'Neill or you know, Billy Edwards Jr. and or you know, Hunter Simmons. So I don't know what it is. Maybe it's just because it's a bunch of young guys playing, they really they don't know any better, you know. So it's just kind of like let's just go play with our like hair on fire and just you know, ball out.
SPEAKER_01:I'll take it.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:I'll take it any day of the week. I'll take it. I mean, every facet of this team is starting to play better, and it's it's crazy. I mean, the running back room, the offensive line, we talked about how banged up that offensive line is. I mean, we got guys, they're third stringers out there at this point here. We don't we don't even know the names of half of them, and they were an afterthought at the start of the year, and they're like crazy right now. They opened up a hole for Darien Dupree to take off for 84 yards down the field. The best block of the night wasn't even a block, it was Eugene Hilton taking his corner down the field.
SPEAKER_00:Eugene Hilton blew in the fake, yeah. Oh my god, that's awesome, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_01:Just the the little things, and and like we were talking about before at the break, we were talking about uh Carter Smith, and I said to you, I said, you know what the best throw of the night is, and you knew exactly what I was gonna say. It was the one to last Lance Mason on the trick play, the flea flicker, and it wasn't even a completion. But what you saw in that throw was a guy, he was getting smoked. There was a guy in his lap, it was pressure right there, and he he just made the throw, and it was right on the money to Lance Mason, and he got you know, he got clocked and lost the football, and it happens. Like I'm not gonna say like he shouldn't have caught it, but like you can see where he dropped it in that sense. But we're seeing those little things that give you hope. They give you that, okay. Maybe just maybe this was a really I'm I'm gonna say something crazy right now because I know a lot of people are gonna be like, you're you're nuts. Maybe this was a really tough schedule, and maybe you did not have a quarterback who was ready, and maybe you had a banged up offensive line, and that's what we need to take into account here because I don't think Luke Fickle forgot how to coach the game of football when he came to Madison. I think, and from watching what I've seen, and I'm not gonna take back what I said because I I think Luke Fickle, and this is the I mean the big question is do we have our faith back in him, right? And I I compare it to basically like when I touch a wire when I'm wiring an outlet and I get shocked, right? So I walk to the breaker panel and I shut, I think I shut it off, but then I go back over and I test it with my tester like 14 times, knowing that every time I test it, it's gonna be off. But I'm still gonna check it because I don't have faith yet. That's kind of where I'm at. I'm still checking it out and I'm still like I'm excited now. I'm watching this intently now because I'm excited, but I don't want to get overly excited because I've seen rock bottom. But you know what? Right, I saw I saw a quote. I saw a quote. You know what rock bottom is? When you hit rock bottom, it's a base for you to build something stronger off of. Maybe this program needed to hit rock bottom so that way they could build something back. Maybe they needed to hit that rock bottom so they could build the structure back the way that Luke Fickel and Jeff Grimes want to build it, and that's into a program that works for them. Not a program that works for Phil Longo because that was a mess. Maybe it's something that they're structuring now with these guys. You're building your foundation. This is your foundation now. POSA, Catalano, Carter Smith. Those guys are your foundation, a tuka, right? Those guys are the foundation that you're gonna build forward now. So I think that I that's where I'm at right now. Is like you hit rock bottom. I didn't think it could go any deeper, right? I don't know, you couldn't really get further down, but now we're seeing it build itself back, and that's what I like to see. So I guess where are you at right now? Is is your faith there in Luke Fickle, or are you kind of like the same where I'm I am where it's like, okay, I gotta I gotta see it, right? It's an eye test thing, and I feel good now, but I gotta see it continue.
SPEAKER_00:Yep, and I think I don't know, it's it's definitely higher than it was. Um, especially if you know you get shut out back to back weeks, 37 nothing, 31 nothing, but Iowa and Ohio State. I'm like, it's you know, you lose to Maryland, like it's low, low, low, right? Um, but then they beat Washington. I'm like, okay, maybe Washington is just not that good, right? On the road, bad weather, we got lucky, whatever. Then it was 10-7 at halftime to Indiana, and that's a team that beat Illinois by 52. And then, yeah, the wheels fell off. We our offense, which is already like brand new coordinator. We're on our fourth quarterback, offensive line's banged up. We have so many freshmen playing, all this stuff's going on. Like the offense isn't gonna be good, right? Um, but then so yeah, the wheels fell off the second half, but they played Indiana pretty dang well, holding them to what 37 31 is out of us, 31 to 7. That's really good. They're like, I think they were that one of the best, or if not the top scoring team in the entire country. So like holding them to that is awesome. The offense, whatever, but then Indiana or uh Illinois, what 21 coming in, 22, whatever they were coming in. Oh man, it felt so good to watch them pants Brett Bielama. Oh just just watching them run all over them and just like just constantly make putting Altmire under pressure, like that was awesome, man. So I think I I yeah, back to your question, I guess. I I think I'm more like you. I want to see it. Um if they come back and they have a game like Illinois against Minnesota and they take it to the Gophers who just lost to Northwestern and like just really take it to them and get the hacks back, I'll be a lot higher going into next year. I'll be a little more excited. But if they lose, I'll be like, ah, well, maybe maybe they just struck, you know, they got hot a couple games or something, or got lucky a couple games. I don't know, but we'll see.
SPEAKER_01:If they play like they did against Illinois against Minnesota, it won't be a game. It will be an absolute route. They will route Minnesota. I mean, the way Minnesota, I mean, you look at the last month Minnesota has played, their one good game, their win was against Michigan State, and that team has no wins in the Big Ten.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. And that was like they were like looting too, weren't they? They had to come back in overtime. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Other than that, I mean, they went to a Northwestern, they lost by three. They lost Oregon worse than the Badgers at Oregon, and then they got smoked by Iowa, same as Wisconsin. So, I mean, you look across the board, there's nothing that like their win came against Purdue.
SPEAKER_00:I think Wisconsin's Wisconsin's got the momentum. And like you said, yeah, Minnesota did not have nearly as tough of a schedule as Wisconsin did.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_00:Nor what? What are they five, and we're four and seven? Yep.
SPEAKER_01:And there's still a chance of a bowl game. I did see, I did see Zach Hyleprin tweeted out there for the Badgers that they would need, so this is what needs to happen. He's got the whole game. He's got the whole list. I saw the whole list. The Badgers need to beat Minnesota and for Mississippi State, Kansas, Buffalo, Temple, North Carolina, Delaware, Army, Temple, Auburn, Kentucky, Florida State, Baylor, Kansas State, UCF, Washington State, Rice, Louisiana, and Texas State to combine for a three and five record or worse next weekend. So there you go. If you guys need to know who to root against, it's all those teams. That if they all lose the bad teams.
SPEAKER_00:Combine for a three and five record.
SPEAKER_01:So they need they three and fifteen. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00:I just like that's a lot of three and five.
SPEAKER_01:I was breaking it or worse next weekend.
SPEAKER_00:So you need to have at least well, Mississippi State plays Ole Miss, so you can probably chalk that up as a loss, right?
SPEAKER_01:Okay, okay. Well, who knows? Because Lane Kiffen might be there. He might not have it.
SPEAKER_00:You think it's gonna be after the egg bowl, they said. Oh man, that's but there's that big distraction looming over them, right?
SPEAKER_01:That's even a bigger disaster than what we thought we had in Madison. That whole down count Lane Kiffen down there. Like, is he gonna leave? It's just a mess. It's college football.
SPEAKER_00:Everyone's joking that it's literally just like recruiting, but for a coach instead of a player right now.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, a hundred percent. I I don't I don't truly understand how like college football thing, like how the how the NCAA thinks this is okay. Like you can have a coach leave or have talking to with other programs before the season's even over.
SPEAKER_00:Dude, it's such a mess.
SPEAKER_01:It is like and I've said it a million times.
SPEAKER_00:And like if you're a player for Ole Miss, how are you not like are you seriously like doing this in the middle of our season right now when we're on the hunt for a college football playoff and you're entertaining other offers and your family's traveling to LSU and all this stuff? I'd be like, Are you serious?
SPEAKER_01:I'd be like, No, I don't want you there because if you're there, I'm not there. Like, I'm not gonna play for you. Like, you're you're leaving me, like and you're gonna be like, Oh, and I know for a fact when you get to Florida or LSU, you're gonna call me and you're gonna say, Hey, I'm at Florida, wanna come down here? And it's like, I what? Like, uh, I don't know how.
SPEAKER_00:But that's the thing, where's their loyalty? Is it to their coach or is it to their pro to their school, their program? Actually, at this point, what are you what are you committing to, a coach or a team or a program?
SPEAKER_01:In college these days, I don't know how much loyalty there is left. I I really don't. You can get it from a few guys, you can get it from a few guys, but I mean you look at guys like AJ Store. What is he at? College number five. He went to four high schools and four colleges.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, number eight and eight years.
SPEAKER_01:Eight pro eight different schools and eight years of his like that's baffling. That's baffling. Yeah, like it it I don't understand how we can. That's a whole nother day of work right there to talk about why the NCAA thinks that's okay. We're not gonna get into that. Back to the Badgers. We're far away from the Badgers right now. Let's get back to the Badgers here. Badgers, they had that game against Illinois. I mean, let's just let's just talk about some of the good. Like what we saw that was good in this game. And like we're talking about the big thing. Yes, the pass rush, the defense there, 100% for the badgers. And it's everybody, right? It's Daryl Peterson, it's Sebastian Cheeks getting downhill. It's all these guys for this team as of late here. Sebastian Cheeks to uh to Daryl Peterson to Mason Riger. Mason Riger, that's the guy I was thinking of there. Goodness, it's all Ben Barton's been clogging up holes up the middle. Corey Walker's been playing good off the outside, so has Aaron Witt. I mean, there's a lot of guys stepping up across this defense, and I just you watch this team, it's like, okay, we've seen this though for weeks. It's as the defense has always been there all season long. Have they been as good as what they've been as of late? No, but the defense has been there. It's just the offense, I think that's kind of staggered.
SPEAKER_00:It's been on the defense to like consistently be good when they're always on the field. Yes, right? Like, how many times do we watch the offense go three and out and like, oh, there was 40 seconds off the clock. Defense, you're back in. Like 100%.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's what I think that's what we've seen now is that now that the offense is slowly starting to find something and being able to sustain drives and bring that juice back. Because when you're on defense, you're like, uh, we just got off the field, the offense had a three and out. Here we go. Let's go stop again. It's like, yeah, like do it against Indiana 14 times. It's like, guys, we can't keep doing this. Fernando's gonna light us up at some point here, and he did in that second half. But it's what we saw in this Illinois game. I mean, the defense, they had some juice to them because Darien Dupree house takes that one of the house. They had that punt, the special teams play that was massive there. I mean, they just had a couple different times where there was massive plays or massive drives. That opening drive for the Badgers. I mean, we saw, I thought that was the best opening drive that I have seen from the Wisconsin Badgers. I don't even remember one that was better.
SPEAKER_00:Since Fickle's been there, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I I can't remember one that's better. I mean, we saw everything. We saw the we saw the passing game, we saw the run game, we saw everything. We saw holes getting opened up, we saw a push to the second level. That's the thing with the offensive line, too, is they're getting to the second level now. It's not just like they're blocking on the first level, they're getting to the second level and allowing these backs to get through and also get a couple extra yards after it. Like that is something we haven't seen in weeks from this team. So I just love it all the way around. What's okay? So let's look ahead. That's I mean, there's so many things we could dive into as line of game, but we got we got to hit a break here. So let's get to the Minnesota game. Looking ahead to the axe week here. What are some of the things you got to see from this Badger team? What do you want to see here? Season finale in quotations could be. Question mark. We don't know. But I mean, what do you want to see here against Minnesota as the season wraps up?
SPEAKER_00:I want to see what we saw against Illinois. I want to see the offense sustain some drives. I want to see him let Carter Carter Smith let it loose a little bit. I know he's has I know people are just looking at him in these last few games, like he's not a very good passing quarterback, he's just a running quarterback. But this dude lit it up in Florida in his senior year. He threw for a ton of yards, like he can do it. And we saw him do it with Lance Mason, right? I mean, obviously you got to establish the run first, but I think I want to see him start throwing it a little more. I mean, I haven't dug into Minnesota a whole lot yet, so I have no idea what their pass defense is like or you know, anything like that. But um, I want to see some of that, but yeah, sustained drives, keep the defense off the field a little bit, so then they can just, you know, go to work like they would did against Illinois and just what's the guy's name? Drake Lindsay. Is that their quarterback? I want to see them like he's not he's he is not nearly as good of a quarterback as Luke Altmeyer. So if they can contain their running back and it's Darius Taylor, he's a pretty good running back, but I don't think he's really done a whole lot this year. Um, anyways, 454 yards. Yeah, and that's it. Geez, this is like this is the program that had that uh Mohammed Ibrahim and you know, whatever that like led the Big Ten and rushing, you know, all that stuff. Like, I don't know. I just think I want to see them contain the run, which they've done a great job of all year with that defensive line and with Post and Catalano, and then just let the edge guys pin their ears back and go. Like, I think that's a huge reason why they're if their secondary is their weakness due to injuries or just you know, not the best talent, you know, but like their their front eight can make up for that, their front seven make up for that. That's they can make things easy for the secondary when they're constantly getting to the quarterback. Right, that's what I want to see against Minnesota too.
SPEAKER_01:Right, 100%. You're making them have to throw quick, they gotta throw some quick passes, nothing really developing, no explosive plays, right? Trying to keep out of that kind of realm. And like you said, control that run game. Don't let the run game go crazy on in this one. And then if you're Wisconsin on the flip side of it offensively, let it rip. Just let it rip. I I saw what I needed to see out of Carter Smith in that last game where I trust him, where I don't need to see Hunter Simmons at the end of the first half to try and bust the drive down the field. Just let Carter Smith do it. I'm done with seeing that. Oh my! It's like we watched him. No, we watched him throw.
SPEAKER_00:Like, what do you again? It's here's our here's the thing. Ever since they lost to Indiana, really, but like, what do you have to lose? We don't have a bowl game. This is literally the last game. The only thing we have to lose is the axe, and like I would rather go down swinging, being super aggressive, and lose the axe rather than be super conservative and then still probably lose because we've seen this all season.
SPEAKER_01:100%. I don't here's the thing. I don't care anymore. I I just want to see Carter Smith in full fledged. If I let him loose in a do or die game, what does he do for me? That's what I want to know. That's what I need. That's all I need to know.
SPEAKER_00:And the other thing too is if you don't let him let him go let loose, we really don't know what we have in him right now as a passing quarterback. So then what do you have to do in the offseason? You almost have to bring in another quarterback or two. I mean, you're gonna have to anyway for backups, but that changes the mindset. Are you gonna be looking more for you know a potential starter or competition for Carter Smith in the portal, or are you looking for depth? Because you know Carter Smith's the guy. Like, this is I think you gotta let him just let it rip, and so you have an idea of what you have going into next season. I mean, granted, yes, they know what they're gonna have from practices and stuff like that, but like that's nothing compared to like game snaps, real life snaps.
SPEAKER_01:They told me Braden Smith or not Brayden Smith, Brayden Locke and uh don't say that name. They said him and Tyler Van Dyke were comparable coming out of camp. And I watched Tyler Van Dyke and he wasn't great, but Bray's Brayden Locke was not great at all.
SPEAKER_00:So like that just shows the level of quarterback play they have, right?
SPEAKER_01:But that just shows that practice doesn't mean anything. Like you got to see it in a game, like you're saying. And I mean, like you said, Carter Smith, we don't know what he's got yet, but we could we could start to get a picture. We saw Brayden Locke, and that's what I was gonna say, make a couple good throws down the field, and we saw that out of him a couple times. Now it wasn't great after that, but we saw a couple good throws. We want to see it on a consistent level, and that's what I think you want to see in this game. Get a guy like Vinny Anthony involved, get Trekkicahuna involved because he was fantastic in that game. I mean, my goodness, when you get him in opening.
SPEAKER_00:Did you see that one play in the red zone when Carter Smith was rolling out and he was just he ran like a post out to the corner just under the flag and he's just wide open? Carter Smith missed on him. It's like this dude has had a few of those plays this year where he's wide open and the quarterback doesn't see him or doesn't get him the ball. He's got even so frustrated.
SPEAKER_01:Well, with Carter Smith, I just wonder if it's like they're they got the training wheels on yet, and he doesn't know if he's supposed to make that throw. This is where I pop the training wheels off and let him fall. If he falls, he falls. That's it's like a kid when you let him out on the first time on or me right now, because I've ridden a bike in so long, I'd probably fall down too. You let me go down the driveway, and when I tip over, that's okay. You tip me back up, we keep going. That's what we want to see, Carter Smith on, and that's what we're hoping for here. So we got to hit a break. We're gonna come back, we're gonna talk a little badger basketball, men's basketball on the backside of the ad break. We'll be right back. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment here, we're talking badger hoops. This next segment is brought to you by Casa M. Spice, the low sodium, clean label, no fillers, no MSG. This stuff is fantastic. If you are in a crunch, let's just say you screwed up, you have to try and get that turkey made and you don't know what to season it with. You're like way behind on the times. You don't know what to do. Maybe you have some vegetables, something, something you got to prepare for Thanksgiving. Grab yourself some Casa M spice. I'm telling you right now, you cannot go wrong with this. You're gonna be the hit at your Thanksgiving party, and they're gonna say, Hey, can you bring this next year? Probably not. I don't want to do this again. But, anyways, anyways, grab yourself some Casa M spice. You gotta get it. It's fantastic there. So Christian is back here. We're gonna talk a little badger hoops. We were talking at the break when we were there, and he was talking about his kid and getting him to sit down and watch some YouTube TV to watch a little basketball there. And we're like, oh, YouTube TV has got the multi-view. I was like, you blow his mind with the four. And he's like, yeah, he'd probably, you know, lose his interest really fast because it'd be overstimulating. So we're talking about it. How do you constructively watch four games at one time? So, Christian, how do you do it? Like, if you were to explain to somebody, because I always my wife always asks me, she's like, How do you watch four basketball games at the same time? And I'm like, you have to, you have to like pick the best spot and avoid looking at the other ones. You have to pick the one in the best spot at the most crucial point in each half and portion of the game. What I mean, what do you tell people when they're like, How do you watch four games at once?
SPEAKER_00:I'm not gonna man, I struggle with it anyway, as is, because I like I told you, I sit and watch, I'm like, or like I my eyes get drawn to like, like you said, the like most important part of each game or whatever, but then all of a sudden I feel like I'm still hearing the other game. So it throws me off. And I don't want to have to sit there with my remote and like move it around just so I can keep hearing, you know, whatever. But I mean, yeah, I guess just kind of let your eyes kind of wander. Sometimes I'll even turn the volume down a little bit just so I can like focus a little more. And then it's just like, okay, like you said, oh, is which game's closer? I'm gonna go to that one. What always time winding down at the half or you know, end of the game? I'm probably gonna get drawn to that one, right? But but again, you also need a big TV to do it too, so you're not trying to watch because, like you said, if you're on like a smaller TV and then you split into four screens, all of a sudden it's like hard to see, right? Like I have you also you also need a big TV.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's gotta be like 65 plus. It's gotta be 65 plus because then then it's like you got four like 42-inch TVs in a square, otherwise, it's like I got my phone screen up there when you got a 42-inch TV, and then that just yeah, it's a disaster when you do it like that. So we gotta talk some badger hoops here, but before that, we gotta hit our Casa M. Spice bold player of the week. So, Christian, who do you got for me? Who is your Casa M. Spice bold player of the week?
SPEAKER_00:All right, I'm just gonna go, I'm gonna stick with the badger theme just because, but I'm gonna go Daryl Peterson. The dude finally showed up. Like he was I don't know where he's been the last three years. Well, like you said, three and a half years. He waited until the last like three games to start going off. He's got I don't know how many sacks now in the last three games, but it's two and a half, three per game. Like that guy, him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I like that Daryl Peterson. I like that. There we go. I like that one there. I'm gonna have to go with give me Isaiah McDuffie. Give me Isaiah McDuffie. Walker in that game, leads the team in tackles, has a big interception late in that game, has a half a sack. He was fantastic. He was all over the field, he was big time in the Packers' dominant defense, second half defensive performance that we saw against the Vikings. So I'm gonna have to give it to Isaiah McDuffie. I know there's a boatload of guys on that defense. You can give it to Micah Parsons, everybody in between. Emmanuel Wilson had a huge game, but by Isaiah McDuffie has to be my bold player of the week for the way he stepped up in that game for the Green Bay Packers. So let's talk about a team that didn't really step up for us here this last week, and that was on Friday, the weird tip time behind a screen of$17 a month for Peacock and a purple court. We saw the Badgers take on BYU. Purple court.
unknown:Purple court.
SPEAKER_01:That was just terrible. That was just an idea.
SPEAKER_00:Well, the NBA game that, you know, whatever the NBA game.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, then host it at BYU. I don't want to play at this point. I know. Why do we have a neutral site game that's basically at BYU? That doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_00:Like, if you're gonna have a neutral game, that's why Wisconsin's hosting some games at Ficeer this year, right?
SPEAKER_01:It's like, yeah, well, it doesn't even count as neutral site at that point. It's like it's in Milwaukee, it's right down the road. Like it doesn't count as neutral site. You're gonna call it neutral site, but it's really not. I'm just like uh watching this game start, and I know you were you were heading up to the cabin, so you weren't even able to tune into the whole thing. You saw the highlights and saw the box score and everything like that.
SPEAKER_00:But I listened to it.
SPEAKER_01:It was good, there was moments, and then it got ugly fast. And I'm gonna say the biggest thing that I had, I guess, in this game, the the bad one of my biggest bad takeaways was the response of this team. Because we talk about all the time, we talk about teams. How do they get punched in the mouth? How do they how do they battle back? They didn't battle back, they they actually got worse, they actually got more aggressive and in not very smart ways. They started reaching, they started doing these these little things in this one. They they got beat many, many started panicking a little bit. Yep, started panicking, and then you saw the foul trouble. And once they got into foul trouble, that's where BYU was like, All right, here we go. We got them now. Just keep going. When Roadie got into foul trouble, and then you had Boyd get into foul trouble, and you had Blackwell. And I know none of them shot that well in the night. Besides, but I mean Boyd got to the he got to the rim a lot, so that I mean made him look a little bit better. But from beyond the arc, look bad. There was not a whole lot of good that came out of this game outside of a lot of learning lessons. You learned a lot about this team in this game. I'm gonna say the biggest thing that I had was that I don't think the bench is as deep as what we thought it was because the second that Hayden Jones got in the game, BYU's bench started screaming, go get him, and then they took the ball for him and scored it. That makes you a little nervous because he's a young guy, he's a young, young guard yet. But a team like BYU, they're experienced, they're gonna get after you. So my worry now is that okay, you go to the bench, that's fine. But I don't think it's as deep as okay, we need to run as deep as Hayden Jones. Will Garlic, maybe Bielkauskis, definitely. Jack Janicki, yep, Brandon Carrington had a fantastic game. So, yes. But outside of that, I I don't know if you need to run any deeper. I mean, what were your impressions, your first impressions watching the highlights, seeing some of this game here? What was your first impressions coming off of this one?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean, just kind of like what you were saying, too. Like it seems like they had a little bit of a comeback, and then uh DYU would drop another eight, ten points in a row, and then you know, it kind of seems like they can't keep up with them, you know. And like they like you said, maybe I felt like they had some that's I know that's the offense now, but I felt like they had a lot of really fast shots, like some really quick shots in the shot clock, like got the ball before, shot a three quick. It's like, well, and I don't know. Again, I'm not seeing it, so I don't know how open they were. I mean, I know what the offense said if you got an open three, like this is a team full of guys who should be able to shoot, you shoot the three, right? But a lot of it kind of seemed maybe a little rushed, like they started kind of getting a little bit of a deficit, and then they started panicking a little bit, so they're like starting to like try to you know get all the points back quickly rather than chipping away at it and just playing smart defense, and you know what I mean. I also don't think they had anyone that could have stuck with you know what is his name, Dive Master or whatever. I don't think they had anyone that could stay with that guy, and then that other dude that Richie whatever. Richie Saunders. Oh, that guy killed us in the NCAA tournament last year, killed us again this year. I think we just we really struggle with like aggressive teams, physically aggressive or just like uh constantly attacking the hoop aggressive. I think they kind of depend on uh other teams that used to just like they'll just sit outside and just you know shoot threes and you know whatever. But like I don't know. That's what that's the thing that killed us at BYU last year against BYU last year is like they were just so they're athletic and aggressive, and I just don't think we could really match that. And I was now they're only better this year.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. No, and yeah, it'd be crazy to think, but if you go back, listen to the podcast, go back on the podcast. I said this before they went into this game. I said, you cannot get into a run and gun match with this team because there is too much talent on BYU, and they want you to go down and shoot it fast because then you get out of sorts and they can push the ball and they can score in transition. And what did the Wisconsin do? They played right into BYU's hands, shots weren't falling, they kept forcing them from the outside, they couldn't get back on defense. What happened? BYU just had a heyday, they went on a 16-4 run, and then they went on this kind of run. You can't you can't battle back from that if you're Wisconsin, especially if the shots aren't falling from the outside, as we saw in this one. I said it going in. I said you watch the game against UConn, BYU over helps, they're going to allow a lot of threes. The question was going to be can you knock them down?
SPEAKER_00:They couldn't.
SPEAKER_01:Seven for 29. And on a perfect day, they fall. But when you have a guy like Austin Rapp, what did he come in for? He's a good three-point shooter. Oh for five. He was zeros across the board on the stats, basically.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he struggled. He had a bad room.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, two free throws. That's it. Two free throws. Outside of that, I mean, there was not a whole lot of good to write home about when you talk about shooting behind the arc. Your main three, Roadie, Blackwell, and Boyd, all go two for twelve, I think that is two for twelve there combined. That's ugly. Your one guy, no one winter, all for five. So you go from the starters, the starters in that game, two made threes in total, and they shot more than two. Like it was it was not a good performance. So, all in all, my biggest concern, and I kind of said this in weeks past this team finding an offense when the threes aren't falling. Because it's been like this, and I'm gonna go back to last year, too. I thought it was last year too. They fell in love with the three, and when it was fallen, it was great, it was magical. But when it wasn't falling, it became a big question mark: where are they gonna find the offense? Okay, John Tanjay, can you drive the lane? Can you get to the free throw line? Can we win it with free throws? Sometimes, but in a game like this, they didn't shoot the free throw well either. 17 for 26. Now, I'm not gonna say that making you know 80% of that was going to put them right back in this game, but it looks a heck of a lot better, it keeps it a heck of a lot closer. So that definitely didn't help was the free throw line. But all in all, I mean, yeah, and that's that's where Diabontis scored a lot of his points right off the bat was at the free throw line. 11 for 12. I mean, he got in foul trouble. They they allowed him to get to the line, but that was the defense that was letting him get by him, that was transition buckets trying to get stops in transition. So those were the worries, those were the worries I have. Your defense gave up 1.27 points per possession. That's rough. I don't want to say because BYU is a really good team. There's a lot of NBA talent on this team, there's a lot of talent for G League, whatever you want to say. There's a lot of talent on this team. But this is a team that you're going to have to beat if you want to get to where you want to be. And I'm watching Michigan right now. I've watched Michigan State at this point, I've seen Illinois at this point, I've seen Purdue at this point. Now, I'm not gonna say those teams are all you know gonna beat by BYU, but I think they could. I think they really I think they probably beat by BYU. So you're going to have to face there's just four right there. If you want to be in the top four in the Big Ten, you got to beat one of them.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:This was a measuring stick. Now, the question now is what do you show us against Providence? That's where we're at. What do you show us against Providence? Because we saw the ugly, and there was some good. I don't want to say there wasn't some good, right? We had Nolan Winter, 14 uh points, 14 rebounds, double double. And I thought, okay, let's go right there. Let's just look at the good for a second here before we get to Providence and looking ahead. The good between Braden Carrington and Nolan Winter. I thought Nolan Winter showed me a lot because he proved to me in that game and proved to all of us that he can bang with some really good bigs. That's what I wanted to see. You know, we had this question mark like can did Nolan Winter progress inside? Is he is he developing inside? I thought in this game we saw it. Four, he had 10 points in the paint there, not an efficient five for 11, but you have some good shot blockers there, but you had 14 rebounds. You banged around some bigs. You you battled down there when everything else was failing around you, you battled. Now it's a question of can we get the ball at the Nolan Winter a little bit more down there at the post and make things happen. He's leaving some things short right now. That's kind of the struggle there. So, and it's finishing at the rim. Austin Rap finished at the rim, man. And we watched the wide open laneup, missed it.
SPEAKER_00:And that's I think for him, that's like the big difference in competition. I mean, the first four games, he hasn't been like lights out by any means, but he's been solid, double-digit points, you know. But right now, all of a sudden, like to get ready for the Big Ten, now you're playing Big 12, you're playing the number nine team in the country, or you know, whatever they were. You know, it's like this isn't the West Coast conference anymore, you're whatever it is. You're not in Portland State.
SPEAKER_01:You're right, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:You're in the big you're the big boys now, right? So, like just I think that was probably a huge you know learning opportunity for him. I think he's got to get that figured out. I think he I don't think he'll be that bad all year. I think he'll figure it out and be at least serviceable. But again, he's only a sophomore, so he's got some time yet, too. But um I think he'll get settled and he'll be a lot better off moving forward. But again, that's why they want to play these games. They want to play uh BYU Providence, potentially Florida or TCU. Um, and then who else do we have? Like Marquette's obviously on there. Yep. These are one more, I think there's one more pretty good game on there, isn't there?
SPEAKER_01:Ah, Villanova is mixed in Villanova.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, there's Villanova. And I mean, they're they're down, they're not the same Villanova, but still Villanova, you know. I mean, I think it's they're better than Campbell or you know, Southern, you know, Northern Illinois. So I think that's they have a they have a this is why they had such a good non-conference schedule, so they get ready for their conference schedule.
SPEAKER_01:And like we talked about going into this game, you almost wish that you had a Providence game or something before this BYU game, something to get you ready because, like you said, you went from like an Austin rap, you went from playing at Portland, Portland State, whatever, whatever, Portland State, to now you're playing in the Big Ten, but your first four games aren't against really great competition. And now you go play some of the best competition you're gonna see all season.
SPEAKER_00:It was a really big step.
SPEAKER_01:That's a big jump. That's a big jump, and you're gonna see that, and you hope that he develops. So that's some of the things. So let's look ahead to Providence real quick before we got to hit a break. Some of the things I want to see against Providence. Find an offensive rhythm. I don't think they found an offensive rhythm. I still think they're trying to find that, you know, that uh mesh between this team right now, kind of that, you know, I'm feeling that, you know, because we see some good passes. We see, like, oh, I'm feeling this guy's gonna be here. We got to see this team start to flow. I don't think we've seen a great offensive flow. I think we've seen them play bad teams and find it. So I think we got to see an offensive rhythm be established here against Providence. Defense has got to start to improve. I don't care what it is. I think we've seen it. I we kind of talked about it in those first four games. It wasn't like they were getting tested, but we saw some performances where we even came out often and said, ah, the defense, the defense, and we're like, okay, but they put up 90, so it's okay. You're not gonna always be able to put up 90. You gotta find ways to win a 70 to 68 game if you have to, because the offense isn't there that night. Are you gonna be able to do that? Because when March comes around, you got to be able to put defensive performances together. Will this team be able to start to make strides through that? It's not gonna happen overnight, but I want to see this team start to improve defensively, and I think that'll happen with the mesh when they start to grow together. You have the size and length, use it. This is a team with so much size, so much length, right? They they have the ability, I think, to go with Florida because they have Austin Rapp, Nolan Winter, Bielakowskis, and Will Garlic. They have size, they have length, they have that disruption that you can have in the post area. Utilize that size, put your back to the basket, bang around on the boards, bang around in the paint area, do those things, the dirty things down low. This big, the big guys gotta they gotta play like big guys. I don't need them to step out on the arc all the time. I need them to be able to work back to the basket, down low, be able to establish the post area because when you can work inside out, kick out the shooters, when those shooters don't have to create. I tell you what, John Blackwell's a great shot creator, but he's even a better spot up shooter. Uh, Aaron Andrew Roddy, great spot up shooter. Nick Boyd, great spot up shooter. If you can work it inside, demand a post presence, demand a double, like we saw many times with big Steve Crowell last year, and he can kick to the corner or wherever it was. That's what you want to see. So I gotta see that. Austin Rapp has got to show me something in this game here. He's got to show me something. Otherwise, there is no reason why I'm not looking at a guy like Belakowskis to even say, hey, maybe I'll give you some run every once in a while. I don't know, maybe a little bit more run. Because Austin Rapp so far hasn't proved to me anything of being the big guy that I need him to be. And I gotta see, and that's this is right there. I have to see some physicality and some toughness out of this team. I gotta see some because what we saw in that second half from Wisconsin, they got it back to seven, down to seven there, and then it was just done. And you just saw it was like that's it. That was a problem with the mental toughness of this team and being able to overcome the adversity, right? To be able to come back from the the whatever that was that we watched in that first half. I just I didn't feel it. I didn't feel it in that one. I didn't feel that they had the mental toughness in that one to be able to come back on the road. It was just that kind of environment for them. I gotta see that in this one. You're gonna have a very tough tournament. You have Providence here coming up, you gotta be able to win that one, and then probably Florida, I would assume. So it's gonna be a very good two games for you there. I gotta see the mental toughness and the physicality from this team. What are some of the things you want to see there down against Providence?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, a lot of the same stuff, right? Like, I want to see defense. I feel like that their defense hasn't even been great this year. Um, their offense is covered for a lot of that. But again, so like when we're not at the coal center, so a neutral site definitely against Providence right now. Are the shots gonna fall? If not, where's the where's the scoring gonna come from? Obviously, you think a lot of it's gonna be Nick Boyd getting to the hoop, right? But I mean a lot of his game too is once teams start collapsing in on him, once he's does that, he's got to kick it out, got to hit threes again, right? Um, I think I want to see a lot of like more like earlier in the season, I saw a lot of two-man game with rap and winter, like a little high low there, and that worked out really well. I feel like that I didn't see any of that against or hear about any of that against BYU. So I want to see that. Um, but yeah, I think defensively is the big thing I want to see. Like getting, I mean, I think how many did they give up give up a bunch of offensive rebounds against BYU?
SPEAKER_01:Um, yeah, it was offensive. Richie Saunders was all over the ground.
SPEAKER_00:There it is. Like, so don't get out hustled, right? Stuff like that. And then if things aren't going how you want them to go, how how do you respond? Are you gonna get punched in the face and just stay down, or are you gonna fight your way back, right? And I don't think I like you said, I don't think they did that against BYU at all, from the sounds of it. So, I mean, against BYU and Providence are gonna be two very different teams, but doesn't mean that BYU or Providence can't take it to you too. If they saw by what BYU did, why wouldn't they try to do it, right?
SPEAKER_01:Right. You got to see a response, right? That's what we're kind of talking about here. Is you didn't see the response in that game, but now it's about how do you respond next game because you're gonna have this Providence game, and then it's how you respond a day later because you don't have a big day off, right? You have to hit it the next day. So you have this is a big test. I think this is a big test now. You have Providence and then you have Florida. Don't look ahead to Florida, take care of your business with Providence, then you worry about Florida TCU. You don't worry about that until you get there, and then you have uh a lot of tough games, like you were just talking about before. I don't care what anybody says, Marquette will always be a good game. It doesn't matter what happens, it'll always be a good game. You have Northwestern, they always play the Badgers tough. You have Nebraska, they always play the Badgers tough. And if you're not, I mean, this schedule, I know Villanova is not the greatest thing in the world, but this schedule, if you look ahead too far, you're gonna fall back and you're gonna get knocked out. So this is where right now you got to start picking up some wins here because once Big Ten play starts, goodness, it's gonna start to get crazy real fast. A lot of ranked games, a lot of ranked teams, a lot of really good teams. Don't and I just want to end it on this. Don't be alarmed that Wisconsin dropped out of the top 25. Because this season, between having to play, and I'm just gonna, I mean, you can just look at the schedule right now, and I can mention that Purdue is ranked number one, UCLA is ranked number 18 right now, Michigan's number seven, Indiana's number 25, Illinois' number 13, Michigan State's number 11. You want to talk about that's all on Wisconsin's schedule right there. And that's not saying that Oregon couldn't jump, jump into the top 25, or a team like Maryland or Iowa, who's supposed to be on the up and ups this year. There is so much movement that is gonna happen from now until these games happen. Don't even look to those games. Stay right, stay in the path. It's fine. They dropped that top 25. It's okay.
SPEAKER_00:They'll be fine, they'll work their way back into it.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. It's fine. We just trust, we just if Luke Fickle can figure it out. Greg Guard, you know what he did? You know what he did? Luke Fickle took off that stupid team vest. And Greg Guard, he didn't wear a suit and tie to that game against BYU. So you know why they lost? He had a jump suit. Because he wasn't wearing a suit and you're the problem, Greg. You're the problem.
SPEAKER_00:He wasn't wearing his suit and tie.
SPEAKER_01:No, it was a crap. That's why it was a crap show. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, he screwed it.
SPEAKER_00:He better suit up the rest of the season.
SPEAKER_01:If he doesn't, I'm going out to Madison, and I'm gonna be the one reporter down there who's gonna be like, hey, Greg, just what's up with the club?
SPEAKER_00:We saw it, man. It works for fickle. Take off the team vest. Why'd you wear a jumpsuit, man?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's like they went in reverse. He's like, homie, I'll just go. That's wild to me.
SPEAKER_00:That is not Bo Ryan like at all.
SPEAKER_01:No, we need to call Bo. We need to be like, hey, Bo, you need to call Greg and chew him a new one. So, Christian, I gotta run here. Thank you as always. Let the people know we're gonna find you out there across social media.
SPEAKER_00:As always, find me at Christian Borman and find all the stuff I'm doing at uh the Badger Backer.
SPEAKER_01:Make sure you guys are checking them out. Fantastic stuff there. A lot of badger talk. He's got recruiting next week. Huge week in recruiting next week. So we're gonna get into that next week, the early signing period. We're gonna talk about that with Christian here on the show. We got Badger Hoops full fledged coming up here third Thanksgiving Day against Providence. So make sure you guys are checking that one out. We're gonna talk about that one next week here on the show. So thank you guys, Christian, for stopping by. We're gonna be back here after the quick commercial break. We're gonna wrap up our number one. Look ahead to our number two. We'll be right back here. I'm your host, Trage, as we wrap up our number one here and look ahead to our number two. This last little portion 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 Colby or Medford, Wisconsin. Tell them I sent you, tell them trade sent you down there. Get 5% off your purchase. So in our number two, Ummer's gonna stop by right off the bat. We're gonna talk a little bit of Packers there. And then after that, Kyle's gonna stop by. We have some Bucks talk to get to yet tonight here. We have some NFL talk to get into. Thanksgiving talk to get into. We have our mellow yellow minute and everything in between. Make sure you guys are being in get involved in the show. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. Make sure you get like, like, subscribe, follow across all social media platforms. And if you miss any portion of the show, listen back across all podcast platforms next day. Just search Wisconsin Sports and the Go with Trade. So we'll be right back here. Homer's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk some packers. We'll be back here on the backside of the sad break.