Feb 28: Packers New Special Teams Coordinator, Bucks, Brewers and Badgermbb Talk

We move from Brewers optimism to a Packers special teams reset, then dive into the Bucks’ balanced surge and the Badgers’ costly shot selection. We push for clear fixes, smarter rotations, and urgency where it matters most.

• Tyler Black’s super-utility path and third base contingency
• Abner Uribe’s changeup transforming late-inning leverage
• Why Green Bay chose Cameron Achord and what success looks like
• Roster construction at the bottom for special teams impact
• Bucks’ ball movement driving balanced scoring across the roster
• Reintegration plan for Giannis without losing flow
• Depth, rotations, and a smart schedule ramp
• Badgers’ Oregon loss explained by shot selection, not luck
• Reestablishing paint touches, inside-out reads, and cutting
• Washington preview and urgency to reset identity

Send us your questions on Facebook Messenger or text 715-990-4914. “You can hit text in line and send us questions every single week there.”

Transcript

Opening, Weather, Show Rundown

SPEAKER_00 0:04

This is Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. Your place for all things Wisconsin Sports. Now, your host, Trade.

Brewers Spring Standouts And Roles

Uribe’s New Changeup And Closer Talk

SPEAKER_04 0:18

How are we doing, everybody? And welcome into Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. I'm your host, Trade, as we're coming in here on this Saturday. I hope you guys are enjoying your Saturday so far, probably less than you enjoyed Friday, because Friday the weather was fantastic. And well, today it's a little bit chilly. Tomorrow's gonna be chilly. Next week looks nice, though. Next week looks nice. So we just gotta prepare ourselves for the heat wave. That'll be next week there. So I hope you guys are enjoying your Saturday, your weekend so far, since we talked last this last Wednesday here. We came off Wednesday's show and we kind of talked about the Oregon game that was coming up that night. And I said, man, this is just a game that they should have. Blah, blah, blah. The badgers there. And well, well, they should have. When I fell asleep, it was 21 to 12, and I felt like they had it. I was just like, yeah, they got this. I'm gonna go to bed. And then I woke up to the notification that they lost 85 to 71. And I, yeah, I was like, what happened in between? So Christian and I were gonna talk about it today. There's probably gonna be some some it's gonna be a therapy session. Let's go with that. It's gonna be a therapy session. So make sure you guys check that out later on here in the show. So we have that coming up later on. We have the Wisco Fanatics fellas. I think just Tyler will be here today. We're gonna talk a little fucks with him. Almer's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk some Packers there. Special teams hired, got a new special teams coordinator to talk about there. So we're gonna get into that. So lots of stuff to dive into today here on the show. I want you guys to know that on Friday, yesterday, there, Evan from Ridge Top Exteriors did stop by. If you guys listen to the Wednesday show, I said I couldn't remember when the appointment was supposed to be. I knew it was Friday. I didn't know what time. Well, they are fantastic. They sent me a notification that they were coming and it was gonna be four o'clock. A reminder, right? You love those. You gotta love reminders because if you're like me, I just forget everything. So when they send you those text reminders, it's awesome. So make sure you check out Ridge Top Exteriors. They do awesome work. I got a free estimate on my roof there. Now we're going through the numbers and everything like that. So if I had to recommend anybody, I would recommend Ridge Top Exteriors to all you guys out there. Make sure, if you can, talk to Evan. He's fantastic. We were talking about a little bit of everything there for a while, and then we're like, yeah, we gotta, you know, talk about a roof now. So, anyways, anyways, lots to dive into today on the show. I want to start out with a little bit of a brewer talk to get to to start it out. Just some things that I've been seeing out of spring. First off, has got to be Tyler Black, who has been absolutely fantastic to start the year down there in uh at spring training. Absolutely fantastic from what we've seen. So that begs the question of okay, Tyler Black's been good. You want it a lot of people have talked about him being that first base kind of guy for you. He's been, you know, being that backup first baseman. I'm thinking if I'm the Brewers, I'm trying to moat at third. I want to make him a super utility guy. Because when I look at this roster and I say, okay, first base, Andrew Vaughn, Jake Bowers, right? Jake Bowers can play the outfield a little bit there, but you have him as that backup first baseman to Andrew Vaughn. Infield on the other side there, still some question marks, right? You bring in Ren Hifo, you think that he's probably gonna be your third baseman, and then you have Joey Ortiz at short, Joey Ortiz bat, who knows, right? Tarang at second base, that's no brainer. Tarang's gonna be in there in some way, shape, or form. But Tyler Black's ability to play third base brings into a lot of different well, his ability to play third, but also second brings into a lot uh brings into the conversation, moving him over if Ren Hifo can't, if Ren Hifo isn't producing, you can move him over to third. He can be your third baseman, or I know you can only weigh spring training stats so much, but uh what I've seen right now, the long ball's been there, he's been mashing the baseball. So you look at when you're looking at spring, you say, okay, what's the you know, is it just little flares out to the outfield, or is this guy actually making really good contact? And Tyler Black is seeing the ball really well right now in spring. So that's why I'm excited to talk about this. So I'm looking at maybe being that third baseman if Ren Hefo's not working, or I know you don't want to take Joey Ortiz out of the field, but you could you see maybe moving Tarang over to short and then putting Tyler Black at second base if the bats produce it. All question marks the Brewers are gonna have to address. But if I'm the Brewers right now, I'm trying to work him into that third base position, maybe even second base, just see what he has down there in spring training. So just you know what I've been seeing on Tyler Black, I I love it at the plate right now. Another guy that I'm excited that I was excited to watch was Amnir Yuribe. Broke out the changeup. And I know Statgast listed it as a sinker, but when it's 91 mile per hour off of his fastball, that's sitting around 98. It's not a sinker. He didn't slow it down there to throw a sinker. It's a changeup. And if he works that change up in and can find consistency with that changeup, add that in with his slider and his fastball that he already has, that's a dangerous closer. Or set up man to Trevor McGill, however that works out. We're gonna end up talking about closers here coming up at some point. But seeing Amnier Rebay add that third pitch into there, the the pitching lab doing its work once again for the Brewers, I'm excited. I'm excited because if you get a closer, I mean, you talk about closers and their ability to work two pitches, right? Devin Williams with this fastball and his uh and his changeup there. And then you had Josh Hayder with the fastball and the breaking ball there for a while. It seemed like he only threw fastball. But when you get a guy like Amir Rebay, who already is very underrated for what he does, and you add in that third pitch to that mix, and if he can throw it consistency or consistently and get that bite on it, wow. I mean, Amir Rebay aiming for a big season here. I'm excited when I saw that down there. So just some brewer tidbits that I wanted to start the show off with, but we have to do a little short intro today because we have a lot coming at you. Ummer's coming up next. We're gonna get to him, we're gonna talk some Packers. Then we have the Wisco Fanatics guys coming by. Tyler's gonna stop by, we're gonna talk a little bucks, and then Christian to wrap up the show here today. We're gonna talk some badgers. This is just the start of Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. We'll be right back here after Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we're coming back in here on this Saturday. Ummer stopping by. We're gonna talk a little packers here. We got a lot, well, you know, some speculation to get into what we want to see, and then a new hire. So we got to get into a lot today here, Ummer. How are we doing on this Saturday?

SPEAKER_02 6:48

I'm great, man. I'm just like, you know, enjoying the weekend. It's been a tough week, and then I'm just, you know, taking in all the combine stuff. I've been playing on my TV basically 24-7 around the clock. Um, I love watching these young men uh run around, basically perform on the combine and try to show the NFL and the country just how good they really are, and just seeing them like, you know, perform in a way where they can have an opportunity to be an NFL team. I love that.

SPEAKER_04 7:15

Yeah, I have to I have to readdress my comments from Wednesday. I have uh so I got I got some hate. I got some hate going on off my comments on Wednesday, and I feel like I need to address them because I uh I didn't word what I was trying to say correctly. We should go back to that. So on Wednesday, we were talking about the combine a little bit, and I the way that I phrased it may have come across as I didn't care about the combine at all. And and that that's not true. I I want to put that out there. That's not true. The combine is important. I find it to be important, I don't find it to be as big of a metric as maybe some people do, where everybody puts it and says, like, the combine is the most important thing. I don't find it to be the most important thing. I'm more of a game film. How did this guy do in a game kind of guy? Like, that's where I like to look back to is see the stats that he put up, what he did when he played in a really high-stakes game. Let's just say it's a quarterback and he played for Georgia and they were in the SEC championship game and they were playing against Alabama. How did he play in that game? How did he react in the fourth quarter? Like, those are the things that you know, I was thinking about a movie. This is how I was thinking about it. I was thinking about a movie. I was thinking about draft day, right? And they they're talking about that. Uh, what the heck is that guy's name? The linebacker. I can't remember the linebacker's name that they really wanted. Uh, Vontay Mack was his name, I think. It was Vontae Mack, and they were talking about should they draft him or should they draft that quarterback? Who's the quarterback um are in draft day? The big one that they all wanted from Wisconsin. Oh that's gonna be that's the quarterback quarterback, the quarterback from Wisconsin that everybody wanted, but then Sonny wouldn't take him. Who is that quarterback's name?

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Oh, wasn't it Graham Meritz? No.

SPEAKER_04 9:00

No, no, that was a real quarterback, the quarterback in the movie. I can't remember what the in the movie with the quarterback. That's that's gonna drive me.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Oh, Bo Callahan.

SPEAKER_04 9:08

Bo Callahan. Everybody wanted Bo Callahan, and then they went back and they looked at the tape and they're like, when did Bo look really good against Ohio State in that game? And it was when you know Mac was on the sideline. And I was like, and that that just got me thinking. It's like I like looking at that game film, seeing all that. So I I want everybody out there to know that I'm not hating on the combine. I like what the guys run, I like seeing the stats, the vertical jump, everything like that. I mean, there's a guy from Wisconsin, Mason Rieger, that if he drops late in the draft, I would be okay with the Packers grabbing them there late in the draft there uh as an as an edge guy, because man oh man, he's putting up some, I don't think he's gonna drop far enough for the Packers to want. I don't know, the Packers should grab them. I'm just I'm just all in on Wisconsin guys because the pack the Packers have you know missed on too many Wisconsin guys. I just want to see the Packers draft one of them at this point here because they just completely missed on them and then they go elsewhere and they do really good. So, anyways, anyways, I just wanted to address. I respect the combine, I like the combine. I I just want to address that off the top here. So there you go, there you go. I do I'm all in on the combine just so everybody knows. I just I have I have I like watching game film too, and I just don't think the combine stats are everything. That's just what I wanted to say there on Wednesday. So umer, that's enough about me.

Segment Map: Packers, Bucks, Badgers

SPEAKER_02 10:19

There's nothing wrong with that, there's nothing wrong with that take.

Packers Combine Thoughts And Clarification

SPEAKER_04 10:21

I was hoping people would understand, and I think I probably phrased it wrong because I start talking and then my words start going everywhere, and everybody knows it's like word salad, then and it always confusing. So I just want everybody to know I think combine's important, so that's all that needs to be said. Yes, sir, yes sir, yes sir. So let's jump over to the Packers here. Let's talk about what we saw, the new hire, right? Mattlefort is kind of in this weird, uh, weird time right now where he has to hire a special teams coordinator while trying to figure out everything else. Well, as GM's currently sitting at the combine while everything's getting hectic out there with that. And now we see the hire. The hire that was made, the assistant special teams coordinator with the Patriots, I believe, is where he last was. Giants. Giants, where he last was, was the Giants. He was with Patriots at one point. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Yes, that's where you that's where you had to coordinate it for a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 11:12

Okay, so Cameron Accord. Cameron Accord is his name. Spent time a little bit everywhere at this point. I was just trying to pull up his coaching career so we could see that. He was with oh man, he was going back to 2010 when he was a graduate assistant. He was at Southern Mississippi, the Golden Eagles down there, and then he ended up in a community college, worked his way up, ended up with the Patriots in 2018 as the assistant special teams coach, was there through 2023, and then ended up going to the Giants in 2024, where he was again the assistant special teams coordinator for both of those seasons there. So he was the special teams coordinator, like you were saying, there from 2020 until 2023 with the New England Patriots, had some success. He his he's actually his punt return units were pretty good, and then his kick writ his kick returns were pretty good. It just slowly declined over the years there with the Patriots, and that has to do with talent too. You look at the roster, you look at who you have on the roster too, and that also leads to the decline there. So the Packers get their hire. So you don't have a lot to go on, I guess, because you can go back to the 2020 through 2023 seasons with the Patriots and look at all the stats, but then I also feel like you have to go back and look at the rosters too. You can't just weigh it in off the stats that they had there. So, Umer, I mean, you saw the hire, good hire, bad hire. I'm kind of in the mode where it's like I gotta see it work out now. I just gotta see it on the field at this point here and see it work out if it does or it doesn't. That's kind of where I'm at with this hire.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

I'm I'm indifferent. I'm very indifferent because I did one Fitz Simmons, the guy out of Seattle, he's an assistant Seattle guy in Seattle, had one of the best uh special teams in the league this year. I know Rashid Shahid helped with that a lot, but the thing with Cam is, you know, he has been a I think the reason why the floor went with him because he has been a coordinator before. He did have the number one ranked special teams in 2020, and then it fell off in 2022, sorry, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Um sorry, 2021, 2022. And even though he was one and then he was basically mid for the other two years, again, he still had better, I would say, special teams than Rich Pisacci ever has. He's a young dude, he's 29. Um, and the fact that he's had players like you know, Michael Slater, who's probably one of the most decorated special team players in the league right now, uh, all pro multiple years, who gave a very strong winning endorsement for him when Joe Judge left and he became the coordinator in New England. So for me, I feel like you know, you're at the point now where you're mid-February, you gotta make a hire. He brought in four guys for second interviews. I'm okay with it because I think you know, he know for the most part, I've he got a guy that has experience NFL who has coordinated before, and for the most part has above, has been had average to extremely strong special teams. So I'll take it and I'll hold out reservation and judgment until I see what happens in the first four games. So I'll give him the first four games, right? And again, it I it just sucks that when you go back and read a little bit more on Rich Pisaccio, you find out that he was actually going back and forth about coming back this year. Like he really wasn't really confident in wanting to be, especially in corner for Green Bay, and that I think the Packers wanted him back and they were blindsided by his decision. I've made jokes that Zayn Anderson is not being restricted, is not being tendered, so that's why he's like, I'm out. And I just think that it's just funny, I'll just be jokey. But truth be told, Rich kind of did put us in a really bad mind because the fact that there's a lot of guys that are available in the beginning of the year that we don't see now, and so we had to, you know, kind of pick what was left, kind of thing, right? But end of the day, it doesn't matter who the coordinator is if if uh when it comes to Goody and the way he is creating the bottom of the roster and making sure that there's players that are startable as well as players that are good special team players because he is not tendering Emmanuel Wilson, he is not tendering Zayn Anderson, even though I think he wants to bring back Zayn on a cheaper deal. You know, they're gonna have to really make sure that they either draft or bring in some free agents that are excellent at special teams. Because right now we've lost so many games in the last 10-15 years because of special teams. They really, really need to have an above average to average special teams. We can't have anything in the 20s or below. I need something 15 or higher this year. That's that's not a really high bar to clear, but for us in Green Bay, it is.

Packers Hire Cameron Achord

SPEAKER_04 15:41

Yeah, I'd take 20 at this point here. Seriously. I'd be in the 20 range and I'd be okay. You know, you mentioned something there where it's you know, they they wanted Rich back, they wanted him back as special teams coordinator. He was uncertain. I wonder if you would have just because he's a great locker room presence, the great guy. Seems like he keeps the morale in there and everything. I wonder if you would have just stepped back and said, hey, we could hire an assistant special teams coordinator. He can coordinate basically everything. You just stay in here as a consultant, you stay in here as that, you know, right-hand man to Matt LaFleur or that kind of thing. I wonder if that would have worked out. I don't know. I I don't know how it all went down. Nobody does, but all we know is that the Packers made their hire. I I just looked up the uh the stats here in 2020. They had a punt coverage unit, so that was when he was with the Patriots yet. In 2020, the punt coverage unit was third in opponent net punting at 37.9 yards and kickoff returns. So it, I mean, looked pretty good there in 2020 with the Patriots. It just, like we said, the decline happened with the Patriots. And, you know, like we said, that could happen with talent because, like you just mentioned with Goody, getting the right guys on the back end there to help out on special teams. That's a huge factor. So definitely have to look into that. And then, I mean, you talk about with the Giants there. He had guys like Isaiah Simmons on there and multiple different guys. Their kick, their actually their kicking team wasn't bad, they were converting at a pretty good rate when it all went south. Was that game against the Bears where they just started missing kicks left and right? That's what kind of all went south with the Giants there. Otherwise, they had a pretty good year going until that point. They were 92%, 13 for 14 through mid-November. And then, well, the high pressure situation of the Bears game and everything kind of went south there. But his kicking teams have been pretty good. So there's stats you can look at to say this guy's gonna be good. There's stats they look at to say he's gonna be bad. We're just saying that he's been an assistant for the past two years, and then you look back further, and that was kind of when the Patriots were in this middle ground period where everything was kind of falling apart with them at that point there. So, and coaching changes were happening. I coaching change happened in 2023, and that's why he got lost his job there with the Patriots in 2023. That's when the big coaching change happened. But lots of factors can lead into it. So we'll wait and see. We'll wait and see. Packers got their special teams, guys. So, one last thing I wanted to hit today here on the show. We had a question come in from a listener. And if you want to send me a question, make sure you do it across Facebook there. We can hit these every week on the show here. If you want to send me a question on Facebook, do it. Messenger, you can message me, Wisconsin Sports on the Go Trade. Otherwise, hit the text in line, 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. You can hit text in line and send us questions every single week there. But is Malik Willis QB1 material? So that was a question we had because a lot of people are looking at, and I think he's listed on a lot of lists as the number one free agent out there at this point. Number two? He's number two now.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

No, just time.

SPEAKER_04 18:35

Oh, gotcha. Umers throwing hand signals up at me, and I'm getting confused over here. As long as it wasn't the middle finger, I'm doing fine over here. Malik Willis is listed as the number one free agent out there on a lot of listings, and that's because the quarterback draft this time around isn't very good. You have Fernando Mendoza, and then it kind of goes south. So Malik Willis was hot commodity. So the question a lot of people are having is is Malik Willis number one guy? Is he can he be the number one guy somewhere? And I think so. Yeah, I just think he has to be in the right place, right? Because he didn't work it with the Titans, but then Matt LaFleur gets his hands on him and he looks great. Yeah, so if you get him in the right area, and I got a guy down there in Arizona who's related to Matt LaFleur, and I just got that feeling that if he went down there, I feel like he could give a call to his brother and he could say, Hey, how do you work with this guy? And then Matt's gonna be like, Well, I ain't gonna give you all the secrets, man, but I can tell you what maybe worked, and you can go back and look at the film, and I think that those two kind of see eye to eye on things. So maybe a place like Arizona with a pretty good offensive-minded head coach might work out for him. I just look at some situations and I say, if he gets in the right spot with the right coach, yes. Now, if there's just some team out there who's gonna say, Well, we could use you know his talents like the Raiders or somebody, I don't think they will because I think they're gonna get Mendoza. But if a team like that came calling, I I don't know. Kubiak's there, right? Kubiak's gonna be there. Yep, it might work out. I don't know, it might work out time with Shanahan. So I mean he's like it might work out there, but I mean there's some destinations where it would definitely would probably be hectic once again for him. So, I mean, Amber is Malik Willis QB1 material.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Yes, I think he is. I think that he's gone through a lot of adversity being a third-round pick, coming out of Liberty. He needed time to develop, he didn't get that in Tennessee, he got that in Green Bay, and he showed that every time he came into a game, he showed that he could play it, he could show out, and he just found ways to win games or keep the Packers competitive. And I think that if he gets an opportunity to go to a team that runs a similar system like LaFleur's, like Mike LaFleur will probably run, or I don't want him to go to KOC in Minnesota, but same thing there. Or if some crazy reason the Niners go for him because they're trying to have some second thoughts about Brock Purdy, there's there are opportunities, or even for that matter, going to like I would want him to be a starter somewhere, right? And I really do feel like Arizona has best spot. He's a very young team, lots of good weapons with Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison Jr. Then on top of that, so you got Mike Mike LeFleur going there, who's gonna probably run the same offense that Shanahan and the floor and McVay run, right? And honestly, like let's say he goes to Arizona for a year or two, does his thing there, and then either he becomes the all-time starter there, or by then Stafford retires, and then McVeigh needs a quarterback, right? Right, and then he goes to McVeigh and he kind of runs the gauntlet of that, you know, uh NFC West, you know, division. But the truth be told is that every time we need him to perform, he has performed. Has he gotten banged up and that's caused him to not play well? Yes, but he's a good quarterback, and it's just that there's he has a if you listen to the way he speaks, he has a moxie of him that like you could just tell, like he's just built differently. He doesn't he he is very like faith based, he doesn't get too caught up in the media, he doesn't try to think make things about himself, and I love that about him. I think he's a very selfless kind of guy, and I think that's Kind of guy that uh you need as a quarterback. It reminds me a lot of Jordan Love, who's not all about the bravado, not about all this big talk and stuff like that. Just goes in there, gets his job done, and just try to do the best he can for his team, which is exactly what Malik does and safety of Jordan does. I think I'm looking forward to see what kind of contract he gets because the bigger contract he gets, the better compensatory pick we'll get. And truth be told, he he has a great opportunity, I think, to maybe really make a name for himself in Arizona if that's where he does that.

SPEAKER_04 22:28

I completely agree. I wish he wasn't so good so that the Packers could keep him around. That's all I know. So, Albert, I gotta run here. Let the people know where to find you out there across social media.

Special Teams Expectations And Roster Depth

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Trey, thanks for having me again. Hope you have a great weekend. Find me on Twitter at AMAR3455. Uh Cook Coach Packers everywhere else. Uh, you can always you can always add me on there and then always DM me if you guys have any questions or comments or whatever you need. And let's just chop it up about Packers. It's a great time right now, off season, so we got a lot of things we can talk about.

SPEAKER_04 22:56

Definitely check him out there. He's got fantastic stuff there. He's on a lot of different shows, so keep in tune for those too. He's got a lot of different shows that he's on out there. So thank you as always, Amher. When we come back from the break here, Christian's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk a little badgers. We'll be right back here. I'll with Scotty with some sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we're coming back in here on this Saturday. I have Tyler here from the Wisco Fanatics. I can't keep him from his Chinese food for too long, so we got to get this thing moving here. So, Tyler, how are we doing on this Saturday?

SPEAKER_03 23:24

Not bad. Glad it's the weekend.

SPEAKER_04 23:27

Me too. Me too. Badgers play today. I'm really I'm praying for a bounce back game after what we watched in Oregon there. I did not stay up for it. I told people that I wasn't gonna stay up, and I held true to that. I did not stay up, and thank goodness I didn't because I didn't miss much. I definitely did not miss much there in Eugene. So, what we're missing a lot of right now is Bucks basketball. I mean, Bucks coming off the all-star break have been looking good. They went into the all-star break looking good. Coming out the backside, looking good. I mean, Tyler, as of late here, these Bucs, I mean, Tuesday got the win against Miami, Wednesday got the win against Cleveland, as we're recording. It's Friday. So they're playing the Knicks tonight. We're not gonna know the outcome of that one. But as of late, I mean, the Bucs are looking really good.

SPEAKER_03 24:08

Yeah. I mean, five out of six going into the all-star break, three out of four since coming out, if my math is correct. So obviously uh there's a lot been made of them being eight and ten or eight and two in their last ten. So yeah, definitely trending in the good direction.

SPEAKER_04 24:23

You know what I what I've loved as of late here, and I was messaging you guys about it the other night. There is the balance scoring from this team. You go in there and you look at the box score from these games here, and I mean you see double digits all throughout the starting lineup, and even onto the bench, you have double digits. I mean, just kind of talk about that. I mean, the balance scoring from this team. I know Giannis isn't there, but this balanced scoring has just been, I mean, something you don't see a lot of in the NBA.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

So one of the biggest things that Jake and I talk about on our show, and and it goes to a guy that we're gonna spend plenty of time talking about, I'm sure, in Kevin Porter Jr., but when the team is moving the ball, when the ball movement is there, the vision of John Horse, what he had in mind going into this season, kind of starts to show, like, hey, maybe he put together a decent roster here, and we just needed to be kind of doing things right. And ball movement is is I would say it's probably the biggest marker of success for the Bucks is when the ball is moving well and it's flowing, and guys are flowing and not forcing, which is a a couple terms that I've been using to describe guys like Ryan Rollins and Bobby Portis. When those guys are flowing and they're playing within the flow of the game and not forcing shots, you know, like a zero or one pass possession and you know being kind of black holes on offense, when the ball is flowing, this team it has so many guys that are capable of scoring. So the the balanced scoring to me, it comes down to ball movement.

SPEAKER_04 25:54

Yeah, no 100%. I mean, you watch some of these games out here, and you mentioned guys like Rollins and Portis there, but then you see guys like Pete Nance when he gets involved in the passing game, too, there. I mean, that ball just whistles around. And it makes you wonder, and I guess this is going to be an outside of the realm of what we're in right now, but how do you when you bring back Giannis? Because we are on this Giannis watch right now, he could come back anytime now we're expecting most likely in the coming weeks. But when Giannis does come back, how do you, if you're Doc Rivers, if you're the Bucs, how do you bring Giannis back into this and keep what you have going? Because I think sometimes that can become a hard thing because when the star comes back, everybody's like, oh, we gotta get, you know, get Giannis going, get Giannis going. And you know, Giannis has got upset about that and saying, well, guys, get you guys get yours too. Like, I don't need the ball every time down the floor. So if you're Doc Rivers, if you're the Bucs, how do you bring back Giannis into this? And it seems crazy to say, how do you bring back Giannis, right? But how do you keep this same flow well implementing Giannis back into the offense, back onto this roster?

Listener Q: Is Malik QB1 Material

SPEAKER_03 26:56

So we we are sitting and watching, like wondering when Giannis is gonna be back on the floor. But right now, Giannis is already playing with the team. He's doing, you know, you listen to Doc, he said they're doing three on three, four on four, they haven't done much five on five stuff. He said they don't always, but they're they're already kind of working on that. So my hope is that guys are kind of starting to get the feel of how that's gonna look. Um, and honestly, it's gonna come kind of unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you view him, it's gonna come a lot of the expense of Kyle Kuzma. Um he's the guy who's gonna go from the starting lineup to the bench back into his uh great value Giannis role as the backup power forward. And that's that's gonna be the challenge for Doc is having a stacked front court because you have a guy like Jericho Sims. You mentioned Pete Nance as a guy that comes in and helps move the ball, but Jericho Sims is coming in and help moving the ball. He had five assists a career high in a game against Miami the other night, and you look at it and it's like you can't take Sims off the floor, you can't take Miles Turner off the floor because his defense is too valuable and he still stretches the floor. You don't want to take Bobby Portis off the floor unless he's having a bad shooting night. You want to give Pete Nance minutes to help him develop, and you want to give Uzman Zheng minutes to help him develop. So unfortunately, it's gonna come a lot at the expense of Kyle Kuzma, but back to your original question, like they should be working on that now already, and they should say everybody else keep doing what you're doing, moving the ball, taking good shots, flowing, and then we're also gonna add a top five NBA player to that mix.

SPEAKER_04 28:30

Right. Yeah, no 100%. And you know, just kind of talking about all the pieces that you were just mentioning there. Do you feel like the Bucks are really deep now? When you really look at and the amount of guys that they're able to work into this, I feel like they're well they're you know, I we're talking playoffs now, we're getting crazy with it, but when you get into one of those play-in tournaments and then you're gonna have those drag games there, you have a deep roster now, wouldn't you say?

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Absolutely. And that's I think that's how, like I said, like I think that's how John Horst came into this season. Looking at it like, okay, we're gonna have Giannis and nine guys that can play in our rotation. And I understand that that's you know, it hasn't worked out perfectly. And obviously, they flipped two of those guys, Cole Anthony and Amir Coffee, and turned it into Uzman Jeng and Cam Thomas. And I mean, he another guy that you can mention in that obviously is Cam Thomas, but you can also throw Gary Trend Jr. in there who hasn't played in like a week and a half. I mean, uh obviously Andre Jackson Jr. was kind of always, you know, an edge of the roster guy, but I mean, those are guys that were kind of figured in as rotational guys. Obviously, Gary Trent Jr. has started games for the Bucks, but the way that other guys are playing right now, you don't need to force those guys into the lineup. So that depth is kind of starting to rise to what we hoped to see like three months ago.

SPEAKER_04 29:46

Right. No, and you know, you think about a guy like Giannis coming back from injury too and working back into the game flow. You don't need Giannis to play 35 minutes right off the bat. He can come back in and slowly be implemented back into this because of, like you said, the depth of that front court. You have a lot of guys who can jump into that role, not quite to the Giannis level, but those guys are still being influential parts to this team right now. And then you bring Giannis back into the fold, work him back in a little bit slower, let him ramp up, let him get slowly into it. Like it's a huge thing for a team like this.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

It's not it's not necessarily that the guys are gonna occupy Giannis's, you know, capabilities, but guys like Kyle Kuzma and Uzman Jeng can occupy that role, like that point forward role. They can occupy the role without saying that obviously like these guys are not Giannis, like nobody is, but that's why I've been saying with with Kyle Kuzma that he's doing the kind of great value Giannis thing where he's giving you, you know, I don't want to say like a watered-down version because Kyle Kuzma still plays hard, you know. He does he does well driving downhill and getting to the basket. He's just not as good as Giannis, and like obviously nobody is. So, like that that play style, that's what to me stuck out as is calling Kyle Kuzma great value. Giannis is so that everybody else can still play in a similar uh play style as to when Giannis comes back. So that's what I'm kind of hoping is that they're just saying, like, okay, Kyle Kuzma, play like Giannis, and everybody else just pretend Kuzma is Giannis, and that's how we're gonna operate in practice.

SPEAKER_04 31:16

Right, yeah. No, I he's been calling Kuzma, sorry, he's been calling Kuzma Great Value Giannis for months now. If you guys are just tuning into the show for the first time, I mean the Tyler, first thing I ever heard out of his mouth is Kyle Kuzma is the great value Giannis. And I was like, yeah, I yeah, yeah, pretty much, pretty much there. And yeah, I agree 100%. You're never gonna replace the talent and all that, but you bring these guys in who are able to play the role. Not not necessarily to the skill level, but play the role, occupy that spot on the court there to give, like, like we're talking, give Giannis that time to ramp up, get back in the game flow, get back into being himself out there. You don't want to rush, especially with an injury like he had. You don't want to rush.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

Like that's that's the other part of it, is like, yeah, you you know, you can get him back when you can get him back, but I mean, they're not gonna, I'm not expecting them to win the next eight out of ten again and win sixteen out of twenty, that'd be fantastic, but I'm not gonna say that I'm expecting that. But if they're winning, I mean, two out of three, three out of five, six out of nine, you know, just kind of staying right around that 60% of their games, they're not gonna rush him back to just to put him in for 25 minutes. They could, but they don't really need to. And I think that that puts a little bit of pressure on Giannis too. I feel like, and he's talked about it a little bit, is when he comes back, maybe a little bit early, that he tries to pack 35 minutes of game action into 25 minutes. And that makes them a little bit sloppy at times, I think. But again, if you can get him to 100% before bringing him back, and he doesn't have to play on a minutes restriction, that would be the ideal scenario.

SPEAKER_04 32:50

Yeah, no island hunter. And I mean, you look at the schedule that they have coming up, like we said, you have New York to uh on Friday night there as we're recording here, but then you have Chicago, then you go you do play Boston, but then you have Atlanta, you play Utah, you have Orlando. I mean, those are all games with the roster currently as constructed. They're they just came off a win against Cleveland, who is one of the better teams in the East. So you look at the schedule they have coming up, there is no, I mean, the East is kind of wide open. I mean, everybody said it at this point, it's kind of wide open. So you look at the schedule coming up, it's like you don't have to force Giannis back to try and win a stretch of games, I guess. I mean, is that is that wrong to say, like, you don't have to looking at the schedule, there's no point where you say, like, this is a gauntlet, we really have to force the issue in these moments.

Bucks Form And Balanced Scoring

SPEAKER_03 33:33

So the way I'm looking at it is tomorrow is gonna be at Chicago, and then they have five straight home games. So you're looking at five out of the next six at home. Uh I'm looking at one of those games being the game that Giannis comes back. Um, but I think if you want to try to get through the middle of March stretch where they go at Miami, at Atlanta versus Indy, like if you try to get through those three games, those are three games I think you can win without Giannis in an ideal scenario. And then you look at Thursday the 17th, they play home against Cleveland, but then they're on the West Coast. They're at Utah, at Phoenix, at LA, uh, LA Clippers, at Portland. I mean, those are those are games. Again, if you're firing on all cylinders through the first two weeks of March and you don't have to rush Giannis back, you know, then you have a three-game homestand and the month of March. And maybe you can give Giannis until the beginning of April. And you give Giannis the seven games that they have in April as his ramp up for the playoffs, as long as things continue going well in March.

SPEAKER_04 34:34

Yeah. No, like I'm looking at it like you just were mentioning off the schedule there. I look at a night that 17th of March there against Cleveland. That just sticks out to me as like the perfect time. Not rushing.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Especially, especially if Evan Mobley, Donovan Mitchell, and James Harden are back. And if you're hovering around that like eight-nine area and you're like, okay, a win against Cleveland can really help us, then I think that might be the game where they look at him back.

SPEAKER_04 34:59

Yeah, it just seems like a perfect time, right? You have a home game before the West Coast swing. You don't want to bring him back on the West Coast. You want to bring him back in a home game, most likely. I mean, it just feels better. I would say, yeah, that Cleveland spot looks like a pretty good, even if you went maybe a couple days before on that Sunday against Indiana to maybe get his feet wet back into it before Cleveland doesn't seem like a bad idea, too, because the Cleveland game seems like a little bit more of a high stakes, high pressure game, right? Especially if you're hovering in that spot. So maybe a Pacers game on the 15th there. But 100%, don't rush anything back. I completely agree with you there. So the Bucs tomorrow. Oh, sorry, I cut you off.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

I just said, especially if you keep winning.

SPEAKER_04 35:34

Exactly. If you keep winning games like you are right now, there's no point on rushing back Giannis at all. I mean, I I hate load management as as much as the next guy, but this isn't an injury, also, that you rush. It did this has nothing to do with load management. This is not rushing a guy back from an injury that is. Yes, yes, because we've seen this this type of injury lead to a bigger injury, lead to a full season loss. So you don't want that in a season like this for a guy, especially if you're the Bucs and a guy in Giannis who's leading into a contract here, leading into a possible, we're not going to speculate trades or anything crazy like that, but leading into all that madness, you don't want that at all. So if you're the Bucs, get them 100%. So, Tyler, let's flip gears. Bucks coming up next. They have, like you said, Chicago coming up tomorrow at Chicago, and then Boston coming up on Monday. We'll talk about those games, recap them on the Wednesday show next week. But I did see something interesting come from the Brewers flipping gears here, and I kind of talked about this a little bit earlier, but there's two things. Abner Uribe watching him pitch in that game yesterday there, a little bit of a change up. He debuted the changeup, and they listed it as a sinker, but it was 91 miles per hour. And I don't think Abner's throwing a 91 mile per hour sinker. It's it's a change up, you know. Stat cast just throws it all over the place. But Abner Yuribe, if he has that heater and he has that slider and now he implements that change up, I mean, my goodness, that is gonna be a he's already probably very underrated for the position that he's at right now. I don't think enough people talk about what he's done for the Brewers. Adding a change up to that arsenal, good night. Good night when you face Abner Uribe, especially if he has control. I mean, I I love that. I mean, are you kind of in that same boat seeing him throw that change up yesterday? It was like, oh, okay, if this works, I love it.

SPEAKER_03 37:13

We're already at a point, so like we've seen as Brewers fans, we've seen like Josh Hader, who had fastball slider, we have Trevor McGill who's got fastball curveball, and then you have Abner Uribe who's fastball slider, just closers, just I mean, even Devin Williams, who had fastball change up. We've seen guys just absolutely dominate with two pitches. Even when you have a 50-50 chance of guessing right what pitch he's gonna throw, we've still seen guys be like damn near untouchable.

unknown 37:40

Right.

SPEAKER_03 37:40

And you give a guy like Abner Uribe, who's already trending in that direction with his two-pitch mix, and you add another ball that's gonna move like his fastball, but it's gonna be about seven miles an hour slower. He's gonna have guys swinging out of their shoes, like looking silly with how early they're swinging, thinking it's gonna be a fastball. Oh yeah, it's it's very interesting. And I there's pitching lab, we've said this, deserves blind trust. It's not even like we need to give them the benefit of the doubt. No, pitching lab, blind trust, 100%. 100% agree with you.

Reintegrating Giannis Without Losing Flow

SPEAKER_04 38:15

I mean, the way that they've been able to work with these guys, and now you see a guy like Abner Ribe, who's already a successful pitcher with a slider and fastball, and now you say, Oh, he's gonna throw a changeup on you now, like you said, it's gonna drop seven miles per hour slower than his fastball, and it's just gonna be like good good luck. Good luck hitting that. When you're guessing two pitches, now you have to guess a third, and he just throws it out there. I mean, good luck with that. One last thing, I kind of talked about it earlier. Tyler Black's starting to rip the ball at spring training. And I know everybody says you can only put so much stock in spring, but you also have to look at the production that he's has. And you know, looking at velocity off the bat, is it just little chip shots the outfield, or is he putting drives into balls and he's putting drives into the baseball right now? Do you see the Brewers? And I'm kind of in this boat, I want to see them kind of work him into third a little bit there, try to work him into that super utility role. I know we've talked about him being that backup first baseman, but I think with Jake Bowers and Andrew Vaughn he fine over there, you have a question mark at third. If Ren Hefo works out, great. If he doesn't, you want to have another option. I'm kind of looking at Tyler Black being that big utility guy for the Brewers who can add that pop off the bench. I mean, is that kind of where you're looking right now?

SPEAKER_03 39:17

Yeah, I like that you use the word super utility. Just he did come up as like a first slash third baseman. I believe he's played a tiny bit of second base as well. I think so. Yep. So if you want to get nuts, like you can try him out, and that's what spring training is for. Like, try stuff out. I mean, we had Sal Freelick playing third base last spring.

SPEAKER_04 39:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

Like just try stuff out, right? You know, I mean, like, like you said, just try stuff out, see if he does well. And we talked about this a little bit before we started recording, but like a guy like Brayden Lockridge, I mean, you're looking at Blake Perkins, Akil Badou, uh, uh you mentioned Luis Rangifo already. You're looking at like four out of those guys making the roster, and if Tyler Black can give you that super utility, and you know, you treat Bryce Tarang as your backup shortstop, so when Joey Ortiz needs a day off, you could put Tarang at short, and you could put Tyler Black at second if you needed to. You could have Tyler Black be your backup first baseman if he's playing well, and you can stick Jake Bowers in left field. I mean, there's so many potential moving pieces here. The first thing you got to do is figure out who's gonna be your starting third baseman, right? And then figure out who's gonna be the backups at all your spots.

SPEAKER_04 40:27

Yeah, I mean, you you don't want to move Ortiz off of short because he's a very good defender. But if the bat doesn't come along and Tyler Black's hitting, you could say, like you were talking with maybe putting Tyler Black at second base, Tarang moves over to short, maybe Ren Hifo's hitting, you put him over at third, Ortiz becomes that kind of I don't want to say bench guy, but you know, that defensive replacement that you can use later in games because if his bat just isn't there, you you can only have so many duds in the lineup. And if he's not hitting and it just like last season wants over again, I'm hoping for the best. I'm hoping he grew the beard out, it's gonna have some hits in it, but we'll find out with Joey Ortiz there. So, Tyler, I gotta run here. Let the people know where to find you. I got you guys out there across social media.

SPEAKER_03 41:05

Yeah, Wisco Fanatics, Facebook, YouTube is where we do our live shows, and then we're also fairly active on Twitter and TikTok as well. But our live shows are every Wednesday at four o'clock and keep an eye out. Our draft series for the Packers on Tuesday nights is gonna start up soon.

SPEAKER_04 41:18

Make sure you guys check out last week's there with the Packer Free Agents. They had huge lists, they were going through them all. It was a huge breakdown there. Everything made sense. I mean, you listen to some of these analysts and they name off names and they don't explain them. These guys go deep into it and explain why, who, what, everything in between that you need to know about free agents. So make sure you check out last week's show there if you have a chance. So when we come back, Almer's Christian's gonna stop by. Christian's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk some badgers. Badgers have Washington come up today. We have to talk about what we watch in Eugene. We're gonna get to it all. We'll be right back here. I'm with Scott's board comes to go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we're coming back in here on this Saturday, this next segment. Christian is stopping by. We're gonna talk a little badgers. I know throughout the show, I just noticed this. I said Christian was coming on next after both of them. And then we had some scheduling problems and everything. And yeah, so Christian's been coming on twice. Here he is. He's on, he's on now, so don't you guys worry. He's well, see, the problem is is Christian's going through a sleep regression right now, or sleep regression right now, because his kids are going through a sleep regression. So, Christian, I mean, how's that going? How is that going? How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 42:24

Oh, I'm tired, man. I'm living on 200 two energy drinks a day, and I was it's going so rough that I actually had to tune into the Badger game on what whatever night it was at Oregon, the 10 o'clock game. I actually got to catch that because I was up with my kid anyway.

SPEAKER_04 42:38

Yeah, he forced me to watch it. What was worse? That you had to get up with your kid because your kid just couldn't sleep, or was it the Badgers playing Oregon? Which one was worse?

SPEAKER_01 42:47

Well, I thought maybe the Badger game would bring me a little bit of comfort while I was up with him, but it just made it worse. So I'm gonna say the Badger game made it worse, man. Yeah, the Badgers made it disgusting.

SPEAKER_04 42:57

I tell you what, I tell you what. So I wanted to stay awake. I was planning to stay awake, I was keeping myself awake. I was sitting up in bed, I was just I was sitting up, I was like, I'm gonna watch this. And I fell asleep at the beginning of the game. Like two minutes in, I fell asleep. I woke up and it was 21 to 12. And I said to myself, they're gonna win this, they're running away with it, whatever. I rolled back over, I went to sleep, I said, I'm done with this. And I woke up early in the morning and looked at my phone, and the first notification I saw was the Badgers lost 85 to 71. And my only thought was, what happened? What could have happened from that 21 to 12 point to the 85 to 71 finish? So I clicked into it, made the mistake of clicking into it and looking at the box score and saying, What could have happened in this game? And the first thing, and this is how bad it's gotten, Christian. The first thing I looked at. I'm gonna get what what do you think the first thing I looked at first is that that I looked for in this game?

SPEAKER_01 43:56

Three points. Three pointers attempted.

SPEAKER_04 44:00

I don't even care about made. I looked at how many they attempted. 45 threes they attempted in this game and they made 14 of them.

SPEAKER_01 44:07

Program record.

Bucks Depth, Rotations, And Schedule

SPEAKER_04 44:09

You set a program record and you lost by 14 on the road to a team that's got four wins in total in the Big Ten, three going into that game. That is where you're at right now. And I I know, I know everybody's gonna tell me, well, Waltch. That's that's just who they are. They're they're just a three-point shooting team. When you shoot 45 of them and you only score 71 points and you're getting your brakes beat off, maybe find something else. Maybe do something else. Maybe work it into the post. Maybe switch it up a little bit. I don't know. Maybe the ball screen at the top isn't really working anymore. Because when you run a two straight possessions and you jack up a three and it ain't working, maybe try something else. But no. So you know what? I know I saw a post. And somebody said when the Badgers win, we'd praise Nick Boyd. And when the Badgers lose, we we uh yell at Greg Gard because Greg Gard coached terrible. I'm gonna tell you this right now: Greg Gard didn't coach a good game in this one. I agree with that. Greg Guard did not coach a good game because there was a moment in the first half when they went on a run, when they went on that 20 to 12, 21 to 12 run. And I I made the mistake of going back and watching this game a little bit, and I shouldn't have. But I went back and watched it. And they pulled Nick Boyd out of the game and they put in Hayden Jones. And I like Hayden Jones. I think Hayden Jones is gonna be he's gonna be a talent. He has some talent in there, we've seen it. But when they pulled Nick Boyd out, why? Tell me why you had to pull Nick Boyd out. Why can't Nick Boyd play 35 minutes? Why can't he? You had to run. Why don't you just bury a team? Why do I watch like Duke play Notre Dame, a sub a sub-opponent to him, and they beat him by 50 at their place? But the Badgers play these lesser teams and they, like you always tell me, play with their food. And it just seems like every single time that I watch these, I can blame Greg Gardner because you know what? I think his team's coming into these games and I think he mismanages it. I think he undercoaches, and I think his team underplays. It's a whole it's a group effort in this one. I'm not blaming Greg Gardner completely. I'm blaming John Blackwell. He shot six for 18 on the game, but guess what? It was a subpar 22 points in that game. Nick Foyd, four for 12 from the field. Poor shooting night. Nolan Winter. He can't even touch the ball halftime because they come down and they're just jacking up threes. They have shoot 45 threes, and Nolan Winter shoots four of them. He can he can't even get post touches in there. I mean, I'm just losing my banged up. I'm just losing my mind, Christian. I mean, you talk, you talk now. You talk now. You tell the people what you thought coming out this game because I just have a lot of choice words and I just gotta take a break.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Well, I think okay, so I'm kind of jumped forward to get to go back here. I so I I worked on my Washington game preview this morning on Badger Backer. Check it out, it's all out there. It's back it out, people did I make it free? I think I made it free. Can't remember, but if you check it out, I did like a deep dive on like what the correlation between the badger's losses and like their reliance on three-point shooting. Because to me, it always feels like the games they lose, because they shoot a lot of threes regardless, right? But the games they lose, it almost feels like they're not falling, and like we've talked about, they just keep shooting, they just keep shooting, they shoot to get out, and then all of a sudden they're at the point where they're down double digits and they have to shoot threes to think they they think they need to shoot threes to get back, they need all they need it all back at once, right? Yeah, so I went back and it's somewhere in here. Let me read I'm gonna read what I have because I'm like, man, I spent a lot of time crafting this part. So one of the storylines I have to watch for the Washington game, and it is directly to Oregon. Here is in Wednesday's loss to Oregon, Wisconsin set a program record with 45 three-point attempts while they hit 15 of them, which is about what they hit against like Michigan and Ohio State, or Michigan into like Michigan State and Illinois, right? Um, all wins. Uh the extreme reliance on the perimeter signaled a lack of interior pressure. There's a common theme in a majority of the badgers' losses. The data suggests a magic number for the badgers. When they attempt 28 plus threes, they are significantly more likely to lose, especially if their percentage is under 30%, obviously. So the theme I came up with was their losses aren't just about missing shots, they are about shot selection. They settle for good shots early in the clock rather than working for great shots at the rim, leading to a high volume, low reward offensive profile. That's what I came up with. So, in other words, they literally do not attack the rim. And when they've been successful, it's because Nick Boyd can get to the rim. Oregon figured that out, and they I don't know. Again, I think I actually fell asleep the exact same time you did. It was like 11 to 12. I legit remember that in my head. I'm like, okay, I'm done. Um they the Oregon did a great job of collapsing on Boyd, and like Boyd does what Boyd does, and he kicked it out. He found open guys, and the only problem was the shots weren't falling. Yeah, so but they just kept doing it, just kept doing it, just kept doing it. And it doesn't help when Oregon's got Biddle down there. He killed them last year, too. And it just they figured it out, and it just wasn't their night shooting threes. But again, instead of trying to figure something out, they just lived that they live and die by the three, and then they just kept shooting an organ, seeing you know 30 or whatever the heck it was they were shooting from, just like, yeah, sure, we'll just this is working for us. We will just clog up the middle. Boyd can't get to the hoop, Blackwell can't get to the hoop, you guys have to sit outside and shoot threes. And it obviously didn't help that no one winter got banged up and hurt his leg or ankle or whatever it was, right? Right. So it's I think teams teams have the badges figured out, but it's just a matter of like whether or not the badges get hot, or if they're just you know it's not their night, and then usually you got a pretty good shot to beat them because you just have to clog up the middle and let them just kind of that's where if you're Wisconsin, you have to find the post, you have to find the painted area in some way, shape, or form.

SPEAKER_04 49:55

Nolan Winter is a really good interior player, he can score at all three levels. What's that? Who else do you have, though?

SPEAKER_01 50:03

I mean, I know and I and I absolutely agree with you, you have to do that, but that's not Wisconsin anymore, is it? Yeah, it's you have Nolan Winter, and then yeah, you got Beleuscus, but the dude's not he's not an offensive threat. Like he does a like a thing here there, and I think he's more of an offensive threat shooting threes. He's not gonna be Ethan Hap down there with these really nice post moves and finishing almost everything at well, right? And I think Garlack's obviously not there, like they don't even barely play him anymore. So it's it that's the thing. Like when they get so reliant on shooting threes, you want them to force it down low to winter, but the guy can't even barely touch the ball before the shot goes up.

More Brewers: Uribe And Tyler Black’s Fit

SPEAKER_04 50:41

No, that's that's the biggest thing is getting winter, getting him involved in that painted air. And I'm not even looking for guys in the post to score necessarily. I'm looking for guys in the post to be passers, too. I'm looking for the threat of something down low a little bit there, just switch it up there and try. Maybe you get guys to collapse, maybe you force open shots that way. Maybe you get cutters going that way by getting it to the post area. You know, we saw so many times with Steven Crowell where he'd get the ball in the post, they double him, and then all of a sudden here we come. I mean, we're talking last season, but you see Max come down or Tanja or Blackbow cut the lane. And we're missing that aspect where you don't have guys cutting, you're not hitting those cunters. And you know, Austin Rapp, I think he's very underrated in the post. I think he's done a lot better down in the post area with scoring down there. He's had a couple and ones down there where he's had some nice finishes at the rim, and I just think they're good, they're going away from the post to the point where it's not, it's what you said, where they're relying on early shot clock, early three is where they think, oh, this is a good shot because it's open. Well, there's a point, there's a reason why you're open. They're packing it. They're packing it because you guys can't do anything down there. Get that post touch. Allow, allow your post to do something down there, and then see what the defense does. See if they collapse. I think it's easier for Wisconsin to shoot inside out, try to work it that way. There's no inside out movement in these games. And that's the big thing when you look at these games when they lose like this or lose to Ohio State in the way that they did. It's settling for threes. It's working the ball around the perimeter on one side of the court. It's not both sides of the court. There's no skip passing, there's none of that. It's staying to one side, it's glued to that side. It's a lot of isolation basketball and John Blackwell trying to carry the load. And you looked late in this game here, and John Blackwell looked like he had almost he was frustrated. He was giving up. Like it was like he was, I don't want to say giving up to the extent of like he just didn't care anymore, but it just looked like he was frustrated, which you can understand. But when he got frustrated was when he almost started hanging it. He's like, I'm done. I'm done here. We're done, we're getting our butts kicked, and you don't want to see that either. So it that's where I say it's on guard. What was the game plan coming into this one? You have to be able to adjust the games like this because you play the team in Oregon, they had nothing to play for. Nothing. They're 11 and 17 now, they're 4 and 13 in the Big Ten. They have nothing to play for.

SPEAKER_01 52:54

They're done after this week, man.

SPEAKER_04 52:56

Right. They could go on a run in the Big Ten tournament, win it all, and end up in the tournament somehow. And I don't even like that'd be wild if they did. But only yeah, only because they have an automatic. Right. They could do something crazy like that, but otherwise they're done. There's just nothing to play for. The Badgers had everything to play for, and that's what worries you moving forward is a team who was should have been motivated, couldn't find the motivation. Whereas a team that had nothing to play for just came in and beat your brakes off. And I understand it was on the road. I understand that the court's an eyesore. I get all of that. But man oh man, it just you win, you win against Illinois, you win against Michigan State, you lose to Ohio State, you beat Iowa, and then you go on the road and play a terrible team in Oregon and you lose. So I'm just questioning what is what gets this team fired up? Because I don't know what it is anymore.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

Yeah, I don't know, man. It's like they're literally, I put it in like my postgame for the Oregon game. There, this team is literally like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Like, yeah, they'll come out and do something awesome, and then but you can almost expect it. Like, was it the Rutgers game? Maybe when was the last time that they like just they didn't play with their food and they just put their you know foot down in their throat and just dominated a team that they are supposed to dominate?

SPEAKER_04 54:12

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, Rutgers. I'd say Rutgers is probably the closest one. Maybe Penn State. They got 98-71 against Penn State.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

I guess they gotta they have a shot to do it against Washington, who is kind of like dude. These games are so there's too many, so many parallels. Oregon was going through some injuries, like their starting guard Shellstebbs, or I think that's his name, was hurt. Washington's going through a ton of injuries too. But they're like 500. The team the Badgers should be, but again, this West Coast swing isn't easy, it's but I get it. But like you, we we rip on Mick Cronin and stuff for whining about having to go to the East Coast and stuff non-stop, and like so we can't sit here and complain about it. It's just yes, it's harder. They're playing their their you know, their internal clock was saying it was midnight when really it was only like eight or ten o'clock there. But like, I don't know. We'll see how they do against Washington because it I think there's a lot of parallels there, and I think they absolutely have to come out. This is boy, if they lose this game, they're in trouble.

SPEAKER_04 55:09

You know, I heard a lot of people talking about that, you know, the internal clock and it's 10 o'clock and everything like that. But I came to the conclusion of what are you gonna do in March when you play a West Coast? What are you gonna do in March? You know, right? You hope they don't have to, but what if you end up in the West Regional?

SPEAKER_01 55:24

Wasn't that what happened? Isn't that what happened last year? Where were they last year? But then they lost to Oregon at home, and then that basically knocked them out of the three seed in Milwaukee. They could have they were lined up to play in Milwaukee, and then they lost that game that they should have won, and then all of a sudden they have this terrible draw against BYU in the second round.

SPEAKER_04 55:41

Yep, ended up in Salt Lake City, ended up out there in the West. So that's it. Yep, yep. No, I agree 100%. That's where I say, like, you can't people who are trying to say that that's not a good excuse because once you get the march, you could play in any time zone at any time. You know the games will fluctuate. You could be a 10 o'clock or nine o'clock start there on a you know what, Thursday night there or whatever, Thursday and Friday of the games, like you could be a Thursday night at 10 o'clock, that's just how it goes. You have to figure it out. So I can't use that one. But like you said, this game against Washington, if any game I've ever said, and I've probably said it a million times, but if any game is a must-need, must-win, this is it. And if you this is all I'm gonna say about this game, because we could preview this thing until the cows come home and there's nothing even you could say. This game right here, if you can't come into it motivated, if the badgers don't come into this game, like everything is up for grabs. If they don't come into this game looking like the team that just needs this game, like is the most motivated needing this game. I'm scared for the rest of the season.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 56:41

Like, this needs to be John Blackwell comes into this one and looks like he's the most interested player to be there. I have seen all season long. Nick Boyd needs to come in with that same mentality. It needs to be the same from Nolan Winter. They need to crash the glass, they need to do all the little things right in this game. They have to come into this game and lay uh just lay the boot on them for once. Lay the boot on a team, not come into this game. You're they're third, they're 14 and 14 right now. And you look at ESPN, the matchup predictor, it's like a 50-50 split.

SPEAKER_01 57:10

Yeah, pretty close. That's what I saw too.

SPEAKER_04 57:13

I was like, wow, like this is a 14-14 team. You're an automatic bid into the tournament right now, and you're lockstab with them, apparently. So that's where I know it's on the road, I know it's in Washington. It's a three o'clock start now. I don't care what your internal clock says anymore. It's like what new.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

Yeah, this one you don't have that you don't have that excuse at all, even if the other one wasn't excused, right? Right.

SPEAKER_04 57:33

This is the middle of the thing has to be there.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 57:37

Everything has to be there. You need to go 100 miles per hour. Like this can they're this can't you? If you lose this game, we're coming in next week, and I don't even know what's gonna be said, but it's gonna absolutely I don't even know. Like the Badgers need this game today. That's all I can say. The badgers desperately need this game today for many reasons. They cannot afford a loss here. They need this win, they need to get to 20 and 9. They need to go into that Maryland game, the last home game of the season, being able to win that one because you have Purdue last on the schedule, and you don't want to go to Mackie needing that game to get off of the nine line or something crazy like that. Like you can't you can't go into Mackey trying to win that one. Like you want to win that one, but you can't go into Mackie needing that one because playing in Mackey is really tough. So, Christian, I had to run here. Let people know where to find you out there across social media.

SPEAKER_01 58:24

As always, you can find me at Christian Borman on all my uh on Twitter, and you can uh find all the work I do at The Badger Backer.

SPEAKER_04 58:31

Make sure you guys check him out. He's got fantastic stuff there. He's previewing games, he's recapping games. We don't have to preview the game because Christian has you guys a preview for this Washington game. So make sure you check that out before you check out the game here today at three o'clock. So that's all we have for today. Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Saturday and the rest of your weekend. But until we talk to you guys again next Wednesday, see ya.