The Wisconsin Sportscast

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the brackets for the college football playoffs have been released and have been creating just a little buzz. Specifically, the inclusion of James Madison and Tulane has people a little confused. Tulane? Over Notre Dame? It’s all litigation, says Oates, between the entire selection committee. If you want to have a playoff system like this, everyone needs to be on board. To get everyone on board, you need to throw a few carrots sometimes. Does anyone really want to see either of these schools play in these playoff games? Not really, especially considering Tulane will be playing Ole Miss for the second time this season. Tulane got beat 45-10 in that matchup, by the way. The college football playoffs aren't like the big college basketball bracket, there just isn’t space for teams like this to be getting in over teams like Notre Dame. Will this lead to a 16 team bracket in the future? Probably, Oates thinks, but in the meantime Notre Dame is even going so far as to skip a bowl game this year and instead focus on next season. 

Meanwhile in the NFL, the Packers beat the Bears on Sunday in what turned into a really entertaining game. Christian Watson is proving himself to be a real difference maker for the Packers’ offense; his size and speed have decidedly turned him into Green Bay’s number one receiver. It was a game that was all won on big plays, not just from Watson but from Keisean Nixon’s interception to end the game and from some really important plays from Jayden Reed. The Packers are starting to build themselves into a team of truly dynamic players, a rarity in the league. Watson, Reed, and Parsons all create an incredible impact whenever they are on the field. This is all not to say the Bears didn’t also play good football, especially in the second half. Caleb Williams is proving himself to be a pretty good quarterback. Sure he’s young and makes mistakes, but if he gets out of the pocket, Oates sees a young Aaron Rodgers. Next week the Packers will  have an even tougher game against the Broncos. With their tough defense and their mile-high stadium, the Packers will have an uphill battle on Sunday.

Finally, the Badgers Men’s Basketball team took out Marquette this past weekend in a truly decisive victory. Shaka Smart was betting on his ability to not utilize the transfer portal, which while admirable didn’t really pan out. The Badgers will head to Nebraska next for what will be a really tough game. But the Badgers are starting to form a really tight team, as not only are the players finding their roles but Greg Gard is too. He’s been great at recognizing what will help the team the most and moving guys into positions where they can really thrive. Combine their three great perimeter guys and a group of young bigs, and the Badgers might have more than a few difference makers on the team this year. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers are getting ready to take on the Bears this Sunday in Green Bay. While we are still in early December, the Bears are somehow sitting at the top of the NFC. Who would have thought at the beginning of the season that the Bears and the Patriots would be the top teams in football this year? If the playoffs started today, they would be getting a bye while the Packers would take on the Eagles. But the playoffs are not starting today, and before we get to that point the Packers and Bears will face each other twice.The Bears are winning games against hard-to-beat teams, but at the end of the day Oates doesn’t think they’ll be on top for the rest of the season. Caleb Williams has been doing alright for himself under Ben Johnson, especially considering the Bears’ long history of squandering quarterbacks, and the Bears have a decent running game. But Jordan Love showed some really great stuff against the Lions last week, while LaFleur made some gutsy calls that paid off. While losing Devonte Wyatt is a big loss, says Oates, they’ll still put up a good fight against Chicago.

Meanwhile in Minneapolis, the Badgers ended their season on a whimper of a loss. The axe will stay in Minnesota for another year, it seems. This year racked up very few wins with an offense that’s at the bottom of the pile. They garnered a little bit of good will after a few wins, but they lost it all on Saturday once again. Oates has a big statement to make: Luke Fickell has botched up the two most important things in college football - the quarterback and the offense. Why wasn’t Carter Smith utilized more in the second half on Saturday? We can say that it’s because we don’t know how well he does passing back from the pocket, but still. 

Finally, the Badgers men’s basketball team will make their Big 10 debut this season on Wednesday night when they take on Northwestern. They showed a few weaknesses against TCU last week, mostly in their inability to react when under defensive pressure. But after Northwestern comes Marquette in a Saturday afternoon game. Marquette coach Shaka Smart has a philosophy not to use the transfer portal too much, a move which is respected by Oates. But it might still kill the team, as it is vital to college basketball today. Either way, it’s always an exciting game when Wisconsin takes on Marquette. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Badgers take on Illinois in Camp Randall on Saturday evening, in a game that’ll bring some familiar faces to the field. On top of the handful of defensive players and some assistants too, most everyone will recognize Bret Bielema standing as Illinois’ head coach. He’s done pretty well for himself in Illinois, and even with that history this is still not going to be seen as a rivalry game. Why is that? In professional sports, it’s always a big deal when Wisconsin takes on Illinois, but not in college and especially not in football. There might be some individual squabbles, sure, but at this point Northwestern is seen as more of a rival than Illinois. 

Saturday’s game will be the first Wisconsin-Illinois game in Madison since 2022, when the Badgers played a miserable second half and Paul Chryst got sacked the next day. Think that’ll be on Fickell’s mind? Probably not, especially as it seems he might have saved his job. Yes, they lost badly to Indianna, but the team played hard. Pair that with the win over Washington (and the handful of votes of confidence), and we can be sure that Fickell will be back as head coach next year. The real question will be: is Carter Smith going to be the future of the program? It’s too early to say, says Oates, but we’ll know more in these last two games. One thing we know for sure is that he shows promise and we still don’t know anything about Billy Edwards anyways.

The Packers, meanwhile, got a tight win over the Giants on Sunday. The game was tighter than it should have been, but don’t put that on Jordan Love. He played pretty well, says Lucas, especially in the game-winning drive. Most of his missed passes were actually drops thanks to the young receiving core the Packers still struggle with. If Love could just learn how to slide, and when, maybe he’d be seen more for the quarterback that he is. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers lost to the Eagles on Monday night in a frustrating game that might have Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love get the same treatment as Luke Fickell in recent weeks. Is a vote of confidence needed? And if so, for who? The offense was awful, both on Monday and in recent weeks. A troubling trend has emerged where the Packers seem completely unable to score in the first half of any game. Oates says it’s because teams are starting to get a handle on what the Packers offense is going to do every play. That’s hard to argue when the Eagles defense yells out exactly where they’re going to run the ball, and then the Packers run it right where they said they would. If the defense calls out exactly what you’re going to do, why would you not take a timeout and make a change?

Whether that falls on LaFleur or on Love, one thing is for certain: this offense isn’t working. The national pundits want LaFleur to take the handcuffs off of his quarterback and see what he can do, and Oates agrees. Love has regressed in recent weeks, and is making more and more bad decisions. But LaFleur has this notion that offense needs to be all about the running game, and he forces it to the point where Love is barely a factor. Sure, he can make some bad decisions and he has his good throws and bad throws, but something has to change. Oates thinks the Packers need to leave their gameplan every once in a while and just let Love take the reins and go. It’s not like we’re scoring points now anyways! 

In a surprising twist, the Badgers were the football team to score a big win in Wisconsin this weekend, taking down Washington on Saturday night. It was such a big win that fans stormed the field, and while some people might turn their nose up as some behavior, at least the fans are engaged. After the season that Badgers have had, a win against a ranked opponent is more than enough reason to celebrate. Not that Madison was without its issues; it’s never good when your punter has the most passing yards of the game. But the freshman Carter Smith looked good, Oates says, and we shouldn’t judge his passing ability on his performance on Saturday. What he did show is that he can run and he can show aggressiveness. We hope to see more of the young freshmen this weekend! 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates spend some time looking at how Badger’s athletics has changed over the years before diving into the mess the Packers made on Sunday. There have been Fire Fickell chants for a while, and now those chants are switching to Fire LaFleur. Both he and Jordan Love had an awful day on Sunday as both of them seemed to be making bad decisions all day. On LaFleur’s end, why would he go for big points with 12 minutes left in the 4th instead of just taking the field goal? On Love’s end, why is he throwing 50 yards downfield to someone with three defenders on him on a first down? Love is, and continues to be, a great quarterback, and is the future of the program. But he has a tendency to make some questionable decisions, especially when he’s up against the clock. That said, LaFleur seems to want to run the ball as much as possible instead of letting his great quarterback throw the ball. The team was simply not ready to play on Sunday. Did LaFleur underestimate the Panthers? Who knows. 

LaFleur seems to act like he has a Super Bowl caliber team at all times, even though they aren’t playing like it. Oates says that yes, the roster itself is capable of a Super Bowl, but there are a handful of Super Bowl rosters in the league right now. And while the roster might be there, they aren’t playing up to snuff. Penalties are killing them, especially holding and motion penalties. These sorts of stupid mistakes are costing the team in a real way, and while they show some signs of greatness here and there they still fall to teams they should easily beat. It’s hard to blame great players every week, which means that the blame has to fall to LaFleur. 

Meanwhile, the Badgers look likely to start a freshman quarterback on Saturday when they take on the Washington Huskies. Carter Smith is a freshman from Florida, and at this point why not play him. It’s not like the job is getting done on the field anyways, worse comes to worse it’s more of the same. We don’t know too much about Smith, but we hear from his coaches in Florida that he’s a dual-threat who can run the ball. We’ll see on Saturday if he can actually live up to that. The real question is: does Luke Fickell know anything about his quarterbacks? Why hasn’t he been playing already? Was it to save a red shirt year? And where’s Billy Edwards? We wish Carter Smith the best, because anything else can’t be worse than what the Badgers are already dealing with. And if he does perform well, that could give the team some momentum through the end of the season and beyond. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Oates lasted all the way until the 17th inning during the marathon Game Three of the World Series on Monday. 19 pitchers hit the mound between both teams, throwing over 600 pitches over the course of six plus hours. The game was long, Lucas says, but it also cements Shohei Ohtani as maybe the greatest baseball player ever. He was getting the Barry Bonds treatment, drawing four intentional walks, but still delivered a great performance. Did the marathon of a game convince Oates that baserunners in extra innings is a good idea? Of course not.

Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Steelers on Sunday night as Jordan Love played possibly the best game of his life against his former mentor. Sure, the Steelers defense wasn’t the most impressive thing in the world, but he showed significant growth on Sunday night. Love was patient and calm under the pressure of an intense pass rush, and if he continues to play like that the Packers will be in excellent shape. Especially if Love can continue to work with Tucker Kraft, who very well might be the best tight end in football today. Combine him with a returning Christian Watson and the Packers looked mighty tough Sunday night. The Packers play the Panthers this upcoming Sunday before taking on the Eagles in Monday Night Football. A win against the Eagles in November might prove to be very important come playoff time this year…

Sticking with football, the Badgers fell again to Oregon on Saturday. At least this time they managed to actually score a touchdown. The defense actually played pretty well, Oates thinks, effectively shutting down the Oregon defense during the first half. They played tough and competitive, but how many times have we said that this year? The offense looked about as bad as they have been, and they are unable to move the ball either on the ground or in the air. Hunter Simmons has shown himself to be completely overmatched at this level, and Lucas and Oates both think it’s time for a change. Billy Edwards’ future is still uncertain, but why Simmons is still playing over Danny O’Neil is completely unknown. Do the Badgers have a chance at any viable wins left this year? Likely not against Washington or Indianna, but Illinois? Minnesota? Anybody? 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Wisconsin Athletic Director Chris McIntosh has issued a vote of confidence for Badger’s Football Coach Luke Fickell. Is it usually a good thing when you have to give a vote of confidence to your head coach in a public letter to the fans? In the letter that was too long and gave too little specifics, McIntosh promised to pour more resources into the football program in Madison. Which makes you ask the question: how? If you ask any other athletic program in Madison, you’ll hear how every penny is already going to the football program that continues to falter. The letter is being panned by just about everyone, and the whole thing feels desperate. What are people supposed to take away from this letter? Do you really think that anyone is going to open up their wallets after they got shut out two weeks in a row, for the first time since 1977? At least these days, the players aren’t going off to try and fight the fans after the game…

People are starting to tune out of Badgers football. They aren’t renewing their season tickets, and why should they if this is what they can expect again next year? Despite the best efforts of the players, who did give their best effort on Saturday, the student section never filled up. The only reason students go to games now is to Jump Around and boo. Madison is not used to this sort of uncompetitiveness and the benefit of the doubt is running out. If we can give Fickell one thing it’s how he’s been able to handle the media. He isn’t shying away from questions like some coaches in the past, and he isn’t lashing out at the media when they ask tough questions. At the end of the day, Oates says that Fickell will not be the one to turn this program around. 

It’s a stark contrast to look at schools like Vanderbilt and Indiana, who are succeeding this year while the Badgers continue to fall. There is actually a pretty easy answer to why that is, Oates says: money. In the era of NIL, the things that used to matter like facilities, tv appearances, tradition, and even academics don’t matter to the players anymore. What matters is which school has the biggest billionaire behind them who’s willing to write the biggest check. It almost sounds like another sport that Wisconsin sports fans are all too familiar with this past week… 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Oates is away on business so Lucas is joined by the voice of the Wisconsin Badgers: Mike Mahke! Mike has been the voice of Camp Randall and the Kohl Center for decades, and continued to do his job even during the Badgers’ dumbfounding defeat by Iowa on Saturday. The game started on a high note, with Monte Ball being honored for his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. Surely at least a few fans were wondering if he still had any years of eligibility left in him… When calling a game like Saturday, Mike says it’s not always as hard as it seems, though it is less fun. He’s there to do a job, he says, and will continue to provide information and optimism in even the toughest times.

After Saturday’s loss to Iowa, many fans are feeling both angry and sad, with some even beginning to tune out. Early in the game on Saturday, Mike says that everyone in those stands wanted to be there and were pulling for a competitive victory. But as the game went on and the opportunities began to slip away, he could feel it. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to tune out, Mike says. Badger fans are fans through thick and thin, and need to stay behind their team. At the very least, they should follow what Luke Fickell has to say: be mad at the coach but not at the players on the field. 

Next weekend, the Badgers take on Ohio State at home. It’ll be a tough fight, Mike thinks, specifically for the Badgers’ defense. They’ll need to do more that they showed against Iowa if they want to have any chance of slowing Ohio State. But if you’re still looking for a reason to go on Saturday, there will be a special celebration for the Badgers’ Rose Bowl winning teams, especially for Ron Dayne and Barry Alvarez. Who knows, there might even be a Ron Dayne call echoing through Camp Randall once again… 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Joe Flacco didn’t seem to get enough of the Green Bay Packers. Earlier this week he was traded from the Browns over to the Bengals, who happen to face the Packers this Sunday. The Browns gain a 5th round draft pick in 2026, and the Bengals get a replacement for the injured Joe Burrow, which seems like a pretty good trade. He seems likely to play against the Packers again this weekend, can he beat the Packers a second time? Maybe, but that all depends on if you thought it was him who beat the Packers the first time a few weeks ago. Flacco was awful when the Browns beat the Packers, and has only a 58% completion rate this season with six interceptions. If the Packers can put pressure on him, he should be dead in the water. At 40 years old, he can’t run even if he still does have a good arm. The Packers should be able to beat the Bengals this weekend, and after that have a good stretch ahead of them: Arizona, then Pittsburg, then Carolina, then the Eagles. It’s not unreasonable to expect them to go four-for-four in that stretch! At the very least, they better rack up at least three wins in that stretch. 

In college football, the Badgers stunk it up once again in their loss against Michigan. They had two good drives all game: their first drive where they got a touchdown and their last drive where they got a field goal. But the sloppy play wasn’t the biggest concern on Saturday, it was Luke Fickell’s “strategy.” Not even the TV experts could understand why he wouldn’t take a timeout at the end of the game. Oates has two theories. One is the answer given by Fickell, that it was a strategy that failed big time. The other theory is what many fans, including Oates, think actually happened: Fickell waved the white flag to prevent Michigan from running up the score. Fans are upset, as they should be, with Joe Klatt loudly calling the “strategy” a bad look to the entire nation. This weekend they play Iowa, in what both should be and needs to be a win.

Finally, as of recording on Tuesday the Brewers have taken the first two games in their NLDS series against the Cubs. The Miz left his sloppy slump to give an electric performance on the mound during a bullpen game that saw him pitching for three innings. In those three innings, he threw 31 pitches at 100 mph or higher, capping out at 104.3! The Brewers used him exactly how they needed to use him, Oates says. He isn’t ready as a playoff starter, but letting him do his thing for a few innings here and there worked to throw the Cubs off their game. But the real dagger on Monday wasn’t the Miz, it was Andrew Vaughn’s three-run homer in the bottom of the first. The Cubs still have a chance to turn things around, so the Brewers can’t slow down, but Monday’s game seemed to put a real stamp on the entire Cubs organization.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers reached a tie against the Cowboys late Sunday evening, which makes us ask the question: why even have ties in the NFL? The league says it’s to promote “the health of the athletes,” but Oates isn’t buying it. After all, if that were true, they wouldn’t be trying to add more games onto each season. The changes to how overtime works are nothing but grandstanding by the NFL, Oates says, and ultimately doesn’t make much sense. Sure, college overtime rules aren’t too much better and nobody wants to see a field goal competition to end a game. What they should do, Lucas thinks, is have a 10 minute quarter and if there is no winner at 10 minutes keep going until it is no longer a tie. Or, better yet, just play one 15 minute quarter!

Tie notwithstanding, Sunday was a horrible night for the Packers across the board. Starting with clock management, there were issues across the entire game. It really makes you wonder if the Packers weren’t so aggressive at the end of the first half and gave up a touchdown what the rest of the game would have looked like. It’s an outstanding problem with Matt LaFleur, says Oates: he’s aggressive when he needs to be passive and passive when he needs to be aggressive. Just look at the field goal that brought the game to a tie. Turning to the defense, the Packers should not have allowed the Cowboys to run up the score the way they did. There was no pass rush outside of Micah Parsons, and the secondary was terrible throughout the entire game outside of Keisean Nixon. Where was the blitzing? Dak Prescott might not be a grade-A quarterback, but he is a veteran who if left alone all day will find somewhere to throw the ball. Finally, the special teams once again proved to be a major problem. The Packers have a bye week this week followed by a game against the Bengals in Green Bay, which better be a glorified bye week again.

Turning quickly to college football, the Badgers will come off their own bye week to take on Michigan this Saturday. They enter the game the underdogs by a good margin, if you believe the point spread, but Oates thinks it might be more complicated than that. Michigan has a young quarterback who might be able to be exploited if Madison’s defence does their job correctly. Either way, you should be able to expect a good effort out of the Badgers this weekend, and hopefully Michigan decides to take them lightly.

Finally, postseason baseball is here with the Brewers sitting with more wins than anyone in baseball. They’ll play  someone this weekend, the question becomes who? Both the Padres and the Cubs are good and basically equal in both hitting and pitching. Either way, it’ll be a tough series against a team that currently has the season on the Brewers. One thing is for sure though. Whoever we face won’t have the top payroll in all of the MLB. That team couldn’t even make the playoffs…

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Badgers lost a must-win game against Maryland on Saturday, causing the fans to act in a way that has some people a bit perturbed. Boos were loud in Camp Randall, and with half the stadium gone in the fourth quarter the “Fire Fickell” chants were also loud. Lucas and Oates agree that the Fire Fickell chants were uncalled for, but they also don’t love how former Athletic Director and Badger Football Coach Barry Alvarez reacted to the calls. On his radio show earlier this week, he said that the fans are spoiled rotten, and it's disrespectful to flip on the team this early in the season. He did walk back his tone a little bit, and Oates doesn’t disagree with the sentiment behind the statements, but he also doesn’t think it’s doing anything to help the program when people are already tuning out.

There was a lot of blame going around, along with votes of confidence for those being blamed, but Lucas returns to an old question: can you boo college athletes? In the past, he says no. Once upon a time college athletes were still student athletes doing their best. But in today’s game, these players are getting paid not insignificant amounts of money. That makes them pros, and open to boos. Who can blame the fans for booing a professional player who they don’t even know? It’s not like the old days where you could watch a player grow over the course of four years; today’s college athletes are staying for a year or maybe two then moving to where the money is. Would Lucas boo? No, but it’s all fair game when there is no loyalty except to the money. 

Speaking of horrible football losses, the Packers fell to the Browns on Sunday in an all around awful game. Specifically, it was Jordan Love’s interception that cost Green Bay the game in the fourth quarter. At least here the blame can only lay with two people. Jordan Love should have seen the defender coming and adjusted as needed. The play looked a lot more like Brett Favre than Aaron Rodgers. But the playcall was also bad, a fact that Matt LaFleur owned up to. At the end of the day, they are both at fault and that play cost them the game. It doesn’t help when the offensive line completely falls apart, with Zach Thom and Aaron Banks leaving the game once again due to injury. The Browns defense did their job against the Packers, making sure that Love was never comfortable, and Myles Garrett showed why he’s a great player. But don’t get too caught up on the loss, Oates says, the Packers have a history of overlooking an opponent. Maybe now certain players will stop running their mouths about how the Green and Gold are unstoppable… 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, there’s one big question on the minds of Madison sports fans these days: can the Badgers Football team stay relevant? After their loss to Alabama this weekend, Oates thinks they look no better off than they were last year. Sure, they’ve made some changes and added some veteran players, but that didn’t pay off on the field. We weren’t expecting them to beat Alabama, but their blowout loss was tough. Sure, they are down their starting quarterback, but that doesn’t excuse everything. Oates says it all comes down to recruiting. Wisconsin high schools are great at making really good offensive linemen, and the Badgers pursued none of them this year. Instead, the state’s top prospects went to Notre Dame and Minnesota. If they want to run the ball, which we assume they do, they need a good offensive line. To not recruit Wisconsin linemen means their entire offense is going to suffer.

This weekend the Badgers will take on Maryland in their first Big 10 matchup of the year. Maryland might hold a 3-0 record, but the Badgers are still favored. It might be the last time in a long while they enter a game favored, maybe even the last time this season depending on how Minnesota and Washington shape up. If they beat Maryland on Saturday, then we can breathe a sigh of relief and start to really look at the rest of the conference matchups. If they lose, then everyone has to be on notice. Because after Saturday, the Badgers will be facing a murderers row of tough teams for weeks. They need to start developing a winning attitude, and to do that you need to win some conference games.  

One thing on the Badgers side is that nobody seems to have turf toe, which can’t be said about the NFL. Quarterbacks have been going down across the league, including Joe Burrow who will be out for months at least with turf toe. Jayden Daniels, Justin Fields, and JJ McCarthy are also out with injury. The Packers understand just how hard it is to play competitively when you lose your starting quarterback. At least the Bengals have moves to make, signing former Packer Sean Clifford onto their squad. Speaking of, the Packers will take on the Browns on Sunday after another dominant victory last week. Still, Green Bay shouldn’t take them too lightly. They have some good players in Cleveland, they just make a lot of bad quarterback decisions. Add on the mounting injuries the Packers are already facing, and they can’t assume an easy victory on Sunday. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates return to the Greenbush Bar on Regent Street in Madison as part of the Capitol Times Idea Fest. This time, they’re joined by a special guest: former Badger Men’s Hockey player and coach Tony Granato. In addition to four years as a player for the Badgers and eight years as their head coach, Granato also coached Team USA in the Olympics in hockey in 2018, and helped the Badgers win the Big 10 championship in 2021. Since leaving Wisconsin, Granato has entered the realm of docuseries with Fight for Life with Tony Granato, which you can watch the first installment of on NHL Network.

Granato, Lucas and Oates touch on a slew of topics in this one-hour special episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast: from having to play as a rat in the NHL, to the Fight for Life docuseries, living in Wisconsin as a Chicago sports fan, NIL in modern college sports, Mike Leckrone and more. Of course, they also take a look at last week’s Badger Football win and what they need to do to go home happy against Alabama this weekend, and whether or not it’s too early to think about the Packers going to the Super Bowl. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, college football season is finally here as the Badgers return to Camp Randall on Thursday night to take on the Miami RedHawks. It’s been a while since the Badgers last played on a Thursday night, but their last Thursday game was memorable. That was the game dubbed by Lucas as “The Shoebox Game,” when just a few hours before kickoff the team announced that over two dozen players had been suspended. They still beat Western Michigan that night, or at least survived. This Thursday, though, should feel a little better for the Badgers. Oates will be especially watching their defense, which while mostly new to the team is full of veterans and going up against a mostly new offensive line from Miami. The Badgers won’t have, however, Nyzier Forqurean, as he’s still tied up in the courts. Maybe if he had played at a junior college for a year, he’d be on the field Thursday night…

Speaking of college football, Fox’s College Game Day will look a little different this year without Lee Corso. Corso is retiring, and Lucas anticipates the tributes to him will be a little emotional. Corso’s been with the program for decades; for many people he IS the program. He’s something college football really needs: a character. He was a very good coach at various programs over the years, even with a career losing record. But he was equal parts goofy while wearing mascot heads and super sharp about the game of football. His presence will be missed.

Speaking of tributes, the Brewers held their celebration of life for Bob Uecker on Sunday. Even though Trevor McGill blew the game at the end, the entire broadcast was a great tribute to one of the only universally beloved figures in Wisconsin. Even Vince Lombardi was respected, but not loved. Uecker loved to make people laugh, and while everyone loved the bad games when he’d tell his stories he was still one of the best people you want in the booth calling a baseball game. Uecker was originally hired as a scout for the team after his on the field career ended, but he wasn’t suited for that. Everyone in Wisconsin can agree that his role was in the broadcast booth. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates are taking in a change of scenery at the Greenbush Bar! During this live show at our wonderful sponsor, it’s all about success for the Brewers, the Packers, and the Badgers. 

Recording on Tuesday evening before the second Brewers/Cubs game of the day, Milwaukee is no longer in their historic winning streak but that doesn’t mean they aren’t playing well. Maybe too well, says some pundits, who fear that they’re peaking too early and will fall apart in the offseason. Now, it’s a little too early to be talking about magic numbers, but Oates isn’t concerned. Teams have stretches of good and bad play, and if you can get on a hot streak you take it when you can. Nobody was expecting them to continue their lossless streak forever. But now with Jackson Chourio and Rhys Hoskins about to come back from injury, Lucas and Oates think they’re only going to get hotter. They play baseball the way it used to be played: very fast and with a lot of manufactured runs. Their offense is turning on in a major way, and they excel at putting the ball in play. Even when they don’t hit, they’re also excelling at taking a lot of pitches and wearing down a pitcher. 

What would be success for the Brewers? Oates says an appearance at the World Series is what should be expected. Like a lot of Wisconsin sports teams, they’ve been able to get to the playoffs, but then fall apart. They need to make it all the way to the end this year, whether they win or not.

Turning to the Packers now, Jordan Love is back on the field and throwing passes after his thumb surgery. What would a successful season for Green Bay look like? Some sort of playoff success, Oates says. They too have been able to reliably get into the playoffs, but they always seem to fall apart. They’ve had good teams with great quarterbacks, but they just haven’t been able to go that extra step. It’ll be a big year for both Love and Matt LaFleur as they both try to prove that they deserve to be there.

Finally, what would success look like for the Badgers football team? Well, we can’t really expect them to have playoff success like the Packers or Brewers. But they need to make it to a bowl game this year. If they can do that and end up with a 6-6 record, that should be looked at positively. It should be a rebuild year for Madison this year, hopefully one without an air raide offense…

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers had their first preseason game over the weekend, it was a disappointment. Not only did they lose and look unready to play, but Jordan Love was hurt and will be missing the rest of the preseason. He had surgery earlier this week on his thumb, though he should be ready to go by the opener. While that’s about the best possible news you could get when you hear “starting quarterback” and “surgery” in the same sentence, it’s still some cause for concern. He had a few injuries last year, but none of them were recurring. When you have several separate injuries, it just means he’s getting hurt, Oates says. It’s when someone has recurring injuries when people should be concerned. 

Love isn’t the only injured player on the Packers roster. Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, and Romeo Doubs all also went down with various injuries. If Matthew Golden had any worries about playtime this year, those worries should be put to rest. Reed is the biggest worry of the bunch, Oates says. He might be the Packers best receiver, and not having him at the season opener will hurt a lot. 

Of course, the Brewers remain the talk of the town. They still hold the best league in all of baseball, and it’s starting to feel like they just can’t lose (though this podcast was recorded Tuesday evening before they took on Paul Skenes and the Pirates). Pat Murphy had a good way of describing the team: woodpeckers. They just keep going and going and driving you nuts. One of their biggest concerns at the beginning of the year was hitting, especially at the bottom of the lineup, and now they are scoring 4-5 runs a game reliably without a ton of power. They’re a team that’s really learned how to just put the ball in play, something that comes in handy when you can’t afford any of the league's big name sluggers. Al LaBouef is the team's head hitting coach, and has contributed greatly to turning the team into a persistent powerhouse. He coached most of the guys in the minors, so most of the team is already highly familiar with him. What he’s done is make a team that creates a ton of fun-to-watch at bats. Are Brewers fans getting maybe a little too excited? Maybe, but what you can’t say is that the team getting to where they are now is nothing but a fluke. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the 2025 College Football Coaches Poll is out, and it isn’t looking good for the Badgers. Not only did they not get any votes (which shouldn’t be much of a surprise after last season), but the list is full of their opponents this season. Ohio State and Penn State came in at number 2 and 3, and in total over half the teams they play this year are in the top 25. We knew it was going to be a tough schedule, and we can really only expect the Badgers to be favored in just a few games to begin the season. After that, every game will be a fight. But maybe don’t look at them as tough games, but opportunities!

Meanwhile in the NFL, Packers Cornerback Nate Hobbs will be out for a little bit after undergoing knee surgery. Some pundits are saying he might be back in time for the opener against Detroit in about a month, but Lucas is doubtful. Hobbs is a very physical guy, something the Packers will really be needing in those first few games. That leaves them with Keisean Nixon, who is not exactly a veteran player. Between him, Carrington Valentine, and a returning Corey Ballentine, they’ll certainly be missing Jaire this year… They’ll play their first preseason game this weekend, and LaFleur is still unsure if the starters will actually play. Oates hopes they do. As long as you use them lightly so they don’t get hurt, it’ll be a chance for them to get their feet wet and get back into the rhythm of play.

Finally, the Brewers remain the best team in Major League Baseball as of recording on Tuesday evening. Now, the Brewers have not had the best record in baseball at the end of the season since 1982 when they went to the World Series. It’s still a little ways away and it’s impossible to say what’ll happen, but they’ve been playing some great ball. They’re a quiet team that everyone had written off after losing Adames and Williams, Oates says, but they’re playing some great ball. Add in a guy like Andrew Vaughn, and Milwaukee has a real shot. If they can stay healthy. Both Jackson Churio and their ace The Miz are hurt, though Oates isn’t too concerned. At least with The Miz, he speculates that this is more of a “save the arm for October” type of break. No one will complain about that, especially with the depth the Brewers have in both their starting pitchers and their bullpen. Maybe the secret lies in the snacks that manager Pat Murphy has been hiding in his pants pockets…  

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates start by remembering Ryne Sandberg, who passed this week at the age of 65. A Hall of Famer with 10 All Star Team invites, 9 Golden Gloves, and hundreds of stolen bases, Oates calls him a quiet professional. He wasn’t particularly showy and not a loud mouth, he was a linchpin in a group of players who helped revive the Cubs. He even had a game named after him, the Sandberg Game back in 1984, when he famously helped the Cubs beat the Cardinals in extra innings. He was a player that everyone could respect, even Brewers and Cardinals fans. That’ll be on display Tuesday night, when the Brewers hold a moment of silence in his honor ahead of their game against the Cubs. 

Speaking of the Brewers, they made their first big move ahead of the trade deadline on Monday by acquiring catcher Danny Jansen. A Wisconsin native, Jansen attended Appleton West High School before being drafted to the Blue Jays in 2013. His addition means that means that Eric Haase is going to have to go. He caught lightning in a bottle last year, but this season just hasn’t been working out for him. Add in the fact that William Contreras is the type of guy who doesn’t like to sit out, he just doesn’t fit in with the team. 

The trade deadline is just days away now, and the one big question on everyone's mind is: will the Brewers get their power hitter. The big name being thrown around is Eugenio Suárez, but can they actually make that kind of move? Lucas says no way, but Oates thinks that they’ll be at least trying. They better try at the very least, if the team is truly serious about getting more than a few games into the postseason.

Finally, moving away from baseball, a former Badger Football player is getting a big payday: Jake Ferguson has signed a $52 million four-year extension with the Dallas Cowboys. He is now the highest paid tight end in Cowboys franchise history, and hey, he deserves it. He’s being rewarded for a great career. He has a big catch radius, he runs well, he’s smart and he’s competitive. Sure, tight ends might not be the most recognizable names on the roster, but they are beginning to be paid like they should be better recognized. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Oates is away on assignment, so former Wisconsin State Journal Sports Editor Bill Brophy joins Lucas to talk about what everyone is talking about these days: the Brewers. As of recording on Tuesday evening, the Brewers are on an 11 game winning streak and currently hold the best record in all of baseball. At 60-40, they have also overtaken the Cubs NL Central leaders after months of chasing. Brophy gives the credit to Pat Murphy, who he calls a true old school manager. He isn’t afraid to sit guys out when they aren’t doing too hot or have a conversation with them about changes that need to be made. Just look at Joey Ortiz, who before the All Star Break was struggling to hit the ball and is now starting to find contact after changing up his stance. 

The Brewers have a lot of great athletes top to bottom, even if they are still lacking a real power hitter. Even without that power hitter though, their starting rotation is strong enough that as long as they can get a few on the board they have a real chance at winning. Brophy was sent to Arizona during spring training this year, so he got a chance to see some of the relatively unknown names that now make up the lineup, including Jacob Misiorowski. Did Brophy think he would turn into The Miz, a star so big he gets recognized buying toilet paper? No way, he says. Even he was taken by surprise by his performance in the majors so far. Then you add in Brandon Woodruff, who seems to have gotten even better after his surgery, and the Brewers might have one of the best pitching rotations in baseball. 

Still, they need that big bat, and with the trade deadline just around the corner some names have been thrown around. But then who do you replace? Lucas thinks Caleb Durbin will have to be the one to go. He’s been a good asset at 3rd base, but if someone needs to go it’ll likely be him. Is there a lot of baseball yet to be played? Of course there is. As Pat Murphy put it, it’s still July. But for now, Brewers fans can celebrate a little bit at the very least. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the MLB Home Run Derby was Monday night to mixed reviews. Cal Raleigh won the event and remains one of the top hitters in all of baseball. It was a family affair for the Big Dumper, with both his father pitching to him and his brother catching behind him. Over 20 years ago, the event was held at Miller Park in Milwaukee, and none other than Tom Oates was there (he has the newspaper column the next day with his byline to prove it). In addition to almost getting nailed with a fly ball during batting practice, Oates made some prophetic statements after the 2002 on the state of steroid usage at the time. Thankfully, that part of the sport has mostly cleared up. 

Tuesday night was the All Star Game (taking place after the recording of this podcast), and Brewers pitcher Jacob Mizerowski is continuing to make headlines with his addition to the team. The problem is that this time, most of the headlines are negative, with people agree that a pitcher with only five starts under his belt made it to the All Star Game. Oates understands the anger a little bit, after all some players try their entire career to be asked to join the game. But at the end of the day, the All Star Game is a TV show, not a game that will decide who’s going to the playoffs. If the fans want to see the Miz (guess what, they do), then why not have him in the game! 

Meanwhile, the rest of the team in Milwaukee is staying red hot, putting the most wins on the board before the All Star Break in their entire franchise history. Both Lucas and Oates admit, they’re a little surprised. Go back a handful of episodes on this very podcast, and you’ll find them wondering whether or not the team did enough in the offseason. They didn’t make any big, splashy moves, but that doesn’t seem to matter. They have one of the best pitching teams in all of baseball right now, and even if their hitting isn’t on fire it’s still clearly doing enough. Oates gives the kudos to the front office, for everything from team culture to player acquisition and development. They’ll be just one game behind the Cubs coming out of the All Star Break, and hopefully they make some splashy moves then. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Brewers stay hot as Jacob Misiorowski returns to the mound Tuesday evening to go head-to-head against the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw. The Miz had a small hiccup against the Mets, but it’ll still be exciting to see him take on an elite pitcher like Kershaw. Kershaw’s been around for a long time, recently passing 3,000 strikeouts, maybe one of the last to do it considering how starting pitchers are used today. But while the hype still hasn’t died down for The Miz, the next few games he pitches will be really telling. Now that he has a few starts under his belt in the majors, teams are starting to watch him and make a plan on how to deal with him. Whatever happens, his hype and the return of the great Brandon Woodruff makes for exciting baseball. 

The Brewers are playing great all around, and Woodruff’s big win over the weekend really gave the team the shot in the arm that they need. Everyone is starting to hit the ball really well, and putting some real power behind those hits. Add in Woodruff throwing 96 mph fastballs in his first return to the mound in nearly two years, and it’s hard not to get excited. Woodruff has had eight years in the majors, all of them with the Brewers, and he’s someone who’s well liked and respected in the locker room. The Brewers are a young team these days, and having veteran leaders like Woodruff and Christian Yelich around are important to building up the team. When you mix veteran leaders with competitive and winning young guys, like Turang and Frelick, you have a real recipe for success. 

Freddy Peralta, meanwhile, will be heading to Georgia after he was selected to play in the All-Star Game. In theory, at least. He also might be pitching for the Brewers this weekend, which would make it difficult for him to also throw in the All-Star Game, but that just means another pitcher would go in his stead. The Home Run Derby will also take place next week, and the lineup is not looking too impressive. Of course, the Home Run Derby is not the main focus of the year, and all the real top hitters are likely resting up so that they can focus on winning games. But speaking of Home Run Derbys, the Brewers will be hosting an alumni Home Run Derby later this month with Ryan Braun and Carlos Gomez playing team captains. There are some… interesting names on the list of players that they can pick from, but it’ll still be fun to watch some of the older guys get out there and hit some home runs. But what will the fans think of Ryan Braun when he returns to Milwaukee? Have they forgiven him for his mistakes, and for covering up those mistakes? Or will he get the Brett Favre treatment? 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Bucks made a series of moves in recent days, maybe most disappointingly releasing Dame Lillard. He was a 2024 All Star MVP and played 113 games with Milwaukee, an undeniable great player! But not a great fit for Milwaukee, Oates thinks. You can’t have two ball-dominant superstars on one team. Add in the fact that he will be out most of next season, is approaching 35, and would cost too much for the Bucks, and it’s no real surprise that he’s out. In his place is Myles Turner off the heels of an NBA Finals appearance. He has to be happy, as without Haliburton the Pacer will not be nearly as competitive next year. Turner was signed on a four year contract, and at 29 he’s exactly what the Bucks need: young and athletic. Unfortunately, the Bucks also had to lose a few more players, namely Brook Lopez and Pat Connaughton. Lopez was great in his prime, but has slowed down in recent years. And Connaughton is a bit of a fan favorite, but doesn’t have the ability to keep up with the Doc Rivers Bucks. Will the team be good enough for Giannis to be happy? No, Oates says, they aren’t a winning team quite yet. Lucas says they need one more good player to really round things out and be competitive. 

In a whirlwind of other basketball news, Nigel Hayes-Davis is back playing in America after he signed a deal with the Phoenix Suns. Hayes improved in his time in Wisconsin, and seems to have improved more in Europe, so it’ll be great to see him play in the NBA. He’ll certainly have some play time, it’s not like the Suns are a particularly competitive team these days anyways. Over in Oklahoma City, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has signed a massive $71 million contract with the team. Is it excessive? Yes, but will it actually help the Thunder next year (if they do in fact need help after winning a title)? Big money contracts can hamper a team, making it more difficult to find guys who can lift up those big money players. Just look at the Bucks! Finally, a handful of Badgers are NBA bound. John Tonje is going to Utah after he was picked in the second round, and Steven Crowl will play in their summer league this year. Do either have a chance to actually see some playtime? Maybe, but not right away. 

Finally, the Brewers offensive is heating up again, and so is their shiny new pitcher Jacob Misiorowski. Not only can The Miz throw good heat, but his throws have some movement to them too. It’s one thing to throw a 100 mph pitch right down the middle, it’s a lot harder to hit one that’s moving around on you. There were concerns about his pitch control when he first came up, and those concerns aren’t completely gone, but as long as he isn’t walking five guys every inning, we won’t complain. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Wisconsin Badgers football team announced that they are suing the University of Miami. They’re accusing the school of tampering with the Badgers’ signing of Xavier Lucas, who supposedly already signed a contract with Wisconsin before being called away to Miami. What do those contracts look like? Who knows, the schools are all pretty secretive about the whole deal. But the NCAA and the Big 10 are certainly backing Wisconsin in this fight. A legal win for Wisconsin would give some validity to signed contracts and might even give the NCAA some teeth in fighting school hopping and poaching of student athletes from any college sport. But, it could also lead to issues down the road for the NCAA too, as pretty soon it would be hard to argue that the players aren’t employees, and employees can unionize, and we know the NCAA doesn’t want that. But while we don’t know how strong these contracts are exactly, they have to be strong enough for Wisconsin to think they have a chance here. The bottom line is this though: we’ll have to wait for the courts to do their thing and Lucas isn’t playing in Wisconsin no matter what. 

Meanwhile in the NBA, Oklahoma City beat the Pacers to take home the national championship after Tyrese Haliburton went out with a torn achilles. He’ll likely be out at least most of next season, which means another top NBA player is out with injuries. The best players in the league are out here suffering, Oates says, and the owners need to really think about toning down their schedule a bit. Just look at how many Bucks playoff runs have been derailed due to bad injuries, including just this year! Meanwhile, the “experts” sitting behind a broadcast booth on national TV were accusing Haliburton of faking it to get out of playing in the finals, because what competitor would want to sit out of a national championship game? 

But that’s the past, and in the near future of the NBA is the draft, taking place this week. The first two spots are likely already taken by Cooper Flag and Dylan Harper, but the rest of the spots are anyone’s guess. Where does that leave John Tonje? Oates thinks he’s a second round pick, and while that doesn’t guarantee any sort of future in the NBA he thinks he has a good chance. He’s a versatile player who can hit three’s, so hopefully someone can find a long-term home for him. 

Finally, there’s set to be a great matchup at American Family Field Wednesday night as two of the top young pitchers go head-to-head: Jacob Misiorowski and Paul Skenes. If you can catch the game, it will be a great one to watch. Misiorowski only has two games under his belt so far, but they’ve been more than impressive. Skenes, meanwhile, is more proven even with a not so great team. The matchup is great for the entire sport, Lucas says, but even more so for the Brewers as their hitting begins to wake up only a few games behind the Cubs.