The Wisconsin Sportscast

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the boys skip the Banana Ball to dive right into the Packers

• It’s been suspected that Micah Parsons would miss the beginning of the season, and now it’s confirmed that he’ll miss at least four games to start the year. Lucas and Oates think that’s fine; Parsons should heal up as much as possible so that he’s 100% ready to go when he hits the field. But that does mean he might miss some important games at the top of the season and the Packers might want to start looking around for a decent pass rusher, unless they plan on relying solely on Lukas Van Ness… 

• Texas Tech will have their starting quarterback after all, after a group of judges decided that Brenden Sorsby cannot be banned by the NCAA from playing. That’s despite his history of betting on college football games, including ones he’s been involved in. It’s just another way the college sports is a complete mess, Oates thinks. Even the MLB banned Pete Rose for betting on games, why shouldn’t the NCAA ban him?

• Wauwatosa star basketball player Jalen Brown is coming to Wisconsin as the Badgers decide to keep one of the state’s big players close to home. It’s a great move, Lucas and Oates think. If he plays his cards right, Brown can set himself up for life. Just look at how Sam Dekker is treated these days…

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, big moves are happening across the NFL this week.

• The Rams are making a big move, bringing Myles Garrett into the fold. Lucas and Oates think that move is a lot like the Packers bringing in Micah Parsons; they’re nearly equals as players and both the Rams and the Packers paid roughly the same price. It also shows that both teams are making serious Super Bowl pushes, which will be interesting when the Packers play the Rams on Thanksgiving Eve.

• Speaking of the Packers, they have a major problem at running back after Josh Jacobs was arrested (but as of recording not yet charged) for domestic assault. It’s in the hands of the Brown County District Attorney and there’s not much to comment on at the moment until they make a move, Lucas and Oates say. Regardless of charges, the Packers need to make a big move; they need to have a great running back if they want to continue running the kind of offense they’re running. 

• Russell Wilson is stepping away from the field and entering the CBS studio as an analyst. Lucas and Oates aren’t sure if he’s entirely fit for the role, however. Sure, he knows football and is highly articulate, but will he be able to be critical of the players on the field? He’s a very nice guy, which is a great thing for most avenues of life, but he needs to have that critical edge if he wants to succeed in the studio.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, not even a tooth extraction can keep Lucas and Oates away from marveling at The Miz

• Jacob Misiorowski had basically a perfect Memorial Day, throwing 57 pitches over 100 mph. He now leads the majors in strikeouts, hitting 100 before the calendar turns to June. Lucas and Oates think it may be a bit early to start thinking too hard about the Cy Young, but if it were decided now it would have to be between him and Ohtani. 

• Victor Wembanyama, or Wemby, is in the news not because of his playing, but because his basketball card sold for over $5 million. It’s fair, Lucas and Oates say, as he has to be one of the big three transformative big guys in the game of basketball, next to Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It takes a certain type of big man to be able to truly change the sport; but those few guys who are big and long can bring an extra something to make them one of the greats. 

• Former Badgers star Sam Dekker is returning to America, now as an assistant coach at South Carolina. He’ll be a great coach, Oates says, because he’s a guy who loves the game and has a great understanding of the fundamentals of basketball. It might be a bit sooner than we expected, but we had to know that he’d turn to coaching sooner or later and we wish him the very best. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates start their timers: as of recording there are 100 days until week zero of college football.

• With just 100 days (as of recording) to go until college football begins, all of the pundits are busy putting out their lists and predictions. That includes ESPN’s list of coaches who are in the hot seat this year. Of course, Luke Fickell sits at number three on that list. But with a lighter schedule this year and (hopefully) and an AD who’s behind him, Lucas and Oates think that his job may not be in danger quite yet. 

• In college basketball, Greg Gard says he’s in favor of expanding the conference schedule. That’ll be tough, say Lucas and Oates, as that basically becomes a professional schedule at that point. It all comes down to the money, of course, because all college sports today are about the money. 

• Aaron Rodgers announced that this season with the Steelers will be his last as an NFL quarterback. It’s hard to argue that he isn’t one of the top five quarterbacks of all time, Oates says. It’s a shame he only got one Super Bowl in Green Bay, though, thanks to his team’s defenses, special teams, and at times coaching. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, movement finally begins in UW Madison’s search for a new athletic director. 

• The Badgers announce that Eric Wilcotts, the interim chancellor, will head the search and ultimately hire the school’s next AD. Oates was sure they’d start with the search for a new chancellor, but at least he’s someone who’s been around the university for decades. The university announced their selection committee too, and it’s filled with some old names and some we aren’t familiar with. The varied backgrounds of everyone on the committee will be a useful asset, says Lucas. 

• What is needed out of a new AD for UW-Madison? Oates says someone who knows how to raise money. NIL isn’t going away any time soon and Wisconsin is falling behind in raising money. Whoever the next AD is has to be comfortable cozying up to some rich alumni.

• The Brewers swept the Yankees over the weekend, with Jacob Misiorowski getting all the national attention. With a 103.6 mph fastball, he holds the record now for the fastest pitch thrown by a starter during the pitch tracking era. Now that he’s found his control, and some confidence in his other pitches, he’s becoming more and more of a threat to even guys like Aaron Judge. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates talk about changes to one of their favorite sport events of the year. 

• The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament looks likely to expand to 76 teams. Lucas and Oates are not fans of the move. That’s eight more teams today, but they don’t think it’ll ever stop. The commissioners of the big conferences run all of college sports now, and they want more and more of their teams in the tournament. How long until we’re filling out 128 team brackets?

• Tryod Taylor is the new backup quarterback in Green Bay. He’s a journeyman who’s played for many teams over the years, so you know he has to be a student of the game to keep getting work. Jordan Love may not be injury prone, but Lucas and Oates think that having a veteran on standby will be a big improvement over someone like Desmond Ritter. 

• Russell Wilson’s name has been thrown around as a potential backup quarterback to Love (if he would ever accept it), and at least he has Wisconsin ties. Wilson is likely one of the best quarterbacks the Badgers have ever had, or at the very least would appear on anyone’s Mount Rushmore of Badger quarterbacks. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the NFL Draft takes over Pittsburg and leaves Wisconsin sports fans with questions.

• No players from the Badgers are drafted this year after seven rounds, though a few former Badgers did make the cut. It reflects the current state of the Badgers, and while we shouldn’t read too much into this, Lucas and Oates are happy that Luke Fickell hit the transfer portal hard this year.

• A few Badger football players were signed to free agency contracts after the draft. While nobody can see the future, a lot of them do have the talent to have fruitful NFL careers. 

• The Packers, meanwhile, had either a great or an okay draft, depending on if you count Micah Parsons as their first round pick. The Packers had more position needs than normal this year, and were able to meet a lot of their defensive holes. But there are still plenty of question marks on the roster, most notably in the backup positions for several key offensive players. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, it’s hard to remember how many roster spots the Badgers Men’s Basketball team has left after a flurry of transactions. 

• John Blackwell is heading to Duke, where he hopes to grow his skills for the NBA while competing for a national championship. He’ll have to contend with not being the star of the offense anymore, but Lucas and Oates wish him well and are glad he’s at least not in the Big 10. 

• Greg Gard was able to pick up a few players in the transfer portal, mostly from smaller schools like Miami-Ohio and Washington. Lucas and Oates say that Gard has had success in the portal in recent years; every year there seems to be at least one big hit. 

• The NFL Draft starts this week, and the Packers will head to Pittsburgh without a first round pick. But when Lucas and Oates take a look at who the Packers have drafted in the second round over the past decade, the list is filled with heavy hitters. 

For this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, not even storms kept Lucas and Oates away from the recording studio.

Topics:

• Chris McIntosh announced his time as athletic director with UW-Madison has come to an end, as he is accepting a position in the Big Ten front office as deputy commissioner for strategy. Mike Lucas isn’t too surprised, but Tom Oates is, at least a little.
• The Wisconsin Badgers football team’s general manager, Marcus Sedberry, has been named interim athletic director. Lucas and Oates discuss what they know about Sedberry's new responsibilities and how this could put even more pressure on coach Luke Fickell, who considers McIntosh a friend.
• Who comes next? The role of athletic director has become that of a business man. UW-Madison will need someone who can shake hands and woo boosters to raise money for the team. Lucas and Oates discuss the right and wrong types of people for this job and some possible names already surfacing.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the transfer portal is open, which means big news for Badger Men’s Basketball. John Blackwell has announced that he is officially entering the portal. Badger fans might be mad or upset at him for the decision, but we should be thanking Blackwell and the Badgers for the three years we got to have him in Madison. That’s pretty rare in the new NCAA! Lucas was a bit surprised by the move, but Oates was not. It’s a smart move for both his career and his financial future. He’ll probably get a few NBA tryouts to find out if and where he might be drafted, but most likely next year will be the most money he’s ever going to make playing basketball. He likely won’t be a second round NBA draft pick, and he’ll likely end up in either the G League or in Europe. Any money he could make there won’t compare to the millions he can be making if he can get some big schools in a bidding war.

Greg Gard has always had success with the transfer portal, and the Badgers have already added an exciting face to the roster. The 22 year old Owen Foxwell already has some experience playing guard in Australia. If he works out, he could be joining Nolan Winter, Austin Rapp and Will Garlock on the starting line next year, so long as Garlock continues to step up as he had to end the season. Gard has around 2,000 players to pick from in the transfer portal, and he’s shown that he’s able to find guys like Nick Boyd when he needs one more star player that nobody is paying attention to.

Finishing off the college basketball season, Michigan has beat UConn to take home the NCAA National Championship. The millions they’ve spent on players has paid off! UConn tried to bully Michigan early, but that didn’t work and Michigan ended up bullying them instead. Michigan only made two triples in the championship game, but went 25 for 28 at the free throw line. With the Men’s Basketball National Championship secured in the Big 10, college sports is falling right into the lap of the conference. Add in football, women’s basketball, women’s hockey and maybe men’s hockey into the mix, and it’s clear that the talent is going to where the money is, and that resource is in the Big 10. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Oate’s NCAA Men’s Basketball brackets are alive, if just barely. After UConn beat Michigan State and Duke, a lot of people’s brackets probably look pretty similar. Duke had a good team, sure, but it was built on freshmen. When your team is filled with freshmen, they’re going to make some freshmen mistakes, and that’s exactly what happened to Duke. UConn, meanwhile, has great team construction and a great coach in Dan Hurley. That said, Hurley needs to tone down the theatrics a bit before he does real damage to his team. Refs don’t like it if you complain after every call, and Hurley is one who does just that. Every time he gets close to an official, he gets close to going over the line and hurting his team.

UConn will take on Illinois in the Final Four, two teams that most people didn’t expect to be facing each other in the tournament. Illinois has really stepped up their defense compared to the beginning of the season, positioning themselves as almost a mini-Michigan on defense. They’re playing like the big team they are and using their size to their benefit. But UConn has a certain toughness in them that’ll make them hard to beat. On the other side of the bracket is Michigan vs Arizona in a battle between two big heavyweights. Arizona is maybe the only team in the NCAA that doesn’t rely on threes to win games anymore, and ultimately that makes them really difficult to contend with. There are three games left in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and all three look to be great battles between great teams. 

Meanwhile in the NBA, did anyone notice that the Bucks have missed the postseason for the first time in a decade? If anyone is paying attention regularly, they shouldn’t be surprised . They’ve been sliding ever since their championship, and this year they’re looking almost like a G League team. Doc Rivers may have gotten into the Hall of Fame, but he needs to leave Milwaukee and the team needs to figure out what’ll happen with Giannis. At this point, anything they do will be welcome as long as it’s part of a complete makeover. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, we have to celebrate Mark Johnson on his ninth career NCAA Women’s Hockey National Championship. That puts him in the running for most national championships in college sports, and he’s in some good company. Mark Johnson has really created a dynasty in Madison, fostering a serious program that develops and recruits perfectly and contends for titles nearly every year. Some credit has to be due to Ohio State; the past four years have been a duel between Wisconsin and Ohio State in the National Championship and it’s always a close and competitive game. Johnson was much more demonstrative than his usual calm and cool self this last weekend. Ohio State went on a bit of a run, and he had to do something to get them to stand back up. The UW isn’t exactly one to honor their legends too much, but something should be done for Mark Johnson. There’s even the perfect plaza between the Kohl Center and LaBahn Arena that would be a great spot for a statue.

Meanwhile in Badgers Men’s Basketball, Greg Gard’s team once again failed to make it to the second weekend after their first round loss to High Point. They shouldn’t feel too terrible, High Point is a pretty good team! It’s one thing to say that when they beat the Badgers, but then they went toe-to-toe with Arkansas, even if they ultimately lost in the second round. Their point guard, Rob Martin, shows some real speed on the floor, and High Point has a little money to throw around. The game came down to athleticism, and High Point won out in the end. It was talked about before Thursday that the Badgers would have a tough game and they did. It would have helped, though, if they had gone on one of their three-point runs. They hit their second fewest threes all season, lacking all energy behind the line. Then they got out-rebounded too, against a team that isn’t very big! It was a game of athleticism, and ultimately the Badgers couldn’t hack it.

The Badgers have had a pretty bad run of NCAA Tournament outings in recent years; the last time they made it to the second weekend was in 2017. But now that Madison’s tournament is over, it’s time to look ahead. There are two big questions in front of the Badgers: can Gard find success in the portal again, and who can they get to stick around? On the portal front, they should be able to manage that. That leaves the questions of who’s staying, particularly Blackwell and Winter. They’ll both probably have some real money thrown at them, but the Badgers have some money to throw around too. Blackwell at least might be thinking of the NBA too, but if he were to stay in Madison he might be able to develop just a little more to further his chances. There is a lot of future ahead of the Badgers still, and only time will tell what the team looks like next year. Oates’ hope? There are less than nine big new players on the team next year.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the brackets for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament are out and Wisconsin is coming in with a 5 seed. Both Lucas and Oates have their brackets filled out already; the NCAA Tournament is always a great few weeks of basketball. Even after retiring from working at the paper, Oates still manages to win more than his fair share of brackets every year. The winner is always a well-balanced team that ranks in the top 20-ish on both offense and defense. Of course, all four 1 seeds this year are ranked in the top ten for both sides of the ball, as it was last year. But you can’t just look at the data; you need to have your own specific values on a basketball team. How much does having a veteran point guard matter in the long run? What about rebounds? Find your value, and mix that in with a frank look at matchups, and you can start to get an idea of how the tournament will shake out. Barring any major upsets, of course. 

But before playing in the NCAA Tournament, the Badgers had to play in the Big 10 Tournament last weekend. Wisconsin had a great showing against Illinois before falling to Michigan on Saturday. In that Illinois game, both Nick Boyd and John Blackwell were both on fire scoring over 30 points a piece. The last time two players scored 30 points each on the Badgers was in 1968, and it was only the third time in school history that it’s happened. Maybe they had a chip on their shoulder after the debacle with their inclusion on the Big 10 All Conference team. They made it to Saturday in this tournament, which is a good effort and gave them a bit of a break before the real fun begins in Portland…

The Badgers take on the #12 High Point Panthers on Thursday afternoon. High Point has some good guards who know how to score, and they’ve racked up 30 wins this season. Now, those wins have been against no-too-impressive teams, but still. While they’re a team that is capable of an upset, both Lucas and Oates think that the Badgers have learned how to succeed enough to move onto the next round. There, their likely opponent will be Arkansas, a team with a lot of history with the Badgers in this tournament. Arkansas might have the best point guard in the country with Darius Acuff Jr. While they may be a team of mostly freshmen, they have a lot of really good freshmen. But after beating Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Illinois, and others just in the past few weeks, the Badgers shouldn’t be afraid of anybody. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers made some big moves as the NFL enters the free agency period. None of the moves should come at a particular surprise to anyone. There are a lot of good players leaving Green Bay, who while good are not worth what they’re getting elsewhere to the Packers. The biggest, and maybe least surprising move, is Malik Willis, who’s getting a big payday to join Jeff Hafley with the Dolphins. Willis deserves whatever he got, Oates thinks, as he did more than alright by the Packers. He was a great backup quarterback who caught some people’s attention and is getting rewarded for being a safety net the Packers could trust. The other eye catching move is Romeo Doubs, who’s also getting a big payday with his move to the Patriots. Doubs is a good receiver, but between Christian Watson, Matthew Golden, and Jayden Reed, it didn’t make sense to throw a bunch of money at him.

The Packers had their biggest shakeups on defense, with Quay Walker, Kingsley Enagbare, and Rashan Gary all out. Again, these were a lot of good players who just didn’t live up to what was needed in Green Bay. Gary is a good player, but he was being payed like a great player. After his poor performance at the end of the last season (finding zero sacks in his last ten games), he needed to step up and he simply didn’t. As for Quay Walker, the newly signed Zaire Franklin is looking like he’ll just be more physical. Were any of these moves surprises? No, but there’s still plenty of time for a big splash to happen.

Meanwhile with the Badgers Men’s Basketball Team, the Big 10 Tournament has begun after the Badgers were largely left out of the all conference team. After a big win at Purdue, the Badgers will play Thursday against a yet-to-be-decided opponent. But how hard should they really be trying to win the tournament? Bo Ryan was never the biggest fan, considering that the more important NCAA Tournament begins just a few days after the Big 10 finals. Lucas and Oates have their strategy: play until you get to Saturday, then take a little bit extra rest. The Badgers have a recent history of playing in the Sunday finals, and then quickly losing in the NCAA Tournament. Ultimately, kids don’t dream of playing in the Big 10 Tournament, they dream of playing on the national stage in March Madness. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates remember Jerome Fishbain, who recently passed away. Fishbain, or Fish, probably knew more people in Wisconsin sports than just about anyone. He coached football all over the midwest, from Milwaukee to Racine to Minnesota to UW Madison. He stayed involved with the Badgers for years, and helped many of the team's coaches one time or another. Fish touched so many people across the entire football world. Lucas and Oates have plenty of stories to share about him, but at the end of the day he was a great guy who lived a great life. 

Turning to Badger Men’s Basketball, who had a bit of a weird west coast trip last weekend. First they lose to Oregon, then they bounce back and beat Washington. Against Oregon, the Badgers just looked sluggish, and weren’t thinking clearly. The announcer called it correctly during the game: Wisconsin is a team with a very high ceiling, but also a very low floor. When they play well, they can take on almost any team out there. But then they go and lose by double digits to Oregon, who is not a particularly great team this year. All we can hope is that they keep up the energy they had against Washington throughout the rest of the year.

The Badgers take on Maryland Wednesday night for senior night in the Kohl Center. Among the seniors being honored are Nick Boyd, Andrew Rohde, Isaac Gard, and of course Braeden Carrington. Carrington is once again showing that he is part of the glue of this Badgers team, even breaking a Wisconsin record by hitting nine three-point shots on 15 attempts against Washington. When he gets into a rhythm, distance doesn’t seem to matter quite as much. Carrington should have some good confidence going into Wednesday night. They’ll need it; the Badgers have lost four of their last five senior nights… 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Oates is back from his Hawaiian excursion, and after updating us on his adventures dives into Olympic Hockey. Both the men’s and women’s US teams took home the gold this year, and it feels particularly good for us in Madison. Olympic women’s hockey was dominated by Badgers this year, with both current and former Badgers playing for both Team USA and Team Canada. The women’s gold medal game was a phenomenal game and a true statement to how Mark Johnson has influenced Olympic hockey. For years now, there have been Badgers on both Team USA and Team Canada, and partly thanks to the Badgers women’s hockey has taken off in the past decade. Just look at someone like Hillary Knight, who’s become such a beacon for women’s hockey in the US that there are current Badgers who have childhood photos of themselves standing next to her. Then you add in some of the current Badgers like Hillary Knight and Laila Edwards and there’s no denying Mark Johnson’s impact on the sport as a whole. The Badgers have eight championships under Johnson now, and while not everyone is always happy about statues, something should be done to recognize the impact he’s had both in Madison and globally. 

Turning to Badgers Men’s Basketball, they handily defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes Sunday night. Hawkeyes coach Ben McCollum is known as a defensive coach, and he had a plan to stop Nick Boyd at the beginning of the night. But Boyd turned out to be unstoppable and could make his way to the rim whenever he wanted. Wisconsin’s offense seems designed to help Boyd get to the rim, and that ends up helping the entire team. Austin Rapp has taken a particular step forward, as long as he stays healthy. But he’s a guy who can reliably make 15-20 points when you need him to and has established himself as a true difference maker on the team. Boyd, Rapp, Blackwell, and Winter have all put themselves together to make a very good basketball team. But are they better than last year? It’s hard to say, it is certainly a different team. But with several must-win games on the horizon, they need to stay consistent, especially in their three-point shooting. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Badgers’ PA Guy Mike Mahnke is back on the show having survived the storming of the Kohl Center Friday night. It was a big win for the Badgers over Michigan State where they were able to maintain control nearly the entire game. Even Tom Izzo knew that Wisconsin had his number by a certain point in the game, and the Badgers ended the night with a big 92-71 victory. You add in some of the other big wins they’ve had recently and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the fans stormed the court. It was a pretty tame court storming from Mike’s perspective on the court, and even the players were pumped by it all. I guess fans are too busy celebrating and taking pictures these days to harass or “spit” on the other team, as they allegedly did back in 2011. 

Wisconsin’s win over Michigan State earned them a top 25 national ranking. They hope to keep the victory streak going at Ohio State, though that game took place after the recording of this podcast. Instead, Mike and Lucas take a look at the bigger prize: Sunday’s game against the Iowa Buckeye. The Buckeyes have a new coach in Ben McCollum - a Bo Ryan-type coach who ditches the sportsjacket for a white shirt and tie. He’s replacing Fran McCaffery, whose tantrums and outbursts will be missed in Madison. Fran certainly helped the Badgers last year, when Wisconsin beat Iowa in a game that broke multiple records. The Badgers scored 116 points that game, setting a new record for most points scored by Wisconsin in the Kohl Center. But even still, Blackwell turned out to be the star of that game, and not the at-the-time star John Tonje. Blackwell is the new star of the Badgers, sharing the role with Nick Boyd. You always get nervous when a team has two stars, but they’ve made it work. It takes a while for a team to find their chemistry, especially with so many transfers, but both the two stars and everyone else on the team has taken some great leaps forward since November. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Tom Oates is out on assignment so Mike Lucas is joined by the Badgers’ public address announcer, Mike Mahnke. Mike’s been watching everything the Olympics has to offer, from hockey to luge to ice dancing, but this year has been all about curling. Team USA took home the silver in mixed doubles curling this year, narrowly losing the gold to Sweden. It feels natural to get into curling in Wisconsin; it’s sort of a combination of shuffleboard, bowling and darts.

Lucas, meanwhile, has been enjoying women’s hockey. Team USA defeated Team Canada on Tuesday in a 5-0 blowout with former Badger Hillary Knight as team captain. There are six total Badgers on Team USA this year, and another five on Team Canada. With so many Badgers to watch, it’s hard not to love. 

Meanwhile, both Mike and Lucas had one word for the Super Bowl: lackluster. For Mike, this year was about the commercials. Some were good, some were weak, and some were downright creepy. 

Moving to what Mike knows best, the Badgers men's basketball team played Illinois Tuesday night (though the show was recorded before tipoff, Wisconsin won a thriller in overtime against the No. 8-ranked Illini). The Badgers were coming off a tough loss to Indiana, one that included questionable foul calls that were hard to take. But sometimes that sort of thing will happen when they were down by as much as they were at halftime.

Coming up, the Badgers will return to the Kohl Center Friday night to take on Tom Izzo and Michigan State. Izzo has had a long and sometimes contentious relationship with Madison, but you have to respect him as a coach. He’s become one of Mike’s favorite coaches to watch on the bench, and even Greg Gard considers him a friend. That said, all that will probably be going out the window on Friday night. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, it was rumored last week and official this week: Jim Leonard is moving to Buffalo to become the next defensive coordinator for the Bills. Sure, we would have liked to see him return to Wisconsin, but you have to be happy for him. It’s a pretty highly coveted job, and while it’s easy to move up the ladder to a coordinator job for a less-than-desirable team, the Bills should be a great fit for him. They will almost certainly be contending for the near future with Josh Allen. And Joe Brady is an offensive guy, meaning that Leonard will have the chance to run the defense how he wants to run it. 

Leonard isn’t the only Wisconsin native whose name is moving around the league. Former Badger QB Scott Tolzien was recently talking with the Steelers about a potential offensive coordinator job under Mike McCarthy. Instead, he’ll be sticking in New Orleans as the quarterback coach. Now that he’s had a big interview though, his name will likely stick around in the coming years for similar positions around the league. Former Badgers QB and former UW-Oshkosh quarterback coach Connor Senger has also been getting some interviews around the league, though he seems to be sticking to his position with the Cardinals for the moment. Even non-native Wisconsin names seem to be getting coaching jobs these days; Mike LaFleur, brother of Green Bay’s Matt, was named head coach of the Cardinals this week. We have to wonder, will there even be driveby handshakes between the two brothers next season? 

Moving to the NBA, it seems as though Giannis Antetokounmpo’s time with the Bucks is just about at its end. At least Oates seems to think so. It is true that he does seem to genuinely love Milwaukee still, but the Bucks have taken a step back every year since 2021. Giannis has always said that he wants to play for championships and now seems to be the time to say goodbye. Hopefully, the Bucks get a big haul out of him with lots of draft picks that’ll allow them to basically start over. But it doesn’t matter what they get; losing Giannis means that the Bucks will lose any trade. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, former Badger Jim Leonard may have a new job, but not with the Packers. While unconfirmed as of recording, rumor has it he’s been in talks with Joe Brady with the Bills about a spot as their new defensive coordinator. Leonard is destined for a job as a defensive coordinator somewhere, and he does know Buffalo pretty well, and now that he’s officially free to talk to anyone he wants, it seems like a good fit. 

Would we have liked to see Leonard in Green Bay? Sure, or at least we would have liked Matt LaFleur to wait a day to talk with Leonard before making a hiring decision.

Instead, LaFleur has hired Jonathan Gannon as his new defensive coordinator. Oates certainly isn’t down on the hire. Gannon has  head coaching experience with the Arizona Cardinals, and while he doesn't have a winning track record (to say the least) it does mean he has experience working with an entire team, which is an underrated skill to have as a defensive coordinator. We do know one thing for sure: Gannon sure has shown a lot of … passion … over the years. 

Meanwhile, the Brewers have officially parted ways with Freddy Peralta, who is now a member of the Mets. Some people are upset about losing the ace, but that’s how the Brewers have to play these days. If the past few years have shown anything for Milwaukee, it’s that they can stay competitive by building their farm system and losing their big name players. The Brewers netted Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat in the trade, and at least Williams shows real promise. But we won’t know how he, or the starting pitching rotation, will really work until March. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the boys battle colds as Indiana takes home the College Football National Championship in a victory Monday night over Miami. Curt Cignetti did the impossible by taking his team 16-0, and all it took was the backing of some of the biggest billionaires around. This is the new order of college football; gone are the days that players look for college culture, or facilities, or anything else. Now the only question they’re asking is “how much NIL will I get?” Can we still be happy for the players and coaches? Of course. But is this new order better? That’s for you to judge. 

There were several products of Wisconsin on Indiana’s championship team, including a few former Badgers. There have been plenty of guys in recent years who just “didn’t fit” in Madison who went on to do some big things around college football. Meanwhile, Luke Fickell is looking for his third offensive line coach in four years. But still, Fickell is changing tactics once again this year. Air raid is gone, and whatever they did last year is gone too. Now, it’s time for full use of the transfer portal. Will it work? That depends, can Fickell build up team culture fast like Cignetti? After all, gone are the days of building team chemistry over the course of a few years. Now, you hope that someone else develops someone so you can scoop them up and hope for the best. But if Monday told us anything, it’s that Wisconsin is just one big benefactor away from a national championship. Well, maybe a few benefactors. 

Meanwhile in the NFL, Jeff Hafley is officially the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins. That means that a newly resigned Matt LaFleur needs to find a new defensive coordinator. Several names have already been thrown out there and there is one name that a lot of Wisconsin sports fans hope is the winner. Jim Leonard certainly would like to return to his home in Wisconsin, even if he did turn down a job in Green Bay once upon a time. Another name thrown around is Raheem Morris, former head coach for the Falcons. He and LaFleur are friends, and he’s well respected around the league. Or maybe they’ll find someone in-house they can promote up to the position. Whoever they go with, if Saturday is any indication their first order of business should be to find a way to stop Caleb Williams and those big passes of his… 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, in the wake of the Packers loss to the Bears on Saturday night, there is just one name on every Wisconsin sports fan's mind: Matt LaFleur. As of recording, he is still with the team and discussing his future. Around the league there are nine openings for head coaching positions, and a lot of Packers fans wish there were 10. But Oates asks a real question before jumping right to firing: can you upgrade from Matt LaFleur? Especially with the amount of competition out there right now, a true upgrade might be out of the Packers pay range. A solution that works for both Lucas and Oates? Give LaFleur a one year contract extension. That way next year he isn’t a lame duck coach and he will have to really prove that he deserves to be there. The Packers have about two or three years to get over this hump, given the contract position for a lot of key players on the team. If it isn’t LaFleur, someone will need to figure out how to get them there and winning playoff games.

Saturday’s loss to the Bears was exactly like their loss last year in Philly, a dominating first half and a complete fall apart in the second. The phrase of the day is “lack of adjustment.” Sure, it’s a cliche thing for sports fans to say when their team does badly, but when even the players are saying it after the game it starts to mean something. On defense they just shut down, and on offense the offensive line was unable to adapt to the changes that the Bears made after halftime. Part of the issue is that LaFleur is so caught up on calling plays on offense that he forgets to pay attention to what’s happening with the rest of the team. His nose is so buried in his iPad that there was even footage of him sitting on the bench while his defense was on the field going over plays. Maybe LaFleur needs a real offensive coordinator who he can let call plays instead, if he’ll give it up. After all, it seems likely he’ll be replacing his defensive coordinator anyways. 

Finally in college basketball, the Badgers scored a huge win over the previously-undefeated Michigan Saturday night. Now as of recording they had not played Minnesota, but on Saturday the team was really able to showcase their improvements as a team. There were a lot of new guys on the floor to start the season, and those new guys took some time to learn the systems in place. But now it looks like they’re starting to get it and are open to being coached. If they can beat all the talent that Michigan has, then their ceiling just skyrocketed. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates’ wishes last week were granted as the Badgers sign Colton Joseph from Old Dominion. From what we’ve seen, Joseph is a good dual-threat quarterback who had great success in the Sun Belt. He’s seen as a better runner than passer, which does cause a little worry, but he has shown that he can get the ball down field when he needs to. Plus, his running power should fit in nicely with the Badgers’ offense. 

Now if only Joseph can stay healthy. He isn’t the first quarterback to come to Madison with some hype behind him in recent years, and all of those other guys fell to injury. But if Joseph lives up to his billing, he should be a good addition for UW-Madison. At least he’ll be paid like it; it’s estimated that most college quarterbacks these days are making between $1.5-4 million dollars. That’s enough that a lot of young guys are looking to stick around in college for as long as possible. All but a select few quarterbacks across the country can never expect that kind of money in the NFL. But still, as long as Joseph plays better than Clayton Tune, it’ll at least be something.

Speaking of the now former Packer, Green Bay will get a big rematch against the Bears in Chicago on Saturday night in the first round of the playoffs. The Packers-Bears rivalry has been going on for longer than any of us have been alive, and historically one team tends to dominate the other for decades at a time. But that might be changing; the Packers are still a good football team and the Bears seem to be catching up. Saturday’s game should be a testament to that as Lucas and Oates see no clear favorite between the two. On the one hand the Packers are a better team, but they have a tendency to lose in the worst ways and are riddled with big injuries. On the other hand, the Bears are healthy and Caleb Williams is on his way to becoming a great quarterback, but their defense is hopeless. Either way, it’s a good thing the game is on Saturday night instead of Sunday so that both states can safely get to work on Monday morning… 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, we end the year with a few questions. Where is Rashan Gary? Where are the punts? Where will Malik Willis go? And of course, are the Packers a good football team? We can start with Gary, who’s been M.I.A. for a while now and is turning into more than a bit of a disappointment. It’s been months since he recorded his last snap and he seems to simply lag behind most plays. We’ve seen him show some great skill, and we know he’s a workout warrior, so what happened? Unfortunately, we might not know by the end of the season. The next question is about the punting situation. The Packers are now the first team in the history of the Super Bowl era to lose three games without punting the ball in a single season. In fact, every other team that has gone an entire game without punting has been winning this year; the Packers hold the three puntless losses in the league. This spells all sorts of issues for Green Bay, from ineffectiveness in the red zone leading to field goals instead of touchdowns, failures to perform in fourth-and-one situations, and a defense that just isn’t coming in clutch. 

Finally, as we come up on the final regular season game against the Vikings on Sunday, we reach the final question: are the Packers a good football team? They were at one point, thinks Oates, but today it’s hard to say. The Packers have been hit too hard by injuries this year, especially in their real difference maker players. Losing Parsons especially has seemed to deal a major blow to the defense (though that can’t excuse everything), and the offensive line has been rattled all year. The season isn’t over, and they have a guaranteed chance in the playoff, but if they don’t go on to win even one playoff game, a few people’s jobs might be in trouble…

Meanwhile, the college football playoffs begin in earnest this week without the Wisconsin Badgers. Remember the days of going down to Tampa to watch the Badgers play around this time of year? Hopefully those days can return in the future, but it won’t be with Billy Edwards Jr. He announced his entry into the transfer portal, which officially opens on January 2. Our two big wishes for 2026? The Badgers need to learn how to run the football again, and they need to figure out their quarterback situation. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers saw not one but two of the quarterbacks hurt after Saturday’s loss to the Bears. Jordan Love went down with a concussion thanks to a big helmet-to-helmet hit while Malik Willis hurt his shoulder trying to throw a pass at the end of regulation. Matt LaFluer’s decision to have Willis throw the ball with 17 seconds left in the second half will go down as just another terrible call. He had 80 yards to go and he was left exposed. That call was based solely on emotion; the rational call there would have been to take a knee and try to go during overtime. Instead, he’s questionable and as of Tuesday Love is still in concussion protocol. Could Love be cleared in time to face the Ravens Saturday night? Maybe. But if not, who are we going to trust to throw the ball, Clayton Tune? 

The two injuries were not what killed the Packers on Saturday, but a series of bad mistakes made by a number of big name players. There was Romeo Doubs’ fumble of the onside kick, a fumble that if avoided would have meant a win for the Packers. Instead, Doubs took his eyes off the ball to look at who was coming at him and flinched. Then there was Josh Jacob’s fumble with just a few yards to go before a touchdown. Or Xavier McKinney’s should-have-been-but-wasn’t interception. Some credit should be given to the Bears, who did pull out a win. But when you look at the numbers, Caleb Williams did not play his best ball up until the final two drives of the game. But don’t worry, if the season were to end today there would be one more rubber match as Green Bay would be set to take on the Bears in the postseason. 

Meanwhile at the Kohl Center, the Badgers Men’s Basketball team took Central Michigan to task on Monday night, but that isn’t much to write home about. There are still some out there that are skeptical of the Badgers this year, and those people are valid. When they play against weak teams, they tend to dominate, but when they go up against real competition they struggle to even be in the same league. That’s an issue, considering they have some tough Big 10 games on the horizon. They’ll start at home with Purdue and UCLA before traveling to take on Michigan. There are plenty of good players on the team, though, they just have to find a way to mesh and put things together.