The Wisconsin Sportscast

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Wisconsin basketball superstar Nigel Hayes may not be in the NBA but he’s still making waves. 10 years after helping the Badgers get to the Final Four, he’s now playing Euroleague basketball in Turkey where he was awarded the MVP for their Final Four. There are new rumors that he might be getting some NBA tryouts in his near future, and good for him! In Wisconsin, he got better every year. While it’s difficult to watch his more recent games, clips show that he’s been continuing his upward trajectory. He’s become a really dynamic player, Oates says, which is a real asset considering he was also a real team player when he was with the Badgers. 

Hayes played only a handful of games in the NBA, which is surprising considering his performance in the 2015 NCAA Championship Tournament. But when you look at that 2015 Badger Men’s Basketball team, no one has really met expectations in the NBA. Frank the Tank played for a while in the NBA, as did Sam Dekker. But none of them really made it in the NBA, which is unfortunate for such a fantastic group of players. Maybe Hayes can get another shot, but his age might be a deciding factor against him. If he doesn’t get another shot at it, hey, at least he’s likely not too upset about spending his time in Istanbul. 

Turning to football, as of recording we are exactly 100 days away from the beginning of the NFL season. While the season will officially open with the Eagles taking on the Cowboys, the Packers will have a difficult week 1 as they take on the Lions. Their mandatory minicamp is just a few weeks away on June 10-12, and Lucas has to ask: what are we to focus on in this year’s camp? Do we go for the obvious and watch how Jordan Love performs? Or maybe how the team can perform with, or maybe without Jaire Alexander? He is still a big question mark for the team, but they seem to be trying to come to some sort of agreement. He takes home a pretty big paycheck, and Oates thinks that when he’s healthy he can live up to it. But the emphasis there is the word “healthy.”

With 100 days left until NFL Football, ESPN has a list out of players to watch this season that includes two Packers. The first is Edgerrin Cooper, who Oates thinks will play a major role this season. When he’s healthy, he’s one of the best players on the defense, and when teaming up with Quay Walker they have a chance to really dominate. The second is Elgton Jenkins, who is anticipated to be moving to Center. He’ll be a great asset, though he’s still in a contract dispute because of his move to Center. He’s a versatile player who can move around, and he thinks he deserves a bit more money because of it. Oates says that he’s likely correct in that assessment, and the Packers should do what they can to lock him down for what will likely be the best years of his career.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the MLB announced that Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson will now be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame. That’s great and all, but would they actually get in? Probably not, Oates thinks, if the Hall of Fame voters’ view on steroid users is any indication. At least in Pete Rose’s case, his sports betting scandal really cut to the integrity of baseball itself, and will the voters forgive him? They shouldn’t. But the views on sports betting has changed dramatically in just the past few years. It’s hard to watch any sport these days without seeing an ad for some sports betting site pop up. But it wasn’t just his sports betting that made people mad, it was his attitude toward it. Ironically, that attitude is also what made him hall of fame eligible in the first place. But just look at how people view Ryan Braun today. He still gets booed for how he handled his steroid scandal. 

Speaking of baseball, the Brewers are not looking too hot these days. Recently, they were even shut out of four out of five games, which speaks to just how cold their hitting is these days. Manager Pat Murphy even has a decent excuse, they haven’t spent any money to fill the hole that was created when Willy Adames left during the offseason. Sure, Rys Hoskins is doing alright, but he’s not doing enough. Really, though, we shouldn’t be surprised. During the offseason, owner Mark Attanasio made his priorities clear when he said his job is not to win a world series, but to create a “summer of fun” for the fans. You know what would be really fun for the fans? Winning some games. 

Finally, a new sport is looking like it’s coming to the Olympics: flag football. The NFL has given the OK for players to play flag football in the 2028 Olympics. Flag football as an Olympic sport is interesting, mostly because it’ll likely be a battle for second place. But who would that second place even be? At least in baseball, there are plenty of other countries that are sending great players to the MLB. Do other countries even have enough football players to make up a team? And if they did, would they really want to go up against the likes of Lamar Jackson, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Hunter, who all seem perfectly suited for flag football? That is, at least, who they would be going up against if their coaches let them play in the Olympics. We have to wonder if they will allow the tush push in Olympic flag football… 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the NBA may still be holding their playoffs, but it’s already time to start thinking about the NBA draft. Back in ‘85, there were conspiracies abound when the Knicks were given the first pick. Who wouldn’t want the biggest player playing in the biggest market? Well, the conspiracies are back as the Dallas draw number one in the draft and are likely to be taking home Cooper Flagg. Because of course they would! After all the bad press in trading Luka this season, Flagg is a similar player who will likely fill that hole. It’s all rigged, says the internet pundits! But Oates says no it’s not. There are too many people involved today and too many moving parts for something like that to happen. Sure, they had minuscule odds to draw the number one pick, but that’s called luck. At least something a little bit memorable is happening in this draft, unlike last year’s completely forgetting one. Can you even remember who the number one pick was last year?

The Bucks don’t get a first round pick this year, and they won’t until the 2030s. So with that in mind, how are they going to build around Giannis? There’s been reporting this week that he is “open to discussion about his future,” and while these stories happen every year now these reports might have a bit more meat on them. Who could blame Giannis for wanting out of the Bucks? They haven’t built any great team around him, which is what is needed for them to be truly competitive, and Doc Rivers has failed to create any sort of identity within the team. Add in the fact that Dame might be out for next season already and it’s no wonder Giannis is looking at tax laws in other states. Now, he hasn’t given any indication yet that he actually wants to leave, so for now it’s all speculation. Oates thinks he’ll be back next year, but they’ll have to make some moves to put some fresh talent around him.

Finally, it’s the NFL schedule announcement extravaganza! They’ve turned it into a whole moment, a three day event where everyone is clamoring to know who’s playing who when next year. Is Oates clamoring with them? No, because he isn’t looking for hotel rooms in Lambeau too much any more. But what is important is the international games. There will be seven international NFL games next year, and the Packers don’t play in any of them. After last year’s loss in Brazil we can only be happy about that. The Vikings, however, aren’t so lucky, and are playing two games in Europe in back-to-back weeks. Which, all things considered, at least gives them time to recover there, so they shouldn’t be complaining too much. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Bucks have lost to the Indiana Pacers and are out of the NBA playoffs. But that part was expected, at least it was after their first few games. What was expected was what happened after the game when John Haliburton, father of Tyrese Haliburton, got on the court and into Giannis’ face as soon as the game came to an end. Giannis handled it about as well as you would hope, both in the moment and after the game, and John Haliburton has been asked not to attend any more games this season. Let’s see if he actually sticks to that. Tyrese himself is a Wisconsin native, and possibly one of the best players to come from the state in recent years. He was a late bloomer but brough Oshkosh North to win the championship. Oates calls him a winning NBA player, one of the biggest compliments he can give. Sure, he can be a little mouthy, but for him the team comes first.

With the Buck’s latest first round ejection from the playoffs, it’s once again time to speculate about Giannis’ future with the Bucks. Will he go to Houston? Or maybe San Antonio? Oates doesn’t think so. The Bucks won’t want to trade him, there aren’t enough draft picks out there and they don’t want another Kareem Abdul-Jabbar situation on their hands. And Giannis has said that he wants to stay and has a real life set for both him and his family in Milwaukee. There will be a lot of talk in the next few months, but Oates says he thinks he’ll stay put. 

Finally, a big headline in college sports this week is that Texas is expected to spend $20-40 million on their football team this year. After seeing how well Duke did in basketball with that strategy, who can blame them. The Big 10 announced that they had over $900 million in revenue last year and each school will be getting around $62 million each. And Nebraska Quarterback Dylan Raiola signed a big NIL deal with Adidas. The money is certainly flowing in college sports these days. Let’s just hope the players' transcripts and GPA grows with their pocketbooks… 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the NFL Draft has left Green Bay, bringing praise to the smallest city in the National Football League. At least, Oates’ nephew had a good time. Attendance was better than expected at around 600,000. At least that’s how many free tickets were given out, who knows how many more were hanging out in bars across town. It’s certainly better for the old timers like Lucas to hang out in a bar than standing around on concrete all day. The Packers did a great job at showcasing Wisconsin, and did a pretty good job drafting too.

The highlight was obvious to everyone: Mark Murphy coming on stage on Thursday to announce that the Packers had drafted wide receiver Matthew Golden. The Packers, and Murphy, played to the crowd and it worked. Not only that, but the Packers took home two wide receivers, with Savion Williams coming into the third round. Was this a surprise? Sure, says Oates, but not entirely unexpected. The Packers current wide receivers have grown a little too comfortable in their roles while failing to take the big jump that was expected of them. Add in Christian Watson’s injury that will take him out for the majority of next season and maybe the receiving core could use a little fire. The Packers didn’t focus on everything that Oates expected, but you can’t scratch every itch. They still made some good moves, and while Oates isn’t one to issue draft grades, he still thinks they did pretty well for themselves. Golden is about as fast of a guy as you can get, and in the modern NFL that can do you some real good. Just look at what Xavier Worthy did for Kansas City after all… 

Finally, Lucas turns to the Bucks and Damian Lillard’s season-ending injury. Dame tore his Achilles on Sunday, and an injury like that could take him out for next season as well. Is this the end of Dame? Probably not, Oates thinks. He’s a great player and a proud player, and while he is up there age-wise he certainly isn’t out of the picture yet. This show was recorded as the Bucks were taking on the Pacers in what could be the last game of the season for Milwaukee and Lucas has one suggestion: it’s time to fire Doc Rivers. The Bucks roster is an embarrassment right now, and the team is at real risk of losing Giannis. When that happens, the Bucks stock is going to go down and down. The Bucks have been a real mess of an organization as of late, one that reminds Lucas a little bit of Browns. Who knows why! 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the NFL Draft is almost here and after months of preparations Green Bay is just about ready for action. Is the town of 105,000 ready for the draft? They have to be, Oates thinks. The NFL wouldn’t allow the Draft to come to town if they weren’t. The crowds shouldn’t overwhelm anything, and Appleton and the Fox Valley are just down the road. If you can’t find something to do in Green Bay, you can certainly find a bar in Appleton. Still, this is the first time in a very long time that the Draft has come to Wisconsin, and Oates thinks it might have taken some bargaining to happen. After all, the Packers didn’t want to play any international games until last year. But it’s Lambeau Field, so why wouldn’t it be in Green Bay? How many other stadiums are out there that people make pilgrimages to? It’s a great thing for the entire state, Oates says, just as long as people aren’t upset that the frozen tundra isn’t frozen in April…

The Packers have pick number 23 this year, and plenty of names have been thrown around for the next potential name to wear the green and gold. But it likely won’t be any Badger players. Lucas and Oates agree that no one from Madison is being drafted in the first round. Maybe by Saturday, but not likely before then. The last time the Badgers had any first round draft picks was 2017 when T.J. Watt was picked up by the Steelers. It’s not that the Badger’s haven’t had solid players who are NFL ready. But ever since they had six offensive linemen drafted in one year, they’ve had a hit.

But the Packers are the real star this week, and Lucas wants to know: how is Gutekunst as a drafter? He’s fine, Oates thinks, but he relies too much on pure athletics and RAS scores. The Packers have drafted a few great RAS players in recent years, and have they had a particularly dynamic time in the NFL? Did they even when they were in college? You can’t ignore the RAS, obviously, but playability needs to be a factor. Still, everyone has to pick a few busts every once in a while. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates meet up over Zoom after  the Masters had one of their biggest tournaments in years. They averaged over 12 million viewers on CBS this year, the biggest since 2018, as Rory McIlroy took the victory. Does Oates watch a lot of golf? Not really, but he’ll watch the Masters every year. Golf can be a bit slow, but it can also have some of the best drama in sports. McIlroy was running away with it, then made some big mistakes, then was facing off against Bryson DeChambeau. Augusta National is a beautiful course, and a real workout too. You only have a little bit of space to hit your drives, with the crowd bunched right up against the fareway. Good thing Lucas and Oates don’t have to play there… 

McIlroy had a great success story, Oates thinks. He’s aggressive, but has learned over time not to take every risky shot that comes his way. He blew a big lead in the 2011 Masters because of that, and now has earned a grand slam of golf championships. According to Oates, he has got to be one of the world’s top players. 

Turning to Madison, the Badgers Football team will hold their spring showdown this Saturday at Camp Randall. They took some big hits in the past few days, losing two big players. Left Tackle Kevin Heywood is out for the season already with a torn ACL, and Tight End Tanner Koziol says he’s entering the transfer portal. The portal window will be open through Friday, and hopefully the Badgers can make a few moves to bring some new faces on board. But whoever they bring in, if you do go to the showdown this weekend, maybe bring a program. They already have 30 new players on the roster if you include the freshmen…

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Florida beat out Houston to win the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, but Houston didn’t have the biggest meltdown of the week. That would go to Duke, who’s offense seemed to entirely shut down in the second half of their loss against Houston in their Final Four matchup. How do you go more than 10 minutes only scoring one basket? Why would Duke let Houston set up their press? Whenever Houston scored, Duke took their time setting up the ball and giving Houston a chance to set up their press, which stopped any chance Duke had at making a play. Houston’s defense is good, reminding Oates of a Dick Bennett defense, and shut down Duke so effectively they were able to head to the finals. 

But then it was Houston’s turn to have a meltdown when they were unable to close Florida. Houston had four straight possessions with turnovers to end the game, confusing even head coach Kelvin Sampson. But that wasn’t the real kicker of the game, Lucas thinks, it was the fouls. Whistles were few and far between in the first half, and the coaches decided to make up for it in the second half. It cheats the players, Lucas thinks, and it’s even worse when the refs decide that teams need to have an equal number of fouls to end the game. Just look at Wisconsin vs Duke for proof of that…

Meanwhile, the Badgers Men’s Basketball team hit the portal hard, picking up three potentially big players. Point Guard Nick Boyd will be coming in from San Diego, who Oates thinks will bring some real toughness and experience to the team. Boyd was convinced to come to Madison thanks to John Tonje, who spoke with him and convinced him that the locker room was worth it. Then there’s the Aussie Austin Rapp, who last played in Portland. He will add some good size to the Badgers, as long as he can get over his fear of getting to the paint… Then there’s Andrew Rohde, a Wisconsin native from Brookfield who will be coming home from a stint in Virginia. All three players look good on paper, and Lucas and Oates are excited to see what they’ll bring next year. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the boys are back in the studio as they take a look at the Brewers performance so far. They hadn’t yet won a game as of recording and are in rough shape. Most of their pitching staff is hurt, with tons of players on the IL. Where was the offseason improvement? They lost Devin Williams and Willy Adames during the offseason, and it doesn’t look so far like they’ve made any real improvement since last year. Some say that Mark Attanasio is just looking to sell the team at this point, but the Brewers have been good in recent years! Whatever Attansio wants to do with the team, there’s still an entire season ahead of the Brewers and they still have plenty of time to turn things around. 

Meanwhile in college basketball, the transfer portal is open and over 1,300 players are looking for a move. That includes freshman guard for the Badgers Daniel Freitag, who we just haven’t had a real chance to see this season. Is there a chance that he doesn’t have talent? Sure. But it’s more likely his spot was taken by Kamari McGee. Freitag had a lot going athletically and had size and speed, but he wasn’t a great shooter, which is a must in modern basketball. Maybe it was just that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Players aren’t the only ones moving around either, as coaches are beginning to fall like dominoes. One notable move is Buzz Williams heading to Maryland, which Lucas and Oates think is a good move. Buzz is someone who can make teams competitive enough to get into the NCAA Tournament, and he likes to throw some money around for recruits. That’s all fine and good, until an athletic director decides to turn off the money…

Finally in the NCAA Tournament, it’s down to the Final Four: Duke, Florida, Houston, and Auburn. Four number one seeds, which Oates thinks might be the beginning of the end of college basketball, all thanks to NIL. These power conference teams can just buy up any good player from mid-sized schools, leaving everyone else in the dust. There were no real Cinderella teams this year, and if things keep going this way Oates doesn’t think there will be in the future. Just think about what all this transferring year after year is doing to these players' academic transcripts! 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates are again remote as the Badgers Men’s Basketball team falls to BYU in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. John Tonje gave an incredible effort, setting a new school record for points scored in a NCAA Tournament game with 37, but it wasn’t enough. The second round of the tournament is always going to be against a good team, and nothing can be taken for granted. With a disappointing defense, Tonje’s efforts were almost enough to save the Badgers but not quite. BYU has a great offense, and without good defense to counter that it was a tough game.
It would have been great to have more than just one year with Tonje, Lucas says, but he was still a great pickup for the team. He’s what people like to call a “multi-leveled scorer,” and can shoot from just about anywhere. He was not at the top of anybody’s list last year, but Greg Gard saw the potential in him and brought it out. Will he make it in the NBA? Maybe! He’s not the tallest player in the world, but he’s athletic and he can score, a must in modern basketball. That is to say, it makes sense why Gard gave him the ball in the final play of the year.

Speaking of Gard, there are still plenty of people who have never liked him and never will, and a loss in the second round of the tournament is likely to fuel some of that discourse. But Oates is still behind him, saying that coaches around the league still have big respect for him. He navigated tough waters this year, with NIL and the transfer portal, but at the end of the day, Oates thinks he’s still a pretty good coach. 

Finally, and speaking of great coaches, Lucas and Oates turned to Women’s Hockey as Mark Johnson took home his eighth national title, and his fourth in six years. One day, there might be a statue of Mark Johnson, or at least something to honor what he’s done. He builds a great program, not just recruiting but coaching players. He’s all about Wisconsin, and he’s even humble. What more could someone do to deserve a statue in Wisconsin?