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. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced each week by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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… 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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… 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.