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.

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 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. 

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 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. 

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 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… 

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, 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.