Indeed, welcome aboard.
It is Make the Call on the Civic Media Network.
I'm Jimmy Cuska, and thank you for joining us this week as we are Post Brewer's World Series Victory
Celebrations.
We have tried our best to match the South Relic 10,000 beers.
And well, we've made it out on the other side and promise to bring you a very enlightening and informative sports talk show here this weekend.
Again, I'm Jimmy Kosko, sports director here at Civic Media and as always joined by a couple of knuckleheads here along for the ride.
That would be Greg Gunderson in the north.
What's up, Greg?
Jimmy, I've got five screens in front of me.
Three of them are working and it just feels kind of correct.
You know, it's that kind of day.
That's awesome.
And Gray, just so you know, you're my best friend.
So I just want to say that out loud right now.
Just want to make sure you know that you're my best friend.
All right.
On record.
Consider it on record.
Sounds good.
And then of course, uh, we, there's also a Parker Olson in Madison and you know, we don't really need to hear from him.
So we're just going to get right into it today on the show.
about a lot of things.
We're going to talk about football.
We're going to talk about basketball.
There's a big college football game happening today.
Uh, that just happens to involve a couple of teams with a couple of people on the show on opposite ends of the spectrum, which is why me as the host can just not hear from Parker in any case or point here.
So, uh, we'll just keep moving right along their park.
Okay.
Fine.
Parker.
Welcome to the show.
What's up, buddy?
Hey, what's a guy got to do to get a little airtime?
Well, for start now, I'm kidding.
So it's a background.
So I'm UW-Plaethos broadcaster and.
Parker, of course, worked at UW Whitewater on their student paper for years.
So, um, we have found ourselves now in the stadium a couple of times together where I've been doing the TV podcast
been there to observe.
Uh, and this week, of course, is Whitewater Playaville playing in the George Chris Memorial Bowl.
Um, to number two teams in the top five, two teams that are undefeated, winning team gets at least a share of the conference championship.
So, uh, it's a pretty big week.
So we are pretty bitter rivals for this day only, Parker, because after today you'll be my
my other best friend, but today you're not.
Today you're opposite of best
friend.
Today I will be very angry at you.
I am sure for at least 60 minutes of the day, even if it's going well, I'll still be angry at you during those 60 minutes, I think.
I just want to know what it's like to be Greg Anderson in this because he has seen the pre-show meeting chat, which was just us trading barbs the whole time.
about the smash-up and it just makes me wonder, Gray.
You're just kind of just watching this all happen in real time.
Did you think we'd even get to a point
where we'd have a show today?
You know, I wasn't sure what I believed.
I don't believe anything I can't see right in front of me, but what I could see is that you guys both have some ammo.
Like this looks like a good week for two people in your two positions, but only one of you had a picture with the minor Zach, so I know who has the edge.
Geez, you
had to bring that out.
I will say I was actually quite jealous and really annoyed when Jimmy sent that.
picture.
I would really, really love to hold that axe because it's cool.
I think it's made by the same people that made the Paul Bunyan's axe too.
So like
it's a cool thing.
It is a 10 foot tall pickaxe.
Maybe it's 12 feet.
I can't.
It's taller than me.
I'm, you know, I'm not not as tall as this thing, but it's pretty cool.
But yeah, you know, coming up here in a few hours, I'll be taking another selfie with it.
So it'd be pretty cool.
Maybe.
All right.
Well, let's move along in the show.
So the banter is aside.
We're going to talk with Mike.
with the Sports Week in Review this week.
Of course, the Packers have had a lot of news that's come about, specifically in regards to Mike Parsons, but also with all the other things happening with the Packers.
We're going to talk about that and their matchup with the Patriots coming up here in just a couple minutes.
Later in the program, we are going to look into college sports.
We're going to look at basketball season getting underway.
Also, the Badgers playing in a matchup with Rutgers this week, seeing if they can bounce back there.
And then of course, Mike Clemens will offer that Sports Week in Review, as I said, near the end of the show.
Let's dive into the Packers though.
uh, to start and the Packers play the Patriots this week.
Patriots is kind of a weird team.
I can't really figure them out, but for the Packers, all this Micah Parsons stuff has got people feeling, Oh, hey, something good is happening.
And we're kind of ignoring all the things that have not quite gone the Packers way as of late, uh, you know, with the injuries, with the offensive line, with all these other things, but I want to start with Micah parts and start the good gray.
What does Micah Parsons coming back at some point mean for the Packers?
Well, Jimmy, you know, the, the funny part is the.
answer to that isn't necessarily as definitive as we'd like it to be, but it's pretty easy to imagine he makes a pretty big splash immediately, just being the player he's always been.
But that is the question, of course, after an ACL and actually more specifically a dual knee injury.
He tore a meniscus as well at the time back there in December.
Will he still have the jump off the ball that he's shown his entire career with Dallas and in his first few games with Green Bay?
That said, the Packers pass rush has been performing decently, even without Parsons.
So
Again, here we are thinking, add Micah in there, and we are scary as it gets.
But frankly, even if he's still taking some time as Tucker Kraft has done to come back from this knee injury, I like the Packers in general when it comes to rushing the passer.
With players like, of course, you've got Lucas Van Ness started the season strong.
He's gotten a little quieter lately.
But specifically, deny Dennis Sutton, the fourth round rookie.
He's currently eighth in pressure rate across the NFL right now, second among rookies.
with 26 pressures.
In other words, he's creating pressure often and not with just a small sample size.
It's not like he's only been in doing this for a couple games.
It's been all season long.
So even if you've only got Parsons on a limited snap count, which I fully expect obvious passing downs, third down situations.
Boy, I'll tell you what, if Micah gets a sack.
In his first game back, we're going to be able to count the number of Packers fans in the stadium at the time.
It looks like we can pretty clearly expect him back against the Rams, though.
They activated his 21-day practice return window on Wednesday the 4th.
The 21 days would bring him right to Wednesday the 25th, which is the game against the Rams.
Before that, you've got the bye week, before you've got the Vikings, and then any sooner.
And we're looking at this week against the Patriots.
So to answer your question, Jimmy, I know I've used 100 words for a five word...
answer here.
I want to believe he's going to make a big splash.
Frankly though, you gotta see it before you can believe it.
ACL recoveries are better than they've ever been, but every once in a while you see that player.
Jordy Nelson comes to mind.
Still a great guy, still a great mind, but never the same as he was before that non-contact injury.
Frighteningly similar to what Micah went down with last December.
Well, and something that was really stuck out to me, Gray, was the fact that Parsons addressed the media the other day and he straight up said,
I might not be who I was, and I'm definitely not going to be who I was when I'm first back.
Like, this is a process.
He's got to build into this.
He acknowledged he didn't get the full ramp up that you normally would with the training camp and offseason, OTAs, all that stuff.
He didn't get all that.
He's got 21 days of practice here to get ready for perhaps that game against the Rams.
He's, I think he...
He sounds almost at peace with that he sounds accepting of that which is awesome because you talk to anyone who there has had an injury and It's really really hard.
It is so hard mentally for forget the physical aspect It's really hard mentally and then once you get back and you're not performing maybe how you used to that's really frustrating so to hear Micah go on about
You know what?
I'm not going to be exactly who I was.
There is going to be a snap count.
It's going to be situational.
I'm not going to be exactly what I was, but you know what?
You can never question my motor and you can never question how much effort I'm putting in and how hard I'm trying.
And that's exactly what you want to hear, right?
You've got to hear that he's being pretty measured about the fact that he might not have that impact, but he's going to give it his damn best.
And you know what?
Any Micah Parsons is better than no Micah Parsons, and I'm really excited to get him back on the field, Gray.
I completely agree.
You know, I think one of the biggest things that he brings to the team is that drive, that competition, that motor that, you know, it reminds me of Clay Matthews.
Even if there wasn't much hope of Clay getting to the ball, he was giving it 110% every single play because you never know when fumble is going to happen or when the guy you're going up against might make a misstep.
You can't predict anything.
And so you give 110%.
There was one particular play last season before he went down, before Parsons was injured, where it was both Rashawn Gary and Micah Parsons breaking.
through on a run play.
And the play was away from Micah Parsons, but he was still giving more effort than Gary did.
And it just stood out.
It was the difference between those two players, both incredibly athletically gifted, but Micah would just always give 110% and it really stood out.
So yeah, I was really impressed with how open he was that when he started getting back, he said that he felt a hitch.
That was the word that he used and he felt like he was lacking some power.
And I believe he finished that by saying he's got a stack 20 days and hopefully on
day 21 he feels incredible and I thought how cool is it that somebody who's known for performing at that high level is is that.
that open and honest with the realistic possibilities of returning from that injury.
That said, if and when we get a prime Micah back this season, I cannot wait to see what Jonathan Gannon does with that added to the lineup.
That's frankly terrifying.
I don't know of a team.
Even the Bears with their incredible offensive line performance so far this season, I want to see that.
That's the matchup I suddenly want more than any other all season long across the entire NFL, not just as a Packers fan.
I think what's interesting too is we talked about this before the year.
that they designed essentially two defenses one that included parson's and one that did not and the one that did not is actually done a pretty good job so far this year so now that they will have them there i'm curious about the changes that would be made do you do you have any idea gray about what that might entail if they add in somebody if parson's caliber even at say 85 percent like how does how is that what impact does that make like what
possible changes could there be with the defense when you bring him back into the fold?
Well, Jimmy, the simplest version of how you can tweak that is more of a lineup tweak than an actual game plan.
Say somebody like Brenton Cox seeing fewer pass rushing snaps in exchange for Micah Parsons, you make the same attacks, you dial up the same pressures.
But it's pretty tough to imagine that's all that Gannon would want to do.
I mean, that's like being handed a gun in a knife fight and saying, yeah, keep just swinging this.
No, you're going to pull the trigger.
You're going to want to do what that player does that the other ones can't.
So that's
I suppose the answer to that question depends on whether Micah performs highly enough to draw double teams as he did almost every single play when he was on the field last season and going back further with his time in Dallas.
If people see on tape that he's missing a step or if anything like that, that's going to show and I think it's going to show in the form of similar strategies still going well for the Packers defense in general.
I think he'll still be effective, but he won't be Micah Parsons effective at that point.
So if there is in fact an actual scheme adjustment,
Frankly, it's anybody's guess.
Jonathan Gannon has been dialing up some really exotic pressures.
Really building around the idea of getting a free rusher and we know that free rusher is almost never going to be Micah Parsons But if he does draw double teams Ganon might send a safety to be that that agap mugger and just hey, we're coming free I think Ganon's job gets a little bit easier no matter what happens if only for a game But I don't think we'll actually know what his impact on the scheme will be until at least his second game back Maybe even his third depending on how fast he ramps up.
Let's talk about this matchup real quick Packers Patriots rematch of Super Bowl 31.
So, you know
We're all in on that.
We're all going to go down memory lane, but no more to the point.
This is a Patriots team that's kind of hard to figure.
I mean, they've, they've been a little up and down quarterbacks been a bit up and down.
It's, it's really, you know, it's mid season NFL stuff, right?
Teams are so much different than what we expected in the preseason at this point.
What are some things to watch for in this matchup?
Drake may that that right there is going to be just about everything with the Packers defense playing out of their mind.
Evan Williams is arguably the top safety in the league right now.
And in one of the best safety rooms, I would say maybe the best safety room was Xavier McKinney and Javon Bullard.
But Drake may started the season off rough.
He almost looked like your member Mason Crosby's off year where, hey, we still believe in you, but you got to get your act together and makes may is
he's gotten his act together in a hurry.
He I believe was actually the offensive player of the week this past week after a string of some pretty solid performances.
But how the Packers safeties.
bail out the corners or not.
And how is Brandon Ceasey going to do covering receivers?
I don't think there's anybody he's going to lock in with like he has it in a couple games.
Like he was locked in on Justin Jefferson back against the Vikings.
Ceasey clearly our top corner this year.
And I think the defensive backs are really going to define this matchup.
Drake may versus the defensive backs and whether the linebackers can clean up a run game from New England.
But honestly, I'm just watching Drake.
If he has a good day, it could be a spot of trouble.
I think it's really fair that the Patriots are a three point favorite, which is a
total, even in a home game.
But the way the teams are playing, here's a really interesting, not really consequential item, but just a weird little coincidence.
Every single week, the Packers and the Patriots have gotten the same game result.
We lose, they lose.
We win, they win.
Just go back to the game by game, and it's the exact same.
This is only going to matter if the teams tie this weekend, and then people are going to be accusing people of voodoo and all kinds of weird stuff.
But to answer your question, Jimmy, I'm watching Drake May.
I'm watching Evan Williams to be on his game.
If you can lock down one receiver, you're basically taking away half the Patriots offense the way they're playing this year.
Yeah, it's going to be really intriguing.
And on the other side of this, and Parker, this is something that you and I could see.
We don't even need gray spreadsheets and all the notes and stuff that he's got.
I'm really curious to see what the heck they're going to do up front with the offensive line and how they're going to run the ball against literally anybody.
Can they get a 75 yard rusher?
We don't even want a hundred.
We want 75 yards rushing this game.
Jimmy, when I was getting ready for the show today, I looked at the Packers stats and I saw, I went onto the ESPN page and at the top it's got leading passer, leading rusher and all that stuff.
And I misinterpreted, I saw Marshawn Lloyd's name there and I saw 149 yards and I assumed that was a game.
high that he had had.
No, that's his season total.
That's how many rushing yards the Packers RB won for the first couple of weeks had.
149 yards.
It's not great, Jimmy.
It's not good.
Not looking good.
Let's
say this out loud.
Not only is that March on Lloyd, you know, the RB one total, that is the highest.
rushing totally have.
I
Josh Jacobs is just getting back into it.
Nobody has more rushing yards on the team than Marshawn Lloyd with 149.
That said, the Packers are the winningest team ever through eight games with this few rushing yards.
You knew I was going to have a stat, guys.
You knew I had something.
Well, nobody's ever had this few rushing yards this deep into a season.
I don't think the Packers are 485 rushing yards.
It's
just a team is signing random dudes off the street to start it out of position offensive line.
I mean, things are bad.
I mean,
It's not even, it's not even, it's just bad.
And it starts with the guards guys.
I actually saw a breakdown.
If, as long as you're comfortable going by PFF grades, if you look at just the guards and the various players who have played in the offensive guard position, it is.
There are currently four Packers guards ranked in the bottom 15 of run blockers.
That's Burton, Jennings, Monk, and Banks.
But at least Jennings and Banks are in the top half of pass blockers.
Pass blocking has gotten a little bit better.
Then you got Travis Glover in the bottom half of both stats.
The only decent performer at guard so far for the Packers this season has been Lakin Tomlinson.
He's in the top half of both, but he's still only at about the 60-65th percentile for either category.
So really they're building around him right now, which
might be why we haven't seen Kevin Zytler yet.
Zytler, by the way, Stenović, OC Adam Stenović had some comments about him.
Zytler was coming off an injury and the plan was to start him, but Lakin Tomlinson overperforming is why we haven't seen him.
My question is the actual reason we haven't seen Kevin Zytler.
Aaron Banks's 77 million dollar contract he signed back in March guys.
I really worry that the Packers are falling victim to the sunk cost fallacy We paid this guy so we got to get something out of him.
That's just a logical error Do you think that's what's going on with the Packers offense right now with playing banks when there might be better alternatives?
I don't think so just from the aspect that these are so bad that they would literally sign three dudes off the street to try to help a terrible situation at the line that being said
And we'll wrap it up with this the broader context of this is that the Packers are in a division in which every team has a winning record So there's a little more pressure on them to perform well because yeah at this point You know pretty much everybody's would make the playoffs because every other team and division in the NFC is pretty awful But that that at the same time you can't really rely on that either Packers need to get wins and this seems like a winnable game
completely
agree.
At this point, Jimmy, honestly, it wouldn't be unfair to start a discussion about whether draft capital is dedicated in the near future to offensive line, though there are notable players like Keisha and Nixon coming up on free agency.
So I'm thinking this time next year,
I'm hoping this time next year we're having a much more pleasant conversation about the Packers offensive line in general.
Packers, Patriots, that's the matchup on Sunday.
For those of you listening to this show at the Sunday afternoon replay, well, you're probably watching the Packers and not listening to us.
So call this your preview for that.
We're looking forward to that coming up.
Later in the show, I'm going to hear from Mike Clemens of Sports Week in Review.
He was in Green Bay covering everything happening with Mike Parsons in his return practice.
We'll hear from Mike later in the program.
Coming up though in just a bit, going to talk some college sports and also talking a little bit about the box.
I think we even talked a lot about them.
Got to get them in here as part of Make the Bull, which is right here on the Civic Media Network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Indeed, welcome back.
It is Jimmy, Parker, Gray, all hanging out with you on a weekend.
As we run through everything happening in sports, coming up in just a bit, we're going to go through all the college sports happening.
It's a busy, busy week in college sports with basketball season, starting hockey underway, football, obviously continuing volleyball, heading the home stretch with conference games coming up, conference tournaments happening near the end of the month.
There's a lot happening in sports and college.
We're going to get into all that coming up here in just a little bit.
But before we get there, guys, we haven't talked at all.
Really about the buck since Yannis got traded once Yannis got traded it's like and that's just for us But for kind of the state of Wisconsin in general the bucks just kind of like went from like oh, yeah, yeah go bucks to like oh wait We saw the basketball team in Milwaukee.
Look what's going on here?
And I would just want to start with us.
We knew the bucks this year.
We're gonna struggle Brand new roster completely overhauled their last place in the Eastern Conference right now I think we all expected that I was more curious to see what would happen with the team that they traded
With for you got us and sent him away and that is the Miami Heat and Miami had a pretty slow start and They are getting absolutely raked over the coals for just how poorly this experiment has started They are currently three and six tied for ninth place in the Eastern Conference, but you know it has been Not a great start to all this people are all of a sudden starting to pull coals a bit and the honest authentic Goodbo's like legacy and all this other stuff curious for you guys, you know
Not a, not a statistical deep dive or anything, but just how you think this is all gone.
Is this gone about as, as far as breakups go, as, as good as it could have gone, you know, here in the first month of the season, I, I look at where things are at.
I think the bucks are kind of meeting very low expectations, but I think the heat wanted more out of this.
Yeah.
I mean, I think the, if I could put one word to all this, I think the word would be sad.
to kind of put a damper on it.
I mean, the Bucks obviously weren't going to be good.
We knew that.
What are they sitting at?
One in seven right now.
They're not good.
They're not going to be good.
There isn't a ton of hope that they will be good this year.
And we've had that conversation as soon as Yanis made the decision to leave.
But yeah, if I'm in Miami, I am also sad because I just spent and worked.
so hard to get Yana Santenta freaking Kumpo to come over and play for me and Sure, he's leading that team in points in most games, right?
But they don't have the record that you want three and six.
That's not you're not delivering Like if it was six and three.
Yeah.
All right Three and six and again, we haven't even played ten games yet.
So
How much can you really say that you know about anybody?
I'm not by any means am I saying that this deal was terrible for the heat and they shouldn't have done it and you should have stayed with Milwaukee.
That's not at all the point that we are at right now.
We don't have enough data.
But yeah, I mean, if I'm in Miami, I'm kind of itching for more.
I think it's the best way to put it, Gray.
Well, I think, yeah, you've got to resist the temptation to ask those what if questions.
And I think the heat might have failed to resist that temptation last season, the overriding question being, hey, what would this team look like if we had Giannis on it?
And well, the answer is probably not what people expected.
The one thing, of course, there's still a lot of time for them to build on what success they have had and to readjust the game plan.
But the flip side of that is that we can't really ask his Bucks fans, what would the Bucks look like if we had kept Giannis?
Because the answer is different.
And that's as far as we could really
take it?
How would Yanis perform under new head coaches and with different teammates?
No idea.
It could have been better.
It could have been worse.
Yanis might not have wanted to.
You know, it could be a question of will that frankly, there's just too many variables and knobs that have been tweaked for us to really even develop expectations.
And it's so early in the season.
Now, I don't expect the Bucks to suddenly come on much stronger than anybody expected.
But frankly, that possibility is still open for the heat.
So
If anything, it still seems like it was the right move.
And yeah, messy breakup.
But earlier, we were talking about the sunk cost fallacy, the tendency to stick with things longer than you should because of the time you've spent on them, the effort and money that you've spent on them.
It was time for him to go.
Whether he has success elsewhere, I hope so, not yet.
But I still believe in Yanis, personally.
Well, and you can look at all the stats and advanced metrics and stuff you want in the world, but you're right.
I mean, it hasn't been enough time.
I just, I'm hesitant to call this all, you know, all bad things.
I mean, we knew the Bucks would be bad.
We knew that.
We knew that their record, they weren't going to compete for anything.
And they probably won't for a while, but it would be nice to see Yannis have a little bit better of a start, just to make you feel a little better about everything that he did here.
And, you know, just for him, just, uh,
just to, you know, just gave so much of Milwaukee.
You want to see them do well, post-Milwaukee.
But as it is, the heat currently sitting at three and six bucks at one and seven post trades.
That's our box update for the week.
We have some color sports to talk about.
We're going to do that coming up next.
And we'll hear from my comments later in the program.
This is Make The Call in the Civic Media Network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Halfway through here on Make the Call as we...
Make a turn towards the end of the program.
We'll hear from Mike Clemens, who will offer a sports week in review.
Also going to get a rundown of the football playoffs.
We are heading very, very close to state championships.
The eight player championship is a week from today.
If you're listening on Saturday and then of course 11 player football the week before Thanksgiving for two days at Camp Randall Stadium.
That's all coming your way here in just a bit.
Speaking of Camp Randall Stadium, the Wisconsin Badgers football program is in a matchup with Rutgers today.
That is.
Nah, well, let's be honest about it.
These games against Rutgers, man, it feels like you're playing a directional school.
Not a whole lot of hype for this.
However, Badgers are apparently making a change of quarterback this week due to injuries, Parker.
Yeah, I can't fathom this one.
I was hoping that we would have the chance to be able to talk to Jay Kokorowski this week from Badger Observer.
Unfortunately, he couldn't join us today because I had seen some rumors.
Earlier this week, there was a chance that Ryan Hopkins would get the start at QB over Colton Joseph for the Badgers and I laughed and I said, that's dumb.
And I continued on with my day because I thought that was a weird thing to say after even we have talked about how the Badgers have maybe left a little bit to be desired.
They didn't win that game at UCLA that
If their offense plays just a little bit better or any better, they may have won that game.
And after last week getting shut out at Iowa, sure that sucks, but Colton Joseph is obviously your passer, but also he's your leading rusher on this team.
Like him or not, he's really important, Colton Joseph.
So it really surprised me to see that Ryan Hopkins, after getting put in during that blowout loss against Iowa, he did get put in during that game.
So maybe they saw something there and maybe there were signs of injuries then already with Colton Joseph.
But yeah, I honestly, I'm kind of shocked by this one.
I didn't think, not to give you and I told you so from...
where that was seven weeks ago.
But remember when Colton Joseph was saying about how he got really batted around against Notre Dame and he was saying how he kind of like was feeling a little sore, had to recover and I was like, Hey, you're playing with the big boys now.
This ain't old Dominion.
Um, I know that he's played eight weeks of football now and wear and tear, but I don't love that I'm hearing that a guy isn't going to start because of an undisclosed.
Yeah.
Yeah, he's kinda hurt, he's available though.
We'll start the backup.
It does bring me joy though that this is against Rutgers, or not joy, it brings me relief that this is against Rutgers and it doesn't matter, right?
Parker, you want something a little bit even more than relief and not to wish ill on anybody, but at least at the time of this conversation, Purdue's receiver KJ Duff is listed as doubtful.
Now, if he ends up not available for Rutgers during this game, that might be the biggest blessing that could possibly happen for the Badgers because if you look at their offense, Rutgers offense, Duff has 774 yards receiving so far out of a team total 1818.
This guy is half of their passing offense.
Nobody else
has more than Jordan Houston at 264 in second place.
So if the ball is moving through the air for Rutgers, it's going into KJ Duff's hands.
So what do they look like?
Honestly, the lack of Colton Joseph might not even be the biggest offensive absence on the field in this matchup, I have to say.
Duff also has nine of their 17 receiving touchdowns.
No one else has more than two.
So again, what do we see?
Hopefully not too much of a mess.
Hopkins was a little bit all over the place.
He went 8 of 13 for 93 yards, including a 57 yarder though.
So that 93 yards is a little bit inflated.
Andy threw a tough interception on fourth and 18 in the fourth quarter after the game was basically already over.
So honestly, we just got it.
I almost feel like we just jumped up into that question mark block on Mario Party and we're waiting to see where the spinner stops at this point on this game.
Well, it's not just football happening.
Of course, last night Badgers played Delaware and men's basketball.
So basketball season is underway.
You always you go to every year with Wisconsin's men's basketball program You're not really sure what to what you're gonna get like you you look for the key players coming back You look at the transfers and they seemingly pull a rabbit out of a hat every year where somebody's going off for 20 points 25 points a game They always got those guys down low that they can just dump it to and let them do their thing This year's team again, I think is flying well under the radar to the point They weren't ranked to start the year the middle of the pack projections by you know all the prognostication service
Wisconsin, Ben's basketball, and even to a degree, pretty much any of the division one teams in Wisconsin are flying pretty well under the radar going into this year.
Yeah.
I mean, the badger, you're 100% right.
I mean, the badgers in the gray guard era, I'll put it that way, haven't really had, I don't know, not the flash.
They haven't had the prestige maybe going into seasons, which I think frankly is more so.
kind of a reflection of the times that we live in in college sports.
More so maybe than the teams themselves, because at the end of the day we've actually seen some pretty solid teams.
We haven't, we've by no means seen a Orion Final Four type of team, but we've seen some pretty solid Badger basketball in these last couple of years.
I'm really interested to see how some of those new faces do here.
Weren't exactly flashy and
probably not the greatest start to the season against Denver in that 75-68 win the other day.
But the Badgers, they're still gonna have Nolan Winter, they've still got Brayden Carrington, then you got a couple of guys off the bench, Jack Janicki and Austin Rapp.
So those are your kind of like, these are my guys that I remember.
That's always what I do when I watch my first Badger basketball game of the year.
I go, okay, who do I remember?
Cause it's just a revolving door, especially in basketball in college.
But these new faces, two guys that I
I think that you're going to want to look to.
Ian, Ion, I don't know how to say his name, I'm sorry.
Elmer, he's a transfer out of Miami, Ohio.
He's a senior fifth year, I believe.
Could be a really, really big piece.
A lot of people are going to remember that Miami, Ohio was actually really good last year and had quite the run.
So he could be a really important piece here.
Some three-point shooting abilities, then Owen Fox, well as well, out of Australia.
Another guy that the Badgers are probably really excited about and a team that maybe doesn't have somebody that's
Seems like superstar capability.
You don't really have like an AJ store kind of guy You're still gonna have a lot of really nice pieces all around that might just be a absolute thorn in defensive sides
So that's just basketball obviously getting underway hockey has been going for a bit Wisconsin men and women's hockey both top ranked just doing their thing man It is so great to have top notch hockey in Wisconsin.
That's contributing volleyball still having a good run here I think right now where all the attention is on what they do in the big 10 conference tournament because well that
That is basically a mini NCAA tournament at this point.
There aren't a whole lot of teams outside the Big 10 that give them a run for their money.
If you can make it to the Big 10 tournament, you're elite, no matter what.
So that's what's coming too for the Badgers.
I think, you know, the overlap month, November, can be exciting in a number of ways.
It can also be a little exhausting sometimes, right, to track everything.
But we do our best here, and we'll be joined once again here in the near future.
We'll have both Jake Kokorowski, a Badger Observer, as well as Frank Gargano from here at Civic Media to join us and talk about all things Wisconsin.
Badgers.
All right guys, it's time to shift gears just a little bit because it is a huge Saturday in college sports in Wisconsin It involves college football and it involves two teams that are undefeated going into a rivalry trophy game with potentially a number one ranking in the nation on the line that of course being UW Whitewater at UW-Platteville There are a lot of things we could say about this game.
There's a lot of things I could say is
The home announcer for Platteville and as a TV announcer who's been in whitewater the last two weeks, Parker has a lot he could say as someone who practically lives on campus at whitewater, who I'm pretty sure this matchup Saturday.
I don't think there's a way to undersell it.
This is the game this year.
This is the biggest game this year, you know, since Wheaton and North Central played a few weeks ago in the CCIW because you've got two of the top teams of the entire nation undefeated in week eight.
Just crazy, by the way, the WIAC going head to head with the conference title on the line.
This is insane.
At the beginning of the year, we had.
If you look at the YX schedule and you just, every week there's at least one game that you circle like, oh, okay, that's got conference championship implications.
That one does, that one does.
Oh my God, they all do.
And this was one of, I think, the top three games that were on my list for this season in the YAC to make me go, you know what, yeah, that could be a conference championship game.
And sure enough, here we are.
What are we in a week?
10.
And yeah, this is quite literally the conference championship game.
Plus, there just so happens to be a trophy associated involved in the rivalry aspect of it.
Gonna be really interesting, I think, to see what the Whitewater defense is able to do against Nathan Uselding.
Very, very good quarterback over there in Platteville that you've got, Jimmy.
I will give you your props, believe it or not.
And I know too much about Whitewater having been at all those games.
I know.
That offense is improving.
However, I will always slip in the fact that I like it.
I don't love it.
I'm a little worried.
There's a little um
There's a little bit of a worry in my heart, unfortunately.
With that quarterback situation in Whitewater, Justin Clinkner, I gotta say, he's gotten better after getting benched for a week.
However, he's not back to starting because of the fact that he won his job back.
The guy that started in front of him, Cole Warren, has been in...
street clothes for the last couple of weeks.
He's not been getting dressed because he's got a kind of lagging, nagging injury that's been keeping him off of the field.
So I don't know what his status is if he's going to be healthy for this game or not.
And maybe you'll see Cole Warren at QB.
Maybe you'll see Justin Klinkner at QB.
I don't really know.
Inconsistency at quarterback, as we've talked about with the Badgers already today, is a little bit of a weird thing.
to be talking about and it's really worrying to see this deep in the year, Jimmy, but I think we're going to see a couple of elite defenses.
Well, you've had your whitewater Warhawks cap on.
Now it's time for me to put on my UW Platteville Pioneer's
hat.
Ah, yes.
The big foam hat.
So we got to make sure we get that Pioneer's big foam cowboy hat on.
So here we go.
Here's what I see in this matchup.
I see whitewater with an outstanding offensive line and a tremendous freshman running back, a defense that is opportunistic and athletic.
And I see them being able to slow down the Pioneer's offense a bit.
because Plyphil hasn't really faced a dynamic defense like this yet.
On the flip side of that, Plyphil is incredibly efficient offensively, and they can't run the ball.
Plyphil has not shown they can consistently run the ball this year.
That might be the Achilles for that.
But they do throw and complete 80% of their passes, which as Gray would point out on any spreadsheet, 80% passing completion percentages.
Absolutely incredible, right?
Yes, I would point that out, Jimmy.
You are 100% correct.
That's another
step.
I just want to
make sure Gray said something in this segment while Parker and I went back and forth here.
I just want to make sure Gray, you got to say
something.
It's actually fantastic to be the man on the outside for a football matchup.
I'm loving this.
I mean, I've got notes here, but I'm just going to watch.
I think we should
just pitch
our cases and have Gray decide at the end of this.
Yeah.
Right.
Well, I also this, I've had UW Whitewater is the number one team in the nation on my D three football ballot for three weeks.
And this has been controversial.
And I've called you crazy for that.
Yeah, you have everybody has and I look at it this way at the time white water had the best resume of anybody in the wiac That was undefeated at the time and I figured wiac number one over anybody in the nation I still feel that way for this weekend.
Whoever wins this game is my number one team That's pretty obvious, but at the same time when I look at this matchup I see a lot of ways that you can look at this and say advantage here disadvantage here It all kind of evens out special teams if there's a difference in that um plat those got excellent kickers, but
The return advantage clearly goes to the whitewater Tyler Vasey is one of the greatest return men I've ever seen in college football So there's a lot going both ways in this game might come down to home field advantage and home field advantage is a big thing in college football Pioneers certainly have it.
If you've ever seen the visiting football tent they have there.
I think Yeah, there's a tent
Oh, which is great last year in the playoffs when it snowed 10 feet at the game and almost sitting there in the snow in a tent when there's like just mountains of snow coming from the sky, but it is a 10.
So yeah, there is some home field advantage here.
Uh, that is what I'm going to go with in my official formal prediction for this game Parker.
I, you can catch it on Warhawk football.com.
I actually am agreeing with you.
Oh, let's go pioneers.com.
Let's go on the altar for this man.
Let's go.
There you go.
Yeah.
I have actually chosen Platteville.
I'm not rooting for playful though.
Great.
That's all right.
But I will see you there.
I will see all of all of my friends and family who are going to come and check this game out.
It should be fun.
Gray, I hope you were entertained by all this.
I absolutely am.
And actually, if you guys would just allow me a moment to appeal to the fellow YAC outsiders and the listening audience, the people who have no idea what you guys are talking about.
I think it's totally fair because school D three schools don't necessarily attract this much attention, but I did mention I have some notes and it's the kind of things that would appeal to people like me who like I want to be as into this.
as you guys are.
Jimmy, you're wearing a big orange hat right now.
Like I am envious of this in ways that I never would have expected.
But hey, let's go back to history versus recent history.
Whitewater has won 28 of the previous 32 matchups here, but the axe has changed hands every single year for the last five years.
Whitewater currently in possession of it.
Will that still be the case when next we speak next week, guys?
This game really does sell itself.
Would you guys say that it's not a matter of who can do what, but more who can sustain what they've already been doing in their unbeaten seasons, stay true and leverage their identities?
Yeah,
I
think they both found their identity.
So I think we are definitely heading there.
But you know, we're also heading is that we're also out of time for the show.
I have more.
We could just do a whole like 20 minutes on this on a sidebar, but we would just say goodbye.
We have Mike Clements coming up next for the sports weekend review guys.
Thanks to your time this weekend.
I will look forward to talking to you guys here a week from now.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Jimmy.
Don't take that hat off.
If all my kids are gonna steal it from me and then he'll be wearing it all over the place.
You can tell because there's already some crayons on it and stuff.
So,
you
know.
what happens when you have kids stealing your giant foam cowboy hat.
All right, we have to step aside.
Mike Clemens is next for the Sports Weekend Review.
This is Make the Calm, the Civic Media Network.
A big game for the pack.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with our Wisconsin Sports Week in Review.
The Packers beat the Carolina Panthers on Thursday night football.
They returned to practice this week for a nationally televised game.
Against the New England Patriots, more on that coming up, we begin with the NBA, the Bucks losing at home to the Toronto Raptors, 1-21 to 1-07 on Friday night.
Milwaukee led at the half, then fell apart in the third quarter, head coach Taylor Jenkins frustrated after another loss at home in Pfizer form in
Milwaukee.
Shoot threes.
They missed them.
We didn't get hits.
We did a great job in the first half.
In the second half, it hurt us.
So the Bucks are now one and eight.
They're going to host the Boston Celtics Sunday night at 7 p.m.
Former Bucks head coach, Doc Rivers, had some interesting things to say this week on the Bill Simmons podcast about a former Bucks player, Yannis and Ted Acupo, who's now with the Miami Heat.
It's not easy.
Yeah.
It's
not easy because he plays at this
crazy downhill pace.
He's really a difficult guy.
I was telling someone that he has this great passing ability, but he doesn't necessarily have the super IQ at the same time.
It's really a strange thing.
And he really has one way downhill force, force for it.
Like every play, he wants to force it.
There's times where I wish he did one thing.
I wish he learned how to execute.
That's Doc Rivers.
The college basketball season began this week.
Marquette at home at the Al McGuire Center dominated the Detroit Mercy Tigers 93 to 32.
The Golden Eagles now 2-0.
In Madison, Wisconsin over Delaware, 73 to 64.
The Badgers head coach Greg Gard after the game Friday night.
Wisconsin now 2-0.
College football, it was a really long week for the Wisconsin Badgers.
So much optimism after their upset victory over USC that got them ranked 25th in the nation.
That all came crashing down after a blowout loss to the Hawkeyes at Iowa, 30-0.
I'm not sitting here saying I've
Got any answers for you?
They're not pointing any fingers at anybody or anything because all three phases of the game we were completely manhandled for 60 plus minutes.
Head coach Luke Fickle, the Badgers against Rutgers in Madison this weekend.
NFL, the Packers in New England.
They'll take on the Patriots at Gillette Stadium.
Former tight end Rob Gronkowski to be inducted into the team's Hall of Fame.
And it's the first game back for Tom Brady as a broadcaster.
Yeah, it's it'll be certainly emotional.
I mean, every inch of that stadium I've been through so many times from the locker rooms to the meeting rooms, the fields.
I just so many memorable plays in that stadium.
Big games, you know, championship games and rivalry games.
The Packers are a team I've already covered this year.
Kind of know the ins and outs of that team.
Coach LaFleur is an awesome coach.
Jordan loves playing as good as football as he's playing his entire career.
So just it's a great AFC, NFC matchup.
These don't happen very often.
And again, I get to be there.
to watch it in person in front of a very friendly home crowd.
I'm very, very excited.
Packers still has some injuries.
Sean Ryan out at center.
Zaire Franklin won't be able to play at Linebacker.
The Patriots have their injuries too.
Greg Bedard covers New England for BostonSports.com.
At wide receiver, you have AJ Brown.
I would say he's unlikely.
Romeo Dobbs, of course, everybody knows up there, he is on injured reserve.
On the offensive line, they are missing their two starting guards.
We'll see on Hunter Henry, Travion Henderson, and running back, I doubt that we will see him.
On defense, I think they won't have Christian Barmore, and they should have...
Carlton Davis at cornerback, but we'll see.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love on the match up.
You know, my first time playing them since I've been here.
So obviously, you know, speak about that team.
That's a very historic franchise.
It's had a lot of success, especially when Tom was there.
So they got a great franchise over there.
And Micah Parsons back on the practice field this week after suffering that torn ACL and meniscus in his left knee last December.
Does he hope to be ready in time for the Rams game Wednesday night, November 25th, the night before Thanksgiving?
You know,
I won't say too much because even if I did play, I don't want them to game plan for it.
You know, I just wanted to be a surprise and I just wanted to be feeling moment for myself, my family.
He even been asking me, are you going to play?
Should we buy flights to come out there?
And I'm telling them, I still got two weeks of practice.
Hey, we just got paid for last minute flights.
Like, it is what it is.
You could buy your flight and can't do last minute.
That's up to you, but I'm not going to pinpoint a day.
I got to stack 20 days and hopefully on that 21st,
day I feel incredible.
That's the Packers' Micah Parsons.
With the Wisconsin Sports Week in Review, I'm Mike Clemens.