Opening Weekend Y’all!

Welcome everyone to WFHRs playmakers brought to you probably by quality plus printing

getting your words out here Wisconsin Rapids 304 on the clock got your host James behind

the mic.

I am joined by my partner in sports, Mr. Randy Paul afternoon James afternoon Randy.

We hope you guys are having a good one out there.

I don't know if you call that rain snow some weird hybrid that mother nature is just created

but there's something coming down here in rapids and I don't know what it is.

I call it April fool.

It is April mother nature has the weirdest sets of you where there is.

Yeah.

Thanks for that mother nature.

We're here to take your phone calls seven one five four two four twenty six hundred

call up and join the conversation anything on your mind sports wise we want to talk

with you about it.

Randy and I were talking in a pregame a little bit.

We don't really have any local sports to get to today.

So we will have to fill it somehow.

I don't know how we'll fill the hour.

Who knows.

Let's find out how we start the hour.

Good afternoon.

How are you doing?

Welcome to playmakers.

How are you doing?

This afternoon fellows.

Good.

How are you doing, man?

Did you get the breaking news out of Minnesota about an hour ago?

Hmm.

What was that?

They traded pick 11 pick 23 next year's first round draft pick and Sam Darnold to the

jets for air and Rogers.

Wow.

Wow.

I was waiting for this day.

This is a good day people.

What do you what do you think this means for the Minnesota I can't do this.

Yeah.

You can't do it.

I'm like.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

You know, every once in a while you hear one of those or you read one of them and you're

like, oh, that's just far, but then there's the ones that are like, well, you start thinking

about it.

You start thinking about it a little bit.

The greatest paper full jokes to me are the ones that they can walk that line.

Adam Schaefter does a pretty good job with these and I think because of his place with

news and everything, you almost can't help it.

You see, well, Adam Schaefter, I mean, come on, you know, yeah, of course, Minnesota

would trade all that for air and Rogers.

Why wouldn't they?

In Andershal Walker.

Yes.

Anders.

Why not?

Yeah.

You know, running backs coach, Herschel Walker covered a log for the ride.

Why not?

Why not?

Yeah, there you go.

Got any stats for us today, buddy?

Well, no, I don't have any stats, but did you guys happen to catch any of the breweries

sleep in the matches past weekend?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a little bit of it.

Yeah.

Definitely want to get into brewer talk.

We can kick it off right here.

I'm curious to know a brewer fans out there.

If this is, you know, the perfect way to start the year, like, if you could ask for

much more, it seems like a really nice beginning.

I think it's their best start since 2018, being three and a half.

That's what I heard.

Yeah.

I think we just need to play the match every year, the first.

Yeah.

The conversation we've had is that we think that the brewer's offense is going to be better

this year.

So they're going to have to probably outhit the opponents because the pitching we don't

think will be quite as good, of course, with burns and woodruff, both, you know, not

pitching this year for us.

I'll make a big difference as well, but so far it's held up pretty well.

And then, of course, now we don't have Devon Williams in the penny, they're probably half

the year.

So I'm going to really have to, I think, score some runs.

Hey, I always appreciate the call, bud.

You have a good week.

Yep.

Go ahead.

We'll talk soon.

We, him and I usually exchange a stat of our show at everything.

So we've got stat of the show right here.

Don Manningley said a single season record for Grand Slam's in 87 was six.

Six Grand Slam's.

Wow.

They were the only, they were the only Grand Slam's he ever hid in his career.

He never hid another one.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah.

Yesterday and Saturday and not getting any more.

Yeah.

So close.

Good afternoon.

You're on playmakers.

Good afternoon, guys.

Hey, how's it going, man?

Well, that was just one of the worst April Fool's jokes I've ever heard in my life.

You know, it was, it was, it was, it was funny and painful.

Like, that's a good April Fool's joke.

That's a, that's a good one right there.

Right.

Well, a couple of things I saw on Facebook, like down on Lake Country, the, the Doc Hone

as they said, they were going to change your name to the flying monkeys.

That's for, one of the independent teams down there, you know, that was kind of funny.

That's a good one.

Yeah.

And then one of the racetracks over in La Crosse, they're going to start going clockwise

instead of counterclockwise.

Oh, I like that.

That's a really good one, actually.

That's good.

That's good.

But, you know, this weekend, I mean, granted it, I mean, it started off good in the afternoon

with the brewers beaten, the Metz, but then, you know, get home and put on ESPN,

news and watch in that badger hockey game, it was an exciting game.

And they had their chances to win.

But, you know, I guess I'm not really terribly disappointed.

They, you know, they didn't go on because they weren't expected to be as good as what

they were this year.

That's what I was doing.

They were going to probably be a year away.

I'm excited to see what's going to happen next year.

You know, and then, and then, you know, brewers making a sweep over the weekend.

And, I like this ball club, just, you know, even though it's going a little taste of

what we saw over the weekend.

But these young guys are fast.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You got to like the, it feels like, even though I know that it wasn't a humongous a

roster change and a lot of the change to happen with the pitching side, this team seems

so much younger and faster to me.

And I don't know when that happened or how exactly it happened, but definitely.

I, they, they, I'm the base pads, especially, but defensively is where I noticed it.

Yeah.

I didn't want to cut you off, Randy, but what you were saying before about the pitching,

I couldn't agree with you more about scoring more runs.

And we know how hard this team is, how much of a trouble this team has had over the years,

scoring runs.

But one quick way to do that, if you don't have the bats, you can't grab a sodo or one

of these guys are, are be eyes.

You get these guys running these bases like that.

And then on the pitching side of things, if you don't have the great pitching, I saw this

with my white socks, get a world series this way, the, the white side, it was defense.

A lot of people pointed the, the pitching in that series, especially the astro series.

And I agree with them, the pitching was outstanding, but it was the defense that really stood

out that year.

I, I think that was a defensive championship, the white socks one and no, oh four.

So I, I don't know, I, I think that this brewer team has, they got a lot of exciting

elements to it with young players.

I, I like Bryce trying a lot.

I, this other, this new kid coming up.

Yeah, man, he's going to have a serial named after him.

He's good.

It's a bad joke.

It's a bad joke.

But he's a fun player.

There's some fun pieces here.

And, and I think that one of the biggest things you could ask for when there's 162 of these

games is storylines, is interest and things that you, I, I don't know that there's necessarily

an answer to, like you're not going to find out the, at the end of the year, no matter

how good some of these players are, you're not going to have an answer of, oh, well,

they're going to be a hall of favor.

So we just find out more and more, we get more and more data with every at bat, every

game.

That's exciting.

That's, that's good drama.

And just to put this out there, so everybody is aware of it right now.

We've got a new one for Rees Hoskins.

Yeah.

We're going to all get shirts and we're going to go sit in the stands and we're going

to say we love Reese's to pieces.

That's perfect.

That's perfect.

It's perfect.

I'm sure, I'm sure Phil can bring that up for you guys.

Yeah, yeah.

Exactly.

We got the connection there.

Phil, if you're listening, we need 20 now.

That's, that's been a nice signing already.

That's already, you can see what, what, what it means to have a leader in the clubhouse

when you've got a, a young team like this.

I think San Diego struggle with this a couple of years, well, last couple of years with

this without having a good veteran leader like that.

Rees Hoskins, I'm sure that they're going to miss them in Philly, no matter how good

they do this year.

He's one of those athletes.

Well, you know, and the thing is, don't I mean, was that slide too excessive for the

beginning of the year?

It is in this day and age, right?

There's just no, there's no love between Hoskins and the Metz.

I mean, look at the times that he was there with, how many times they hit him, you know,

and then they turn around on Saturday and throw it at, you know, like you said, you don't

miss by eight feet, you know, and that is, it's, it's, it's, it's could be, it's could

be interesting here.

I mean, I think like you said, he's going to be a good leader, you know, mix him in

with a yoloch.

I mean, yoloch is starting out, you know, very well either he got a home run, he's hitting

the ball.

I mean, everybody's hitting the ball.

I mean, I don't think they struck, I mean, they had guys that run in scoring position,

but there weren't many strikers, it was always like, you know, they might either popped

out or hit it at somebody, you know, they put the bat on the ball.

But, you know, with the Cheerio, I mean, he made some defensive plays, especially yesterday.

I mean, most guys probably want to get to the ball and he, I mean, he caught him in stride.

He wasn't diving for the ball.

He caught it in stride.

Oh, oh.

And all these young players, I think that while there's a lot of question mark, or some

question marks on each one of them, one thing you don't have to question is their defense.

Every single one of these young players that we can bring up, they all have solid, if

not great defense.

And again, I think that this is one of those things that you can really lean into if

you're a brewer fan.

And the other thing, I think that's exciting was, you know, you mentioned yoloch is hitting

pretty well.

Contreras kind of seems to be picking up where he left off.

A domus is starting to hit pretty well as, you know, and he struggled, mightily last

year, so that was good to see.

So yeah, I'm just excited, but now we'll see what happens when they move on and they play

the twins.

Yeah.

The Jacob Junis era begins tomorrow, Jacob on the mount, we'll see how he does.

That's going to be, and you're going to get a chance here with some of these arms, these

young arms, to see what they can do in real time and find out how they are in action

with the injuries and with the loss of burns and wood roof and that.

So it should be interesting with that part of it too.

And honestly, nowadays, who's got a great starting pitching, but I guess, I guess the brave

is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I mean, it's one, two teams that have like three, four starters already think anymore.

So I don't, I don't know if you're Milwaukee, I'm looking at this as I win my division and

move on and see what else can happen.

This isn't no, there's no rebuild here.

There's no, well, we lost our manager, oh, well, was us.

Nope.

So let's go back out there.

Let's hit the diamond.

Let's win some games this summer.

I love seeing that.

I think that's been pretty cool.

I mean, I want to throw this question at Brandy is that, I mean, do you see Pat Murphy

being probably more of a situational hitter or a coach instead of an analytical?

That's a good question.

I think from what I've understood and read is that he's going to want to run more, you

know, and I think they might as well because they struggled with the hitting last year.

Now they're running more and, you know, just listening to that game yesterday, they're

just talking about this, which is obvious, is it puts more pressure on the pitcher.

Now you're dealing with those guys, trying to hold them close on base, you're not concentrating

as much.

Next spatter gets up and he probably gets a walk and that happened yesterday as well.

So I think he's just going to keep the pressure on, you know, they got fast guys, they're going

to run, I think just every chance they can because it puts a guy in scoring position every

time.

So you don't have to get a double, you don't have to get the triple or home run.

You get a single new score run.

So I think from that standpoint, it won't be as much of a situation, he'll just be, let's

just go.

And he made a comment, too, with what Pat Murphy said, given about Cheerio, he goes, he's

a young guy.

He goes, he got a trust on him and yeah, he's going to make his mistakes, but then he

used that as a coaching moment, you know, and I think that's, I mean, he's 20 years

old, you know, 20 years old and a week or whatever it is.

And I just, I don't know, I just, I really like this kid.

I mean, he might be the next Robin, you know, we'll see, you know, where it goes from

there.

He's, you know, when his contract gets up, if he's going to stick it out Milwaukee or

see where Milwaukee's at, but I, I guess we talked a little bit last week, I'm really

excited to see this young theme.

I mean, even throughout the whole league, I mean, I think this year's league is going

to be, they might see some ratings finally.

They might, you know, keep people to watch TV and I mean, no, I just, I'm excited to

see what's going to happen.

I think there's going to be a change in the garden.

And you know, I think, I think the division is going to be tough, though, too, the reds,

I think are better this year, the pirates are better this year, of course, the cubs

are going to be tough.

So we tough to the vision top to bottom this year.

I mean, who do I ever thought that the brewers, especially what everybody talked about,

the brewers and the pirates are one of three teams in a national league that haven't

lost yet?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's great.

That's great.

It's so much fun to watch.

That kid is amazing.

That just insane.

And he hasn't even like really honest his skills yet.

He's still learning how to like do all these things, how to major league diamond.

It's incredible.

Some of the young talent that's coming out in baseball, you got to be pretty excited

if you're a baseball fan.

And especially if you are the somebody promoting baseball or a sponsor of baseball or anything

like that, with the contract rights coming up of baseball, that's going to be interesting

too with that.

While I have you here, man, I had a real quick question that I wanted to ask the audience,

the crew, everybody going forward.

And I'm going in different direction here.

I admit, but we'll talk basketball.

I want to talk women's basketball, specifically, I'm looking forward to that.

Lady Badger's playing tonight and everything, getting all that.

Going forward as a sports fan, which I have been literally since the moment I was born.

My father made darn sure that I knew what boxing and hockey was.

I was like, I didn't even, I couldn't even breathe.

I wasn't even breathing yet and yet I stick in my hand.

I'm curious, going forward, am I going to be able to be a sports fan if I don't gamble?

You know, like, is that going to be, is that going to be something that's going to hold

me back from enjoying the game or is it going to hurt the game for me going forward?

This is a gigantic question I understand, but I don't gamble.

So I'm curious to those that out there that might, and there's no judgment there with

that, by the way.

I've got plenty of other bad things I do.

It's more so.

I'm, this is a general question.

This isn't me setting up, you know, some fact I want to bring up or, you know, getting

on my soapbox about anything.

I'm genuinely curious if anybody cares, if it really is going to change sports, and I

don't mean just a game or two here where somebody may, you know, shave some points or any

of those things.

I'm not even necessarily talking about on the, in the game.

I'm talking about like the way we take in sports.

The way we enjoy sports, all the sudden now on ESPN and all these other things that

I look at, I can't go five seconds without hearing the draft King odds or that this odds

or anything.

And I'm, like, I, I just cannot take it.

I'm sick of it already.

We just got going on this thing.

We just started with legalized gambling and everything and I'm already sick of it.

But, you know, I think you need to, I mean, I'll kind of close with this and let you

guys get other guys people on, is that, you know, look back when they started to fan

these two leagues, you know, you almost lost a true fan.

I mean, you probably bought people in that world, really fans as much into, you know, watching

that you put me eyes on at TV, but as a true fan, I mean, you can have your fans to team,

but what happens if the packers are playing against your running back or playing against

your, you know, your quarterback and you want your team to win, but on the other hand,

you don't want him to, you know, then intercept him or where you're going to lose points

on these guys.

I think a gambling is going to affect sports.

I mean, they're kind of already starting to do the investigations in the NBA with all

the profits.

But on the other hand, the leagues have done it to themselves because they're allowing

that.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

This is a self-inflicted one.

And what's really, what's really kind of sad is as we're watching these NCAA tournament

games and Marquette ends up shooting against North Carolina State from three point land,

four for 31.

I know the Badger shot, very poorly, or is it own a shot very poorly Illinois goes gets

some old scored 30 to nothing from the end of the first half into the second half.

You're like, you wonder if, you know, it's, we had this conversation, you're like, are

they actually maybe getting to the kids and paying them off to miss?

Well, and that's a lot of misses for a lot of teams and it gets you, isn't that

that you actually think of those thoughts?

Nobody has more issue with that.

Nobody has more issue with this than basketball in general.

I don't care if it's high school, but like people have always had an eye for basketball

and like, it's the only sport that is capable of this.

But it's still, you're so right about that.

Just like how easy it is to miss a three compared to making one, you know, and it can

look like you're trying.

And then Zach Edie doesn't get any falls in most games.

He had won the other day.

Yeah.

Another game against who was it?

Somebody else he had, he's, he got a fall, maybe it was the Badgers, he got a fall

at the first minute 46 and got that technical and then he didn't get a fall in that

and overtime.

And so it was like tantamount to an entire game.

He never got a fall.

I think it was yesterday's game.

They said that everybody had a fall in the first half and everybody, except for Zach

Edie.

Yeah.

So the biggest tree on the course makes it wonder.

Yeah.

Well, we'll see.

We'll see what happens against NC State because they got a big guy too that I think has.

And he doesn't, yeah, he doesn't, he doesn't follow much either.

So it's going to be, we'll see where it goes.

I mean, if it ends up that he gets a ton of falls and Edie doesn't, then we're going

to know if something's going on.

I mean, that's just, yeah, but, hey, appreciate the call, but, yeah, thank you.

You guys have a great day.

You too, you too.

Seven.

First reason, isn't it?

It is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Four to four 2600 hit us up.

Everybody, phone lines are open.

That's the only reason I'm bringing it up is because I love these games so much.

I know.

I have never spent one second of my life as a sports fan paying attention to this, but

I will save from the world I come from and everything.

There is a lot of gambling that went on.

There's a lot of back behind the scenes stuff that happened and everything.

This has always been a part of sports in my life.

I've always seen this side of things.

It's just now they're saying the quiet part out loud and it's all out there now.

And I'm very, very curious as your average fans, your overall fans that, like, they're

now being led into this world of, like, hey, this has been going on and this is, we don't

even know, is this why we invented sports so we could gamble on it?

Like, is that really?

It's a curious question.

It's an interesting place we're in and we're trying to, very similar to the internet and

other things, we're trying to make the boat while we're on the water.

We got to figure this stuff out in real time.

We have to, we're going to make some mistakes.

You know, you got to break some eggs to make a cake.

All these other metaphors I can throw out there right now.

But all that being said, we are living in this and experiencing that and I'm very interested

at where it goes from here.

Let's take another call.

Good afternoon.

You're on the air.

I always thought it was break a few eggs to make an omelette, but that's all right.

I'm not much of a baker.

I got a stat, I got a stat for you, James.

The most opening day home runs in Major League Baseball history is eight by Frank Robinson.

Wow.

Wow.

Interesting.

I wouldn't have guessed that.

And you guys were just wrapping up your gambling talk and I don't know if you watched any

games this year, but apparently Bally's or whoever sponsors the Brewer's games has an

inning by inning, probability of a win stat that will be on the screen the entire game.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I saw that.

Wow.

It is really wild.

It's just blunt now.

Yeah.

It's just, hey, give us your money, gamble on this, you know.

It's not even.

And I don't know how like I have a hard time in enjoying sports sometimes because of my

humorism because I'm so biased about something and I get my hopes up so much about this team

winning or this player having a good game or something like that.

And I lose my mind over it.

I can't imagine a money was involved.

Whoo.

Right.

I'm working radio, man.

I don't have that much of that stuff.

Like, I mean, if money's involved, people are, I don't know.

I don't know what happens that I don't know like it's already.

Yeah.

I also don't understand like it again to each the road.

It's your money.

I hate other people telling what people to do with their own money, but that being said,

I can't think of more insane things to do in this world than gambling on a sporting

event.

But with everything we've just been talking about, the four of us with our last caller and

everything, with the, with if you pay attention to sports, even just one sport in your whole

life, you see all the randomness and craziness of it and everything.

And you're going to, you're going to put your harder money on that.

Man.

Yeah.

Like you said, I get stressed off enough about the game.

I, you know, I get just watching the game and stressful enough.

I don't want to put money on the game.

No, no, no.

But that's, that's actually how they lose me is if, if I had to start gambling on it.

I think that that would be an interesting end of things too.

If the gambling became more popular than us as fans and they lean so much into it that

direction, I think that's one of the things that my, my brain, my imagination is afraid

of of it going so far that direction.

There's so much money involved that all of a sudden, you, you feel like if you're not

a gambler, well, why am I watching this, you know, that's, that's, that's a really

dangerous place.

I may as long as I go, I may as long as I can go by a power ball.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which, you know, at that point, kind of a craft, kind of a craft shoe either way, but

anyway, so let's go.

Hey, thank you, bud.

Yeah.

You know, going back to that Zach, you think, you know, when I talk about how you only

got one fall or it doesn't get falls in as a coach, if you've got that guy in your team,

you know, you're like, just don't punish him because he's a big guy.

Yeah.

Right.

And I'm not thinking, and I'm not even thinking that the officials are being bought

off on Zach, you know, I'm just thinking, you know, he's, let him get called for three

or four because he is banging just as hard as everybody else, right?

Yeah.

Right.

And when he bangs into those guys and they get falls, well, you know, maybe give the

other guys a break once a while, too, right?

Yeah.

But, you know, and on the other hand, the one thing the referees do not want to do, I'm sure

is to control the game so the fact that when I was at Edie's out and now it's not fair

for them, right?

Right.

Right.

You just want to let the kids decide the game, too.

So it's, it's a fine line to walk as an official.

So I'm not saying that in any way, shape, performing that there.

Oh, yeah.

I didn't take it that way.

Kiss and bale, there was listening.

Sure.

But, you know, when I, and I think it does lead us into a key point to this, too, though,

and in an odd way, getting to this of the importance of not only having good rafts and having

good umpires and all these sports that we watch and take in and everything, but the,

the way we treat them.

And I, I have a hard time believing out of a hundred referees that any, any, like, even

five of them are crooked.

I have a hard time believing that for one, all eyes around them at, at this point in

the game, you can't get away with J walking.

Uh, you, you're going to get caught.

So I don't know how a rational mind can, can convince themselves that that is legitimate,

that you can make some money off that that nobody's going to notice.

Um, that being said, we all know that it still happens and that, you know, crime is not

often something that a rational mind is going to approach, but that being said still.

I, I don't know how, um, most of these guys can do, can think that they can get

away with it.

And if they do, what are the, the accountability part of this too is, is interesting to me,

where we don't have laws set up for this year.

It's as if, all right, somebody just invented a new crime to commit.

And our judicial system is like, I don't know how to punish that.

Like, uh, we'd never even heard of that before, never even seen that before.

What is that?

Uh, that's what's happening right now.

We've got, uh, this kid in, uh, Toronto who got caught with, uh, you know, uh, shaven,

or not shaving, but taking themselves out of games and now there's a question allegedly

if he gambled on it or not.

If he had people gambling on his overunders and everything, uh, all of that, they don't

know how to punish them though.

See, if he has found guilty for what he did, what's the, what, what you, you look at what

they did to Pete Rose, like, there's no comp.

There's no comparison for it or anything.

And there's no set of laws for something like this.

So that part is, it is going to be wild and interesting also.

Uh, it's going to be a really interesting, uh, women's final four.

Uh, no matter who ends up in there, I want to get into the lead eight when we get back

Randy for the women's side and, uh, certainly talk about the men's final four.

We got to get into that.

Somebody please ask me about the NFL draft.

Please give me an opportunity to talk about the NFL draft.

After we kick off rule.

Yes, we got new rules in the NFL.

Nobody's even touched.

We're half an hour into the show.

We haven't even got to do it yet.

Uh, all that coming up for you right here on playmakers.

Randy and James taking it to you.

Bright, uh, brought to us by quality plus printing.

Getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rapids.

Welcome back, everyone.

Playmakers here at WFHR locally grown radio.

Randy and James here with you.

Talk a little college basketball now.

And, uh, and we're not going to talk brackets though.

Um, no, that's just heartbreak.

Yeah, that's just heartbreak.

Especially as we got done just talking about gambling and the last thing.

That's it.

See, there's another thing I didn't put a penny on on March Madness.

And it is upset me almost like I've enjoyed it.

And I've been upset with my team's losing.

It's this little bit of, uh, back and forth that I've learned to do

with fantasy sports as well.

I thought, uh, our, our, our good friend,

Kev brought up a good point earlier about fantasy sports

and how that changed a lot of sports.

And I couldn't agree more on that.

I think, uh, Randy and I always joke that we could do an hour on this topic

or whatever on fantasy sports.

We could do a week on that and how that's impacted the game.

Um, I, uh, shameless plug.

Just one hour, uh, in my, my friend's league.

I just won our NBA championship.

Yesterday, I have a one that like eight, nine years or whatever.

And I felt really good.

It was awesome.

But I also had my team playing against bulls players

in Milwaukee Bucks players or the two teams

that I kind of really like and enjoy.

So I, it was this mixed bag of, oh, I want that guy to score,

but not too much, you know, and in dealing with that,

you chewing gum and walking at the same time.

I'm so bad at this bracket thing.

I feel my bracket on first today.

That's when I first got to it.

And I still got too wrong.

And that would happen to be too.

Um, I had Tennessee and Yukai go to face to face.

And I had Yukai doing it.

I do have like the easiest role they'll ever,

or ever have had, you know,

did you ever notice that Duke usually gets a pretty good

like about the four, the four seeds that they're,

if they're not before, they're always playing against the number four.

Yeah.

And so yeah, if you look at what they had,

I mean, it was really set up for them, you know,

they started off against Vermont.

And then they played James Madison,

because Wisconsin lost to them.

And then they took on Houston,

who had a kid banged up.

Yeah.

So now you're playing out either 11 seed North Carolina.

I mean, it was just set up together.

It looked like it was their kind of year for, for a lot of that stuff,

which a lot of us growing up seeing that all the time

got a little tired of it.

I couldn't have been happier to see NC State win that game.

I was, I'm excited about the men's final four.

We'll start there.

NC State and Purdue are going to be playing Saturday at about five

and Alabama and Yukon at Saturday right after that one.

NC State 11, Purdue, one, Alabama, a four and Yukon, a one.

I really don't, I'm just looking forward to watching the games.

I don't really have anybody I'm pulling for.

I would like to see NC State win it all,

just that'd be fun and exciting,

especially all those years,

all these years later after Coach V and everything.

I'm talking about that 83 team, you know.

It's kind of, it'd be pretty, especially if they were to be to Yukon.

Like that be pretty, that's something that's going to be a game of nature.

I'm like that meeting with the Fieslam of German Houston.

Yes, exactly.

It'd be pretty cool.

It'd be a pretty cool thing to watch as a sports fan.

41 years later, huh?

But yeah, that's amazing.

I gotta, I really have a question that I'm a little curious about here

and I don't know if anybody else is in this either.

When it comes to every other major sport,

even track and field to it, well, I'll say that team sports.

When it comes to hockey, baseball, football,

I'm not a dynasty guy.

I don't like the dynasties.

I get a little bored of it pretty quickly.

I was two years into the Patriots thing.

It was done with that.

Even as a kid, I wasn't a huge.

As much as I love Jerry Rice,

I didn't really like San Francisco and Dallas

dominating all the time and everything.

But in basketball, in basketball, it doesn't bother me as much.

And I kind of like seeing greatness in all sports,

but especially in basketball.

And I'm pretty sure this is all Michael Jordan's fault.

Growing up, I watched the Bulls win six titles

and it's some of the best.

If not the best, I've ever felt as a sports fan.

And I wonder if that tainted me to wear basketball.

Oh, it's okay there.

Like, because I'm watching this Yukon team.

And I think most anybody with two brain cells

and watch this college basketball more than three or four games

will tell you this is the most complete team all season long,

whether it was the first game of the season or now.

They've looked this way since last year.

I don't think anybody outside of an NBA team can beat them.

I think they have to beat themselves with turnovers,

free throw, bet, poor free throw shooting, all of that.

So I don't see how Yukon loses.

And I don't mind.

I haven't mind watching this team.

There's no star.

There's no selfish play.

It's just great basketball.

They play really, really solid.

And they do something that I love in sports.

They beat you down.

They beat you emotionally and physically.

I love teams that don't, well, we got to lead.

Let's go ahead and sit on it.

No, no, put them in the dirt.

Put them in the dirt.

I love a team.

I love a coach that does that.

To me, that's the element of sports.

If you don't like it, stop them.

You know, and this Yukon team is, they're not so much,

I know that the end of the score of the games

is telling you that they're dominant.

It's not so much that they're dominant

on in the traditional ways.

And oh, they've got this great and, you know,

player that's dominating.

They're dominant because of the way that they gel together.

And there's no other team in college basketball

that has that chemistry.

I find it really, I actually enjoy it.

I don't mind if Yukon wins and wins back-to-back titles

and everything, which is weird to me

because normally in sports, that's something

that I really can't stand.

I get bored with really fast.

Is anybody else, like, enjoy that

or is anybody else enjoying seeing kind of a,

just a really good college basketball team?

We don't get to see that often anymore.

And, you know, we were talking before the tournament

that we thought this is me a really wide open tournament.

And as far as, you know, you're getting an Alabama in there,

they'd never been there before.

You got NC State who hasn't been there for like 40 years

or whatever.

But, you know, when you're picking your brackets

and you're like, geez, the badgers just be Purdue

in the big 10 tournament.

So I just, and you know, they lost in the first round last year.

So I just don't know if they're going to go.

And then Yukon, yeah, they were tough

and they're beating everybody and dominating they still are.

But then they played Creighton on February 20th.

And they beat them 85 to 66.

Creighton beat 85.

So you're like, are they, do they have that in them?

We're thinking the tournament also to have one of those

own games.

But in the tournament, both, you know,

they have been even more dominant than Purdue.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm also curious about the question

that came up last week about Greg Gard.

And how much longer he may have that job?

Or if he's, if you would think that something might have

been done by now, they may be waiting for a certain cycle

in the recruiting schedule, like an opening there.

But otherwise, I'm a little surprised

the hammer hasn't already fallen there.

I have a feeling that if he's going to keep his job,

it has everything to do with who coach,

I want to say coach, but LORGM,

but really he's the AD, Macintosh, what he can find.

If there's somebody out there that wants that job,

they're going to get it.

If there's nobody that wants it,

Gard is probably going to keep that job.

It seems like that's what they're doing right now,

hedging their bets, if you will,

we can go to the theme of the show here again.

And where that goes with that,

that's going to be another interesting storyline.

Shout out to a great season by Marquette as well.

Coach Smart, I know it didn't end very good for them

or anything, there was a tough game to watch.

I should see State.

Yeah, but you know.

Yeah, 4 for 21, what was it, 4 for 31?

Yeah, I enjoyed them though this year.

I really like what Smart is doing there.

I think that you have a chance to see something

that you don't get to see much in college athletics anymore,

a guy stay somewhere, you know, a coach stay

and actually build something.

And the kids stay too.

Yes, they stay at good point.

They didn't lose really, that I can recall

if they lost anyway to the portal last year.

Now the badgers are losing a few kids to the portal

and those seasons going so on, sounds like stores going.

I mean, he still has the option to come back.

And then they lost that taller center yelled in

or something like that.

We didn't really see much PT,

but they thought there's gonna be big things

for both the enemy season.

That was one of the things that was kind of curious.

Something must have been going on behind the scenes

that we weren't aware of.

Because you know, I know that they didn't like the way

that a season was playing defense.

Yeah, however, they needed offense and the kid could score.

Right, you know, and he just wasn't seeing the court.

And when they only shoot, you know,

what they shot like four for 25 also in that game

that they lost, you think you might have seen

a little more PT, but something must have been going on

that we're not aware of, I guess.

Yeah, well, it's gonna be an interesting offseason

for both squads, Wisconsin and Marquette.

The lady badgers though are not ready for the offseason.

They are still playing.

They are still marching on.

They are taking on the St. Louis Billkins tonight.

We'll have that game for you right here at WFHR

pregame. We'll kick off at 640 for that.

We are here, Randy and I to take on the tough questions

to answer the hard questions.

That's what playmakers does.

We've been doing this for a long time.

We're very good at what we do.

And so we are here to answer, what is a Billkin?

What is a Billkin?

Yes, yes, this is ESPN ain't covering this.

I don't see Fox News cover this, Randy,

but we will cover them.

I had to know, I had to know.

Does anybody else want to know what a Billkin is?

For those that don't know, the badgers

are taking on the St. Louis Billkins today.

And so what is a Billkin?

It is a mythical good luck figure

who represents things as they ought to be.

I don't put fear in any team.

That's not fair.

You get to use a good luck charm.

Come on, come on.

That's not fair.

I want to change the badger's name

so there are Wisconsin Dreamcatchers or something.

I'm like, get a good luck charm in there

than before Leaf Clovers, come on.

If this is the case, why does it the Notre Dame?

Just use a for Leaf Clovers.

They're logo and everything.

I don't know.

This should be a good game.

This is one of the things that I enjoy

about the women's, or any college basketball in general.

You see a St. Louis show up and in some teams

like that going up against a big 10 powerhouse

like Wisconsin.

I don't know if you would call them a powerhouse

and women's basketball, but they've had a good team

this year and gonna be a fun game.

Well, it's always fun, you know, that's the other thing.

Because, of course, last year the badger's men team

was in the NIT and they got to what the semi-final

didn't believe in.

That's something that it's fun with those teams

that don't make the NCAA tournament, you know,

so let's them play on and gives you something enjoyable

to follow as well.

And then, of course, you know what's interesting?

You talk about Yukon being a power.

Isn't it interesting that both Yukon and NC State,

their girls are still playing as well?

Yeah.

They're both in the elite eight right now

and that's gonna be taking place

in the final four coming up for them too.

That'll be exciting.

There are so many good games on the women's side of things

with LSU and Iowa and in the excitement of that,

that could be the game of the year right there.

You've got Yukon and USC and a player like Paige Becker's

who I don't know if she's got a year left

or this is her last year, I can't remember,

but it's gotta be towards the end of her collegia career

and what a career it's been, even with the injuries.

She has had such a nice career and such good game.

I love watching her, but she's just like a plastic

out there.

It seems like she's always, like,

got her arms and the spread out seems like.

She's always going for blocks or passes.

I really like her game.

And then you've got this Juju Kid at USC

who just is amazing.

She's got such an awkward, like, almost,

I don't like to use, my dad's gonna get mad at me

for calling it this way,

but almost a marriage kind of way of with the ball

where it looks like she's globetrotting out there

some ways, but it's just a really creative player,

which is one of my favorite things

in basketball seeing creative players.

I love seeing that in the game.

A lot of good games on the women's side.

So that's gonna be exciting.

A lot of great college basketballs.

Kind of interesting how you said,

before you don't really like to see dynasties

except in basketball, like, because of the balls.

For some unknown reason, I like USC.

I don't know why.

And they were, like, when we lived in Arizona,

they were like a big rival with Arizona.

Yeah.

But I still like, really bizarre.

So I just cheer for them.

I don't know.

I made it goes back to the days of OJ.

And you know, there's only a couple NCA games on

when I was a kid, you know,

and one was an afternoon game with UCLA and USC.

And maybe it's just part of it.

And Notre Dame, they would always play Notre Dame.

So we would see them a couple of times a year.

So maybe that's where it goes back to.

My dad's like that with USC.

My dad, he says exactly that though.

It's about the games you got to see.

It's kind of, it's one of the ways that my house became,

and Southside Chicago became Wisconsin Badger hockey fans,

is being able to see the games

because a lot of the best players in Chicago

were going to UW.

And they'd play the games on the radio

or something like that.

And so we'd hear them.

And I remember as a kid,

listening to Badger hockey, you know, on the radio,

and WGN or something like that,

just really enjoying it.

So that was always my college team.

It has been ever in my house.

It's always been our team.

It's kind of funny how that works though, isn't it?

And there's something that's going to be kind of lost

for younger kids, I would think,

where if I want to catch it, I can catch it.

I don't care what it is.

You want to watch the lacrosse championships.

You can find it on somewhere, you know?

There's, you don't have to really struggle

to find your sports anymore.

It seems like.

And if you don't want to watch the whole game,

you just go to the YouTube video

and watch the 10 minute highlights.

Well, actually, yeah, I take that back a little bit.

In some ways, you do have to struggle to find your sports.

If you don't know anything about streaming nowadays,

there's, it's actually going to completely

different direction now with that.

Should be exciting, should be interesting.

Why don't we go ahead?

We'll take our final time out right here.

We come back.

Let's see what you guys want to talk about.

715-424-2600.

Feel free to call up and join the conversation.

Randy and James, taking you through Playmakers,

brought you by Quality Plus Pritching

right here at WFHR.

Welcome back to Playmakers.

Randy and James here with you.

We'll take you to the top of the hour

and taking your phone calls and talking sports.

424-2600-715-424-2600.

Call up and join the conversation.

Again, another big thing that we haven't gotten a chance

to talk about last 10 minutes of the show.

And we're here, owners of the NFL

voted to pass two game-changing rules

that will be in effect starting in 2024.

The first rule change was to adopt a low impact kickoff

previously used in the XFL.

In addition, hip drop tackles were banned.

It would result in a penalty if used.

That one's going to be very hard to impress on players.

But I think that's more about a rule where the players

govern themselves and have to learn to stop tackling like that.

That's pretty tough because if they don't fall

on their feet or legs, it's not going to be a penalty.

But if they do it, and it's going to be like,

wow, that's going to be controversy.

I can see it already.

But they said the reason that they decided to do this

from what I understand is like last year,

there were 200, let's say, two games, something like that.

202 games, and there were 203 injuries

resulting from this type of tackle, which not just an injury,

but it caused the player to miss one or more games.

So they're talking about safety.

So that's why they're implementing it.

But it's going to kind of be like that sack rule,

I think, at first, where playing matches

with the sacking people and keeping his weight off people

and yet he got flagged for it.

So I think it's going to take some time for it.

It's almost one of those things you wish

that they might put it into instant replay

so that they could be able to, you know,

the one that was weird was with the brewer game

that talked about instant replay.

I think it was the first game they got a foul ball

and they didn't go after it and the guy scores,

and I can't remember which game it was,

but they showed the replay and it was a foul ball.

And they said they can't review that.

And I'm always, that's always curious to me.

Why they have things that you can't review

because they always preach that it's for the good of the game.

They want to get things right.

They say, oh, sorry, we can't even,

I don't care what sport it is.

Same here.

I don't want to, you have the technology use it.

Please.

Why else are we doing this?

If I can tell at home, you should be able to do it as your job.

It was the Cubs Texas game.

That was the Cubs scored in the top of the night,

but then Texas got the time home around the bottom night.

That's right.

Sometimes laws are in place not so much to tell us what to do,

but to keep us, you know, taking policing ourselves

and everything.

And I think that that's some of the NFL with some of the sack

and the hip drop tackle.

And then there are ones where they're trying their hardest

to make this game safe.

So moms will let their kids play this game

because the NFL understands I think better than most anybody

that they have a revenue source that is drying up.

More and more kids are not going into playing football.

Football has never been more popular.

Less 20 years.

If not longer than that, it hasn't been more popular.

Yet they're not seeing the impact.

They're not seeing it in the youth level like they used to.

The numbers are down all across the board,

all across the country.

It's part of the reason why the NFL is going out to Europe.

It isn't just the money.

It isn't just to spread the game or anything.

We need, hey, NBA, I see what you did there.

I see how the top five players in your league

are from out of this world, out of this country.

So let's try that because the American moms

are not letting their kids play football.

Maybe the Russian mom will, maybe the London mom will

or something like that.

So that's a key part of this too.

It's all about building off of that revenue

that they have for over 100 years really in football

or not that long, but a long time in football.

With this, I'm going to do something

that you never hear in sports talk radio.

I was wrong with the kickoff thing.

I immediately got defensive.

It has somebody who, maybe my favorite thing in sports

is kick and punt returning.

I got immediately defensive.

It was like, oh, they're killing it, they're killing it.

It's gone.

I'll never see it again.

How dare you, losing my mind all that.

And then you see it kind of play out.

You see that you read up a little bit more

about it.

You hear actual players talking about it.

And you see, okay, well, it's, I mean, yeah,

you're probably never going to see a hundred yard return

again or anything like that.

But it does seem like it's safer.

And it seems like there might be some excitement

with this.

They might be changing the game, tinkering with it

to a degree where it just gives you a new element

to look for and that you don't, I mean,

when's the last time you saw an on-side kick

and you thought that it was actually going to be recovered?

Well, we're really.

And then now you can't have surprise on-side kicks

because they have to declare it.

But they said there was only two surprise

on-side kicks last year.

So it's not like it happens a lot.

The other thing, they said that it might be a deterrent

as if they kick it out of the end zone.

You're like, the ball is going to get placed out

five yards farther than you.

They say, five yards really different.

Well, yeah, five yards and I felt a big difference.

And so the thing with them kicking it

between the goal line and the 20 yard line,

they said that they'll probably be more returns, actually.

Yeah, yeah.

Which is exciting.

And I was completely wrong about,

I thought that it was, they meant

that there weren't going to be any more returns.

It does look like you're going to see some more returns now,

which I'm excited about.

I mean, interesting thing that I read about this was the fact

that it's like the only thing in football

where guys can't move when the ball moves.

Yes.

That's weird.

They have to stand and wait and show them

why it either lands or it's caught.

I only got to play out of my little bit,

but you remember those old electronic football boards

where the guys just stand there,

but they shake and they're like,

seeing this play out, it kind of looks like that a little bit.

It's going to be interesting.

I know that there was a point not too long ago

that we thought pushing the PAT back five, 10 yards

wouldn't have it a big impact on the game.

And all it has done is impact the game

to where now I actually care about the PAT.

I actually am focused in on it and everything.

Where it could cost Anders Carlson his job.

Yeah, that's interesting.

It was a mistake six this year.

That, seeing Green Bay pick up a kicker,

give some competition in there.

That should be good for him.

That should be good for them going forward.

The interesting thing with the brewers, the packers

that's going on right there is whether it's Craig Council

or it's Aaron Rodgers leaving.

Most franchises and most states and most of the time,

that's what rebuild time, rebuild.

Put the four sail out there, sign everybody.

If you've got a jersey of a player,

get rid, you're not going to be wearing it much longer

because that player is going to be traded,

like all these things.

And we've seen a little bit of this and everything.

There's no more number 12 jerseys being sold

in the state or anything like that.

But there's a bunch of number 10 ones.

There's a bunch of number 10 ones being sold

and the way that these two franchises have been able to go