Good snowy Wednesday afternoon to you, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHRs. Play, Maygaard.
Hope y'all are having a safe, good, home-fully, or home, and cuddle in, or something.
Kind of afternoon. Thanks so much for joining me. James here with you. I am here. Big finish.
Yes, I am here and I'm proud and happy to be here and thankful to be here. We're going to be
going for the next hour. Thanks to our friends at Family and Natural Foods and Quality Plus printing.
Got plenty to get into today. We're certainly going to be talking your brackets and talking the
NCA march madness as we are right on the cusp of it. I want to talk a little bit about the
the signing that the packers just made. The Lions proposal. Some of these things,
speaking of proposals, Gary Bettman, GM of the NHL, is talking about doing something different
for their all-star game next year. Plenty to get to. Our stat of the show is a quite interesting one
too. We got a couple of them for you. Let's do our favorite thing. Get to the calls.
Good afternoon. You're in the game. James, those roads are pretty bad out there.
Yeah, man. You weren't kidding. I was out on the roads about an hour ago and they weren't great,
but they weren't what they are right now. They got a lot worse in the last couple hours.
Yeah, I went out to go and get some milk and make my way into town and stop in and
be us with you guys. Oh, boy. I said, no, I'm going back home after getting milk.
Yep. Not worth it. Not worth it. I would not know.
But I can bother you for a few minutes and talk whatever you want to talk about.
Appreciate that. Certainly, we were waiting till today to get into March Madness and really talk
about this. I don't know if you've filled out a bracket yet or not. If you've looked at the
bracket itself much, anything standing out to you or anything that you happen to be looking at
is a storyline to you that you're interested in.
You know, I'm looking at whatever one of the talking heads are talking at,
you know, is the SEC as good as it is or is this just more fodder from ESPN talking up to SEC?
It'd like to have a football for so long. I don't know. I don't have the answers to that.
I'll tell you when the whole thing's over. But I think Florida, honestly, it's just some of my
point that I've always kind of gone by the only SEC teams I really trust on an annual basis,
our Kentucky Tennessee and Florida. And I don't know how much I trust Kentucky.
But Florida, man, they look good. I think they can make the fore against Michigan State.
I don't know how much I trust Auburn. I really don't trust Alabama.
I mean, there's going to be some upsets, of course. As always, I don't know if I really like
Mizzou with Drake. I kind of like Drake, not that the college, not me saying or whatever.
Same thing. I've got to make that clear out there.
Man, I think Wisconsin can make the elite eight. I think they've got a really good chance.
I think Michigan State might win it all. I think Duke might win it all. The more I've watched
of Duke and it sounds like a flag and good old con are going to be there healthy. So that makes
me sit there and say even more. So we could get a MSU Duke final, but Florida is going to have
say something about it. And I think Tennessee will too. I like that Tennessee team. I do like them.
I don't know how much I believe in them, but I like them. I like watching them. I've
drink the Kool-Aid on Auburn. I've seen them and to be fair, they're one of the teams I've seen
the most this season. And a lot of it has to do with their coach. Bruce Pearl is one of those
guys that I drink the Kool-Aid with and wholeheartedly admit it. I think he's a good coach and I like
his style of play in the tournament, especially in the tournament. I'm with you so much on the SEC.
You and I are on the same page with this. I would love to be able to say, wow, I got to watch
at the end of this tournament. I got to watch one of the greatest conferences ever. You know,
that'd be cool to say. But I don't know that I've seen that or is it just ESPN trying to feed me that?
And not that I think that Jay Billis is one of these guys that can be bought. But I find it really
odd for him to be so strong about this and so adamant about this being the strongest conference
he's ever seen. I know he grew up, he's older than me. I know he saw those Big East conferences.
I had some of the most recent ACC conference play. I was just going to say even the Big Ten has
some years there where we could talk about them having the best conference up and down. So
just because you got more teams doesn't mean that you got a better conference. And when it comes
to that, I almost feel like that knocks the argument completely out of it because if you got
16 teams, well, yeah, how hard is it to have 11 good ones? That's the only reason you have 16
teams in your conference is because you got that many good ones. But as it is, if it comes down to
it and there's an SEC team holding it up at the end of it, I'll eat my words. I have no problem
with that. I know with my bracket, I had Wisconsin and Alabama ending up facing off. And I like
that game so much. I want that game to happen so bad. I think Wisconsin can be BYU because I think
BYU is going to be VCU, although I think that's going to be a really good game. I lean VCU on it.
Maybe it's just because I've watched more VCU this year. I want VCU. That's all you that I want VCU.
I also think it's a tougher conference. Schedule strength of schedule I think is about equal.
You know, it's never going to be a 49-50 thing. But I like VCU. I think Wisconsin barely gets past
them. I think St. Mary's, I think that's St. Mary's. They have a very, I think they've got a good
chance at beating Alabama. But if they don't, I think Wisconsin can do it. And then I don't think
Wisconsin beats Duke. But I don't think Marquette gets past Michigan State.
Yeah. Yeah. That's a hard one. Yeah. I can't see that happening either. That's how I have it as
well. And I've got Iowa State and Michigan State facing off there. Yep. And is there any way?
Is there any way we can make a, we can make a basketball version of, you know, come to the big
10, come to whatever. Yes. And get Tom is old to do to come to Michigan State.
We got to get it. Before it's all said and done, he's got at least another 50 years of coaching,
I would think, maybe 55. So one at some point, we've got to get iso to do, he can't leave. That's
for sure. He can't leave the big town. He can't leave coaching period. One of the things, and I
like, I like the Florida team. I don't have anything against the Florida team. But it just, it is
the look of the draw for me the way that this wrapped up. Because I, again, I'm all in and I admitted
this earlier. I'm a big east fan and I grew up on a lot of the big east basketball. I,
seen St. John's where they are, the coach that they have. I've got, I've got St. John's in the
final four. I've got them upsetting Florida. It's, it's really the only, I've only filled out one
bracket yet. I'm not one of these guys that fills out 90 brackets. I like, I don't know how much
account, same thing I was saying about the SEC. I don't know how much accounts when you at the end of
this. And you could say, yeah, my bracket, I had this and this and this. Well, if you had 20 brackets,
of course, you're going to have some stuff. I mean, talk to me if you fill out one or two brackets.
That's, that's the way I look at it. But, um, it lists, of course, money's involved and then
all bets are off. Uh, go ahead and do whatever you're going to do. Um, but to me, I just do this
for fun and, and bragging rights and all that. And, and I like St. John's. I, I, I think that team
has got a lot, a lot more left. You mentioned VCU, we're talking about VCU and I like that VCU
team of so much. My only question is with the teams in that conference and that, um, that have
played this way. Do they, what do they got left? Because they'd spent so much in that tournament
play. And you could say that I think about some of these other teams too, especially the SEC,
where it looks like it's just crabs and a barrel. Yeah. Uh, you know, that's the other thing,
twos. That's not your, uh, shock, a smart VCU either. No, no, no, uh, that's, that's the big
thing there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, uh, there's, there's one of my favorite coaches in basketball. So
I, I, I, I've been enjoying his style of play and I like that where, uh, him and VCU brought
each other. Uh, they both rose each other up. I, so my only real upset here is St. John's. I
feel like this is a year with a lot of chalk. Uh, go ahead and, uh, you know, clip this and play
it back in about a week and a half when there's, uh, all four number ones go down and, uh,
in the bunch of 16s or the sweet 16 and all that. Um, I will say statistically, one of the things
I found interesting was how often number 11s win, uh, that we, we see a lot of upsets with number
11 seeds. And then I look something up and, and I, I won't, I don't want to keep you too long,
man. I'm sure I get other things you could do, but I didn't want to see right on, right on.
What were the biggest long shots to ever win the NCAA, you know, tournament? Um, and, and,
and fame is, hmm, go ahead. I think mid-state technical college is one of them. Yeah, it's gotta be,
it's gotta be definitely. Uh, I, uh, nicely, uh, nicely done. 1983 is North Carolina state team,
25 and one odds. And certainly the, is one of the most memorable. If not, you can make the argument,
maybe the most memorable, uh, NCAA championship game, uh, with, uh, with everything happening.
And all of, of course, history that has happened since then with that game. But it's actually not
the biggest upset. And it's actually not even the top two. It's the third biggest long shot to
ever win. Uh, number two, 1985 Villanova, 35 one odds. Uh, I vaguely remember that one. I'm
not gonna lie and say I remember that one that well. I don't vaguely remember a little bits and
pieces of that one. Um, but the 2014 Connecticut team, 95 and one odds to win the tournament. They
just come out of it. The, uh, the, the, um, they, uh, they, uh, they were left for dead the year
before I believe. Yeah, I think they were what a seven seed. They went through and swept it all.
Yeah. Yeah. It was amazing tournament, uh, amazing. And really, uh, set the legend of a Connecticut
basketball. You can't best watch it. Uh, yeah, that was one. I think, uh, yeah, I think they
were a seven seeders. North Carolina was a seven seed, not that long ago. And they swept it all
the way and won it all. And that was, that was like right before those back back years are really
good Wisconsin teams. Right. Yes. Yes. Which was also incredibly, uh, it's an incredible run there.
And a lot of fun and in, in proof, uh, at least at the time that that style of coaching could,
could win. You know, uh, Bo Ryan, I think I know a lot of respect as always had a lot of respect.
But I don't think a lot of people took him, took the team or the program serious until that run.
After that, it changed that. Absolutely. And it's absolutely. And I think it's stuck. Uh, I think
that it's actually stuck. I think that there might, you might have seen a little bit of a fade here
or there, but it's certainly back now. And I don't think anybody is taking a team like Wisconsin
lightly, regardless of their record or where they placed or how they finished against in the big
10 tournament or anything like that. If you know ball, you know that when you have hot guards,
all they got to do is get hot. All they got to do is get started going. And we have seen
every team I just mentioned there, the most come the most consistent thing,
point guard and strong, uh, strong guard play. And their guards were on fire. Uh, we saw it with
Campbell Walker. Shabies. Shabies. Shabies. Shabies. Shabies. Shabies. Shabies.
Napier. I don't remember how to say it. Um, it's been, uh,
fies, bies, knees, I don't. Guards. That's what I'm talking about point shooting whatever, uh,
guard play. Uh, it's what wins this tournament. It always seems to have done that at least.
And we'll see if it does this year, but uh, Wisconsin has that as my point. They,
they have two, if not, uh, three, four deep in the guard play, let alone, I think the big 10 player
of the year. I think so too. Um, anything else, man, uh, on your mind, uh, sports wise,
for let's get going there. Uh, I guess just the other thing I'll touch on is I, I think the
only thing you can say about getting, uh, Nicole Harman, I think there's only upside to it. You
got him for relatively, uh, relatively dirt cheap for one year. He's that return guy because
Nixon says he doesn't want to do it anymore. He's all but done it and he might be your number one
and return guy. What's your plan? Russian roulette with that a little bit because of the injuries
and special teams on punt returns, kick returns. But uh, you may have gotten your number one
receiver who's got blistering speed and pretty good hands. Uh, if you've, if you've got an opportunity
there, the only, uh, the only downside in nitpicking because I think it's a great signing for a great
price. Um, is if this like they take the foot off their gas, the gas on for a wide receiver then
and they're like, okay, we're good. We need to look for another one like no, no, no. This is a great,
this is a great addition. This is fantastic. Everything you said I agree with 100%. Um, just don't
take your foot off the gas. Keep looking, keep your eyes open. There's a lot of disgruntled receivers
out there. There's the draft still coming up. There are, I wouldn't even mind seeing them sign
another wide receiver. Maybe a Stefan digs. Maybe somebody else. These guys, you're getting them every
day their price tag goes down and and before spring training, some of these veteran wide receivers
like a Keenan Allen or somebody like that are going to be out there. You've got such a young team.
You've got such a lot, young wide receiver room. What's the harm in bringing in a vet and
letting one of these guys get you a, like 21st downs this season? A couple mill that you got
to spend it, but you got to spend it. Go ahead. Spend it on one of these guys and give, give
George love some more blankets to throw to. Right. And the only thing I would say then is if you
did sign the Stefan digs, if he was free and Green Bay one after, well, then you for sure can't
keep trying your own center. No, no, no, but it really does. Absolutely. That's a great point,
man. That's actually a really good point. I even think of that. I forget some of that stuff.
I've been so focused on the whole Roger's Vikings thing that I completely forgot about half of
these other players and what teams they played for. I'd be completely honest. Now that saga is over.
We think to be continued. We'll see. We'll see. You know, we'll see. Good to talk to you now.
Have a great night. You too, buddy. You drive safe. I could use a lot of non-politically correct
terms here and it describing the roads. And I would gladly do it off the air. But, man, it's,
like I said, one to get milk and thought, well, coming on in and thought about a date night with
a, with a girlfriend, this is personal, normal tradition. And I went back home and, no, no.
I think I think sitting at home watching movies and basketball is a little more important than
all. Yeah. Drive it around town. Absolutely. And take note, everybody. Do some of the same.
Be like Michael. Be like Mike. That's what it is today. Be like Mike. I've been seeing that for
years. More and more people should be like Mike. And you know what? That's probably good that
they're not. Have a good night. You should. We'll talk soon, but have a good one.
Appreciate you, Michael. Like a comrade joining us. Be sure to be checking out and getting
our newsletter everybody. WFHR Newsletter. New edition is going to be dropping tomorrow at noon.
Shout out to our team and the hard work they're doing to put that together right as we speak.
That'll be in your email box tomorrow at noon. All you got to do is go to WFHR.com,
sign up for it real quick. You will not only get up to date and all our local Wisconsin news and
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all of our sports. Just when I think his brain can, his bandwidth can't handle us. Surely,
if I ask him about this, he's not going to oh, sure, he knows. He knows about anything. The high
school sports related. Laura's been doing an amazing job covering powerlifting and I've been hearing
from a lot of you out there. You've been enjoying learning more about powerlifting. So that's been
kind of cool too to not only get some information about our local teams, but also just learning about
a new sport. That's been a lot of fun. So a great coverage. Be sure to check that out at WFHR.com.
Everybody and go ahead and taking a look at, of course, the phone lines being wide open,
hit us in the numbers. You want to talk brackets? Who do you got? I'm not proud of my bracket.
I got to the end of my bracket and I hated myself.
Be honest with you. I completely did not want to submit it. I wasn't proud of it.
I'm just going to be real about it. Let's go ahead and take a phone call. Good afternoon. You're
in the game. Well, I guess I got a call and all that Michael called. It was a nice
two-bed to weather had to be what the what the weather was today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It did mother nature
mess with our shows again. But that's on me. I didn't I didn't even reach out to her. I didn't
even tell her what we had scheduled for today. So that's a little bit on me as a program director
and producer. I should have reached out to her. But how is your bracket looking, man? How do you
feel about it? Well, I mean, I don't really have that many upsets. I'm still looking at
you know, the way North Carolina played last night. I mean, is there a chance that they could
beat Ole Miss? I mean, I mean, you can come in pretty, you know, they played pretty hot last
night. They played pretty well. So I'm kind of contemplating. Maybe switching that one a little bit
up a little bit, you know, but I don't really have that many. I mean, I have, you know, I get,
but this is this is me in the South. I'm just not a big market fan. They haven't played well
down the stretch here. And I have them getting beat by New Mexico. And, you know, when I you sit
there and look at the, you know, the user picks. If you look on a kind of CBS sports, which I'm
looking at right now, they do have Marquette, you know, 65 to 35. But man, I just I don't know,
Marquette just did not look good down the stretch. And if you have a good defensive ball club,
they can make making it shut down pretty quick. Exactly.
Exactly. As much as I like Shaka Smart, I don't see Marquette at the very least. I do have them
in my bracket. I haven't been in New Mexico, but not by much. I have, I have, I have, I go with
you on New Mexico there. And they're not getting past Michigan State. Whoever they, a New Mexico
or Marquette, I don't think. Yeah, no, I, you know, I actually, you know, I mean, take a look here,
my, my, with my final four I have set up. I have Auburn, Florida, Duke, Duke, Kentucky.
So three, three of the four number ones I have in the final and I have Duke winning it all against Florida.
I, you know, back and forth, I was kind of thinking maybe Kentucky could be right during
in the final this year. They're, they're playing the basketball. I mean, Florida's playing this
outstanding basketball right now where it's, I mean, it's tough not to maybe switch that.
Yeah, I, I got, I got what, a little over 12 hours to be able to do that, but it's, it's, it's,
it's tough. I mean, you know, then you go, you know, look at Wisconsin. I got them going up
in that. Actually, there's another upset I did put. I did have VCU beaten BYU. I know it's
not the shock, a smart VCU. Still though. But, but I still, I think I'm going to stick with
that VCU one. Although, you know, you'd be talking about the, the altitude and, and all that BYU
plays in Utah. I know there's a little bit of altitude there too. But, um, I, I, I got what
scouts are making it to, making it to next weekend, but then getting beat by Alabama.
Yeah, same here. Yeah. Although that game easily could go the other way with Alabama and how
streaky they are and how, again, if, if Wisconsin gave it hot, I wouldn't want to play them.
Well, and that's, you know, that's another thing too. You, you look at that and I mean,
that can go either way. And, and then if Wisconsin goes up against Duke, you're talking at Wisconsin,
you know, as a chance of being, Wisconsin, the way they east, the way they had the,
we set up, they're saying Wisconsin, if they can do what they're going to do, because the way
the defense has been the last month, except for that time's taking, I mean, I could see them,
making it to the final four, but I just, I just can't do it. I mean, there's been years that
at that Wisconsin should have made it to the final four and they got beat, you know, the first game
of the second weekend. So, um, yeah, yeah. Well, and there's, there's years that we didn't think they
would get out and get to the sweet 16 and they ended up in the final four. So, right, who know,
here's the factor that the betting, all the odds that I see and all the inside information and
all these different things. And the one thing I don't hear anybody talking about, we're talking
about kids basically, we're talking about 17, 18, 19 at the most year old kids. Everything,
all bets are off. Who knows? Who knows what any of them? I'm not at all taking them lightly in
the way they can focus and lock in on a game and do their job. I'm not at all taking any of that
lightly. We've seen in billions of times, but the factor of that has to be in play and how many
things play into that. There's no guessing that. There's no guessing that, you know, there's
going to be this uproar about North Carolina and how's that North Carolina team going to respond?
Are they going to, you know, listen to that and think, Oh, God, we don't belong here and maybe
they don't put out a great performance or are they going to or they're going to do what we saw
last night? And now that's a very motivated team and everybody's regressing their brackets because
well, if North Carolina is that motivated, we've seen them almost beat Duke. We seen them do
pretty good. All these things, it won one game changes everything. It changes the way you rethink
everything. So fill it out these brackets. I don't know if there's a more maddening thing that's
more enjoyable. I don't know many things that are like it. I filled out mine and I've got Auburn
and St. John's Duke and Houston in my final four. Again, I hate myself. I don't like it, but it is
what I got. I got Auburn and Duke facing off. And again, being honest with everybody, I,
I've got it right in front of me right now. The submission button is right there. And last night,
I picked Auburn. And throughout since then, I've had a busy day. I've had a lot of things on my
mind, but every once in a while popping up in my head is Cooper flag. And the idea that it's been
a long time since we've seen somebody like this kid. And I don't mean just his style of play or
how good he is, his motivating factor. The thing I was just getting at, this kid seems motivated.
He seems like it is not just about being the number one pick. It is not just about showing
everybody how good he is. It is about him and his this team and winning a championship.
That kid motivated with what we just saw them do, winning the ACC tournament, basically without
their two best players. It's hard for me to go against Duke, even as much as I believe in Auburn.
I think Auburn is maybe the most complete team. So I have no idea what to do. And I wish
everybody well out there, not just filling out a bracket, but God help you if you put five
cents on these things, let alone everything else that people put out of.
Well, you know, Auburn down a stretch, though, too. They kind of started kind of getting a little,
you know, they didn't play really good basketball down the stretcher either. So,
I don't know, I just, you get to sit there and second guess yourself all the time. And
you know, you sit there and talk, we sit there and talk about North Carolina. And
you know, they're going to have a chip on their shoulder. You know, like you said,
with the way everybody was talking. And you know, as I'm sitting here looking at my bracket,
it's like, do I readjust it now? Or do I just keep it to where it is? Because I mean,
I do have Mississippi going to the old miss going to the the sweet 16. So it's like, oh, brother,
you know, I got to beat Iowa State. You know, you know, it just, you just sit there and second
guess yourself on everything. And you wonder how much, like for me, I admit that in college sports,
maybe probably, yeah, college sports more than anything else. I get my biases thrown in with
teams. I've never been a Duke fan. I've never liked Duke. I just have a hard time rooting for them,
even in a, like when I'm playing video games or anything, let alone in real life. And I give
you I don't have a whole lot of reason for this. I just don't like them. I don't like rooting for
them. And I have a hard time picking them in the championship game. That makes no logical sense.
There's no reason not to pick that team. I get just gave you evidence that there's a perfectly
good reason to pick them. But I like Auburn a little bit more than Duke. So that makes me lean more
towards Auburn. It's not there's no logic here for me for me. I'm just speaking for me. But I
also think that a lot of us end up doing these things. And what are we going to hear in a week or
two from now? Somebody who's got a perfect bracket that never has watched somebody even dribble
in basketball, let alone play college basketball. So it's it's I just hope people get a joy.
You know, don't don't stress about it too much. Don't get too crazy about it. It's supposed to be
fun. And hopefully we get to see a lot of good games because unfortunately as much as we talk
about this tournament, there's usually a lot of bad basketball. Yeah. Well, and that's, you know,
that's, you know, there was that was kind of brought up the other day when some was talking about
how this could be the prey. It could be one of the most boringness tournaments in the in the history
because of the NIL stuff. You also are mid majors. They're not going to have that, you know,
you're not going to have that one guy on that mid major that could actually, you know, do something
to, you know, make that upset because that one guy could be, you know, on the other team. So
I don't disagree with that point, but I also, I feel like, and there's plenty of people smarter
than me talking about this. But when I, when I hear that, when I hear that from the talking heads,
not you with the talking heads, my immediate thought is, well, the scouts miss these guys the
first time. You're telling me they're the only ones they missed. There's going to be a kid on,
there's a kid on Long Beach State right now that is, is killing it. And any SEC team or big 10
team or ACC team would give anything to have him, have him on their team. Next year, maybe he
won't be there, but he's going to be there this year. And guess what? When he leaves, there's
going to be a kid on St. Mary's. There's going to be a kid at Morehead State. There's going to be
kid at Gonzac. There's, there's always a kid. There's so many talented basketball and baseball and
football players and all that. I don't know that we really run out of talent. I believe that scouting
stops looking. I believe that scouting doesn't always, it gets lazier and easier. And especially
as we cut into scouting more and more in sports, especially at the minor levels. The baseball has
gotten rid of like division. Like there's no single A baseball anymore. There's no, you know, the
amount of time and money to put into scouting has been cut over the last 20 years, maybe more than
anything else in sports. It's fascinating to look at if anybody looks at it. I don't think that
NIL is going to kill that. I genuinely think NIL might help that be Excel.
May help people find these kids more. May go looking for that diamond in the rough because
let's be blunt, they'll be cheaper. And that's what you're doing. You're trying to find the
cheapest talent because that's business. And that's what this is. That's what it's always been.
The idea that NIL changes any of this to me, it only enhances it. I see negatives all over the
place. I'm not saying it's not, you know, it's perfect or anything like that. But the overall
positives really outweigh the negatives for me on NIL.
Well, you know, I'm going to go back to that article I sent to you on that NIL. A deal was
saying, John, they, there was another interview with, with, oh crap, no, I can't even think of
the name. That's the head coach. Oh, Rick Patino. Rick Patino, he may never, he may never go do a
high school visit again. He's going to try to build it because obviously with the amount of
money as you saw in that article that he's going to go to and develop his team through the NIL.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's wild to me. It's, I know it's a different sport, but hearing Sean McVey
talk about, oh, I don't go to the scouting combine. We just send their scouts. Like, that's crazy
to me. I never thought of a, you know, a head coach doing that, maybe a bad head coach, but not a
good one like him, not, not a respected head coach. That scouting, that's again going back to
scouting to me and where a lot of these. And to be fair, you know, Rick Patino at the age he is,
the legacy he has, he's probably not doing that with a NIL or not. Dean Smith wasn't making a
whole lot of house calls towards the end of his career either. It's just the way that this works
with scouting, with recruiting, especially nowadays where you can zoom call with a guy and,
you know, get a lot of the same interaction and everything. You don't have to invade their
house. Um, we, we romanticize a lot of the, the old school recruiting. Some of that was very
invasive. Some of that was very invasive and very so the coach could get into the house and see,
do they have a mom and dad? Oh, they don't that I'm not recruiting this kid. Like, some of this
stuff is pretty again going back to scouting. Uh, how much we judge this stuff or how much scouts
judge these things. I, the talent's out there and NIL is going to help you find it, I think.
And, and, and I think that overall when the, when the dust settles and there's actually some,
you know, leadership and some adults doing what adults are supposed to do and taking the reins of
this, I think it can all work out. I think it could be beneficial for these kids, the students,
the athletes, the professional athletes and these universities, these businesses. Because that's
what we're talking about. Right. And, and that's, and that's where I mean, yeah, yeah, I agree with
you on that. And, um, you know, you kind of talk, Mikey said was with Patino and not going to
the house or the stuff. I mean, look at Bill Belichak. Do you think he's going to really go
to these games? Yeah. The, the, the, the, go sit on the, on the, on the coach and talk that he's,
you know, these families tell you truth. I don't know if I will allow him in my house. Anyway,
he's even my young god. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I am.
Yep. You know, now that I'm thinking about it. No, you know what coach, we can talk right
out here. We can talk out in the front yard. We're good. We can talk out in the front yard.
Always good to talk to you, man. Thanks for the call. I did.
All right. Give you a great night. You too. You too. I'd be safe tonight. Stay in everybody.
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some fun stats of the show to get up to a little bit later. Also, one of the talk about a little
bit of the little football and a couple of other things. We got baseball and we got to talk about
too. All this March madness is great, but baseball is right around the corner. So we got that
coming up as well right here on Playmakers at WFHR. Welcome back, everybody.
Playmakers here at WFHR, locally grown radio, big thank you to quality plus printing,
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Let's go ahead and take a call. Good afternoon. You're in the game.
James, buddy, I totally forgot the biggest news of all today.
Oh, when we started talking brackets and of course the Packers. It was announced today that
longtime wrestling coach at Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High School, Scott Bennett has stepped
down and he's going to be retiring. I was going to wait to talk to you to see, because honestly,
I only saw one thing about that. I did not know if it was official or not. That's gigantic, isn't it?
Yeah, I come up the feline out of the restrained apparatus at the moment now because I've known for
months. Yeah, you've been, yeah. I've known for months. I talked to him about it. He had
confided in me and I said, well, I'm not going to say a thing until you want it said,
and that was, you know, I got my word on that one and let the school do that and now I can talk
about it and tell everybody I want. It's a sad day in terms of Wisconsin Rapids wrestling.
I like when Louis Bennett's passed away. Maybe obviously not on that scale, but what Scott has
done for the program and for wrestling in the state and even nationally. It's a sad day, but you
know, he's a family man. Scott's a big family man and I'm very happy that he gets to enjoy his
family now. Michael, given, you know, and I have a lot of respect for you holding this story and
we don't have enough of that nowadays in journalism. I appreciate that. Given that that you've had
some time to think about this, though, a couple of quick questions for you. What is his eternal
legacy with the program, with the community, even with the state? You're talking about what
you're talking about a man who is revered, respected, in some avenues I will say,
unliked. You know, we can talk about the elephant in the room with the scandal that went on a
few years ago. You know, we can bring that up. You still got to bring that up. Obviously,
it's not something I'm sure. He once brought up or in school or anything like that, but it is a
factoid there. In terms of the last few years, it was Louis and Scott, you know what, Scott
was the technician. Louis was the motivator. Scott was the nitty gritty on the mat. He was,
this is what you do. This is how you do this and that and that and this. The psychological aspect
of a lot of it too. Why do you think there's always been a great big WR on their singlets? Well,
you see that WR in wrestling. You know you're in trouble. There's just so much to it, the
chest matches that you have to do about bumping a guy up or maybe leaving a guy out of the line up
because there's a better match up here there. He was playing checkers for the longest time
when everybody else was playing chest and now he now it's now everywhere he's playing checkers,
but now it's three dimensional checkers. I know that this program means a lot to you personally
for you. What does it mean this day and this news? You know, I'll be honest. Back then, I won't say
that Scott and I got along the best. You know, there's, you know, me being a young guy, him being
the authority figure, everything that goes with that. You can totally understand that. Oh yeah,
this is something you and I have very much in common, yes. You know, and everybody goes through it.
You know, in our teenagers, we can be a little, you know, clean it up, but we could be little
crap heads, you know. Not cool heads, yeah. Yeah, yeah, whatever you want to call it. And sometimes
you didn't know it was a right or what, you know, you didn't look at it in other ways than just
your own bullheadedness. And, you know, there's some of that, you know, there's still some things that
I was that I said and there's still some things that he said that I'll sit here and say, yeah,
he was still wrong about that. And there's some things that I'll look back and I've looked back
and said, you know, I was wrong about that. But getting to know him professionally in terms of
with the sports writing and the broadcast and photography, everything with that. You know what,
my friend? I've gotten some serious respect for him. And I had it before, but I really have it now.
And just what he's done for everybody. And, you know, with me losing my father about four,
going on three and a half years ago, and he just lost his father about two years ago,
you know, Scott and I had some talks about things that weren't even about wrestling. And, you know,
I've been for anyone who's lost a parent, it's horrible. So it really sucks to put no other way to
put it. But, you know, I don't know how he felt, but I know what it's like to feel that. And we
had some good conversations about that. They stayed between us, but he, you know, he's made a lot
of men out of, out of boys. And that's, you see, though, and I'm not talking the physical aspect of
it, the mental, what it takes, you got to sacrifice for the greater good. And, you know, you're going
to be doing things that you don't like sometimes that hurt, but there's the slogan, there's no easy way.
And you know what, that's true. And that's not just wrestling and that's life. And that's something that
Louis and Scott both instilled. And boy, oh, boy, it's weird to think that there's no more
benefits at the top of the program. Now, whoever they hire, it's going to be top notch. I have no
question about that. I don't know if they hire from within or they get bring someone in because
I was going to start, but this is my key job. That was my next question. We're not talking about
your everyday wrestling program. We're talking about one of the pinnacle wrestling programs in the
state. So I was curious to know, do they have a succession plan? Do you know who might take over?
It sounds like that's kind of an open book right now. Yeah, I don't claim to know that. And I,
you know, that's like, that's like a predicting who's going to go where in the NFL and
and everything like that. I mean, as of right now is the state. Everybody's chasing Kekana.
Just Kekana is right now where Rapids was in the 90s and the 2000s, where their JV could be the
second best team in the state. Just losing to their varsity. So I mean, that's just how good Kekana is.
But Wisconsin Rapids is still the class of the Valley Conference, sort of a class of the central
Wisconsin. And we'll see what happens. I mean, I got a few ideas. I mean, maybe you look at the
assistant Tim spray. If he wants to stay around, then you could look at, you know, some of the
storied names you could look at a Hanson. You could look at a, uh, uh, trips. You could look,
you could look other way or two. I mean, not to say that spray isn't either because I mean,
he's got a son that's state champion. But, uh, I mean, there's, there's, there's some. I mean,
you could look at a Chiminski who's a two time state champion or he could go somewhere totally
different, you know, you never know. But either way Rapids is a marquee job out there and whoever gets
it, they're gonna have some huge shoes to pill. Yeah. And they're inheriting a good program.
I would watch the lock. Yeah. They're, they're, they're the best to lock. They're inheriting
in a good program. And I'll tell you this, we may not know who in the next, uh, coach will be.
I can tell you who won't be. It's not going to be Michael. We need him. He cannot do it. Uh,
I'm going to put my foot down on the, no, we'd support you whatever you do, Ben. Uh, but, but, uh,
no, no, I don't want that job. Good, good, because we, because we're going to keep you busy,
because we need you here. We, uh, and we need stuff like this. Like you, what you just did
here, man, uh, that nobody else is doing. I, I imagine that there's plenty of people out there
from that almost all of our audience that didn't know this until you brought it to us. Uh, this is
the good work that you're doing. And we appreciate it, man. And, and appreciate the coverage.
We're going to be covering wrestling more going forward here. Michael's going to be, uh,
leading that charge for us. And we're looking forward to bringing that back to WFHR.
Yeah, man. I, I'm looking forward to that. And I'm hoping to bring more and, uh, you know,
I mean, there's thinking of next year, there's actually going to instead of just being the two
wrestling teams of rapids in Acusa, we're getting a third assumptions, joining the varsity ranks,
breaking off of the co-op with Acusa and word, Edwards. They're going to co-op with the
Shelley. So we're going to have Lincoln. We're, well, we're going to have Acusa. And then we're
going to have both kinds of rapids, wrestling, Lincoln and assumption. And that's a pretty cool
thing for that program. You know, we don't get a chance to talk about that very often when a
program is doing that well that it can break out of a co-op. That, that's pretty good for that
program. That's a good on them. Well, it's, you know, there's, it's not all sunshine and rainbows
and pung dogs there. I mean, there's some, there's some drama with that as well. But, you know,
it's, it's not necessarily the program's doing both the bad, which I shouldn't say that because
Acusa program is doing very well. But it's, uh, what you can see a sport grow like wrestling has
in the female ranks and of the boys ranks that you're getting another team to form.
Baby, baby, that's, that's, uh, I am happy, happy, happy to quote Phil Robertson and, uh, as
for a guy that loves wrestling like I do, I'm looking forward to my Thursday nights being just
chock full every week of wrestling. It's going to be a lot of fun, uh, especially, uh, you know,
coming up with, with, with Natalie, this news, but to see what Lincoln does and how that you've
devolved, you know, evolves throughout the season. And going forward and we'll follow in these
teams. Really appreciate you calling back in, man. Thanks a lot for the time.
Not a problem. And I will leave you with this. And with baited breath, you know,
windows, um, baited breath, of course, there is rumors of one more coach going to be done by the
end of the year. I'm just going to leave it by that. Uh, so we'll, we could talk about that when
that happens. Sounds good. Uh, hmm, that's a good tease. You see, you're good at this, Matt.
You're very good. Thanks for calling it. We'll talk soon. See you, buddy. Have a great rest show.
You too. We have a good night, man. Have a good night. Uh, we appreciate you, Michael. Great
coverage there, Michael. Uh, yes, long time Lincoln High School wrestling coach, Bennett coach,
Bennett, uh, retiring. Uh, so we'll be covering that story. We're following that story. Uh, I know
Michael will be very closely in tune with it. We'll be keeping up to date on that as we try to keep
up, uh, with all of our local sports and all the local news coming up. Like we had, uh, with our
friends over at the Wisconsin Rapids Elk Slatch, we talk about this every Wednesday. Bingo over
there. Well, bingo is canceled for tonight. I'm sure many of you, uh, bingoers, bingoettes,
bingo. What do you call a bingo wear? So bingo wear, right? Somebody who likes bingo,
bingo, bingo. I don't know. Maybe I hope that's okay. Uh, I might have just gotten canceled. I
don't know. Bingo, uh, is canceled tonight, uh, for over at the Elk Slatch 693. We do shout out
our friends over there at the Wisconsin Rapids Elk Slatch number 693 doing such great work in our
community and always keeping us up to date on these kind of things. So yes, bingo closed for tonight.
We got to take our final time out, pay our bills, get to these great amazing sponsors and come
back and have some more fun wrapping up playmakers here at WFHR, probably brought you by quality plus
printing and family natural foods. Welcome back, everybody. Playmakers here at WFHR, locally grown
radio, big shout out to quality plus printing and family natural foods for joining us. Let's go to
the phone lines. Good afternoon. You're in the game. Hello, hi James. Hi. Hey, Pam. How are you?
I just wanted to let you know it's a good program. You and Mike had a good very nice conversation.
And while I was driving, I was hearing you talk about Mr. Scott Bennett's retiring. And, you know,
that brought back to mind. I remember when I was at LHS, Mr. Louis Bennett's was there.
And that even goes way back to when my brother was there in the 1960s and the late 60s. I remember
looking to my brother's annual and seeing that Mr. Louis Bennett had, you know, just started teaching
and this picture was in the, you know, the annual there with the teachers and such. But, yeah,
that's quite a legacy there with, you know, that many years for, you know, one family to be involved
in that wrestling program there at LHS. It really is. And thank you for sharing that, Pam.
And like Michael said, it's, it's hard to imagine not seeing a Bennett's at the top of that coaching
tree. So it is going to be a little, it's going to be, it's going to take a little getting used to.
Right, right. I'm well, hopefully, you know, wishing them the best as they, you know, feel,
feel the shoes and, you know, get someone else in there. Yeah. Just wanted to let anyone know that
if you're traveling the roads, when I came across town, they're quite messy that I hadn't been on
too many streets where the plows had been yet. So, but I'm just, you know, take it easy and drive
carefully, watch out for the other guys. But yeah, the roads were pretty messy out there. And my coat
was almost soaking by the time I got into the car. I can imagine. Car all cleaned off. You know,
it's a white, it's a, you know, kind of a moist snow, that's for sure. And I went out there to try
to make a path. And as I was walking back, it was pretty much already filled.
It's rough out there. Trying to get my car cleaned off and get one section cleaned off. And by the time
I got to another side, it'd be, you know, full of snow again. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad you made it. I'm
glad you called in. If anything, to let us know you made it home. Okay. That's great.
I did. And, you know, some of the trees are especially the pine trees with, you know, they are,
some of them I did see a few, you know, limbs already snapped off. And, you know, they're,
some of them are hanging kind of low, loaded with this heavy wet snow. So just take it easy,
anyone that's out there traveling. You have a great night, Pam. Thank you for calling in and
sharing that. And we'll talk tomorrow. Okay. We will. Bye James. Have a good night. Thank you,
Pam. The soul of this station, everybody, the heart of this station, Pam Hilke calling in there.
And a great memory to share. Thank you for that, Pam. I appreciate it. It is going to be
interesting to see what they do with that program going forward. We've just got a couple of minutes
left. You can call in if you'd like. Let's go ahead and take a phone call. See where you're going
with this one. Good afternoon. You're in the game. Hey, guys, ready for a laugh? Yes.
Maybe the bingo H. O. Bay Bay.
I knew I'd grab you with that. Oh, that was good. No, that was good. That was good.
You had a, you had a previous caller that was kind of knocking the market and your brackets.
And never forget about Jim McLevene. Oh, yeah. That's a good one. It's a good reference.
It's a good reference. Jimmy Buckets. Yeah, I mean, they've had some nice players at Marquette.
Yeah, they've had some good players over there. I don't, I don't have the rivalry as much as I,
you know, I like some of these local teams. I don't have the rivalry with Marquette and Wisconsin.
So I kind of look at both squads as interesting. I tend to lean on Wisconsin, but that's mostly
because of hockey. I'm excited to see both teams that are in the tournament. I think that that
just represents both conferences and both areas very well. Do you have any, do you, do you
fill out brackets or anything, man? No, I didn't actually, I haven't done it in like 20 years.
Yeah, I haven't really. It's not for everybody. I have done a little strategic homework,
though, as far as the Minnesota Vikings back up quarterback possibilities. Yeah, because that's
that's a good man. That's something I wanted to talk about. I want Teddy to gloves.
Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, what? Yeah. I don't know. I just think that being on Minnesota,
you know, he's already familiar. I just figured, you know, that'll be a good idea.
I don't, I think that's a great, I honestly, I think it's a good idea, but it's also it's,
I think it's important. I think it's necessary. We've got less than a minute left. So I got
to let you go, but thanks for calling it a great joke. No, no, that's okay. Can I just give a PSA? Yeah.
Turn your headlights on. Yes, and Jordan is the greatest player ever. Yeah,
nicely done. Yeah, please keep your headlights out of everybody. That's maddening when people don't
have their headlights on in this weather. And yeah, Michael Jordan is the goat. The Viking situation,
I'll admit, the storyline was funny to me if Rogers went there, but it's, it's better for them.
Certainly, I think most of us can agree to not necessarily have that headache. But what are you
going to do? Because JJ McCarthy looks good and all, and he looks like he's bounced back from that
surgery, but that's a playoff team. That's a team that's got super bowl expectations. You can't,
I don't think you can count on him. Even if he was coming into this, even coming into the year
healthy, you want to have a strong backup. It'll be interesting to see. We'll talk about it on
Friday's Playmakers. Be safe out there. Everybody have a great night.
