I'm Phil Day with WRCO sports tonight high school boys basketball returns.
River Valley plays at Richland Center in a key conference game to begin the day after
the New Year's day holiday.
The teams have only played one conference game a piece so far.
So it's a busy January for Southwest conference teams pregame time tonight around 715 sponsored
by the testing power sports.
Also tonight Lancaster plays at Dodgeville and Plattville at Prairie Dushin North Crawford
at Westby, Cooley Christian Providence at Brookwood, Seneca at Kikapoo, Ithaca plays
at Wozika Stubin and that's a makeup game from December 19th.
At Riverdale tonight, a busy place LaFarge plays at Riverdale boys at six.
The girls game at 730, Barrowwood travels to Boston, Highland at Blackhawk and Luther
at Cashton in Area Girls Basketball.
WRCO lost a good friend recently, Ken Manning died last week at his home in LaCrosse.
He was a local athlete that graduated from Ithaca High School and attended UWC Richland
and later Plattville University.
His coaching career began at Lancaster in 1979 and later he moved to Westby High School.
More broadcasters not only interviewed Ken many times through his career, but we crossed
paths often.
After he retired from head coaching, he began Western Wisconsin video productions and he
covered not only wrestling, but many sporting events.
We often sat side by side with Ken as he promoted area athletes and their endeavors.
During his combined head coaching tenure at the two schools, Ken had 37 state qualifiers,
24 state place winners, nine state finalists and five state champions.
Ken's accomplishments earned him a place in both the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association,
George Martin Hall of Fame and the Wisconsin chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Ken joined me on a WRCO sports broadcast following the news a few years ago that his name
would be in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
I go back to when I was wrestling at Ithaca and then at the campus and then at Plattville,
UW Plattville and then as the coach and stuff.
I think about all the different communities that have been a part to help me shape my life
and my career.
And it all started right there at Ithaca and Richland Center and just to involve the home
if you want to call it that, I think it's just so special and then to pick up more family
members at Lancaster and then here at Lesby, it's just been a joy and you know, you talk
about and I always kind of look at this and go, you know, thank God for something like
this because it's just mind boggling sometimes.
Some of the guys that coached you too, in fact, we talked to Jim Allball just last year
when he went into the state Hall of Fame, so you had some good mentors along the way.
Oh, you know, you talked about between, I was just thinking about that actually this morning,
so with, you know, my coach Jim Allball, I had him in middle school, junior high, high school,
and then the two years at the campus.
So I did not know anybody else.
I didn't know anybody else could coach us from other than Jim Allball.
So, you know, until I went to Plattville and then had the Bob Garcia there,
you know, and then there's people like the albumens, the Ted Harris' as officials,
the John Burns, you know, all those kind of people have just shaped what I've done.
Very good neck, you know, he was one of those guys that continued to help me grow as a coach,
you know, learning technique and those, you know, those little nuances within the sport that you've
got to know. My good friend, Chuck Rasmussen, my buddy Mike Meyer up here, you know, at Westby.
I mean, those friendships will last forever.
From an interview with Ken Manning a few years ago when he went into the Wisconsin
chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, a visitation for Ken Manning will be held from 11
until 130 followed by a memorial service at two this coming Saturday, January 4th at Brookwood High School.
On the state of Wisconsin scene, the Packers apparently will have to make their entire postseason run
without two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jair Alexander. Packers coach Matt LaFlores said yesterday
that Alexander is undergoing surgery to repair the knee injury that has kept the 2018 first round
pick from playing for most of the past two months. Alexander's absence creates a major hurdle for
the Packers in their bid to make a Super Bowl run as a wild card. The Packers regular season is almost
over, but Green Bay is ramping up things for a major event later this year. The 2025 NFL draft
will bring thousands of people to title town and also the city's downtown area. A campaign called
Touchdown Downtown is working on draft a fun for the huge crowds who will be visiting.
Downtown Green Bay assistant director Jen Matcaff tells WBAT TV organizers want to make sure they
showcase what you can do when you come to downtown Green Bay. Concerning the game on Sunday,
the Packers and the Bears, the Packers Xavier McKinney talked about what makes Caleb Williams tough.
He can extend plays with his legs and I think the receivers do a good job of like converting
routes and just moving around. So it's tough. You got to be prepared for it. I think that's something
that we can prepare for in practice and kind of get ready for mentally knowing that sometimes
downs might be longer. The Packers are trying to overcome the laws to the Vikings. Here's Josh Myers.
Yeah, I think top to bottom. I think you asked anybody in this facility. We were extremely
disappointed. You know, we all wanted that one bad and we all wanted to perform better and
wanted a different outcome. So yeah, that was a pretty disappointing one elsewhere in football news
in college action yesterday. Quite the ball game as Texas avoided the first big upset of the college
football playoff hitting a fourth and long touchdown pass to keep the game going and beating Arizona
state 39 31 and double over time when an interception by Andrew McCuba finally ended a peach
bowl quarter final classic number six Ohio State roared into the college football playoff semi-finals
with a 41 21 victory over number one or a gun in the 111th Rose Bowl Jeremiah Smith caught two
of Will Howard's three touchdown passes while Ohio State went 34 nothing ahead in a sensational
first half. The college football playoff quarter final in New Orleans was postponed today after
a truck plowed into a New Year's crowd about a mile away from the side of the sugar bowl. The game
originally was scheduled for Wednesday night at the 70,000 seat Superdome Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Huntley
says all parties agreed that it was in the best interest of public safety to push the game back. It's
now set for three o'clock this afternoon. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry says he'll attend the
sugar bowl and his confident the area in and around the stadium will be safe. Yana's out to the
Kupo Tells reporters box coach Doc Rivers gets the credit for the teams come from behind 120 to 112
win over the Pacers New Year's Eve Milwaukee was trailing 83 64 in the third period when the
coach motivated his players to come roaring back led by an energized Yana's the box ran Indiana
off the court 56 29 the rest of the way. The eight time NBA all power forward scored just four
points in the first half, but he finished with the total of 30 a dozen rebounds and five assists
Brooklyn visits the five serve forum coming up this evening. I'm Phil me with an update on sports
WRC Sports has sponsored this evening by Schwartz Insurance, here Wilson Mutual Insurance
Agency and Lakes Gas Company, serving customers all over America's Great Midwest with reliable
propane services and great prices since 1959.
Here's Filney with a look at tonight's area, Prep Sports Action.
LaFarge is playing at Riverdale in boys and girls basketball tonight.
Boys Game starts at 6 and the girls at 7.30.
Other girls games, Highland travels to Black Hawk, Barobu at Boston and Luther at
Cashton.
In boys basketball, makeup games in the Ridge and Valley, Seneca at Kikapoo and Ithaca
is playing at Wazika Stuban.
Koolie Christian Providence travels to Brookwood, North Crawford at Westby, Plattville is at Prairie
Dushin in the Southwest Conference, Lancaster at Dodgeville, and River Valley visits Richland
Center.
Well, in the game on WRCO tonight, the Horns, maybe the tallest team, River Valley is played
so far.
Here's Coach Luke Fatcher.
Yeah, I think it makes for a very different and difficult matchup for us.
Their length, their size, I think is going to change the way that we've seen the game.
They do like to pressure, it's just going to be a very interesting matchup.
I'm looking forward to seeing who shows up to compete tonight.
R.C. Coach Brian Poles talked to me today about the game being a possible contrast of
styles.
Yeah, I think so.
For us, we want to maybe try to extend our defense a little bit, make them a little
bit more uncomfortable.
You'll probably see that a little bit more than what we usually do.
But offensively, we have a size advantage and we go into that almost every game knowing
that we've got to try to focus on getting that basketball inside and really taking advantage
of our size.
So we'll see if we can do that in which team can kind of impose their preferences.
We'll probably come out on top.
Pregame time 715 tonight on WRC OFM 100.9 WRC.com and the Civic Media app, I'm Filmy.
The Badgers men's basketball team will open their 2025 portion of their schedule with
a game tomorrow against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Iowa carries a 10 and 3 record overall and has split two big 10 conference games.
The Hawkeyes are second in the country, scoring nearly 90 points a game.
Sophomore Owen Freeman averages just over 17 and senior Peyton Sandford comes in at 16
and a half.
Tip off for tomorrow night's game at the Cole Center.
We'll be at six and you'll be able to hear the broadcast of that game on WRC, 107.7
and AM 1450.
Being momentum matters more to the Green Bay Packers than improving their play-out seating
as the year gears up for the postseason against their long-time punching bag, the slumping
Chicago Bears.
Green Bay is currently positioned at the number 7 seed in the NM Siege, which could result
in a trip to Philadelphia for the Wildcards round.
Packers could earn the sixth seed if they beat the Bears on Sunday and the Washington
commanders lose at Dallas.
Coach Matt Loughler says he intends to treat this game like any other and will play his
starters.
The Bears have lost 10 straights since a 4 and 2 start.
Yannis pointed to Coupon, tells reporters Bucks coach Doc Rivers gets the credit for the
team's come from behind 120 to 112 win over the Pacers on New Year's Eve.
Milwaukee was trailing 83 to 64 in the third period when the coach motivated his players
to come roaring back, led by an energized enter to Coupon, the Bucks ran Indiana off
the court, 56 to 29 the rest of the way.
The A-time all NBA power forward scored just 4 points in the first half, but he finished
the game with 30, a dozen rebounds and 5 assists.
Brooklyn visits the Pfizer forum tonight.
Milwaukee, Yannis on to Coupon was the early leader in fan belting for the NBA All-Star
game and LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers seems well on his way towards extending
his record and getting picked for a 21st time.
The first update on all-star voting for the season revised games was released Thursday,
with entered to Coupon, the overall leader with about 1.7 million votes.
Denver's Noel and Nicola Yolkick is second overall with about 1.4 million votes, which
is tops among all Western conference players.
And Brewers fans used to love him, not not so much, a general sentinel poll to pick the
Wisconsin sports villain of 2024 as an early leader.
Former Milwaukee manager Craig Council, a fan favorite for years, leads the way with
more than 57% of the votes.
His abdication to move south to lead the Cubs is why he gets more votes than all of his
competitors combined.
Chica Chisety Sports.com speculates the vote would have been even more once cited a few months
ago.
WRC Sports has been sponsored by Lake's gas company, taking care of all your LP needs,
and sports insurance, providing the most complete insurance protection with the most competitive
rates.
For WRC Sports, I'm Tim Thede.
