I'm Phil Ney with sports, the WIAA tournament gets underway tonight for boys basketball teams.
The race to Madison will get underway with games tonight, then Friday night for the winners,
Saturday night, next Thursday and Saturday on the way to the Cole Center.
Tonight in Area Division 3 basketball, River Valley will be at home against Prairie Ducchean.
The Black Hawks will be a number 5C, the Visiting Black Hawks, a number 12 seed.
Coach Luke Fatcher says it is hard to believe. Turn of a time is here.
It's wild how it sneaks up on you. You kind of go through a little bit of a
low and it's not you anywhere. And then you blink and here we are season number two.
The team has had some good senior leadership this year.
A great group of kids. You know, this has been a group that I have worked with,
either directly or indirectly since they've been in fourth grade coming up through the club.
I joked with that our senior night, like I didn't know if they'd win a game by the time they
got to high school. They weren't an overly skilled group. But you know, the perseverance,
the kids that stuck with it put so much time in the off season. Really nice group of nice young men
and I've really, really enjoyed coaching.
I asked Luke about the Prairie Ducchean matchup for River Valley.
You know, we played them a pretty, pretty solid game. I think we got them by 12 over there
the last time through. You know, they're a team that is athletic. They can apply some pressure.
They haven't, I think they're they're feeling similar about their season where they maybe
have a piece that all together just yet. And I'm hoping they don't do it when we meet them tomorrow.
River Valley and Prairie Ducchean coming up tonight. The winner of the game will play
at New Glarris, which has a first round by number nine. Richland center is traveling to number
eight. Evansville. I asked RC boys coach Brian Pulse about taking a long road trip.
A little disappointed. We thought we had a chance at getting the home game, which would obviously,
you know, have probably included Evansville coming to us. But we end up going there.
It's not a very an opponent. We know very well. From that conference, you know, we saw
Edgerton a couple of years ago. Evansville is in that same conference.
In looking at them and the studying we've done so far, similar team record wise, obviously,
with the eight nine matchup. They're a young team. They have two sophomores and a freshman
that actually are their top three scores. Their sophomores are wing players. They don't have
the same size as us, but they do have a couple of kids, you know, in that six, three, six, four
range that will battle us on the inside. So for us, our guards are going to play a huge key,
especially defensively, I said before, you know, with Dodgeville being guard oriented. Same
thing with Evansville. They're going to want to put some pressure on us full court. They play a
one, two, two. So we're going to have to be able to handle that, try to try to get opportunities out
of that. So it's a game. We're looking at it to go in there and our goal is to get to Friday.
So we've had a couple of good practices and we'll prepare for them more after tonight's game.
That's coach Brian Paul. So it was talking last week about the pairings as they came out.
Richland Center playing tonight at Evansville. The winner of this evening's game will play at
number one seed, Plattville. Also, number 11 Mauston is playing at number six Dodgeville.
And seventh seed Broadhead host number 10 Verokwa in this division three half sectional division four
boys games tonight. Landcaster will be the site for the basketball bulldogs. Cashton will be
at Parkview and Wisconsin Heights will be doing battle at Iowa Grant. It's Belleville playing
host to Westby tonight. Number 11 seed Riverdale plays at number six Fenmer. The winner of the game
will play at Cuba City on Friday night. I asked Riverdale coach Chris Kenyon if he was surprised by
the seed. No, I really wasn't surprised by anything. That's kind of right right where we
we felt right where I thought we would. You know, I thought we'd be likely playing either
kind of more Parkview depending on the seeding. There was only really one area there that
you know, the I had kind of Iowa Grant and Belleville switched around and my my official
standing at home. But you know, so we get third track at Fenmer. It should be a good game.
All games begin at seven o'clock tonight. And then in division five, Ithaca will be hosting
Cassville. The team's met during the regular season with the bulldogs coming out on top.
And the bulldogs are number six seed. Cassville is number 11. The winner will play either number
three Highlander. Number 14 was Ica Stuben. Those teams play this evening at Highland.
Number 13 seed Weston is at number four North Crawford. Number seven Kickapoo is home against
number 10 to Soto. Number 15 Brookwood plays at number two Royal. Top part of the bracket including
a River Ridge. Hosting LaFarge Youth Initiative. And number nine. Seneca is at number eight Hillsboro.
Wonny Walk Center. A number 16 seed place at number one. Potosi. Assumption is hosting new
Lisbon as well this evening in area tournament boys basketball. Keep in mind, those games do start
earlier. Our pregame time 640 tonight. Seven o'clock tip off time. Prairie D'Shean River Valley.
Our featured game tonight on the radio. Major bowling league action from last night.
Gary Construction. A 35 79. Lonesome Dove Tavern. 35 48. Quail Run Golf Links. 34 29.
Gary Construction. 12 37. Lonesome Dove Tavern. A 12 36. New York Life. 11 73. Top series.
Jake Morris. 104 over average with a 7 28. Carrie Geiss. 121 over average. A 673. Ken
Nick's Jr. A 664 series. High game honors. Rod Reats. 259. Jake Morris. 258. Colton
Bartow had a 254. Colton Bartow bold a 6 27 series. 11 over average. Rod Reats with a 651.
Was 108 over average. And Steve Swanson bold a 699. 90 pins over average. The 29th WIA. A
state team wrestling tournament will get underway this weekend on Friday night with Division 1 quarter
finals. Saturday has divisions two and three semifinals and teams from Southwest Wisconsin will
be involved. Number two seed Prairie D'Shean will be wrestling. Number three GET Merleys
writes down the number one seed will take on number four Port Washington and a division three
number one Coleman will be wrestling number four Random Lake number two seed Phenomore
in division three for the team tournament will be taking on number three Stratford. The championship
matches will be wrestled at three o'clock Saturday. That action going on on the University of
Wisconsin campus at the UW Field House. On the state of Wisconsin scene he's been something
of a brewers killer. Milwaukee assigned veteran left handed pitcher Jose Quintana to a one-year
contract. Quintana has been among the toughest pitchers for the brewer batters to muster over his 13-year
career. He's coming off a solid year with the Metz. Quintana is 36 years old does not throw
very hard but he's become an expert at avoiding hard contact. In yesterday's game the brewers lost
a Cincinnati at final score was five four. Packers news Packers have resigned linebacker Isaiah McDuffy
to a two-year eight million dollar contract. McDuffy had his best NFL season last year with 94
tackles one sack one forced fumble three quarterback hits and three tackles for loss. He was a sixth
round pick for Green Bay in the 2021 NFL draft and he started all 17 games for the team in 2024.
Jimmy Johnson has announced his retirement from Fox Sports after being part of its NFL coverage
for most of the networks 31 years. The 81-year-old Johnson made the announcement during an appearance on
the herd with Colin Coward. He said he had been thinking about retiring for four or five years. He
said he would miss the people he's worked with and called it a great run. Johnson worked alongside
host Kirk Metathy and Terry Bradshaw and analyst Howie Long and Michael Strahan as a coach. He won
consecutive Super Bowls with the Cowboys and the College Football National Championship with Miami
in 1987. Matthew Stafford chose to stay in Los Angeles. Debo Samuel was sent to Washington.
Many NFL players will be on the move when free agency begins next week and the foundation for a
lot of transactions was built at the Scouting Combine. While 329 college prospects gathered in Indian
apolis to showcase their skills, talk to teams and undergo medical evaluations, front office
executives had plenty of conversations about players on the rosters and others they plan to pursue
either through free agency or trade. There was a ton of buzz about several star players,
including Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Miles Garrett.
In other news from the state scene, Yannis out to the Kupo and Kyle Kuzma are on the Bucks
injury report for tonight's game against the Hawks. Yannis is listed as probable with that lingering
calf strain. Kuzma is expected to set out the game with a sprain ankle. He has been effective
after coming to Milwaukee in a trade, averaging almost 15 points and 7 and a half rebounds per game.
Wisconsin and Marquette are still among the top 20 teams in this week's polls.
The Badgers split two games last week, beating Washington and losing to Michigan State. They
fell one spot to 12th. The Golden Eagles are up one spot from last week to 20th after winning two
games. This is the last week of the regular season for both teams. Wisconsin with a big
border battle coming up against Minnesota. Here's Coach Greg Garne.
Border state, you know, we've recruited that area really well. That area has been really good to us.
We've got really good players from there. It's important in terms of, you know, big 10 tournament
seating. It's important in terms of NCAA tournament seating, you know, if we can keep or get to
that two line, you know, it's an important for obviously big 10 tournament to be to get the double
buy if you can in. Quite frankly, you both out to your next game and you're competitive and you
want to win. Badgers play tomorrow night on WRC E FM 107.7 at AM 1450. I'm Phil Ne with sports.
