The Wisconsin Sportscast

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates are back in the studio after Tuesday’s press conference at Camp Randall. Both boosters and former players were at Camp Randall to hear Shawn Eichorst give his welcome press conference. Those in attendance seemed to be giving him the benefit of the doubt after he admitted to some mistakes at Nebraska, but Oates still has one...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates beat the heat with some sports news across the country and here at home.  Reports are saying that Shawn Eichorst is likely to become UW-Madison’s next Athletic Director. It’s a pick with a lot of goods and bads, Lucas and Oates think. One one hand, he’s a nuts-and-bolts guy who’s known to treat players...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates talk egos and a busy week for the Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo is gone from the Bucks, and has been traded to the Miami Heat. In return, they got a handful of players (who may or may not still be around come the season) and some nice draft picks. It was about as fair of a trade as they could get, Lucas and Oates think, though when...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, no pro wrestlers join the show, to the disappointment of Lucas.  Lucas and Oates attended the celebration of life of former Badgers Football Assistant Coach Henry Mason this past weekend. The room was filled to the brim with great people sharing great stories about a man who, while maybe not as well known to the fans, was beloved in the lock...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the boys skip the Banana Ball to dive right into the Packers It’s been suspected that Micah Parsons would miss the beginning of the season, and now it’s confirmed that he’ll miss at least four games to start the year. Lucas and Oates think that’s fine; Parsons should heal up as much as possible so that he’s 100% read...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, big moves are happening across the NFL this week. The Rams are making a big move, bringing Myles Garrett into the fold. Lucas and Oates think that move is a lot like the Packers bringing in Micah Parsons; they’re nearly equals as players and both the Rams and the Packers paid roughly the same price. It also shows that both teams are making...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, not even a tooth extraction can keep Lucas and Oates away from marveling at The Miz Jacob Misiorowski had basically a perfect Memorial Day, throwing 57 pitches over 100 mph. He now leads the majors in strikeouts, hitting 100 before the calendar turns to June. Lucas and Oates think it may be a bit early to start thinking too hard about the Cy Youn...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates start their timers: as of recording there are 100 days until week zero of college football. With just 100 days (as of recording) to go until college football begins, all of the pundits are busy putting out their lists and predictions. That includes ESPN’s list of coaches who are in the hot seat this year. Of course, Luke Fic...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, movement finally begins in UW Madison’s search for a new athletic director.  The Badgers announce that Eric Wilcotts, the interim chancellor, will head the search and ultimately hire the school’s next AD. Oates was sure they’d start with the search for a new chancellor, but at least he’s someone who’s been aroun...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates talk about changes to one of their favorite sport events of the year.  The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament looks likely to expand to 76 teams. Lucas and Oates are not fans of the move. That’s eight more teams today, but they don’t think it’ll ever stop. The commissioners of the big conferences run all...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the NFL Draft takes over Pittsburg and leaves Wisconsin sports fans with questions. No players from the Badgers are drafted this year after seven rounds, though a few former Badgers did make the cut. It reflects the current state of the Badgers, and while we shouldn’t read too much into this, Lucas and Oates are happy that Luke Fickell hit...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, it’s hard to remember how many roster spots the Badgers Men’s Basketball team has left after a flurry of transactions.  John Blackwell is heading to Duke, where he hopes to grow his skills for the NBA while competing for a national championship. He’ll have to contend with not being the star of the offense anymore, but Lucas...

For this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, not even storms kept Lucas and Oates away from the recording studio. Topics: Chris McIntosh announced his time as athletic director with UW-Madison has come to an end, as he is accepting a position in the Big Ten front office as deputy commissioner for strategy. Mike Lucas isn’t too surprised, but Tom Oates is, at least a little. The Wisco...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the transfer portal is open, which means big news for Badger Men’s Basketball. John Blackwell has announced that he is officially entering the portal. Badger fans might be mad or upset at him for the decision, but we should be thanking Blackwell and the Badgers for the three years we got to have him in Madison. That’s pretty rare in t...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Oate’s NCAA Men’s Basketball brackets are alive, if just barely. After UConn beat Michigan State and Duke, a lot of people’s brackets probably look pretty similar. Duke had a good team, sure, but it was built on freshmen. When your team is filled with freshmen, they’re going to make some freshmen mistakes, and that’s...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, we have to celebrate Mark Johnson on his ninth career NCAA Women’s Hockey National Championship. That puts him in the running for most national championships in college sports, and he’s in some good company. Mark Johnson has really created a dynasty in Madison, fostering a serious program that develops and recruits perfectly and conte...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the brackets for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament are out and Wisconsin is coming in with a 5 seed. Both Lucas and Oates have their brackets filled out already; the NCAA Tournament is always a great few weeks of basketball. Even after retiring from working at the paper, Oates still manages to win more than his fair share of brackets eve...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers made some big moves as the NFL enters the free agency period. None of the moves should come at a particular surprise to anyone. There are a lot of good players leaving Green Bay, who while good are not worth what they’re getting elsewhere to the Packers. The biggest, and maybe least surprising move, is Malik Willis, who’s...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates remember Jerome Fishbain, who recently passed away. Fishbain, or Fish, probably knew more people in Wisconsin sports than just about anyone. He coached football all over the midwest, from Milwaukee to Racine to Minnesota to UW Madison. He stayed involved with the Badgers for years, and helped many of the team's coaches one time or...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Oates is back from his Hawaiian excursion, and after updating us on his adventures dives into Olympic Hockey. Both the men’s and women’s US teams took home the gold this year, and it feels particularly good for us in Madison. Olympic women’s hockey was dominated by Badgers this year, with both current and former Badgers playing...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Badgers’ PA Guy Mike Mahnke is back on the show having survived the storming of the Kohl Center Friday night. It was a big win for the Badgers over Michigan State where they were able to maintain control nearly the entire game. Even Tom Izzo knew that Wisconsin had his number by a certain point in the game, and the Badgers ended the night w...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Tom Oates is out on assignment so Mike Lucas is joined by the Badgers’ public address announcer, Mike Mahnke. Mike’s been watching everything the Olympics has to offer, from hockey to luge to ice dancing, but this year has been all about curling. Team USA took home the silver in mixed doubles curling this year, narrowly losing the gol...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, it was rumored last week and official this week: Jim Leonard is moving to Buffalo to become the next defensive coordinator for the Bills. Sure, we would have liked to see him return to Wisconsin, but you have to be happy for him. It’s a pretty highly coveted job, and while it’s easy to move up the ladder to a coordinator job for a les...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, former Badger Jim Leonard may have a new job, but not with the Packers. While unconfirmed as of recording, rumor has it he’s been in talks with Joe Brady with the Bills about a spot as their new defensive coordinator. Leonard is destined for a job as a defensive coordinator somewhere, and he does know Buffalo pretty well, and now that he&rs...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the boys battle colds as Indiana takes home the College Football National Championship in a victory Monday night over Miami. Curt Cignetti did the impossible by taking his team 16-0, and all it took was the backing of some of the biggest billionaires around. This is the new order of college football; gone are the days that players look for colleg...