The Wisconsin Sportscast

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates pick up on last week’s conversation on Jordan Love. After some speculation on his contract, Love is walking away with $55 million a season. Is that a big bag? Yes, but it’s still friendly to the team, thanks to slightly lower guaranteed money.  While the deal was inevitable, Oates says, the Packers at least have s...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, beer is going to be sold this season at Camp Randall. About time says Lucas and Oates! Not that they ever drank on the job, the press rooms were mostly dry. But in all seriousness, it’s more surprising that it took this long for Camp Randall to sell beer. After UW Madison tested the waters at the Kohl Center last year with their beer experi...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas does something he hasn’t done in a while: watch soccer. He’s been enjoying the games so far, but he does still have two complaints. How does anyone know how much time is left in the game, and why do these players keep flopping?  When he wasn’t watching soccer, he was watching the Home Run Derby, but he ran into the is...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates congratulate Giannis on not just playing for the Greek National Team in the Olympics, but carrying their flag. While he may be known as the Greek Freak in Milwaukee, he faced adversity in his home country growing up as a Nigerian immigrant. But his devotion to Greece is something to respect.   Sticking with Giannis, are the B...

Oates is away, which means it’s the perfect time for Lucas to bring in his old friend Bill Brophy, former sports editor with the Wisconsin State Journal, to talk about the state of Brewers baseball. While it’s been a while since he’s worked for the State Journal, Brophy has been working with Badger Hockey, high school, and even heading south for MLB Spring Training. While it&rsqu...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Green Bay Packers have a new President: Ed Policy. Lucas doesn’t know too much about him, and Oates knows him more from his old man Carmen Policy. What we do know: Ed Policy is a legal guy and has been with the Packers for over a decade.   Now with Mark Murphy out, and not knowing a whole lot about Policy, that means we have one qu...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Boston took home the rings and won the NBA Championship. Which leads to one question: do you love to watch Luka Dončić play, or do you hate watching him play? Oates says you can’t discount his ability, maybe even one of the best. But he has no defense, he likes holding the ball, and he just can’t stop complaining to the officials. Luc...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates break down why Dan Hurley would turn down a seven-figure offer with the Lakers to stay with UCONN. For one thing, it simply might not have been enough money. It’s a mom and pop operation! At least says Lucas.    But Oates points out that coaching a college team is much different from coaching a NBA team. N...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates react to the news that the Kohl Center is looking to restrict premium seating as they expand the size of the hockey rink. It’s just another way to spite the longtime fans in favor of the big money donors, Oats says. Both Lucas and Oates have been hearing from angry season ticket holders who are now learning that the...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates react to the NCAA agreeing to a historic settlement to end class-action lawsuits brought by student athletes. Thousands of former and current college players will receive a share of $2.8 billion in damages. The settlement also clears the way, for the first time, for schools to directly pay student athletes through shared...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas recently caught Badger alum Sam Dekker hit the game-winning shot for the London Lions in the British Basketball League.  “Isn’t it great to see him still playing the game and still having success at it?”asks Lucas, a Cap Times sports freelance writer and former radio color analyst for the Badgers. “My quest...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas highly recommends the new ESPN docuseries on college basketball stars Kamila Cardoso, Kiki Rice, and Caitlin Clark. “Caitlin Clark is so huge. You just get a better feel for the people around her, the pressure that mounted throughout the season, and how she dealt with it all,” says Lucas, a Cap Times sports freelance writer...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates recap the Milwaukee Bucks’ messy season. Oates says the Bucks’ defensive game got better once Doc Rivers became head coach in the middle of the season. But he didn’t think the combination of Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo was ever going to work.  “Giannis dominated the ball for years...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates don’t have many complaints about how Green Bay handled this year’s NFL Draft. Oates says keep an eye on second-round pick, linebacker Edgerrin Cooper.  “Cooper will be the star of this particular draft.  If they are going to go to four down lineman they need speed at linebacker to run things do...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates assess how the transfer portal and name, image, likeness (NIL) money are impacting the Badgers men’s basketball team. Since the season ended, stars Connor Essegian, AJ Storr, and Chucky Hepburn have all sought greener pastures.  “You know what the most sobering thing is for Wisconsin? They aren’t in...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates review the 2024 Masters Tournament in which Scottie Scheffler won another green jacket. Tiger Woods made the cut at the Augusta Nationals for a record-setting 24th consecutive time but finished with one of the worst scores of his long career.  “Watching Tiger play was kind of painful. He finished, like, 16 over...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates debrief the men’s and women’s NCAA championship games. Purdue and Iowa both lost to UConn and South Carolina respectively, but at least the Big Ten was represented in the finals of both tournaments.  “I think what happened — if you want to draw parallels between the two —  is they b...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates analyze the men’s NCAA Final Four. Oates thinks UConn is still the team to beat.  “To some extent, the pressure is off Purdue and Alabama for getting to the Final Four. And even if there were pressure on NC State, they’d be oblivious to it. They don’t look like a team that was on the NCAA tour...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates react to the news that the Badgers are losing sophomore guard Connor Essegian to the transfer portal. Last season, Essegian made the Big Ten’s All-Freshman team and played in every game. It was a different story this year.  “When Essegian had chances, he didn’t make the most of it. But the coaching...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas coaxes Tom Oates into divulging his tips for filling out a bracket in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. “Take your Final Four and work backward. .... Remember the first weekend is always chaos,” advises Oates, the former Wisconsin State Journal sports columnist. But he says look out for the teams that may be better than...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates discuss Green Bay adding top-notch running back Josh Jacobs to its roster while releasing longtime Packer Aaron Jones. “I thought Jones would have been a perfect match with Josh Jacobs,” says Oates, the former Wisconsin State Journal sports columnist. “However, the Packers have a lot of picks in the draf...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates continue to wait for the Wisconsin men’s basketball team to shore up its defensive game. The Badgers scored 83 points against the Fighting Illini and still lost by eight points.  “Wisconsin has to play defense for 40 minutes like they play for about 20 minutes every game,” says Oates, the former Wis...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates talk about how to deal with college fans storming the basketball court after a big win. After Wake Forest’s recent upset against Duke, fans injured Blue Devils star Kyle Filipowski.  “How do you even contain it? There were kids on the floor before the final second ticked off in that Duke game against Wake...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates provide the history for why former Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan deserves to be inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.  “What he did at UW-Platteville — alone — is worthy of getting him into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame,” says Oates, the former Wisc...

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Mike Lucas and Tom Oates recap the Kansas City Chiefs' victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII. Lucas says the better quarterback won.  “(Chiefs QB) Patrick Mahomes led the team in rushing. He’s got one of the most deceptive gates,” says Lucas, a Cap Times sports freelance writer and former radio color anal...