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December 11, 2023 13 mins
The voice of the Badgers Matt Lepay is back with us this week and we breakdown the Badger men's basketball's team 98 to 73 loss to #1 ranked Arizona over the weekend. The Badgers kept things close early as the game was at 23 with 8 minutes 50 seconds left in the 1st half then Arizona showed why they’re the top ranked team in the county as they went on a 25 to 8 run and took a 17 point lead into halftime. The Badgers return to non-conference play Thursday night when they meet Jacksonville State at the Kohl Center. You can hear the game here on 101.5 IBA-FM, pre-game coverage starts at 6PM followed by the tip at 7PM. We also get Matt's thoughts on the success of Badger athletics including the volleyball team making it to the final 4, former Badger Alec Ingold being nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, and the record setting contract Shohei Ohtani received from the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend.
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Episode Transcript

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(00:00):
One on one point five I BFMMadison's Classic Rock with Tom Petty and the
hard Breakers on this back to WorkMonday also and Mondays with Matt presented by
Middleton for the voice of the Badgers, Matt Lapey, he is with us
Matt's are you good man? Howyou doing good? Glad to hear your
voice is back. Yeah. IfI could quick coughing, it'd be even

(00:20):
better. But yeah, apparently something'sgoing around. Yeah, there you go.
So well, it was not hardto see why Arizona is the number
one ranked team in the country.They took down Wisconsin this past Saturday,
ninety eight to seventy three. Now, Matt, the Badgers kept it somewhat
close there early in the game.What it was tied at twenty three with
about eight point fifty left in thefirst half, and then Arizona just really

(00:43):
showed why their number one went ona twenty five to eight run to end
the first half up by seventeen points. Yeah, they showed why I tend
to view AP basketball Top twenty fiverankings with a little bit of skepticism.
But there's no skepticism about it.Arizona just you know, seeing them,
you know, watching it two orthree of their games to prepare for the

(01:04):
broadcast and then seeing them in person. If there's a better team in America
out there, I'd love to seeit. Because of the teams that Wiscontin
has played, they are the bestand by by far, quite frankly,
and they play really good teams,right, you know, Virginia m.
Marquette obviously is really really good.But Arizona it just is just different.
The way it shares the ball,the way it hits the glass. It

(01:26):
can hurt you inside, it canhurt you outside. And they have what
Clark Kellogg refers to a spurtability.You're right, the way those first few
minutes were unfolding out that but we'regonna have a fun one here today,
and Wisconsin was getting punched and thenand then it was able to respond to
that, and then just a coupleof just bursts of offense of everything really

(01:48):
from Arizona. If it's a tenpoint run, if it's you know,
runs along those lines, and thenyou look up, you know your you're
down seventeen and a half and neverreally could make a game of it.
But to me, the game waseven though I'm sure Greg Guards and his
staff are going to say, hey, you know, you got to do
this better, you got to dothat better, so on and so forth.
To me, that game, ifyou look at it from a big
picture, was more about how goodArizona is than anything that's particularly you know,

(02:15):
a die or about wisconstant because weknow when the Badgers played really well
that they can match up against mostteams in the country. Yeah, I
think coach Guard summed it up prettywell postgame when he said, Tommy the
head coach, Tommy Floyd, Ibelieve his name is, head coach of
Arizona. They've got a really goodteam. We've got a good team.
Hopefully we can get to their levelhere in the next three to four months

(02:36):
as the season rolls on. Andnot to make any excuses for the Badgers,
Matt, but do you think atall this kind of gauntlet of a
schedule they've gone through, specially inthese last three games when they took down
the then third rank Marquette and thenthey beat Michigan State on the road.
Now, I know Michigan State lostover the weekend, but do you think
that kind of tough part of theschedule played any role in this game.

(02:58):
I think a big part of sports. You notice it with basketball, or
at least I do. It's thetwo you play, where you play,
when you play them. And Arizonahas had some breaks in the schedule.
It had been a week since itsprevious game. It'll have another full week
to prepare for Purdue coming up thiscoming Saturday. Sure, I think that
can play some role in it.But look, make no mistake, Arizona,

(03:22):
at least to me, is theis the best team in the country.
Wisconsin can play better than it playedthe other day. I thought,
great, but you actually mentioned itduring the broadcast, and the Great Guard
mentioned it after the game. Wisconsinbecause settled for too many mid range jumps
shots. Without getting into too muchin the weeds here, with the analytical

(03:43):
world we're in. As a defense, you want the opposing team to take
a lot of fifteen footers, andthat was what Wisconsin did. And the
Badgers also missed a lot of shotsat the rim that normally it could make.
And I think part of that,quite honestly, is that the size
of Arizona bothered them a little bit. Sometimes even when you're you're open,
you don't feel like it that's eitherat the rim or or at the three

(04:06):
point line. I thought, youknow, a couple of guys turned down
some shots that that they had beenhitting, you know, like Stevie Crow
for instance, you hit four threesagainst Michigan State. Looked like he had
some space to take some threes.But that's easy to say. And then
you have a couple of dudes thatare between seven feet tall and seven to
two at you you bet that openingsay open along. So yeah, it's

(04:30):
just a lot of factors went intoit. But man, again, Arizona
is really really good talking with theVoice of the Badger's Matt Lapee Mondays with
Matt presented by Middleton Ford. Soyou talked about guys kind of settling for
those mid range shots. One guythat didn't do that was John Blackwell continued
to drive to the rim, andI believe coach Guard likes to call it
playing downhill. Uh, just talkabout how encouraging that is to see it

(04:53):
from a youngster and how important that'sgoing to be for this team as they
continue to move through the year.Yeah, he's the guy who could take
it to the and also hit threes. He had four of them the other
day, he's just he's not he'snot shy. His dad played at Illinois
back in the eighties, and Iasked you and I chatted with him a
little over a week ago. Isaid, what's the best piece of advice

(05:15):
about playing college basketball? He said, you got to be mentally tough.
It's just about mental toughness. Youknow. John comes from a good high
school background in suburban Detroit, andthere were times he needed to score,
and there were a lot of othertimes. He had guys who could score
in bunches, so he was greatat being a distributor. But he does
seem to have a really high basketballIQ. He has a he has a

(05:39):
you know, he respects the gamegreatly, but he doesn't have any fear
of it. So he's been Theyknew when I talked to Greg about him
specifically after the Fort Myers tournament,said, you guys recruited him for a
reason. I get that, buthe had a curve here, and he
Greg said absolutely. You know,they knew defensively he was good, particularly

(06:00):
for a freshman. He's been betterthan they fought at this early stage of
his career at both ends of thefloor. So it's exciting to see that.
Nolan Winter has certainly shown some flashesas well, but it's an example
of the depth that they have rightnow, which they didn't really have much
of last year. So there arejust different combinations Great can go with based

(06:24):
on matchups or just if somebody elsedoesn't have it on a particular day.
He knows where to turn to.But he knows he can turn to John
Blackwell rather quickly, and he's beendoing that than wisely. So Badger's back
in action Thursday night, they returnof the Cole Center to me Jacksonville States.
Coverage starts at six, tip offset for seven o'clock here on IBFM.

(06:45):
So, Matt, we always talkso much about basketball and football for
obvious reasons. But how good isit to be a Badger fan right now?
The women's volleyball team, they're headedback to the Final four. Men's
hockey, sixth ranked team in thecountry, coming off a sweep of Penn
State this weekend. It's you hadto be a Badger right now, isn't
it? Yeah, it really is. We were able to catch we were
delayed coming back from Tucson, Sowhich was the bad news? You tried

(07:09):
to make something good out of it. So we were able to catch you
know, part of the volleyball matchon Saturday night against Oregon, but then
our plane didn't have Wi Fi,so we didn't know what happened until plane
landed. We do they were offto a good start in that in the
matchup, but just you know,the atmosphere at the field House, and
it's not new, I mean,they volleyball has been good for quite a

(07:29):
while now, but just to see, you know, to see the atmosphere
in a big game atmosphere like thatwas was really was really cool. And
obviously what you know in other sportstoo, with clearly what the women's hockey
program has been doing for for yearsand years, uh, Mike Case teams
is doing good things with the men'steam. I thought the Badger women's basketball
team yesterday showed showed well. Imean, obviously there's a big gap there

(07:53):
between the Wisconsin program and the Iowaprogram, but you see a big crowd.
Yeah, there were a lot ofIsland fans there. Get it,
and it's Caitlin Clark effect. ButI thought I thought Marissa Mosley's team hung
in and and played, you know, played reasonably well in that game,
and you could see that she's gotsome pretty good uh you know, a
couple of pretty good players here andsome things to build on. So yeah,

(08:13):
they they have emphasized we know footballis that's that's the king. We
get it, you know, forall the obvious economic reasons as well as
everything else. But this school hastaken a lot of pride and trying to
make every sport, give every sportthe means with which to maximize uh its
capabilities. So it's been very gratifyingto see talk the voice of the Badgers

(08:35):
Matt Leapee Mondays with Matt present andbuying Nettleton Ford. I want to bring
this up to Matt. Alec Engel, former Badger now currents Miami Dolphin nominated
for Walter Payton Man of the YearAward. How good was Alec when he
was here? And more of Iguess how good of a person was he?
Because you get to meet these guys, We spent a lot of time
with them. Yeah, Tom notchand in all areas, just a terrific,

(08:56):
terrific dude. Put it that way. He's actually you know, I've
been lucky enough to help him outwith he he puts on Uh, he's
put on charity softball games here overthe last couple of years and you know,
just just to be able to chipin and help with that a little
bit. And what he does herein town. I mean, they have
the charity softball game, but healso you know, tries to have what

(09:18):
he calls a financial boot camp withyou know, with the area of kids
and just to try to get themto understand, you know, you got
to take care of you know,you have to learn how to take care
of your money and to let thatbuild. And you know, my wife
actually is a faculty here at theUniversity of Wisconsinent and those two have worked
together on a couple of things overthe course of time. He was one
of her students at one point inhis college career. So he really is

(09:41):
you know, we we talk alot, and I know there's a lot
of people very cynical about the termstudent athlete. Alec Engel he is here
was a student athlete or as NigelHayes said when he was here with the
basketball team, athletics students, whichhowever you want to term it, Ali
with that he checked all the boxesand really deserving of the nomination that he

(10:03):
has and he does all this stuffand he doesn't make it about him.
I think in today's world that isthat is worthy of a standing ovation where
we live in this hey look atme kind of society. He does a
lot of stuff for people, buthe is the anti hey look at me
so. And as a football player, he came back from an injury.

(10:24):
I think about this, Benny.I mean, he's what the Raiders a
couple of years ago, in hiscontract year, blows out his knee.
I mean, he never want toget hurt, but you really don't want
to get hurt in a contract year. But he worked his you know,
worked his tail off to get gethimself ready to go. And the Miami
Dolphins recognize what he brings and he'sworked himself into a really good spot down

(10:45):
in Miami again. Former Bader alecEngeld. He is nominated for the Walter
Bayton Man of the Year Award andand loeu of votes for him to win
that award. He wants people todonate to his holiday book drive going on
right now. He's got links andeverything, posts it up over on his
Twitter X page. You want tocheck that out, But before I let
you go, Matt so I gottaask you about the big time Baseball news
over the weekend show, Hey Otaniseven hundred million dollars seven hundred million dollars

(11:09):
from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Surprised, blown away expected that. What was
your reaction? But he's not gonnabe able to pitch anytime soon, so
you wondered, you know how manymillions that might have cost him? The
answer is probably not, you know, but it demonstrates a couple of things
here, Ben, and it's Idon't think it's the only reason, but

(11:31):
it's this is what you know,markets like Milwaukee are up against. You
know, you just it's just notremotely realistic to think that, you know,
a franchise like the Brewers could everbe in the mix for that kind
of money. I mean, helook, he is, He's an incredible
player, and you know, forthe game, for the game as a

(11:52):
whole, h you know, Dodgers, You're going to hear a whole lot
more of show a Otani. Andwe heard a lot of them before for
all the right reasons, but nowbeing with a franchise like that, which
is it would be more of peoplewill hear the all show all the time,
I would imagine at least for thefor the during the winter months anyway.

(12:15):
But it does show a little bitmore about what the what the Brewers
and other markets of similar size areup against. You know, I think
there are other things that that canyou know, that cause frustrations with fans
of the game, not of aspecific team of the game. But good
for him because he's he's the hellof a player. I mean, we
we just don't we don't see this, uh, you know in the game

(12:37):
right now. I know he's goingto be a hitter and a hitter.
You know, he's not gonna bepitching in twenty twenty four, But now
it does. It does surprise methat a franchise like Dodger says the wherewith
ball to do that. But againthat's why the Brewers are maybe why they're
doing what they're doing right now withthese young guys and seeing that they could
break through and make a little noisewith that group. Yeah, with Jacques

(13:00):
to put it lightly, but thatis the voice of the Badgers. Matt
Leape is Time with Us presented byMiddleton for Matt. Thank you sir,
all right, have a good one. Ben sounds good. Thank you Matt
again. If you missed any partof our conversation today, I'll get that
posted up shortly at WYB a fM dot com
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