Mondays With Matt Presented By Middleton Ford - Monday January 29th

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Episode Transcript

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One to one point five ib AFMMadison's Classic Rocks and eight see d C
as we get going on this backto work Monday quick reminder as well,
Green our latest classic cash giveaway keyword. If you missed it back to o'clock,
enter Green at WYBAFM dot com foryour shot at Grand We now welcome
in the voice to the Wisconsin BadgersMatt lepe Mondays with Matt powered by Middleton

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Ford Matt. So are you sirdoing well? Ben? How are you?
All is good? On this Monday? It was a lot of fun
this past Friday night at the ColeCenter. Aj Storre scored twenty eight points
Stephen crawl through in fifteen as wellas the Badgers took down Michigan State eighty
one two sixty six to complete theseasons sweep of the Spartans and now the
Badgers. They won nine other lastten games as well. Let's talk about

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kind of how this Madger offense wasreally firing on all cylinders. They were
really affected both inside and outside,scoring thirty two points in the paint and
then making nine three pointers as well. Yeah, they were a rare deal.
It's the first time he swept MichiganState in the regular season in twenty
years, and on top of that, they never trailed and either of the
games. He figured Michigan State,which came in playing well, would won

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three in a row, eight outof ten, and you figured they would
come out and give Wisconsin all itwanted. I'm not sure how many of
us saw this kind of a finalmargin coming. I mean, we know
Wisconsin is really put it together agood year, but they were. They
were able to score at every level. AJ Store was just terrific again against
Michigan State. So yeah, everytime in Michigan stated a couple of times

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looked like it might get back intothe game, and the Badgers were just
able to turn them back. Thedefensive effort chucky, hepburn. When you
look at a box score, thatdoesn't really tell you anything. The job
he did defensively. Tyler Wall thathe was playing possessed just incredible levels of
energy. I mean, it wasreally an all around terrific performance for those

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guys. Yeah, and speaking ofaj Store, tom Izzo had an amazing
comment postgame where he said we couldn'tguard Store with as I've seen a lot
of really good players in the leagueand I don't want to Jinxon, but
he's one of the better players I'veseen so kind of talk about the transformation
AJ has gone through kind of throughoutthe year, well, I think the
fact that he's just he's what thestable program at Saint John's it was a

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mess last year. He did playwell down the stretch, he just kind
of kind of turned it loose andyou know, did some had some really
good performances for a team that wasn'tgood, and with the coaching change there,
it was just better for him inhis mind to go somewhere else closer
to home. He's from Rockford originally, and yeah, I just think being

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with a program that knows who itis, and obviously somebody with his skill
set is going to get the greenlight more than maybe Badger fans are used
to seeing with most players through theyears, And it's understandable why he would
get the green light because he's soskilled defensively, is that's the area where
the most improvement has been necessary.He's gotten better. I think he'd tell

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you that there's a long way togo for him to be the kind of
defensive player that he would need tobe. But the path has been a
good one that he that he's onright now, and he really I talked
to him a few weeks ago andhe's pete loving it at Wiscontinent. He
said, everything has been better thanhe even expected. So he's blended in
well with the teammates. You know, kind of a smiley, fun loving

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guy off the floor and competitive asall get out on the floor, and
that describes this team in general.It's been a really really good fit for
him. Talk with a Voice ofthe Badgers Matt Leapee Mondays with Matt presented
by Middleton Ford. So you referencedChuckie Hepburn there a little bit ago talk
about the job. He did adefense this past Friday NY or Friday Night
against Michigan State, holding their leadingscore, Tyson Walker, to eleven points.

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So he had come into the gameaveraging almost twenty points per game.
Yeah, he was just he wasin his jersey, or so it seems,
throughout the course of the game.I think, you know, Chuck's
one of those guys who really embracesthe challenge of guarding people. And I
don't know how many players really dothat, but he's always been one of
those guys, and you're right,Tyson. Walker has been terrific and he

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is a really good player, butChucky as a primary defender a little bit
with Klusman, a little bit withBlackwell too, but they all but erased
him, and you could just youcould sense the frustration with Walker as the
game was moving along, and youknow, taking some off balance shots and
just you know a little bit ofuncharacteristic things that he was doing in the

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game. It just shows that,you know, a pretty popular question that
I get around Chucky is is hegoing to be able to score some more
because he sacrificed his individual points pergame to do so many other things,
to have a three to one assistantturnover ratio, to have more steals than
turnovers this year, and then hiswork defensively and not just getting steals because

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he he'll get a share of those, but just making it very uncomfortable for
the player he's guarding contested shots.I thought in the first half in general
in Michigan, State made a fairamount of really tough contested shots to try
to stay into the game. Buteventually the Badgers were able to wear them

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down and Chuckie Heppern had a lotto do with them. Talking with the
Voice of the Badgers Matt Lepe andI b a FM and Matt, I
heard you and Charlie Will's talking aboutthis during the broadcast this past Friday night.
Really just the coachability of these kids. Yes, they've had success this
year, but this coaching staff,great Guard and company, they're still tough
on these guys and they're willing tolisten and then these things they're being coached

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up on, they're coming through duringthe next games. Yeah, it's it's
all with all of them, andI think that's been a big plus.
But even with someone like a j. Storre, who you know, can
go out and get you twenty fiveplus points a night, but he's still
he he accepts coaching and they alldo. And you know, it doesn't
mean that everything is rosy twenty fourto seven, but it's pretty good.

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I mean, when you have leadershipfrom guys like Tyler wall And and Klesmont
and Hepburn and you know Pow,they they know what to pass down to
the younger guys, the newer guys. But you know, listen, listen
to the message, not the tone. You know that that old line that
you hear a lot in sports,and it's not like it. You know,

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look that this isn't like the oldmovies. The way coaches just you
know, be rate players. Youdon't really see a lot of that.
But still, you know, they'recoached very hard, and I think they
know as good as their record isright now, there's still the Thursday night
will represent the halfway point of theBig Ten season. There's still such a
long way to go. But Ithink the best part about this team,

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Ben, is that these guys andGreg's talked about this, these guys know
they can still play better. Now. Friday was that was pretty close to
a complete game that they played.If they can bottle that, then they're
going to be a tough out therest of the way. But they know
they can still get better on thedefensive end of the floor, and still

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as much as they're scoring, theystill think they can be a little better
there as well. So if allof that is true and they're able to
realize that, then this team hasa chance to do something really special.
Wisconsin now sixteen and four, eightand one in the Big Ten Conference.
They have a one game lead overPurdue, who they meet this coming Sunday,
but first a trip to Lincoln,and it matually up with Nebraska coming

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up on Thursday night. The Cornhuskersmatt fifteen and six overall, five and
five into the Big Ten. Nowthey're coming off of blow and lost to
Maryland from this past Saturday, sothey're gonna be hungry. Now, me,
just the average Joe, this isall the makings of a trap game
to me, Yeah, I thinkit's people will view it that way,
but I would go a little deeperthan that because Nebraska is a much different

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team at home. Matter of fact, they haven't lost in the Big Ten
at home, they haven't won inthe Big Ten on the road. So
that tells you that they're gonna bepretty tough fun on Thursday since the game
happens to be played in the LincolnSo they're you know, they do have
a nice team case A Tomy Nakahas been good for these guys for a
while. Bryce Williams has added somethings. They've had a health issue with

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Jawant Gary being out the last coupleof games. You know, he's someone
who's, you know, a burlyguy who can do, you know,
do some of the dirty work stuffand He's had some pretty big games for
them, So that's been that's beena hit. But with Rake mast Is
the guy to transfer from from Bradley, who was who hurt Wisconsin and who
blistered Ohio State in a game againstthe Buckeyes last week. So, you

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know, home road splits or somethingthat's talked about a lot, particularly in
college basketball, and you know,nobody has more severe splits than the Huskers
at home. They are an NCAAtournament team. They've proven that by throttling
Purdue among other teams in their building, in their building in Lincoln. So
some could view it as a trapgame. I just view it as a

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very very tough game for Wisconsin givenwho they're playing and where they're playing.
The Wisconsin Nebraska Thursday night game tipsat seven to thirty. You can hear
it right here on I B Ay Ben Matt Foy, Let you go.
I want to end on a funnote to Bob Ukers celebrated his ninetieth
birthday this past Friday, and Ilove what you put out on ex or
Twitter. You wrote, any interactionwith this man leaves me smiling forever,

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a ballplayer and simply the best behindthe mic a gem of a human being.
Think he summed up Bob Huger prettywell there. Yeah, getting to
know him and in the years Iwas with the Brewers was that it was
a lot of fun. And youknow, occasionally have a chance to go
visit with him when I'm just atthe ballpark as a fan and he's uh,
you know, he's just he's fullof full of energy. That's the

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thing that just amazed me in mytime with with the Brewers, just seeing
him bounce around the ballpark and andhow the players take to him, and
which is really cool to see.I mean, these are guys in there
in their twenties who you know,probably don't even remember they aren't old enough
to have watched mister Belvite here forcrying out loud, but they but his

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you know, Bob always considers himselfa ballplayer, and the players view him
as a ballplayer and just someone who'snot the funniest human being around. But
he's still you know, as he'sninety years old last week he turned ninety,
but he is one of those guyswho can still make a bad game
good and a good moment great,and you know, and the biggest moments

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memorable for a lifetime. If they'rebig home runs. You know, we
could all run down the list ofhighlights that he's given us. So I've
told people this for the last severalyears. Now you better, you know,
we all better embrace them while he'sstill doing this because so many of
these other guys have have have steppedaway, and Bob still has still been
doing his thing. So we needto enjoy this every opportunity we have to

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listen. Yeah, we are sofortunate here across Wisconsin to have Bob Buker,
Wayne Lairv, yourself, and somany others as well as the voices
of our pro sports team. SoMatt, thank you for taking some time
as don't weys they've travels to LincolnThursday. All right, Betty, take
care, have a good one.Thank you, all right, gang.
If you missed any part of thatconversation, you can find it shortly at
w y b a FM dot comor search you for free iHeart Ready app

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for Mondays with Matts