I want to grow the game so every kid can fall in love with soccer like I did, so I asked myself what would you like the power to do? My answers inspired me to invent a pop-up soccer goal that can turn any basketball court into a street soccer pitch. Yeah. Bank of America champion street soccer advocate Kyle Martino, and everyone who dares to ask, what would you like the power to do? Bank of America, proud to be the official bank of U.S.
soccer and FIFA World Cup 2026. Bank of America and A member FDSE. Support for this podcast comes from Progressive, America's number one motorcycle insurer. Did you know riders who switch and save with Progressive save nearly $200 per year? That's a whole new pair of riding gloves and more.
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Did morning, everybody. Welcome into the Winklerverse. I'm Bart Winkler. Sean Wagner is going to join us, head coach of the Milwaukee Panthers. They had a great run.
It did end sooner. Than we would have hoped, especially after they beat Auburn last Friday. but we're going to talk about the tournament. What it was like for him and his team, and what it means for the future of Panthers baseball going forward. That will be a little bit later in the episode.
A couple of other things that I wanted to talk about here on this Wednesday, June the 3rd of 2026. First, the Milwaukee Brewers. What is happening with them? Like, what is happening with them is really cool, but also, what is happening with them? They are playing as well as you possibly can be playing.
Over the last little bit of a stretch here. Still, the whole ML Central. Everyone is still over 500. But The other teams have been not as. Good as the Brewers as of late.
And the Brewers now have taken a five and a half game lead. In the NL Central. We're past Memorial Day, guys. You can look at the standings, and when you know the brewers are kicking ass, like they are. you probably are more motivated to look.
At the standings. If you are a fan of any of these other teams, You're having a nice summer so far. The Reds are 31 and 29. They're in it. The Cubs are 32 and 29.
You're maybe not having a nice summer if you're them. And we'll get back to that. The Cardinals are 31 and 28. How the Pirates are. Are 33 and 28, currently in second place in this division, but the Brewers are 37 and 21.
And they are dominating, and there's really no signs right now. Of slowing down.
So they have the Giants. They're going to wrap up. this series against the Giants on Wednesday night. And then they've got the game on Thursday afternoon, so four games set. But they've already at least split.
the series with the two wins Monday and Tuesday. And I'm actually stunned. I'm stunned they're actually playing on a Thursday. I feel like they've had. I feel like the Brewers only play five days a week.
Like they have every Monday and Thursday off, but they do finish this series before they then head to Colorado and then head to. At Athletics, which they're playing those games in Vegas. Actually. They do have next Thursday off and then they host. The Phillies, at which point I will check out for six weeks.
As again, I'm making the World Cup my personality. Quick aside on the World Cup. I will have uh an affiliate link. I'll just be upfront about it with Tom's watch bar.
So, Tom's watch bar, it's where the old mecca was, it's right across from the deer district. They're going all out for the world cup, and I know there's great soccer bars. Um, around Milwaukee, and I'll be at them. I'll be at three lions over the next few weeks, I'll be at uh Highbury over the next few weeks, I'll be at Nomad over the next few weeks, but I'm also going to be. At Tom's Watch Bar, and you reserve seating there, and then they give you a good portion of your money back in food and beverage credit.
But if you're going to go there or if you want to check it out, I will be tweeting and using my affiliate link.
So go through me to get them. It'll help the pod. Let me just be straight up on that. And there's going to be days that I'm going to get there as well, maybe do some broadcasts.
So I'll start to be tweeting and advertising that. Just be on the lookout. For that, as there's look, there's a lot of good soccer. I have a cramp. Oh my God, I have a cramp.
Tim. Wow. Back of my leg. I could have just talked through it, but. I didn't.
And because when I had the cramp, I was going to be like, just don't mention it. But then I thought, no, this is interesting. Anyway, I just had a really bad cramp. And it's gone already. I got to drink more water, folks.
I gotta drink more water. The biggest change in my life. From doing the late night show to where I'm at now is I would stop. Eating at six o'clock, and then I would also stop drinking soda. I didn't drink soda at night.
I maybe have a coffee, some water. And then I go to bed at 3 in the morning, wake up, it's 11 o'clock. Oops, I accidentally fasted for 18 hours. Um but now I'm pounding soda before I go to bed and then I wake up and the first thing I do is have soda.
So That's bad. Anyway. World Cup, Brewers, mmm. The cubs part of it. It's really hard.
Not to Obsess. with their shortcomings. They are our rival, and I don't like making the rivalry a part of my personality. I've talked about that a lot. I do think.
We, as a fan base, spend too much time on them. I think they, as a fan base, are even more guilty. Of how much time they spend on us. The excuse to continue to talk about them, though. Is Craig Council?
Craig Council left us. Which proved to be Sia. I mean, Murphy's won back-to-back Manager of the Year awards, and it looks like a third one is coming. But Council left. To reset the market, which is the biggest piece of shit I've ever heard.
He knew the Cubs were overpaying him. And then the spin was: now I'm trying to reset the market for managers, which you've actually probably done, Craig, is murdered. The market. For managers, because if you're getting paid $8 million. to do nothing.
In Chicago. In fact, you're probably a hindrance. That roster, I know they're dealing with injuries. Every team does. That roster is better than three games over five hundred.
So why aren't they?
Well, what do you point to? Maybe you point to old Skipper there. And if they don't. I mean, if they don't make the playoffs. He's probably out.
There's still a very decent chance. That he could be out at any point during the season as a way to motivate them to make a change and maybe make a run to the playoffs. It's funny. It's funny. I'm not watching or rooting for Craig Council's demise because I'm a bad person.
I'm rooting for it because it's funny. It's funny to watch him fail. He went to Chicago. Just like David Stearns went to New York. Because the Brewers were holding their talents back.
Uh and now they both suck. In their respective places. Mets are 11 games under 500. What is that about? They got Juan Soto.
I thought they were going to be champs forever. No, they stink. Who are the brewers behind right now? They would be the three seed. They're behind the Dodgers and they're behind the Braves.
Braves are playing really well. Two. And those teams actually are the two teams with a better run differential in all of baseball. than Milwaukee. Brewers are tied with the Yankees.
Ray's doing well in the American League. God, we need a Ray's Brewers. World Series. Which I don't know, would that be better or worse for the impending labor? dispute.
I don't know. If the two small market teams That are playing small ball essentially make it. Is that more of a, hey, we actually don't need a cap? Or is that proof that anyone can be competitive? I don't know.
In advocacy for a Cap floor. I don't think we need a cap floor. I don't even know if we need a cap. I think not letting teams defer money would be a good start. That would be a good start.
Like, that's why people are rich. Is because they take out debt against themselves. I don't even understand the principles or philosophies of it, but somehow.
Somehow the more debt you have, the more rich you are. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Money's tough. But there are ways to scam the system.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that guy, he bought soda with his. Food stamps. He's scamming the system.
Yeah, well, people are taking up massive debt against themselves that we are paying into. Again, I understand nothing. I shouldn't even talk about it. I'm probably when it comes to finances. I could probably be out invested by a frog.
I think if you gave me $100,000 to invest. And you gave a frog. A hundred thousand dollars to invest.
Well, first of all, the first thing I do if if I have a hundred grand to invest 10K of that is going into DraftKings. Another 40k is going on black. Yeah. Another 10K probably just on scratchers. That's a weird addiction for me.
It it comes and goes. But when it when it comes It comes so hard. My scratch-off addiction. It's not coming right now. But a few weeks ago, it came pretty hard.
I got some scratchers for my birthday, and then that was like a week of I need scratchers every single day. of my life. I should be more into helping you guys save money. A la. What we got going at happy place hem promo code BART 25% off each and every order.
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Oh, wasn't it great that Willie Adamas had a solo home run back at Miller Park? Um That's what that's what he does best. Kyle Harrison. I don't think I'm fully... letting my brain understand How good Kyle Harrison is.
Kyle Kyle Harrison. Has a run here that's only rivaled in Brewers' history by CeCe Sabathia. In terms of uh ERA. It's just like a few points less than what or I guess more than what Cece's was. But Harrison and Miz, when you throw these guys back to back.
I mean, they're as good as Anybody in the league. And the brewers are now saying, all right, this guy needs to be an all-star. And he does. The other night. Five and two-thirds gave up four hits and an earned run with two walks.
That was a bad outing for him.
Now he did have 12 strikeouts. And he was against, you know, his former team in the Giants, Giants, Red Sox, and now. Here are the Brewers. His ERA sits at 157. And I don't know if it's because, I mean, it's got to be a little bit because of the Ms.
Like in the month of May, Harrison had five starts, 28 innings. And he gave up a total of three runs. The fuck. He had a 0.96 ERA and five starts. in the month of May.
He held the Cubs to seven, scoreless, 11Ks. How'd the uh Cardinals to six scoreless, shut down the Padres. His worst outing was against the Yankees. And again, that was four innings, only gave up two runs, struck out six. That was just in the month of May.
So he's pitching well. And I think. think I think because maybe he's in Milwaukee or because We just kind of found out about him. Or really got to know him once he got traded here. And we haven't been following him like The Miz, and also what The Miz is doing, what Mizorowski is doing.
Jacob Mizakowski. What the Miz is doing is on another planet. Because how many times have you gone online and seen the graphic with like 100 heads and 97 of them are Jacob Mizurowski? For hardest throw balls thrown of all time. This guy's going to throw a strike on the inside corner, and his arm's going to snap off and go with the ball.
It is it is just inhuman. what he's able to do. Remember when people were mad that he was an all-star?
Well, he's going to be an all-star for probably the next six years. All right. You're listening to this podcast, so you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact, drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over $900 on average. Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.
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So Harrison is getting overshadowed. And I don't think that I mean, I think we can be like louder about it, I guess. But even as a Brewers fan. If you're going to pick a game in a series to go to, and Miz is pitching Monday, Harrison's on Tuesday, you're probably going Monday. But you go to watch Harrison, it's it's just as dominant.
It's unbelievable.
So the Brewers could actually get. They could get a couple of They could get a couple of all-star pitchers. And in that, not to mention the bullpen. Bolpen's been really good too. I like that Ashby's nickname is the Vulture because of how many wins he's stacking up.
This is a really good team, man. This year, I... I don't know what to predict with them. Not that it matters, but I don't know what to predict with them because. You look at them.
And you're like, okay, 86 wins. But then you think Well They've been doing this for a long time. Eventually, they got to come back down to earth. 83 wins. But then you watch him for a month and you're like, oh shit, 95 wins.
And I should have just predicted that. to start.
So, I don't think the whole season is going to go this well. I think there will be. A five-game losing streak that pops up. I think there will be a. Injury we don't love, but The brewers are really On an absolute Tear.
Now, there's also a lot of Conversation And this happens in baseball more than any other sport where we preview the trade deadline. I just like every year we talk to McKelvey on Chuck and Winkler and We'd be asking them trade deadline questions. On Tax Day in April. But Terek Skubel's name is coming up a lot, and it does look like the Tigers We'll probably move on from him.
So what do the brewers give up? If they're gonna go for Tarek Scoobel. And that would be an all-in-type move. And they have the farm system to do it. What are you comfortable?
Getting rid of. I think there's a lot of guys like they just paid Cooper Pratt. We don't want to get rid of Made. Those are going to be the big ticket names. We didn't want to get rid of Churio.
We're glad we didn't. But then we didn't want to get rid of Matt Laporta, and that turned into CeCe Sabathia.
So. You never do know. I look at these trade rumors. I hear the conversation. It's a conversation that you want to have, but it's not one that I think.
Is going to have a payoff. I think the trade deadline will come and go. And the Brewers will add an arm. Or they will add a bat. I mean, you do, you do need a little bit of help in the.
Bottom of the order. I just still don't see them making that move. There has to be one of these years. That they do make the move. I thought last year was the year to make the move.
Last year was the year to make a move. Trade a little bit of your future. Go all in. But would one pitcher Even if you added one pitcher and one bat. Would they have still gotten past the Dodgers and the NLCS?
No. Not when Shohei's popping three home runs on a Friday night. But at some point At some point, they do have to take advantage. And with baseball, Most likely missing a good chunk of games next year. I think to reference Tim McGraw again, I think they got to live like they're dying.
I think you got to go for it. We've been packing that ballpark. We've been faithful. At some point, even if it doesn't work out, give us a run. Give us a run.
Give us the motion of going all in. And they're not. They're not trading their whole farm system. They can trade three guys and still have a really good farm system. But they do also have to balance.
I would just, if I was, if I was a GM, I would just assume. That there's no baseball in 2027 and I make my decisions based off that. And that might be stupid, and that might be wrong, but we've seen how these labor situations have played out. The last time that We really had something. you know this this terrible I just I think of COVID a lot where They had their protocols figured out.
But then they couldn't figure out how to pay anyone.
So they could have probably had 120-game season. And instead they only had a 60 game season.
So I do think of that a lot. In regard to what's going on here. I will engage in the scuba conversation, and I will follow the scuba conversation, and I will. be anticipatory about the scuba situation, but I do not Expect At all. That the brewers are going to trade for.
Tarek Skubel. I I'm not giving, I'm not putting up my hopes. It's not like I'm guarding myself against putting up my hopes. I just cannot see it happening. based on uh based on history.
Carl's Place brings you the voicemails 402-915-2278-402-915-2797. 2278 Carl's Place. I got a link for them as well to check out. They're golf simulators. You see that from time to time.
My Twitter, if I'm going to say link. I've got a link tree. It's in my Twitter or the YouTube comments. Or ask me, I'll get you the link. But this is from teacher Tom.
This has nothing to do with sports. But I will answer the question: 402-915-2278. 402915 B A R T.
Now again, teacher Tom. But then when school comes out, he's gonna turn back into painter Tom. But here's Tom. Thank you. Ooh.
The best episode. Of Spidey and his amazing friends is Pirate Blundo Blundo. That is my three and a half year old's current favorite. This is Teacher Tom. Both and Paul, maybe you children are too old now to still be watching.
Speidine and his amazing friends. And we talked about it a couple of years ago as my oldest who's seven and a half. was also into it.
So a seven and a half year old doesn't really watch it anymore, but With a three and a half year old, we watch Smitey Green Eyes almost every day. Pirate blunder blunder, that's where. Green Goblin. Um it gets uh Okay. Gives pirate hats away, and then all the people ride on the pirate ship under his control.
So, that is my question. Bye. All right, Top, I'm going to go on that. We like the ones where Zola takes over. And then another big one was the one where Gabby.
Haha, I'm Gabby. Has a ray that turns, he turned the Hulk into a baby.
So we we like those ones. But yeah, he's out of it. He doesn't like Spidey anymore. Um Which is sad. Because I kind of liked watching the cartoons.
And then there was an Iron Man spin-off, and I thought he'd be into that, which he wasn't. But I will say with Spidey, this is kind of weird to say with this cartoon. I liked when it was more grounded. Then there was a season where they turned into dinosaurs. Which of course Then we had to buy the dinosaur spidey toys.
Then there was a season where they We're underwater all the time.
Now they're going to space. I got a lot of toys. I'm looking at them right now. I got a lot of toys sitting over there in the basement, and I want to save some of them. And I've saved some of his Paw Patrol stuff.
Like, I want to save some of it, just, you know. I wish I had all these toys when I was a kid. I have like one ninja turtle, but I had like everything ninja turtle. And now the turtles are cool. Again, or still?
What if he had my sewer? What if he had my blimp? What if he had my car? You're not gonna go buy all this stuff. I don't know.
On one hand, I'm like, oh, geez, I'm really worried about what the world's going to look like in three years. On the other hand, I'm like, I need to save these paw patrol toys. Just in case 30 years from now, my son is a kid and Paw Patrol's back. Little of a right brain, left brain, I guess. Thank you for the question, Tom.
402-915-2278. 402-915. 2278. NBA Finals. I didn't make a prediction yesterday on.
The Knicks have been so hot. I'm gonna go Spurs in six. God, I don't know. I don't know. I'm really eager to watch because, as Imig was talking about, The Knicks just plowed through these series.
And the Spurs, they were a little more grueling.
So, what's better? Is it better to play and? Have these type of games, or is it better just to kick the shit out of everybody? I don't know. But I'm very eager to see how the matchup's going to play out.
Ah, in game one. And then maybe we'll know a little bit more about what to expect. But I'm very interested in this series. I don't think it's quite taken over. I don't know.
I I don't maybe I just Maybe I just don't have as good of a pulse. on like the sports landscape as I would like to. Because I'm so wrapped up in like brewers and soccer and. My kids' sports. That I can't give you an accurate pulse of Nick's Spurs.
The day of the NBA Finals. I don't know, but excited and looking forward to that. All right, coming up, Sean Wagner is going to join us, coach of the Milwaukee Panthers on their terrific run. And that will conclude then. Today's episode of Into the Winklerverse, the coach interview will be on the Dan Shaney YouTube stream.
These last 25 minutes were just for your audio enjoyment. And thank you for it. This is into the Winkler verse. On the Bart Winkler Wisconsin Radio Network. As a small business owner, sometimes it feels like no matter how much planning you do, there's always surprises, like an urgent, expensive repair.
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You have power within. Get the Disney Plus Hulu HBO Max bundle today. All of these and more streamed soon. Flight starting at $19.99 a month. Terms apply.
Visit DisneyplusHuluMaxBundle.com for details. All right, making his Winkler verse debut. Head coach Sean Wagner of the Milwaukee Panthers, who many of us really got into this past weekend. Coach, first of all, what a journey. Congratulations.
Um I think once you you know land and get back in your office. To kind of look back at the last few days. Everything that had happened from the winds to the delays to the 10-15 start time on a Sunday night to the national attention and all that. It's maybe a ridiculous premise, but like 10 years from now, when you look back on this. What do you think is going to stand out the most?
I mean, I think the biggest thing is just going to be the guys and seeing them in those moments having success after struggling so many times throughout the year. We always preach about how it's about the people in the program that make the difference, right? And that's, I've got a tremendous staff. I've got a couple of alumni on my staff that we just have a sense of pride for this program, for this university, for this town, the state, all of it. And when I look back, I'm going to be proud of all 34 members of this team, and especially the fact that 23 of them are homegrown.
Yeah, when I was talking last week, I talked to Dylan O'Connell. And the thing that he had said was he wanted to play at the top. university or the top baseball program in college. In the state. And I think there's been, you know, over the last 20 years or 30 or whatever, when people are like, oh, Madison doesn't have a baseball program.
You guys have existed and you've been building something. And I think if nothing else, This last weekend and this run and this ride is a. Enormous spotlight on, hey. We are D1. We are here.
And when we need to, we can compete with the big boys, as you guys did. Yeah, no doubt. It was a fun opportunity to really put... It's on the map, right? And I just think of the major league clip where, yeah, we got uniforms and everything, right?
When Jake Taylor's talking to the people, I didn't know Cleveland had a team. But I mean, growing up a Badger fan and knowing they never had baseball, I've known about Milwaukee baseball for a long time. My brother-in-law actually played here back in the late 90s.
So, it's a program that not many people knew about, right? And it's always been my goal as a former player, as an alum, and now as a coach. Just try to get us back on the map here and that people have awareness to us first and foremost. It's great to have the success we had, but how do we sustain it now? How do we make this something that people are going to take pride in, that they want to be a part of, that they want to help support, right?
Because From what I know, Madison's not bringing it back anytime soon.
So let us be. your your team's baseball needs here in the state. I don't know, you maybe inadvertently have motivated them to bring it back with the success you guys have. But that's kind of like, that's the thing, it seems like, with the university and the recognition and the awareness is. It really does take like a tournament appearance.
To get people's eyes on it, I know the basketball programs have gone through that, and now you guys are going through that a little bit too. How do you hope to now capitalize? on this because as I've told um Coach Lundy with the basketball program. There are a lot of fans. Of Milwaukee.
In Milwaukee, it's just that they might not know it yet. They need to be like activated. And I think this was a great weekend again of you guys doing that.
So, how do you now build on that for next season, the season after, so on and so forth? You essentially want them to be smitten by Milwaukee Panther athletics, and that's what we're trying to do, right? By bringing the The opportunity to be on the national stage and the notoriety. I came here actually to UWM right after that Sweet 16 run, and I remember the impact. it had on the university on the athletic department I know that baseball maybe isn't monetarily as big as college basketball or even football.
But it's gaining a lot of popularity, and it's got a lot of national time now on TV, which is tremendous, right?
So, now, how do we capitalize on that? We got to get moving. I, as the head coach, have to get out there and I got to shake hands and kiss babies and do all that kind of stuff. But more than anything to me, I'm such a big relationships person. It doesn't matter who reaches out to me, who wants to have a conversation.
I want to talk about our program. I want to talk about our players. I want to talk about. What we're trying to do here. what we're trying to build and how we can move this thing forward.
Well, the main thing you can do is Sell more of those hats that you're wearing. I think the hats, like, my God. I mean, they are cool, and yours is great. And, um so that it's the hats coach i you could try whatever you need to do but it's the hats Yeah, you might want to follow our social media here in the next day or two. There might be a pop-up shop coming our way that I heard all throughout Auburn, Alabama: hey, coach, we'd buy a hat if they were for sale.
So You're going to see some hats, some other apparel items. Follow along. There might be a giveaway or two coming down the line, too, so feel free to stay along with us here. Um, and then come to the golf audience, right? We'll have plenty of stuff out at the golf audience too here in late August.
So check out the social media accounts for that. I'll retweet them on my little account, but you know, try to help however I can. I think one of the other things that. with a school in the horizon league You know, any sport. Typically, you're going to be a a one-bid conference to these tournaments.
You set up a tough schedule at the beginning. Um with a lot of teams from the bigger conferences. LSU was in there, right? Duke was in there. When you're putting that together or when that's coming together.
How much it's really tough because there is a goal. of making the tournament. And you also want to win the Horizon League, and you also want to win as many games as you can. But do you have to kind of set up a season as We're playing games, we're winning and losing, we're going to go on streaks. We're trying to build so that at the end of the year, We're at our peak.
And we can make that run, because if you're doing that, Yeah, I don't think you can play games in March and be thinking about the beginning of June. But it did help, I would think, right? It's just a weird situation when you're in one of these one-bid leagues. Yeah, we know we're a one AQ.
So if you don't win the tournament, ultimately you've failed in our eyes because you're trying to win the Horizon League Championship and get to a regional.
So, there is a thought process behind it. There's no doubt this year's schedule, next year's schedule, the year after that, I already have put together. It is going to challenge our guys. It's going to test them, it's going to put them in some raucous environments. But ultimately, what I'm trying to do is replicate the regional, right?
I want them to get into those environments early. I got to find out about my team. I got to find out about our physical ability, our mental ability, and just their social awareness. Can they handle this situation? It's not easy to go down there and play a team like that who's really got every advantage on you.
And take a loss. But I don't care about the wins and losses per se. I care about how that helps build our team and our chemistry and our character.
so that we can actually try to achieve the the real goal at hand. That doesn't mean I don't want to go down there and win. That doesn't mean I'm upset when we don't play the right way because I am. There's no doubt. You can ask my players, I get on them all the time.
But I want to represent our program in a good light. And if you're going to do that, go get on ESPN and go let these big schools pay you to bring you down a little bit to help your budget and all those types of things. But ultimately, that is the goal. Prepare them for the regional environment because that's ultimately where we want to be. I feel like this year, I mean, obviously I'm paying attention.
Because of your guys run. But I also feel like I saw more than ever. people commenting like Well, you know, college basketball tournament's awesome, but this baseball tournament. Is incredible.
Now, there were a lot of upsets. We know UCLA went down. You guys had the Auburn game on. On Friday. What was the first game like for you as a manager?
You get up like 10-0. And at that point, you're just like. All right, this game can end, please. The next night was it nine, nothing, and then you're like, okay, okay, we want to do that. The first game was interesting too, because.
A lot of people were like, what's happening? What's happening? And then you guys had a delay there, which got more people maybe to get to a TV set. or whatever. When you look back at that first game, Was there any surprise that you were doing it?
Was it like, okay, this is that was great. Let's get to the finish line. How do you manage in a game where you go up big, but you know the other teams got the bats to make it interesting as they did? Yeah, it's not easy because I've lived on both sides of that aisle, and it's. You want to be up, there's no doubt about it.
You want to have the momentum, the advantage. The biggest difference between professional baseball and college baseball for me is just the energy game, right? Everyone's always trying to win the energy battle and get the momentum into their dugout. And then once you have it, Goal is not to relinquish it, right?
So, as we get up five, nothing, as we get up ten, nothing. It definitely helps because your players are believing, right? That's a much easier fight than down 10-0. Come on, guys. Let's rally.
Let's stay in this thing, right?
So that's a good start. But then you don't want their minds to start leaking into the, if they score one, uh-oh, or here we go, or what's happening. You can't let yourself fall victim to your thoughts most of the time, because once those start creeping in there, it becomes an issue.
So you just gotta keep up the positive vibes. You gotta make sure that you're messaging, you're sending throughout the dugout. stays high and it's positive because The second the coaches start getting negative with their verbiage or they start seeing some poor body language, that's going to trickle right down the dugout.
So, for me as a coach, that's one thing I've intentionally tried to be aware of: is just The perception of my body language, the verbiage I use, and talking with my staff and making sure that we're all trying to utilize it to benefit our players.
So, when you coach, I mean, you are coaching in the game, obviously, and you're coaching in practice, obviously. But there's other times where, like, you have to keep that coach hat on. And if you take me to Sunday. Where you thought you might be playing at five o'clock. And then maybe eight.
And then you probably had a game the latest you'll ever start a game. Uh at 10.15 at night. What did you guys do all day? How did you guys stay focused? Everyone kind of has their own little thing they like to do.
We got some guys that are card players. We got a lot of. PS5 or Switch kind of guys. We got a lot of guys that just want to go walk to Waffle House and mow down on some food, right?
So we don't mandate anything necessarily as far as their off time in the hotel. Uh, we want them to stay alert and active. Uh, obviously, I think a lot of guys, quite honestly, took a nap, which is a good thing too, because that probably recharged and rejuvenated them a little bit. But that was a tough, tough day because at one point we truly thought we were not going to play at all. Yeah.
And You almost get a little bit of like a mental letdown. When you say, All right, we're not playing tonight, and then all of a sudden you find out, all right, we got to get going here. We're actually going to play a game at 10-10.
So I think maybe that played a little bit into our mindset and It didn't dictate why we won and/or lost a game, but the unknown, the ability to not be routine in our game is really difficult because we set up practice routines, we set up training routines, we set up schedules that make sense. And when that gets thrown off, Either handle it well or you don't. Quite honestly, I thought we handled it fine, but. Had we played on a normal time schedule, maybe the performance is a little bit different there at the end. Yeah, I did kind of think that Auburn had the advantage Sunday because they were already playing, and then you guys were.
Trying to figure out what to do next, but once the game gets started. You got to throw all that out the window.
Now, you had a great vantage point, obviously, over a third and coaching this team. Is there any part of you as a coach? That's jealous of the players that like they got to, because there's a different world coaching and playing. And You experienced this as a coach. Would you have wished to experience that?
Instead as a player or not? No, I don't think so. I had a moment when I was in a regional in 2010, thankfully.
So I did live a little bit of that. And we didn't have the success that we had this year in the regional, but. My time is done, right? And now my job as a coach is to try and provide the best opportunity for these student athletes to, number one, get a degree. Number two, have a really good baseball experience and try to help them realize their goals, kind of like some of these guys over my shoulder who've had pro opportunities.
And then ultimately, just I want to create memories, right? This is more than just baseball for us. We're trying to create husbands, fathers, best friends for life. And it's about that whole experience that I always think about.
So, watching those guys celebrate and have all the fun, I wouldn't have changed it one bit because they're the ones that deserve it. They're the ones that earn it. We always talk about the best teams are player-led. And it took us a little bit to get there. And as coaches, we had to do a lot more throughout the fall and early spring.
But once the players kind of took over that role, That's when we really start to hit our stride. What kind of interest have you heard from players or other coaches? Has that picked up since, let's say, Friday for next season and beyond? Yeah, I mean, we I've heard from a lot of coaches, just congratulatory and all those types of things. The biggest thing that I'm interested to see is we've had a lot of conversations over the years with kids, and typically it starts with, well, I'm looking at these schools or a higher level.
If it doesn't work out, I'll get back to you. I'm going to go out and on a limb here and say that I think we're going to be in a lot more conversations early on, and we're not going to have to be the quote-unquote back pocket school sometimes that we almost feel like we are. That's what these guys have really done for our program: they've given us some nationwide. Viewing. which has opened up some other people's eyes.
And now they're starting to see that, hey, Milwaukee is right next to me in my hometown. And maybe this is an opportunity I should look at as compared to maybe jumping out to a school in the ACC or the Big Ten or some of these other schools. Maybe Milwaukee could be my first opportunity. You know, when you talk about like getting degrees and Making good husbands and fathers, and that kind of stuff. The other sort of narrative I saw regarding this tournament was.
People fell in love with it. Or love it because it It feels like the college that they remember. It's not all like. About going pro, maybe. I mean, these guys aren't going to want to go pro, obviously, but college now is minor leagues, and it's not even that in some sports.
It's, It's professional sports. But this felt like college again with the college crowds that you guys were playing in front of, the college athletes. everything like that. Is that important to hold on to? Because if it gets too big, you know, then it goes to whatever.
But is that important to hold on to for college baseball to be as successful as it can be? 100%. You don't want to lose the separation between Major League Baseball and NCAA baseball. NCAA baseball is where dreams are made, right? When you get to the MLB, you're in the dream.
So Um We don't want to lose that opportunity. There's a lot of people that went to universities that never played, right? They never played a sport, they never played baseball. But they want to support their university. And I've always.
I actually wrote a paper back in grad school how the athletics department is your front porch to your universities. A lot of times, the first people look into it, right? That's what we're trying to provide with our department and with our program. And you want it to feel different. You want it to be a different product on the field.
You want these kids to understand: like, it's okay to make mistakes. You're still young, you're not quite there yet. Because once you get to the big leagues and the professional ranks, Those people are just so talented. It's incredible. Most of those guys.
Kind of came out of the womb almost expecting to be a big leaguer, right? There's just some of those talented players, but. There's so many good stories of people that never had a chance or got overlooked, or the Cinderellas, or the Bells of the Ball. As people like to call it, that's what makes college sports unique and fun because we're not the Dodgers, we're not the Yankees. Heck, we're not the Brewers, but some people thought we were when we showed up.
Coach, we appreciate your time. Awesome weekend. Followed you the whole journey. And I hope to see it continue down the line. Thank you, coach, and good luck.
I appreciate it, Bart. Go Panthers.
