Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Bart Winkler. Welcome into the WinklerVerse.
Joining me is Tim Shea. Bart, Bart, I just, you know, before we start here, I just want to thank you. And I want to thank your people.
Your WinklerVerse people for allowing me to come in here and talk sports with you. So thank you. Thank you. I just want to make sure I can thank you enough for you. So thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you. And I also want to say that, as always, this show is free with no additional charge to our friends in Canada or Mexico. No, no, you're not charging them at 25%?
No, no additional charge. Well, sure, I could, I could, I could charge them. 25% of zero is still zero. So sure. Well, we'll tack it on to what the hell?
Hey, what? So thank you. I just want to say thank you again.
Yeah, I get it. We're so funny. You're wearing a Michigan State sweatshirt. We have to talk about this. My sister went, lives in East Lansing and got me a sweatshirt for Christmas. And it's a nice sweatshirt. It's comfortable. So listen, I don't have any problems with Michigan State.
Okay. They're actually one of the few teams I like. And I like Tom Izzo as a coach. So I don't really like Tom Izzo that much.
I feel the same way I do. I said this about Rick Pitino the other night. Like I don't care. I, I, I asked for no Rick Pitino in my life and yet I'm constantly given Rick Pitino in my life. I never seek him out. I never try to, I do not care.
I, but it's always Rick Pitino this, Rick Pitino that, I don't care. It's a little impressive what he, what he did or what he's doing right now. Taking a fifth school to a, to a tournament. Won a, won a conference. Big East. Yeah, I know, but you know what? The top half of the Big East is pretty good.
You know, you're competing there for a little bit. So it's still impressive what he did. And how about that suit he was wearing the other day?
Looking like the Colonel. Yeah, again, don't care if there, if there's a Rick Pitino headline, I don't click on it. And this, like, I do not, I do not think that just because I'm in sports media, I have to know everything about everything. If I don't care, I'm done pretending. I'm done. I'm done trying to like, I'm done. I'm not placating. I'm gonna talk about what I want to talk about.
And I'm tired of it. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not getting all into college hoops, but we will talk some college hoops. I don't know how you don't get into college hoops. I mean, this is like March Madness. This is the best time of the year. Don't you think it's one of the next to the Super Bowl?
It's probably one of the next best sporting events. I feel like March Madness has lost luster for me as I've gotten older. I don't know if it's because, you know, something, I don't know, I just, maybe, I don't know, maybe it's the job, maybe it's not taking off. Maybe it's, it just doesn't, the Thursday and Friday in the day, it just doesn't, it feels watered down from what it used to be to me in my, in my life. It doesn't feel as big. Maybe it's because, you know, I don't collect brackets or have a physical bracket.
It's online. Maybe it's as simple as that. I don't know what it is, but it's not, all I'm saying is it's not the same for me as what it used to be. Interesting. Okay. I feel like it. And I don't have an answer why I'm not, I don't, I don't know why I'm just the total opposite.
I feel like it gets bigger and bigger every year and better and better every year. Is it because you don't watch the badgers all season maybe, or don't have a rooting interest? I have a rooting interest in the badgers.
Yes. Okay, sure. But that you don't, I did, I did watch Sunday's game against Michigan state, which I don't feel like I've seen them beat Michigan state in two decades. But that's the funny, funny part is, is that the badgers had a three game winning streak in East Lansing going into that game. I know. Exactly.
So yeah, I just, I I'm the total opposite. I think it gets bigger and better every year. I'm going to Pado this year on that Thursday, we reserved a table in the morning. Maybe you can come down and say hello. No, you might know one person. Isn't those guys you hang out with at McGuire's? No.
There's like five guys you hang out with and four of them are named Mike, I think. Is it those guys? No, no, no. Yeah. I could, I could, I guess I could.
I don't know. I just, I like it. I love the tournament. I take off.
So I gotta get, I gotta get down to Pado. They, they gave me $5 free play. There you go. First time in six months of 10 every week.
So yeah. Hey Pado, I'll come more if you give me free play. So if you give me five, I'll come and lose 50. But if you don't give me any, I ain't coming. Okay.
So let's Jack up the free play by the way. There you go. I think Friday is my double day. Oh, okay. So Friday I gotta go there because I get 10 bucks. There you go.
Friday only. But, and I don't, I don't, I don't want to say the problem with Pado. I don't want to say that. But if there's a time that I am most likely to go, it would be after work. And when they give you the special $5 days or $10 or both, you know, those single days when you get a little more, you can only play it from 6A to 1159P.
And I am not, I am a creature of the night. Yes. So I need, I need the bonus then.
So whoever we know at Pado and we know plenty. Let's extend that. Let's get, let's get a little Bart window to like 230.
I drive by it every night and every night, every night I hug that right lane. I may go at 25th. I may go, I may, I may go.
And then I, I just don't have the incentives. Maybe we can have our next Friday town hall there. We could. We could.
Our town hall. We could. Yeah. Let's, let's you and me do a thing. Let's do it. We need to do a lot coming up.
There's a lot going on. Okay. Well, I'm going to the draft. The draft?
Well, before that we have opening day, the home opener. Oh, I think I'm out on that now. Are you? Yeah. There's, there's sending my wife back to the office, so I can't. Okay. I can't, I can't, I can't like, Hey, can you pick up our kid? I can't do that as much. Can you pick up our kid?
Well, I got to pick them up at three o'clock. Do you, uh, if I, I mean, I think I'm going to the draft. Do you want to like be my lackey? Do you want to like be my camera bitch? Yeah. I'll wait.
I'll even wear a vest that says camera bitch. Yeah. Cause I mean, I might need somebody. I don't know. So like, are they, are you getting like a stage, like an area where people can come like, like college game, they like come boo you and you know, you know how it like brought bowl, the scores on the stage and the fans tucked away in the corner. Yeah. So I think I'll be even tucked away further. I'll be like where they sell the spicy pickles. You're going to be down on Lombardi Avenue by the Arby's, you know, like way down where no one, no one cares.
Yeah. I'm going to be by the custard shop down the street that Mason Crosby used to own. I'll be by that one. I'm going to be, I'm going to be on the other side of town. I'm going to be in Bellevue.
They're going to put you at city stadium. Oh, we thought the draft was here. Yeah. Oh shit.
We thought it was a special fun throwback homage thing. Tim Shay's here. We are brought to you by Happy Place Hemp. The promo code is BART, 25% off each and every order. That is every order at happyplacehemp.com. I don't know about you, but I've just been feeling the need to want to take gummies more as of late. Not sure what it is, but I have been doing that. You can get yours. Again, the Delta 8, Delta 9, the CBD, the CBN, whatever you're looking for.
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25% off happyplacehemp.com. So yeah, we were talking about the badgers. I guess we can just wrap that up or continue on that. I'm into them. I don't know much about them, but I'm cognizant that they can make somewhat of a run. That's got me excited. They might get home games for the tournament for the first two rounds.
We'll see. They're one of the older teams in college basketball. They used the transfer portal correctly. Greg Gard has done a fabulous job. When you watch them, they're not your normal badgers. They score 50 points and rely on defense. What were they the other day? Five for 27 from three? They're going to shoot threes. Five of 34 from the three-point line. They're going to shoot. If they miss, I guess now is the time to have that game. And they were in it still.
That's the good part. You're five from 34, you think you're going to blow it out. Other than the last three minutes of the game, they were down two. Greg Gard. The thing I remember the most about... That was the day that I had interviewed Jeff Janis. I interviewed Jeff Janis and then I was with Chuck and Wicket. And the morning that was going to be our big thing of the show was my interview with Jeff Janis. And then Bo Ryan stepped down that night. So I was pissed because that took over the show. And it was my big moment as the producer to get in there.
This was my bit and I talked to Janis. But that was 10 years ago. And for Bo Ryan to just basically leave us with Greg Gard. And for Greg Gard to now be the coach there for a decade. Where he's had one losing season. And even with that, since he's gone full-time two seasons. Where he hasn't won 20 games. 2015 that year was 15-8 overall.
And then the losing season in 17-18 and another one the year right out of COVID. I think that we do overlook how important he's been. And how good he's been.
And I think that that's something that I want to be on record saying. He's adapted to college basketball. He's adapted to the new rules. Where some coaches like Shaka Smart does not like the portal.
And it will show in some areas. I've been fine with Gard since the beginning. I have never wanted him fired like people do every year.
And I'm happy with what he's doing and the recruits he gets and how he uses the portal. So when are we up next? When are the Badgers up next? The Badgers are up next tomorrow. Wednesday against the Gophers. And then their last game is Saturday. Saturday morning against Penn State. So they should be heavy favorites in both.
What are we looking at? Like a three seed right now? Two or three seed, yeah.
Two or three seed. Hopefully in Milwaukee. Fingers crossed. Oh yeah. Oh shit, should I go to that? I know.
So if they are here in Milwaukee, those are Friday Sunday games. Can I tell you something right now? Yeah. Have you ever been down there for a tournament? Yes. And Chuck told me if I give you a pass, you got to go every day.
And then I went just the one day. I did not know that there were games in Milwaukee until right now. Really? Yeah. I had no idea.
About every three or four years. You said they could get like a home game and I'm like what the hell is he talking about? Yeah. I honestly did not know. Okay. I feel ashamed about that and I feel like, okay, if Bart's not going to like college basketball, that's whatever.
But this is like egregious and offensive. I did not know. Well, I'm glad I could remind you or tell you. Can I still get credential? Yeah, I think so. Do I even want to go?
Do you? When is it? Oh, actually we might be out of town. I just like the atmosphere and the fun because you get eight different team fan bases in the city at one time. The same happens when they do that little Frozen 4 hockey tournament.
It's pandemonium down there. Yeah. Oh, stop.
What? Do we think that they're going to match up with Marquette? Would they do that? Would they do Marquette, Milwaukee? No. Marquette can't play in Milwaukee if it's hosted by Marquette.
I see. They cannot play. And how do we feel about our Milwaukee Panthers? They have a game at the K on Thursday. Oakland more than likely? Yeah, so they got a game. It's on campus.
What does that bracket look like? Who does Green Bay play? Oakland. Yeah, they play Oakland, right? Yeah, so they do it a little differently. So they recede.
So don't look at the bracket and say, oh, Milwaukee is going to play. You see what the sunbelt does? Yes.
The gauntlet? Yeah. 14 plays 11, 12 plays 13.
And the winners play 10 and nine. Look at this. I was talking to good friend Kevin Holden, who covers a bunch of teams down in the Triangle, as it's called, I guess. The team, NC State, you remember their run last year, yes? No?
Do I need to refresh your memory? They were under.500 last year going into the ACC tournament. They run the gauntlet, win five games in five days, make the NCAA tournament, blow through that right away, make the final four. And the final four last year was, don't tell me, do you know off the top of your head?
Yeah. So NC State. NC State. I don't know the fourth team. Remember who won it last year?
No. Who won it? UConn. Okay, good. That's two.
God. Was San Diego State in that one? Or was that two years ago? No.
Who was the third? There's a Big Ten team in there. Illinois. Oh, Purdue. Purdue. Purdue.
And I can't remember the fourth team. Purdue. Oh yeah, ED. Who did? Alabama. Alabama, yes. I would have guessed them. I was going to guess them.
I'm sure you weren't. So when was San Diego State in? Two years ago? Two years ago. They played UConn.
Florida Atlantic. Yup. They had that one full run. Yeah, so Milwaukee. What's interesting, you know, the Horizon League being a one-bid league sucks.
I think my guy Lundy's got to get it done, man. We've got to get them in the tournament. This was supposed to be the year for them. I thought, you know, there are three seeds, so obviously it doesn't matter now that they moved it.
It doesn't matter if they're one, two, or three. I mean, it's all coming down to this. It doesn't matter now that- Foul leap can win four games in the regular season and get to the goddamn tournament. It doesn't matter now that they moved the tournament out of the highest seeds home, which was great.
Back in the day, UWM hosted a few times, which were great games. So, now that they play in a neutral site, it doesn't matter if you're the one, two, or three seed. Hell, I guess you're right. It doesn't matter if you're Green Bay and won two games. All it takes is four games, so whatever.
If Green Bay gets to the tournament, I will grovel for Doug Gottlieb's approval. I will say, my sir, my king, you are the greatest. Then I'm going to look for other jobs, in addition to the job I have, because clearly I can do more. I thought that one job is enough, that trying to do more would stretch you thin, but my show is going to suck tonight, by the way, since whenever there's a political event going on, my brain's always, I'm not even there.
Yeah, but it will be over, so. Yeah, but then the reaction, and then I'm like, yeah, I'll take a call. Just pretend it's not- Both conventions, I was like, I was like a zombie. Just pretend it's not even on and go in as, you know.
Well, it's going to be harder for me. I got to stay offline completely because Daredevil drops at eight o'clock, two episodes. So, I got Daredevil to watch.
I got Severance still coming up this week. I watch all my TV at 2 a.m. since I don't got a reason to get off 25th Street and slink over to Pado. And haul into that Pado.
I got to do that. All right, so Badger's coming up Wednesday. Panthers tournament on Thursday, could not care any less than I do about Marquette. I used to always say that when Marquette and Wisconsin play, my Marquette meter's at zero, and then it builds back up, and I like root for them. And then it gets, not close, but respectable level. And then they play again in that December game, and then I go back to zero.
Now it just doesn't even move. I just don't. I just don't. I just don't like them. I just don't. I just don't like them. I don't care for them. I don't like them. Fair. I don't. Someone tells me, I went to Marquette.
I'm like, well, have a nice life. See you later. See you in the dentist's office.
So the big news over the weekend was John Cena turned heel. I heard. See you in the dentist's office. Actually, I tried, so I went, I won't be shy about it. I see a person for therapeutical reasons. I talk to someone. It's okay, right?
Are we all agreement? Yeah. That's okay. So the first guy I talked to, I went into his office and it was decked out Marquette shit. And I'm like, well, this ain't going to be my guy.
And it was about the worst 45 minutes experience I've ever had in my life. I mean, what the hell are you doing? What do you do for a living? I go, fuck.
I build boxes and I ship them out. I'm not talking to you about fucking Marquette. Okay.
Anywho. Let's move on. But the other thing that happened 10 years too late was the Brewers signed Jose Quintana.
If you can't beat them, join them or let them join you. I wanted him 10 years ago. What happened there? The Cubs got a better offer in? Probably about 10 years ago. Yeah. I mean, Jose Quintana was a guy who came up quite a bit, um, on our show back then. Now historically against the Brewers, he is a record of eight and seven.
Only the ERA is 3.29. You would think it'd be better than that. It feels like it would have been better than that, but maybe recently.
Yeah. The thing about, you know, Jose Quintana of the last few years was not, you know, of Pittsburgh and, but there was still 2021. He bopped us with the giants. He bopped us with the Cardinals, uh, in a game he ended up losing a couple of years ago. Wasn't as great with the mats, but when he was with the Cubs, he was just a beast, especially right away on us. A lot of people talking about that one year he faced us, what, seven different times as a Cub. The Cubs set it up so that when we, when our series was coming up against them, they would plan it out that, oh, let's move them back a day.
The Brewers are coming up tomorrow. Yeah. So he's in the rotation. Yes. I, I assume. Yeah. I'm assuming. Do you have to earn his spot?
I don't, I don't think so. I think his spot is earned. What is our rotation even?
Uh, Freddy, then Nestor Cortez and you add, uh, Savale. Yeah. I mean, what do you, when he's healthy, what do you, but when will he be healthy? June? Uh, Toby Myers. Yep. I would assume that he will have a sophomore slump. Okay. I don't know. DL hall when healthy.
Yeah. The pitching could be a concern this year. We'll see. Apparently all they need to do is get through four and the bullpen's got us the rest of the way. Brewers also made another move. They hired former Mets GM, Billy Epler as a special advisor.
He was ineligible and suspended for the entire 2024 season for the deliberate use of fabrication of injuries and improper injured list placements. I say, now that's a fucking move. That's the kind of shit I want. Cheating is bad finding ways to finding ways to tamper with the system before it's called cheating is good finding where the line is, is good. Once you cross the line, that's bad, but trying to find the line is good. You should do that.
You should do that. I'm excited. What are the streets saying about the Brewers?
Who knows? What was the over, under? There's no reason to make a prediction because they do the same thing always for better, but not for worse. They're going to play hard and well and surprise you and give you an entertainment of summer of entertainment and passion. But is this the year where if I want to say, all right, they're going to win 91 games, they're going to win 89 games, and then they... No, you can't do that. If you think they're going to win 91 games, you have to say, I don't know, I see 83. And then when they win 91, you have to go, I didn't see this coming.
You got to do that. Every year. Every year. It's, I didn't see this coming. How about that team? Murphy for manager of the year, this and that, and then come October 1st, 2nd and 3rd, you're like, what happened?
What went wrong? I'm looking forward. I'm going to try to take my kid to a game a month.
I'm looking forward to that. He had a great time at the Bucks game. Now, do you prefer day games or night games or do you want to do combination or do Sundays or... Well, I prefer day. So then you got to go on Sunday so he can run the bases. We did that last year. And I bet he'll want to do it again. But I can take him out of summer camp or whatever the fuck we have him in. And then he'll look at you and say, thanks, dad, thanks for providing me. Thanks for providing a summer of passion and entertainment.
Well, that's what we're looking for. The game on Thursday, he stayed up the entire time. Bucks beat the Nuggets. So that was fun. He like sits still during games too. Good game.
Yeah. Giannis was dunking. That was impressive.
He liked the halftime show. It was a guy had like a pull on his head and then, oh yeah, the ladies up there. They're called... Oh, what are they called? It's like a one word, five letter. It's called like force, but it's called like, I've thought, oh, that's a really good name. And I can't remember.
It's called like, nah, I can't remember. If it's not red panda or quick change, I don't know what you're talking about. Hey, last time I saw red panda, she dropped everything. She was a mess. She was a mess. So I got, I got to see her again. I got bad.
I got bad memory with bad. The season where she goes from, you know, big East tournament to big tent tournament, the NBA game back to the big tent tournament. So she's all over the place.
And then everyone takes a video like, oh my God, you ever heard of this person? We all have. Everyone wants to know why you're wearing Michigan state. I know. I just saw that. My sister lives in East Lansing and I said, get me a sweatshirt from, from Michigan state.
Okay. For all, this could be like, you know, a different Spartan. That's a green, you know, the white fish based Spartans come on.
Well it's not, I know, you know what? You look like a guy that should be wearing what you, you know, you don't look like a guy that should be wearing a shirt that says that's just the logo of a Spartan. You look like a guy, maybe because I think I've seen you in this, in a badger shirt, but you look like a guy that should be wearing, um, Michigan state athletic department, XXL, one of those shirts, you know, that they make for every fucking school. Yes. Don't you have a badger shirt like that? No, I don't. I think I got, I got a picture of you on the Camp Randall field in that. I don't think so. I thought I did. Hmm.
I'll have to check it out. That's good stuff. All right. Um, Packers, Jayers, stupid, um, DK Metcalf cooled down on that. Let's not react to something till it happens. I say we're not signing T Higgins, so no. Um, do you want Sam Darnell as a backup for one, four seven nine nine Rogers going, where's he going? Rogers is going to go nowhere. You think he's done? And for the next two years, he is going to mend fences and greenway.
No, no, no. He is going to the bet. The best way that Rogers can get talked about now is by not playing. And then people keep asking him, are you going to play? And every time a quarterback situation erodes or someone gets hurt, Hey, would they be interested in bringing Aaron Rogers? He's back in the news cycle. He goes on McAfee is vague two years of this before he finally officially retires.
Um, that is, I think my leading theory. I don't know why anybody would want him. I don't know where he wants to go. I think I still think Pittsburgh is more likely than the giants and the giants. I think he's not going to play for Dable.
They're a mess already. He'll play for Tomlin. I think he would give you good behavior for six weeks. I don't think Tom wants him though. He showed him. No one should.
UfL their quarterbacks almost all went on strike, he could go there, he'll give you good behavior for six weeks. And then when they're two and four, it all blows up. Yeah. Rogers is like me. Every time that I have like a bad night drinking, I say, all right, I won't drink for six weeks. I'll be good. All right.
Where's his best friend going then? Devontae? Niners. I made some predictions a couple of weeks ago.
Let me see if I want to change any of them. I said, Stafford will not leave. Right.
Where's the bell? I said, Rogers and Cooper cup to Pittsburgh. Okay. Oh, I said, Dable to the Chargers.
Got that one wrong. Devontae, Niners, and I said, Miles Garrett to the commanders. Max Crosby stay. My big new hot national take is, uh, Tom Brady's not clutch anymore. Choked on Ben Johnson.
Choked on Sam or no, uh, Matt Stafford, who was never leaving those. So that maybe he was never really leaving. So what's your agenda today, buddy? Uh, nothing, nothing. Gonna do some stuff and work later tonight. Oh yeah. You work nights now. Yeah. Are we going to meet up on Friday?
Yeah, we should. You should have seen me this last Friday. I was panicking cause I'm like, oh shoot. It's Friday. Tim and I met two Friday nights in a row. It's our thing now. But then last week I was, I took off, but then I was sick.
That sucked. Yeah. We'll meet up. We'll discuss off air. Okay. You want to go somewhere else? We could bottle. We could try that. That could get dangerous real quick.
Yeah. I like just, you know, 10 bucks a pull tabs here and there. That's 60 bucks on a slot machine. I like playing bar slots where you have no chance to fucking win. I won a hundred dollars in a bar one. So one time in lacrosse, I won, um, when I was back on a weekend, just out of college, I won $330 at who's on third and they couldn't pay me. And they're like, we'll send you a check. I go, you, you, I can't afford to not, you need to send me this check. And they're like, no, we promise we will.
They did. So shout out to who's on third. There you go. All right, buddy. All right. Well, take it easy. We'll, uh, we'll chat soon and again, thank you. Thank you, Tim Shea, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for stopping into the Winkler purse. Go bros.
