Slow Start for the Knicks

 

The Knicks have had some tough sledding to open up the season as their 5-6 record dictates. After just one game away from an Eastern Conference Final berth last season, the new look Knicks have struggled to figure it out through their first 11 games. 

New York is working through some growing pains to start the season as they experiment with their newly developed team from this offseason. With the addition of stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges, and the subtractions of Julius Randle and others, the team might take a little bit to gel together. 

Despite their 5-6 start, the Knicks still find themselves in the top half of the Eastern Conference standings. Most of the teams around the are also experiencing similar difficulties. Now would be a perfect time to capitalize off of this and build a steady lead in the standings early in the calendar year. 

One of the key flashing concerns the Knicks have is their depth. Outside of their starting five and Miles McBride, no other Knick has really contributed all too much. However, they are experiencing some injuries with Mitchell Robinson and Precious Achiwua sidelined. 

Ultimately, once these guys return New York will be in much better shape, but some players need to step up in both of their absences. I think it would really be beneficial to see a more increased role from rookies Tyler Kolek and Pacome Dadiet. 

We have yet to really see what they are capable of and the only way we can see is if their minutes are heightened. The best teams in the NBA not only have a great caliber starting five, but also key guys that come off the bench and play good and meaningful minutes. 

The Knicks will take on the Brooklyn Nets in back to back games coming up and one more home game against the Wizards before heading west. For New York, these games must be taken advantage of. It will go a long way in gaining momentum for their upcoming challenging road trip. 

Yanks Fall Short

 

For the 15th straight year, the Yankees will head into the offseason without a ring. The Yanks fell to the Dodgers in five games in the 2024 World Series and will have a lot on their plate this upcoming offseason. 

The most crucial thing New York must address this offseason is Juan Soto. Soto performed unbelievably this season and will have a huge price tag on his name as a free agent. The Yanks are one of the frontrunners to sign the young phenom, but they have legitimate competition from other suitors such as the Mets and Dodgers as well. 

The one-two punch of Soto and Judge proved to be almost impossible to stop in 2024. It would be an absolute dream for the Yankees if they can lock Soto up for the next decade or more. The asking price from Soto is probably going to be north of $500-600 million. Despite the steep price, he is worth every single penny. 

Getting him back is crucial and getting Gleyber Torres back is also a big priority. Torres has been with the Yankees for some time now and proved to be a reliable leadoff hitter down the stretch of the season. He is sometimes a liability in the field, but his performance at the plate is too good to deny. A great offseason would consist of Torres and Soto being back in pinstripes in 2025. 

The Yanks will need a new first baseman for the upcoming season. Anthony Rizzo's tenure with the Yankees is most likely over as his glory days in the MLB are quickly expiring. The 35 year old will head into free agency and will realistically not be wearing the pinstripes next season. 

One guy that has been high on the Yanks radar has been Pete Alonso. Alonso, an all-star first baseman for the Mets, enters free agency most likely looking for a new team. Alonso will probably have a high asking price that the Yankees should be willing to consider. They are a perfect match for each other as Alonso would fill a huge gap for the Bombers. 

New York will also have some key relievers testing the waters this offseason. Those names include: Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle, and Jonathan Loaisiga. Loaisiga did not pitch in 2024, but when he is at his best he is unstoppable. Kahnle proved to be a threat in the playoffs and Holmes picked up the slack as well. 

The Yanks got the closest they have been to a championship in 15 years this season and will look to break the streak in 2025. Getting Juan Soto back in the Bronx is a must and should be the number one priority of the offseason. It should be an entertaining and quite amusing offseason for the Yankees. 

Feature: Badgers WR Vinny Anthony

 

Vinny Anthony II has begun to take off in his junior year with the Badgers. The big play threat has been all over the field during his first five games of the season. Anthony has proved to be a security blanket for Braedyn Locke. 

Anthony, a junior from Louisville, Kentucky, has rarely been featured on this Badgers offense, throughout his brief career, aside from his special teams role. 

In his first five games, Anthony has already produced more total yards than his previous two seasons with Wisconsin. So far on the season, Anthony has registered 9 catches for 206 yards and two touchdowns in his last two games against USC and Purdue. 

Impressively, Anthony is averaging almost 23 yards per catch in the campaign so far. Anthony currently leads the Big Ten in this category as well. For a wide receiver core predicted to be led by Will Pauling, Anthony is currently carrying the statistical title as the leading receiver thus far for the Badgers. Wisconsin has been looking for that one dynamic receiver for some time. Could Anthony be the one they’ve been looking for? 

Along with his impressive start, Anthony is the first Badger since Jared Abbrederis in 2013 to record multiple 50+ yard catches in a single season. In his previous two games, Anthony has recorded long touchdowns through the air on 63-yard and 52-yard heaves from Braedyn Locke. 

Anthony is embracing offensive coordinator Phil Longo's air raid offense with his big play touchdowns in back to back weeks. Executing big plays down the stretch on offense will be crucial towards the Badgers potential success. 

The air-raid offense has been in question since Longo took the role as the offensive coordinator in Madison. An offense that averaged just over 23 points per game last season, was averaging around 21 points per game this season prior to the Purdue game last Saturday. 

Longo and his air-raid offense came over to the Badgers with Luke Fickell last season. The hype and excitement of the offense was real, but the production was not. We had yet to see its full potential until last Saturday against the Purdue Boilermakers.  

The Badgers dropped 52 points on the Boilermakers operated by Longo's offense. Through the air, Braedyn Locke threw for three touchdowns that were all at least 25 yards. Braedyn Locke registered the most passing yards in a game since Joel Stave in 2015 for the Badgers. 

Wisconsin will head to New Brunswick, New Jersey this weekend to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Rutgers currently ranks as 27th in passing yards allowed per game. The Badgers are currently listed as a 2.5 point underdog going into Shi Stadium. 

Vinny Anthony will have a chance to extend his touchdown streak to three games come Saturday if the Badgers can figure out the Scarlet Knights defense. The game plan is clear for the Badgers: get Vinny Anthony the ball. 

Preview: Jets vs Vikings in London

 

The NFL international slate kicks off tomorrow morning as the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings head to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Sam Darnold will face his old team while getting his Vikings off to an historic start to open the 2024 campaign. 

The Vikings have started off the season with a 4-0 record thanks to magnificent quarterback play from Sam Darnold. Darnold left the Jets after the 2020 season and his since bounced around from Carolina to San Francisco before finding a home in Minnesota. 

New York selected Darnold with the third overall pick back in 2018, but their expectations for him never came true. Since losing Darnold, the Jets had yet another quarterback failure in Zach Wilson and are now onto Aaron Rodgers. So was it the Jets fault for Darnold's miserable three years in the Big Apple?

Gang Green has opened up the season with some big ups and downs to say the least. They will come into this matchup with a 2-2 record after a brutal loss to the Denver Broncos. The defense has been just what everyone envisioned with a dominant start to the season. They combined to allow only 13 points in their last two games, yet the Jets only won 1 of those 2 games. 

The offense was the problem last game. We've seen it year after year, the Jets offense struggles to be any bit effective when there is weather problems. Last week, with the rain being a constant factor, the Jets couldn't get anything going offensively. The fact that they couldn't score more than 10 points against one of the subpar teams in the NFL is not a good sign going forward. 

Now we can blame it all on the offense, but I believe some of the blame has to go to the coaching staff. There needed to be a blip in the game plan, especially with the weather, but there wasn't. This falls directly on Robert Saleh and Nathaniel Hackett. The coaches need to adapt to certain conditions because every game isn't going to have luxurious weather especially come the later months. 

Another thing to point out was the Jets offense not all being on the same page. There were a couple plays late in the game where Aaron Rodgers and Garrett Wilson were visibly not reading the same play book. Breece Hall had the worst game of his career by far didn't help much either. 

The offense needs to quickly get their act together before they fall behind even more. With a win last Sunday, the Jets could have been sitting in the top seed in the AFC East, but luckily they are still in the playoff picture. I know it's early, but it's been 14 years since the Jets last made their fans somewhat happy. 

This is a make or break year for a lot of people in the Jets organization. The players need to start playing more like it. Getting a win against Minnesota in London is the perfect way to start. If the offense and coaching staff can fix their mistakes, I see no reason the Jets aren't smiling on their long flight back to the US. 

Can the Badgers Make a Bowl Game This Year?

As the Badgers head into the bye week, they stand in at 2-1 on the season following a disappointing loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Badgers will head to Southern California after the bye week to take on the USC Trojans. With the expansion of the Big Ten and tougher schedules in place, everyone is wondering, will the Badgers be able to make it back to bowl season? 

Dating back to 2002, the Badgers have made a bowl game every year and will look to further the streak in 2024. In every year since 2002, the Badgers have also had at least seven wins every year. After a unique start for Wisconsin, do they have a chance to achieve at least six wins this season? There is certainly a lot at stake. 

For those that do not know, in order to become bowl eligible, each team must accomplish at least six wins in a season. So with nine games remaining, the Badgers need to win at least four of their nine games in order to be eligible for a 23rd straight season. 

Dating back to 2014, the Badgers have won eight of their ten bowl games as well. Wisconsin also holds the third longest consecutive bowl game streak in the entire nation, behind the Georgia Bulldogs and Oklahoma Sooners by just a couple of years.  

The Badgers will now head into the Big Ten part of their schedule after their bye week. Their opponents include: USC, Purdue, Rutgers, Northwestern, Penn State, Iowa, Oregon, Nebraska, and Minnesota. 

Remaining on the schedule is four home games compared to five away games as the Badgers will head to USC for their first road matchup of the year. According to ESPN projections, the Badgers are only favored to win two of their nine matchups. Currently, four of these teams are ranked with two of the matchups on the road and two at home. 

After losing quarterback Tyler Van Dyke for the season, the outlook of the season for the Badgers has changed drastically. They will now be lead by sophomore quarterback Braedyn Locke for the foreseeable future unless there is another change made. 

In a small sample size last year, Braedyn Locke lead the Badgers to an underwhelming 1-3 record with their only win coming against Illinois. If Locke is unable to prove his worth in getting the Badgers to a bowl game, Luke Fickell has some other options to consider. 

Wisconsin also has freshmen quarterbacks Mabrey Mettauer and Cole LaCrue to resort to if Locke is unable to get the job done. The Badgers will need to execute the pass game in order to open up the run game for Chez Mellusi, Tawee Walker, and Cade Yacamelli. 

With four of the Badgers future opponents ranked, a possible upset will be huge for the Badgers hopes at achieving the six win mark. The best chance the Badgers have at pulling off an upset is probably at home where they will take on the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Oregon Ducks. 

I believe the games that the Badgers are most likely to win are against Rutgers, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Purdue. Winning all four of these games will make the Badgers bowl eligible for the 23rd season in a row. Mix in a possible upset out of their other matchups and Wisconsin could be looking at a higher stakes bowl game as well. 

The odds are certainly against the Badgers, but beating four of these nine opponents is definitely doable for the Badgers. I believe that by the time Thanksgiving comes around, the Badgers will be comfortably set into bowl season and extend their illustrious streak of consecutive bowl games to 23 straight years. 

Badgers on Top!

After coming up just short in 2024, the Badgers women's hockey team will look to capture the crown once again in 2025. As the season slowly approaches, the Badgers were ranked as the #1 team in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) coaches poll for the 2024-2025 season after receiving 46 points.

The previous champion, Ohio State Buckeyes, pull in just behind them as the 2nd ranked team in the nation, while Minnesota was deemed the third ranked team with Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud State, and Minnesota State not far behind in the rankings as well. 

The 2023-24 season was a memorable season for the Badgers despite not taking home the national crown. They won their tenth WCHA playoff title behind star players such as Kirsten Simms, Casey O'Brien, and Caroline Harvey. Along with being throned the #1 ranking, some of these Badger stars were rewarded with high recognition in the preseason honors.  

Coming off a career-high 75 points a season ago, junior forward Kirsten Simms was granted the WCHA Preseason Player of the Year. Simms is looking to follow up her WCHA Player of the Year, First-Team All-American, All-WCHA First Team, and WCHA Forward of the Year, with an even better season in 2025. 

Along with Simms, Caroline Harvey received some well-deserved recognition in the preseason honors as well. She was also named to the Preseason All-WCHA alongside Simms. Harvey posted an amazing plus/minus of +54 in the 2023-2024 season. She ranked third in this category in all of the WCHA. Caroline Harvey and Kirsten Simms are both getting the respect that they deserve prior to the 2024-25 season kicking off. 

Wisconsin is once again in good hands with Mike Johnson entering his 21st season as the head coach of the Badgers. Johnson has not only coached seven NCAA championship teams in Wisconsin, but he is also the winningest coach in NCAA collegiate women's hockey history. Having a guy like Johnson behind the bench is a pretty big boost for this Badger team. 

The Badgers are ready to get back in action and get the sour taste out of their mouth after watching Ohio State hoist the trophy just a short time ago. They won't have to wait long as the season kicks off in just over a week. Wisconsin will open the season at home against Lindenwood on September 27th. The countdown is on and let's go Badgers!

Badgers Dismantled by the Tide

In one of the most highly anticipated Badger football games in some time, the Badgers got absolutely dismantled by the Alabama Crimson Tide on national television by a final score of 42-10. This game was a lot to take in so let's talk about it. 

It was brutal showing by the Badgers on Saturday after their blowout loss to the Crimson Tide to say the least. They couldn't get anything going on offense and their defense was no match for the high powered offense of the Tide. 

Things all started to fall downhill on the first drive of the game when quarterback Tyler Van Dyke went down. Van Dyke got hurt on a tackle on the Badger sideline and never came back. It was later confirmed that the transfer quarterback suffered a torn ACL and will now miss the entire season. 

Things were left up to sophomore quarterback Braedyn Locke for the remainder of the game. We saw Locke a good amount last season when quarterback Tanner Mordecai suffered a long-term hand injury. He was not very good last season and played like his 2023 self against the Tide as well. 

But I don't blame it all on him, I blame it on the coaching. The coaching was way too conservative in this game and with this type of play calling against the fourth ranked team in the country, the Badgers stood no chance. The Badgers ran the ball way too often right into the teeth of the Alabama defense for minimal gains. 

There were other costly mistakes that took this game away from the Badgers very quickly. Fumbles by both Cade Yacamelli and Chez Mellusi gave the Tide some momentum when the Badgers were within striking distance early in the game. 

Another costly blunder was the missed field goal by Nathaniel Vakos which was the difference from going into halftime with the Badgers being down by three possession compared to just one. All in all, the Badgers were far from perfect this previous Saturday. 

They were simply outmatched. After struggling to really pull away in their first two matchups against Western Michigan and South Dakota, the Tide gave the Badgers a very humbling feeling in their blowout victory. 

As Luke Fickell said to the team after the game, "if you haven't had your ass whooped before, you just did." The Badgers will now have a long time to reflect on their embarrassing loss as they head into their bye week before heading to Southern California.