In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Tom Oates is out on assignment so Mike Lucas is joined by the Badgers’ public address announcer, Mike Mahnke. Mike’s been watching everything the Olympics has to offer, from hockey to luge to ice dancing, but this year has been all about curling. Team USA took home the silver in mixed doubles curling this year, narrowly losing the gold to Sweden. It feels natural to get into curling in Wisconsin; it’s sort of a combination of shuffleboard, bowling and darts.

Lucas, meanwhile, has been enjoying women’s hockey. Team USA defeated Team Canada on Tuesday in a 5-0 blowout with former Badger Hillary Knight as team captain. There are six total Badgers on Team USA this year, and another five on Team Canada. With so many Badgers to watch, it’s hard not to love.

Meanwhile, both Mike and Lucas had one word for the Super Bowl: lackluster. For Mike, this year was about the commercials. Some were good, some were weak, and some were downright creepy.

Moving to what Mike knows best, the Badgers men's basketball team played Illinois Tuesday night (though the show was recorded before tipoff, Wisconsin won a thriller in overtime against the No. 8-ranked Illini). The Badgers were coming off a tough loss to Indiana, one that included questionable foul calls that were hard to take. But sometimes that sort of thing will happen when they were down by as much as they were at halftime.

Coming up, the Badgers will return to the Kohl Center Friday night to take on Tom Izzo and Michigan State. Izzo has had a long and sometimes contentious relationship with Madison, but you have to respect him as a coach. He’s become one of Mike’s favorite coaches to watch on the bench, and even Greg Gard considers him a friend. That said, all that will probably be going out the window on Friday night.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced each week by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Getting into curling, and the Badgers vs Izzo with Mike Mahnke