Life Is Good

Like most people, you probably spent this past weekend giving thanks and maxing on food. If you live in Wisconsin and are a sports fan, however, you've had many reasons to be thankful lately.

• The Badgers are back in the Big Ten title game in Indianapolis. After a rough start to the season, this team is rolling right now. They won the Axe for the 11th straight year against a Minnesota team which played tougher than I expected. Joel Stave probably played the best game of his career so far, and picked up the offense awhile the run game took some time to get going. Next up is a matchup against Ohio State. The Buckeyes have been pretty dominant ever since losing to Virginia Tech (that loss is just as much of a head-scratcher as the Badgers' loss to Northwestern). This game as very winnable, however, and the Badgers are even listed as early 3-point favorites. This is because the Buckeyes' Heisman candidate, J.T. Barrett is now out for the season after getting injured vs. Michigan last week. The Badgers will still have to play a great game to win, Ohio State still has good skill players on offense and Cardale Jones, the third-string QB stepping in, can also run a little and is even bigger than Barrett. The tackling will have to be good all game long for the Badgers. Early in the Minnesota game, the tackling was poor and Minnesota was able to jump ahead 17-3 because of it. Melvin Gordon has a chance to make a Heisman statement in Indy, and if he puts up big numbers I like the Badgers' chances to win this game. Winning the Big Ten likely won't be enough to get the Badgers in the playoff, but it should put them in a very good New Years bowl game. 
• The Packers just beat the team everyone was saying was the best in the NFL, New England. It was great to see the defense show up to play on Sunday. I was expecting this game to be more of a shootout than it was. Many times in this game the Packers were forced to kick field goals in the red zone, and I thought that might cost them the game in the end. But the defense showed up when it mattered. With the Patriots driving late in the 4th quarter, the 3rd-down sandwich sack of Brady was the play that stood out the most. Nothing came easy for New England's offense, which is good to see after some poor efforts earlier in the year against good offenses. Now the Packers are in the drivers seat for home-field advantage in the NFC. If the road to the Super Bowl has to go through Lambeau, I like the Packers chances to make it to Arizona in February given how well they've played at home. 
• The Badgers' basketball team also had a good week, winning the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. It was good to see this team respond to getting tested, and they overcame a 9-point deficit to beat a good Georgetown team in the semis. In the finals they didn't get the expected matchup against North Carolina due to them getting upset by Butler, but the Badgers still looked impressive against a solid Oklahoma team. A pleasant surprise so far this year has been how well Duje Dukan has played, his 3 point shooting has been great and he almost could've been considered for tournament MVP. Next up for the Badgers is one of the biggest home games in a while against Duke on Wednesday night. Their center Okafor has been a beast so far this year, so Frank Kaminsky is gonna have to try to stay out of foul trouble in this one. The Kohl Center should be loud and this should be a fun one to watch. 
• I don't usually watch much of the NBA regular season, but I'll have to admit that the Bucks have been fun to watch so far this year. They already have 2/3 of their win total from last season, and Jason Kidd might just coach this team to a playoff spot if they can keep this up. I also wish I could've been in Vegas to bet the over on the Bucks win total, which was at only 24, which they should surpass easily.

So with all that going on, enjoy it.With the holiday season in full swing right now, simply put, it's a great time of year right now. It's even better here in Wisconsin.  (Except for the cold weather. But we're used to that.)