Sconnies Speak

Author: jmberendt

  • Greg Gard has his First Real Mind-boggling Portal Add, Leaving Fans Confused

    Cameron Wilhorn

    Just hours after landing a commitment from Lithuanian, big man Aleksas Bieliauskas, Greg Gard nabbed a pledge from Tulsa on Thursday, transfer Braeden Carrington.

    Carrington spent his first two collegiate seasons at Minnesota before transferring to Tulsa. He started in 19 of 29 appearances with the Golden Hurricanes and averaged 7.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.1 steals across 26.8 minutes per game.

    The 6-foot-4 wing primarily plays off-ball and has shot 34.2 percent from the field and 30.5 percent from beyond the arc across his career. He’s slated to contend with Jack Janicki and incoming freshmen, Zach Kinzinger and Hayden Jones, for backcourt minutes off the bench. While there is no denying Carrington is a strong defender and provides plenty of effort, I have plenty of qualms with his fit in Madison.

    Before I dig into why I’m not sold on Carrington in Cardinal and White, I’d like to note it’s not meant to be a knock on the former Golden Gopher — I think he can provide value and is certainly a Big 10 caliber player.

    Braeden Carrington is a perplexing fit for the Wisconsin Badgers, but in Greg Gard we trust

    To begin, Carrington and Janicki’s strengths and weaknesses overlap far too much. Both are not only inefficient scorers and off-ball players, but are also solid rebounders and do many of the little things that can lead to victories.

    Who will be able to score or create for others off the bench? I don’t think there’s an answer. Perhaps Gard will keep one of Boyd, Blackwell, or Rohde on the floor for all 40 minutes. Or, maybe they expect one of Kinzinger or Jones to step into a key role early.

    Even if Carrington takes a step forward offensively — and there’s been no indication this will be the case — I don’t feel comfortable with the backcourt depth. Heck, I don’t feel comfortable with the depth at any position.

    Before Carrington’s commitment, Wisconsin had two open roster spots and plenty of question marks behind the anticipated starting lineup of Nick Boyd, John Blackwell, Andrew Rohde, Austin Rapp, and Nolan Winter. Unfortunately, the addition of Carrington has not erased any of those concerns.

    I doubt Gard would go 10 deep with this group, but that second unit would likely be Kinzinger, Carrington, Janicki, Bieliauskas, and Riccardo Greppi.

    Is that enough to compete in the Big 10? Or possibly make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament? I’m not sure. 

    Considering Gard’s intent is to have only 13 scholarship players and two walk-ons, I don’t know if getting an instant impact player for the 15th roster spot is possible.

    At this point, it’s unclear if the Badgers’ final roster spot is for a walk-on or a scholarship. Isaac Gard is the only guaranteed walk-on and it’s possible Janicki hasn’t shed his walk-on status. If there isn’t a scholarship remaining, then I’m going to have to just have blind faith in Greg Gard, because I truly don’t see his vision.

  • Home Run Hype: New Torpedo Bats are Taking the MLB by Storm

    By Matt Kane

    With the start of the 2025 MLB season underway, the biggest story surrounding the sport is unsurprisingly centered around the New York Yankees and their newest invention – the torpedo bat.

    This so-called “torpedo bat” is taking the baseball world by storm early in the season, as several Yankees have decided to start hitting with these unusually shaped bats. 

    So, what makes a torpedo bat different from the standard MLB bat? Well, torpedo bats are unique in that, the thickest part of the bat barrel is closer to the handle than “normal”, creating a noticeable bowling-pin shape. 

    These torpedo bats are yet again another new addition to the MLB, further contributing to the League’s evolution over the past few years. Advancements such as the pitch clock and base runners in extra innings have made the game more watchable for the vast majority of fans. That being said, the recent increase in pressure on sports to prioritize viewership has caused a significant amount of buzz regarding torpedo bats and their legality and lifespan.

    Yankees’ team analyst, Aaron Learnhardt, is the mastermind behind these bats. Learnhardt is a former University of Michigan physics teacher with a Ph.d. from MIT. His past experiences, knowledge, and expertise in the field of science helped him craft these game-altering creations. The craziest part? These new bats technically stay within the rules of the game, with the rulebook stating that bats must conform within a 2.61 inch diameter. 

    Moreover, these bats are referred to as “torpedo bats” because they are designed with more mass towards the label, aka – the “sweet spot” of the bat, giving them a torpedo-like shape.

    The reason why torpedo bats have become so wildly popular is because of one team and one team only – the New York Yankees. 

    Over their first three games of the 2025 season, the Yankees knocked 15 balls over the fence, with nine of them being hit courtesy of a torpedo bat.

    Yankee center fielder, Jazz Chisholm, is among many on the team who are experimenting with the new design. As a result, Chisholm has already recorded four home runs and nine hits using the beefed-up bat. 

    While the torpedo bat feels like any ordinary bat, it also “gives you that extra confidence in your head to be able to go out there and hit anything,” Chisholm said.

    As someone who is typically on the opposing side to most rule changes, I want to hate the idea of these potential power bats. However, I ultimately believe that they will benefit the sport in the end.

    With other players around the League starting to test out the torpedo shape, such as Reds phenom Elly De La Cruz, it will be interesting to see how the MLB responds over the course of the season. 

    Overall, although it pains me and many others to see the Yankees off to a hot start, it is way too early to tell if their success in the Bronx is simply due to new tech in the dugout, or their strong team performance. 

    In the future, I am curious to see how pitchers will respond to the new bats. Nevertheless, for the time being, any publicity is good publicity for baseball and makes me excited to see how torpedo bats will further impact the game.

  • Redefining the Finish Line

    By Ellie Wise

    Even an impressive fourth-straight driver’s title in Las Vegas for Max Verstappen and a constructor’s title for McLaren in Abu Dhabi, its first in 26 years, couldn’t stop Lewis Hamilton from defining the 2024 Formula 1 season.

    While his record-breaking ninth British Grand Prix victory at Silverstone in July was the homecoming of every Brit’s dreams, it was his announcement just four weeks before the season’s start that turned the racing world on its head.

    Hamilton was trading his Mercedes blue for Ferrari red.

    He’s won six driver’s titles with the Silver Arrows and holds the records for most wins (105), pole positions (104), and podium finishes (202). Hamilton is arguably the greatest driver there’s ever been. Maybe the greatest there ever will be.

    Though following his second-place championship finish in 2021, Hamilton had been in a bit of a lull—murmurs of him losing his competitive edge, murmurs of retirement. And at 40 years old, everyone expected that he’d be retiring with Mercedes.

    But Hamilton is nothing if not ambitious. 

    And why should we expect greatness to be neatly packaged and gracefully retired anyway? Maybe the refusal to walk away is the most zealous, most human part of what it means to be great.

    Hamilton’s decision has challenged more than just his own narrative. In sports, we’ve come to glorify the “perfect exit.” The swan song. The last title before the curtain drops. We romanticize athletes who ride off into the sunset, untouched by decline and preserved in our memories at their best. 

    A comforting story, but not a very fair one.

    It’s an easy narrative to sell, too. Sports coverage thrives on arcs: the rise, the peak, and the poetic farewell. Michael Jordan sinking the championship-winning shot in 1998—that image became gospel. 

    The problem is, most athletes don’t want to be defined by a singular moment. They want to keep going. Yet, the media often treats any attempt to extend greatness as vanity or delusion. This narrative assumes greatness is something that can be lost by trying too hard or staying too long.

    But what if that’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what greatness actually is? Greatness isn’t static. It’s relentless, evolving, and often uncomfortable to watch.

    Perhaps no one wrestled with this more publicly than Tom Brady. After winning his sixth ring with New England, he could’ve bowed out as a Pats legend. Instead, he left the dynasty he built, joined a losing franchise, defied all odds, and won again.

    It would’ve been the perfect storybook ending. Many believed he should’ve stopped there—that he proved what he needed to prove. And yet, he refused to quit.

    I mean, hell, what did he have to lose? Brady will be remembered as one of the best to ever do it, if not the best. Not only did his legacy not suffer, but he reinforced it by pushing the boundaries of longevity.

    Legacy isn’t always about more rings or records. For some athletes, it’s about what showing up represents. Take Serena Williams. Her post-motherhood career wasn’t defined by Grand Slam victories, but by what her presence on the court stood for.

    Female athletes often step away from their sports careers when becoming mothers. There’s no denying the physical and mental impact of pregnancy and childbirth—and that’s something male athletes just don’t have to experience. Novak Djokovic even expressed that becoming a father gave him a competitive edge. 

    So, when Williams won the 2017 Australian Open while eight weeks pregnant and returned to play in 2018 after giving birth, it meant something. 

    Her final years before retirement may not have been filled with Grand Slam victories, but they deepened her legacy in ways that stats alone can’t quite measure. Every match was a statement—not just about her skill, but about motherhood, persistence, and the power of showing up on her own terms.

    That same refusal to be neatly written off is exactly what makes Lewis Hamilton’s next chapter so compelling.

    His 2025 F1 season may not be off to the start he anticipated—adding more fire to the fuel for critics who say that his time has passed. Nevertheless, Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari wasn’t about comfort or legacy preservation. It was about hunger. About love for the sport. About chasing something bigger than a safe ending.

    And isn’t that what greatness truly is? Not knowing when to walk away, but daring to keep going. Legacy isn’t tarnished by chasing the impossible—it’s defined by it.