Catching Up with Former Wisconsin Center Brian Butch (Part 2)

AllBadgers.com looks at some former Wisconsin standouts, and just what exactly they are up to now after their Badger-playing days are over.

After playing about a decade at the professional level both abroad and in the continental United States, Brian Butch continues to stay connected to the game of basketball in a variety of ways.

Not only does the former Badger chat about the sport in the media, but he also helps the next generation of players with his Brian Butch Basketball Camps.

Butch currently is a co-host on WSCO's morning show "B.J. and the Bear" alongside B.J. DeGroot up in the Oshkosh/Appleton area. He also can be heard on iHeart radio within the state, has been a fill in with Mike Heller for the national Rich Eisen Show, and served as an analyst for the NBA G-League's Wisconsin Herd. Recently, the former big man started work as an analyst for the Big Ten basketball season.

On Thursday, AllBadgers.com published part one of our Q&A with the in-state native, discussing how he got into media and working in both television and radio. Now, he talks about working with the latter medium and chemistry with his co-hosts, along with what he wants to teach about the game with his camps.

How do you navigate the chemistry between you and others in terms of going back and forth between each other and having that type of sports talk radio atmosphere?

“Well ... for me, the biggest thing is I'm gonna have fun. That's the first and foremost thing. If this ever becomes a job, I'm done, and I think that's what people want to be a part of. ... We all work, we've all got jobs. We turn on the radio, the last thing you want to have is this workman-like dialogue going on. You just want to lay back and have some fun, and that's what I try to do with BJ. I try to do that with Ted (Davis). Obviously me and B.J., we've got more of a chemistry because we've been doing it longer. I know when I can poke and make fun of him. He knows when he's supposed to make fun of me, and then we just sit back and talk. Being able to do that with (97.3 The Game in Milwaukee) with Ted, there's more serious sports talk there, but then I'll bring some goofiness out as far as just kind of when we talk about a game. ‘Yeah, I know I like that. But did you see this?’

“So there's different ways of doing it, but again … I want to have fun at what I do, and I want to bring that to the listeners. We’re there to entertain, we’re there to inform, and I think those two things for me are the biggest things. Yes, we're going to talk games, we're going to talk sports on the radio side. We're there also to make people have a good day that are having a bad day, and then we’re there to give them some knowledge. So those things are kind of my focus when I jump on the air every day.”

What are the biggest things you're trying to teach the younger kids, or even the older ones that you teach? What do you hope to give to them and pass on with the game?

“That's a great question, and we run about 80 camps throughout the whole year. We've got an Appleton core base that we do with post camp, a perimeter camp, a ball-handling camp. You name it, we get a whole bunch of camps that touch on all of that here in the Appleton area. Then we travel throughout the state of Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan. We've been all over the place, and we do what we call our satellite camps. For me the focus of this of our camps, they don't change, right? Everybody wants to have the flash. Well, you tell me how many kids really actually use a flash in the game -- the two dribbles behind the back between the legs, and then a fancy layup. It doesn't happen. I'm sorry, there's not a lot of kids that can do that. That's the realistic, just truth. So the fundamentals are what are so very, very important in the game, and I think we're starting to lose that a little bit. For me, just teaching, the jump stop, the pivoting, the footwork. Great footwork can make you a fantastic basketball player. Great example of that is Ethan Happ, right? Ethan was an athlete, but his footwork was so good, it’s how he was able to score the basketball in a variety of ways. I think sometimes we want to forget about that. We live in the four-letter word, right -- the [Brian performs the ESPN SportsCenter "Da Da Da, Da Da Da" tune] -- where everybody wants that highlight. Listen, there's not that many guys that have that athletic ability to live that life. But there's a lot of guys that can be really, really fundamentally sound and be really, really good basketball players. That's being lost, so for me, it's the fundamentals.

“Now, for the players that are at the next level that have the fundamentals down, that can handle the two crossovers behind the back, come to a little Euro finish, yeah, we introduce that stuff to the players that are able to do that. But don't think that we just forget about the fundamentals with those players either, because those are the ways that you separate yourself, in my opinion. So that's really what a lot of what we focus on, and we do it K-12. So we have a variety of different kids that we teach to. That's what makes it fun for me, and that's why I also think I love being able to then teach the normal audience during the basketball season. Now, the TV, the radio ... I approach it as if there's some things that I drop in there for the kindergarteners, maybe people that are new to basketball. Then there's things that I drop in there that are for the seniors in high school that have a good base of basketball, and they want to learn some more. So the same approach that I take for the camps is the same approach I take for the broadcast side of it as well.”