MADISON, Wis. – Alando Tucker experienced a lot during his first year as an assistant coach, thrown into the fire to take the place of Howard Moore on an interim basis.

Need a refresher? Tucker got his first coaching position after Howard Moore’s tragic car accident that kill his wife and daughter and has put him in a long-term rehabilitation center. Wisconsin’s starting center was ruled ineligible for 10 games, one of the players Tucker mentored left the team midseason in a much-publicized manor and the team’s strength and conditioning coach was forced to resign following the use of a racial epithet.

Oh, and less not forget Wisconsin overcoming all that to win its final eight games to win a share of the 2020 Big Ten regular season championship.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to come into coaching any other way in terms of being hit with so much at once,” he said

I carved out roughly 15-20 minutes for a conversation with Tucker last month for a story on BadgerBlitz.com. We ended up talking for close to an hour, covering everything from the controversies that always seem to be around the team, the development he saw from his work with forward Aleem Ford, Kobe King’s surprising departure, how he channeled his competitive fire into coaching, comparing the 2020 team to his 2007 senior season at Wisconsin and many other topics.

It was painful to cut anything Tucker said from the story but including everything would have made it a chapter book. Plus, there was no way to capture the intensity, passion and thoughtfulness Tucker spoke when covering a lot of topics.

Therefore, that interview is the feature of this week’s BadgerBlitz.com Podcast, which you can listen to by clicking here.