Luke Fickell was pounding one point over and over. A point that we have been listening for, one that we wrote about last week as something to hear from Fickell. He is effusive about how much better the culture is at Wisconsin in the locker room. Yet, he describes it differently than you might think. It's not a lovey-dovey sort of culture or even the stereotypical "These guys would die for each other." Fickell actually continued to use the word "confrontation."
Fickell said that Wisconsin has had a lot of necessary confrontation this offseason. In his mind, it was the only way forward. It wasn't pretending that things are going to get better or that 'let's hide the skeletons in the closet' or pretend the elephant is not in the room. Instead, Fickell believes the secret sauce is to confront the problems, confront each other, and face down the obstacles while the boats burn behind them.
After hearing about how Luke Fickell was given the choice to quit and yet decided to be the solution, he started burning the boats behind him. He told his team to do the same: there is no looking back, there's no escape hatch; instead, the battle is forward. That means the locker room culture is full of confrontation. But in a good way.
“Everybody always says they’re a family… Sometimes family isn’t the best thing. It’s called a brotherhood." Fickell said, "Brothers fight… if you don’t hold up your end of the bargain, somebody might get after your ass.”
Luke Fickell calls the culture this year one full of healthy confrontation
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The culture is a brotherhood, but not in the kumbaya sort of way. More like having brothers who hold each other accountable, who beat you up when you've crossed the line, and who will call you out for your annoying nonsense. "Confrontation isn't bad when you have strong leadership...If you can't have tough conversations, if you can't have confrontation, then you don't have the trust, respect, and love that you need." Fickell explains, "We haven't had enough of that...We haven't had enough confrontation in our leadership."
The culture in the locker room went sour so fast last year when the season started to get away from Wisconsin. It was clearly weird, and the vibes were terrible. It felt like a mercenary camp, where the majority of players were there on assignment, not because they believed in the cause. Which is why the ones that stuck with Fickell when they could have left, the ones that Fickell described as "all-in," got to come with him to Big Ten Media Days.
Fickell said he brought Sebastian Cheeks, Chris Brooks Jr., and Matthew Jung because "They made a choice to be here. One that may not have been as popular as others. They understood the leadership this team needs, and they're truly all-in on what we are doing."
This is a far cry from the propped-up culture that Wisconsin had last year, where Luke Fickell appointed different leaders, calling it a group of 14 leaders, but really most didn't choose it. As soon as adversity hit, that leadership group was on the phone with their agents looking for a way out of Madison. Cheeks, Brooks, and Jung were looking around, realizing they needed to be the difference and start confronting the problems.
Fickell says that one of the big issues of confrontation is in the competition for each room. "Bringing in new guys, envisioning them being starters, creates some confrontation, which is something we haven't had enough of in our leadership."
This season feels different, and from a locker room culture standpoint, it's already evident. Now, will it translate to wins? That remains to be seen, but in the final words of Fickell, "I can tell you this: we're going in a different direction. There's a lot of things that have changed even within the last year in our program."
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