We are rapidly approaching the season of glad tidings and if you are a sports fan in Wisconsin it is just possible that all of our holiday season wishes may be on the verge of coming true.

Talk about good news for sports fans in this area. We have a Thanksgiving bounty that threatens to overflow our basket.

To wit:

The Bucks

^{David Bernacchi}

The Milwaukee Bucks have three wins. In seven games. Last year it took them 16 games to get their third win. They played a thriller in their seventh game at the Bradley Center, winning 93-92 on last second points and snapping the unbeaten string for the Memphis Grizzlies. There was a crowd of 18,841 roaring fans in attendance. When the Bucks won their third game last season there was a crowd of 15,471 and the exodus from the Bradley Center was well underway. To say that excitement is the word of the day for the Bucks is like saying it really looks like Robert DeNiro might turn out to be a good actor.

The Packers

^{Jim Biever/Packers.com}

The Green Bay Packers suddenly look like a legitimate championship team. And what’s more they’ve developed by getting players healthy and finding new systems that actually work. Nobody was worried about the offense. But the defense was suspect, so Dom Capers changed things up and suddenly they look like a concrete wall. You can’t run against them and they are opportunists who actually get pressure on the quarterback and the natural outcome of that is to make things happen for the defense.

This team has 10 more takeaways than giveaways so far and that’s good for third place in the league. They are tied with the Lions, who they host on the final day of the regular season. It’s possible that game could be, if not for all the marbles, at least for a cat’s eye and a steely as we play keepsies.

Related to the good news about the Packers is the good news about the Chicago Bears. Let’s face it, we can’t stand the Bears and we like nothing better than to see them fall on their collective faces. They have lost their last two games 106-37. Here are the first two paragraphs written by the outstanding columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times Rick Morrissey after the loss to the Packers:

The right thing would have been for general manager Phil Emery to make his way down to the Bears’ locker room at halftime and inform head coach Marc Trestman that his services would no longer be needed for the second half of Sunday’s game and beyond. And then for Emery to fire himself too. From there, it would have logically followed that the McCaskeys would see the error of their ways and divest themselves of their ownership of the Bears and go into something better suited to their unique talents. Butter churning, perhaps. Or pizza delivery.

Really puts a smile on your face, doesn’t it?

The Badgers

^{David Bernacchi}

The Wisconsin Badgers basketball team is ranked third in the country. They even got more first place votes than second place Arizona. Last year when they got to the Final Four it was incredibly exciting, even if you are a Marquette fan. There is statewide pride when the Badgers do well. Bo Ryan, who sounds like he is some kind of East Coast snob, is a true Wisconsin treasure. He has proven over and over again he’s one of the best in the country.

A new coach

^{David Bernacchi}

There is Milwaukee pride when Marquette does well. The new Warriors (I will call them that forever) with new coach Steve Wojciechowski are picked to finish ninth in the Big East. In their opener they beat Wisconsin Lutheran College 115-47.

Oh, the other good news is about the Milwaukee Brewers who staged an epic collapse and broke more hearts than Elizabeth Taylor last season. They traded for a real first baseman, let Rickie Weeks walk and they kept Ron Roenicke. Two out of three good moves isn’t bad news.

There you go. Go get the cranberries, the pumpkin pie, the green bean casserole, the mashed potatoes and get ready to give thanks.

Oh, you also have to buy a turkey because there aren’t any among Wisconsin’s sports team.