4/4/24 - The Mo Egger Show

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
No one covers the Bengals like ESPNfifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station. What's

(00:08):
up, Good afternoon on my legger. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank
you for listening. I'm so gladthat you're with us today. Hopefully you're
having an unbelievable Thursday. You arelistening to somebody right now who is a
little distracted, because if you werelistening to our last segment with Tony and
Austin, I found out tearing.This is also probably news to you.

(00:30):
I'm off tomorrow, so you're gonnahave to move our guest what I was
just doing quick hits and locks ofthe night with Tony and he says,
well, you know today it's yourFriday. And I look at him and
I'm going, what are you talkingabout? I am I'm off tomorrow.
I don't know why Chad Rendel's fillingit. I have no idea why.

(00:51):
I have no idea. I didnot put in for I'm taking it.
Trust me, they give you aday off in this business, oh boy,
you take it and run. Butunbeknownst to me, I'm not here
tomorrow. And so then, becauseI'm well, I'm kind of a paranoid
person when it comes to my careerwith an you start wondering, like,
well, am I off tomorrow becauselike I'm off permanently, like it's something

(01:14):
bad about Am I done? ButI'm on the schedule on Monday, So
I'm off tomorrow and it's not oneof those deals where I'm in for lance.
So I will be completely transparent withyou. I'm working through some things
right now as we as we startthe show. So one of the things
I gotta do here is I gotto finish I just posted the video a

(01:36):
little bit lately because we've been doingsome stuff here. The show preview is
available on Twitter at Moeger thanks toEmery Federal Credit Union. They sponsor our
show preview. Emory Federal Credit Unionis your credit union with heart and has
been since nineteen thirty nine. Goto EMORYFCU dot org. And then I
always like or I try to tweetout what's coming up this hour, and

(01:57):
so I was in the middle ofdoing that and then Tarren played the music
had to start because I'm behind tryingto process why I'm off tomorrow. You're
gonna have to excuse me while Ifinished typing out what's coming up this hour?
Tarner? Were you weren't aware ofthis? Right? I was not
aware of it. Well, I'msorry. I didn't mean to screw up
your day because I frankly, I'mglad Tony said something or I would have
showed up tomorrow and Chad would haveshowed up tomorrow. And he's got like

(02:21):
a show booked, he's ready togo, and you know we don't want
to get in his way. Soyou'll have Chad Brindle here tomorrow, Tarran.
I love Chad. Who does thelove Chad moving? Our guests say
it was hard to get this guy. Yeah, I know this is my
fault, all right, So FrankieMontoss was great. Let's hope some of
thank you was paying attention and Quincyolivery from the na BC All Star Game

(02:53):
in Phoenix at three forty five listenESPN fifteen thirty dot com slash misspelled attention.
Okay, there we go, Idid it. The tweet is al
thank you our Twitter feeds the serviceof a Delta Dental. Delta Dental is
building healthy, smart, vibrant communitiesfor all good at Delta dentalh dot com.

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All right, now we can startthe show correct, the last show
of the week, Better make ita good one. Reds win last night
took forever. Felt like the Redswere in Philadelphia for about a month.
The story of the evening for me, and I think for most was Frankie
Montas, who, for a secondconsecutive game, did more than just give

(03:38):
the Reds a chance to win forthe better part of five innings against a
really good Philly lineup. He wasfantastic. At times, he was toying
with them. Maybe you wish,and I do, that he would have
gone a little bit deeper into thegame. I can't imagine. That's a
very easy assignment. And yeah,these guys are pros, right, and
they're supposed to adjust, and inlife you have to make adjustments. But

(04:00):
you know you're going through your prestartroutine. They change the time of the
game the night before, which isno big deal, and then you wake
up and you have no idea whenthe game is going to start. Maybe
it's going to start on time atfour? When should I get lose?
How should I prepare? That can'tbe easy. I'm not sure it's that
easy for the team as a whole. I really don't think it's that easy
for a starting pitcher. Watching Frankiemontass last night, you would have no

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idea that there were any obstacles thrownhis way in getting ready for the game.
He looks like a guy who knowshow to pitch. And I know
that's kind of cliche and a bitof an oversimplification, but if you watched
him last night, and frankly alittle bit more so last night than the
first game, perhaps because of thedegree of difficulty involved with Philly's lineup that

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you don't get with Washington's lineup.But he has a wide assortment of pitches.
He'll throw a splitter, he'll throwa four seemer, he'll throw sort
of a slow moving slider. He'llthrow a cutter, he'll throw a sinker.
He'll throw those pitches pretty much atany point in the count against any
hitter. He knows how to pitch. Is he going to prove to be

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the ace of this staff? Idon't know. So far. He looks
like a guy who was deserving ofthe opening day starting assignment, and then
he pitched well last night. Andyou know, let's face it, the
game on Tuesday, it was thefifth game of the season. The Reds
are gonna lose more than seventy gamesthis year in all likelihood. But you
know, there was just something aboutthat game that felt a little more deflating

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because of the sloppiness involved, becauseof the errors and the Deli Dela Cruz,
and it just it left a badtaste in a lot of people's mouths.
And you don't you know, you'vestarted three and one, you don't
want to come home three and three, and you know, game six of
the season is obviously not that consequential, but there was kind of a bigness

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to that game last night. That'sit sounds silly because of where we are
in the schedule. Last night wasApril the third, my half birthday by
the way, But you know,there was something about, like, let's
not let what happened Tuesday turn intotwo consecutive losses. Let's not come home
five hundred. Let's come home afterwinning a second consecutive series. That victory

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last night felt not big, butit felt a little bit more consequential than
your typical very early in April game. And Frankie Montas absolutely delivered. I
really hope, I really hope,you know, for the guy who's the
most established Big League starter for theguy who has the best track record,

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for a guy that they've sort ofunofficially made the staff ace because he did
start on opening day. I reallyhope that when he's on the mound that
the other guys are watching closely,because with Hunter Green, specifically Hunter Green,
but others as well. You know, we've talked about how electric Hunter's

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arm is, and it is oneof the most electric in the entire sport.
And we've talked about what his potentialis and it's still through the roof.
But I think you're being reasonable ifyou wonder does Hunter Green really know
how to pitch? At least howto pitch well enough to be reliable and

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consistent, and by the way,he's made forty seven big league starts.
If the answer is no, it'slike with Elie de la Cruz. That's
okay, But he and those otheryoung pitchers get a front row seat to
watch a guy who I think thebest way to describe what Frankie Montaze does
is he knows how to pitch.He's got a decent arsenal, nothing overpowering.

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I think that that four seemer topsoff about ninety five ninety six.
He does have a hard sinker,but he's willing to throw pretty much any
pitch anytime. He doesn't throw thatslider a ton, but he mixes his
pitches. He looks like he knowshow to change speeds. I'm not trying
to come off like I'm some sortof pitching expert, but I've watched enough

(08:18):
of the sport that i could tellwhen a guy knows how to keep hitters
off balance, keep hitters guessing,and what it looks like when a guy
trusts his entire arsenal, and whatit looks like when a guy's behind in
the count against good hitters and canwork his way back and still retire the
batter. And those are things thatgood pitchers eventually learn. We want Graham

(08:39):
Ashcraft and Hunter Green and Nicolodolo eventuallyobviously hopefully he's back with the staff here
soon, and Andrew Abbott, andthen at some point Brandon Williamson. We
want them to become reliable starting pitchers, Bankable starting pitchers, consistently good starting
pitchers, Guys who know how topitch, Guys who can get out and
help the team win even when theydon't have their best stuff. I don't

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know I Frankie Montaz did or didn'thave his best stuff last night. I
haven't watched him enough, but thestuff was damn good, and he certainly
looked like a guy who knew howto use his stuff against a good Philly
lineup. I hope, above andbeyond anything else, that the other guys
who would would love to get tothat place that Frankie Montaz has been and

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hopefully we'll get to again here.I hope those guys are watching him,
and I hope they're watching him ongame day. But I hope. You
know, we always talk about like, well, bringing a veteran pitcher,
bringing a veteran guy and the otherguys can learn from him. Here's a
dude that looks like, first ofall, was going to be a willing
mentor. But somebody that just watchingyou could learn from if you're somebody like
Hunter or a Graham or Andrew orNick or really anybody else on the staff.

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That to me was my big takeawayfrom last night quarter after three.
By the way, we do thisnow, we've started this this year.
Whenever the Reds lose, we aretold how it's David Bell's fault. So
whenever they win, we're going totalk about why David Bell deserves credit.
We're gonna do that a little bitlater on. David Bell did not bench

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Ellie Dela Cruz for last night's game. Ellie kind of a mixed bag.
His first two at bats were frustrating. His third, well, he did
something that he's doing with more frequencythis year. We talked a ton about
Ellie yesterday. I don't know thatwe need to devote nearly as much time,
but I want to see which sideof a wager you're going to take
when it comes to Ellie Dela Cruz. We'll get to that on Twitter here

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in just a bit. Our numbersare five point three, seven four nine,
fifteen thirty and eight six six sevenoh two three seven seven six.
We have a lot to get to. Quincy Aliveri's going to join us.
He is in the three point contesttonight and and practicing for that, and
then he's got to go to practicefor the All Star Game that he's in
tomorrow. All of this in Phoenix, where the Final four is, and

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Quincy's going to join us. Betweenpractice is right around three forty or three
forty five, and we're looking forwardto that, so a lot to get
to. My name is Moegar.Glad you're with us today on ESPN fifteen
thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnati forthree o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
My name is Mogar and thrilled,Thrilled that you're with the Thrilled that

(11:18):
you're listening to our show today.I've never I've never felt or I'm sure
seemed more disorganized. I'm not tryingto figure out what I'm gonna do with
my my new day off tomorrow.I you know, and don't have didn't
have plan. It's the weather's notgreat, not like I can. I

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love to play golf. I don'tknow that tomorrow is going to be conducive
to that. I have no idea. I might just do like a solo
pub crawl or something. I haveno idea. I have no idea,
but I'm sure I'll come up withsomething. Maybe I'll do something nice like
clean the house, earn some Browniepoints at home. Maybe I'll let my
daughter play hooky. Right see uh, five point three fifteen thirty is our

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phone number. So yesterday we wetried, and I think I think we
succeeded. We tried to talk aboutEllie de la Cruzho had a bad game
on Tuesday. Won't be his first, won't be as last. He had
a bad game on Tuesday. Uh, And you know, there's major expectations,

(12:22):
and there's maybe some impatience and Ithink maybe a level of frustration that
some feel with Ellie. And youknow, we we tried to have a
mature adult discussion about Ellie and Ithink for the most part we succeeded.
And even in last night's game.First of all, it was always silly

(12:46):
to suggest, well they bench him. I know there's a lot of folks
who, you know, the onlyway to teach a lesson in sports is
to reduce playing time. Like,I don't know, we're talking about adults
here. Have a conversation with theguy, teach him, use what he
did as an opportunity for him tolearn. But also, the Reds are

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better, especially with all the injuriesright now, they're better with him in
the lineup than they are without.So they had him in the lineup last
night. His first two at bats, he didn't look great and you kind
of got the full Ellie dela Cruzexperience but then he laces one to right
field to give the Reds their thirdrun last night. And not that I
think the word reward is appropriate,but David Bell didn't succumb to those who

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wanted Elie to be benched, andNick Crawl didn't succumb to those who wanted
Elie to be demoted to a ball, and the Reds didn't sentence him to
prison like some wanted to. ButDavid Bell played Elie Dela Cruz. Ellie
Dela Cruz contributed to a Red's victory, by the way, so did Cees,

(13:58):
who was on the other end ofone of those. And I'm sure
you can find people who thought,well, you got to bench him too.
Thank god they didn't, because hisrocket of a double in left field,
which he just he has such acool short Chris Wallace talked about it
on the TV broadcast last night.Quick compact swing and with a ball just
leaps off his bat in ways youdon't see from anybody else, and so

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you know, he comes up big. Ellie comes up big, Frankie Montaz
comes up big, the bullpen comesup big, Nick Martini comes up big,
and the Reds win two out ofthree in Philadelphia. Like with Ellie,
I think there's a lot of thingsthat can kind of be true at
the same time. Right, Like, we need him to strike out last

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now strikeouts in this era of baseball, whether you like it or not,
And frankly, there's a big partof me that doesn't. But frank outs
are less frowned upon now than theyused to be. But he's not only
has to strike out. He's gotto just be more selective and more patient

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at the plate. And you've seensome of that. Right He's got to
learn how to hit big league pitching. He's got to learn how to adjust
to how big league pitchers are goingto pitch him. He's got to continue
to make the adjustment to seeing bigleague breaking pitches, big league off speed

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pitches, big league fastballs. Istill am not sure what his position is
going to be long term. I'vesaid this since spring training. I believe
fully there's going to be a timewhere somebody says, let's try him in
the outfield. I don't think that'sgoing to happen, you know, in

(15:48):
the middle of a big league season. But yeah, he has he has
improvements to make like almost any otherplayer that has played less than a full
season of big league ball at thesame time. You know, I'll just
I'll cite a couple of stats here. His very early in the season,

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extraordinarily early in the season. He'sgotten a hit in every game. It
strikes out a lot, but he'salso contributed with his bat in every game.
His hard hit percentage and line drivepercentage, which are rate stats,
not counting stats or percentages. Andagain it's early, but the percentage of

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balls that are quote hit hard andthe percentage of balls that are line drives
are up this year from what thosepercentages were last year. And you know,
you might say, well, thoseare those stats are nerdy, and
maybe they are, but they doexist. And I think if you're going

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to be fair with him or anynumber of guys like him, you could
just look at strikeouts, or youcould just look at batting average, and
he's a two fifty hitter right now. I do think within those numbers,
you're going to have to find somethings that enable you to either measure progress
or measure how he hasn't progressed.But you know, we had a phone

(17:18):
call yesterday, and because I've beensort of flumm'sed here, I haven't had
a chance to put it on socialmedia. We had a gentleman who called
yesterday and it was one of thosephone calls that I love. And it
was one of those phone calls thatI think are a relic in our business
anymore, where it's somebody who's willingto disagree with you and you know,
sit on hold for a little while, and then we have a conversation.
And it was, you know,I don't know, seven or eight minutes

(17:41):
long, and we went back andforth, and we don't scream at each
other, we don't call each othernames, and then we may disagree,
but okay, fine, we're discussingbaseball. It's not the end of the
world. Call again sometime. Butgentleman, I think his name was Tim.
We talked about Eli Da La Cruzbeing an All Star. I think
that dude's going to be an AllStar. I don't think it's be All
Star this year. I don't know. I think it's hard to go from

(18:02):
what he was last season to aguy who's considered one of the best at
what he does in the Midsummer Classic. But I think within the next three
seasons he's going to be an AllStar. Now that bar might not be
the highest to clear, but Ido think it's going to happen. I
do sometimes share the frustration with watchinghim do the things he did the other

(18:26):
night, but I'm always going towager on the talent. I'll do it
with Hunter Green, I'll do itwith Ellie Dela Cruz. With Ellie Dela
Cruz, I understand what comes hisway when he struggles, as I do
with Hunter Green, as I dowith anybody else on this team, as

(18:47):
I do with almost any athlete intown. Because I was here for the
Joey Vado experience. I'll explain comingup in the four o'clock hour. Also,
we're going to shoot down a Bengalsuggestion. Let's talk about what the
Bengals didn't do last year, whichmeans I think we know what they're not
gonna do this year too. Andyukon the men's basketball team, they got

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to the Final four late, now, not that late. The game they
play against Alabama is still more thanforty eight hours away. But maybe the
biggest non story of the season incollege basketball occurred with the Huskies. We'll
get to that as well. Alot of ground to cover. Quincy OLIVERI
is going to join us from Phoenixin just about ten to fifteen minutes on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,Cincinnati's Center. ESPN fifteen to thirty Cincinnati's

(19:38):
Sports Station sports headlines a service ofKelsey Chevrolet, home of lifetime power tramp
protection and guarantee credit approval from theirfamily to yours for life kelseyshev dot Com.
After taking two out of three inPhilly, the Reds are off today.
They open up a three game setagainst the New York Mets tomorrow,
six to forty. First pitch,Game one of the three gamer. It's

(20:00):
a seven game homestand Hunter Green getsthe ball tomorrow. The Mets are actually
playing a double header. They've hadall sorts of weather issues in New York.
They're playing a double header this afternoonagainst the Detroit Tigers. In Game
one, they're in the bottom ofthe eleventh inning. The Mets trail that
ball game by a score of sixto three. New York is oh to
four, staring oh to five.In fact, they have just lost that

(20:22):
game, so they're now oh tofive. Detroit's now five and zero.
Game two of that series, orGame two of that double header is scheduled
to start in about thirty minutes,and then the Mets come to Cincinnati for
the beginning of a three game series. FC Cincinnati's goalkeeper Roman Celentana was going
to miss Saturday's match against New YorkRed Bulls with an ankle issue. The

(20:45):
ankle injury occurred during the first halfof Saturday's one to one draw in Charlotte.
What else do we have? TheNIT is on Fox Sports thirteen to
sixty tonight. I mentioned this toTony and Austin. Indiana State is playing
against Seaton Hall, which I guesschance to be a really good game.
I'm I have never in my lifecared about Indiana State. U see,

(21:08):
was there last Tuesday in the quarterfinalsof the NIT I was on that road
trip that is. First of all, the arena is a pretty cool place
to see a game. The folksin Terror Hate showed out for that game.
The atmosphere was awesome. The peoplethat we encounter on the broadcast working

(21:30):
for the school were terrific, andthe fans that I ran into before the
game getting a bite to eat couldnot have been nicer. Now, there
was one guy who sort of lookedlike a cross between Uncle Jesse from Dukes
of Hazzard and Hillbilly Jim, theeighties wrestler who for some reason in his
fifties was in the student section andhe was like flipping off UC's cheerleaders.

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Besides him, everybody there was awesome. So Ghost Sycamores at Hinklefield House tonight.
That game is on Fox Sports thirteensixty as the Sycamores take on Shaheen
Holloway's Seaton Hall Pirates. What elsedo we have? All the Blue Jackets?
Is that season ever going to end? Blue Jackets skate at home tonight
against the New York Islanders. Let'sget a break in because we're gonna call

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Quincy Olivery. Quincy Oliveri, whoobviously had a terrific season at Xavier,
should have been All Biggie's First Team. He was Honorable Mention, which makes
no sense. He's competing tonight inthe College three point Shootout, and he's
in the NABC All Star Game,which is going to be held in the
same stadium as the Final Four thatis tomorrow. Quincy joins us between practices
next. They didn't get in untilabout sixty six hours before Saturday's tip off

(22:48):
time, So now I'm not sure. Here's what I am sure of.
Quincy Oliveri is gonna be on thecourt tonight, he is participating. Is
going to be really busy the nextcouple of days. Tonight the Men's Three
Points Championship as part of the thirtyfifth annual College Slam Dunkin Three Point Championship.
That's going to be a Grand CanyonUniversity in Phoenix, and then tomorrow
representing the East squad in the NABCAll Star Game, which is going to

(23:11):
be at the same stadium that Saturday'sfinal four games are going to be played.
Quincy Olaveri is on the East team, obviously coming off an awesome season
at Xavier. He was second inthe Big East in scoring and still somehow
just and just as a relative termhonorable mention All Big East Player, which
is kind of ridiculous. He iskind enough to join us from Phoenix where

(23:33):
correct me if I'm wrong, Youare just getting done with one of two
practices today, correct, yes,sir, and then I have to run
over to Arizona State soon for Reese'sAll Star Game practice. It's busy,
busy couple of days, all right, So kind of walk me through,
because you're you're preparing for a lot. You got tonight, you got tomorrow.

(23:55):
When'd you get to Phoenix? Whatare the last couple of days been?
Like? I got to Phoenix yesterday. Yesterday was early morning flight,
got here, stay in scott Still, got here and started napping just because
you know, I kind of wantedto try my best to get get the
jet lag out and prevent as muchjet lag as I could. And then

(24:15):
I was I just kind of chill. Yesterday we came up to the gym,
got to see what Grant Cane lookedlike. And then after that I
had to go to Arizona State formy recent's practice with Coach Camp. Coach
Camp. That was pretty cool,you know, just kind of being with
him. He's a real cool coach, pretty laid back. I mean,
obviously he's an All Star game,but you know, he's still still cool.

(24:36):
And then I went shopping. Iwent to Fashion Square just to see
what they had. And that's reallyit. You know, today we're leaving
Grand Cane and then, like Isaid, I got to go to Arizon
the State soon for practice again.All right, so the practice you just
had was for tonight for the threepoint shootout? What's that like? Yeah,
so they were just talking about whatthe events were, kind of like
a little walk through what to expectthe order. I'll spoil it now.

(25:02):
I'm going My first round three pointcontest is against Antonio Reives from Kentucky,
Okay, withsh me luck. Yeah, and then we'll kind of go from
there. And I'm also in likethe little hot shot to start tonight.
All right. So I mean,look, you're you're a great three point
shooter, all time single season recordholder, exavior, you can knock down
the three. But is do youalter your routine? Is there a special

(25:22):
thing you do to practice for acompetition like tonight? Just get get the
rects out, find out early withside I'm comfortable shooting from, and then
go from there. You know,It's nothing special, just slowing my mind
down, slowing my breathing it downand going out there and do what I
doing what I know I can dobest. All right. So that's tonight
and then tomorrow night is the AllStar Game. So are you guys installing

(25:44):
stuff? What's this going to belike? Yeah, we did a couple
couple basic plays, but for themost part, Coach coach camp was just
like, just go out there andhave fun, show show what you can
do and if you if you feellike you can do more, like if
you're big, that feels like youcan shoot, go out there and shoot
the bubbles out there to play confident, play with conference and have fun.
You know, it's it's an allstar game, but you don't want to
disrespect the game. But by justlooking like you don't care, go out

(26:07):
there, have fun, play hard, and enjoyed the moment because we are
everybody here has had a wonderful career, had a wonderful year, and it's
this is like a time to timeto enjoy that. Do you go out
in and have some more have somemore serious on this summer for the NBA?
Yeah, no, which which we'regoing to talk about. So you
played against one of your teammates isjosh O Duro from Providence, Jack Goldkie
from Oakland. Obviously you played againstTim Do you know any of these guys

(26:30):
you're playing with? Have you playedwith any of them before? So?
Jamiir Young he started off as Charlottein conference. You with say and I
think that is it. You know, josh is really cool and you know
we kind of laughed a little bit. The first thing I said to him
what my song was, Finally Ican get some illegal screens on my team
instead of the other side, andso that was that was That was kind

(26:52):
of cool. And then Jamison Battle, he goes to uh, he goes
to Ohio State, just kind ofcatching up with him, telling him how
I was. I was close,and just kind of being cool there.
And obviously Jack Jack we played earlierin the year, he remembers. And
then on the other team, wehave Isaiah Crawford who with Louisiana Tech,
I was in Conmers, you willsay, while I was at Rice,
and then I believe they I thinkthat's that might be it. You know,

(27:17):
I can't remember off the top ofmy head because obviously we have separate
practices, so my practices just filledwith E squad. Yeah, no,
cool. So that's uh, that'stomorrow night. And then you know,
you mentioned this is kind of arespite for getting ready for what's next.
So so walk me through over thenext couple of weeks. Obviously, Uh,
the aspiration is to get to theNBA, So kind of walk me

(27:37):
through from when you walked off thecourt in your home state after that game
against Georgia to now and then youknow what's going to happen this summer?
What are these months going to belike? So I recently just committed to
Tandem. Hold on, I'd recentlyjust committed to Tandem. I'm about to
sign my contract, so and thenfrom there, just I'm gonna after a

(28:02):
Phoenix. I'm gonna go to Dallasand we're gonna be in Frisco and that's
why I'm going to do my predraft work yet and from there, I
got a Portsmouth invite, so I'llgo to Portmith and my year, my
summer will be based on my performanceat Portsmouth. Have have you talked with
players who have been through this processbefore, and if so, what have
they told you about it? Imean no, not not really. I

(28:23):
mean my brother, closest friend isTrey Murphy. Obviously, my my journey
will be different from his. Butyou know, just the biggest thing he's
been telling me is is go outand play my game. Don't need to
force anything to go out and playmy game. And just praying that I
stay healthy. You know, that'sthe That's that's the best thing I can
have at this time. Right now, it's just to be healthy because I
know what I'm capable of when I'mhealthy. Uh. Obviously this was a

(28:45):
goal of yours when you came toCincinnati and and started your season ad Xavier
and you you had a remarkable season. I know from a team standpoint,
it didn't maybe go the way youwould have envisioned, but still you were
You were terrific. And I'm gonnacomplain about you not being a first team
All Big East guy. But butwhere do you feel like your game has
playing? I think they're playing nowtoo. Let's do it. Well,
let's go ahead and do that,because I'll admit, like when when those

(29:08):
when that was announced, I wasjust getting back from vacation. I'm kind
of off the grid and I'm notreally paying attention. So then I go
back on the air and I'm justassuming Quincy Oliveri's the first team All Big
East guy. And then somebody saysto me, actually honorable mention, and
I look, you're a hubble dude, But still, man, Like,
how did they get that wrong?Yeah? You would think that player that

(29:30):
leads the conference is going top ofthe scout and report score score multiple thirty
point games, led the Big Eastand the highest point scored in the game
forty three an thir and what didis now? But at first it was
me and then me you know,you get you kind of drop the ball
on that led the team in defensiverebounds, turnovers down. Still, you

(29:53):
know, it's a lot of things. I could go on and on about
that. It's water under the bridge, but you know, I think I
think a key part of that,well, our record, you know,
at first, but Devin Carter wasPlayer of the Year and they were a
seven sees. So if we're gonnatalk about record now, it was inconsistent
there. You know, Devin Carterwas most definitely player of the year.
Well that that that would have beenmy vote too. But if that's the

(30:17):
case, then record record can't bea factor in a conference team. You
know, it's inconsistency there. ButI'm not I'm not gonna trip. I'm
not gonna worry about it because atthe end of the day, it uh,
it's water under the bridge. Butwell, yeah, I'm definitely definitely
pissed off about that. Sure,I appreciate the honesty because there's a lot
of guys in your position that Iwould have said it, and they would.

(30:37):
It's no big deal. I likethe fact that you made the case,
so that was good. So let'slet's go back to the season and
Savior. Just from an individual standpoint, where do you feel like from when
you arrived on campus to this momentright now, your game grew the most,
the biggest, the biggest thing,I mean definitely three point efficiency.

(31:00):
Sure, yeah, you know,I could say defense, I could say
rebound, I could say play vacant. But I think the biggest joke was
just one of the biggest thing wasI went to the next level and my
status got better or similar. Right, you know, that's very rare,
so I'd probably just say efficiency.I guess all right that that makes a

(31:22):
lot of sense. This was itwas a lot of fun to watch you,
but it was it was a lotof fun to watch you on the
floor, but it was also alot of fun to watch you sort of
embrace the fan base and and reallykind of wrap your arms around the campus
and student life and fans. You'reyou're having lunch with kindergarten kids at their
school, You're showing up in Xavierfans houses. I mean, I watched

(31:44):
this and thought, God, Iwish this dude was here for more than
a year, but just kind oftake me through what it was like to
to become such a beloved player herein such a short amount of time.
Oh, I mean, I enjoyedmy time in Clincinnati. You know,
the fan love here was was wasamazing and I enjoyed every bit of it.

(32:04):
You know, I'm I'm a bigcity kid, so I'm need to
being from a city, a lotof people, a lot of skyscrapers,
a lot of a lot of youknow, just big city energy, you
know, growing up in Atlanta andthen living in Houston for four years.
I came to Cincinnati and it waslike whoa, Like it's a little bit
more quiet here, and you know, side note, like Opening Day was

(32:25):
last week and I was scratching myhead asking people from Cincinnati, like what
is there? What is the paradefor? Like what's what's the big deal
about Opening Day? And you know, I learned the history of it,
and you know, I have Ihaven't I appreciate how much of an appreciation
the citizens of Cincinnati have for theReds because it's it's it's it's love,

(32:45):
it's it's consistent love with Xavier hoopswith the Cincinnati Reds, with the team
that stays in Clifton. You know, the it's it's it's it's very consistent
love with all the teams in thein the city. And it made me
very thankful that I was able tocome here and play here because they they're
very nice, they're very receptive.Good game, bad game, They're not

(33:08):
gonna uh, they're gonna treat youthe same, and they're gonna have your
back, and that's that's that's athat's a great thing to do. So
me giving back the way I didthis year was just an example of me
showing my appreciation for them in waysthat I thought would be very helpful.
What did you like most about playingfor Sean Miller? His intensity? Man,

(33:28):
He pushed me every day mentally tobe the best me I can be
and just be an everyday guy.Just let it reminded me that I'm my
energy is very uh, it's veryimportant to a team, and I can
I can change out the vibe ofeverything just while bringing good energy because I'm
more than just a shot maker.I'm a I'm a I'm an energy giver,

(33:49):
I'm a leader, I'm I'm arebounder. I'm a defender, I'm
a playmaker. I'm not just ascore. Uh. You're down there in
Phoenix. The Final four is thisweekend. You Kon is down there.
That's obviously team you played against threetimes in the Big East quarterfinal. Towards
the end, you and Coach Hurleyhad a moment. Take me through that,
you know. Yeah, Coach earlyhe always he showed a lot of

(34:09):
respect throughout the year every game.In the first game, he looked me
in my at zager. He lookedme in my eye and he shook my
hand and said, man, youhad another great game and again sebmitted yourself
as one of the best players inthe league. You know, so let's
side note. I know I gothis vote for All Conference. You know,
he told me early on I wasone of the best players in the

(34:30):
league. He would go out hisway to make sure that I knew that,
and he shook my hand, andI was just too tired to say
anything back. But in the secondgame, even after we lost about forty,
he took his time, shook myhand and said, I have a
lot of respect for you are onea hell of a player, and I
always I have fun game planning againsta guy like you because you I have

(34:50):
a lot of respect for you andsay I was a little bit. I
was a little bit. I wasn'tas out of breadth as I was before,
being that we just lost up bad. Coach Miller didn't play this as
much, just it was no pointand I was able to just tell him,
like, you know, I workedthe front of four, and I
wanted to clarify that when I saidthis the next level, Like I was
coming from BRIGHTCE, I was comingfrom a mid major school, and so
to be able to see how highhigh high major higher six conference schools go

(35:15):
about their daily routine, it's anotherlevel. It's another level of mental focus
that the players have to have,another level of put a push that coaches
have to do for their teammates sothey can all play at a high level.
And I'll just let them know,like I have a lot of respect
for you because I've seen behind closeddoors how you run your program. At
least I don't want to say behindclosed doors, but I've seen like in

(35:35):
practices and how you how you allconduct things, like how how you conduct
your program. Being that I workedthe final four, so I saw when
you walk in. I saw howy'all set up practice. I saw things
like that, and I just wantedto give him his respecting. He showed
some respect back, show love,and so did so did coach Kamani and
the other staff. They all saidthe same thing. And so then the

(35:57):
third game, when I was walkingup the court, I thought I was
done. I thought I wasn't goingto come back in. So I was
just kind of soaking in the momentplaying in Madison Square Guard and the year
I just had, not knowing ifwe get invited to the n I t
stuff like that, so I justkind of didn't know what to expect.
So I thought it was a reptapping me, telling me like like,
I'm still in the game. Sothat's why I kind of didn't acknowledge it

(36:17):
at first. He tapped me acouple of times, and then I finally
turned around, like, yo,why does this ref keep tappening. I
saw I was coach, like,you know, he's one of he's one
of the real ones in the conferencethat I have a lot of respect for.
So I made sure I went backand acknowledged him. And then at
the end of the the end ofthe game and the layup lines. He
told me, like, I'm atime, shall go be an NBA player.
I'm going to play fifteen fifteen yearsor more in the NBA. And

(36:40):
scouting against me and playing against methis year was a joy, and you
got a lot of respect for mygame. I was taught for me to
go out there and be a proand playing the NBA. You know,
I told my family and some ofmy friends like that meant a lot because
people like him and Coach Miller,who have coached pros and played against pro

(37:00):
and knows what it takes to getto that level. They don't just say
that to anybody. So and theysee it and they tell you that they
actually mean it. In one ofmy goal one of my goals in life
is to play in the NBA.And if people around you that know what
it takes and knows what that lookslike tells you that it's like okay,
Like I know, he's not justjust telling me stuff to the champion stuff,

(37:21):
because all year he showed me alot of respect. And this is
the coach for the number one teamin the in the country and he sees
it. Coach Miller has talked tome and said similar things. You know,
so guys like that when they talkto me and tell me things that
it holds a lot of way.That's that's that's really cool perspective. You
played against Yukon, you played againstPurdue. Those are the two teams I

(37:43):
want to see play against each otheron Monday night. How would you How
would you handicap that game? Iwould? I would. I actually think
that would be the best best wayto end the in the year. You
know, Zach Edy seven four.I think donov and Clean is seven three
seven. They're both seven for theGiant, so I think I'm excited to
see how they'll finally match up againstsomeone their side. They're not picking on

(38:04):
Abou who's six' ten. Youknow that it's two seven foot giants picking
on each other, and I thinkthat would be pretty evenly matched. I
think I definitely would take yu conand not just seeing them obviously Big East
love and being that we played perDue. I just want to root for
the Big East. But I thinkthat would be the best, the best
national championship we can get. ButI wouldn't have any problems seeing DJ Burns

(38:27):
and n C State continue their magicalrun and that that. I think that
would be fun to watch. Youknow, I want you kind of win.
But I'm not gonna hate on anybodybecause I know, I know what
it, I know what it takesto get to that level, or I
know how hard they had to workto get to that level. And I
don't want to brain on anybody,Sunshine, because that's one one, one

(38:51):
hell of a hell of a feelingthat they must all four teams must be
feeling. Yeah, no, noquestion about it. Uh, you get
a chance to take center stage tonightand tomorrow. And I will admit because
you mentioned the school in Clifton,that's where my rooting allegiances rest. But
it was still aside from the nightyou lit them up, a lot of
fun to watch you this season andgoing to be rooting like heck free,

(39:14):
not just this weekend, but asyou go through the pre draft process.
And you had a great year hereman, I wish we could have watched
it for more than one season,but you left to mark you had a
great season, a terrific career.Best of luck this weekend, best of
luck with what's next, and Ihope down the road we can do it
again. Quincy, Thanks so much. Yes, sir, I appreciate youing
this opportunity, No problem, yougot it easy. Got to root for

(39:36):
a Quincy OLIVERI. By the way, the three point contest there's eight players
participating. You heard him mention AntonioReeves. That airs on ESPN tonight at
nine o'clock and the NABC All StarGame, which he's going to be playing
in tomorrow, is at six thirty, and that airs on CBS Sports Network.
We are insanely late, but itwas worth at four o'clock ESPN fifteen
thirty. Sore it is. That'sright. You have what's up? Good

(40:02):
afternoon on moegar. You're listening toESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you, and
hopefully you're having a uh just anunbelievable Thursday afternoon, which an hour and
ten minutes ago I found out wasmy Friday Tarran. Have you canceled tomorrow's
guests yet? I informed him.They have not got responded back yet.

(40:27):
Uh, you could blame this oneon me. You could blame you can
completely. I know I've I've throwna lot of guest ideas at you,
Quincy Oliverari. By the way,that was all any really guest. We
gets all Tarran but that was youknow, I said to Terror the other
day it'd be cool to get himon and like boom, there he is,
and he was. He was awesome. Uh, we're off tomorrow.
I'm off tomorrow, which you know, you don't want to hear a guy

(40:50):
talking about his new found off day, so I'm not gonna I guess I
won't be labor the point as wesay, can we do this? So
we talked. We started the showby talking about last night Reds game,
which Frankie Montas was terrific and Ceesjust hits the ball so damn hard and
Elie de la Cruz got a bighit and the Reds bullpen was good and

(41:10):
even if the umpires were I don'tknow what they were doing with Alexis Diz,
but you know he was was finein the ninth inning, which was
a good step in the right direction. There was the Jamber Candelario thing,
which maybe he's okay, like maybemaybe he is, maybe he is okay.

(41:34):
He he was He was batting inthe in the ninth inning and he
during the at bat he looked likehe was dealing with some elbow discomfort.
He ends up hitting a double downthe right field line, and as he's
on second base, he's clearly dealingwith something. Uh, they took him

(41:59):
out of the game. They finishthe game without him. The Reds are
obviously already very shorthanded in the infield. As you might imagine, this was
one of the things that David Bellwas asked about in the aftermath of last
night's victory. What did Candelario doA little bit? Hopefully it's just like
a little hyper extension of the elbow. Hopefully it's nothing serious. We don't

(42:22):
think it is, but we'll preevaluate him on Friday. So he was
able to still sway, but wejust were cautious with having him go back
and having to throw, especially inthe weather. All right, all that
makes sense. No game today.I guess they'll take another look at him
tomorrow. Hopefully this is not abig deal. I like David Bell,

(42:46):
and I am the last person onEarth who when there are injuries, feels
like we should blame the medical staffor blame the team doctors. That is
that is one of my least favoritetropes we do. Team goes through a
run of injuries and because we justcan never attribute things to bad luck and

(43:10):
misfortune. We've got to come upwith someone to blame, and often it's
the medical staff or the doctors.I don't think the doctors hurt Jamber Candelario
last night. I don't think thetrainers hurt Jamer Candelario last night. Hopefully

(43:30):
this was okay, but yeah,there's already some skepticism. Were in game
six of the season when dude isdealing with something and the manager says,
it's probably gonna be okay, Like, I hate that we're doing this,

(43:53):
but it's just human nature, right, Like many of the Matt McLain thing,
it's kind of precautionary. I don'tthink it's that big of a deal.
And then well, dear, theyfound something, and oh he might
still be to be able to playan opening day, And then a couple

(44:14):
of days later, actually, no, he had surgery. He might not
play this year. So I'm nottrying to cause panic or get anybody to
worry unnecessarily. So, but yeah, if you are like me, you

(44:34):
went to bed last night not assumingthe worst, but not exactly feeling great
about what's gonna happen with jam OrCandelario, And look, man, like
it's we talked about this right beforeopening day. Right before opening day,
the Reds went through a rough,just spell of almost nothing but bad news,
right from Noelve Marte to TJ Friedelto you know, Alex Young has

(44:58):
to miss time, Nick Lead notgoing to start the season on the active
roster, obviously, Matt McClain.Most of these are obviously injury issues.
And then there's the Noelve Marte situation, and so you know, in a
vacuum, can can the Reds getby without these players? Yeah? And
even with what they're dealing with rightnow, you know, so far they're

(45:19):
off to a pretty good start withoutFreedom and without McLain and without Marte.
And there does seem to be someoptimism that Freedl's gonna come back on the
sooner side of six to eight weeks, which was the original prognostication. But
and I know we talked about thislast week. You feel like every year,

(45:40):
any team in any sport is goingto incur injuries. There are gonna
be things you have to figure outfrom a health perspective, and sometimes it's
a major player and sometimes it's maybea bunch of injuries concentrated in one area
of your team and sometimes it's justan a emulation where the individual parts are

(46:01):
easy to replace, but man,collectively, just you can only handle so
much. And that's kind of whatI worry about happening with the injuries they
already have. This is not areflection of what happened with jam or Candelario
last night. It's a reflection ofhow the Reds started the season without a
lot of guys who stood to playimportant roles. And you know, Noelve

(46:27):
Marte we thought might be the openingday third basement, TJ friedl we knew
was going to be the opening daycenter fielder Matt McLain, who was their
best player last year, was goingto be the opening day second basement.
At the start of the season,that's when you feel like, even if
you account for the fact that injuriesare going to happen, you'd like to
think at the start of the seasonis when we are at our healthiest,
well the Reds, if that's ashealthy as they are all season long,

(46:50):
on opening day, that's going tobe a problem. And you do wonder,
and I thought it last night,and you know, we're doing this
Candelario thing sort of tongue in cheek. Hopefully he's okay. If he has
to miss a game or two,fine, Hopefully he's in the starting lineup
tomorrow. We will find out.I feared the worst and am still I'm
not assuming the worst, but I'malso not assuming that he's just gonna be
okay. I don't know, butyou do get to a point in any

(47:16):
sport, any team, where youcan only handle so many guys not being
available. Now, the good newsis, you know, Nicolodolo, by
all accounts through well for Louisville theother night. He's closer to coming back.
Hunter Green's healthy, Frankie Montas ishealthy, Andrew Abbot's healthy, Nick
Martinez is healthy. You'd like tohave Brandon Williamson, Graham Ashcraft is healthy.

(47:37):
That's really good. And maybe you'restarting pitching is going to be so
much better this year that you couldhandle losing some guys in the field.
But with any team you can,as deep as the Reds might be,
you can. Only you can onlyreally handle so much. So let's hope
there's a good news with Jamer Candelario. At thirteen minutes after four our o'clock,

(48:00):
our lines are open, by theway, five one, three,
seven, four, nine, fifteenthirty. We didn't do this in the
first hour of the show, andI said, we were, so we
know how this works. I've donethis for a while now. When the
Reds lose, it's going to beDavid Bell's fault. Not maybe for you,
but for a lot of people.That's just that's what we do.
Man. They the two losses they'vesuffered this year were not on David Bell.

(48:24):
Really. I would have handled theninth inning a little bit differently on
Saturday, but that's I think that'ssplitting hairs. But I know how this
works. So because this is theshow of fairness where we like to counteract
some things that are out there,what we'll do when the Reds win is
at least mentioned some of the thingsDavid Bell did to help them win.

(48:45):
Now, start with, he didn'tbench Ellie de la Cruz. I know
there are some folks who wanted themto bench Ellie de la Cruz, but
he didn't. And then it didn'tbench Christian at Carnassi on Strand. I

(49:07):
thought he made the right decisions whenit came to his bullpen last night.
Once Frankie Montass got into trouble,David Bell pressed every conceivable correct button that
you could press. Conversely, Ihave no idea what his counterpart was doing

(49:28):
last night. Rob Thompson, whosort of always looks like he's asleep,
who did take the Phillies to theWorld Series two years ago, him not
doing anything with his bench when DavidBell brought in Justin Wilson. I don't
know what Rob Thompson was doing there. And maybe Rob Thompson being asleep at
the wheel and his dugout made DavidBell look better. But I also think

(49:51):
he kind of saw last night.I do believe this. As much as
we've kind of worried about Alexis Diazand as much as you know tj Antone
were rooting for he's got to behealthy before we can count on him.
I do think that this bullpen canbe a bona fide asset, and it

(50:13):
was last night because David Bell didsuch a good job with it. Also,
he had Nick Martini in the startinglineup and he had a big hit
as well. Fifteen minutes after afour o'clock quarter after four, as we
say at Moweger, I got acouple of poll questions. We got to
get to Chad's with us is Chadjust to talk about the fact that he's
working tomorrow and I'm not, ordoes he have breaking news or does he

(50:35):
just want to talk Hi, Chad? Him never been better? What's going
on? Not that I did Thursdayand three forty five passed and I didn't
hear from anybody, And then Iwas like, did I screw up?
Did they try to get a holdof me? And I know, Okay,

(50:57):
I you know I'm having withdraw Iguess because basketball season's over. Yeah,
I mean we could still talk aboutsome stuff. First of all,
you're on tomorrow for me, whichI found out at two fifty today,
So I'm looking forward to that.You scheduled a day often forgot, I
guess. So, so now I'mtrying to figure out what I'm supposed to
be doing tomorrow that I have totallyforgotten about. That's the problem with that

(51:20):
is there's definitely something that's supposed tobe happening. Maybe you're not going to
know until somebody calls you and says, where are you at MO? Yeah,
exactly, and hopefully it's it's notsomething that I can't still do.
Uh, well, where do youwant to begin? Let's you want to
talk about the portal, guys thatare leaving, guys that may leave,
you want to do that first?We can do that first was the Jamill

(51:44):
Reynolds think of surprise a little.It changes kind of the formula for how
I think they You know, theyhave to address the portal because if you
had any two of those three betweenme, as he's Vic and Jamil,
center just wasn't gonna be something thatyou really needed to think about. With

(52:06):
Vic and Jamil in the portal.Now Center's kind of got to be one
of them. You have to getat worst a backup center. And you
know, the question becomes, doyou go get a young center that you
can groom to be ready when youknow Jamil's last year of eligibility is next

(52:27):
year, So do you get ayoung center that's going to be ready when
as these moves on? Or doyou get a veteran center that you know
is understanding that he's coming in toplay fifteen minutes a game, play a
very specific role. Or do yougo get like a guy that's maybe six
eight six' nine and can playthe four and the five and maybe you

(52:51):
kill two birds with one stone.So uh, it changes the equation a
little bit. Uh, who elsemay hit the portal? I mean,
obviously, if you wonder about stage, he has red shirted and then this
last year was his freshman year,he has not really played. I don't

(53:14):
you know, I don't know.Is he a guy that is dying to
get on the court right away?If he is, and that probably means
the portal is the next step forhim. You know. C J.
Frederick is a curious situation because thereis a lot of speculation that, you
know, he might retire last yearbefore he transferred to Cincinnati, and his

(53:37):
medical situation was not ideal this season, So is that still something that he's
considering or you know. The otherthing is when you're getting nil, it
used to be, remember like,I'm just gonna get out, I'm leaving
college and I'm gonna get home withmy life and start making some money.

(54:00):
Well, now a lot of theseguys are making you know, six figures.
Yeah, and they're probably not goingto make six figures at their injury
level job. After basketball. Youmight not see guys in as much of
a hurry to go professional in somethingother than sports. You remember that,
oh, very very well. Allright, So we talked about the guys

(54:22):
that could be leaving any idea whothey might be getting. Do you remember
number fourteen for Bradley, Is thatConnor Hickman. That is Connor Hickman Drew
Adams has already. Drew Adams actuallyafter the Indiana State NIT game, hopped

(54:44):
in his car and drove to Peoria, Illinois after the game to see Connor
Hickman the next day, and theneither Monday or Tuesday, Wes Miller and
Drew Adams went back to Peoria tovisit with Connor Hickman a second time.
Hickman played aau for Drew adams dadin Indiana and grew up in Bloomington,

(55:08):
where the Adams family lives. Sothe connection there is is pretty deep.
That's usually one of the giveaways onyou know, interest in the portals.
So I would say Connor Hickman isa very serious target. A name I
think you'll start to hear a littlebit more over the next week. Is

(55:30):
they're in a dead period starting todaythat runs her next Thursday, and then
the floodgates will open on visits startingnext Thursday. Are you familiar with the
name Jordan Pope? I know thename remind me of where that where I've
heard that before. He is.He was the starting guard for Oregon State,

(55:52):
was an All Pac twelve selection averageseventeen points a game, shot like
thirty seven thirty eight percent three.He is in the portal. I think
there's a good chance Cincinnati has sometraction there. I think they might kick
the tires on a on a guywe got to know a little bit last
year, Kurk Krista. Yeah,if you're looking for shooting, Kirkatha can

(56:17):
really shoot. Hm. So youknow, I think that's a possibility.
And then on the big guys,I would anticipate you'll start seeing Cincinnati's name
pop up with some uh some portalbigs here soon. Uh So my plan
next week I'm not here next Thursday, was to get you on Friday to
give me a a spring football gameprimer. Do you want to do a

(56:39):
a brief, tiny preview of whatthat preview was gonna sound like next Friday?
Uh? Sure, Uh, keepan eye on number two for the
offense. Uh. Brendan Soursby hashad a really good spring so far.
Did I tell you who my guyDave Simone, who you know is a

(57:00):
huge NFL guy. Davis made hiscomparison for Brendan Soresby. Really, Jay
Cutler, really, that's who,he said, Rosby reminded him of.
Are about the same height, aboutthe same arm slot, you know,
big arm, a little bit ofa gun flinger kind of mentality. If

(57:22):
he's anywhere close to Jay Cutler,Cincinnati fans are gonna be real happy the
next couple of years. Correct.Yes, there's a there's a new name
that keeps splashing mo at linebacker thatI really think you're gonna like too.
Okay, a true freshman. Hisname is Simeon Coleman, number thirty one.

(57:42):
Keep an eye on him in thespring game. He likes to hit
people, and when he hits people, they stay hit. Okay, Like
he's a freshman that you're looking atand saying, they're probably gonna have to
put get Like, not just specialteams, They're probably gonna have to put
him on the field at linebacker asa true freshman, which just doesn't happen

(58:04):
a whole lot. So there's abrief spring primer. All right, Uh,
well, I'll get more from younext week. What do you have
coming up on the show tomorrow.I haven't really planned anything yet. I
you know, I forgot that Iwas doing it too. I'm for kidding.

(58:25):
Tony only knows because yesterday I askedhim if he needed me to stop
in Friday for quick heads and hewas like, mo, it's not here
Friday, and I was like,I don't. I don't think so,
and he was like, that's thefirst I've heard of it. And then
we find out today it was thefirst you've heard of it as well.
Yeah, well, I got tospend some time figuring out who I made

(58:45):
plans with and make sure that Ishow up. All right, Well,
enjoy I'll be listening tomorrow no matterwhat I'm doing, and you and I
will talk next week. Thank youas always. Hold on, let me
check Kelsey, did you make planswith me? No, Kelsey doesn't have
plans tomorrow. Does she want tomake plans with me? Okay? Said,
you can take a shot. Thisman's my favorite thing to do,

(59:07):
no doubt. All right, well, I'll keep that under advisement, thanks,
ma'am, and show your day off. I will. Yeah. Thanks.
Chad Brendle, bearcat Turtle dot com. Is UH is doing this show
tomorrow twenty four after four o'clock?Uh? We are way late. I
was going to get to our polequestions, but talking to Chad was more

(59:28):
fun. Let's uh, we'll stepaway. It's twenty five after four o'clock
ESPN fifteen thirty questions on Twitter,slash x at moegar. They are courtesy
of our friends at United Heartland Insurancefor all of your insurance in these these
guys. These guys are going tobe the greatest insurance agency in the world.

(59:51):
Go to uhi n s dot com. They're based in Hamilton, locally
owned uhi n s dot com.So are our poll questions we have today.
One is about Ellie de la Cruzbecause we had a gentleman who called
the show yesterday. He actually madea wager that I turned down because I
don't I don't make bets with strangers. I don't make Sometimes somebody on social

(01:00:15):
media, oh wager you this.It's like, yeah, okay, I'm
dude, I've never heard of that'snot using the real name. Let's let's
make a wager. Let's do thatnow. This guy was a very nice
man. He called the show,but he wanted a bet that Ellie de
la Cruz would never be an AllStar or at least in the next three
years. I think that's what wetalked about the next three years. He

(01:00:35):
wanted a wager. I think hesaid his thousand to my one hundred,
which let's be honest, if Elliemade the All Star team, you think
I'm collecting that money. So Iturned him down. Uh, but I
wanted to see what you know,what you guys, what you and the
audience thought. So you could voteat Moeger, will Ellie de la Cruz
be an All Star within the nextthree seasons? The early returns would suggest

(01:01:00):
most think. So we'll get tothe exact totals here in just a bit.
Vote now at Moegar the other one. I think this is like the
biggest non story. So the Yukonmen's basketball team, which is the Yukon
team in the Final four that doesn'thave Page Beckers. They had some travel
issues. They couldn't fly out ontime, so after waiting because their playing

(01:01:22):
had mechanical issues, they didn't getinto Phoenix until three twelve am local time,
so like sixty five hours prior totheir scheduled tip off time. That's
all they have. The game theyplay, they're the second of the double
header on Saturday playing Alabama, whichcould be a really fun game. They

(01:01:44):
only have about sixty five hours fromwhen they landed to when the game is
going to happen to adjust, Soif Alabama wins, is their win tainted?
Vote now at moegar I've won three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. By the way,interesting development with the big NFL trade that

(01:02:04):
happened yesterday. We'll get to thatnext ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati's its headlines
are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet,home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit
approval from their family to yours forlife kelseyshef dot com. By the way,
if if you entered our contest fora table for Monday night's NCAA Tournament

(01:02:28):
championship game, I'm about to announcea winner. I just found out that
I'm about to announce a winner,So hey, if you entered the contest.
Stick Around Sports headlines rads are offafter last night's winning a fair Iowa
Dollar. Nobody says winning a fair. After they won last night in Philadelphia,

(01:02:49):
there's no game today. They willplay the Mets, start of a
seven game homestand first of three againstthe Mets. Hunter Green is going to
pitch tomorrow. New York is currentlyzero to five after losing a game one
of a double header at home tothe Tigers in eleven innings. They are
playing game two of that double header. New York is patting in the bottom
of the first inning. Do youwant me to read the other baseball scores?

(01:03:13):
Are we like so locked into theseason that now I got to read
the other scores? Happening around scoreboardwatching? Yeah, Cardinals and Marlin scoreless.
Top two. That game is inSaint Louis Pirates in Washington to take
on the Nationals. That game isjust getting started. In the other league,
Guardians and Twins in Minneapolis have playedone and a half no score,

(01:03:34):
and tonight it's the White Sox visitingthe Kansas City Royals. Yesterday in the
NFL, we had the big tradewhere Stefan Diggs was let go. He
was traded by the Bills to theHouston Texans. As part of the trade,
the Texans have gotten rid of thelast three years of diggs contract,
which means he could be a freeagent at the end of this year.

(01:03:58):
Houston is then taking the money thathe was guaranteed next year. Which was
about three and a half million dollars, and they're going to move that up
to this year, so he isguaranteed to make about twenty two and a
half million dollars this season. Butit stands to reason if he has the
season that the Texans hope, andif he has the season that he's perhaps

(01:04:20):
capable of with CJ. Stroud throwinghim the ball and what is going to
be a really interesting Houston offense,then he hits the free agent market with
the ability to really cash in.So there you go that according to ESPN's
Adam Schefter, Hockey Tonight, Bluejacketskate against the Islanders and Roman Celentano the

(01:04:40):
outstanding goalkeeper. Don't call him agoalie goalkeeper friend of the show. By
the way, for FC Cincinnati isgoing to miss Saturday's tilts against the New
York Red Bulls playoff rematch because he'sgot a bad angle that he suffered in
FC Cincinnati's exciting one one draw againstCharlotte. There we go. Is that

(01:05:00):
it for the local sports headlines?I believe? So Hey, congratulations to
Terry Adams Wit of Middletown. TerryAdams Wit, you have one a table
at Twin Peaks in Westchester and agift card worth two hundred bucks for what
you got something against Terry Adam's wit. Oh you know when you start with

(01:05:24):
terror, Oh, you're not eligible. You're an employee the radio station.
You can't win our contest. It'sin the rules, you know. We
we put the rules out there.We run that thing so last month,
so you quit last month free?Why just because you enjoy my company?
Anyway, Congratulations to Terry Adams Witof Middletown. Uh, you're gonna get

(01:05:49):
a chance to go to a TwinPeaks in Westchester on Monday. And and
here's the coincidental part. We're doingour show there on Monday at Twin Peaks
in Westchester. Uh. And sothe game is at like nine o'clock Terry
Adams win. I don't know ifbecause you got a table for the game,
if you're going to get there atthree o'clock when our show starts.

(01:06:10):
That's a long day at Twin Peaks. But you got two hundred bucks to
play with and we'll be there.What time is the eclipse here, Tarren?
Do we know? I'm not sure, but the weather says mostly cloudy,
So we may not see it anyway. So uh so if it's cloudy,
we don't because then he can't seethe sun in the moon. Right,
yeah, all right, they're callingthis the Great American Eclipse, and

(01:06:32):
do we do we know? Dowe know what time it's supposed to hit
Cincinnati. I'm doing some research nowresearch I Google. Yeah, me too,
I'm doing the exact same thing.We're now we're not in the path
of totality, but we're gonna geta partial eclipse that will last two hours
and thirty three minutes. It says, do we know about what time is

(01:06:57):
it gonna be? While we're onthe air, it says the coin in
Nassa totality will start around one ohseven Eastern time. Okay, so it
says for Ohio cities, toller solareclipse viewing times. So this list doesn't
have Cincinnati. It's got Hamilton,like three oh nine, Dayton three oh
nine, Springfield three ten on Cincinnatidot com. They have this chart on

(01:07:23):
Cincinnati dot com that has that's becausethese towns get the total eclipse and we
only get the partial. Is thatwhy possibly? If I was on tomorrow,
I'd say, let's get deanrigus On, but I'm not gonna be here.
I was driving up seventy one today. You know, they have those
like Artemis signs. I think that'swhat they're called. They tell you like,
hey, accident ahead, or delaypossible, or wear your seat belt,

(01:07:46):
stuff like that as I'm driving fromI was at downtown this morning and
I'm driving up seventy one and thesign said eclipse April eighth, Make sure
you're prepared or something like that.Did you see that? Yeah? Make
what do you do? And I'masking, seriously, what do you do
to prepare for an eclipse? Likeit's gonna be dark, and yeah,

(01:08:11):
it's gonna be novel and interesting anddifferent. And I guess this isn't gonna
happen for another three hundred and fiftyyears, Like do you sit down with
your family to have a plan forthe eclipse? If we had a show
tomorrow, I'd get on like somebodywho knows about eclipses to tell us what
we should do. What do youdo to prepare? Not sure? I
mean, isn't it like telling someonelike, hey, tonight it's gonna get

(01:08:33):
dark. Make sure you're prepared,right? I guess maybe be proper eyewear.
I'm not sure proper eyewear, Okay, but like if you're just walking
around, I mean you're not lookingat you don't need proper eye It's gonna
be dark, right, And Iwill admit this is not something I I
clearly not something I know a lotabout. But how do you prepare?
What's the proper way to Like,you know, when we have bad weather

(01:08:54):
at the other day, they feartornadoes, there's there's a way to prepare,
right, or a way to preparefor potent emergency. The eclipse is
an event. It's not an emergency, correct, No, all right?
So can you prepare by going toTwin Peaks? Yes, well, they
have something special for the eclipse atTwin Peaks. Will the servers be wearing

(01:09:15):
special glasses? We be in fulleclipse mode at Twin Peaks. Anyway,
come out to Twin Peaks and youmight meet Terry Adams Witt of Middletown,
and we'll also enjoy the eclipse together. Hopefully it's not cloudy. If it's
not cloudy, but here's what Ican guarantee you. Maybe we can't enjoy
the eclipse because it's too a cloudto cloudy, but like you could still

(01:09:39):
drink during the eclipse, right ofcourse, Like they don't stop alcohol sales,
No, And you could still eatduring the eclipse, right of course.
We could still do a sports talkradio show during the eclipse, right,
yes, Okay, Well, anyway, we'll be at Twin Peaks in
Westchester and so enjoy the eclipse withus. It'll be a lot of fun
Monday, starting at three zero five. I just know by that three whenever

(01:10:01):
the eclipse is happening, I won'tbe back producing. I'll be probably outside
outside looking at the eclipse. Oh, you will be running itself, and
that's okay. Can you call infrom outside, sure, and just give
us like a report because I'll beinside at Twin Peaks. You'll be outside
and you could talk about what it'slike outside. But make sure you're prepared,

(01:10:21):
okay, okay, whatever you do, make sure you're fully prepared for
Monday's eclipse. It's a quarter tofive Brendanman and Jones on baseball coming up.
Maybe they'll talk about the eclipse thisweek on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports
station. In the nineties, NewYork did the next hour No the Bengals

(01:10:44):
should not trade t Higgins to theBuffalo Bills. I don't really think I
need to elaborate on that kind ofhave to, I guess, and more
on last night, Frankie Montas wasreally good. Frankie Montas was really good
on opening day. You know that. I know that the box score can
tell us that. But there's there'ssomething else to this that is very very
important, very important critical. I'lltell you what it is coming up at

(01:11:09):
five oh five, but first it'stime for Brenneman and Jones on Baseball Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from theUC Health Traffic Center. Uc Health has
been performing life saving transplants of providingsecond chances in Greater Cincinnati for more than
fifty five years. A couple ofroads are closed due to flooding two twenty

(01:11:30):
between Deepot Street and River Road.Seven sixty three, between Wiles Road and
huff Hill Road. There's a crashon the left shoulder of seventy five North
at two seventy five. You're stopping. Go from Glendale Milford Road and watch
for tire debris in the center laneof seventy one South at Fifer Road and
John Crawford with traffic covers the Bengalslike ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station.
Nobody, Nobody, Hi, myname's Mulegger. This is ESPN fifteen

(01:11:56):
thirty. Thank you for listening today. Hopefully you're having the greatest Thursday of
all time. This is our lasthour of radio this week because I'm off
tomorrow. I found this out abouttwo hours and fifteen minutes ago. But
let's not let that get in theway of us producing some outstanding sports talk
radio content between now and the endOfverse show or something close to it.

(01:12:20):
We with no Reds game tonight.They're playing the Mets tomorrow, seven game
homestand you know, all things considered, all the bad news leading up to
opening Day, all the injuries,all the guys not available, I who
balks at a four and two start, four and two start, and you
know one of the games obviously lastSaturday that they lost there for the taking

(01:12:43):
four and two start. And youknow, the Washington Nationals are bad.
The Phillies are expected to be prettygood. Frankie Montas was really good yesterday,
now, you know, really goodin the context of second start of
the season, really good in thecon text of you know, five and
two thirds in twenty twenty four islike seven and two thirds in nineteen ninety

(01:13:04):
four. Frankie Montas has now pitchedtwice. He's been really good in both
starts, and you know, yesterdaycould not have been easy. And look,
he is a he's a major leaguepitcher, he's a professional pitcher.
This is his job. When youhave a job at your job, to
do your job, regardless of whatevercircumstances might get in the way of doing

(01:13:28):
your job. But you know,we're also talking about human beings and to
a degree creatures of habit. Andyou know, they switched the time of
the game the night before, andthen you know, everybody wakes up yesterday
and are they gonna play? Whatare they gonna play? When are they
gonna take the tarp off? Thatthat could not have been easy. Could
not have been easy for Zach Wheelereither, And he pitched okay last night.

(01:13:51):
Frankie Montas pitched well, obviously,kind of hit a wall a little
bit. In the sixth inning,they bring in Justin Wilson. The Phillies
manager Rob Thompson takes a nap inthe dugout. Justin Wilson gets out of
the inning, The Reds bullpen therest of the way does fine. Alexis
ds through the ball pretty well,and the Reds win their second out of
three in Philly, and they comehome with a four and two record.

(01:14:14):
Lots of good stuff happened last night. Ellie Dela Cruz went from the guy
that everybody wanted to bench and sendto a ball and release and send to
prison to a guy who had ahand in their win last night. Christian
and Carnassi on strand with that ropein left field, that double that he
hit where it kind of reminded meof the home run that he hit where

(01:14:35):
just ball just leaps off his bat. They get tack on runs when Dela
Cruz hits his double, and whenNick Martini and Nick Martini hits a double
and a good win, good bullpenwork. But the big takeaway, and
we'll talk about jam Or Candelario herein a second. Frankie Montas, first

(01:14:56):
of all, looks like they kindof got it right in making him the
opening day starter and by doing so, kind of anointing him, if you
will. At the start of theseason. They're ace, They're number one
pitcher, top of the rotation guythey sadd least so far have gotten it
right. Not that that matters allthat much, But as I watched him
last night, as I saw aguy change speeds and trust all his pitches

(01:15:25):
and know how to put hitters awayand know how to pitch from behind in
the count. It's cliche, butI'm watching him, going, this guy,
this cat knows how to pitch likethis guy. This guy knows how
to pitch. There's there's something tothat he's He looks like he knows how
to get out big league hitters inways that the Red's younger starting pitchers are

(01:15:51):
still learning how to get out hitters, at least on a consistent basis.
And he's not overpowering, gets itup there at ninety five ninety six.
But he's got a slider that hethrows. He's got a splitter that he
throws a couple of times last nightwhere he changed speeds kind of up in

(01:16:14):
the zone a little bit made thehitters look silly. He knows how to
pitch, looks like he trusts hisstuff, looks like he's not afraid to
throw strikes. That's a dude whoas cliche as it might sound looks like
God, he he really knows howto pitch. And so as I'm watching

(01:16:36):
last night, I'm thinking like,I hope that while Frankie Montass is pitching,
some of those younger dudes are payingclose attention. And I hope that
what Frankie Montass brings to the tableis something that stands out to Hunter Green,

(01:17:00):
etc. All those younger guys.And you hope that what we're seeing
from Frankie Montas would be something thathe would be. I'm sure he's willing
but able to communicate to the guyswho would like to establish themselves as reliable
pitchers and who can only do soif well they learn how to pitch,

(01:17:25):
learn how to get out hitters.This is not meant to come off as
a criticism those young guys. It'slike we've talked about with Ellie de la
Cruz. They're learning. Well.It's one thing to know that you've got
to learn. It's something else whenyou can learn from an example that you
get a chance to watch up close. And with Frankie Montas, Hunter Green
and those guys get a chance towatch somebody up close who I think looks

(01:17:45):
like someone who knows how to pitch. Is Frankie montass all star caliber pitchers.
He a guy that's gonna end upbeing one of the best pitchers in
the National League this season. Idon't know what I've watched tells me that
guy has what the other dudes aretrying to figure out. That guy knows

(01:18:06):
what the other guys are trying tofigure out. And hopefully, as Frankie
Montas worked his way through Philadelphia's goodlineup last night, his rotation mates were
paying close attention. Obviously. Theother thing with the game last night,
Jamber Candelario did something with his elbow, and you want to believe You want

(01:18:30):
to believe the assurance, you knowwhat, we think this is going to
be okay. You want to believeit. I want to believe it.
I'm sure the Reds want to believeit. I think I think you're being
fair if you kind of got worndown so much late in the spring with
the insurances that hey, these DJFriedel is going to be okay and Matt
McClain's going to be okay. Andit turns out that at least in the

(01:18:51):
short term with TJ and long termnow with Matt McLain. That's not so
much the case. We are holdingour b It's not about I think,
in this sport in particular, it'snot about losing any one player, Like
it's hard to replace Matt McClain.It's hard. I think he was their

(01:19:12):
best player last year, But he'sone player in a baseball team. One
guy can only make so much ofan impact reasonably speaking, pretty pretty easy
to replace. And you could applythe same to TJ. Friedel, And
you could apply the same to NoelA. Marte who obviously didn't get hurt,
and you could apply it to BrandonWilliamson, and Okay, these things

(01:19:38):
in a vacuum, you can overcomethem. But man, every team can
only take so much, even ifyou're like me and you just sort of
build in the expectation that they're gonnahave to figure out ways to deal with
injuries. It's why we talk somuch about depth, right, They're gonna
have to figure out ways to winwithout guys who are key. They're gonna
have to figure out ways to getthrough stretches of time when they don't don't

(01:20:00):
have certain guys. But at thebeginning of the season is when you feel
like all right, we have achance to be at our healthiest right,
and then when that doesn't happen,you just wonder what's the accumulation of injuries
going to look like? And yeah, I'm not making a bigger deal out
of Jamber Candelario than I have to, but that's where my mind went.
First, do we find out,either with him or with somebody else,

(01:20:24):
while they're already working without three guysthat you could have made a case could
have been in the opening days startinglineup. Do they get to a point
that they just cannot come back from. I hope the answer is no.
And maybe this is not something wehave to talk about tomorrow because we find
out that Jamber Candelario is okay.Come on, let's be honest. When

(01:20:45):
you went to bed last night,did you feel great about him being okay
just because they said we think he'sgoing to be okay? I didn't.
And if you think about the possibilityof him not being okay, it it
possibly East adds another name to alist that's already long. And the longer
that list gets of guys who areunavailable, the more you wonder how much

(01:21:08):
more can they stand? Uh?No game today the Mets in town tomorrow.
Hunter Green is going to get achance to a pitch tomorrow night six
forty on a seven hundred wlw Rnumber are five one three, seven four
nine fifteen thirty and eight six sixseven oh two three seven seven six the
other one we're working with. Herea couple of pole questions at Moeger Thanks

(01:21:29):
to United Heartland Insurance, Please checkout uhi NS dot com, Home,
Auto Life, you name it,They've got you covered. United Heartland Insurance.
Will Elie Dela Cruz be an AllStar within the next three seasons?
Eighty one point seven percent of yousay yes, simple math here, eighteen

(01:21:54):
point three percent of you say no. I think the answer is going to
be yes. And we talked aboutEllie a lot yesterday. We I thing
struck a pretty good balance between beingcritical of the things that frustrated us with
his performance the other night, butalso, you know, just kind of
understanding that it's kind of par forthe course with younger players. There is

(01:22:16):
something, there's something that the heightof the Joey Vado era taught me about
Ellie Dela Cruz and everybody else.I'll explain that coming up here in just
a bit. Also, the bigNFL news yesterday. By the way,
Stefan Diggs, Yes, he gottraded to Houston. They've torn up the

(01:22:36):
years after twenty twenty four on hiscontract, pay him a little bit more
this year, so he could bea free agent starting in twenty twenty five.
Some in some corners of the internetfolks have wondered, well, the
Bills need a wide receiver. Shouldthe Bengals trade t Higgins to Buffalo.
No, No, we'll get tothat, and a bit of a guarantee

(01:23:00):
as well. Plus, there arecertain things that if you run a sports
league you cannot screw up. Guesswho did a lot to get to between
now and six. Lines are openfive, one, three, seven,
four, nine, fifteen thirty.It's a quoteract for five. I'm Moeger.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty, CincinnatiSports Station five. This is ESPN

(01:23:23):
fifteen thirty. Moegor, thank youfor listening today. I was just told
that on the social media I've beenquote feisty, feisty. I don't know,
I've never been I've never been calledreally feisty. Me me on social
media. Me me the guy who'salways having a feisty feisty. I'm feisty.

(01:23:49):
I could be a poll question.Am I feisty? Really quick?
Here? So the Bills trade StefanDiggs from a Buffalo I get it.
Then Brandon being their general manager,said, we're we're not as good right
now as we were last year rightnow. And but I but I think

(01:24:10):
I think I understand what they're doinghere. They've hit the ejec button on
a number of older players. Theytook a stab at it with Stefan Diggs
and Josh Allen and their core ofguys, and it didn't work. Now
it worked, they were relevant,They won a bunch of AFC East titles,
they made the playoffs, but itit didn't result in a championship.

(01:24:30):
It's been a fun era. Itit feels like it's it's I hate the
term window closing, but but itfeels like, you know, they're were
tooling here and over the last coupleof years, going into every season.
If you have been sizing up,going back to since but before the Bengals
joined this conversation, the last fouryears going into the season, if you

(01:24:54):
were to talk about teams that hada chance to get to the Super Bowl,
you included the bab flow Bills.Now, the last two years,
we've talked about the Bengals, right, not the last three, but the
last two in August and September.I feel like we've been able to do
that with the Bills the last fouryears, and certainly when January has come
around, you've had to talk abouttheir Super Bowl bona fides, even if

(01:25:17):
they haven't gotten there. Look,the Bengals went there and beat them two
years ago. They were underdogs inthat game, So it's a bit of
a closing of a window. Fromthe perspective, it's it's kind of hard
to consider them AFC championship material goinginto the season. Could they sneak into
the playoffs? Yeah, that standardis not very high. But is that

(01:25:43):
team right now equipped to dethrone KansasCity and beat Baltimore and beat a healthy
Cincinnati team and beat Houston, Iand others, Miami we could put in
the conversation. I don't feel likethe answer is yeah. So, but
I get what they're doing, Likewe're gonna build everything around our franchise quarterback.

(01:26:05):
We've talked about this on this showfor years, like the franchise quarterback.
When you decide we've got our guys. That's the piece around every around
which everything is going to occur,and he's there to kind of keep irrelevant.
The Bills probably aren't going to beterrible next season. You could see
them getting to the playoffs. JoshAllen through and played fine the last eleven

(01:26:26):
games of the season without Stefan Diggsmaking a huge impact. But I think
they go, all right, it'skind of time for us to start working
on what's next. And maybe youcould have argued they should have done that
at the end of the twenty twentytwo season, but we know who our
quarterback is going to be, andso this process shouldn't really take all that
long. And I think that somethingsimilar is going to kind of be the

(01:26:46):
case at some point with Joe Burrow. Right, there's gonna be a time
you might argue it was this pastseason right where there's gonna be some retooling
don and you say goodbye to someguys and you're in a bit of a
transition phase. But it's you didn'ttake that long because we got Joe Burrow.
That might even be happening next year. It's the beauty of having a
guy you believe in that you're payinga lot of money to at QB.

(01:27:11):
So we're gonna retool. We don'tthink we can win with the way things
are constructed right now. We don'tthink Stefon Diggs we're gonna get better play
out of him. And so let'sget started on what's next. And what's
next should come pretty quick because wehave pretty much an a lister at the
sport's most important position. Some havewondered Tara and I were talking about this

(01:27:34):
off air, Well what about THiggins the Buffalo? Now again I'm the
open minded guy. Would I takeBuffalo's phone call? Of course I would.
I'm open minded to anything, butthe asking price for T Higgins should
be astronomical. But if I'm goingto trade it to a team that probably
re enters the conversation that my teamis in as an AFC contender. If

(01:28:00):
I trade T Higgins, the askingprice then is beyond silly. And I
just if on the Bills, Icould draft a wide receiver this year,
or I could get T Higgins fora First of all, I don't know
financially that they could even make thatwork, but let's say they could.
I get him for this year.No, guarantee long term. I have

(01:28:25):
to give up a lot to gethim. I'm trying to retool because I've
moved on from some younger guys,but I have to give up draft capital,
like it doesn't work. I havebeen all along a proponent of keeping
T Higgins this year, and ifwe have to bite the bullet because we
lose them for nothing more than acompensatory pick next season, but keeping T
represents going for it this year,let's do it. But being in favor

(01:28:47):
of trading him means you want alot back in return. And there is
a package of players that or apackage of picks and maybe also players,
but there's a package out there thatmake a go. Yes, I'll take
that in exchange for T. Higgins. It's gonna be a high asking price
if I trade him to anybody.But if i'm if, I'm basically allowing

(01:29:10):
the Bills to become contenders again inmy conference by trading T Higgins. The
net price is just so much thatI cannot imagine the Bills could come anywhere
near it. So no, Ikind of not really that interested in doing
that. Ellie de la Cruz yesterday, lot of fun talking about him.

(01:29:31):
I've done the show for a while, and the most remarkable stretch for me
as a host of this show's existencewas in twenty thirteen. In the summer

(01:29:53):
of twenty thirteen, the Reds werenot bad by any stretch of the imagination.
They won ninety game, they qualifiedfor the postseason, but the entire
year occurred against the backdrop of whathad happened the previous October. Reds lose

(01:30:14):
to the Giants after being up tonothing, and then even despite addressing their
one real weakness, which was leadoffhitter, that team just never really took
off. And from I remember itvividly, from about the middle of June
on, we were talking about,okay, are they going to host the
Wildcard Game or go on the roadto play the Wildcard Game? And as

(01:30:34):
it turned out, they went onthe road to play the Wildcard Game and
lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Butit was a really interesting season for me,
at least doing this for a living, because on a daily basis,
and I'm not like joking about thison a daily basis, there's no exaggeration

(01:30:54):
here. During that season, Iwould listen to people tea off on Joe
Evado that season, Joe Evado finishedin the top ten in I think nineteen
different offensive categories, some of themmore advanced metrics base than others. But

(01:31:18):
he was an elite offensive player closeto the absolute peak of his powers.
He was arguably the best player onthe team. I say arguably because they
still had Shinsuchu that season, andthey had Brandon Phillips that season, and
they had Jay Bruce that season ina good starting staff. That year,

(01:31:41):
Joey Evado led all of baseball ingames played, played, appearances, walks.
He had a four to thirty fiveon base percentage. He batted three
to zero five, his OPS wasnine to twenty six. He was an
elite offensive player who never took agame off and yet that entire summer,

(01:32:03):
and it continued into twenty fourteen,but by then the Reds weren't very good
that entire summer. I remember attimes being just baffled by the amount of
people that I would hear from socialmedia. Was a part of it,
folks calling this show who wanted tojust crush Joe Evado, and I kind

(01:32:27):
of get it, Like suddenly wewere talking about a guy who was making
the kind of money that joe Evadawas getting and that's not something we're used
to here. And with a lotof money comes responsibility. I remember a
time one time doing a topic like, all right, for folks who say
he's not living up to the contract, what would you like for the season
to look like in order to sayyes, he lived up to the contract.
And he'd have people that would calland say, well, he's not
being paid to walk. And theissue was that season he well, he

(01:32:49):
didn't have a lot of RBIs.He had a decent amount of homers.
He had twenty four, which isnothing to sneeze at. He had the
same number of homers he hit whenhe finished second in the Rookie of the
Year voting. He had one fewerhomer that he hit in two thousand and
nine. Hit twenty four homers,but he only drove in seventy three runs.
And so people who watch Baseball againstnineteen eighty four and count RBIs were

(01:33:11):
mad at Joey Vado. But mytakeaway then is the same as it is
right now. Joey Vado that seasonthe best player on the team, one
of the elite hitters in all ofbaseball, a guy who was durable a
guy who took his craft seriously anda guy who was statistically superior took an

(01:33:32):
unending amount of criticism. If JoeyVado, when he's an elite player,
is going to take a lot ofcriticism, then Ellie de la Cruze shuldnt
Bmune Hunter Green shouldn't be amune.But none of these guys should be.
And I've kind of lived by thatdoing this show for the last ten years.

(01:33:53):
If we existed in a time whereJoey Vado just was public enemy number
one, that it stands the reasonthat almost anybody else's performance are going to
be fair game. At the sametime, you're gonna have people who,
if they were really mad at theguy who was elite, are even more

(01:34:14):
pissed off at the guys who arenot. I hope that made sense.
Five point thirty ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati'sesp FIGN service with Kelsey Chevrolet Home of
lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approvalfrom their family to yours for life kelseyshev
dot Com Off day for the Redshome tomorrow's seven game homestand begins with first

(01:34:40):
of three against the Mets. AGABP six forty tomorrow night on a seven
hundred WLW. The Mets are offto a terrible start this season. They're
zero to five after losing game oneof a double header at home to the
Tigers six to three and eleven.They trail Detroit in the second game of
that DH Top five Detroit's up onenothing. Roman Celentano has an ankle injury,

(01:35:02):
so FC Cincinnati will be without arguablythe best goalkeeper of Major League Soccer
as they host the New York RedBulls on Saturday. And what else do
we have? I had something else? Jackets play the Islanders tonight NIT on
Fox Sports thirteen sixty. It's IndianaState against Seaton Hall for the championship of

(01:35:23):
that event. And Connecticut Yukon gotinto Phoenix at three twelve this morning and
hopefully they're good to go in timefor saturdays estimated eight forty nine tipoff.
They battle Alabama Quincy. Aliverari's inPhoenix. That's where the Final four is.
My interview with him next where elsecan you get a steam pay that?
I can also tell you I hadnothing to do with baseball. Former

(01:35:44):
Bengal Lyle Collins is signing with theBills so they lose to Von Diggs,
but they get Leyole Collins, andone day someone will tell the story of
why LEYL. Collins didn't play forthe Bengals last year. Maybe Quincy oliverias
with us after a spectacular one yearat Xavier. He is playing tomorrow in
the NABC All Star Game at thesite of the Final Four. The stadium,

(01:36:06):
the Arizona Cardinals Stadium that the FinalFour is in on Saturday. The
NABC All Star Game is going tobe tomorrow. Tonight. He is in
the College Three Point Championship, whichis what they call it's the three Point
Contest that is at Grand Canyon University. So Quincy is a busy man going
from one practice to another, correct, yes, sir, and then I

(01:36:28):
have to run over to Arizona Statesoon for Reese's All Star Game practice.
It's busy, busy couple of days, all right, So kind of walk
me through because you're preparing for alot. You got tonight, you got
tomorrow. When'd you get to Phoenix? What had the last couple of days
been? Like? I got toPhoenix yesterday. Yesterday was early morning.
Flight got here stant in Scottsdale,got here and started napping just because you

(01:36:55):
know, I kind of wanted totry my best to get the jet lag
out and prevent as much jet likeas I could. And then I was
I just kind of chill. Yesterdaywe came up to the gym, got
to see what Grant Cane looked like. And then after that I had to
go to Arizona State for my recent'spractice with Coach Camp. Coach Camp.
That was pretty cool, you know, just kind of being with him.

(01:37:18):
He's a real cool coach, prettylaid back. I mean, obviously he's
an All Star game, but youknow, he's still still cool. And
then I went shopping. I wentto Fashion Square just to see what they
had. And that's really it.You know, today we're leaving Grand Cane
and then, like I said,I gotta go to Arizon the State soon
for practice again. All right,So the practice you just had was for

(01:37:38):
tonight for the three point shootout.What's that like? Yeah, So they
were just talking about what the eventswere, kind of like a little walk
through what to expect the order.I'll spoil it now. I'm going My
first round three point contest is againstAntonio Reeves from Kentucky. Wish me luck
yea, and then we'll kind ofgo from there. And I'm also in

(01:37:59):
like a little hot shot to starttonight, all right. So I mean,
look, you're you're a great threepoint shooter, all time single season
record holder and savior. You canknock down the three. But is do
you alter your routine? Is therea special thing you do to practice for
a competition like tonight? Just getget the rects out, find out early
with side uncomfortable shooting from, andthen go from there. You know,
it's nothing special, just slowing mymind down, slowing my breathing it down,

(01:38:24):
and going out there and do whatI doing, what I know I
can do best. All right.So that's tonight and then tomorrow night is
the All Star Game. So areyou guys installing stuff? What's this going
to be? Like? Yeah,we did a couple couple basic plays,
but for the most part, CoachCoach Camp was just like, just go
out there and have fun, showshow what you can do, and if
you if you feel like you cando more like if you're big that feels

(01:38:45):
like you can shoot, go outthere and shoot the bubble. Just go
out there and play confident, playwith confidence and half fun. You know
it's it's an All Star game,but you don't want to disrespect the game.
But by just looking like you don'tcare, go out there half fun,
play hard, and enjoy the momentbecause we are everybody here has had
a wonderful career, had a onewonderful year and this is like a time
to time to enjoy that. Doyou go out in and have some more?
Have some more? Seriously on thissummer for the NBA. Yeah,

(01:39:08):
now, which which we're gonna talkabout. So you played against one of
your teammates is josh O Duro fromProvidence, Jack Golkie from Oakland. Obviously
you played against him. Do youknow any of these guys you're playing with?
Have you played with any of thembefore? So Jamier Young, he
started off as Charlotte in Conress.You Wissa, and I think that is
it. You know, josh isreally cool and you know, we kind

(01:39:30):
of laughed a little bit. Thefirst thing I said to him, what
my song was, finally I canget some illegal screens on my team instead
of the other side, and sothat was that was that was kind of
cool. And then Jamison Battle hegoes to uh he goes to Ohio,
state, just kind of catching upwith him, telling him how I was.
I was close and just kind ofbeing cool there. And obviously Jack
Jack we played earlier in the year, he remembers. And then on the

(01:39:54):
other team we have Isaiah Crawford,who with Louisiana Tech, I was in
confress, you will say, whileI was at Rice and and I believe
they think that's that might be it. You know, I can't remember off
the top of my head because obviouslywe have separate practices, sore my My
practice is just filled with E squad. Yeah, no, cool, So
that's uh, that's tomorrow night.And then you know you mentioned this is

(01:40:15):
kind of a respite for getting readyfor what's next. So so walk me
through over the next couple of weeks. Obviously, Uh, the aspiration is
to get to the NBA. Sokind of walk me through from when you
walked off the court in your homestate after that game against Georgia to now
and then you know what's going tohappen this summer? What are these months
going to be like? So Irecently just committed to Tandem. Hold on,

(01:40:42):
I'd recently just committed to Tandem.I'm about to sign my contract soon
and then from there just I'm gonnaafter Phoenix, I'm gonna go to Dallas
and we're gonna be in Frisco,and that's why I'm gonna do my pre
draft work yet. And from there, I got a Portionmouth invite, so
I'll go to PURSMI year. Mysummer will be based on my performance at
Portsmouth. Have have you talked withplayers who have been through this process before,

(01:41:06):
and if so, what have theytold you about it? I mean
no, not not really. Imean, my brother, closest friend is
Trey Murphy. Obviously my my journeywill be different from his. But you
know, just the biggest thing he'sbeen telling me is just go out and
play my game. Don't need toforce anything to go out and play my
game, and just praying that Istay healthy. You know, that's the
That's that's the best thing I canhave at this time right now. It's

(01:41:28):
just to be healthy because I knowwhat I'm capable of when I'm healthy.
Uh. Obviously this was a goalof yours when you came to Cincinnati and
and started your season at Xavier,and you you had a remarkable season.
I know from a team standpoint,it didn't maybe go the way you would
have envisioned. But still you wereYou were terrific. And I'm going to
complain about you not being a firstteam All Big East guy, But but
where do you feel like your gamehas playing? Let's do it. Well,

(01:41:53):
let's go ahead and do that,because I'll admit, like when when
those when that was announced, Iwas just getting back from vacation. I'm
kind of off the grid and I'mnot really paying attention. So then I
go back on the air and I'mjust assuming Quincy Oliveri's the first team All
Big East guy. And then somebodysays to me, actually honorable mention,
and I look, you're a humbledude, but still, man like,

(01:42:14):
how did they get that wrong?Yeah? You would think that player that
leads the conference is going top ofthe scout and report score scored multiple thirty
point games, led the Big East, and the highest point scored in the
game forty three and third and whatdad is now? But at first it
was me and then me, youknow, you get you kind of drop

(01:42:35):
the ball on that, uh ledthe team in defensive rebounds, turnovers down.
Still, you know, it's alot of things I could go on
and on about that. It's it'swater under the bridge. But you know,
I think I think a key partof that well our record, you
know at first, but Devin Carterwas Player of the Year and they were
a seven seed. So if we'regonna talk about record, then it was

(01:42:56):
inconsistent there. You know, DevinCarter was most definitely well that that.
That would have been my vote too. But if that's the case, then
record record can't be a factor inall conference team. You know, it's
inconsistency there. But I'm not I'mnot gonna trick. I'm not gonna worry
about it because at the end ofthe day, it uh, it's water
under the bridge. But well,I have definitely definitely pissed off about that.

(01:43:19):
Sure, I appreciate the honesty becausethere's a lot of guys in your
position that I would have said itand they would all it's no big deal.
I like the fact that you madethe case, So that was good.
So let's let's go back to theseason and say, if you're just
from an individual standpoint, where doyou feel like from when you arrived on
campus to this moment right now yourgame grew the most, the biggest,

(01:43:43):
the biggest thing. I mean,definitely three point efficiency. Yeah, you
know, I could say defense,I can say rebound, I can say
play vacant. But I think thebiggest joke was just but the biggest thing
was I went to the next letmy stats got better or similar. Right,

(01:44:04):
you know that's very rare, soI'd probably just say efficiency. I
guess all right, that that makesa lot of sense. This was It
was a lot of fun to watchyou, but it was It was a
lot of fun to watch you onthe floor, but it was also a
lot of fun to watch you sortof embrace the fan base and and really
kind of wrap your arms around thecampus and student life and fans. You're

(01:44:24):
you're having lunch with kindergarten kids attheir school, You're showing up in Xavier
fans houses. I mean, Iwatched this and thought, God, I
wish this dude was here for morethan a year. But just kind of
take me through what it was liketo to become such a beloved player here
in such a short amount of time. Oh, I mean, I enjoyed
my time in Clincinnati. You know, the fant love here was was was

(01:44:46):
amazing, and I enjoyed every bitof it. You know, I'm I'm
a big city kid, so I'mto being from a city of a lot
of people, a lot of skyscrapers, a lot of a lot of you
know, just big city energy.You know, growing up in Atlanta and
then living in Houston for four years. I came to Cincinnati and it was

(01:45:08):
like whoa, Like it's a littlebit more quiet here. And you know,
side note, like Opening Day waslast week and I was scratching my
head asking people from Cincinnati, likewhat is there? What is the parade
for? Like, what's what's thebig deal about Opening Day? You know,
I learned the history of it,and you know, I have I
haven't I appreciate how much of anappreciation the citizens of Cincinnati have for the

(01:45:30):
Reds, because it's it's it's it'slove. It's it's consistent love with Xavier
Hoops, with the Cincinnati Reds,with the team that stays in Clifton,
you know, the it's it's it'sit's very consistent love with all the teams
in the in the in the city. And it made me very thankful that
I was able to come here andplay here because they they're very nice,

(01:45:53):
they're very receptive good game, badgame, They're not gonna uh, they're
gonna treat you the same, andthey're gonna have your bad and that's that's
that's a that's a great thing todo. So me giving back the way
I did this year was just anexample of me, Shawn, my appreciation
for them in ways that I thoughtwould be very helpful. What did you
like most about playing for Shawn Miller? His intensity? Man, He pushed

(01:46:15):
me every day mentally to be thebest me I can be and just being
an everyday guy. Just let itreminded me that I'm my energy is very
Uh, it's very important to ateam, and I can I can change
out the vibe of everything just whilebringing good energy because I'm more than just
a shot maker. I'm a I'ma I'm an energy giver. I'm a

(01:46:35):
leader, I'm I'm a rebounder,I'm a defender, I'm a playmaker.
I'm not just a score. Uh. You're down there in Phoenix. The
Final four is this weekend. Youcon is down there. That's obviously a
team you played against three times inthe Big East quarterfinal. Toward the end,
you and and Coach Hurley had amoment. Take me through that,
you know. Yeah, Coach Earlyyou always he showed a lot of respect

(01:46:58):
throughout the year. Every game.The first game, he looked me at
Zager, he looked me in myeye and he shook my hand and said,
man, you had another great gameand again submitted yourself as one of
the best players in the league.You know, So let's side note.
I know I got his vote forAll Conference. You know, he told
me early on I was one ofthe best players in the league. He
would go out his way to makesure that I knew that, and he

(01:47:19):
shook my hand, and I wasjust too tired to say anything back.
But in the second game, evenafter we lost about forty he took his
time, shook my hand and said, I have a lot of respect for
you. Are one a hell ofa player, and I always I have
fun game planning against a guy likeyou because you I have a lot of
respect for you. And so Iwas a little bit. I was a

(01:47:41):
little bit. I wasn't as outof breadth as I was before, being
that we just lost so bad.Coach Miller didn't play this as much just
because it was no point and Iwas able to just tell him, like,
you know, I worked the frontof four, and I wanted to
clarify that when I said this tothe next level, like I was coming
from Bryce, I was coming froma mid major school, and so to
be able to see how high andhigh high major Higher six Conference schools go

(01:48:02):
about their daily routine, it's anotherlevel. It's another level of mental focus
that the players have to have,another level of put a push that coaches
have to do for their teammates sothey can all play at a high level.
And I'll just let them know,like I have a lot of respect
for you because I've seen behind closeddoors how you run your program. At
least I don't want to say behindclosed doors, but I've seen like in

(01:48:23):
practices and how you how you allconduct things, like how how you conduct
your program. Being that I workedthe final four, so I saw when
you walked in, I saw howy'alla set up practice. I saw things
like that, and I just wantedto give him his respect. And he
showed some respect back, show love, and so did so did coach Kamani
and the other staff. They allsaid the same thing. And so then

(01:48:44):
the third game, when I waswalking up the court, I thought I
was done. I thought I wasn'tgonna come back in so I was just
kind of soaking in the moment playingin Madison Square Guard and the year I
just had, not knowing if weget invited to the n I t stuff
like that, so I just kindof didn't know what to expect. So
I thought it was a rep tapof me telling me like, like,
I'm still in the game. Sothat's why I kind of didn't acknowledge it

(01:49:04):
at first, even he tapped mea couple of times, and then I
finally turned around, like, yo, why does this rep keep tappening?
And I saw I was coach early, like, you know, he's one
of he's one of the real onesin the conference that I have a lot
of respect for. So I madesure I went back and acknowledged him.
And then at the end of theat the end of the game and the
layup lines, he told me like, I'm a it's time shall go be
an NBA player. I'm going toplay fifteen fifteen years or more in the

(01:49:26):
NBA. And scouting against me andplaying against me this year was a joy,
and you had a lot of respectfor my game. I was time
for you to go out there andbe a pro and playing the NBA.
You know, I told my familyand some of my friends like that meant
a lot because people like him andCoach Miller, who have coached pros and
played against pros and knows what ittakes to get to that level. They

(01:49:49):
don't just say that to anybody.So and they see it and they tell
you that they actually mean it.And one of my goal, my one
of my goals in life is toplay in the NBA, and people around
you that know what it takes andknows what that looks like tails that it's
like, okay, Like I knowhe's not just just telling me stuff to
the champion stuff, because all yearhe showed me a lot of respect.

(01:50:11):
And this is the coach for thenumber one team in the in the country
and he sees it. Coach Millerhas talked to me and said similar things.
You know, So guys like that, when they talk to me and
tell me things, it holds alot of week. That's that's that's really
cool perspective. You played against Yukon, You played against Purdue. Those are
the two teams I want to seeplay against each other on Monday Night.

(01:50:31):
How would you, how would youhandicap that game? I would? I
would. I actually think that wouldbe the best best way to end the
in the year. You know,Zach Edy seven four. I think Dono
and Clean is seven three seven.They're both seven foot giants, so I
think I'm excited to see how they'llfinally match up against someone their side.
They're not picking on Abou who's six' ten. You know that it's two

(01:50:55):
seven foot giants picking on each other, and I think that would be pretty
evenly matched. I I think Idefinitely would take UKN and not just seeing
them obviously Big East love and beingthat we played Perdue, I just want
to root for the Big East.But I think that would be the best,
the best national championship we can get. But I wouldn't have any problems
seeing DJ Burns and n C Statecontinue their magical run and that that.

(01:51:17):
I think that would be fun towatch. You know, I want you
kind of win. But I'm notgonna hate on anybody because I know I
know what it I know what ittakes to get to that level, or
I know how hard they had towork to get to that level, and
I don't want to brain on anybody, Sunshine, because that's one one,

(01:51:38):
one, hell of a hell ofa feeling that they must all four teams
must be feeling. Yeah, no, no question about it. Uh you
get a chance to take center stagetonight and tomorrow, and uh, I
will admit because you mentioned well theschool in Clifton, that's where my rooting
allegiances rest. But it was stillaside from the night you lit them up,

(01:51:58):
a lot of fun to watch youthis season and I'm going to be
rooting like heck free, not justthis weekend, but as you go through
the pre draft process and you hada great year here man. I wish
we could have watched it for morethan one season, but you left to
mark you had a great season,a terrific career. Best of luck this
weekend, Best of luck with what'snext, and I hope down the road
we can do it again. Quincy, thanks so much, Yes, sir,

(01:52:18):
I appreciate youing this opportunity. Yougot it. Thank you, easy
kid to route for Quincy Aliveri.The Three Point Shootout is tonight at nine
on ESPN and the NABC College AllStar Game tomorrow at six thirty on CBS
Sports Network. We are done.I'm off tomorrow. I didn't know,

(01:52:40):
but I'm gonna take advantage of it. I just don't know how Chad Brenda
will be here. We are backon Monday, broadcasting from Twin Peaks in
Westchester, and we hope to seeyou there. We'll enjoy the eclipse together
regardless. Just make sure with theeclipse coming up, you and your family
are prepared. Have a great weekend. Thanks to Tarin for producing. Thanks

(01:53:01):
to you for listening to ESPN fifteenthirty Cincinnati sports station this reap