4/12/24 - The Mo Egger Show

It's Charles Oakley Day!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Fifteen thirty. All right, that'sus get afternoon, my lenor ESPN fifteen
thirty. Thank you for listening.If you're lucky, your weekend is off
to a great start. If youwork here, your weekend is probably off
to a great start. I hopethat's the case. Your weekend is at
least off to a start. Hopefullyit's a good one. Thanks to rick
Yugino for filling in yesterday. Forthe second straight year. For the second

(00:22):
straight year, I take off forthe first non opening day Weekday afternoon Reds
game. And it's not the sameI do this every year. It's my
kind of personal opening Day, rightlike Opening Day for a lot of people
is it's a non work day.And you know, for us this is
no complaint. It's it's one ofthe coolest days to do what we do.

(00:44):
But it's it's a busy day andwe work and then you know,
the game happens. And so foryears I've taken off the first Weekday afternoon
day game. For the second straightyear, that game ended up being rained
out, so no baseball yesterday,But for the second straight year they will
make the game up on the Fridayof Labor Day by the way Tarin,

(01:07):
I'm hearing ESPN Radio in my ears. Just FYI, for the second straight
year, we'll have a twelve forty. Last year it was one ten.
But just like Wrigley field Man wherethey play on Friday afternoons, we're gonna
have Friday afternoon baseball on the Fridayof Labor Day. So you could just
go ahead and plan on me notbeing here for that. We are loaded
today. Later on in the showfive twenty, Paul Dolan MLS Season pass

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is gonna join us to talk aboutFC Cincinnati trying to get back on the
winning side tomorrow night with the gameon the road in Montreal. Also,
Chad Brendle is gonna be with usat three forty five U see football the
primary topic of conversation. The Bearcatspring game is tomorrow and one hour from
right now. In a segment aninterview that I am freely willing to admit

(01:55):
I am doing almost entirely for myself, the coolest basketball players of all time
is going to join us. He'she's supposed to call in, So you
know when when when in our business, when the guest is going to call
in, there's a little hesitation CharlesOakley is supposed to call this show at
four oh five. Now. We'redoing this because we were offered him because

(02:17):
they want to promote tickets to theBig Three, which is coming to the
Heritage Bank Center in July. Thosetickets went on sale today and so as
a result of that, Charles isone of the coaches. Yes, there
are coaches in professional three on threebasketball. Charles Oakley is going to be
on this show. We think inI'm wearing my Charles Oakley shirsey today,

(02:38):
Chersey, that's right, when you'rethat might be the new rule if we're
going to interview somebody who has ashirsey or jersey. I don't know that
anybody wants to see me in areal basketball jersey. So I went with
shirsey. I've owned this thing foryears. The Charles Oakley shirsey wearing it
today. The Oakman scheduled to callin in one hour. I wasn't here

(03:01):
yesterday, so I didn't get achance to talk about Hunter Green. I
will a little bit later on.Plus the most interesting decision in all of
sports yesterday. I want to knowwhat you would have done had you been
in charge of making it that comingup in just a bit, and some
thoughts on Mark Pope being the anew head basketball coach at the University of

(03:23):
Kentucky. I'll be honest, Ihadn't planned on going to the Kelsey Brothers
podcast last night. Part of itis I had other plans for most of
my Thursday, had some other stuffgoing on. I didn't know. As
cool as I think the whole thingis, as great as it is that

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there's a huge nil component here,as popular as the Kelsey Brothers are,
as cool as it is that Ithink they brought their podcast to Cincinnati and
to the University of Cincinnati. Ascool as that I think there it is
that these guys have a clear connectionwith their alma ma. You know,
there was a part of me that'slike, you know, it's outside at
night in April, Eh, youknow, do I want to watch a

(04:08):
podcast? Am I that into theLumbaby Games? And I'll admit to you
this, I have listened to theirpodcast. I think they're good podcasters.
I have a regular rotation of podcasts. I listened to many our radio shows.
New Heights really isn't in that rotation. I am free, freely willing
to admit that most of that podcastI consume via social media clips, and

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sometimes when there's something like that andyou're not a regular listener, you know,
you kind of need a glossary ofterms, and if you're not familiar
with how the podcast works, youknow, maybe it doesn't really work if
you're there in person. So Iwas at least on the fence, and
then they moved it indoors, andI started to think about just that looks
like it's going to be a funevent, and if you're not a listener

(04:50):
of their podcast, can you stillenjoy it? I said to myself,
the answer must be yes, Andso I went, and I'm really glad
that I did. That was areally fun event. There were like twelve
thousand people there. It played Ithink so much better inside Fifth third Arena
than it would have outside at KnippertStadium. For all the plans to have

(05:13):
the thing done indoors, it feelslike the folks that you see and the
production people did a great job ofjust making it seem like all along it
was going to be inside Fifth thirdArena. I don't think that there was
really anything newsworthy yesterday. I wasjoking with some of the Bengals media folks
who were there last night because JoeBurrow was there and Orlando Brown was there,
like they if Joe Burrow is goingto speak publicly, they kind of

(05:35):
have to be there for it.And we were kind of wondering, like
what could he say that would beremotely newsworthy or interesting. There was nothing
really newsworthy there and that's okay.It was just a fun event, just
just like, not a sporting event, just a fun event. Just a

(05:57):
fun show, a fun not evena concert. Just I just I feel
like everybody who went that I've talkedto or read a social media post from,
even if you know, I'll admitthat the price wasn't cheap. I
think everybody who was there had hada good time last night and looked like
when this was announced, I sawand heard the but he plays for the

(06:20):
Chiefs. Grow up like, okay, Travis Kelsey plays for the Chiefs.
Yeah, okay, all right?Can we move on from that. If
there's any sort of takeaway, Iguess for me it would be this we
as fans, the Chiefs and Bengals, I think have a great rivalry.

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Is it the best in the NFL? Right now? I don't know it's
one of them. I guess itto me, I think it is Bengals
Chiefs coming up this year is mustwatch TV if you're a football fan and
help maybe it ends up being thefirst game of the season. They've played
in some really good games, somereally high stakes games. I mean,
if you think about it, theBengals season has effectively ended each of the
last two years in Kansas City,and they won their third AFC Championship in

(07:06):
Kansas City a couple of years ago. They've played a couple of great regular
season, high stakes games where JoeBurrow was healthy. Like, it's a
really good rivalry. We as fans, like we think we want these guys
to hate each other, right,I mean, when they announced that Joe
Burrow was going to be there,I saw that. I saw people post
that. Why would he do that? I don't know either he got paid

(07:30):
or he felt like it, orhe has a tremendous amount of respect for
Travis and Jason Kelsey. I thinkwhat was cool about that last night?
And I can't capture it? AndI understand there's a very good chance you
weren't there because there were only twelvethousand people in the house last night,
But if you did happen to bethere, at least for me, my

(07:51):
takeaway was, Yeah, these guyshave a great rivalry, and these guys
want to destroy each other on thefield, but these dudes have an awful
lot of respect for each other.And I think that's more true across professional
athletics than we as fans at timeswant to acknowledge, Like we get worked

(08:13):
up into rivalry and we hate otherfan bases, and there's I'm sure dislike
between the Bengals and Chiefs collectively.But I think it's really cool a guy
like Travis Kelsey who's going to Cantonone day, who has what Joe Burrow
wants. They shared a stage witheach other, they talked about playing against

(08:35):
each other. I just I thinkit's really cool when you have people Jason
Kelsey's going to Canton. Orlando Brownwas there on stage with him. Orlando
Brown's had a good NFL career.Des Ritter was also there last night as
part of a separate segment, whichwas awesome as well. But I'm watching
that last night when Joe Burrow's onstage with Orlando Brown and the Kelsey brothers,
both of whom will be in theHall of Fame one day, Joe

(08:56):
Burrow, who certainly has a chance, and Orlando Brown has had a very
good career, and it's just it'sit's four guys with some shared experiences who
all just have an immense amount ofrespect for each other and understand what work
each has done to get to wherethey are as a fan, as a
lover of sports, might sound hokey, I think that's really cool. Like

(09:18):
I think that's really neat. Andyou know, I again, I saw
it last week or two weeks ago, you know, when this was really
starting to steamroll. They're Bengal fanswho are like, I'm not going to
that, Okay, don't fine,it's still gonna happen without you, or
but we want nothing to do withTravis. Well, why, Here's a
guy who wants to give back tohis university. Here's a guy who wants

(09:39):
to put on a show at hisuniversity. Here's a guy who feels a
connection to his university. And that'scool. And he shared a stage last
night with a guy who plays forone of his team's arch rivals, Like
that is awesome. And Joe andTravis between them a player in Orlando Brown,
who's obviously played for both on topof the Baltimore Ravens. I just

(10:03):
to me that was I kind ofwalked out of the arena and drove home
and said, like, just tomyself, it's really cool seeing the very
obvious respect that these guys have foreach other, for what they've accomplished,
for the work that they put in, for what they mean to their teams,
for what they mean to the league. And so if the perspective last

(10:24):
night was you're not gonna go becauseone of the Kelsey brothers plays for a
team that's not the Bengals, Idon't know. If it didn't bother Joe
Burrow probably shouldn't bother you. Aquarter after three. Just a fun event.
I mean, you go to asporting event. Sometimes people walk out
now feeling so good. Right,team played poorly there are That's just one

(10:46):
of those events. I feel likelast night, everybody who was there had
a good time. Maybe I'm deadwrong, and again I know it wasn't
cheap, but I feel like thatevent for two and a half hours.
You know, I've been asked bythree or four people what was it like,
And I've said, like, Itwas just like a two hour thing
where during it everybody felt good.There were Chiefs fans there, they felt
good. There were Eagles. Isat next to an Eagles fan to my

(11:09):
right. She felt good. Everybodyjust felt good last night. That was
That was cool. And you mightnot like those guys, but they obviously
do love the University of Cincinnati.Chad Brenda was there. Get a few
thoughts from him coming up in abouttwenty five minutes. Our phone numbers are
five point three, seven four nine, fifteen, thirty eight sixty six,
seven oh two, three seven sevensix. If you went last night and

(11:31):
had a different experience or the sameexperience, we are wide open. Uh.
Charles Oakley is going to be onthis show at four oh five.
There is a a sort of aninternal combination of nervousness and excitement and anticipation
that very few anticipated guests have evergiven me. We've got that on the

(11:52):
docket coming up at four oh five. Some FC Cincinnati stuff a little bit
later on. I'm I'm gonna saythis same thing almost every day this baseball
season, and I'm gonna say itagain coming up in just a bit.
But I'll admit to you, HunterGreen is frustrating for one simple reason.
We'll get to that a little bitlater. On first UK as a new

(12:13):
head coach. When this week started, I don't recall anybody suggesting, hey,
go get Mark Pope, but there'sa part of me that likes it.
We'll get to that next on ESPNfifteen thirty. Sinthing on and send
me a tweet at moegar and checkout our show preview video which is available

(12:33):
on X gonna. I'm gonna getto the point where I just start calling
it X I know, but forTwitter at Moegar. Show preview video is
a service of Emery Federal Credit Union. Do what I did, become a
member. Go to EMORYFCU dot org. Chad Brendall. In twenty minutes,
we'll talk mainly about the spring gamefor UC tomorrow and one or two hoops

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things too if we have time.Speaking a college basketb well, Mark Pope,
Kentucky made it official. The formerWildcat is replacing John Kella Perry as
UK's basketball coach. Sometimes in life, your reaction to what happens or what
you get is significantly impacted by whatyou expected or what you didn't get.

(13:16):
If you think you know what,I'm gonna go to my boss. I'm
gonna ask for like a forty percentraise, and I think I'm gonna get
it. I've got a shot here, and it turns out you end up
getting a like a fifteen percent raise. Well, the fifteen percent raise is
cool, but god, you hadyour heart set on a forty percent raise.
Or your kids ask Santa for likeseven or eight things and Santa brings

(13:39):
five or six of those things,but there's like those one or two things
they really wanted. Their reaction towhat they got can be impacted by what
they didn't. And so if you'rea UK fan, like I get it,
man, you might have thought atthe beginning of all this, we're
gonna be able to lun Dan Hurleyto Lexington. I would have tried it.
I think Dan Hurley not really goingout of the linn here is the
best coach in the country. Oryou know, you thought we could,

(14:03):
we could, we could pull BillyDonovan away from the Chicago Bulls. I
think with that timing is such abig deal here, and you might go,
well, it's it's UK. It'sdifferent, perhaps, but I watched
it. You see coaching changes twoof them in two years happen in April,
Like it's it's late in the process. I don't know that you could
have afforded that the Bulls are gonnaplay next week. It might not play

(14:26):
very long, but they're gonna playnext week, and if they advanced to
the playoffs after the play in theymay play even longer. Like you really
wanted to wait a long time forBilly Donovan to fully engage in the process,
to maybe even tell you know,And had that been the case,
perhaps you still could have hired MarkPope. But like I get it if
if you had your heart set onwe're gonna be able to get Jay Wright

(14:52):
to come at a retirement, likeI understand, relative to those expectations,
even Scott Drew, Mark Pope ispretty underwhelming. And like I will admit
to you that when you look atjust the relative lack of overall success,
there's a lot to be desired.Now, there is also a part of

(15:13):
me that thinks, you know,it's kind of cool not that Mark Pope
played at Kentucky, which obviously hedid, and won a championship at Kentucky,
which obviously he did. But youknow, we often talk about like
the size of certain jobs and understandingeverything that's involved. Mark Pope understands what's
involved in coaching at the University ofKentucky. I would also kind of want

(15:37):
to know, and maybe we neverreally get this answer. Who else maybe
made it known that they weren't thatinterested, Like NATO's sent a tweet,
and Scott Drew had the lunch photothat we had fun with, and Dan
Hurley kind of headed off speculation rightafter the Huskies won the national title on

(15:58):
Monday, but via back channels,who made it known You're gonna waste your
time if you reach out. Idon't know. I will at least say
this, and I'll admit that this. It sort of sounds similar to what
I said about Scott Drew the otherday. I think there's I think there's
validity in being okay with boring.You know a lot of folks said about

(16:26):
Scott Drew, well, he's boring, and Mark Pope is probably also boring.
Now here's what I know. Hehelped usher BYU into the Big twelve,
and they did well. Didn't beU see, but they did well.
One of the criticisms of John CalliPerry was his offense is antiquated.
I watched enough BYU basketball this yearto tell you their offense ain't antiquated.

(16:49):
It runs actually pretty damn well.Regarded as a good tactician, can he
recruit, I don't know. Idon't know, but John cali Perry could
recruit, but couldn't get the kidsto play well enough, or together enough,
or in a modern enough method ifyou will, to have the sort
of success that you would have associatedwith high end recruiting. John Caliperi wasn't

(17:14):
boring. And I said this aboutScott Drew, but the criticism, well,
he's boring. Luke Fickle was boringas hell. But I remember when
you see hired Luke Fickle, differentsports, different circumstances going you know what,
maybe not the first choice, maybenot the biggest name. Maybe that's
somebody who just oozed charisma or hada ton of head coaching experience. But
dude's just a nuts and bolts footballcoach, like not the most like active

(17:38):
on social media, not showing upon every radio show or every podcast,
not really doesn't look like he's interestedin writing leadership manuals. Just nuts and
bolts football coach for a program thatat the time needed a nuts and Bolts
football coach. I think Kentucky needsa nuts and Bolts basketball coach. I
don't know if Mark Pope is thefirst guy that I would have thought of.

(18:00):
Be honest with you, if youtold me I could have Mark Pope
or Sean Miller, I'm taking SeanMiller. But I think with John Caliperry,
I heard often and I felt oftenlike what wore people down was the
lack of March success SEC tournament andthe NCAA tournament and them losing a lot

(18:22):
of close games over the last coupleof years. But the act right,
the act was always interesting. Theact he was always the act was always
on one of my favorite coaches showsto listen to. I'd listened to it
every Monday going home because always interesting, always engaging. I like John Caliperry,
but not boring, and over thelast few years, didn't really come

(18:44):
off as a Nuts and Bolts basketballcoach. If the nil money is there,
by the way, I guess.Rick Patino said on Alan Cutler show
down in Lexington today that he'd throwin some nil money, which is remarkable
if you think about it. Fora few different reasons. If the nil
money is there, and that helpsMark Pope recruit, and he knows what
he's recruiting. I don't know ifhe can recruit, but he does strike

(19:07):
me as a pretty damn good Nutsand Bolts basketball coach. And I know
what uk. I kind of rootedfor the big personality because I think that
program's more fun when there's a bigpersonality. But they also just had one
in the last five or six years. Weren't that fun. They weren't terrible.
Tucky was a three seed this year, two seed two years ago.
But I think there's I think there'ssomething to be said about just Nuts and

(19:33):
Bolts basketball coach, basketball guy,no podcast, not huge on social media,
not writing leadership manuals. I don'tknow if he can recruit. I
don't know if this is gonna work. I admit to look, I'm the
guy who always wants something interesting.Mark Pope does not check that box for
me as a guy who does thisfor a living. But I kind of

(19:53):
feel like that program needed just agood Nuts and Bolts basketball coach. And
yeah, Dan Hurley's a good Nutsand Bolts basketball coach, and some of
the other guys we have talked aboutthis week are too. But if you
can't have those guys, I don'tknow. Like the word boring has been
brought up a lot. I thinkUK could use boring. Right now,

(20:18):
it's a three thirty at moleggor onTwitter thanks to a Delta Dental five pint
three, seven four nine, fifteenthirty is our phone number and you can
chime in on that. Uh someHunter Green stuff a little bit later on
Charles Oakleigh in thirty five minutes.We're getting closer and closer. Uh.
The most interesting decision in sports wasa decision that was made yesterday. That's

(20:44):
next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's esphome of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit
approval from their family to yours lifekelseyshev dot com. Red's in Chicago tonight,
first of a three game weekend seriesagainst the White Sox. Andrew Abbott
and righty Chris Flexen are your pitchers. Seven forty is tonight's first pitch.

(21:06):
They're not dealing with any sort ofweather issues in Chicago. Correct, The
weather in this part of the countryhas been miserable. Hopefully no such issues
tonight seven forty Tonight on seven hundredWLW. The White Sox off to a
miserable two and ten start. Theyhave lost Eloy Jimenez. They have lost
Luis Robert Jr. They have lostJowan Moncota. They gave away Dylan Cees.

(21:27):
They are terrible. They were terriblelast year, They're terrible this year.
The Red should sweep the series.What else do we have? Bengals
have announced the locally based players whowill participate in their annual Local Players pre
draft workout on Tuesday. Do Ihave to read all these names? Do
we have time for me to readall these names? Okay? Good Taran,

(21:48):
thank you for making the decision forme. Kentucky officially announces Mark Pope
as the new head men's basketball coach. Uc spring game is tomorrow at New
Inn. FC Cincinnati is on theroad at Montreal tomorrow night. That game's
on ESPN. Fifteen thirty. Cyclonesplay their final regular season game tomorrow on
the road against Wheeling and Max Holmais currently in the lead along with Bryson,

(22:14):
De'shamba and Scotti Scheffler, each sixunder now. Scheffler wrapped up round
one earlier today. He is throughfive holes today. Holma is as I
watch right now about to tee offon seventeen and Deshambeau for the day is
one over through eleven. I thinkthat would be it for your local sports
headlines. I was not here yesterdayand so I didn't have to devote a

(22:38):
segment on OJ Simpson, and hadI, I probably would have not talked
about him as a football player,because for me, what he did as
a football player became irrelevant the momenthe killed two people. That may sound
harsh, and if it does,I'm sorry. I know he was acquitted.

(23:00):
In my opinion, that was atremendous miscarriage of justice. I'll forever
feel like OJ Simpson got away withmurder twice, and so him as a
football player, as a sports guy, I don't care. I haven't cared
since June of nineteen ninety four,when it became obvious to me this is
somebody who killed two people. NowI could talk about Oj through that,

(23:21):
Lens. I do think there's whatwe've done in the past, like the
events that you wish Twitter would havebeen around. For Twitter On the night
of June seventeenth, nineteen ninety four, which was also the night of Game
five of the NBA Finals. HadTwitter been around for that, it would
have been incredible. I with theterrorist attacks of September eleventh, two thousand

(23:47):
and one an obvious and notable exception, I can't think of any singular cultural
event that has frozen the country likethe Bronco che and his acquittal, which
I remember, anybody my age,slightly younger, certainly older, could tell

(24:08):
you probably for both what they weredoing, where they were, and who
they were with. I was watchingthe NBA Finals June seventeenth, nineteen ninety
four. I'll never forget it,and I'll never forget on my eighteenth birthday,
October third, nineteen ninety five,as a freshman at UD watching the
acquittal. And I don't know thatwe have had any sort of cultural event

(24:33):
over the last thirty years, withthe unfortunate, obvious exception of nine to
eleven that has just stopped. Thecountry stopped. I mean, do you
know anybody who was alive on Juneseventeenth, nineteen ninety four who didn't at
some point start watching the Bronco chase, or who on October fifth, nineteen
ninety five, who didn't stop whatthey were doing, which I think it

(24:55):
was at noon Eastern time to findout what the OJ Simpson double murder verdict
was. I don't think there's beenanything like that, and had Twitter been
around for that, it would havebeen incredible as well. I do think
though, the most interesting decision insports belonged to whoever decides what's going to

(25:19):
be sent out on social media bythe Buffalo Bills, who as of about
two forty five today and I'm I'mlooking at it, they have not acknowledged
OJ Simpson's passing. I probably Ithink that's probably for the best, right,

(25:41):
Like, there's there's almost nothing youcould do that's not going to be
picked apart, criticized, be givenblowback. That he is probably still to
this day the most famous Buffalo Bill. They obviously have had a ton of
iconic players, but of of allthe great Buffalo Bills that have played,

(26:03):
he's probably, for at least alot of folks, the most identifiable figure
in the history of the franchise.And so it's one thing like I looks
at Twitter yesterday. First of all, I don't feel the need to tweet
about everything, but it's like Iain't touching that one. I know how
I feel about Oj Simpson. I'llsay it here on the air. I
don't care about his football playing prowess. He's a creep of a human being

(26:26):
who beat his wife and killed twopeople. And because the jury didn't find
him guilty doesn't mean I can't feelthat way. So, but if you're
the Buffalo Bills again, like,I think they made the right call here,
but I've seen some people say like, you could have at least acknowledged
it. Now, I don't knowwhat acknowledging it does. If you acknowledge

(26:48):
his passing. Boy, there's areally sort of tough thin line there that
you have to tiptoe and walk thetight rope for where how much do we
acknowledge what this guy did and whathe did as a player, while at
the same time sort of understanding thatthe majority of Americans feel like this guy
got away with murder. I don'tknow. So, if you're the Buffalo

(27:11):
Bills and you've got you know,if let's say, something tragic were to
happen to a like a Bruce Smithor a Jim Kelly, and certainly god
hope nothing of that sort happens,but you know, you acknowledge it.
You put a social media post outthere you have something on your website.
Buffalo Bill's website is nothing on OJSimpson. Again, I think that's probably

(27:32):
the right way to do it,but I would be fascinated to see what
the conversations were like. I don'tknow if they were tipped off about you
know, him being close to passing, but what the conversations were like.
And you can maybe say the samething about us as well, which to
the best of my knowledge, hasnot acknowledged his passing either what do you
do there? Like, legitimately,what do you do there? The Buffalo

(27:55):
Bills chose to do nothing, andI think there are instances where when you
don't don't know what to do,nothing is probably the best strategy. But
I do think those conversations, whatwe Oj died, Okay? Do we
send a statement, do we havea press release? Do we put something
on social do we get quotes fromguys who played with it? Like?

(28:15):
What do we do? They didnothing? I think that's the right thing,
But I think that was the mostinterest among all the different things that
news organizations have had to weigh whenit comes to OJ Simpson. I was
watching Sports Center last night and ChrisBerman was doing say what you want about
him, a very good job ofsort of threading the needle in that fine

(28:38):
spot where you want to talk aboutwhat he meant as a sports figure,
but also the last thirty years havebeen just a mess, and I thought
he did a really good job.I think it's really been hard for a
lot of people to do Buffalo Billschose to do nothing. I think that's
probably the right strategy. But whatinto that decision, to me would be

(29:02):
fascinating to learn more about. Seventeenminutes away from four o'clock. I promise
phone calls are coming up. Wealso have to say some of the same
things we've said about Hunter Green fortwo years, which is the frustrating part.
We'll do that in the four o'clockhour. You see spring Game is
tomorrow. If you're going what towatch for from Chad Brendall next teen days,
it's thirteen away from four o'clock.This is ESPN fifteen thirty. My

(29:26):
name is Moe Edgar. Thrilled thatyou're starting your weekend with us, or
maybe you started your weekend yesterday.I had no idea Charles Oakley is going
to be on this show at fouroh five Paul Dolan, to Paul Dolan
is not related to the family thatowns the next that would be weird.
Instead, he's an MLS announcer forMLS Season Pass, and he's got the

(29:48):
game tomorrow night for Apple TV FCCincinnati on the road against Montreal. Meanwhile,
kind of a busy sports weekend.Tomorrow it's the spring game, second
annual UC Spring game, and bysecond annual, I mean second one with
Scott Saderfield is the head coach.Complete coverage available at bearcad journal dot com,
of which Chad Breundle is the proprietorand he's with us. Now,

(30:10):
what is going on? Proprietor?I like that gonna I'm gonna start calling
myself the proprietor a lot more.Okay, you could. It's all yours.
It sounds important, it sounds big, exactly owner. Anybody can be
an owner of anything. Prietor howmany How many proprietors are out there,
not that many, but I'm talkingto one right now, right before we

(30:33):
do the spring game. You know, I like you were there last night.
I went, and you know,folks have asked me, how was
it, what was it like?When you get those questions what do you
say. Well, one, Ithink they got really lucky because I don't
think that event would have been asmemorable outside in an open air, forty

(30:56):
thousand seat stadium. I think itwas absolutely perfect inside said third arena.
The sound was great, everybody was, you know, very close to the
action. Jason and Travis are justso good at that, and I thought
it was a great time. Ithought it was a really really well done

(31:18):
event. Yeah, no, Iwould. My very first impression I got
there a little bit before eight o'clockwas immediately this is awesome. This would
not have been anywhere close to isawesome had it been outside, even if
the weather had been perfect. Soyeah, I do think they stumbled onto
something. The spring game, though, will be outside. What should I
be watching for tomorrow, Brendan Sowersby, I mean, this is you know,

(31:44):
a great chance for at first impressionfor what we all anticipate will be
Cincinnati's starting quarterback. And if hedoesn't have a great day, is it
like the end of the world.No, because he's had a really really
good spring and it really consistently spring. But you know, of those fourteen
practices, I have seen them.Most people have it pretty much nobody has,

(32:08):
So their impressions are going to comefrom what he looks like in this
first like live action experience with fansin attendance. So, you know,
I think that's going to be storylinenumber one, storyline number two, and
you know, for the the footballjunkies probably more important. Can they get

(32:29):
this defense back on track? Itwas bad last year, it was really
really bad, and they've they've addeda lot of really good new pieces.
I think I think they they lookmore the part of a Big twelve defense
than they did last year. They'relonger, they're more athletic, They've got
a lot more experience back there withthe additions from the transfer portal. But

(32:53):
we need to see it on thefield and what it looks like against,
you know, in a hosing offense, even though it's their own imposing offense.
But yeah, I just I thinkthat that those two things are going
to be the what we're writing aboutand talking about come Saturday evening. Do

(33:14):
you feel good based on just whatyou've seen during spring ball? And things
can change, but do you feelgood about them specifically on defense being able
to rise to the level of physicalityneeded in the Big twelve? I don't
fully know yet. You know,I think one of the things that really
doomed them last year was was theinability to get after the quarterback, especially

(33:38):
from the edge positions on the defensiveline. I want to see more of
that. I want to see canthese guys, you know, be disrupted
in the backfield they had for themfor a while last year. They had
a really good run defense. Butthe past defense was the only way I

(33:59):
could describe their past defenses. Ibet mo Egger threw a lot of pens,
correct. Uh. So you knowthat's kind of the double edged sword
in here right mode. Because ifBrendon Soorsby goes out throws a bunch of
touchdown passes and in a ton ofyards, we're gonna be really impressed with

(34:19):
Brandon Soresby. But when when youand I talk again on air, we're
gonna be like, oh boy,like that past event didn't look a whole
lot better than it did last year. So you know, it's six of
one, half dozen of the other, depending on how you look at it.
But I do think they look likeI said, they look the part
more. They they look longer andmore athletic and you know, more physical

(34:45):
but now we need to see,like how does it translate? And and
the one thing I do like isthe beginning of the spring, we saw
a lot of big plays, whichis not to be unexpected, new defensive
coordinator, a bunch of new players, especially in the second But they got
better as the spring went along andyou saw less of those days where there

(35:07):
was you know, four or fivesix splash plays. That was the thing
that killed them last year is youknow, teams new, guess what if
it's third and five, third andseven, We're just gonna throw it over
the top and this team's either gonnafail to cover or they're going to get
a pass an interference call, andwe're going to move the sticks, and

(35:28):
there needs to be a lot lessof that. This will be the first
visual evidence we have of can theydo better in that area? Give me
an idea of one or two things, and if Soresby's an upgrade, you
know the answer is going to be, we'll just throw the football, but
give me one or two things.They'll be able to do significantly better on
offense this year compared to what wesaw last season. The first and foremost

(35:52):
I think is very clear when youwatch practice they are going to be much
more effective both over the middle andin like the screen swing, you know,
short passing game and using that asa as an extension of the running
game. They just didn't They didn'tand couldn't throw the ball over the middle

(36:15):
last year, and once teams figuredthat out, I mean, you're dead
if they know the middle of thefield is just not an option for your
offense. Joe Royer has had anoutstanding spring, and you know, he
looks like a guy that can bea difference maker at tight end, and

(36:38):
that I think you know, whenyou get into those third and medium,
third and short situations, teams can'tjust know ten your ears back get up
the field, they're either going torun the ball or they're going to throw
it incomplete somewhere. So that Ithink is the first thing offensively that you're

(37:00):
going to look for the other thing. And it's a little bit more difficult
to tell because Luke Candra and D'artagnianTinsley have missed most of the spring.
It's nothing major. Candra actually hasbeen back. He had a minor surgery
after the season. He's been backlimited in practice, but has been back

(37:23):
on the field as we've gotten towardsthe end of the spring. The second
thing is going to be protecting thequarterback. If they can't improve there and
they can't be better there, thenyou know this offense is still going to
have problems. They have done amuch better job keeping a pocket, especially
from the two tackle positions this springthan we saw, you know, for

(37:47):
most of last year. And youknow, that's one of the things that
Emma Jones not have a good year. We you know, that's just the
reality of the situation. But someof it wasn't his fault because he would
take a snap and within one secondhad to make a decision to get murdered
or run for his life. Thatcan't be the case this year. So

(38:09):
you want to see that quarterback uprightin the pocket, especially if you have
a guy that's going to deliver theball over the middle, gonna throw some
of the out routes and some ofthe things you can do with the guy
that has the arm talent of Soresby, you got to give him time.
And they've had more time in thepocket this spring than they did last year.

(38:29):
So if that continues, that makesthis offense a lot more dangerous.
We know, a Scott Satterfield offenseis going to run the ball and run
the ball effectively with their outside zonescheme. It can't be the only thing
that you do offensively, no question, really quick. Obviously departures will impact

(38:49):
this, but the portal is goingto reopen based on what we know now,
what will they be shopping for.You're always looking for big guys.
You're always looking for help on thedefensive line. You're always looking for help
on the offensive line. I thinkthey'd like to maybe find another starting level
corner. I think the corner playhas been significantly improved so far this spring,

(39:15):
but I think you could use morebodies in that room. So I
think those that area specifically in termsof skill. And then you know,
you're always looking to find big guys. You're always looking to find bodies that
can help you in the trenches.So I think those three spots will be
necessary. And let's be honestly,you're gonna have a situation where you're not

(39:38):
gonna have Dante Corleone probably next year, so it would behoove you to start
making sure you have a replacement forwhen he's not around. I got like
thirty seconds here, You got anyBasketball News. Connor Hickman, the guard
from that we got a view ofin the n IT, we'll be visiting

(40:01):
next week. And as long ashe doesn't commit to Rick Patino and Saint
John's this weekend, I think GeeWest former West Virginia, former Arizona guard
coming up next week as well.All right, Kirk criesy, Yeah,

(40:22):
you cut out there. All right, awesome stuff, man, Thank you
so much. Have a great weekend. All right, thanks? Well,
you got a Jed Rendel coverage ofthe spring game tomorrow. Comprehensive coverage at
Bearcat Journal dot com. Taren,are we ready? Are you excited for
this? I am are? Isyour nerves calmed? You need a well
something. I don't get nervous talkingdoing interviews. But you know, I

(40:45):
don't know what if this goes likethis feels like it has potential for maybe
Charles to get mad at me forsome reason, and I don't know why.
How many times has he done aninterview where the person asking the questions
is wearing his suresy? Probably notoften? Probably not often. All right,
Well, we're getting ready to interviewCharles Oakley. He's supposed to call

(41:07):
in any second now and so he'scoming to town for the Big Three.
We'll do that next. This reportis are you ready for some football?
Hi? This is Dan Horr joinedDave Lapham and me for every play of
every game on the official home ofthe Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty. All
right, here we go. It'sthree minutes after four o'clock. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. My name isMoegor. Thank you so much for joining

(41:30):
us. I would typically sort ofoutline everything we have coming up in the
hour, but we have a gueston hold who's very important, and I
don't want to make him wait.The Big Three's seventh season gets underway on
June the fifteenth. If you don'tknow, the Big Three is a professional
three on three basketball league. Youcan find its games on CBS Paramount Plus

(41:50):
and this season streamed on x and. The Big Three is going to be
coming to Cincinnati this summer July thetwenty eighth, at the Heritage Bank Center.
Tickets went on sale today. Youcan buy them at Big three dot
com. Among the players participating familiarface Jordan Crawford, who obviously had a
terrific career at Xavier University. Theteam I'm rooting for is the Killer Threes,

(42:12):
which since twenty seventeen has been coachedby a former NBA All Star,
a two time All Defensive teamer,and the hard and soul of teams that
I revered to this day and oneof the coolest people to ever play the
sport, Charles Oakley, who's withus on ESPN fifteen thirty. It is
awesome to have you. Thank youfor joining us. How are you.

(42:34):
I'm good, Thank you for havingme, and thanks for the intro.
Well I could have kept going,but I didn't want to. I didn't
want to embarrass you. Okay,Well, hey, I don't think I
can get embarrassed no more than Iwas in the garden, So it's okay,
all right, Well I wasn't goingto go there. I first want
to talk about you've been in theBig Three really since its inception. It's

(42:57):
year seven. It feels like theleague is getting bigger and bigger. It's
getting more and more coverage. Whathas it been like watching the league kind
of take off? I been good. I think give ice Cube and Jeff
praised them for starting to leave forguys who played in the league. Sometimes
guys to have a long career,guys still have talent. And I think
the Big Three is the league thatyou know you can see guys talent.

(43:19):
You know, some people watch it. You know it's fun with the kids
to interact with the game, butuh, it's something special. I think
that once you come and watch itand see that it's not people think,
well, just another as the league. It's fourteen seconds and you got to
be in shape and you got yougot to just know that ain't no help
in this game. You got tokeep a guy in front of you.
And you know, like the erathat you played in, physical play,

(43:43):
trash talk, stuff like that isisn't just allowed, it's but it's almost
encourage right. It's a lot ofin the Big Three, a lot of
trash talking, a lot of Yougot to have to pull your pays up
and play some defense, and ifyou don't, somebody can give you thirty
points, a real ease and thegame is that your coaching advice, pull
your pants up and play defense.Well, my my advice to my guys

(44:07):
is don't make a fool of yourself. Don't gonna come out and just shoot
shoe shoot and think that you knowit's It's really a team effort because,
like I said, you got tokeep a guy in front of you at
all times, and you know ain'tbut so many shots you're gonna get.
Know that every shot, you know, make sure you get a good value
shot that you know is a teamshot. And some of these guys sometimes

(44:30):
call your own self, but youknow in home ways and I think I'm
gonna take this guy every time.It's not easy sometimes, so but uh
it's good, don't uh. Yousee all these guys come out there and
show that they still can play,and that's a plus. Yeah, no
question. Now, when you whenyou first started coaching in the Big Three,
correct me if I'm wrong, atthe end of your first season,

(44:50):
you suit it up. Is thereany chance of that ever happening. I
might have a suit on, butI won't be playing. But it was
fun. You know, we wereshort of a guy and I still had
some of them. I still havesome gas, about half a tank of
gas in the tank, and Ijust will like to dry to be a
team player. But no, Iprobably won't be playing, but I'm I
will be getting on my guys.I think they said I ride them.

(45:14):
I'm saying, well, if yougot to sell them that what just doing
the hard you gotta ride them.So but my guys said I'd be too
tough on them sometime. But it'spart of the game. You know.
These guys, they you know,they don't want you to say nothing to
them. Everybody wants to get intotheir own bag. You know, they
ain't always get into your bag,you know, So sometimes I just you
know, let them know the hang. We're still a team. It's still

(45:35):
a team effort, no matter whatyou say about into your bag. So
so like when your guys are practicing, like you'll get out there with them
and push them around and stuff.Well, we go through some drills every
now, with some shooting drills,and you know, I think early the
first couple of years, I wason the floor with them banging up you
know, some post moves. Butnow I just let them come in.
We only like trimmings, like thirtyforty minutes a day before a game,

(45:59):
and you know of shots up andgo and plays and how we gonna courting
Obie play. We try to comeup with a good scheme to uh to
slow him down. All right,So now I want to go back to
your first your first year you're coachingin the Big Three and you suit up.
And then at the time, KenyanMartin was playing, and I felt
like a kid in the middle oftwo parents fighting because well, Kenyan Martin's

(46:21):
one of my favorite all time players, and then Charles Oakley is one of
my favorite all time players. Andthen they had beef, and I felt
I felt torn. Has has thatbeen settled? Are you guys? Okay?
It really would no beef, youknow, beef is what you buy
from the store and you cook it. Hey, he didn't want this beef.
He don't want to smoke. AndI told him that you're too small
with me. You got to gotalk to somebody your side. So you

(46:44):
keep playing with me. You ain'tgonna be coaching to no ways longer.
So I told him that he understands. You know. You know sometimes people
try to they forget when somebody's thatyou forget what you had and you gotta
realize that. Oh no, okay, I made a mistake. But he
made a mistake. But it's okay. I don't know the person with me,
know, like I said, he'sthe hometown flavor up there. You
know, I like his you know, he mouth off a lot, but

(47:06):
he's not tough as he talked,So they go with that. But are
you and Kenyon are okay? Thoughyou guys are all right, I'm I'm
okay anytime I'm I'm I can't walkaround now. He's he just like you
know, he just mouthall. Hejust made either that mouthful to the wrong
guy. That's all. Sometimes StephenJackson, he mouthed off. He gotta
realize, Hey, you're talking tosomebody. He gonna bring the smoke.

(47:30):
I ain't gonna just get sit there. I'm bringing the smoke. Yeah.
What if? What if? Whatif Kenyon's here on July twenty eighth and
Cincinnati? Would that be I meanthat for me, that you, you
and Kenyon in the same building wouldbe all right? Yeah? I mean
I like I said, I hada problem Older Thought. A few of
the guys, you know, whenthey played for he played for Houston,
they said, oh, to talk. You know, we're going to the

(47:51):
gym to play, you know,in the summertime. If somebody said Older
Thought is in the gym, Isaid, I'm gonna be in the gym
too. I'm coming to his house. I don't I ain't scaring come,
you know whatever. But now,yeah, they okay, because you know,
everybody just talking talk a lot now, But I ain't never seen a
kick in the fight, So I'mwaiting to see him in a fight.
All right. Well then maybe maybeJuly twenty eighth, Big three dot Com

(48:13):
get tickets. The Big Three iscoming to a Heritage Bank Center. Charles
Oakley, the Great Charles Oakley,coach of the Killer Threes. Now that
the Big Three that reportedly made anoffer to Caitlin Clark, Well, what
do you make of her? Ifshe were decided to do it. She
could play in the w NBA butalso be in the Big Three. Do
you think she could do more thanhold her own? I mean she can
shoot, so when you can,when you get a satellite carry, you

(48:36):
can stress the floor. But Ithink it might be a little physical.
But it'd be great for the BigThree to bring more people with more I
to TV, more you know,interest to the game. But you know,
we could say one one come,another one might come. So hey,
I don't mind if the guys don'ttry to you know, I will
try to out you know, outpower with him. I don't I wouldn't

(48:57):
want to see that but I don't, Like I said, when you and
you lace them up, you gottaknow where you're at. So the big
thing is, can you can youbeat the guys love to dribble? Can
you do this? Can you?You know, because they gonna bang,
They're gonna you know, so ifthat work out, she can come and
be successful, be great for theBig Three. But she's Hey, she's
tough, she's a tough players.You know, she's feisty. So hey,

(49:21):
hey, I wouldn't count out,you know, because the girls these
days is really good. They knowhow to play and they know how to
play within themselves. So more powerto her. It'd be grateful to league.
But if she don't, we stilldon't. The Big Three still gonna
go on. Yeah, no,no, no question about that. You
you you played in an era.And look, I love basketball. I
love every level of basketball. Butyou know, for for some of us,

(49:44):
they're calling technical fouls too quickly.They guy dunks and looks at the
dude he dunked on the wrong way. They tee him up, and then
guys getting each other's faces. Butbut nothing ever really happens, Like is
is there anybody who's playing today thatyou go. You know what, I'd
love to get a chance to likeknock them down in the pain at least
one time, just once. Uh. I didn't really look at the game

(50:07):
right there. I just played withwhoever's in front of me. But it's
a lot of front runners, youknow. You know a lot of guys
are gonna talk, man because theyget they know that their teammate goes.
They ain't gonna let them fight thisand that. But I think you back
in the days, if you talk, they ain't give you a chance.
They just somebody gonna just hit youin your mouth. But uh, you
know it's differently. It's you know, you talk about these guys, they

(50:28):
really sensitive and I just love howthey time I had my time. You
know, they let us play physical. When something wrong, you have to
hell your business. So it's adifferent time. Yeah, no, there's
no question about that. Do youever do you ever watch old footage of
yourself and go, holy crap,it's it's a lot different now than it
was back then. I mean,if I just watched the game, I

(50:49):
watch the footage. I just watchedthe game. You know, the other
the dudes running high, pick androll, side pick and roll and when
you score one hundred and forty hundredfifty points. I know back in the
day the Denverer Nuggets and the PhoenixSun used to but in this era that
you know, it's it's like Ithink they played like twenty five percent defense.
We played at least eighty five percentdefense. It was more tough for
the score. I think now,like I said, with Murray played,

(51:12):
Michael play, can these guys averageforty points? I think they definitely average
forty points. But you know,like I say, it's stay time and
it's a European it's a it's aglobal league. Now you got a lot
of Europeans in the league who aremaking a difference. I think when we
played, you might have had tenEuropean players. Now you might have one
hundred and fifty. It's a bigdifference. So the lead is definitely a

(51:34):
global market. Now are there playersyou see now that you go, you
know what that guy would have thrivedin an era that was more physical.
I mean, yeah, you gotsome of them because it's a lot of
skills guys. So my thing iswould even been efficient, that's the thing.
Yeah, they would have been okay, but with deficient numbers took over

(51:55):
back in the old age, Idon't think so. I think a lot
of guys would have had problem somenights on the court because some guys,
you know, gonna come at someguys who think they did and that.
But especially you know, there's alwaysbeen of course, canive guys playing.
I here and they said, well, can we play? Can we play
now? I think we definitely playnow with no problem. They would have
had a little problem back in theold days. Yeah. Uh so I

(52:20):
thought yesterday I grew up I'm inCincinnati, but I grew up a huge
Knicks fan. So Oj Simpson passesyesterday and everybody's what were you doing during
the Bronco Chase? And my responseis, I was yelling. I was
watching the game and yelling at NBCto get this Bronco Chase off because it's
Knicks Rockets, It's Game five andI'm living and breathing orange and blue.

(52:42):
Uh. Take me back to thatnight, an iconic night in American history.
Did you have any idea what wasgoing on outside of Madison Square Garden?
What what what thing comes up thatnight? We didn't know until late
and they I think some type ofway, Uh, someone got to hit
what was going on, but wereally didn't get involved into the whole chase

(53:02):
into afterwards. But you know,it's a big game, and you know
fans, I guess you know,I don't think cell phone was big big
back then like this now. Butsomeone they was, they they found out
what was going on, so theygot a lot of the fans' attention.
But it was just a sad momentwhat happened. And it's sad, you

(53:22):
know he's not here them more,but you know, life go on.
You know, we lost the seriesto Houston, but it was a great
series though. Yeah, but youwon. You won that night, and
that night that's all like he didlose the series. I wasn't going to
bring that up, but you wonthat night, and and it's become a
footnote. And for me, Ihonestly didn't really care much about oj Simpson.
I all I wanted to do waswatch Game five. And so when

(53:43):
that Bronco chase comes up, Iremember being at the time, sixteen years
old and just rooting like hell forthe Knicks to beat the Rockets. Had
you won that series, it wouldhave been awesome. But it did happen.
Well, we could have we hadhe's up three to one, three
two, Yeah, and it wentback to Houston with two. We lost
both, but he was it wentseventh and it went down to the last
two or three possessions. He usedto have. You know, Key was

(54:05):
a tough Key was tough for us. He heard us every game. You
know, I don't think we wedidn't really show him now. You know,
he knew how to get the ballout the past on the double team,
he knew how to you know,just he had an i Q was
so high, you know, becausehe played both in the court at a
high level. And uh that whatreally hurt us the series, and uh
you know it happened like that.Yeah, it's still it still kills me

(54:29):
thirty years later. Now you're you'refrom Cleveland. Have you have you have
you spent any time at all inCincinnati? Uh? Yeah, I mean
Tim McGain played the Big O.We went the same high school. Yeah,
I go. I just go tothe jazz Fest all the time.
My nephew with the Miami o'how Uhso I was in Cincinnata a lot,

(54:51):
you know, jazz Fest a lot. If I was growing up. You
know, I used to come downto the jazz Fest and uh, and
then I just to go to Cincinnati, you know, summertime. You know,
they really ain't changed Cincinnati for us. You know, it would used
to be all the crime and thisand that. They fix it up downtown,
so at least they make it thechange. Now here's the thing.
So you guys are here for theBig Three on the twenty eighth. The

(55:13):
jazz Fest, which is now theCincinnati Music Festival, is that weekend.
It's that I think it's the Fridayand Saturday night. You could go.
You could go to I'll go withyou. That'd be fun. Right.
Oh, I'm definitely gonna go.I heard that I've seen something in the
lineup. I'm definitely gonna go tothe jazz I love it. I love
the jazz Tuffer. So I'm gonnawork on that, trying to come in
that Friday and Saturday because I likethat, you know, like just the

(55:35):
people coming out and as like afamily union. They joined them two or
three days and now they get acaffino down there and they got good food
downtown on the walk. So Cincinnatiis doing a lot of good things.
That Bengals winning, you know,so you know the baseball team coming around.
So the city is getting this,you know, infrastruction coming back,
revenue is coming back, so that'sgood. It's good for Ohio Pire.

(55:57):
You know, being from the Cleveland, Ohio it's not a house. So
it's it's like, hey, weall eddered together. Yeah not wait a
minute now, I mentioned the musicfast. You said you're gonna go,
but like the can I go withyou? We can't. I mean,
you can get me back stage.I go with you when you have severe
limitations there. But if I we'llfigure that out, now are you are

(56:19):
you? Let's do that? Wecould go. We probably get back stage.
I mean, you know, Iprobably know somebody wanted the groups because
I know a lot of the entertainers, because they're gonna have a lot of
the old School one night, theLegend one night, so that the new
the new generation one night. Sowe bet we definitely can get backstage one
of those shows. Saturday, Julytwenty seventh, New Edition is playing.
You know any of those guys,Yes, I do, I know all

(56:39):
those all right, You and mehanging out with the guys in New Edition.
My producer Terren's gonna want to gotoo though. Okay, no problem.
We can all get together and gohang out. You know, take
the picture with the guys. Ohman, I'm dude, I'm I'm in.
Are you now against the Bengal Stadium? You're a Browns fan? Brown
and the Guns? Okay, allright? You know I like what Cincinnati

(57:00):
doing. Uh you know, Iwent to the Super Bowl with Burrow when
they played Kansas City Kent City,right ram, they should have won that
game. They came out with abig player the second half, and it
seemed like after that. I meana couple a couple of third down It's
just like with us, a coupleof free throws and a couple of jump
shot. But I think that uhyou know, it was a young team,

(57:22):
but you know, to lose threepoints and I mean you had I
mean, Donald just got loose.You know, I think Burrow was trying
to make a play. I canremember everything that happened that game. But
uh, it was a great game. It was in It was in LA
because I went to skip roll.We fed like fifteen other people. So
I was running late to get tothe game and I got there it was

(57:43):
like right before halftime, and uh, you know, I enjoyed myself because
you know, I went. Iwent to Cincinnati, I mean, you
know, Cincinnati and the Rams.Then I went to the next year,
I went to UH. Then Iwent last year, then I went UH.
This year I went to the SuperBowl. I went to Philly in
Kansas City. Then this year Iwent to the Super Bowl in Vegas.

(58:05):
So I go to a lot ofI liked. I liked I liked the
contact. Even though they took alot out of the game. I still
like going just to see the youknow, the guys just you know,
go out there and play the gameat a high level. What what was
Super Bowl weekend in Vegas like?For you you know, we went to
the rescue squad and the mission andwe felled like a thousand people. It

(58:28):
was good, you know, becausethey had everything went it spaced out and
the stadium is away from the strips, so it was good. And you
know, they had a lot oflittle stuff going on in rain one day.
But I think overall, you know, I went to Fanatic, you
know, Fanatic and a knife party. I went. I ain't really hang
out too much. Lebron and hehad a little party. His lookual line,
but I you know, just tryto just stay low. It was

(58:50):
good though. And then but theBengals Super Bowl, you got there at
halftime. Yes ago, we wereat skid Roll. We were feeding the
people in LA you were doing youwere doing community work, right. I
do that everywhere we go. Wemost time in Big I might try to
do it in Cincinnati. If wego to a shelter and so we cook,
you know, I'm the headshelf.We cook for like four or five
hundred people and just you know,try to bless them on a good meal

(59:14):
and hope that you know, peopleget their set back on track. You
know, if you're trying to alot of people who we need shelter stuff,
they're not trying to change, youknow, some people are. So
we're just trying to get the oneswho want to change and do better and
get like get life to you know, we booth and start all over them.
Yeah. No, that's uh,that's admirable work. Well, Uh
so you have you'll have a busycard here in Cincinnati because hopefully you can

(59:37):
be involved in some of that helpsout folks who need it here in Cincinnati.
Big for I make sure I makesure you know, the Big Three
we come in and they do alot of stuff in the community, but
I do that for my foundation.I would find someone probably that Friday,
and then you know whatever, justtell them I will come by and show
some love and you know, cookfor you know, cook for lunch or

(59:58):
you know lunch of breakfast, well, you know something of the people,
and just hang out with them.That's what I do. Yeah, now
that sounds awesome. And then we'llgo to the music fest. We'll see
new addition, and then we'll justsee where the night takes us. Because
you're just coaching the next day,you can stay up late, right,
Yeah, yeah, we can hangout. I mean all we gotta do
is practice. All we do ispractice is maybe for like thirty minutes a

(01:00:20):
day before I mean that's Saturday.And then after that at the seven o'clock
said that we own done hang out. I'm in all right, we're I'm
gonna make this. I'm gonna makethis happen. The Big Freeze coming to
Heritage Bank Center. Tickets are onsale right now Big three dot com.
There are very few people in mycareer that I've said, God, I
would love to somehow have them onthe air. And you've been on that

(01:00:44):
short list. I can't thank youenough for doing this. I'll be honest
with you. I could have capturedat six o'clock, but you have better
things to do. Uh. Wecan't wait to have you here in Cincinnati.
Thank you very much for doing this. I do appreciate it. Charles,
Thank you, no problem. Andyou know I came out with a
book last so I'm gonna do somethingin the community. Coming. You know,
we donna get together. Let's dothis, Let's have fun. Okay

(01:01:07):
three is coming. Yes, BigThree be in town. The Big Three
will be in town. Charles Oakleywill be in town and he'll own it
before he leaves. Let's make ithappen. Charles, thanks so much.
All right, thank you. Thereyou go, Charles Oakley, Big three
dot Com. Steph Curry with theshot most Steph Curry with the shot.
New Edition. You're a new editionguy, right of course. Saturday,

(01:01:30):
July twenty seventh. Uh, they'replaying a pay corps. Charles Oakley said,
I don't care about new Edition.I mean, I know you do.
And it'd be cool to meet thoseguys. Charles Oakley could say,
we're gonna go We're gonna go sitat a at a I don't know.
Yeah, I can go see Pitbullwith Charles Oakley. Yes, yes,

(01:01:53):
all right, we're gonna hold himto that. Charles Oakley will be here
along with the Big Three, whichis starting their season. You can watch
the games on CBS. You canwatch the games on Paramount Plus. They're
now streaming on x The Big Threegets underway with their season on June the
fifteenth, and they'll be here atHeritage Bank Center. Jordan Crawford, a

(01:02:15):
familiar face, obviously had a terrificcareer at Xavier, iconic performance in that
legendary game against Kansas State and theNCAA Tournament in twenty ten. He's going
to be here. Charles Oakley isgoing to be here. I know that
interview was done for me. Iget it if you sat through it.
Thank you for indulging me. Weare way late. That was awesome twenty

(01:02:36):
four after four ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati'sesp The only logical next step for us
Tarron is we have to get KenyanMartin on the show to get his thoughts
on Charles Oakley, because I youknow, I'm neutral. That's like watching
parents free. Those are two Thoseare two athletes that I revere two of

(01:02:59):
the coolest human being on the planet. And Uh, and you know,
Charles, Charles sounds like he saidthere's no beef, but I detected some
residual There's some residual stuff there thatI think should be ironed out maybe at
the Big Three or maybe what wecould do is when Charles, you and
I Tarn go to the Music Festtogether to see new addition, and s

(01:03:21):
WV is going to be there too, We'll see if Kenyan wants to go
with us and the four of us. Will you know, there's there's nothing
that brings people together better than music, right Yeah, yeah, and Uh,
and we'll we'll figure out a wayto just, you know, mend
fences Charles and and UH and KenyanMartin Uh. Paul Dolan is going to
be our next guest at five twenty. Maybe he'll want to go to the

(01:03:45):
Music Festival with us, although I'msure he's going to have a soccer match
to call that night. He iscalling to ourrow Knight's FC Cincinnati tilt as
they're on the road against Montreal.We have a few poll questions that we
we have to come up with.I had things written down, I was
going to do one about the bill, not mentioning OJ but then I also
wrote Pope. Now I'm sure that'sin reference to Mark Pope. I have

(01:04:05):
no idea what my pole question aboutMark Pope was going to be. Maybe
the poll. Maybe one of ourpole questions can be do we actually believe
Charles Oakley when he says that he'lllet me go to the Music Festival with
him? And then like the keyto that is like, then what's next?
Like he mentioned there's a casino,We'll go up to the casino downtown
and then I mean he sounds likehe's been to Cincinnati and knows where to

(01:04:27):
go. So are you showing someof your favorite spots? Yeah, Like,
well, well, we'll sort ofswitch off. I wonder if Charles
has been a Skyline you know,we can maybe eat at one of the
Skyline Chili locations downtown before Music Festand then you know, go watch them
coach in the Big three event thenext day at the Heritage Bank Center.
By the way, did you knowyou can get tickets to that event July

(01:04:48):
twenty eighth at Big three dot com. I will plug the hell out of
this as a favor of the womanwho made that happen. Whose name is
Hannah So Charles Oakly. It wasjust on the show showing how does your
Does your wife know you you haveplans with Charles Oakley. Ah, she
might be listening, she might not. It depends on what her work schedule's

(01:05:09):
Like, I don't know, butI'll tell her to She'll know. Like
if I come home and say,like I'm not, that's not gonna be
a cell job. Like if Igo home and say, hey, Charles
Oakley said I could hang out withhim, She'll get that. She'll that's
not like me saying some you know, coworker she's never met, Like,
hey, Charles Oakley said I canhang out with him. So that's what

(01:05:30):
I'm gonna be doing. She'll she'lltotally understand that. There have been in
the history of this show, likeprobably like six or seven people that,
like, I's kind of taken backto what it was like as a kid
when I was interviewing them, Likewe had Barry Larkin on the show.
That's Boomersias and Kenyan. Nick VanExell was on for a Throwback Thursday segment.

(01:05:53):
Eric Davis like a handful of thosesort of athletes that it's it's always
cool to talk to people who aregood at what they do. It's always
you know, it's interesting sometimes whenwhen an athlete's willing to talk and give
you their story. Brent Souter waswith us back in January before the caravan,
and he was just terrific, justa really cool, interesting guy to

(01:06:13):
talk to. But you know,when it's you do this for a living
and you get a chance to talkto people that you know, you kind
of grew up really I hate tosay idolizing, but but just really liked
and kind of just gravitated toward it'sit's it's really cool, and so I
for a few minutes there, Iwas taken back to being, you know,

(01:06:34):
fourteen years old. To be honestwith you, I've been fourteen and
I've been forty six, and fourteenwas a hell of a lot more fun.
It is twenty six away from fiveo'clock. Brendvan and Jones on baseball,
We have to talk about hundred Greentwo on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports
Station thirty. We have badly mismanagedthe clock. Here's for its headlines or
a service of Kelsey Chevrolin Home ofLifetime powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval from

(01:06:59):
their family to yours for life atKelsey chev dot Comrades and White Sox tonight
in Chicago, first of three,Andrew Abbott and Chris Flexen. You're starting
pitchers seven to forty tonight on sevenhundred WLW one. A starting lineup?
Need a starting lineup? Ready tojot down the starting lineup? Here you
go. India is leading off atsecond base, Benson and center ces is

(01:07:24):
Uh. He's playing first base Christianand Carnassi on strand come ces Uh,
Spencer Steers and left Jake Fraley inright field. Ellie de la Cruz,
Ellie de la Cruz. By theway, hang on ready. Here it
is who is currently seventh in theNational League and wins above replacement, second

(01:07:44):
in the National League in offensive winsabove replacement, fifth in the National League
in slugging percentage, fifth in theNational League in ops, seventh in the
National League in total bases, andfourth in the National League in extra base
hits. He is playing shortstop tonightand he is batting sixth. Tyler Stevens
is catching, Nick Martini is dhing. Santiago Espinal is at third base.

(01:08:05):
What else do we have. Bengalshave announced their local Here's what I'll do,
but get ready. Five thirty five, I will read the entire list
of local players who will work outfor the Bengals and probably not be drafted
by them. On Tuesday, i'llread the entire list stand by. Oh,

(01:08:26):
I forgot to do this on EllieDela Cruz. Well, I'll do
something else on Ellie Dela Cruz.In the next hour, the University of
Kentucky makes it official. Mark Popeis taking over the men's basketball program.
Pope, back when uk were Denhimuniforms, helped the Wildcats to a national
title in nineteen ninety six. Therewere a lot of unfortunate fashion choices made

(01:08:49):
in the nineties, many of themby me. I'm not sure that any
in sports were worse than the factthat Kentucky had Denhim in their uniforms.
And by the way, I thinkthe ninety six Wildcats are legitimately the best
college basketball team I've watched. Itreminded me of the Yukon Huskies this year,
where there was this sense of inevitabilitywhen you played them, like,

(01:09:10):
holy hell, at some point they'regoing to deliver a knockout blow and we're
not going to be able to recover. But they did it wearing denim uniforms.
You know, I back in themid nineties, I wore jorts.
I had no fear T shirts.I'm willing to it. I'd bad haircut,
I'm willing to admit that. ButI didn't really have any parent in

(01:09:31):
my life at the time to stepin and go, like my mom had
too much going on in the midnineties. My dad they couldn't pull.
I didn't have an older brother orsister. I barely had friends. I
didn't have anybody in my life togo, hey, let's not wear jorts.
You would think that somebody in theKentucky basketball program in the mid nineties,
you know, by then it hadbeen rebuilt. Rick Patina was the

(01:09:54):
coach, would have stepped in andsaid, let's let's not wear the denim
uniforms. Let's let's go something else. Maybe Mark Pope's gonna bring back the
denim uniforms. Had a press conference. Yet, Uh, we need somebody
like reach out to Jeff Pikoro orI was gonna say reach out to Alan

(01:10:14):
Cutler. But then you get stuckon like a twenty five minute conversation Terran.
See if somebody at Lexington will askMark Pope if they're gonna bring back
the Denham uniforms, the Kentucky Wardenim uniforms. Go look, man,
Kentucky back in them. I'll doit, right, I'll look it up
Kentucky UK Denham uniforms. Maybe that'llMaybe that's the pole question that I should

(01:10:36):
do. In fact, the firstthing that came up is on Kentucky Sports
Radio. Here's a post from twentyten, the headline UK's Denham uniforms named
the worst in sports history. Ithink I would agree with that, but
I'll make that a pole question.Should Mark Pope bring back Kentucky's Denham uniforms?
We'll do that as soon as Iget to the break, Pope,

(01:10:57):
I'm writing myself a note Denham unisAre you too young to remember that?
Tarren? I am. Yeah.Kentucky this iconic brands. They've had cool
uniforms often not all the time.Over the years. Somebody thought let's put
the players in Denham. But theywon a national title. Just almost unfortunate
that these iconic images from that yearwhere they beat Syracuse. The players are

(01:11:21):
wearing denham You see spring games tomorrow. FC Cincinnati's on the road tomorrow against
Montreal on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cyclonesplayed their last regular season game. By
the way, if you want toconfuse yourself, go to the EHL website
and try to figure out playoff scenarios. And at the Masters, Bryson Deshamba

(01:11:42):
is currently in the lead seven under. He is through fourteen today. He
has a one shot lead over MaxHoma and Scottie Scheffler. Can't wear denhim
on the golf course. I loveto play golf, I don't I'll spend
money on golf fashion. You seesomebody wearing denim on the golf course,

(01:12:04):
even I want to pull him asideand go buddy. I don't know,
but that's I play the sort ofcourses where you can wear denim on the
golf course. I don't know whathappened to that segment, but it's over.
It's fourteen minutes away from five o'clock. We will talk about Hunter Green
and what I think is the mostfrustrating thing about Hunter Green. Coming up

(01:12:27):
at five oh five on ESPN fifteenthirty Cincinnati Sports Station Boston Celtics even though
they got destroyed last night. Weare going to get back on time.
Here eleven away from five o'clock,ESPN fifteen thirty. My name's Meager.
My friend Austin Elmore, who bythe way, right now is at Hollywood

(01:12:47):
Casino and he wants to hang outwith you to watch the Masters, So
go there and see him. Hebrought up tight ends today and the obsession
that we have with tight ends.And I've been thinking about this a lot.
I think there's something. I thinkthere's something we tend to forget about
tight ends that we shouldn't forget abouttight ends. Actually, I think there's

(01:13:13):
two things we tend to forget abouttight ends that we shouldn't forget about tight
ends. I'll tell you what thosethings are. Plus, Paul Dolan is
going to call the sc Cincinnati Tilttomorrow night. He is going to join
us unless anybody's credential has been isn'tit that? No? So we can
okay, So he's going to joinus in five twenty and uh, finally,
my incredible HUNTERD. Green topic.But first, Brendavan to Jones on

(01:13:34):
Baseball Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Trafficfrom the UC Health Traffic Center. UC
Health has been performing life saving transplantsand providing second chances in Greater Cincinnati for
more than fifty five years. Manyaccidents to watch for seventy one North after
Stuart Road. It's got the rightlane block you're stopping. Go from Smith

(01:13:55):
Edwards seventy one south before Wilmington Road. You're off the pace from Route seventy
three Hoomer Road at Race Road aState Route one thirty one eastbound approaching Lakefield
Drive and John Crawford with traffic.This three for sports station, Sports station.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Yesit is. Thanks for the reminder.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Bolager. Thank you for listening to the

(01:14:18):
five o'pot Happy Hour, a serviceof michelob Ultra Brood for active people.
We have been active, which meansI deserve a mic Ultra Hooper. Weekend,
by the way, is off toa great start. In fifteen minutes,
MLS season past analyst Paul Dolan,who has the match tomorrow night,
FC Cincinnati. Paul on the roadagainst Montreal. He is going to join

(01:14:39):
us in fifteen minutes. A fewthoughts on being at the podcast last night,
the New Heights podcast Kelsey Brothers atU See with Joe Burrow in the
house. We will spend some timeon that a prevailing Bengals draft thought a
tight end take perhaps, I promiseI'll read the list of all the local
players working out for the Bengals,and a few other odds and ends as

(01:15:00):
well, including our three poll questions, which are available right now at Mogger
Vote Vote. We also have theVoice of Reason and unexpected perhaps voice of
Reason on Kentucky hiring Mark Pope tobe the new head coach of the Wildcats.
I was not here yesterday, sothis is something I probably would have

(01:15:24):
talked about had I been here yesterday, but I wasn't, So I'm going
to now. Hunter Green pitched onWednesday and pitch poorly. Six innings,
which is cool, seven runs,which is not the frustrating thing. I've
said this often over the first twoweeks of the season. Reds are a
five hundred team right now. ButI've said this when they've played well in

(01:15:46):
won games, and I've said thiswhen they've played poorly and when they haven't.
What the Rens are trying to accomplishthis season is really hard it's hard
to win. It's hard to winwith young guys. It's hard to win
with one with young guys when someof the guys you were hoping to have
for much of the season are notavailable. But it's hard to win while

(01:16:10):
you're while your key guys are stillin their developmental stages of their career.
It is. It's not an excuse. There will be a time where we
look at the Reds and go,look, these dudes are all established,
and when we do that, theexpectation is going to be that they win.
And if they're not established, well, then we're going to have to
hit the reset button. So thereare a lot of guys who are still

(01:16:32):
learning on the fly. There area lot of guys who are, you
know, still short on experience.Hunter Green is, comparatively speaking, one
of them. He's made fewer thanfifty big league starts. But acknowledging that
difficulty and acknowledging what the Reds aretrying to do, and acknowledging it with
individual players doesn't mean that we don'tget frustrated when we don't see the development

(01:16:56):
that we are hoping for. Sowith Hunter Green, the frustrating thing for
me it's April twelfth, so we'retwelve games into the twenty twenty four season.
Now, if you remember, thetwenty twenty two seasons started kind of
late because there was this completely pointlesslockout that started the season lead and so

(01:17:18):
the Reds did play their first gameuntil April the seventh. They had their
home opener on April the twelfth,which is when the wheels fall off and
Phil Castellini does his thing and theReds lose and then lose pretty much NonStop

(01:17:40):
for the next couple of weeks.Hunter Green pitched the last game before the
opener, and the Reds won thegame. Hunter threw well, and the
takeaway from that game was, holycrap, this guy has an electric arm
and he had as an absolute boatloadof upside. And if you could ever

(01:18:06):
really learn how to pitch and learnhow to pitch on a consistent basis,
boy, the Reds will really havesomething. That's what the consensus was.
It's what all of us said.Let's just use two years ago today as
an example, April twelfth, twentytwenty two. Right two years later,

(01:18:31):
we're saying the exact same things.Again. That doesn't mean you give up
on Hunter Green. There's no reasonto do that. That would be idiotic.
It doesn't mean that the Reds haveaired in guaranteeing his salary for the
next couple of years, because frankly, they really haven't taken on that much
risk. He was under team controlanyway. They've basically just said here's what
he's going to be making. AndI remember saying this two years ago and

(01:18:56):
nobody wanted to hear it. I'mnot interested in starts one through fifty.
I'm interested in starts fifty one throughone hundred. Well, we are almost
there. The frustrating thing for meis acknowledging there's been some injury issues that's
not his fault, acknowledging that evenprior to that, stuff like Tommy john
surgery in the COVID year where hedidn't pitch in competitive situations, those things

(01:19:17):
have perhaps slowed the acceleration of hisdevelopment. You are still you are still
saying the same things about Hunter Greentoday that you were two years ago.
Now. We were talking then abouthow he shows these glimpses, and he
does man even in some of thestarts that he makes that aren't great.

(01:19:38):
If you go back to his firststart of the season. The second game
of the year, Red's lost thatone to the Nationals. Hunter was not
very pitch efficient, but there wasa stretch during that game in the first
and second inning where he looked lockedin and he's not just throwing the ball
past people, but he's changing speedsa little bit and the ball is moving
and the hitters look kind of offbalance. And it was great. But

(01:20:02):
you see these flashes. The flashesaren't sustained. The really good starts aren't
sustained. He pitched a week agotonight against the Mets. Hunter through the
ball really, really well. Wetalked about that on Wednesday. Boy,
he was really good as last start. But I keep using the word reliability.
Hunter Green has not achieved reliability.We will stop talking about Hunter Green's

(01:20:28):
potential and focusing on how electric hisarm is and all the upside. When
he becomes reliable, that doesn't meanhe's going to be immune to bad starts.
Great pitchers have terrible starts. Ithappens. It's the big leagues.
But at some point there has tobe a rule, right with the best
pitchers in this sport, there's ageneral rule, Like Bronson Arroyo was never

(01:20:51):
really a staff ace. But therewas kind of a rule with him,
Right, dude's going to answer thebell every fifth day. He's going to
have tour three clunkers, it happens, and he's gonna have two or three
starts where he's awesome. But man, for the most part, you know
he's going six seven tonight, They'regonna have a chance to win the game.
That's the rule. Now with betterpitchers, there's different rules. Like

(01:21:13):
we're winning tonight, our bullpen cantake most of the night off. We
don't need a lot of runs.We are winning tonight With Hunter Green,
I'm wanna start to start basis.I have no idea. Now, you
could say this about a lot ofother guys on the team too. You
could say this about other pitchers onthe team. You could say it about
guys like Ellie Dela Cruz if youwant. But I think it's fair to

(01:21:34):
say that two years after Hunter Greenbegan pitching in the big leagues, we're
on basically a hamster wheel here.Right, He'll make a great start,
He'll have a good couple of innings, you start to feel excited. You
point to those things as evidence asto why the sky is the limit for

(01:21:55):
him, but then he'll follow thatup with an inning or a stretcher or
an entire game. Where it is, he just feels like he's so far
away from achieving what I keep talkingabout, which is reliability. I that's
that's what I want. But beforewe talk about staff Ace or All Star
or any of that stuff, Ijust I want I want to I want

(01:22:16):
to have a good feeling every timehe pitches and be surprised when he has
a clunker, right, Like thatwas the thing about Wednesday night. He
didn't pitch well. That couldn't havebeen easy, not knowing when the game
was going to start and all that, But whatever, it wasn't surprising.
I got to the game because ofthe delay. I decided kind of at

(01:22:40):
the last minute to go. Iget there, top of the second inning,
it's five nothing. It's not surprising. The Reds event aces, the
Reds event pitchers Johnny Quato recently,Luis Castillo recently, really good Pitchersge Trevor
Bauer, and they had bad outings. When they did, it was a
surprise. I need Hunter Green's badoutings to be a surprise where you're like,

(01:23:01):
who didn't expect that you understand ithappens. Hopefully it doesn't happen that
often. Hopefully it doesn't happen ina big game. But we're still to
the point that when he has aclunker, I'll acknowledge all the truths about
Hunter Green. The arm is electric, and he is still young right where
he hasn't pitched two full big leagueseasons. But until we stop saying the

(01:23:27):
same things, he's going to bethe same pitcher as long as we're leading
with his upside and potential and whatthe arm can do, how hard he
throws, until the conversation advances tosomething about reliability and maybe an actual pitch
repertoire, and how he can stillfigure out a way to get out and

(01:23:49):
help the team win when he doesn'thave his best stuff. Until we start
focusing on those things, the pitcheris the same, and until the bad
starts become surprising, the picture isthe same. Sounds like I'm being critical,
sounds like might sound like I'm givingup on him, I'm doing anything,
But it's just it's an observation,and it's one based on frustration,

(01:24:13):
and you could still be frustrated duringthe development. Look last week, I
was frustrated with Elie de la Cruzbecause he played a terrible game against the
Philadelphia Phillies. Now the cool thingis since then, offensively, he's batting
three seventy five with three homers,six extra base hits, four steals,
and an OPS of thirteen nineteen.So I'm not frustrated anymore. I was
last Friday, I guess when hestruck out with the bases loaded. Looking

(01:24:38):
again, they're all developmental stages,but with Hunter, it still feels like
we're still not maybe not at squareone, but we're closer to square one
than where we want him to beand where we need where the Reds need
him to be. And I'm stillnot surprised when he has a bad start,
And the same thing was the casetwo years ago. FC Cincinnati is

(01:25:00):
coming off a couple of games wherethey haven't played great, the goals have
sort of dried up. They're onthe road tomorrow against the Montreal team that
just played six games on the road. Tomorrow night, Paul Dolan is on
the call for MLS Season Pass.He joins us next on ESPN fifteen thirty.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. FCCincinnati has the first of consecutive road

(01:25:23):
matches tomorrow night with a tilt northof the border against Montreal, Montreal's home
opener. They've played their first sixaway from home. The Orange and Blue
got off to a hot start withthe Cubo goal in the third minute of
their game against the New York RedBulls, and then dramatically, I thought
out played over the final I guesswhat, eighty five or so minutes,

(01:25:44):
they lose at home two to one. This on the heels of how they
played in Charlotte, where to theircredit they salvaged a point, but didn't
play great that night and so hopefullya better performance the game tomorrow night at
seven thirty. You can watch iton Apple TV's MLS Season Pass, which
they do a terrific job producing thegames. Paul Dolan a big part of
that as an MLS Season Pass matchanalyst and nice enough, as he did

(01:26:08):
last year, to give us afew minutes this afternoon. It's good to
have you, Paul. What's goingon. I'll things things are well,
things are really well. Need thisteam to kind of get back on track.
It felt like for a while oncethey kind of got out of the
talka CAF Champions Cup. They werewhere we needed them to be an MLS
play. The last two matches maybenot so much. Yeah, you know,

(01:26:31):
it was still start to the seasonagainst Toronto, a team now that
we're starting to see maybe has somecracks. You thought maybe they'd get off
to a flyer there against a TorontoSC team that was just starting their season
under John Herdman in full earnest andit hasn't been since that day really anything
to write home about it in termsof what they did last year and the

(01:26:54):
excitement around the team. But obviouslythe squad that they've got, the quality
they've got and oftentimes we were justdoing a game last week where we're speaking
to Phil Neville and he said,you get the basics right, and then
you ask your dpiece to shine.And that's what Cincinnati has obviously in a
cost and so that's a player thatcan all of a sudden change. Games

(01:27:15):
didn't happen last week against New York. Course, but you're talking about a
really strong side now in New YorkRed Bulls as well. So the game
tomorrow in Montreal against a team that'sjust coming back from a long road trip,
I think that sets up an opportunityfor Cincinnati to maybe start to get
on a role here. Yeah,you mentioned somebody in Acosta and he's part

(01:27:35):
of this answer. But the goalshave kind of dried up certainly relative to
what we saw for much of lastseason. How do you squeeze a little
bit more out of this team offensively? Yeah, I mean it doesn't hurt.
Obviously, losing a Brandon Basquez isdepends of the answer. We've seen
ups and downs. I think fromhim, Kubo scores a goal and gets

(01:27:56):
himself involved, but all the transcreation is going to come through. So
that's really the player that needs toget into full flight again. I think
once that happens, the chances willcome and then the finishing will come.
You know, the club that Ilook at very closely is Vancouver, who
obviously leads in the West right now, and we speak to Vadnie Startini about
why his team's doing so well lastyear or this year versus last year.

(01:28:19):
Last year there was so much chancecreation but no finish. This year,
they're absolutely clinical on the chances theyget. I think that's the case for
Cincinnati as well, just finishing thechances that they're creating. You mentioned the
western side of the table. Howdo you handicap the East, Well,
the East to me is a lotstronger than the West, although the wildness

(01:28:44):
is fun to watch this year becauseon any day anybody can beat each other,
whereas the East it's a bit moreof a juggernaut right now. Obviously,
Philadelphia to a very strong start,still on the feed, but I
think that they may and to taperoff a little bit. I still do
cee Cincinnati as one of the teamsthat's going to come to the forefront once

(01:29:04):
they get clicking on all cylinders.But New York Red Bulls that's the big
question for me. Are they asgood as what they've shown in the early
going or are they going to startto see some cracks as well as teams
start to figure them out. Ilike the fact that they've changed up their
style a little bit in New Yorkand that they're reliant left I guess on
relentless pressure, and you can seethrough their bill that they're able to create

(01:29:28):
Emil Forestburgh's then fantastic Venziers come tothe forefront. Of course, you get
Lewis Morgan back and he's potting goalsleft, right and center. I guess
you have to start considering at aboutthis point of the season, when teams
are near the top of the table. It's for a reason, no question.
Paul Dolan, with US MLS MatchAnalysts for MLS Season Pass f C
Cincinnati and Montreal tomorrow is a formergoalkeeper. There's nobody better qualified to talk

(01:29:51):
about Roman Celentano, and I guessfrom two different standpoints. One would be
just what you watch, what yousee when you watch him play, and
the other would be, now thatthey're without him, at least for a
little while, how do they adjust? Good question. I thought Laura had
a good game. Actually, youknow, the big penalty save, and
it looked like he was up forit. I'm not certain that on the

(01:30:13):
goal that was allowed, whether itcould have done a bit better. I
feel like he may have, Butoverall it wasn't a huge drop off.
But you have to say, RomanCelentano is in the conversation for top five
goalkeepers, maybe higher, depends y'rein Cincinnati, you're probably hearing higher.
But I like what I've seen fromhim. So young still but a real

(01:30:33):
calm head on his shoulders. Oftentimesyou see young goalkeepers get called up to
the big team and you know,their first few starts and there's a lot
of nerves in there, but rightfrom day one he seems to be a
keeper to me that has a realcalm head on his shoulders, and he
says critical times. That's the mostimportant thing for a keeper. You make
the saves that you're supposed to andthen you chuck in one here and there,

(01:30:56):
where, oh where did that comefrom? And you win your team
some games. A good goalkeeper canwin your team, let's say twelve points
over the course of the year,and we saw that he chipped in with
a good portion of points last yearand there in the championship season last year.
In terms of the Supporter Shield,yeah, no, no question about
that. Should be a great matchtomorrow night, FC Cincinnati on the road,

(01:31:17):
Montreal's home opener after sixth straight onthe road. MLS Season Pass on
Apple TV. Paul Dolan a hugepart of that coverage. Always great to
have you, Paul, Thanks somuch, anys time again, take care
of you, got it, PaulDolan MLS Season Pass. Of course you
could also hear it on ESPN fifteenthirty pregame coverage at seven o'clock. Tom

(01:31:39):
gletter Omar Cummings the pairing tomorrow night, as the Orange and Blue tries to
bounce back after the home loss toNew York last weekend, the first of
consecutive road games Montreal tomorrow night,and then the road tilt at Atlanta next
week. It is twenty seven afterfive o'clock. Our poll questions our courtesy
of our friends United Heartland Insurance,United Heartland Insurance uhi NS dot com.

(01:32:04):
Whether it's home, whether it's auto, whether it's light, whatever it is
any insurance. Need you owe itto yourself to check out U h I
n S dot com. We havewe have three. We have three pole
questions on X Twitter. I guesswe'll start just being grown ups and calling
it X. I don't know threeof them today. First one, should

(01:32:29):
Mark Pope bring back UK's Denham uniforms? Fifty eight point three percent say yes.
Now they might have been hideous,they probably weren't that comfortable, but
they did win in them. Fiftyeight point three percent of you say yes,
Mark Pope, who wore the denimuniform should wear them, and maybe
he should wear the body, shouldbring them back. Does the coach bring
back to you? Is it likeLittle League anyway. Fifty eight point three

(01:32:51):
percent of you like the Denham uniformsuh we talked before. I think the
most interesting decision is Swart. Ithink the Bills did this right. I
think you're in a no win situationwhen you're the team that Oj Simpson primarily
played for. He obviously spent alittle time at the end of his career

(01:33:13):
with the San Francisco forty nine ers, and at least as of a few
minutes ago, they have yet toacknowledge his passing. I think that's the
right approach. I think I mightsound heartless, but I think that's the
right approach. And again, Ifind Oj Simpson to be a reprehensible human
being, but I think that Ithink it would be interesting to just be

(01:33:33):
a fly in the wall, aswe say about how they chose to.
Essentially, as of now, itmay change not acknowledge his passing. Sixty
four point three percent of you wehave asked should they have acknowledged his passing?
Sixty four point three percent of yousay no. I agree, And

(01:33:54):
most importantly, about an hour ago, we finished up an interview with Charles
Oakley, and I asked Charles iftarn and I he Charles, unprompted,
brought up that he had been tothe Cincinnati Music Festival before, which is
going to be here going on thesame weekend that Charles Oakley will be here
to coach his Big Three team.And so I asked him if we could

(01:34:17):
go to the Cincinnati Music Festival withhim, and he said yes. And
I ask on Twitter or X shouldwe believe him? Sixty six point seven
percent of you two thirds say yes. We should take the great Charles Oakley
at his word. If there's onething I know, you don't call him
man like Charles Oakley a liar,And Charles Oakley seems to me to be

(01:34:39):
the kind of guy that if hehad no interest in going with us,
he would just say no, exactlyright. I don't know that Charles Oakley
would feel compelled to say yes ifhe didn't mean it. So I believe
you. I'm with you, Terry, Charles Oakley, if he had no
interest in going to the Cincinnati MusicFestival to see new addition and take us
backstage, if he had zero interestin hanging out with us, he would

(01:35:00):
have just said, I'm not doingthat. He's Charles Oakley right, that
guy's gonna give you an honest answer. So I am now of the belief
that when he comes to town tocoach his Big three team, we are
going to get a night in thetown with Charles Oakley that starts with the
Cincinnati Music Festival and I'm here forit. Can't wait, all right?

(01:35:20):
Five thirty five point three seven fournine, fifteen thirty and eight sixty six
seven oh two three seven seven six. Uh. I went to the Kelsey
podcast last night, which was fun. Some thoughts on that, and uh,
the NFL Draft starts in thirteen days. I here's my my big piece

(01:35:41):
of analysis that I will repeat forthirteen days is coming up next, and
I bet you can't wait. OnESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnatis.
Do they know Tony and Austin aredoing a show tomorrow? According to that
promo? If somebody told them we'renot doing a show tomorrow? Right?
No? No? Okay, Imean I'm happy to do a show tomorrow.

(01:36:06):
Are we getting paid to do ashow tomorrow? Like there's if they
say six day a week show.Okay, but that's gonna come it up.
Sports Headlines a service of Kelsey,Chevrolet home of lifetime power train protection
and guaranteed credit approval for their familyfrom their family to yours for life,
Kelsey chev dot Com. One hundredand five years ago, the Reds and

(01:36:28):
White Sox played in a World Seriesthat was tainted because well, not everybody
in the White Sox was on thetake. This year's White Sox team is
often played like it's on the take. They're terrible. Reds in Chicago to
take on the White Sox seven toforty, first of a three game series.
The White Sox are playing without,well, for the most part,
good players, But then the goodplayers they have have gotten hurt. Eloy

(01:36:50):
Jimenez, Luis Robert Joanne Moncato allhurt. Andrew Abbott's not hurt. He'll
pitch, so will Chris Flexen.He pitches for the White Sox. The
starting line of tonight for Cincinnati,India is at second base, Benson's in
center, Ces Christian and Karnassi onstrands. Ces is playing first base,

(01:37:11):
he is batting third, Spencer Steerin left field, Jake Frehlian right,
Ellie de la Cruz. Do Ineed to mention all the top ten categories?
All the categories? Elie de laCruz is in the top ten in
have I beaten that to death?We're good? Okay. Stevenson is catching
and Martinez dhing and Espinal's at thirdbase. I have not heard anything about

(01:37:36):
an update regarding TJ. Friedel orother players who are hurt. Perhaps that'll
come later Today Bengals will hold theirlocal player workout. You ready for me
to read the names? Sure?Okay? Thirty invited draft eligible players will
be at the Bengals facility, whichis named after a logistics company that I'm

(01:38:00):
not being paid dimension. This willbe on Tuesday. From the University of
Cincinnati. Juwan Briggs, Daniel Greshik, Emery Jones, d Wiggins, Ryan
Montgomery, Trevor Dosovich, Malik VanTaje Ward from Miami, Michael Dowell,
Miles Marshall, is Seen McKee,and Joe Wilkins Junior from Ohio State.
Steel Chambers which is a cool name. Xavier Johnson, Matt Jones, Josh

(01:38:23):
Proctor, Mayan Williams from area highschools. Brendan Bates who played at Mohler
and UK, Ryan Batch from Lovelandand Murray State, Cornell Beacham Friend of
the Show from Mount Saint Joe andWinton Woods, Tyler Bentley from pitt Lakota
West, Hassan Black from the Citadelin Wyoming, Peyton Brown from Davenport and
Fairfield, Rusty Fifth from Cole Rainand Iowa, Eric Miller from Mason and

(01:38:47):
Louisville, Tanner Canoe from Mason andEastern Michigan. JJ Ross from Lakota West
in Western Illinois, Cecil Singleton Juniorfrom Louisiana Tech and Princeton, Caleb Street
from Walnut Hill and Tiffin, andKeishawn Wesley from Dixie Heights and Minnesota State.
All of those players get a chanceto work out for the Bengals and

(01:39:08):
each one of them got their namesread. On this show. Kentucky officially
announced Mark Pope to be the headcoach. Rick Patino is the voice of
reason. You're gonna hear him ina second. FC Cincinnati on the road
tomorrow night against Montreal live on ESPN. Fifteen thirty Cyclones at Wheeling and your
Master's Update. Are you ready?It looks like it's a little windy there
At Augusta. Tiger Woods is poisedto make the cut, which is awesome

(01:39:31):
if you bought that at plus onetwenty. Well, you're maybe a few
hours away from cashing your ticket rightnow. Scottie Scheffler and Bryson de Shambeau
atop the leader board at seven underScheffler is only through ten to Shambo's played
seventeen. Max Homo one stroke behindat six under. Mark Pope hired at
UK. Some like it, somehate it, maybe a few people love

(01:39:55):
it. Among those Rick Patino,who coached Mark Pope at college when he
was a UK wearing those denim uniformswinning a national championship. Rick is obviously
currently the head coach at Saint John's. Many thought, well, maybe Rick
will come home to coach Kentucky.No, but he did shoot a video
on his Twitter feed and he's excitedfor his former player to take over where

(01:40:15):
Rick used to coach. On aspecial day for the University of Kentucky,
the leader, the captain of theUntouchables is coming home to lead the Wildcats.
A lot of people out there talkabout Jay Wright, Danny Hurley,
Billy Donovan. They all had theirtrials and tribulations as well early on,

(01:40:38):
but Mack Pope went into the Bigtwelve this year beat Kansas, says Kansas,
be Baylor and Home and in hisfirst year got to the NCAA.
Mack Pope offensively, no one doesit better the way his teams move,
the way his team shoot the three, the ball movement to play a movement
is outstanding, which you don't realize. It took Jay Wright eleven years to

(01:41:02):
finally get an NC doublea win.Billy Donovan was at Marshall for two years,
didn't have an NC doublea appearance.He went on to greatness. Mark
Pope will go on to greatness.You can put it down. He's not
only a Rhodes Scholar candidate. ButI remember, as if it's yesterday,
John Pelfrey getting misty eyes in myfirst year as a basketball coach at Kentucky

(01:41:25):
every time you put on the uniform. Me was near tears, and I
said to him, John, whatis with you every time you put that
uniform on? He said, Coach, you just don't understand what this means
to all of us from Kentucky.Well, I can guarantee you one thing
nobody, nobody epitomizes the named Kentuckyon the front of the jersey more than

(01:41:45):
Mark Pope. What some of youdon't realize is how good a basketball mind
he has, how much of arelentless recruiter he will be? Now recruiting
is different today. We're now coachingall pros. The NIL has made them,
has taken away amateur basketball and hasmade them professional athletes. I'm sure
Kentucky's going to have a strong NIL. You have one of the premi young

(01:42:10):
coaches in the game. Relish itbecause he will do you proud. I
know I sit here today at SaintJohn's and I couldn't be any more proud
of all right than to see MarkPope lead to Kentucky Wildcats to another championship.
He'll get it done. He's gotthe right stock, he's got a
beautiful family, and he loves absolutelyloves Kentucky across his chest. Get it

(01:42:36):
done, Mark, I love you. You're going to do a fabulous job.
All right, there's rec Patino.First of all, I think that's
really cool because you know, obviouslyhe coached Mark Pope and speaks highly of
his former player. He's excited forhis former player. I also think it's
cool that he did that to kindof be the voice of reason and look

(01:42:56):
like I get it. Man,if you're a Kentucky fan. This is
probably something that's at least a littleunderwhelming about Mark Pope relative to maybe some
of the people you were holding outhope to get. But I think it's
really cool that Rick Patino. Likefor all the jokes and all the fun
that people will have with Rick Patino, and we've had some, he kind
of comes off as the voice ofreason. I guess he also went on

(01:43:18):
Alan Cutler has a radio show inLexington to cut Man, he used to
have a radio show here too,but now he has a show, and
I guess he had Rick Patino onit, and Rick said something to the
effect of like, I'll kick moneyinto nil to help Mark Pope get the
job done at UK. I thinkthat's pretty cool. I think that's pretty
cool Rick Patino, of all peoplethe voice of reason. By the way,

(01:43:42):
it is either it suddenly got reallyhot in here or I'm having some
sort of health event because I'm suddenlysweating. I have no idea that just
as a brief aside, all right, we have a few draft things we
have to touch on and update ourpoll questions and maybe take a phone caller
too. It's sixteen away from sixo'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,

(01:44:03):
Cincinnati Sports Station. Hey, it'smy Wegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
on Mowgar. We have been reallybusy today. We've been kind of all
over the place. We've had alot to get done, and now we
can grab a phone call or two, starting with our friend Mike. Mike,
you're on ESPN fifteen thirty. What'sup? Absolutely outstanding interview with Smith

(01:44:26):
with thank you. I couldn't doit more. Thank you in my favorite
Well you were almost well, youwere almost like my Jewish mother in law
trying to hook that and make thatrelationship kick for the concert and say you
were closing him hard, brother man. I think you did well. Hopefully

(01:44:48):
he has a good memory and remembersthat when he comes to town, he
Taren and myself are supposed to goto the Cincinnati Music Festival. I hope
you guys get bless him going onyou you know what saying that? He
said, I was listening Ton veryintently and you were talking about Caitlin Clark

(01:45:08):
coming to the Big Tree, andhe said, well, all I got
to say is when you lace himup, you better where you're at that
was classic. Yes, it wasstill classic. He was suddenly letting her
know how it might be a littlelittle physical for her. I thought that
was great. Hunter Green. Iheard a guy trying to compare him the

(01:45:31):
other day to Randy Johnson. Nota good comparison. Randy was six ten
and when he'd released the ball,he was significantly closer to the plate than
Hunter Dreen will ever be because it'llnever be that tall. I don't think
that's a good comparison. I don'tknow who it was. It might have
been on the Most Show or notmuch well. I think I think the

(01:45:54):
comparison, though, is that itRandy Johnson went on to become a dominant
and a Hall of Fame pitcher.His first it took him a long time.
You know, he had years wherehe led the league in walks given
up. He had years where hewas you know, his productivity, his

(01:46:14):
output was that of a middle ofthe rotation starter, and then you know,
it really wasn't until he hit hislate twenties before he became an All
Star caliber pitcher on a consistent basis. So I think that's the comparison.
I don't think the comparison is statureor stuff. Now, Randy Johnson didn't
reach the big league until he wastwenty four. Hunter Greens twenty four now,

(01:46:36):
and it's been in the big leaguesfor a couple of years. But
I think the comparison is it tookRandy Johnson quite a while before he was
a consistent top of the rotation guyquite a while, and he never did
have more than a couple of pitches. He really didn't because he didn't meet
him because but when he released thething, he was so on top of

(01:46:57):
you that it was hard for thehitters who have enough reaction time. At
least that's the way I saw.So you like, Mark, Well,
I'm with you. Rick Patino,what a classy thing to do, and
what a great encouragement thing for thispoka. I didn't know nothing about this
guy, but boy, Rick campI thought that was so impressive, didn't

(01:47:19):
you. I did. I thinkit's it's cool to sort of as somebody
who has a platform and a voiceand who has the stature in the game
of Rick Patino. Look, obviouslyyou would expect him to talk up his
guy. You would expect him tobe happy for one of his former players.
But I think he reflected I thinkRick did that he understood what some

(01:47:41):
of the hesitation might be or someof the criticisms might be, and I
think it was I think it washelpful to a degree to kind of be
the voice of reason and point outthat, look, you might say,
well, he's he's never won anNCAA tournament game. It took some of
these other coaches a long time beforethey did that. Let's not look looks
solely at at at Mark Pope throughyou know, kind of through that lens

(01:48:03):
where it's it's just about the gamesthat he hasn't won, or NCAA tournament
advancement that he hasn't experienced. Ithink it was cool of Rick Betina to
do that for his former player.I do too. And you know,
initially I thought Pope, okay,he was on the PBS Sports list for
potentials. I thought, you know, that's a safe pick. They're trying

(01:48:25):
to cool things down after mister controversialJohn Keliper, who I love. But
I thought, but now Rick enlightenedme that this guy's an X is an
o's guy. And I had noidea his enthusiasm for Kentucky basketball. So
it was I got educated real quick. Yes, no. I I think
I think it was need of himto do. And I think Mark Pope,

(01:48:45):
look, there's there's not the flashfactor, there's not the national notoriety
that some of the other names wouldhave brought to the table, and and
you know, it would be Ithink pretty obvious that he wasn't really their
first choice, and you could understandwhy. Uh. At the same time,
if the observation of hiring Mark Popeis well, God, that's kind
of boring. I kind of feellike, in the aftermath of John Calli

(01:49:09):
Perry, boring could work. I'mlooking for a nuts and bolts basketball coach.
I'm looking for a guy who's maybea little less interested in promoting the
brand and a little bit less interestedin you know, John Caliperry had a
podcast and he's writing books, andall that stuff is fine. I bought
two of those books. All thatstuff is great, But that stuff sort
of loses its meaning when it's notaccompanied by winning. And I kind of

(01:49:34):
feel like, over the last fewyears, just watching it from where I
sit, which is not extraordinarily closeup, that a lot of the other
stuff kind of felt like it tooka little bit of a back seat to
doing the nuts and bolts work ofhiring the right staff, coaching a team,
getting it ready to play, etc. And we got to get two

(01:49:55):
out of in Chicago, moll,we got to get two out of three.
Thanks for the time. Playing abad team, Mike, you're playing
a bad team this weekend that hasa ton of hurt guys. You're right,
you've got to get two out ofthree, especially just the way the
Milwaukee series kind of unfolded where theylose the last two, there's the rain

(01:50:15):
out. You go to Chicago.You know, I think one of the
keys is when you play a teamthat comes limping into any series and they've
lost a bunch of games and hashurt guys. Got you gotta take advantage
of a weekend opponent, especially whenthe margin for air for this team and
in this division is as thin asit will be. So yeah, go
to Chicago, win two out ofthree, and I think we'll all feel

(01:50:39):
better about that. Uh. Bythe way, we're a couple of weeks
away from the draft, and Ireferenced this slightly earlier. So I was
listening to Austin today talk about tightends and talk about the fascination with them
and brock Bowers. If you wereto ask me positionally, what do I
want them most with where things standright now, I'm going to side with

(01:51:03):
protecting Joe Burrow. I also understandthe Bengals have an offensive line that has
a chance to be okay this yeareven if they don't take a lineman in
round one. But what you're gonnahear me say often over the next two
weeks or so is that if theidea is to build an elite offensive line,

(01:51:24):
I don't know how that happens.If they don't start nailing it in
the draft, chances are they're notgoing to be in the They're not going
to be in the conversation, especiallygiven what Joe Burrow is about to make.
They're not going to be in theconversation that often for elite free agent
offensive lineman. So if you wantto build, if you want an offensive
line that is eventually among the bestin the NFL, that is probably only

(01:51:48):
going to happen through the draft.That process should start in twenty twenty four.
A lot more on that in nextweek's shows, A lot more on
that next week. Like a normalperson would say, we have to go
this was fun. We're back atit Monday. Thanks to Tarren Bland for

(01:52:10):
producing, Thanks to you for listening, Have a great night, have an
awesome weekend. He'll have a greatlife. We're back Monday at three oh
five. This is ESPN fifteen thirtyCincinnati Sports station. This report is sponsored