April 17, 2024 • 7 mins
Chad Brendel of BearcatJournal joined us to talk about two players who are transferring to UC to play for Wes Miller.
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Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Follow on Twitter: @MoEgger
Email: mo@espn1530.com
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's a busy time for college basketballprograms. Connor Hickman's coming from Bradley to
the University of Cincinnati, and heannounced just about twenty minutes or so ago.
Arrington Page, who started his collegebasketball career at USC announced on social
media that I guess he said he'scoming to Cincinnati University. I gotta be
(00:20):
honest with you. He ain't callit whatever the hell he wants, as
long as he's good. Chad Brendle'swith his Sparcat journal dot com to tell
if tell us if he's good.Is he good? He has a chance
to be really good. I mean, you know, people look at his
numbers and they're not great from lastyear. But guess what, there are
very few freshman digman that had greatnumbers last year. That's just the nature
(00:44):
of being a young big. He'salso young for where he's at in his
college career. I believe he justturned nineteen going into his sophomore year in
college, and some of these guysare like twenty one going into their second
year in college. So the potentialis there. The key being he's six
(01:06):
' eleven, he can run thefloor, He's got some skill to him,
He's pretty good in the pick androll, which is so prominent in
college basketball right now. So thereare a lot of attributes that people really
love about Arrenton Page and this coachingstaff with obviously the way they recruited him
(01:26):
out of high school and now gettinghim after a year at USC, they
are very very high on Arrenton Page. Walk me through his recruiting profile before
he turned down UC to go toUSC, So he kind of was one
of those kids that really shot upthe rankings leading into his senior year.
(01:49):
Some of that was he played withIsaiah Collier, who is a generational talent
passing the basketball, and obviously whenyou play with when you're a big guy
playing with Isaiah Callier, he makesyou look really really good. And because
of that, he saw his profilego from virtually unknown to top fifty recruit.
(02:15):
If he was a little more consistent, he probably could have risen up
to top twenty five five star status. But my understanding is he had mono
through the end of that summer andinto his senior year and that hurt his
production and development a little bit.A fully healthy Arentone Page is a guy
(02:38):
that fits what modern basketball looks like. Is he a guy you're gonna be
able to just post up on theblock and throw them the ball and get
a bucket. At this point inhis career, that's an area he still
needs some work. But he,like I said, he can really play
in the pick and roll. Hecan pop and shoot it a little bit,
and it's just really difficult to findsix eleven guys that have the type
(03:02):
of coordination and athleticism that he has. So, you know, rim runner,
shot blocker, he can do allthose things. And as you project
into twenty twenty four, twenty twentyfive, you see basketball kind of a
perfect compliment to us. He's mandegoand the way that they use him.
(03:23):
We you and I have talked alot about Connor Hickman and the potential for
him to come to UC. Obviously, Bearkat fans had a chance to watch
him when when he was with Bradleyand the Braves came here. In the
niit he averaged fourteen and a halfa game. What stands out is over
forty percent shooting the ball from theoutside. How does his game project to
the Big twelve? Well, thatwas all over that one, wasn't I
(03:46):
You were from day one, actuallythe forty percent from two is really really
good. That let me from threeis really really good. Did you know
he's the guy that shot over fiftypercent from two. But this is not
Jack Golk that shot three hundred threesand eight twos. This is a guy
(04:09):
that's a three point shooter. Butif you close out too aggressively, he
is gonna be able to pump fakeand beat you to the rim. He
is a guy that plays really wellcutting off the ball, which is something
we didn't see a lot of fromCincinnati a year ago. This didn't have
a lot of guys that were goodat it. He has a great feel
(04:30):
for the game, and you know, I really think he gives you a
great compliment if you've got a threeor four man rotation at the one and
the two. Between Dayde Thomas,Gisel, James Connor, Hickman, c
J. Frederick, who's still onthe roster, I think you're in a
much much better spot than you werea year ago. I just didn't say.
(04:55):
I think Dan Skillings fits better asa three, and I think without
CJ last year you were really hurtby not having an effective two guard on
the roster. Hickman is going togive you that two guard that's got some
scoring pop and is going to increaseyour overall basketball like you on the floor
(05:15):
when he's out there. And thenthis team was sorely lacking that last year.
Okay, so now the obvious question, who's next? Now they get
They're in kind of a fun spotthough. Right You've got twelve guys on
scholarship that you think can help you. You've got one spot open. You
(05:38):
can go get another two you know, a score slasher, kind of a
guy that is different than Hickman butplays the same spot where you can can
rotate them. You can go geta starting level four man and that would
maybe move Siemas up one spot andyou can have a little bit more flexibility
(06:00):
at the three and the four.You can you know, you can go
get a guy that's kind of acombo four or five guy that can give
you minutes at both of those positions. So I think there's still a lot
of options on the table. Andthe beautiful part of where they're at right
now, there's a lot of talkthat Jeff Goodman just treated this earlier.
(06:21):
There's a bunch of high profile guysthat are still waiting to get their final
nil checks of the year from thenil deals they signed a year ago,
and then they're going to enter theportal. So Cincinnati is not in a
panic now. They are not rushingguys in and off campus to see what
(06:41):
sticks and what they need. Andyou know, a year ago, this
thing played out all the way intoMay, like mid late May, and
now you've got one spot open thatis a luxury spot that you don't really
have a glaring weakness on this teamanymore. So if you're Wes Miller,
like you can kind of sit backand say, hey, let's see,
let's see how the chips fall,and we might be able to even make
(07:03):
ourselves even better, but we're notdesperate to do so. And when you're
in this situation and you don't havethat desperation factor, you make a lot
less mistakes. Mm hm yep,not being desperate. It's a good place
to be. I appreciate you jumpingon short notice, man, Thanks so
much, No problem, I'm gonnago into Costco now. There you go.
(07:26):
Good luck. A lot more onthis at Bearcat journal dot com.
Thank you so much. Make sureyou follow Chad on Twitter slash x at Chad Brendle
It's a busy time for college basketballprograms. Connor Hickman's coming from Bradley to
the University of Cincinnati, and heannounced just about twenty minutes or so ago.
Arrington Page, who started his collegebasketball career at USC announced on social
media that I guess he said he'scoming to Cincinnati University. I gotta be
(00:20):
honest with you. He ain't callit whatever the hell he wants, as
long as he's good. Chad Brendle'swith his Sparcat journal dot com to tell
if tell us if he's good.Is he good? He has a chance
to be really good. I mean, you know, people look at his
numbers and they're not great from lastyear. But guess what, there are
very few freshman digman that had greatnumbers last year. That's just the nature
(00:44):
of being a young big. He'salso young for where he's at in his
college career. I believe he justturned nineteen going into his sophomore year in
college, and some of these guysare like twenty one going into their second
year in college. So the potentialis there. The key being he's six
(01:06):
' eleven, he can run thefloor, He's got some skill to him,
He's pretty good in the pick androll, which is so prominent in
college basketball right now. So thereare a lot of attributes that people really
love about Arrenton Page and this coachingstaff with obviously the way they recruited him
(01:26):
out of high school and now gettinghim after a year at USC, they
are very very high on Arrenton Page. Walk me through his recruiting profile before
he turned down UC to go toUSC, So he kind of was one
of those kids that really shot upthe rankings leading into his senior year.
(01:49):
Some of that was he played withIsaiah Collier, who is a generational talent
passing the basketball, and obviously whenyou play with when you're a big guy
playing with Isaiah Callier, he makesyou look really really good. And because
of that, he saw his profilego from virtually unknown to top fifty recruit.
(02:15):
If he was a little more consistent, he probably could have risen up
to top twenty five five star status. But my understanding is he had mono
through the end of that summer andinto his senior year and that hurt his
production and development a little bit.A fully healthy Arentone Page is a guy
(02:38):
that fits what modern basketball looks like. Is he a guy you're gonna be
able to just post up on theblock and throw them the ball and get
a bucket. At this point inhis career, that's an area he still
needs some work. But he,like I said, he can really play
in the pick and roll. Hecan pop and shoot it a little bit,
and it's just really difficult to findsix eleven guys that have the type
(03:02):
of coordination and athleticism that he has. So, you know, rim runner,
shot blocker, he can do allthose things. And as you project
into twenty twenty four, twenty twentyfive, you see basketball kind of a
perfect compliment to us. He's mandegoand the way that they use him.
(03:23):
We you and I have talked alot about Connor Hickman and the potential for
him to come to UC. Obviously, Bearkat fans had a chance to watch
him when when he was with Bradleyand the Braves came here. In the
niit he averaged fourteen and a halfa game. What stands out is over
forty percent shooting the ball from theoutside. How does his game project to
the Big twelve? Well, thatwas all over that one, wasn't I
(03:46):
You were from day one, actuallythe forty percent from two is really really
good. That let me from threeis really really good. Did you know
he's the guy that shot over fiftypercent from two. But this is not
Jack Golk that shot three hundred threesand eight twos. This is a guy
(04:09):
that's a three point shooter. Butif you close out too aggressively, he
is gonna be able to pump fakeand beat you to the rim. He
is a guy that plays really wellcutting off the ball, which is something
we didn't see a lot of fromCincinnati a year ago. This didn't have
a lot of guys that were goodat it. He has a great feel
(04:30):
for the game, and you know, I really think he gives you a
great compliment if you've got a threeor four man rotation at the one and
the two. Between Dayde Thomas,Gisel, James Connor, Hickman, c
J. Frederick, who's still onthe roster, I think you're in a
much much better spot than you werea year ago. I just didn't say.
(04:55):
I think Dan Skillings fits better asa three, and I think without
CJ last year you were really hurtby not having an effective two guard on
the roster. Hickman is going togive you that two guard that's got some
scoring pop and is going to increaseyour overall basketball like you on the floor
(05:15):
when he's out there. And thenthis team was sorely lacking that last year.
Okay, so now the obvious question, who's next? Now they get
They're in kind of a fun spotthough. Right You've got twelve guys on
scholarship that you think can help you. You've got one spot open. You
(05:38):
can go get another two you know, a score slasher, kind of a
guy that is different than Hickman butplays the same spot where you can can
rotate them. You can go geta starting level four man and that would
maybe move Siemas up one spot andyou can have a little bit more flexibility
(06:00):
at the three and the four.You can you know, you can go
get a guy that's kind of acombo four or five guy that can give
you minutes at both of those positions. So I think there's still a lot
of options on the table. Andthe beautiful part of where they're at right
now, there's a lot of talkthat Jeff Goodman just treated this earlier.
(06:21):
There's a bunch of high profile guysthat are still waiting to get their final
nil checks of the year from thenil deals they signed a year ago,
and then they're going to enter theportal. So Cincinnati is not in a
panic now. They are not rushingguys in and off campus to see what
(06:41):
sticks and what they need. Andyou know, a year ago, this
thing played out all the way intoMay, like mid late May, and
now you've got one spot open thatis a luxury spot that you don't really
have a glaring weakness on this teamanymore. So if you're Wes Miller,
like you can kind of sit backand say, hey, let's see,
let's see how the chips fall,and we might be able to even make
(07:03):
ourselves even better, but we're notdesperate to do so. And when you're
in this situation and you don't havethat desperation factor, you make a lot
less mistakes. Mm hm yep,not being desperate. It's a good place
to be. I appreciate you jumpingon short notice, man, Thanks so
much, No problem, I'm gonnago into Costco now. There you go.
(07:26):
Good luck. A lot more onthis at Bearcat journal dot com.
Thank you so much. Make sureyou follow Chad on Twitter slash x at Chad Brendle
Mo Egger News
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