November 26, 2024 • 14 mins
If you're a college basketball fan, you'll love the smart college basketball analysis at EvanMiya.com.
Evan Miyakawa runs the website. He's a collge hoops obsessive, and he joined me to talk UC, Xavier, and UK, on ESPN1530.
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
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Evan Miyakawa runs the website. He's a collge hoops obsessive, and he joined me to talk UC, Xavier, and UK, on ESPN1530.
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
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The college basketball season is underway. Evan meat Kwa's website
is I think a must if if you love college basketball,
and if you love college basketball on kind of a
I don't know, deeper level, you will love Evan's website.
It's informative, it's thorough, it's detailed, it's in depth, it's comprehensive.
(00:23):
I'm trying to see if I could burn all the
adjectives that I would use to describe Evan's website.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
You're going to love it.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's evanmia dot com, Evan Miya dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's good to have you. I've wanted to have you
on for a while.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Let's start with this something you tweeted out more so
than even some of the national pollsters.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You're really bullish on the Bearcats.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Cincinnati is checking at the AP pool yesterday sixteenth, which
is very good for them.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
But I have them all the way up to six in.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
The country when it comes to predicting how good the
Bearcats are going to be the rest of the season.
And that might seem high, but I've been high on
Cincinnati since the preseason. I know I had them inside
the top twenty coming into the year, and really what
I liked before the games even started was just how
they've made this roster together. Basically, the key that I
found in a lot of my research for teams being
(01:18):
successful in this modern transfer portal era where you can
get guys from anywhere at any time, is if you
can return most of your really important pieces from the
previous year and then add one or two or three
pieces to raise your talent level. That's opso teams that
are the most successful, and that's exactly what Cincinnati's done.
They've kept a lot of their best pieces, they got
some key additions, including Dylan Mitchell from Texas, and I
(01:42):
think that's what's led them to be so successful this
far this year.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It's a well constructed roster and that was kind of
my observation during the offseason. And you know, there's always
I don't want to say skepticism, but there's a built
in curiosity, Okay, how the piece is going to fit.
But before they played it, it didn't feel like just
a collection of doo and I see some programs where
it feels like just a collection of dudes. It really
does feel like the acquisitions were made with the returning
(02:08):
players in mind. And some of the other acquisitions as well.
A guy who I think last season kind of got
lost in the flood until he started making big shots
for the Bearcats is a guy who's off to a
great start this season in Simos Lukashis.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I know you love him. What do you love most?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Oh Man?
Speaker 4 (02:24):
He is incredible. So I am a big Butler basketball fan.
So I watched Lukoshius back when he was a Butler
his freshman year and could tell back then that he
had the chops to be a really good playmaker, score
all those things. And so I'm just so happy that
he's found a fit with Cincinnati. And this is really
what you like to see Guys who transfer Oftentimes if
they stick with that program the second that third year
(02:47):
is often when they find the most success. And man,
he has been scalding hot this year.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
I did some analysis last week basically looking at the
players in the country who have had the most impressive
statistical starts the year, and coaches.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Was number one in all of.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
D one college basketball because not only at he you know,
creating place for others like he Austen does, but he's
been absolutely scorching from three this year. Shooting at least
sixty percent to start.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
The year on a lot of attempts.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
He's just unstoppable, and so he's been absolutely incredible.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
That's what you want to see. And I think the thing.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Too, is that they're not relying on him every single
night to be their best player, because there are a
lot of different key players on this team, and so
when you have him having that freedom to be able
to play as well as he does, but you don't
need him on a nightly basis, that's really where you
want to be.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
As a team.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I'm excited about how they've played. I'll acknowledge the Georgia
Tech team they played on Saturday isn't very good up
until then, no high major competition. They did play a
road game against NKU. The beauty of metrics is there's
a good way to sort of quantify the caliber of competition.
And so what do you say to someone who's like, look,
(03:57):
Bearkatz might have a good team this season, and they
could be competitive in the Big twelve, but let's tat
the breaks because they haven't played anybody.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
I think that's a fair criticism purely in the sense
that we've not really we don't have a sample size
yet of them playing you know, a Big twelve level, top.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Fifty level competition.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
But with that being said, like you mentioned, all of
my analytics take strength of opponent into account, and so
them being the sixth team best team in the country
is me saying, hey, even though they've not played great teams,
based on how they've performed against expectations in those matches,
I still think that they are going to.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Be around that good even against the best teams in
the country.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
And so, yeah, like we haven't seen them play big
time opponents yet. Their schedule starts to heat up when
we get into December with some much more quality matchups,
and of course Big twelve play is as hard as
it gets in any conference in the country. But I
really do think that they are not going to dramatically,
you know, fall down the rankings or disappoint people, because
(04:54):
I really do think based on what they've showed so far,
even just the limited stretches, you know, against teams that
are kind of closer to that level, I think they've
looked really good and I don't think people should be
sleeping on them at all.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, No, that's music to my years.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
What's kind of interesting is they were picked in the
Big twelve preseason poll to finish sixth, and then above
them the you know, the five usual suspects that were
ranked in the top ten of the major polls. And
I think for a lot of us that kind of
felt right right like, it felt like that's about where
you would pick them in the Big twelve. But they
were a tier below Kansas, Houston, Iowa State, et cetera.
(05:29):
What I'm hearing from you is a willingness to kind
of lump the Bearcads in with those schools.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I absolutely think they should be in that top tier.
I mean, here's the crazy thing right now. You mentioned
that top tier. Coming into the season. It was Houston,
Iowa State, Kansas, Bayley, Arizona all were getting you know,
perennial top ten love in nationally, which is crazy for
a conference to have five teams in that tier.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, some of these teams have disappointed a little bit.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Baylor has had some tough losses. You know, Kansas is
still undefeated. They have a game tonight against Duke, but
they've not really met expectations so far. Houston's been pretty solid.
Iowa State just took a tough loss against Auburn yesterday.
So right now I actually have Cincinnati ranked second.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
In the Big Twelve.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Now, do I think that there's a good chance they
finished top two in the Big Twelve. Probably not, just
because there's so many good teams in this conference that
you know, random results thinks can go up and down.
But being in that top group of five or six absolutely,
I think is where they belong. And I think that
they are going to have some big time wins against
some of those other programs in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Evan Mia Kyle was with his website if you're a
college basketball fan, is a Mustevanmia dot com. M I
y a Xaviers in between a game last night where
they win in Fort Myers against South Carolina. They'll take
on Michigan tomorrow. They've got another high major opponent in
TCU next week, and then you know, this part of
(06:53):
the country, as you will know, we get excited for
the UC Xavior matchup, and so there's there's a lot
of hype for the possibility of these two teams being
undefeated when they play, maybe both teams being ranked in
the top ten or top fifteen when they play, and
there's obviously a lot of games that are going to
happen between now and then. I mentioned you're a little
bit higher on Cincinnati than some of the Polsters. You've
got Xavier in your top thirty I think twenty ninth
(07:16):
as of this morning, which is a little bit lower
than the major polls have them. So kind of walk
me through that with the Musketeers.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
When I was looking at my preseason rankings, I did
notice that Davira had them just a little bit lower
than other teams, and I think a main reason for
that is that I really really like they're starting five
or six players, but I'm not convinced by their depths.
A lot of my models just point to them having
a little bit of issues once you get past your
top five, six, seven players. But with that said, you know,
(07:49):
I think they're about met expectations so far. I had
them preseason, I think twenty eighth, and right now they're
twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So they're right around there.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
I think the fun thing about that matchup coming up
is that Xavier has been undeniably the better team in
that city for multiple years, and so they certainly have
the bragging rights. So coming into this game, Cincinnati will
likely be favored in that game. Right now, I have
Cincinnati favored by eight or nine.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Points, which seems like a lot.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Given the pedigree of these teams and where they've been.
But I do think Cincinnati is going to be favored
in that game. But Xavier is the one who comes
in with the bragging rights, if you know what I mean.
And so I think it's going to be a lot
on the line.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I think it's going to be, like you said, as
anticipatipated a matchup.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
As ever, will Cincinnati be able to deliver on sort
of the promise of what they've been doing, or world
Xavier kind of revert to the way that they've been
against this team in previous years.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I'm really excited to see it.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You mentioned something that's kind of a favorite topic of mine,
and this isn't necessarily about either UC or Xavier or
any team in particular, but you talk about depth. So
I hear all the time in November and December, fans
talk about our team can play ten guys, they can
play eleven guys, And you know I've seen that with
you you see this year. And then I watched games
in January and February in March, and nobody's playing that
(09:05):
many players. You know, some teams are playing seven, you
know ideally, I guess in some cases eight. So when
we talked about depth and college basketball, I know this
is gonna sound like a stupid question. When we talk
about depth and college basketball for the good teams, how
deep are we going?
Speaker 4 (09:23):
I think when you get to crunch time, we're talking
if you can have its like eight eight men, eight
players who can really contribute your you're flying and that
way on a given day, maybe you're not playing eight,
you're playing seven, but you have eight reliable pieces. I mean,
look at Auburn and the way that they've had two
big time wins this year against Iowa State and against Houston.
(09:45):
They're big man Dylan Cardwell, who's in the starting lineup,
played probably nine or ten minutes in their winn against Houston.
They just based on the scene they're running, they didn't
need him, but he played probably twenty five minutes last night,
and they're winning against Iowa State. So just because you
only play say six or seven guys in a particular matchup,
doesn't mean that you don't want that depth in other games.
(10:06):
Just based on the way that the game is going.
And I think the other thing, too, is when it's
so early in the season, there's still so much unknown
about how a team is going to play out. If
you go into a season thinking that you can rely
on nine or ten guys, that what that really means
is that just based on how players are, evaluations on
them often are off.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
You know, maybe not all nine or ten of.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Those guys will be good by the end of the season,
but you'll have a really solid seven, right And so
that's often where it comes is if you come into
a season with a lot of depth, your rotation might
get short towards the end of the season, but you're
almost guaranteeing yourself that you'll still have the right number
of players when it comes down to March that you
can really rely.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
On all right.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
One more, I think college basketball is fun when Kentucky
is really good and when their fans are sticking their
chest out, and not that they have been bad, but
in recent years it has felt stale, it has felt stagnant.
You know, UK fans got tired of watching John Caliperry
running offense from fifth team years ago, and with Mark
Poppe you talk about a collection of those guys that
(11:04):
seem to fit. I think he has that in Lexington.
I love how they play offense. Is that going to
translate as we talk about the eighth of the season
when they start playing teams in the SEC and even
some of the tougher games they have in non league
in the coming weeks.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, I think so. I think they've already proved it.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I mean, they beat a Duke team that's as talented
as any in the country pretty convincingly a couple of
weeks ago, and Duke has since then, you know, had
some big wins, and they got an opportunity against Kansas
to night. I think Duke is, you know, one of
the national title favorites right now. So for Kentucky to
beat them, it is really impressive. And I think the
(11:47):
thing too, that maybe it's part of why people were
sleeping in Kentucky a little bit, is not only do
you lose your coach, not only do you lose your
entire roster, but all the transfers that brought in. None
of those players were like big time all American Hike
little players. All of them are really really good, all
of them are really really reliable, but there's not I
don't think there's a single player on the team that
(12:08):
anyone would have thought will be even all SEC level player.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And so when you don't, when you have.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
That lack of a marquee player like that, people can
sleep on you a little bit. But you look at
the flips that I mentioned this before, like every single
one of their transfers they've brought in is like a
really really good piece. And according to my analytics, like
I was not really down on any of their top
you know, eight guys or so, I think they're you know,
from one to eight, Like there's deep as any team
(12:34):
in the country, and no matter what lineup they're rolling out,
Like there's a lot of flexibility right now for Mark
Pope to use in figuring out Hong. He wants to
play against different teams, and I think that's really a
strength of theirs. And then you look at how good
they're playing just collectively as a unit. You know, I
think we've come to expect this from Mark pope teams,
but man, it is so impressive what he's done, just
because when you have an entire new roster from scratch,
(12:57):
you know, he only knew one player previously, and Jackson
Robinson all these other players are new.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
For them to be.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Jelling this quickly, you know, that's a great sign of
what's to come for them for the rest of the year.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Evanmia dot com is the website. I mentioned how thorough
and in depth it is. It's certainly a labor of love.
I know, it's something you've been working on for a
long time. For folks who haven't been tell people what
they'll find when they go.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Yeah, the main place is Evanmea dot com. There's a
lot of stuff both for just casual fans to love
college basketball as well as for you know, a lot
of coaches use it for a lot of things, and
media members like yourself are deep in and as well,
so there's a lot for everybody. There's player ratings, team ratings,
game predictions, lineup analysis, really anything that fits your fancy
(13:43):
you can find there. I'm on all the usual social
media places, but you can find links to all those
directly on my website as well.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
More in depth than anything you're gonna find. If you're
a college basketball ball fan, you have to check it out.
Evanmeia dot com. I love getting people on who talk
in great detail about my favorite sport.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Awesome to have you. Hope we could do it again
during the season. Evan, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Sounds good.
The college basketball season is underway. Evan meat Kwa's website
is I think a must if if you love college basketball,
and if you love college basketball on kind of a
I don't know, deeper level, you will love Evan's website.
It's informative, it's thorough, it's detailed, it's in depth, it's comprehensive.
(00:23):
I'm trying to see if I could burn all the
adjectives that I would use to describe Evan's website.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
You're going to love it.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's evanmia dot com, Evan Miya dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's good to have you. I've wanted to have you
on for a while.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Let's start with this something you tweeted out more so
than even some of the national pollsters.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You're really bullish on the Bearcats.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Cincinnati is checking at the AP pool yesterday sixteenth, which
is very good for them.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
But I have them all the way up to six in.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
The country when it comes to predicting how good the
Bearcats are going to be the rest of the season.
And that might seem high, but I've been high on
Cincinnati since the preseason. I know I had them inside
the top twenty coming into the year, and really what
I liked before the games even started was just how
they've made this roster together. Basically, the key that I
found in a lot of my research for teams being
(01:18):
successful in this modern transfer portal era where you can
get guys from anywhere at any time, is if you
can return most of your really important pieces from the
previous year and then add one or two or three
pieces to raise your talent level. That's opso teams that
are the most successful, and that's exactly what Cincinnati's done.
They've kept a lot of their best pieces, they got
some key additions, including Dylan Mitchell from Texas, and I
(01:42):
think that's what's led them to be so successful this
far this year.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It's a well constructed roster and that was kind of
my observation during the offseason. And you know, there's always
I don't want to say skepticism, but there's a built
in curiosity, Okay, how the piece is going to fit.
But before they played it, it didn't feel like just
a collection of doo and I see some programs where
it feels like just a collection of dudes. It really
does feel like the acquisitions were made with the returning
(02:08):
players in mind. And some of the other acquisitions as well.
A guy who I think last season kind of got
lost in the flood until he started making big shots
for the Bearcats is a guy who's off to a
great start this season in Simos Lukashis.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I know you love him. What do you love most?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Oh Man?
Speaker 4 (02:24):
He is incredible. So I am a big Butler basketball fan.
So I watched Lukoshius back when he was a Butler
his freshman year and could tell back then that he
had the chops to be a really good playmaker, score
all those things. And so I'm just so happy that
he's found a fit with Cincinnati. And this is really
what you like to see Guys who transfer Oftentimes if
they stick with that program the second that third year
(02:47):
is often when they find the most success. And man,
he has been scalding hot this year.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
I did some analysis last week basically looking at the
players in the country who have had the most impressive
statistical starts the year, and coaches.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Was number one in all of.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
D one college basketball because not only at he you know,
creating place for others like he Austen does, but he's
been absolutely scorching from three this year. Shooting at least
sixty percent to start.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
The year on a lot of attempts.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
He's just unstoppable, and so he's been absolutely incredible.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
That's what you want to see. And I think the thing.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Too, is that they're not relying on him every single
night to be their best player, because there are a
lot of different key players on this team, and so
when you have him having that freedom to be able
to play as well as he does, but you don't
need him on a nightly basis, that's really where you
want to be.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
As a team.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I'm excited about how they've played. I'll acknowledge the Georgia
Tech team they played on Saturday isn't very good up
until then, no high major competition. They did play a
road game against NKU. The beauty of metrics is there's
a good way to sort of quantify the caliber of competition.
And so what do you say to someone who's like, look,
(03:57):
Bearkatz might have a good team this season, and they
could be competitive in the Big twelve, but let's tat
the breaks because they haven't played anybody.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
I think that's a fair criticism purely in the sense
that we've not really we don't have a sample size
yet of them playing you know, a Big twelve level, top.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Fifty level competition.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
But with that being said, like you mentioned, all of
my analytics take strength of opponent into account, and so
them being the sixth team best team in the country
is me saying, hey, even though they've not played great teams,
based on how they've performed against expectations in those matches,
I still think that they are going to.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Be around that good even against the best teams in
the country.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
And so, yeah, like we haven't seen them play big
time opponents yet. Their schedule starts to heat up when
we get into December with some much more quality matchups,
and of course Big twelve play is as hard as
it gets in any conference in the country. But I
really do think that they are not going to dramatically,
you know, fall down the rankings or disappoint people, because
(04:54):
I really do think based on what they've showed so far,
even just the limited stretches, you know, against teams that
are kind of closer to that level, I think they've
looked really good and I don't think people should be
sleeping on them at all.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, No, that's music to my years.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
What's kind of interesting is they were picked in the
Big twelve preseason poll to finish sixth, and then above
them the you know, the five usual suspects that were
ranked in the top ten of the major polls. And
I think for a lot of us that kind of
felt right right like, it felt like that's about where
you would pick them in the Big twelve. But they
were a tier below Kansas, Houston, Iowa State, et cetera.
(05:29):
What I'm hearing from you is a willingness to kind
of lump the Bearcads in with those schools.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I absolutely think they should be in that top tier.
I mean, here's the crazy thing right now. You mentioned
that top tier. Coming into the season. It was Houston,
Iowa State, Kansas, Bayley, Arizona all were getting you know,
perennial top ten love in nationally, which is crazy for
a conference to have five teams in that tier.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, some of these teams have disappointed a little bit.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Baylor has had some tough losses. You know, Kansas is
still undefeated. They have a game tonight against Duke, but
they've not really met expectations so far. Houston's been pretty solid.
Iowa State just took a tough loss against Auburn yesterday.
So right now I actually have Cincinnati ranked second.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
In the Big Twelve.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Now, do I think that there's a good chance they
finished top two in the Big Twelve. Probably not, just
because there's so many good teams in this conference that
you know, random results thinks can go up and down.
But being in that top group of five or six absolutely,
I think is where they belong. And I think that
they are going to have some big time wins against
some of those other programs in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Evan Mia Kyle was with his website if you're a
college basketball fan, is a Mustevanmia dot com. M I
y a Xaviers in between a game last night where
they win in Fort Myers against South Carolina. They'll take
on Michigan tomorrow. They've got another high major opponent in
TCU next week, and then you know, this part of
(06:53):
the country, as you will know, we get excited for
the UC Xavior matchup, and so there's there's a lot
of hype for the possibility of these two teams being
undefeated when they play, maybe both teams being ranked in
the top ten or top fifteen when they play, and
there's obviously a lot of games that are going to
happen between now and then. I mentioned you're a little
bit higher on Cincinnati than some of the Polsters. You've
got Xavier in your top thirty I think twenty ninth
(07:16):
as of this morning, which is a little bit lower
than the major polls have them. So kind of walk
me through that with the Musketeers.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
When I was looking at my preseason rankings, I did
notice that Davira had them just a little bit lower
than other teams, and I think a main reason for
that is that I really really like they're starting five
or six players, but I'm not convinced by their depths.
A lot of my models just point to them having
a little bit of issues once you get past your
top five, six, seven players. But with that said, you know,
(07:49):
I think they're about met expectations so far. I had
them preseason, I think twenty eighth, and right now they're
twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So they're right around there.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
I think the fun thing about that matchup coming up
is that Xavier has been undeniably the better team in
that city for multiple years, and so they certainly have
the bragging rights. So coming into this game, Cincinnati will
likely be favored in that game. Right now, I have
Cincinnati favored by eight or nine.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Points, which seems like a lot.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Given the pedigree of these teams and where they've been.
But I do think Cincinnati is going to be favored
in that game. But Xavier is the one who comes
in with the bragging rights, if you know what I mean.
And so I think it's going to be a lot
on the line.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I think it's going to be, like you said, as
anticipatipated a matchup.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
As ever, will Cincinnati be able to deliver on sort
of the promise of what they've been doing, or world
Xavier kind of revert to the way that they've been
against this team in previous years.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I'm really excited to see it.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You mentioned something that's kind of a favorite topic of mine,
and this isn't necessarily about either UC or Xavier or
any team in particular, but you talk about depth. So
I hear all the time in November and December, fans
talk about our team can play ten guys, they can
play eleven guys, And you know I've seen that with
you you see this year. And then I watched games
in January and February in March, and nobody's playing that
(09:05):
many players. You know, some teams are playing seven, you
know ideally, I guess in some cases eight. So when
we talked about depth and college basketball, I know this
is gonna sound like a stupid question. When we talk
about depth and college basketball for the good teams, how
deep are we going?
Speaker 4 (09:23):
I think when you get to crunch time, we're talking
if you can have its like eight eight men, eight
players who can really contribute your you're flying and that
way on a given day, maybe you're not playing eight,
you're playing seven, but you have eight reliable pieces. I mean,
look at Auburn and the way that they've had two
big time wins this year against Iowa State and against Houston.
(09:45):
They're big man Dylan Cardwell, who's in the starting lineup,
played probably nine or ten minutes in their winn against Houston.
They just based on the scene they're running, they didn't
need him, but he played probably twenty five minutes last night,
and they're winning against Iowa State. So just because you
only play say six or seven guys in a particular matchup,
doesn't mean that you don't want that depth in other games.
(10:06):
Just based on the way that the game is going.
And I think the other thing, too, is when it's
so early in the season, there's still so much unknown
about how a team is going to play out. If
you go into a season thinking that you can rely
on nine or ten guys, that what that really means
is that just based on how players are, evaluations on
them often are off.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
You know, maybe not all nine or ten of.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Those guys will be good by the end of the season,
but you'll have a really solid seven, right And so
that's often where it comes is if you come into
a season with a lot of depth, your rotation might
get short towards the end of the season, but you're
almost guaranteeing yourself that you'll still have the right number
of players when it comes down to March that you
can really rely.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
On all right.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
One more, I think college basketball is fun when Kentucky
is really good and when their fans are sticking their
chest out, and not that they have been bad, but
in recent years it has felt stale, it has felt stagnant.
You know, UK fans got tired of watching John Caliperry
running offense from fifth team years ago, and with Mark
Poppe you talk about a collection of those guys that
(11:04):
seem to fit. I think he has that in Lexington.
I love how they play offense. Is that going to
translate as we talk about the eighth of the season
when they start playing teams in the SEC and even
some of the tougher games they have in non league
in the coming weeks.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, I think so. I think they've already proved it.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I mean, they beat a Duke team that's as talented
as any in the country pretty convincingly a couple of
weeks ago, and Duke has since then, you know, had
some big wins, and they got an opportunity against Kansas
to night. I think Duke is, you know, one of
the national title favorites right now. So for Kentucky to
beat them, it is really impressive. And I think the
(11:47):
thing too, that maybe it's part of why people were
sleeping in Kentucky a little bit, is not only do
you lose your coach, not only do you lose your
entire roster, but all the transfers that brought in. None
of those players were like big time all American Hike
little players. All of them are really really good, all
of them are really really reliable, but there's not I
don't think there's a single player on the team that
(12:08):
anyone would have thought will be even all SEC level player.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And so when you don't, when you have.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
That lack of a marquee player like that, people can
sleep on you a little bit. But you look at
the flips that I mentioned this before, like every single
one of their transfers they've brought in is like a
really really good piece. And according to my analytics, like
I was not really down on any of their top
you know, eight guys or so, I think they're you know,
from one to eight, Like there's deep as any team
(12:34):
in the country, and no matter what lineup they're rolling out,
Like there's a lot of flexibility right now for Mark
Pope to use in figuring out Hong. He wants to
play against different teams, and I think that's really a
strength of theirs. And then you look at how good
they're playing just collectively as a unit. You know, I
think we've come to expect this from Mark pope teams,
but man, it is so impressive what he's done, just
because when you have an entire new roster from scratch,
(12:57):
you know, he only knew one player previously, and Jackson
Robinson all these other players are new.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
For them to be.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Jelling this quickly, you know, that's a great sign of
what's to come for them for the rest of the year.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Evanmia dot com is the website. I mentioned how thorough
and in depth it is. It's certainly a labor of love.
I know, it's something you've been working on for a
long time. For folks who haven't been tell people what
they'll find when they go.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Yeah, the main place is Evanmea dot com. There's a
lot of stuff both for just casual fans to love
college basketball as well as for you know, a lot
of coaches use it for a lot of things, and
media members like yourself are deep in and as well,
so there's a lot for everybody. There's player ratings, team ratings,
game predictions, lineup analysis, really anything that fits your fancy
(13:43):
you can find there. I'm on all the usual social
media places, but you can find links to all those
directly on my website as well.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
More in depth than anything you're gonna find. If you're
a college basketball ball fan, you have to check it out.
Evanmeia dot com. I love getting people on who talk
in great detail about my favorite sport.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Awesome to have you. Hope we could do it again
during the season. Evan, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Sounds good.
Mo Egger News
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