2/3/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nationwide keyword on our website green green. That's green grain.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Enter it now rain for the first time in twenty
twenty five. I wish we were doing the show outside
today because it is awesome out, especially for February third.
Good afternoon, I'm on Legard. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you for listening. Hope you had a great weekend.
Hope your week is off to a terrific start. Sean

(00:25):
Miller's going to join us at three forty. Musketeers did
not play this week. X you home tomorrow for a
tilt against Georgetown eight thirty and uh, Sean Miller bobbleheads
to the first three thousand, The coach of the Musketeers
joins us in just about thirty five minutes. I listened
to a podcast this morning that would would make me
believe that Higgins isn't gonna play for the Bengals in

(00:46):
twenty twenty five. And maybe you've already arrived at that conclusion.
I've I've I've maybe gone more back and forth on
this than most. And we have Pakoda projections for the
upcoming baseball season. They are not kind to the Reds.
I'm gonna tell you to ignore them and I'll explain why.
Coming up in the four o'clock hour show. Preview is

(01:08):
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member just like me. Go to Emery FCU dot org.
The video is up right now. I want to ask
you a question. If you're a UC basketball fan, and

(01:29):
I've been a UC basketball fan, I can I can
pinpoint the exact day that I became a UC basketball fan.
November twenty eighth, nineteen ninety Bob Huggins second season. I
became a UC basketball fan watching them lose a game
that night against Kentucky. So that's almost thirty five years.
So maybe you've been a fan longer than I have.

(01:51):
Maybe you just have become a fan over the last
ten to fifteen to twenty years. Maybe you became a
fan last month. I don't know. But if you're a
UC basketball fan, answer this for me. Have you ever
seen anything like yesterday?

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Not?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Have you ever seen them lose? You've seen that not.
Have you ever seen them lose at home? You've seen
that not? Have you ever seen the bear Cat get
bear Cats get out executed or outmanned. You've seen that
before that yesterday? Which, Yeah, I'll be honest with you,
I think if you're just going by a box score,

(02:31):
or if you're just going by what you've heard, or
even some highlights you saw on local TV sports last night,
or even on the Internet, I think Dan Horden and
Terry Nelson are the best broadcast in college basketball. And
they did a great job I think articulating and describing
what they were watching yesterday and being fairly critical. And

(02:52):
when I say fairly, I mean they were being fair
in their criticism. But I really do believe that to
fully under stand what that was yesterday, you had to
have seen it. You had to either have watched it
on TV or seen it in person. If you're a
U SEE basketball fan, I legitimately want to know, have

(03:13):
you ever seen anything like that from a Bearcat basketball team.
I've seen them lose, I've seen them play poorly. I've
seen U See teams that have been outmanned because the
other team just had dudes. I've seen the Bearcats get
out manned because you know what, they just had bigger,
stronger dudes. I've seen them suffer from a talent gap

(03:36):
because the other team had, you know, a couple of
NBA guys, and maybe the Bearcats didn't. I've seen teams
that didn't execute that well in the half court and
that caught up to them. I've seen the Bearcats make
some critical mistakes at the absolute worst time. I've seen
u see teams that haven't shot it that well and
that's caught up to them. I've seen some Bearcat teams

(03:57):
that had games where they just couldn't stop a great
individual player, or they got a tough whistle, or the
game wasn't officiated to their liking. I've seen them lose
in a lot of different ways over the last three
and a half decades.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
I've seen them get blown out.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
I've seen them have these games, even some pretty decent
teams where you know what, it's just not your day
and the other team is red hot, or maybe there's
a guy that you don't expect to have a big
offensive game and he has a big offensive game. Like
I've seen all of that over the last three and
a half decades. All of that stuff, I've not ever

(04:33):
ever seen what I saw yesterday. I'm not even talking
about them quitting, because to quit, you have to have
started to begin with.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yesterday. It wasn't about a loss.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
It wasn't about a loss that further distances the team
from the bubble, that makes their chances of making the
NCAA tournament even more remote than they already were, that
knocks them down another rung in the Big twelve standings.
I'm talking about just an absolute lack of competitiveness. I

(05:11):
think that's the word, right, competitiveness or a non competitiveness,
And you could fold a lot of things into.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
That word, right.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Sloppiness, Well, they were sloppy with nine minutes and thirty
eight seconds to go yesterday, you see, had made eleven
buckets from the field. West Virginia had eleven turnovers. They
weren't exactly playing like the mid nineties Arkansas Razorbacks, pressing
ninety four feet Bearkatz just throwing the ball right to him.

(05:45):
I saw a team that was unfocused. I saw a
team that was uninspired. I saw a team that, even
when they were trying to mount somewhat of a comeback
in the second half, with West Virginia, more than content
to just run the clock out, maybe not even take shots,
just kill thirty seconds at a time. I watched I

(06:08):
watched a team that was not instructed by its coach
to trap, to play more frenetic, to try to force
ball handlers to throw to non ball handlers, try to
create some steals, or he could the very least pile
up some fouls so they could eventually get him into
the bonus. So none of that, like legitimately, yesterday needed

(06:31):
to be seen to be understood. Tony said this to
me during our handoff there during quick hits, the amount
of people that have come up to him at the
game yesterday going what what was that?

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Or what is this?

Speaker 2 (06:49):
And I've had probably a dozen such conversations since. Like
there's a little test I have right when I you know,
I'll get text from buddies during the game or after
the game, but like there are certain games where you
hear from people that you haven't talked to in a
very long time. That means something crazy must have happened.
Like the sort of people that I heard from when

(07:09):
you see football made the college Football Playoff from when
the Bengals won the AFC, Right, those folks they just
they're thinking of you, right, or they just hey want
to chime in. We heard from a lot of such
folks yesterday. Frankly, some were checking on me more than anything, wanting.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
To know what was that? What was that?

Speaker 2 (07:35):
It's an It's an easy route to take, but it's
the right route to take.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Start with this.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
If you're a fan of this program, I don't care
if you go back thirty five years, fifty five years,
or five years. Have you seen anything like that yesterday?
I'm not even sure how to describe it to somebody
who didn't watch. That's I can't paint that picture for you.
I think the worst part for me is that what

(08:06):
we saw yesterday wasn't that surprising. I mean, I belind
you if I told you, there wasn't a part of
me that thought yesterday driving to the game, like.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
All right, you know what. They're back home.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
They can still they can still make a last gasp
run to the NCAA tournament. There's still lots of season left.
They're still going into yesterday, have more than half of
their Big twelve games remaining. They are at home, They're
playing a team that has lost three straight games. They
were favored. For what it's worth, it's a little bit
of a coin flip game, Like you know what, maybe

(08:42):
the crowd inspires the team, or the team inspires the crowd,
and we get some level of desperation, and this team
understands it's it's got its season kind of teetering on
the brink, and we at least see an effort that
is representative of UC basketball. At the same time, the
game unfolded, and maybe five or six minutes in, it

(09:03):
was abundantly clear that this was going to be a struggle.
And that's putting it mildly. What I was watching was sobering.
Wes Miller called it, said he was disgusted, So you
could say it was disgusting, But I think the frustrating
and really sad thing for me was.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
It wasn't that shocking.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
It felt, to a degree like the latest step in
what has been really a protracted, long drawn out stretch
of this team playing non competitive basketball. I said on
this show, I think it was on Friday that you know,
to say that a team quit and quit on its coach,
I think that's a heavy accusation.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
I do.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
I think players quit on themselves, and I think they
quit on their teammates more than they quit on their coach.
But the qword has been used a lot, man and
sometimes fairly and maybe sometimes unfairly, but it's been out
Why because there are a lot of folks who have
watched the Bearcats play recently who have talked more about
the effort than the execution, more about the effort than

(10:09):
the results. And so yesterday the effort or lack thereof,
stood out to me more than the result. It's not
necessarily stunning that the Bearcats might lose a game to
a West Virginia team that has beaten Iowa State this season,
that has won in Lawrence against Kansas. Frankly, the opponent

(10:30):
yesterday didn't matter. What did was this striking lack of
competitiveness from a program that has, for better or for worse,
become defined by competitiveness. Look over the last thirty five years,
they've had some really good teams, but they've they've had
teams that had, you know, maybe no point guard play,

(10:51):
or or they weren't a good shooting team, or they
had all sorts of offensive issues, or god knows, there
have been lots of teams that weren't good at shooting
free throws. But it's been extra ordinarily rare that in
the thirty five years that I have cared about this program,
rooted for this program, goneto those games that I've walked
away wondering about the lack of competitiveness, the effort. I

(11:18):
don't know what other conclusion you could draw. And I
think among the really bad things about this is not
only was yesterday that shocking, because it just it felt
like the continuation. I think the scary thing is this
team's got ten games to go, ten like we have

(11:41):
just flipped the calendar to February, like there's still a
lot of time to go in the season. They still
have to play teams far better than the one they
played yesterday, And so for the second time in less
than a week, I'm left to ask how much worse
my this get? And you have to keep asking that

(12:03):
until it starts to get better. And I think we
would all agree yesterday it did not start to get better.
So there's number one, here's the first question, how much
worse might this get? For a team that still has
half of its conference games still in front of it?
And number two, if you're a Wes Miller who I

(12:27):
really like, really like, after yesterday, after eight out of
ten that they've lost, after a lot of already existing
questions about effort and toughness. After yesterday, how do you

(12:51):
convince people that you're the guy that's going to get
this turned around, whether it be with the amount of
time they have remaining in this season.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Or beyond.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
I don't know the answer to that question, So there's
a lot there. Our numbers are five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty and eight six six, seven oh two, three,
seven seven six. Legitimately, man, I'm I'm I'm all ears.
If you're a Bearcat fan, have you ever watched a

(13:25):
game like yesterday's. I've seen him get blown out, I've
seen lopsided games, I've I've watched watched a lot of
games early in the Big East Mixed first couple of years,
where they just got smoked because that team had dudes
and U s didn't. Yesterday wasn't about quality of player.

(13:46):
It's about quality of effort. It's about lack of competitiveness.
And there just haven't been that many times in the
amount of time that I've been following this program that
I've called those things into question. I don't know how
you don't do that right now. At Moegar on Twitter

(14:06):
Thanks to Delta Dental. Delta Dental is building healthy, smart,
vibrant communities for all good at Delta dentaloh dot com.
Five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty is our
phone number. There have been former players who have made
it known how they feel about this on social media.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
You have to excuse those people.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
We'll do that next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
G you Moegg or anything you've missed on this show,
go get on the iHeartRadio app. We had a lot
of good stuff last week. Kelsey Conway from the Senior
Bowl was awesome and so much more. A podcast of
this show, a service of Long Neck Sports grow with
three locations in northern Kentucky. There's no better place to
watch college hoops, So go there. Wilder, Heburn and rich

(14:48):
Wood Sean Miller in just about fifteen minutes. We are
looking forward to that. Xavier's last game was a loss
on the road against Creighton. Musketeers are home for Georgetown
to try to exact revenge, if you will, against the
team that beat XU earlier this year in Washington. You

(15:08):
know the UC struggles have elicited strong responses from players
on social media. Sean Kilpatrick, who we love, is one
of my all time favorite players has been very vocal
on social media about some things happening with the program,
and others have chimed in as well. Some focus on
the players. I think sk did that. Many will focus

(15:30):
on the coach. Some will come to the coach's defense. Look, man,
you know Wes Miller took the job and one of
the very first things he did was and he deserves
a lot.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Of credit for this reach out to former players.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
And you know, we discussed Wes coming from North Carolina,
and you always think of the Carolina basketball family, Like,
create something similar here where the current players feel like
they're a part of the program and get them to
emotionally and I'm sure in some cases financially buy in
and make them feel like they're a part of it,

(16:02):
make them feel like, you know what, this this this
program is is still as much about you. It's as
much yours as it is ours. I think Wes has
done a good job of that. But you know, you
and I don't care what the program is. Be uc
it can be Xavior, could be Kentucky, it can be
Ohio State, could be dating can be Miami.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
If you want former players to care and if you
want them to pay attention, and you want them to
make an emotional investment, and you you want them to
really really care, then you have to understand that they're
gonna tell everyone how they feel when what they care

(16:40):
about isn't good enough. That's happening right now on social media.
And if you really want people to care, this is
a this is a program that matters. This is a
program where lots of people really care, really care. And
if you are going to say, celebrate that and celebrate

(17:01):
the programs following and hype up how important it is
in this town and what it matters, h if you
want people to buy in, if you're gonna celebrate that,
if you're gonna celebrate the fact that they draw well
and have a rabid fan base, then you have to
understand the reaction is going to be visceral and it's

(17:21):
gonna be angry, and that's gonna happen when your team
plays poorly. Those things are going to be ramped up
when your team plays the way it did yesterday. You know,
we've heard Wes after some of the recent games they've played,
the BYU blow out, the Baylor blowout, you know, say

(17:42):
to the effect, well, you know, every team has nights
like this, Every program has nights like this. And by
the way, very true, like very true. I think most
of us are very understanding when it comes to some
nights you just don't have it. Sometimes the other team does.
This is the Big twelve. There are gonna be games
like that, like the the days of UC going eighteen
and two in the league and probably not coming back.

(18:06):
This wasn't just one of those days. This wasn't one
of those nights that happens. This was a blatant lack
of competitiveness. And if you're gonna talk about like a standard,
coaches always talk about standards, standard set by players that
came before, teams that came before coaches the game before.

(18:31):
If you're gonna talk about standards, and Wes has done that,
most coaches do that. If you're going if you're going
to talk about a standard, then you've got to understand
there are going to be repercussions when that standard is
not lived up to. No matter how you feel about

(18:52):
the coach, or no matter how you feel about some
of these individual players, no matter how you feel about
what is most to blame for why this season has
gone from one that seemed at one point very promising
to one that has turned out to be a disaster.
I think we would all agree that standard is not
being lived up to. You can't talk about how awesome
the standard is and then expect there to be, you know,

(19:17):
a shoulder shrug and just okay, well go get him
next time. When that standard is not lived up to.
It sounds cliche man like again, I've and if you're
a Bearcat fan, you'll agree, and we've got room for
you here.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
In a bit.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
But like you watch UC basketball over the course of
so many years, like you're gonna have some teams that
aren't as good as others, and you're gonna have some
players who, you know what, may may maybe this really
wasn't the right place for them, And you're gonna have
some games that don't go your way, and you're gonna
have games where you get a tough whistle, and you're
gonna have some teams where, you know what, the overall
construction of it leaves a little bit to be desired,

(19:54):
and you're gonna have seasons where, you know what, we
got to figure out a way to compete against teams
that have NBA players when we don't have any like
all of that is a part of the deal. What's
not supposed to be a part of the deal is
what that was yesterday. What that was yesterday was.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Again.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Man, it sounds it sounds like an overreaction, but it's not.
Thirty five years are rooting for UC basketball. I've never
left or turned off a game or walked out of
the arena just completely puzzled as to what I had
just watched and thinking more about lack of competitiveness and

(20:34):
lack of effort than the other team, individual plays in
the game, strategic decisions. It's never happened. And I know
I'm not alone. Your phone calls are coming up. We
do have an AFC norths team that was done as
solid and a Reds trade next on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (20:57):
These ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

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See Chevrolet Home of Lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit
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What was your favorite moment of the Casey Lagumina era.
He was traded to the Seattle Mariners for cash considerations
by the Reds. They could still use those cash considerations

(21:56):
on Pete Alonzo. They could probably won't pay they could.
Miles Garrett has requested a trade from the Cleveland Browns.
This according to Miles Garrett, if you're a Browns fan,
you've got to hit rock bottom first. This is rock
bottom going nowhere with your quarterback, a season that you

(22:17):
tanked because of the owner's insistence on continuing to play
the quarterback, and now one of the best players in
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(22:41):
Arkansas in John Calipari's return, the Wildcats losing to the
Razorbacks at home. The Shawn Miller Show tonight at seven
o'clock on fifty five KRC. Before he does his show,
the head coach of the Musketeers joins us.

Speaker 4 (22:55):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifty thirty.

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(23:23):
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Speaker 6 (23:33):
This report spot.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Seeing away from four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty one.
Moeger Xavier did not play this weekend. The Musketeers are
home tomorrow night for a tilt against Georgetown eight thirty
the tip off. First three thousand fans at the Cintas
Center get a Sean Miller bobblehead, the head coach of
the Musketeers with us this afternoon.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
It is. It's good, heavy coach. How are you.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Thanks? Well?

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Great to be on such publicly after the Creighton game.
We're not done. We could take off. I would imagine
that you have imparted at least some version of that
to your guys, If not on Wednesday night, certainly in
the days subsequent.

Speaker 7 (24:13):
Yeah, that's I mean, look, that's the name of the game, right,
you know, to be a really good team in February,
entering March, playing your best and playing for something, you know,
having the opportunity to play for the NCAA tournament, having
an opportunity to play in games that everybody in the
world wants to watch and be a part of it.
And we have that in front of us MO. Like

(24:34):
so many different teams in college basketball, it can go
both ways. There's not a guarantee for us. We've dug
ourselves a certain hole by how we performed, especially in
the month of December, but we're playing our best, even
at Creighton. You know, playing in Omaha against Creighton this
year is a tall order. You know, they've they've beaten

(24:56):
Saint John's, They've beaten Kansas, they have arguably the best
center in America, and Ryan Kulkbrenner, who is in his
fifty year playing for them. That you can go there,
play well and not win, And I think the perspective
of that is important.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
So, you know, our our schedule in.

Speaker 7 (25:13):
The month of January has been very difficult. We played
Marquette twice, Saint John's twice, you Con twice, and at Creighton.
The rest of our league is certainly not easy, but
there's a heavy tilt right there. So with that, uh,
you know, playing our best during that stretch, I think

(25:34):
gives us confidence that that we can play well and
uh and perform well in this in this month that
everybody cherishes in in college basketball.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
It's got to be tough because on one hand, you
talk about the teams you've played in the league and
the gauntlet. I mean, it's it's the most overused word,
but it applies the gauntlet, and then you get six
days between games, and so I'm sure there's a part
of you that wants to take a breath. At the
same time, you do play a team tomorrow night that
the first time you played them it didn't go your way.
Your team doesn't have a ton of margin for error,

(26:06):
So that strikes me as to be a little bit
of a balancing act.

Speaker 7 (26:11):
Yeah, no, your points we all taken in this case
for us because of the type of schedule we played.
And you know, in the Big East, we played each
other ten times, and sometimes people forget that, you know,
ten and home ten on a road, it's around robin.
There's not like a team that we don't go to
their court, or there's not another team that doesn't come

(26:33):
to our court. So it's a twenty game schedule, not eighteen,
and you play everybody two times.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
And so with that.

Speaker 7 (26:40):
There's these buys in which each of us get an
opportunity twice to have one break, so you don't play.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
Two or three games in a week, you only play one.

Speaker 7 (26:49):
And it took us eleven games to get to that buy.
So I think it was us in De Paul that
you know, had played eleven games and without a buy,
so you know, everybody.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
Else kind of had that buy along away.

Speaker 7 (27:00):
We are the last to arrive at it, and we
played a very difficult schedule, so that combination mode. This
break came at a great time for us. I think
we were smart with it. We've certainly practiced, but we've
had a chance to take a couple of days off,
be at home, not travel, and I think it's a
healthy break for us as we almost restart here for
the rest of this month.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
You know, there's a lot of us who I was
at the Saint John's game here and kind of walked
out of Centa Center going, man, I don't know if
this is going to change. If this is going to
turn around, it's going to have to start on the
defensive end, and it has you know, you guys holding
Marquette on the road to fifty seven, even the other
night against Craton, as good of an offensive team as
that is, you guys got stops. You know, down down
eight with four minutes to go, you guys got stops.

(27:44):
We saw what you guys did defensively here against Yukon.
What's been the biggest difference on that end of the floor.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yeah, well you hit it.

Speaker 7 (27:53):
The Saint John's game was our low moment. I think
each season represents a single moment where I just that
was I don't want to say a turning point, but
maybe a fork in the road where it just didn't
feel right. You know, on that particular night, we lost
our crowd. I think we had a snowstorm before the game.
Saint John's is really good. Probably at that point, I

(28:13):
don't know if everybody truly understood the type of team
they have so and they put it on us. They
were way more physical. They killed us on the glass,
you know, they they kind of give you the illusion
like that Zinger's not playing hard, and really I think
the reality of it is we were overwhelmed with their quickness,

(28:34):
physicality and rebounding. But you know, I think you have
choices when those moments happened, you know, kind of run
and hide, point fingers sometimes not fix things. To our
group's credit, we went on several week journey and we
were better. I think that it starts within. You know,
our guards are doing a better job defending the ball,

(28:55):
pressuring the ball. Dylan Swain's playing his best basketball of
his career. And I think just as a group, you know,
understanding that the level of intensity and being able to,
like you said, get stops and be a team that
can win with both defense and offense. That's really what's
going to be required because the margin for air, as
you stated, isn't big. You know, we're in fifty to

(29:17):
fifty games virtually every night, so our effort level and
our consistency.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
On defense has to be there.

Speaker 7 (29:23):
And since that game, I can tell you that it's
been not just better, but I think at times we've
been a really good defensive team. That becomes the storyline
moving forward. We have to be that team the rest
of this month, and.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
I think with that the conversation for me at least,
you mentioned Dalen Swain and what he's done for you,
and you know, it's fun to think about what that
might look like five or six weeks from now. It's
fun to think about what that might look like next year.
What's it been like watching him progress on the defensive side, Yeah, no.

Speaker 7 (29:54):
It's It's what makes college basketball and coaching, you know,
such a such a special thing, especially for a coach,
because you know, when you see players in your program
grow and develop and do it because of their work ethic,
their will, their unselfishness, and those are all terms that

(30:15):
I would use to describe Daylan Swing a year ago
he was the youngest player in the Big East Conference
this year. He's still nineteen years old as a sophomore.
Every week, every month that he's been a part of
what we've done, it seems like he incrementally improves. He
adds to his game, and he's more physical, he's confident.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
I think that he has a chance.

Speaker 7 (30:36):
To be one of the most versatile players in the
Big East Conference, and it's fun to watch. He's really
putting it together, shooting a huge percentage from the free
throw line. He's shooting almost ninety percent from the line.
When you think of his game, you don't really think
about that, but he's also getting to the free throw line,
I think as much as any player in our league,

(30:56):
which shows you like.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
His growth and his development.

Speaker 7 (31:00):
Defensively, if you give our team credit, you have to
give him a lot of credit because many times he's
the anchor of what we do on defense.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Ryan Conwell scores twenty eight in the.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
Second half against Villanova, and I mean there was a
time in that game where I think you fell behind
by five and he makes a three and it felt
like God, if they don't score here, you know, maybe
this unravels and then you know, who knows what kind
of conversation we're having right now. Instead, you win the game.
He's awesome, And my takeaway was, that's cool. He's not
going to give you twenty eight in the second half

(31:33):
every game. What's going to happen when he doesn't? And
then you go to Marquette and offensively he doesn't shoot
it well and you.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Still figure out a way to win that game.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
And so if you look at the last five he's had,
you know, games where he's been awesome shooting the basketball.
He's had games, you know against Yukon where he's not
great shooting it, but he gets to the line you
had to play where he fouls out Caravan and still
makes the two free throws. Do you have a conversation
with him about, look, we love the highs, but we've
got a flat line this a little bit.

Speaker 7 (32:00):
Yeah, No, he wants to do that for sure. You
know what, what what Ryan gets is the other team's
most attention, you know, their best perimeter defender. From a
scouting perspective, you know the takeaways. We're not going to
let Ryan Conwell do this when they call this this
is this is his play, and they're very aware of
him though, And with that, I think there's an adjustment

(32:21):
for the player himself, but also me and the rest
of our team to to help him. And and the
other part of it is, you know, when you can
really play, which Ryan can, it's not just a set
player screen that's going to free him up. He frees
himself up by just being the consonant player where he

(32:42):
can get to the free throw line on drives, he
can score in transition, he could play off of other
other teammates in the team game and uh, and you
know he can use fakes to use their their their
quickness against him, right, so you know, just kind of
learning like, hey, look, if they're going to sit on this,
now becomes my counter. And it's up to us to
help him and teach him. What I love about Ryan though,

(33:05):
during the stretch you talked about, is when he hasn't
shot the ball, well, his demeanor, his mindset hasn't changed.
He's defended, he's he's playing the team game. He doesn't
you know, pout, He doesn't get frustrated and allow those
other aspects of his game to diminish, you know, his
defensive fight in his passing and his playmaking and all

(33:26):
the different things you want from him. In addition to scoring,
he keeps and that's allowed us to win when he
hasn't shot well. But make no mistake, when we're at
our best and we need him to play well, and
I think scoring is a big part of him playing well.
We want him to score.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
You joined me before the season, I think it was
before the exhibition game against Dayton, and we were talking
about the nature of the preseason, and look, college basketball
has changed in so many ways, and I think that
the task of getting ready for a season is a
lot more difficult, just because you know, you have players
from their programs and you're trying to piece everything together
and then you're gonna you know, the season starts earlier

(34:05):
than ever, you play games. The count you're asked to
schedule really tough. So the NCAA is allowing you, guys
to now have every every program to have two preseason
games against D one opponents. The secret scrimmage, I guess
doesn't have to be secret anymore.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Have you. I'm sure you've thought about it, but can
you can you?

Speaker 2 (34:23):
I don't know, let us in and know maybe what
the plan is going to be for your program moving forward.
As it relates to the preseason and maybe having a
better chance to kind of hit the ground running once
the real games actually start.

Speaker 7 (34:37):
Yeah, you know, in terms of the two exhibition games,
you know, I think that you can bring fans in
and with those fans, you know, you have the opportunity
to potentially make money for your program.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
And if we have the opportunity to.

Speaker 7 (34:52):
Do that, as we you know, as we did in
a lot of ways at U d Arena. It was
for certainly the mental health part of it, you know,
and any grants initiative, and how important that part was
to him.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
That was a big reason we wanted.

Speaker 7 (35:05):
To partner with Dayton to play that game to raise money,
you know, for suicide prevention in the state of Ohio,
et cetera. But I think entering the fans, I think
that's something will will lean heavily on MO moving forward,
because you know, from just if you look at it
just from the basketball perspective, you can play a quality

(35:25):
opponent and then you get the pressure of the crowd,
which always helps prepare.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
You for the season.

Speaker 7 (35:31):
I would say, like the other part of your question
of you know, you get the whole summer to be
around your team, more now than ever, right, And I
learned that this year. This is only like I wouldn't
even say this is my second go around in doing it,
because I think in some ways it's my first go around,
because you know, how does it feel to have turnover
each year? Some guys come back, most guys are coming

(35:53):
from other programs. You have a couple of incoming freshmen.
How do you build your team? And by the way
you're in the summer, isn't it supposed to be fun?

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Et cetera.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
I think for me, I got the answer to the
test on this one. To be the most ready, you have.

Speaker 7 (36:10):
To hit all aspects, in my opinion, in June, July, August,
and September, all aspects of your team. Meaning I think
you have to teach defense. You have to look at
it as a version of your practice. You know, the Hey,
it's June, let's get some shots up and have fun.
Not that you know, playing basketball is always fun, but
you just don't have as much time as you think

(36:32):
to get ready for the month of November and December
when you have eight new players. Six new players.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
I mean that like, I.

Speaker 7 (36:38):
Don't care if they're a freshmen. I don't care if
they're coming from a program or they've been a four
year starter and they're super experienced.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
The fact they've never played for you at Zager.

Speaker 7 (36:49):
And you have a group of guys that have not
been on a court together. That's not a good thing.
And I think the way you make up for that
is that in those months, you know, you you start
to teach them the value of terminology and everything you
need to be successful. In November and December. You can't wait.
And that's at least my opinion.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Do you like the Bobblehead?

Speaker 7 (37:14):
You know it makes me look thin, So anytime something
makes me look thin, I will sign up for it.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
You know, they put me in all black, and you know,
Bobblehead can't be fat. But I don't know how much
it looks like like me.

Speaker 7 (37:24):
Yeah, hopefully. Look, there's two ways to look at the
first three thousand people get one. That may mean only
fifteen hundred show up, or you know, maybe it works
works the way they want to. But I will tell
you this mode. You were at the Saint John's game, and.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
You know I've been I've been in the Centas.

Speaker 7 (37:41):
For eleven seasons, right, you know, three as an assistant
eight as a head coach obviously two different periods of time.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
And if anybody has ever asked me during my.

Speaker 7 (37:52):
You know, lifetime as a coach, what's it like to
coach in the Centas Center, I would just give them
one word awesome. It's tough on the opponents. There's pageantry,
our student section is second to none, the building is full. Uh,
it's just it's a tough minded crowd. They love college basketball.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (38:14):
That game, I'd have been the only game that I
would have left. And we didn't give our fans anything
to cheer.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
About on that night.

Speaker 7 (38:22):
But uh, you know, you leave a little bit concerned
because you know, Rick Patino and Saint John's did not
compete against our normal sentas crowd. For example, I would
say that if Yukon came in with Danny Hurley last
weekend and had that version of our crowd, the Saint
John's crowd, I'm sure of this, we would not have

(38:44):
worn and and and and I just think that the
competitive advantage at Xavier, there's always things you wish you
had more of. But I've never felt, ever felt that
we could ever have a better home court than the
one we have. That that is our biggest competitive advantage.
And you know, a season ticket holder, student section, they

(39:07):
have sometimes no idea, no idea the impact they have
on winning, on the consistency of our program. I mean
Schmidfield House, Cincinnati Gardens, MCC Horizon League, whatever those leagues
used to be called, right, Atlantic ten, Big East. Like
you play at Xavier. Everybody knew that was going to

(39:28):
be a game in part of a hostile, well oiled
crowd in addition to a team. And you know, our
crowd has always came to watch us, you know, not
because the other team's coming, but they came to watch
Xavier and they hold us to a high standard. And
you know, my hope is tomorrow night. It's a later game,
eight thirty, but it is such an important game. We

(39:50):
only have five home games left. They're going to go
by quickly, and for us to be the most successful
in those five games will have a huge bearing on
how this and ends. And my hope is that we
can get that Yukon crowd for five more times this year.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
It's so important.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Eight thirty provides more time to get as you put it, coach,
well oiled.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
So I'm here for it. So that's going to be
fun to Mark.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
Yeah, look, I'm looking outside.

Speaker 7 (40:17):
It's sixty five degrees. There's there's no snow, so we
can get through that. I understand when the weather's crazy,
it's it's not easy to attend on every game. But
I think you know what I mean when I say like,
there are certain programs when you think about their home CROWDEP,
you know they're coming to cheer for their team, not
the opponent.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
The how big the game is. It's always big.

Speaker 7 (40:39):
Because they're going to you know, fog Allen Field House
and they're watching the Jayhawks.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
And I just believe that our.

Speaker 7 (40:46):
Crowd in Centile Center and Xavier has always been synonymous.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
With that is a ferocious crowd. And you talk to
Pete Dillon, you talk.

Speaker 7 (40:56):
To Bob Stack, and talk to Fad Mauna, Chris Mack,
They're all going to say the same thing. And I
just my hope is we can be we can have
that for these final couple of weeks here, all.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Right, Well, I hope. So it's a huge one tomorrow
night at eight thirty. I know, I know you kind
of pushed podcasting off to the side during the season,
you know, you don't do it as often, but but
I am waiting on my official invites.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
So okay, you'll do it, you know.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
I this off season, yeah, I've had people ask me
like when's it going to happen?

Speaker 1 (41:23):
And a good didn't you?

Speaker 3 (41:25):
We'll do it. We'll do it.

Speaker 7 (41:27):
Hey, yeah, they You know what, when you're getting your
ass kicked, I think at some.

Speaker 8 (41:31):
Point you just say, you know what. People don't want
to hear from me. They just want to see me win.
So I put the focus just on.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
That, you know. But I'm I'll die.

Speaker 7 (41:40):
I'll return back to the podcast and we'll definitely get together.

Speaker 9 (41:42):
Mo.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
I cannot wait. Coach, good luck tomorrow night and the
rest of the way. Always appreciate your time. You're always
so generous to us. We'll talk soon, man, thanks so much.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
All right, thank you.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
You got a Sean Miller, coach of the Xavior Musketeers.
Eight thirty tomorrow night is the tip off and again
the first three thousand fans in get a Seawan Miller
dressed in black bobblehead. We are way late, but it
was worth at four o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty thousand much.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
This is nationwide Keyward on our website.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Grand credit that's credit Tredeth enter it now, you can't win.
I'm not eligible to win. Mad It's five minutes after
four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Moegger. Thank you
for listening today. It's a sixty six degrees outside six six.
Should be doing the show outside of the fire pit

(42:28):
somewhere smoking a cigar, but here I am in studio
and this is fine too. U. We'll be broadcasting from
a Twin Peaks in Westchester on Friday, so perhaps we'll
see you there. All right, we have a lot to
get to but Pakoda projections are out this year, which which,
by the way, clock the Reds pretty well last season.

(42:50):
They are not favorable to the Reds this coming season.
I will say again what I said a year ago,
and uh, if T. Higgins gets the answer to the
question he is asking, then we should go ahead and
assume he's not going to be a Bengal next year.
I'll make that make sense. And I'll also talk about

(43:11):
the P word. But first, we've got folks who have
been waiting quite a while, which I do appreciate. Starting
with Dale, Dale, thank you for hanging on. Good afternoon.
How are you.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
Doing good? How you doing.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
I'm well, what's up.

Speaker 10 (43:25):
Well, I'm one of those fans that you were talking
about earlier. I go back to Gail Catlett, Robert Miller,
Pat Cummings, Steve Collier. So I've been around you see
basketball a lot, and I live and die with.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Him like you do.

Speaker 10 (43:42):
I don't really think anything's going to happen too much
for the rest of the schedule.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
I don't.

Speaker 10 (43:49):
I'm not real positive about anything really coming to truition
right now, but I'd like to talk a little bit
about recruiting. I kind of think Miller has done a
great job with recruiting, especially the last two years with
Gigsel James and ray Von Griffith and Betsy, and then

(44:09):
he's got some four or five star guys coming in
next year for sure. So the way things are right now,
I'm like, Okay, if we, you know, maybe win two
of the last ten games, are Gizzle, James and Griffith

(44:29):
and Betsy, are they going to say, you know, let's
stick with it, man, let's stick with it, you know,
let's let's stay, let's keep it going. Are they going
to leave or the new guys supposedly coming in next year,
are they going to say, damn it, we're gonna stay,
We're gonna turn this thing around, or are they going
to take the easy way out and say, I don't

(44:51):
want to play for a team that's going to go,
you know whatever, four and eighteen in the conference. I
want to go to a better program. So what do
you think about that?

Speaker 2 (45:01):
Well, I mean, you're you're you're trying to get in
the head of kids and players who have decisions to
make at the end of the season, which is impossible
to do, especially in this climate where where players could
just bowl. So I mean, look, if if you know
they're bringing in Keishon Tillery and Shawnabaya, who's the McDonald's
All American, And I know they're really excited about Keishaan Tillery.

(45:24):
Obviously there's good reason for excitement with those players. And
you know, I think Tyler Betsy is an offensive player,
still has a chance to make a positive impact.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
He's going to have to learn how to play defense.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
I still think that there's some good college basketball left
in Gisel James, although he is kind of plateaued this season.
But I mean, you don't know, you don't, you don't,
you don't know what this is going.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
To look like at the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
Last year, it kind of felt like they lucked out
right of if we were to list in order from
top to bottom, players you want to keep versus players
you're okay with leaving the guys at the top, but
the list all came back. Is that gonna happen the
next year. Is that gonna happen from one year to
the next. How many of those players will be encouraged
to leave? How many of those players will say, you

(46:11):
know what, this isn't for me? Are there is there
going to be a shake up on the coaching staff
and and what what might that mean.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
For some of these guys?

Speaker 2 (46:20):
I don't know, And I think that's the troubling thing
right now, Right Like, I think Wes is a good recruiter,
and there are a lot of these players that I
think a lot of programs would like. But the collection
of parts it's not working out, and at the end
of the day, that's ultimately what matters most.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
Well.

Speaker 10 (46:37):
I enjoy the talking with Sean Miller. I think he's
a heck of a coach. Yes, I've been following Xavier
since Bob Stack was there.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
Uh A big UC fan.

Speaker 10 (46:48):
Overall. But Xavier's got a really good team. You know,
they're they're gonna go to the tournament. I have no
doubt about that. But uh yeah, they got a really
good team. I like watching them.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
They've gotten better. They've gotten better. Tail, thank you, Okay,
have a great day. They've they've improved. We're just talking
with with Sean.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
They have a long way to go, and there's a
part of me that goes, Okay, you take a big
sigh of a big sigh of relief after the gauntlet
that include, you know, two with Marquete, tw of Saint John's,
two with Yukon and the Creighton game, and okay, the
schedule does ease up at the same time, there's really
no margin for error. But that team, relative to what
it was a month ago, has improved, has gotten better,
you see, has not?

Speaker 1 (47:29):
They have not.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
And you know, again, one of the more troubling questions
I have is, like I asked, after the BYU game,
which was nine days ago, how much worse might this get?
We got our answer yesterday, So you keep asking how
much worse might this get?

Speaker 1 (47:51):
And they have ten games to go.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Recruiting recruiting rankings are fun and I could not be
more excited to see the players who have committed a
play for UC next year. Recruiting rankings are awesome. What's
more awesome is competing for NCAA tournament spots, being a
factor in the conference race, and feeling like your team

(48:16):
has a chance to have a special season, and watching
a team that is improving and getting better, and that
those things are not happening right now, They're just not
I've I was talking with Tony and Austin. They had
a pole question and their question was about, like, you know,
where do you blame? You know how it works right
in sports talk radio, team in any sport is having

(48:39):
a bad year, and we've got to spin the wheel
of blame.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
And Tony and I were talking to that.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
I guess he heard from someone who said, well, it's
fan expectations and fan impatience. You see basketball fans I
think have actually been very patient, very patient, even if
you want to go back to when when Mick was here,
there was half a decade of being patient with Mick,

(49:06):
which most of us were, and a half a decade
of being patient not just with Mick, but you know,
stabilization of the program in the big East, which was
really hard to achieve. There was patient with there was
patients with John Brannan. You know that that first year
that you know, obviously COVID interrupted things and who knows

(49:27):
if they would have made the tournament, but that was
a year where they had like what seven overtime games,
struggled early, lost to games in Saint Thomas. I mean
it just but there was like, all right, you know,
it's hard to be a new coach in a new place.
It's tough even if you inherit the reigning conference player
of the year. Like, there's gonna be some patients and
then patients with the Big Twelve, patients with a new

(49:49):
coach moving into the Big twelve. We are in year
four of Wes Miller's time at UC and and this
is the first time that I have heard and felt
and read and listened to genuine frustration aimed at the

(50:11):
head coach year four at a lot of places, at
a lot of places, such a grace period is not
going to be afforded. I tend to think that, you see,
fans have been very understanding, very patient, and I'm painting
with a broad brush here. Some are more patient than others,

(50:32):
and some less, but I think the consensus over the
first three years has been, all right, this is a
bit of a process, and it is.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
Man.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
I mean, like.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
The first year, hey man, you got to get this
thing settled. You got to get this thing steadied. If
you remember, the coaching change happened in April, so you
got to cobble together a staff, you got to cobble
together a team. And it's tough to do, you might argue,
and I think successfully it's easier to do in this
era where you know, players can change programs. But year
one there was like, you know what, let's just let's

(51:05):
just get this thing on solid footing. Then year two, okay, now,
let's let's make it better, understanding that even if the
team itself is better year three, they're gonna be affected
by playing in a tougher league. And so last year,
you know, they looked and felt like a big twelve
team for the most part. They lost one game by
more than ten points. They played well in the conference tournament.

(51:28):
They won some games that going in we didn't expect
them to win. They were competitive in every game at home,
and yet you know the results. They were seven and
eleven in the league, they you know, obviously didn't come
really close to making the NCAA tournament, and everybody just said,
all right, fine, like it's the Big twelve. It was
gonna be gonna be a bit of a stretch to

(51:48):
think that they can make the tournament in year one.
It was gonna be an adjustment period year four. By
the way, the expectations for year four, I don't remember
anybody saying win the league. When the preseason poll came out,
they were picked to finish sixth. Most people that I
know even felt like that was kind of optimistic. And

(52:08):
I remember on this show saying like, if they can
get to twelve and eight in the Big.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
Twelve, that is a massive success.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Expect five hundred hope for twelve and eight, and then
you know you're through the roof if they do even better.
Nobody was talking about, well, this is the year where.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
They win the league. This is the year where they
win the league tournament.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
This is the year where they go into the NCAA
Tournament with a top three seed. This is the year
where it's second Weekend or bust. This is the year
where it's Final four.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
But nobody's doing that.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
I think fan expectations and fan patients has I think
those things have been realistic. You'll find outliers, You'll find
folks who believe this team should win twenty eight games
every single year. But for the most part, I feel like,
and you can tell me if you think I'm wrong,

(52:55):
I feel like most fans have been very, very patient
with really the last six years, and I would go
back even beyond. This season has kind of spiraled out
of control, but it's spiraled out of control when expectations

(53:17):
were higher than they've been.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
But I don't think through the roof. I don't think unrealistic.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
I've heard unrealistic fans express unrealistic expectations. I've heard fans
in the past who have said this is Final four
or bust, but a narrative that I never go along
with because it's really fricking hard to get to the
Final four. This is not a problem with impatient fans.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
This is now.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
You might find fans who make it personal and you know,
shoot off and spout off the players and even coaches
on social media, and they shouldn't do that.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
But as a.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
General rule, sharing fans, I'm not trying to play to
the crowd here. I think UC fans have exhibited an
extraordinary amount of patience, to be honest with you, and
at some point that patience has to be rewarded. We
talk about this with the Reds all the time. You
talk about a patient fan base. Now, oh boy, Well,

(54:17):
if over time that patience doesn't get rewarded, there's gonna
be pushback, and there are gonna be folks who turn away,
and there gonna be folks who demand change. And that's
that's what's happening now. I don't think Wes Miller's, you know,
gonna be let go at the end of the season.
I don't, But I do believe that you're If you're Wes,

(54:41):
you're having a more and more difficult time trying to
convince people that what you believe is true. And he
said it in his postgame press conference yesterday that he
believes he's the guy. Marvin Lewis would say, I see
better than I hear. If you're a Bearcat fan, what
are you seeing right now? What you're seeing right now
dramatically impacts how you feel about, you know, the coach,

(55:04):
and how how you feel about his ability to get
this thing flipped. But what he is dealing with From
a fan perspective, we're booing at the game. This is
not an unrealistic and impatient fan base.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
It is not.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
And again you you might know an unrealistic U SEE
fan or an impatient UC fan. But if we're going
with a broad brush here, this is not that. I
think it's actually one that has been exhibiting a ton
of patients and that will hopefully have its patience. We
bore eighteen minutes after four o'clock five point three seven
four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number. Uh, We've

(55:41):
talked a ton about T Higgins. Excuse me, T Higgins.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
If T Higgins gets the answer to the question he's asking,
then I'm gonna guess T.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Higgins is not a Bengal.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Next year, you'll hear that question next on ESPN fifteen
thirty twenty four for four This is he fifteen thirty
on Olweger. Do appreciate you listening today. We'll jump back
into the cat's tough here in a bit. We also
have Red's projections. I don't know if they've been redone
since the casey Legumina trade for cash considerations to the

(56:16):
Seattle Mariners, but we will I guess we'll find out
throughout the course of the afternoon.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
Let's do this.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
So the Pro Bowl was happening this week, we had
audio of Joe Burrow again expressing his desire to see
the Bengals pay some of their top guys. The Super
Bowl is this week, and then we're quickly going to
pivot to the Combine and the start of the off season,
and before you know it, free agency is going to
be here and we'll finally find out, I guess, once
and for all, where T Higgins is going to play

(56:44):
football in twenty twenty five. This is from the Scoop
City podcast hosted by Diana Russini of The Athletic who
spent a fair amount of time on this podcast talking
about T Higgins and the Bengals and Chase and Joe
Burrow and even some Trey Hendrickson. But here's what she

(57:05):
had to say about t Higgins.

Speaker 11 (57:09):
Okay, so from what I understand, he really wants to
see and have an answer to what is next very soon.
This isn't going to be something where to see dragged
out where, you know, come early March. There's a lot
of questions he's trying to figure out and his representation
is as well, Who's going to pay the most amount

(57:31):
of money for T?

Speaker 5 (57:31):
Higgins?

Speaker 11 (57:32):
And a good rep is going to do what any
rep is going to do, which is get him the
most money. So the question is are the Cincinnati Bengals
going to be able to pay T Higgins the amount
of money that he will be able to get?

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Diniversity, whose podcast is excellent Scoop City podcast, she covers
the NFL for the Athletic after years at ESPN. The
question quote, who's going to pay the most amount of
money for T?

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Higgins? Be honest, it's probably not the Bengals.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Now, you might get mad at them for that, You
might criticize them for that, you might use that as
as ammo to, you know, throw a round of accusations
about how the Bengals are cheap for a goal out
of tend whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Let's be to this.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
This is now a T Higgins decision more than it
is a Bengals decision. They have squandered and you might
say justifiably so because of the concerns about his injury issues.
But they have maybe squandered is not the right word.
They haven't signed him, they haven't given tea what he wants,
and that's like part of this man like Joe Burrow

(58:38):
talking about T Higgins reignited the conversation, right Like, once
we saw the franchise tag thrown at T Higgins and
saw him sign the franchise tag tender back in June
of last year, we kind of stopped talking about him.
You know, all right, he's gonna come to camp. They're
gonna play with him this year. Hopefully they win, they're

(59:00):
going to lose him. And then suddenly on December ninth,
Joe Burrow starts talking about T. Higgins, which means we
started talking about T Higgins. We changed the conversation. We
started the conversation. Joe Burrow reignited the conversation. Are we
sure the Bengals have pivoted from what their stance has

(59:21):
been all along? I'm not, and the Bengals haven't changed
the conversation Joe Burrow did. Joe is not in charge
of what's gonna happen with T. So like there's if
to this point they haven't been willing to pay him
what he wants. If to this point, even with acknowledging

(59:41):
that the previous agent was David mulaged who never got
a deal done. Are we really left to believe that suddenly,
all of a sudden, suddenly, all of a sudden, they're
gonna go, Yeah, Tea, that's cool. Here Uh, here's an
offer that exceeds anything you can get from anywhere else.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Probably not.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
And Joe Burrow, for all of his heft and clout
and for much as you I think could argue, should
have a very large say and what the Bengals do
with their roster, doesn't run the team, doesn't own the team.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
He's not the general manager.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
He doesn't make the final call, he doesn't make the
financial decisions.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Maybe you wish he did.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
So what's been interesting about this is every time Joe talks,
you know, all the people who aggregate stuff on the web,
they have a field day with Joe, and talk radio
host like me play the audio and we have a
field day talking about it. It has been the t
Higgins thing, which we thought was dead eight months ago.
The last two months has been a gold mine if
your job is to create content. Joe Burrow has changed

(01:00:43):
the conversation. Have the Bengals changed their mind? Yeah, Tea
had a nice year. Last year was thirtieth and a
couple of different categories. I want him on the team
next year. But if to this point they haven't been
willing to pay him what he's looking for, are suddenly
they going to pay him more than their teams that
up until now haven't had a chance to make them
an offer. And like, if you just do a search

(01:01:06):
google T Higgins right now and you'll see Patriots, Packers, Chargers, Raiders, stealers,
I mean, like bills all over the place, like connected
to every team. How much of that is real versus not?
Your guess is as good as mine. But if he
is waiting trying to figure out who's going to pay

(01:01:28):
the most amount of money for T Higgins, that answer
is probably not known right now, but I think we
can guess who it's not going to be. If I'm
wrong about this, I'm wrong about this. And again, man, like,
I think there's a value that T brings to the
table that is hard to quantify from a dollars and

(01:01:50):
cents perspective, right because I think there's a certain type
of person that you want to build around. And should
Joe Burrow have a lot to say in what they do?
Of course, and you run the risk of screwing this
up if you can't replace him, and then deal with
the fallout from Joe Burrow deciding, you know what, maybe
eventually down the road, I don't want to be here.
But if this is about who's gonna pay him the

(01:02:12):
most money when they have to pay Jamar Chase probably
more money than any wide receiver in the league is getting,
just say it out loud, like the Bengals is gonna
pay t Higgins the most money of any free agent
wide receiver, and they're gonna pay Jamar Chase the most
money of any wide receiver in this sport, acknowledging that
the financial hit that Jamar is gonna incur this year

(01:02:33):
is not that much because he is under contract for
twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Just say it out loud. They're gonna pay Jamar Chase.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
They're gonna give him the most expensive contract that any
wide receiver has ever gotten. Oh and they're also gonna
give T Higgins the most money of any team that
he talks with or could talk with in free agency.
Does that sound like something that's gonna happen. I'll let
you answer five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty

(01:03:02):
more of your phone calls are coming up, and Baseball
Perspectives does their annual projections.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
They're out.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
They have the Reds winning fewer than seventy four games
and finishing in last place. They got it right when
it comes to the Reds last year. But I will
double down on what I said a year ago. Coming
up in just about twenty minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 4 (01:03:25):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
at risk, trust the experts at U See help for
innovative and personalized heartcare. Expect more at uchelp dot com.
Northbound seventy five at Town Street, it's an accident off
on the left shoulder. Traffic running slow from Mitchell Avenue

(01:03:50):
right now a five minute delay. You'll also find stop
and go traffic southbound seventy one between Reading Road and
Fort Washington Way, a five minute delay that e zelk
with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
This report is sponsored by Dell Technologies.

Speaker 4 (01:04:05):
Del Techwork DESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Sports Headlines service of the Kelsey Chevrolet Home of Lifetime
powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family to
yours for life, kelseyshev dot com. Miles Garrett has requested
a trade from the Cleveland Browns. The source there is
Miles Garrett. Meanwhile, the Reds have made a trade. Casey Ligomina,

(01:04:34):
a reliever, has been dealt to the Seattle Mariners in
exchange for cash considerations. Casey last year pitched in six
games with an ERA of ten. The year before he
pitched in five games with an ERA of seven eighty two.
So Casey Ligamina takes a career ERA of nine with

(01:04:54):
him to Seattle. Best of luck and welcome to Cincinnati
cash considerations. College hoops UK slides to fourteenth in both
the AP Top twenty five and coaches polls. The Wildcats
coming off that loss on Saturday night at home to Arkansas,
there is tonight no Mark Pope Show on ESPN fifteen

(01:05:16):
thirty nine, because he's mad that he and his team
lost to John Calipari in Arkansas, but because well they're
traveling and they take on a good old Miss team
tomorrow night, and then the Mark Pope Show after that'll
be on Wednesday, So there you go. There is a
Sean Miller show tonight at seven pm on the Double
Nickel fifty five k RC. There you go, twenty three

(01:05:37):
from five o'clock Bob on Yes, Bob, You're on ESPN
fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Hi Bob, how are you.

Speaker 12 (01:05:44):
Oh, I'm good, I'm good. Hope hopefully you're doing well. Hey.
I watched the game yesterday, obviously, and you know what
what kept popping in my mind though, The night before
I watched hockey in Arkansas, and Arkansas of course was
I think one in six maybe in the conference.

Speaker 3 (01:06:07):
Or whatever, correct, And I saw so much.

Speaker 12 (01:06:11):
More talent on the floor in those two teams, And
then watching yesterday's game, it was like I wasn't even
watching the same sport.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
Yeah, yeah, I can't argue with you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
Arkansas played really, really well and offensively, you know, they
shot fifty five percent for the game, They made thirteen threes.
They frankly looked like a very non John Keller Perry
team over the last couple of years. But I mean,
you're you're right in your assessment. But at the same time,
like I guess there's two things. One, the Dan Skillings regression.

(01:06:51):
I mean, somebody should have done a documentary on that. Yesterday,
he was having a hard time dribbling the basketball. There
was a that he actually I think got an assist
on where one of his teammates scored, where he had
such a hard time handling it. He loses the handle
and then ultimately sort of like does a little push
pass to one of his teammates, and it's like he

(01:07:13):
looked like somebody who had never handled a basketball before.
So you take that, you add to it the inability
or unwillingness to help him on the glass, the inability
or unwillingness to be aggressive on offense. He's not shooting
it well from the outside. Like I feel like there's
a lot of us who winto the season thinking, if
this goes well, Dan's their best player. He's been anything,

(01:07:36):
but hasn't been close. So you start with that, you
look at the overall just lack of cohesiveness on offense.
But man, yesterday was about, you know, the their sloppiness
on offense. West Virginia had eleven steals in the game.
I felt like most of the most of those steals
were the results of the Bearcats just handing it to
West Virginia, either bad passes, or poor ball handling. There's

(01:08:00):
a lot there. But I do think there's a lot
of individual players on that team that other high major
programs would would want, would take. Dylan Mitchell has a
place on a on a good power for a team.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
Jisell James has a.

Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
Place on a on a power forward team. I think
there are there are good individual players. The pieces don't fit.
The collection of players together as a roster is not
a great fit. But I think there are good players
on the team. The collection of them is just not working.

Speaker 12 (01:08:33):
Yeah, I know what.

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
I have to agree with you.

Speaker 12 (01:08:36):
And the thing is, I just hope that Wes and
and I probably like you, think that he's going to
be back next year.

Speaker 3 (01:08:48):
The thing that I hope has.

Speaker 12 (01:08:51):
Kind of dawned on him is game after game when
he will defend his players to the nth degree.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):
I hope that now he kind of takes a second look.

Speaker 12 (01:09:03):
And says, you know what, they're not really doing anything
for me.

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
Why am I?

Speaker 12 (01:09:10):
Why do I keep playing these guys? Let me play Rashad,
let me play Betsy, and you know what, play the
guys that chances are maybe coming back with you next year.
And these other guys that have kind of more or
less quid on him. Stop giving them so much rope
to hang themselves. I mean, you know, I just I

(01:09:35):
think if I weren't him, I would have certainly reached
a limit by now.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
It was interesting, you know last year, if you remember,
I think it actually occurred after they played West Virginia
on the road. They took Victor Locke and didn't just
put them on the bench, but buried them right and that.
And that was on a team that you know, you
would argue you didn't have as much talent as this
year's team.

Speaker 1 (01:09:56):
I thought it was interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
He didn't start skillings yesterday and then skillings checked into
the game, you know, three minutes in.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
You know, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
That's fine. I mean, you're allowed to sell players in.
But if the idea is what we're going to change
our look here and change how we're doing things, or
even you know, showed Dan the bench boy, the that
didn't last very long. I feel bad for Wes because
it feels like no matter what he tries doesn't work.
But it also feels like, you know what, maybe he's
not trying everything. Yesterday he did give Rayvon Griffith a chance.

(01:10:29):
Rayvon came in and gave him a very brief spark.
I'll be honest with you, I don't know. I don't
know what I would do. I don't know what I
would do with this team and his roster. It's again,
I think there's a lot of nice individual players, but
as a collection of players as a team, this just
hasn't worked. And I don't know if there's an answer

(01:10:52):
on the bench. I don't know if there's an answer
schematically that is suddenly going to get this thing turned
around to the point that they achieved the results were
all hoping for.

Speaker 12 (01:11:02):
Offensively, Mo, do you, in watching them, do you see
any difference in what.

Speaker 3 (01:11:07):
They're doing now from what they did a month ago?

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
No, I mean I do think.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
I do think just in terms of like fluidity right
and getting decent shots. They've there have been games where
they've been better. I thought early in the Utah game
the offense ran and flowed very well. I thought at
times in the Arizona State game the offense ran and
flowed very well. But there are still large stretches of
time where I go, what is this supposed to be?

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
What is this supposed to like? What is this?

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
And I if I'm asking that.

Speaker 12 (01:11:40):
But no, it's just gonna say the two teams you
named are probably two of the weaker teams inn't that conference?
Yeah no, I mean so yeah, they're like they look
better against them.

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
I'll agree with you that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
Sure, But but it's like that.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
But it's like yesterday, it's I mean, West Virginia is
fine and come and lost having lost three straight games
West West Virginia. Not to take anything away from them
getting a road winning the Big twelve, but it's not
like the Mountaineers put a lot of pressure on the ball.
It's not like the Mountaineers were coming out and throwing
junk defenses at the Bearcats that they that they couldn't
have prepared for. It's not like they were locking them

(01:12:15):
down in the half court. I mean it, there was
no reason why in that game that the Bearcats at
home shouldn't have scored far more than fifty points.

Speaker 3 (01:12:27):
Like maybe seventy three.

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
Seventy three would have been nice, seventy three would have
given him the victory. But like you know what I mean,
Like again, the steel total ten minutes ago in the game,
West Virginia had eleven steals. How many of those steals
were the results of well, they sent a trap and
forced the guy into a turnover right, or they stepped
into a passing lane and a guy makes.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
A great play. That sort of thing.

Speaker 3 (01:12:50):
It was.

Speaker 2 (01:12:51):
There were the results of bad passes. Lazy passes are
bad ball handling. That wasn't West Virginia locking down the Bearcats.
It was the Bearcats offensively being incapable of doing anything.

Speaker 3 (01:13:03):
No, very very true.

Speaker 12 (01:13:05):
Yeah, they've got some They've got some real issues this
year though. And I would assume you think he's going
to be back, don't.

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
You, West I do. I do think he's going to
be back.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
I think they do not want to pay him ten
million dollars to not coach. I don't think they want
to start from scratch, which number one I think you
have to do when you have a coaching change. Number two,
because you can bring in players and pay them, I
think you can get things turned around very quickly. Pat
Kelcey started from scratch and Louisville and is doing well.

(01:13:36):
Mark Pope started from scratch at Kentucky and is doing
quite well. But it would not surprise me if if
Wes is back, But there are different people on the bench.

Speaker 12 (01:13:46):
Yeah, I think absolutely there has to be in both
suits and ties, as well as guys in shorts. I
think there needs to be a lot of changes on
that bench come next year.

Speaker 1 (01:13:59):
Bob, good to talk to you, man, Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
And the thing is like, we're having this conversation on
February third, their last regular season game is still more
than a month away. So one thing you like, I
believe at the season ended today, Wes would come back
and coach the Bearcats next year.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
I think you have to wonder a couple of things.
Number one, how much is public sentiment going to matter?

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
How much is public sentiment from the folks who can
do something about it financially matter? And number three, how
much worse might this get? Like, that's there's the question
about this season. I asked it last Monday, right after
they were smoked at BYU. How much worse might this get? Well,

(01:14:48):
it got worse with ten ten games to go. You're
still asking like, how much worse might this get? And
could it get to a point where, you know what,
even if it's going to cost a lot of money,
even if we do have to start from scratch again
with a third coaching change in six years.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
We have no choice.

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
It's tough man, this is not where we thought we
would be five six weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (01:15:14):
It's not.

Speaker 2 (01:15:16):
They didn't play great against Xavier, and they didn't play
great offensively against Dayton, But we all walked away from
the non conference part of the schedule and said game
on like, all right, road, hiccup on the road against Villanova.
That's gonna happen the rest of this This team's fine,
and maybe the non league schedule top to bottom left
something to be desired. But if I would have said

(01:15:37):
to any UC observer fan, if I'd have said to
anybody who pays attention to this basketball team that going
into Christmas with the non league schedule behind him, they
will have then lost eight of their next ten games,
you would have said, no. Maybe you didn't think they'd
be eight and two. Maybe you thought it'd be best
case they'll be at five hundred. I cannot recall anybody

(01:15:59):
who thought it at the end of the non league
you know what, this thing is going to crater and
it's going to turn out to be a disaster, and
there's going to be multiple games where fans are booing
and booing with lust and former players are going to
be pulling out pitchforks. Nobody thought that, and yet here
we are. We are at a place where we have

(01:16:19):
to take a break. Pakota Projections next ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:16:24):
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Speaker 5 (01:16:29):
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(01:16:51):
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Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
This report is five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:17:06):
Imboegger Baseball Prospectus releases their Pakoda projections every year, which
is highly analytical, and last year they actually came pretty close.
They last year's projections had the Reds winning seventy eight
point three games, and if you remember this, a lot

(01:17:28):
of folks lost their minds.

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
How could that be? They won eighty two the year before.
How could that be?

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
And as it turns out, they were close. The Reds
won seventy seven games two years ago. They could not
have been more off. In twenty twenty three, the projection
was sixty seven and a half and the Reds ended
up winning eighty two games. The year before that, the
projection was seventy nine and the Reds won sixty two games.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
So you do whatever you want with this.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
They have the Reds finishing in last place in the
National League Central and they may and I'm probably gonna
do something cop out ish. I think the Reds are
gonna win right now between seventy nine and eighty two
or eighty three games somewhere in there, and maybe I'll adjust.
We're gonna do the show in the first day of

(01:18:19):
spring training next week where we're uber, uber, uber optimistic,
and I think there are reasons for optimism. By the
way they packed the truck today. Tomorrow the truck leaves,
so well, perhaps have some sound of the truck leaving
for you. I said this a year ago and I'll
say it again. I'm not sure that there are enough

(01:18:42):
players on this team that have enough of a big
league track record that you can make a projection that
you really feel comfortable with. So last year it was
seventy nine and people didn't like that. People did not
like that, and my take on it was, forget the projection.

(01:19:04):
This team is so young. A projection to me is
based on track record, it's based on history, it's based
on what you've done. They don't have enough players who
have done anything to really make a fair projection. Now
that has changed a little, but I don't think it's
changed enough for me. And look, man, if the Pakoda

(01:19:25):
projection was ninety three wins, fun, but I don't think
I would put much stock in that either, because there's
just not much. There's not much of an individual track
record with enough of these guys to go on. A
projection is based on what you've done. Have the players

(01:19:45):
on this team done enough for us to really project,
either individually or collectively, what they're gonna do this season.
I think they will win more than this projection, but
as we've talked about a bunch here, the idea isn't
too clear. Seventy four wins, it's to win close to
ninety four. I asked a question at the top of

(01:20:06):
the show. I haven't got an answer. Yet I'll ask
it again. It's about the Bearcats coming up on five
o'clock ESPN.

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
Fifteen thirty to win one thousand dollars. Entered this nationwide
keyword on our website. Cash, that's cash. Answer it now, cash.
I don't know why I yelled. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
I'm oegor. Thank you for listening. I've had a great weekend.
Hope you having a good Monday. How are you not

(01:20:32):
look even as allows.

Speaker 2 (01:20:34):
You a mood as I was in from about two
fifteen on yesterday. Man, when it's sixty six degrees out
on February third and I got shorts on, it's hard
to be in that bad of a mood. I think
I'm gonna do the unthinkable when it comes to Joe Burrow.
I think I might do something that nobody here has
ever done. That coming up in just about fifteen minutes.

(01:21:01):
We've been heavy on college basketball today. We've talked a
lot about the UC game yesterday, and I do believe this.

Speaker 3 (01:21:08):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
Look, not everybody can watch every single game, right.

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
You have stuff, You have family stuff, you have activities,
you have your kids stuff, you have obligations.

Speaker 1 (01:21:17):
And so maybe maybe you couldn't.

Speaker 2 (01:21:19):
Watch yesterday's game, and maybe you couldn't go to yesterday's game.
Maybe you follow it on your phone. Maybe you caught
the box score later. Maybe you didn't care. You're not
a UC fan, but you saw that they won. You
saw that they lost, and you paid attention to that.
Obviously you didn't see that they won. Maybe you listen
to Dan and Terry yesterday and as awesome, as awesome

(01:21:41):
as they are, as awesome as they are, the best
play by play a man ever. And Terry Nelson, a
guy who has seen more basketball than anybody, knows more
about UC basketball, cares more about UC basketball than than
anybody awesome at what he does. They did as good
of a job as you could popsibly imagined describing what

(01:22:01):
was unfolding. That said, I think you had to have
seen yesterday to really understand what sticks in the crawl
of so many of us who either did watch it
or were at the game yesterday. I don't know that
highlights encapsulated I don't know that any amount of commentary
can encapsulate it. I don't know that any newspaper account

(01:22:25):
nothing against folks like Scott Springer and Keegan Nickoson, can
they can encapsulate it. I think you had to have
seen it. This wasn't just a loss. This wasn't just
a relatively lopsided loss. This wasn't just a bad offensive performance.
What yesterday was is for me, unlike anything I've seen
in thirty five years of rooting for this program.

Speaker 1 (01:22:46):
And I've asked this.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
If you're a Bearcat fan, and you know, maybe you
have more time under your belt than I do. Maybe
you have less. Maybe you just got into UC basketball
in the last ten years. Maybe you jumped on board
sometime in the mid nineties. I can pinpoint for you,
Zach Date, I started to fall in love with UC basketball.
It was November twenty eighth, nineteen ninety, so about thirty
five years. If you're a UC basketball fan, I don't

(01:23:08):
think you've ever seen anything like yesterday. This wasn't just losing.
We've seen that. This wasn't just the Bearcats being outmanned.
They weren't outmanned yesterday. West Virginia is okay. Bearcats were
favored in that game. That was a coin flip game.
WVU had lost three straight coming in. I've watched them
get out manned. I've seen UC play against teams that

(01:23:30):
had more talent, had more size, had more dudes. I've
watched them play against teams that had lottery picks that
were at times unguardable. I've seen them get blown out.
Not that many times, but I've seen them get blown out.
I've seen them lose because offensively they just couldn't execute
in the half court. I've seen them lose because they
had point guards in the past to where turnover machines.

(01:23:52):
I've seen them lose because of a variety of different
reasons they didn't make free throws, or a guy that
on the scouting you're more than happy to let shoot
has the game of his life. I've seen him lose
because of bad calls. I've seen him lose games where
a dude throws one in Miles Simon from seventy five
feet out. I've watched UC basketball for thirty five years. Again,

(01:24:14):
maybe not as long as you, maybe much longer than
someone else.

Speaker 1 (01:24:17):
I've watched him lose. I've watched him lose bad. I've
watched them frustrate.

Speaker 2 (01:24:21):
I've never ever seen what yesterday was a complete and
total just lack of competitiveness, sloppiness, lack of focus, a
team that looked uninspired, a team that looked at times uninterested,
a coach that had no answers, a coach who look

(01:24:41):
man I like Wes Miller. Late in the game, you're
trying to mount a comeback. You're not even trying to
turn them over. You're letting them just drain clock. You're
standing there looking helpless as the other team in your
building is draining clock. I've not experienced anything like that before.

(01:25:02):
If you're a UC basketball fan, if you could remember
a game that looked like that, felt like that, that
came across like that, a game that made you feel
the way that game yesterday made so many of us feel.

Speaker 1 (01:25:14):
I'm all ears.

Speaker 2 (01:25:16):
I cannot tell you that since four o'clock yesterday, how
many folks I've seen here in the building or I've
seen out doing stuff? Oh, a guy when I was
pumping my gas today at the Dan Kroger's, Like, MO,
what was that? That's the question I've gotten more than anything.
What was that?

Speaker 1 (01:25:35):
What was it? What was it?

Speaker 2 (01:25:39):
Unlike anything I've ever seen in thirty five years of
following U see basketball, not just losing, not just losing
at home, not just losing at home by a lopsided margin,
not just losing a quote must win game, but putting
something on the floor that was as unbearcat like as

(01:25:59):
anything I've ever seen. Look, if if you're a fan
of another program, you might laugh at that, and that's okay, right,
I expect if if you you root for Xavier, or
if if you root for another program, or you just
get tired of me talking about the bear casts like I,
you're probably just enjoying this reveling in our misery, and
that's okay, it's fine. But if you do like UC basketball,

(01:26:21):
I think there's there's a brand, right, there's a brand.
There's a look, there's a feel, and you've been proud
of that look. You've been You've you've been proud of
that feel. You've been proud of that brand, which is
why yesterday was so insanely troubling. It was, it was troubling.
But I think the thing for me, though, is it

(01:26:43):
wasn't that surprising. Let's be honest, man, and I I
am really careful in doing this. I am really careful
in this job. I think you have to be careful
when you talk about a team's effort, a player's effort,
I think that gets thrown around way too loosely. I

(01:27:05):
think it gets thrown around way too liberally. A player
doesn't care, or a team doesn't care, or they've quit.
We're talking about competitive people. We're talking about people who,
for the most part care more than anybody could ever imagine.
But the reality is fair or not. For a while now,

(01:27:26):
part of the conversation about UC basketball has been about effort,
and you hear people talking about them quitting on their
coach or quitting on themselves, which I think is more
appropriate than quitting on the coach. It came up after
the Baylor game, came up again just a week ago,
a couple of days after the BYU loss on the
road when they fell by twenty eight points.

Speaker 1 (01:27:46):
So yesterday to a degree, kind of just felt like
the next step.

Speaker 2 (01:27:50):
Like this team has lacked competitiveness, This team has had
its effort collectively, has had its effort called into question.

Speaker 1 (01:27:59):
Its toughness is been called into question.

Speaker 2 (01:28:01):
Jason Williams column in The Inquirer last week did exactly that.
I there's a part of me that was driving to
the game yesterday hoping, Okay, now that that's out there,
maybe this team responds, they're aware of the noise that
they see, what they see on social media. They know
what's out there. Competitiveness and effort being called into question,
former players going on Twitter, and so what they're gonna

(01:28:22):
get in return at home in a game they could win,
in a game that Vegas said they should win, is
a quote spirited effort. I said that to my wife
leaving my house to go to the game yesterday, Like
you know today, I just just just give me, just
give me something in response to what is being said

(01:28:42):
about you from an effort perspective.

Speaker 1 (01:28:44):
And if you lose, you lose.

Speaker 2 (01:28:46):
That sounds hokey, that's sort of sad that that's what
we're talking about right now, and we are right I
think about that. This is a team that two months
ago we were talking about, God, could they be like
a top five seed in the tournament? Could this be
a special season? I went on Charlie Walters show on
U See Basketball, and he asked me, is this the
best team since the twenty eighteen team?

Speaker 1 (01:29:05):
And that team was a two seed?

Speaker 2 (01:29:07):
Like that's where a lot of folks had was when
it comes to this team, and now we're just hoping
that they play hard, think about that or almost.

Speaker 1 (01:29:16):
To the point where forget the effort, you can play hard.
We're asking for that, and I did.

Speaker 2 (01:29:21):
I drove to the game yesterday thinking like, you know,
maybe in response to all the criticism they're getting about
toughness and lack thereof, and effort and lack thereof, and
how much they care and how much they've maybe quit
on each other, there's something representative of Bearcat basketball, something
something representative of UC basketball. And instead what we saw

(01:29:44):
was unlike anything I've seen in three and a half
decades of caring about this program. So part of it
is you can't help but think like, yeah, it was frustrating,
and it was sobering, and it was maddening, and it
might have been a tipping point for you if you're

(01:30:06):
a fan, and it might have felt like rock bottom,
and it might have been, you know, the last straw.
And now you're done with Wes, and all of that
is is fair. I think Wes Miller would be the
first to admit that what I wonder is, there are
ten games to go, ten games to go, how much
worse might this get? By the way, they played a

(01:30:27):
very okay West Virginia team, yesterday at home. Happens when
they have to go back on the road. What happens
when they played teams far better than West Virginia. How
much worse might this get? That's not the first time
I've asked this this year. And then if you're Wes Miller,
and look, Wes is not a dumb guy. He's aware

(01:30:50):
of the noise. And maybe he's not fearful for his job,
but he's he's aware, he knows what's out there. There
are a lot of folks who needless to say it.
I'm putting this gently, need convincing that he's the guy.
How do you convince people that you're the guy to
get this thing turned around? Marvin Lewis would say, I

(01:31:13):
see better than I hear like that noise about Wes,
and noise was out there before yesterday. You can't use
yesterday to point to his evidence to say, yeah, I'm
the guy. So what do you will there be anything
this year?

Speaker 7 (01:31:34):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:31:35):
We do have a few minutes. Five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number. I tell you, I'll
tell you what you can point to. And I do
not use this as an excuse. And Tony and Austin
had a poll question on their show today about what
what's to blame and it was coach, players, ADU, each

(01:31:56):
of which have been put in the crosshairs, and then
nil slash portal. Look, nil is not going away, nor
should it now, maybe it should be regulated. I'm here
for that. You know, every system has rules. I'm good
with that. The portal is probably not going away. By

(01:32:17):
the way, the Bearcads have I tried to use the
portal and at no point when they brought in players
like Dylan mitchellor Simas Lukosis, has anybody said, oh God,
they shouldn't use the portal like these these things. This
is how it is. This, these are the rules, These
are the parameters. Maybe you'd like to see them tightened,
Maybe you'd like to see them amended. There are three hundred,

(01:32:39):
three hundred and fifty five Division one men's college basketball teams.
I'd venture to say that most of them have NIL.
Most have utilized the portal. Many are winning, many field
teams that played competitive, tough basketball You're gonna you're gonna

(01:33:08):
lose me with And I've heard this with the money
of these guys are getting They're all getting paid Auburn's
guys aren't getting paid. Alabama's guys, Dukes guys, Kentucky's players,
Xaviers guys. They're getting paid, some more than others. Some
schools struggle with a IL more than others. Some are
wildly successful because of it. Like, sorry, man, these are

(01:33:32):
this is how it is. Some coaches have decided to
get out right, fine, that's that's their prerogative. Don't want
to deal with this. Cool, awesome, this is how it's
gonna work. This is the system again. Maybe the system
should be tweaked. Maybe there has to be guardrails popular
word guardrails on nil. Maybe the transfer rules should be

(01:33:54):
adjusted slightly.

Speaker 1 (01:33:55):
We're not going back to the old way.

Speaker 2 (01:33:57):
We're not going back to you know, they get a
cool scholarship and a training table and nil. We're not
putting that toothpaste back in the tube. And I don't
want to because I want everybody to get paid. And
we're probably not going to go back to the way
of well, you know, if you want to transfer, you
got to get cleared. Your current program has to sign

(01:34:17):
off on it, and they can hold you a hostage
and then you've got to sit out here. Nor do
I nor do any of us who are reasonable want
us to go back to that.

Speaker 1 (01:34:24):
So these are the rules.

Speaker 2 (01:34:28):
This coach, these coaches, the people who run the program,
have chosen to take on this task of rebuilding Bearcat
basketball in this environment. It's up to you to succeed
in it. Look, man, every job changes, every profession changes,
The rules change, the methods that determine success change, like

(01:34:48):
all of it. It's not for everybody, and so you know,
we've ed it in our field here. Man, I've done
this for almost twenty eight years. And folks who have decided,
you know what, being on the internet and social media
and all not for me. I'm a radio host. I'm
getting out cool. But like, these are the rules. This
is what has to happen. You could do it or not,
and if you do, you'll get rewarded. If you can't,

(01:35:10):
we'll find someone else. So miss me with that. Let's
blame Nil and portal stuff. Other schools have figured it out.
Other schools are succeeding, and if they don't, it ain't
because NIL failed or Nil's a problem or the portal's
a problem. Everybody's playing under the same rules. There's more

(01:35:32):
transparency than ever dude, We've seen it in football, man.
I think the portal and nil have kind of leveled
the playing field, and maybe it hasn't happened to the
same degree in basketball. There a lot of a lot
of things you could point to and say, here's why
this season has turned disastrous. It ain't portal and nil.

Speaker 3 (01:35:53):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:35:54):
Nineteen minutes after five o'clock five point three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number. Joe Burrow keeps talking
about t Higgins and Jamar Chase and Trey Hendrickson, and
you know what, I kind of wish you would next
on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 4 (01:36:08):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:36:13):
at risk, trust the experts at U See help for
innovative and personalized heartcare. Expect more at uchelp dot com.
Westbound Norwood Lateral an accident blocking the left lane approaching
Paddock Road. Traffic stop and go from Redding Road on

(01:36:35):
Fifth over at Vine it's an accident. And Glenway Avenue
it's an accident. Over at Boudinot Avenue. Expect delays. I'm
at Ezelek with traf five o'clock.

Speaker 1 (01:36:46):
Tarn is not Valentine's Day yet?

Speaker 6 (01:36:50):
Just wait, thanks Friday, Just wait till next Friday.

Speaker 1 (01:36:53):
I can't wait.

Speaker 8 (01:36:54):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:36:54):
What was a bigger deal to you? You attended the
Royal Rumble? Who won the Royal Rumble?

Speaker 12 (01:36:59):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:37:00):
Jauso jay Usso that was on the man's on the
men's side. Who won the women's Royal Rumble?

Speaker 6 (01:37:05):
Charlotte Flair the favorite?

Speaker 1 (01:37:06):
So the favorite? She won? Was it a good time?

Speaker 6 (01:37:09):
Amazing time?

Speaker 2 (01:37:09):
Were there any officiating discrepancies that I need to worry about?

Speaker 6 (01:37:13):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:37:13):
No, everybody had a blast. Yes, you were happy with it,
favorable result on a Was it the best wrestling event
you've ever attended.

Speaker 6 (01:37:23):
Up to this point? Yes? Before?

Speaker 1 (01:37:25):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (01:37:26):
All right, So you're at the Royal Rumble, You're having
a good time, and then hours later you find out
your Lakers traded for Luka Doncic, merely hours after beating
my beloved New York Knicks. What was the bigger deal
the Royal Rumble or getting Luca?

Speaker 9 (01:37:39):
Getting Luca? I actually had I was on my way home.
I actually had to pull over to make sure that
wasn't fake.

Speaker 2 (01:37:43):
I think you were in the same boat as a
lot of other people. I got up in the middle
of the night. I went to bed after I watched
UK Arkansas and Nicks Lakers, and I had had a
long day, so I go to bed. I get up
in the middle of the night to get a beverage.
I look at my phone and I'm like, okay. And
I woke up hours later and I'm like, man, I

(01:38:05):
had a dream. Luca Donca's got traded to the Lakers. No,
not a dream. One of the most interesting trades. I think,
the single biggest trade in the history of the NBA,
and it could not happen at a better time for
the league because we're about to jump into the post
football time where it's like, all right, you can own
some real estate here. The league's on court product this

(01:38:27):
season has come under a lot of criticism, but now
there's this really interesting dynamic at play here, including with
the league's most marquee franchise. So this is I think.
I think Adam Silver made this happen. No comment on
that one.

Speaker 6 (01:38:43):
I mean, I see, let's see how the ratings do.

Speaker 2 (01:38:48):
But like Luke and Lebron, I mean, he's got to
get healthy. I get Luke and Lebron is interesting. Luke
and Lebron that the Lakers to me and you're a fan,
but like as as a sports entity, the level of
coverage and attention they get is not commensurate. It has
not been commensurate to how interesting they are. And now

(01:39:08):
they're they're interesting. This how this is going to work
for both teams and what the potential fallout is for
Dallas is interesting.

Speaker 9 (01:39:18):
Very that just made that that Pacers Lakers ticket in
March that more uh not affordable for me.

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
Well, when one of the Lakers in Indy.

Speaker 6 (01:39:26):
I believe March twenty ninth, I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 2 (01:39:29):
Well good, I mean Lakers already good and it planned
well a good physical team. I went to Madison Square
Garden on Saturday and pushed the Knicks around March six,
March twenty sixth. Lebron was awesome. And now he's got Luca.
But it is like Luca gonna stop drinking? Is he
gonna get healthy? I mean he's he's sort of built
like me. He's got bad calves all the time, He's
he gonna tear an achilles. And then in Dallas, like

(01:39:52):
I don't buy this narrative. They said, well, everybody was blindsided.
I don't buy that for a second. Eighty waived his
trade kicker, How's he blindsided? And he's bfs with Lebron
How's he blindsided?

Speaker 1 (01:40:04):
On the same page?

Speaker 6 (01:40:05):
There all the value is. But like Dallas to win
the NBA title.

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
This year, you know it's it's it's not a it's
not a big big three, but it's still a really
interesting three and a wide open west. I still think
nobody's gonna beat okay Se But I mean with with
Clay and Kyrie and Anthony Davis like you, you can try.
And by the way, you can still add a piece.
I guess I think the issue is not so much
what they have put together on the floor this year.

(01:40:30):
It's the inability to get assets in return for a
guy who's been a multiple time All NBA guy. But
it is it is interesting quickly here, far be it
for me to tell Joe Burrow to stop, but honestly stop,
I'm on Joe Burrows side. I want the Bengals to
have t Higgins on their team next year. I would

(01:40:53):
love to go back in time and get a deal
done with Tea and get a deal done with Jamar,
so this is wrapped up. But he talked to yesterday
on Sirius XM. I believe at the Super Bowl, like Joe,
we know. I'm sorry he was at the Pro Bowl.

Speaker 6 (01:41:08):
Yes, how did the.

Speaker 1 (01:41:09):
Pro Bowl go?

Speaker 7 (01:41:09):
You?

Speaker 1 (01:41:09):
How was the flag football?

Speaker 6 (01:41:12):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:41:13):
I didn't I assault the headline. Jamar Chase caught some passes.

Speaker 6 (01:41:17):
I didn't know what everybody kept jumping into that phone pitch.

Speaker 2 (01:41:20):
Yeah, which I've heard about that. I guess that was
kind of cool. But anyway, like we know, we know
how Jamar Chase. Like, it's like when I take my
daughter to King's Island. She wants blue ice cream from
the moment we walk in. The twelfth time, you tell
me you want blue ice cream. By the way, we
get the blue ice cream, but we you know, ride
some rides first, Like the twelfth time you've told me

(01:41:41):
you want the blue ice cream.

Speaker 1 (01:41:42):
I get it. You want blue ice cream.

Speaker 6 (01:41:44):
I know this.

Speaker 2 (01:41:45):
You don't need to tell me again. So I kind
of understand. Like, all right, Burrows, there, we got a microphone,
put it in his face. Ask him about t Higgins.
The answer is not going to change. And I feel
like now he is dug in so much on this,
like whether you want it to happen or not. And again,
I would love it if t Higgins were back, would
love it. And I'm certainly I hope Trey Hendrickson is

(01:42:08):
back this year. I wouldn't give him a contract extension,
but I wanted to.

Speaker 1 (01:42:11):
Be on the team.

Speaker 2 (01:42:11):
And then if you're building around those players this year,
go get it. But I feel like he has dug
in so much that now if the Bengals don't sign
t Higgins or if they do not extend Trey Hendrickson,
now it's a thing. Like NFL teams lose players, it's

(01:42:32):
not always a thing. And so I think there's a
little bit of a difference between I'm gonna apply some pressure,
I'm gonna get the public, you know, kind of talking
about this and like all right, like dig dig like
we Joe, we get it, and I just I wonder
how productive this is.

Speaker 3 (01:42:51):
I do.

Speaker 2 (01:42:51):
I wonder how productive this is, and like nobody wants
to entertain the possibility that you know, Joe one day
could ask for a trade. To me, you're starting to
dig in so much that I've gone from thinking, Okay,
he's trying to apply a little pressure and try to use,
you know, throw his weight around a little bit to
wondering like, all right, if he doesn't get his way, like,

(01:43:12):
is something bad gonna happen? It might take all along
has been that I think if you're I think Joe
Burrow wants these players that he keeps talking about to
come back, specifically T Higgins, but he is gonna wait
also to see him be open minded about how they
replace him. That the Bengals don't have a very good
track record recently of replacing really good players they let
get away. But the more he does this, the more

(01:43:33):
I can't help but wonder, like, all right, like if
he doesn't get his way, is is this gonna be
a thing? And I think you know what I mean
by a thing? Like a headline today Burrow wants things
they could work it out, like the story has not
really advanced in two months. It will advance here in

(01:43:57):
early March, and who knows what's gonna happen, But like
it it feels to me like the.

Speaker 1 (01:44:04):
More he does this, the more.

Speaker 2 (01:44:07):
I wonder, okay, indeed, how open minded is he going
to be about what they could do?

Speaker 1 (01:44:13):
If T walks?

Speaker 2 (01:44:15):
And again just speaking for myself, I badly want Tea
to be here, and I do think you can build
a team with T and Jamar and Joe. I think
Joe's gonna have to maybe offer a restructure, and perhaps
that's still in the cards. But this is also you know,
it's in t Higgins court now, and you know, Jamar Chase,
the framework of the deal from last year has kind
of changed.

Speaker 1 (01:44:36):
The longer this goes, the.

Speaker 2 (01:44:38):
More I wonder, like, the more he digs in, the
more I wonder like what the fallout is going to
be if he doesn't get his way, And I really
haven't felt that way up until now. And by the way, Joe,
I'm sure he's gonna do radio row and maybe be
on some of the bigger TV shows, and he's gonna
be asked about this, and it's you know, I mean,
if you cover the Bengals, I get it, you gotta
do the Joe Burrow headline. But all right, Joe, like

(01:45:01):
we got it, you want t bag like, okay, got it.
It's out there. Hopefully it happens, but if it doesn't,
like you're still gonna be like opened to what might
happen next if he's not here right now, I'm not
entirely sure sports headlines and Sean Miller.

Speaker 4 (01:45:19):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:45:25):
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Speaker 2 (01:45:56):
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Lifetime powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval from their family
to yours for life kelseyshev dot com. Miles Garrett has
asked the Browns for a trade casey Legamina has been
traded by the rights to the Mariners in exchange for
cash considerations. UK slides to fourteenth and both major polls
no Mark Pope show instead, It'll be Wednesday night. UK

(01:46:19):
traveling to Oxford to battle Ole Miss tomorrow Sean Miller
Show tonight at seven on fifty five KRC. Here's a
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with US now Xavier and Georgetown tomorrow at eight thirty
on Sean Miller Bobblehead Night.

Speaker 1 (01:46:34):
Coach, It's good to have you. How are you?

Speaker 2 (01:46:37):
Thanks mee great to be on your message publicly after
the Creighton game.

Speaker 1 (01:46:41):
We're not done. We could take off.

Speaker 2 (01:46:44):
I would imagine that you have imparted at least some
version of that tier guys, if not on Wednesday night,
certainly in the day's subsequent.

Speaker 7 (01:46:52):
Yeah, that's I mean, look, that's the name of the game, right,
you know, to be a really good team in February,
entering March, playing your best and playing for something, you know,
having the opportunity to play for the NCAA tournament, having
an opportunity to play in games that everybody in the
world wants to watch and be a part of it.

Speaker 3 (01:47:11):
And we have that in front of us MO.

Speaker 7 (01:47:13):
Like so many different teams in college basketball, it can
go both ways. There's not a guarantee for us. We've
dug ourselves a certain hole by how we performed, especially
in the month of December. But we're playing our best
even at Creighton. You know, playing in Omaha against Creighton
this year is a tall order. You know, they've they've

(01:47:36):
beaten Saint John's, They've beaten Kansas, they have arguably the
best center in America and Ryan Kulkbrenner, who is in
his fift year playing for them. That you can go there,
play well and not win, And I think the perspective
of that is important.

Speaker 3 (01:47:50):
So, you know, our our schedule.

Speaker 7 (01:47:53):
In the month of January has been very difficult. We
played Marquette twice, Saint John's twice, Yukon twice, and at Creighton.

Speaker 3 (01:48:04):
The rest of our league.

Speaker 7 (01:48:05):
Is certainly not easy, but there's a heavy tilt right there.
So with that, you know, playing our best during that stretch,
I think gives us confidence that that we can play
well and perform well in this in this month that
everybody cherishes in college basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:48:23):
It's you know, there's a lot of us who I
was at the Saint John's game here and kind of
walked out of Centa Center going, man, I don't know
if this is going to change, if this is going
to turn around. It's going to have to start on
the defensive end, and it has you know, you guys
holding Marquette on the road to fifty seven. Even the
other night against Craton, as good of an offensive team
as that is, you guys got stops. You know, down
down eight with four minutes to go, you guys got stops.

(01:48:47):
We saw what you guys did defensively here against Yukon.
What's been the biggest difference on that end of the floor.

Speaker 3 (01:48:54):
Yeah, well you had it. The Saint John's game was
our low moment.

Speaker 7 (01:48:58):
I think each season represents a single moment where I
just that was like, I don't want to say a
turning point, but maybe a fork in the road where
it just didn't feel right. You know, on that particular night,
we lost our crowd. I think we had a snowstorm
before the game. Saint John's is really good. Probably at
that point, I don't know if everybody truly understood the

(01:49:19):
type of team they have, so and they put it
on us. They were way more physical. They killed us
on the glass, you know. They they kind of give
you the illusion like that Zinger's not playing hard, and
really I think the reality of it is we were
overwhelmed with their quickness, physicality and rebounding. But you know,

(01:49:40):
I think you have choices when those moments happened, you know,
kind of run and hide, point fingers sometimes not fix things.
To our group's credit, we went on several week journey
and we were better. I think that it starts within.
You know, our guards are doing a better job defending
the ball, pressuring the ball Dayalen's Swain's playing his best

(01:50:01):
basketball of his career. And I think just as a group,
you know, understanding that the level of intensity and being
able to, like you said, get stops and be a
team that can win with both defense and offense. That's
really what's going to be required because the margin for air,
as you stated, isn't big. You know, we're in fifty
to fifty games virtually every night, so our effort level

(01:50:23):
and our consistency.

Speaker 3 (01:50:24):
On defense has to be there.

Speaker 7 (01:50:26):
And since that game, I can tell you that it's
been not just better, but I think at times we've
been a really good defensive team that becomes the storyline
moving forward. We have to be that team the rest
of this month.

Speaker 2 (01:50:39):
And I think with that the conversation for me, at
least you mentioned Dalen Swain and what he's done for you,
and you know, it's fun to think about what that
might look like five or six weeks from now. It's
fun to think about what that might look like next year.
What's it been like watching him progress on the defensive side.

Speaker 7 (01:50:57):
Yeah, No, it's just what makes college basketball on coaching,
you know, such a such a special thing, especially for
a coach, because you know when you see players in
your program grow and develop and do it because of
their work ethic, their their will, their unselfishness, and those
are all terms that I would use to describe Daylan Swing.

(01:51:20):
A year ago, he was the youngest player in the
Big East Conference. This year he's still nineteen years old
as a sophomore. Every week, every month that he's been
a part of what we've done, it seems like he
incrementally improves. He adds to his game, and he's more physical,
he's confident. I think that he has a chance to
be one of the most versatile players in the Big

(01:51:42):
East Conference, and it's fun to watch. He's really putting
it together, shooting a huge percentage from the free throw line.
He's shooting almost ninety percent from the line. When you
think of his game. You don't really think about that.
But he's also getting to the free throw line, I
think as much as any player in our league, which
shows you like his growth and his development defensively. If

(01:52:04):
you give our team credit, you have to give him
a lot of credit because many times he's the anchor
of what we do on defense.

Speaker 2 (01:52:12):
You joined me before the season, I think it was
before the exhibition game against Dayton, and we were talking
about the nature of the preseason and college basketball has
changed in so many ways, and I think that the
task of getting ready for a season is a lot
more difficult, just because you know, you have players from
other programs and you're trying to piece everything together and
then you're gonna you know, the season starts earlier than ever,

(01:52:34):
you play games. The count you're asked to schedule really tough.
So the NCAA is allowing you, guys to now have
every program to have two preseason games against D one opponents.
The secret scrimmage, I guess doesn't have to be secret anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:52:48):
Have you. I'm sure you've thought about it.

Speaker 2 (01:52:50):
But can you, I don't know, let us in and
know maybe what the plan is going to be for
your program moving forward as it relates to the preseason
and maybe having a better chance to kind of hit
the ground running once the real games actually start.

Speaker 7 (01:53:07):
Yeah, you know, in terms of the two exhibition games,
you know, I think that you can bring fans in
and with those fans, you know, you have the opportunity
to potentially make money for your program. And if we
have the opportunity to do that, as we you know,
as we did in a lot of ways at U
d Arena. It was for certainly the mental health part

(01:53:28):
of it, you know, Anthony Grant's initiative and how important
that part was to him. That was a big reason
we wanted to partner with Dayton to play that game
to raise money, uh, you know, for suicide prevention in
the state of Ohio, et cetera. But I think entering
the fans, I think that's something we'll lean heavily on

(01:53:48):
moving forward, because you know, from just if you look
at it just from the basketball perspective, you can play
a quality opponent and then you get the pressure of
the crowd, which always helps prepare.

Speaker 3 (01:53:59):
You for the season. I would say, like the other.

Speaker 7 (01:54:01):
Part of your question of you know, you get the
whole summer to be around your team more now than ever,
and I learned that this year. This is only like
I wouldn't even say this is my second go around
in doing it, because I think in some ways it's
my first go around, because you know, how does it
feel to have turnover each year? Some guys come back,

(01:54:21):
most guys are coming from other programs. You have a
couple of incoming freshmen. How do you build your team?
And by the way you're in the summer, isn't it
supposed to be fun?

Speaker 3 (01:54:30):
Et cetera. I think for me, I got the answer
to the test on this one. To be the most ready, you.

Speaker 7 (01:54:39):
Have to hit all aspects, in my opinion, in June, July, August,
and September, all aspects of your team, meaning I think
you have to teach defense. You have to look at
it as a version of your practice. You know, the Hey,
it's June, let's get some shots up and have fun.
Not that you know, playing basketball is always fun, but
you just don't have as much time as you think

(01:55:01):
to get ready for the month of November and December
when you have eight new players, six new players. I
mean that, like I don't care if they're a freshmen
I don't care if they're coming from a program or
they've been a four year starter and they're super experienced.
The fact they've never played for you at Zader and
you have a group of guys that have not been
on a court together. That's not a good thing. And

(01:55:24):
I think the way you make up for that is
that in those months, you know, you start to teach
them the value of terminology and everything you need to
be successful. In November and December, you can't wait. And
that's at least my opinion.

Speaker 1 (01:55:39):
Do you like the Bobblehead?

Speaker 7 (01:55:43):
You know it makes me look thin, So anytime something
makes me look thin, I'll sign up for it. You know,
they put me in all black, and ye know Bobblehead
can't be fat. But I don't know how much it
looks like like me?

Speaker 3 (01:55:54):
Yeah, hopefully.

Speaker 7 (01:55:54):
Look, there's two ways to look at the first three
thousand people get one. That may mean only fifteen under
show up, or you know, maybe it works works the
way they want to. But I will tell you this moment.
You were at the Saint John the game, and you
know I've been I've been in the centas for eleven seasons, right,
you know, three as an assistant eight as a head coach,

(01:56:15):
obviously two different periods of time. And if anybody has
ever asked me during my you know, lifetime as a coach, uh,
what's it like to coach in the Centas Center, I
would just give them one word awesome. It's tough on
the opponent. There's pageantry, our student section is second to none,

(01:56:36):
the building is full. Uh, it's just it's a tough
minded crowd. We love college basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:56:42):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:56:43):
That game, I'd have been the only game that I
would have left.

Speaker 7 (01:56:47):
And we didn't give our fans anything to cheer about
on that night. But you know, you leave a little
bit concerned because you know, Rick Patino and Saint John's
did not compete against our normal Sinceos crowd. For example,
I would say that if Yukon came in with Danny
Hurley last weekend and had that version of our crowd,

(01:57:10):
the Saint John's crowd, I'm sure of this, we would
not have worn and and and I just think that
the competitive advantage at Xavier, there's always things you wish
you had more of. But I've never felt, ever felt
that we could ever have a better home court than
the one we have. That that is our biggest competitive advantage.

(01:57:32):
And you know, a season ticket holder, student section, they
have sometimes no idea, no idea, the impact they have
on winning, on on on the consistency of our program.
I mean Schmidfield House, Cincinnati Gardens, MCC, Horizon League, whatever
those leagues used to be called, right, Atlantic, ten, Big East.

(01:57:54):
Like you play at Xavier. Everybody knew that was going
to be a game in part of a hostile, well
oiled crowd in addition to a team.

Speaker 3 (01:58:03):
And you know, our crowd has always.

Speaker 7 (01:58:05):
Came to watch FUS, you know, not because the other
team's coming, but they came to watch Xavier and they
hold us to a high standard. And you know, my
hope is tomorrow night. It's a later game, eight thirty,
but it is such an important game. We only have
five home games left. They're going to go by quickly,
and for us to be the most successful in those
five games will have a huge bearing on how this

(01:58:29):
season ends. And my hope is that we can get
that Yukon crowd for five more times this year.

Speaker 3 (01:58:34):
It's so important.

Speaker 2 (01:58:36):
Eight thirty provides more time to get as you put
a coach, well oiled.

Speaker 1 (01:58:41):
So I'm here for it. So that's going to be
fun to Mark.

Speaker 3 (01:58:44):
Yeah. Look, I'm looking outside.

Speaker 7 (01:58:46):
It's sixty five degrees. There's there's no snow, so we
can get through that. I understand when the weather's crazy,
it's it's not easy to attend on every game.

Speaker 3 (01:58:55):
But I think you know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (01:58:56):
When I say like, there are certain programs when you
think about their home crowd, yep, you know they're coming
to cheer for their team, not the opponent.

Speaker 3 (01:59:05):
The how big the game is.

Speaker 7 (01:59:07):
It's always big because they're going to you know, fog
Allen Field.

Speaker 3 (01:59:11):
House and they're watching the Jayhawks.

Speaker 7 (01:59:13):
And I just believe that our crowd in the Centale
Center and Xavier has always been synonymous with that is
a ferocious crowd. And you talk to Pete Gillon, you
talk to Bob Stack, and talk to Dad Mauna, Chris Mack,
They're all going to say the same thing. And I
just my hope is we can beat We can have
that for these final couple of weeks here.

Speaker 2 (01:59:34):
All right, Well, I hope. So it's a huge one
tomorrow night at eight thirty. I know, I know you
kind of push podcasting off to the side during the season.
You know, you don't do it as often, but but
I am waiting at official invites.

Speaker 3 (01:59:47):
So okay, we'll do it.

Speaker 1 (01:59:48):
You know, I this all season.

Speaker 2 (01:59:50):
Yeah, I've had people ask me like when's it going
to happen and didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:59:54):
We'll do it. We'll do it right, Yeah, they You
know what, when you're getting your ask, I think at.

Speaker 8 (02:00:00):
Some point you just say, you know what. People don't
want to hear from me. They just want to see
me win. So I put the focus just on that.

Speaker 3 (02:00:07):
You know. But I'll die, I'll.

Speaker 7 (02:00:09):
Return back to the podcast and we'll definitely get together.

Speaker 3 (02:00:12):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:00:12):
I cannot wait. Coach.

Speaker 2 (02:00:14):
Good luck tomorrow night and the rest of the way.
Always appreciate your time. You're always so generous to us.
We'll talk soon, man, Thanks so much. All right, thank you, coach,
Thanks so much. Shawn Miller, Xavier Musketeers. More tonight Sean
Miller Show at seven o'clock on fifty five KR. See
X you and Georgetown tomorrow at eight thirty and the
first three thousand fans at the Centas Center.

Speaker 1 (02:00:33):
We'll get a.

Speaker 2 (02:00:33):
Sean Miller bobblehead. Well look ahead more to that game tomorrow.
Paul Danner Juniors with us in the three o'clock hour tomorrow.
Solomon Willcos will be on the show and working on
one or two other things as we speak.

Speaker 1 (02:00:46):
We are done.

Speaker 2 (02:00:46):
Thank you for listening, things to Tarorn Bland for producing.
We will talk to you tomorrow starting at three oh
five on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (02:00:55):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (02:01:10):
at risk, trust the experts at U. See help for
innovative and personalized heartcare. Expect more at UCHealth dot com.
Northbound seventy five at Paddock Roade, the right lane block
from an accident. Traffic stop and go from Mitchell Avenue

(02:01:31):
northbound seventy one. It's an accident off on the right
shoulder between Smith Edwards and Norwood Lateral. A five minute
delay from Dana Avenue on that ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (02:01:42):
This report is

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