2/19/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Your chance to win one thousand dollars thousands on this station.
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Speaker 2 (00:09):
Grand.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Hey, what's up. It's four after three. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. I'm olegar. Thank you for listening. Hopefully you're
having the greatest Wednesday of all time. And you survived
the snow this morning, which, much to my daughter's dismay,
did not close her school. We're done early today. UK
basketball at five thirty. Wildcats taking on Vanderbilt, trying to

(00:34):
avenge a loss earlier this season in Nashville to the Commodorees.
Tip off at seven o'clock here on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Wildcats will again play shorthanded in the back court tonight.
We'll get to that a little bit later on. It's
a busy college basketball night. You see plays at West
Virginia this evening. Speaking of trying to avenge a loss,

(00:55):
you see trying to get revenge if you will, against
the Mountaineers who beat them in Cincinnati. That game is
later on tonight. Xavier wins last night. The Musketeers are
trending in the right direction and we'll spend some time
on that with our buddy Rick Boring coming up at
three forty five. Entire preview for today's show is available

(01:15):
on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
It's also on Twitter at mullagar.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
The fact that it's not on the iHeartRadio app, it's
on Twitter at mulgar. Thanks to Emery Federal Credit Union.
I have been a member of Emery Federal Credit Union
for fourteen months now. In fact, it was fourteen months
ago today and easily the greatest decision I have ever made.
So make the same decision. Get started by going to

(01:44):
EMERYFCU dot org. Tommy g Voice of Fccincinnati from Honduras,
coming up in the five o'clock hour, and Jordan Bischel,
the UC Baseball coach head coach of the nationally ranked
Bearcats is going to join us coming up in just
about fifteen minutes. We found out today the NFL salary
cap is going to go up, which is gonna give

(02:06):
the Bengals even more money to spend in free agency
and even more of a reason why they should go
in on obviously signing Jamar Chase and retaining T Higgins
and signing him long term. Joe Burrow talked about this
last week. The salary cap is only going to go up,

(02:27):
only going to go up. The NFL is just now
tapping into streaming as a legitimate revenue stream, and the
gambling money is just starting to enter the league, and
so the cap is gonna go up, and it's gonna
go up by a significant amount of money. And we're
gonna touch on that a little bit later on. We
obviously have spent a lot of time this week and

(02:48):
over the last couple of months talking about Jamar Chase
and T Higgins, and the story came out on Monday
or Buddy James Rapeen had it. Bengals plan to tag
T Higgins and hopefully they can get a deal done first,
and if they can't and they tag them, they still
hope to get a deal done, long term deal done
by July the fifteenth. All the while, they want to

(03:09):
get a long term deal done with Jamar Chase, which
they should have done last summer, and they want to
do something long term with Trey Hendrickson. I think if
you're a Bengals fan, you should be okay with this,
and maybe you're not. That's the beauty of this. We
can have fair discussions and good debates. But I talked
about this a little bit on the show yesterday that

(03:31):
the reason for me that this makes sense is because
there's nobody else. There's nobody else to pay. And it
sounds harsh, right, because it's not like the Bengals worth
a three to fourteen team last season. It sounds harsh
to call them a bad team. They were this close
to going to the playoffs. And I do think they
can play in a super Bowl next year if they
handle the offseason right and if things go right, and

(03:53):
if Joe Burrow continues to play at a really high level.
But if you look at the roster, there just aren't
that many individual players that I think any of us
are agonizing over whether to extend or pay or in
some cases keep. As a general rule, let's go ahead
and accept this as not facted necessarily, but just accept

(04:20):
it as something that is almost inescapable. Bad teams equal
easy decisions. The Bengals had a bad team last year.
They had a great quarterback at a couple of great
wide receivers. They had some good players in spots, but
they had a bad team. The overall body of work
was bad. They needed five straight wins just to finish

(04:43):
with a winning record. They were four and eight. Their
defense was terrible, their offensive line was below league average.
Bad teams equal easy decisions. The decision about what to
do with t Higgins and Jamar Chase is easy. The
decision about what to do with Trey Hendrickson, I will admit,

(05:05):
is not as easy, but relatively speaking, easy. Bad teams
do not give front office execs or even fans that
many difficult decisions. Over the last decade plus, the Reds
have mostly been terrible. Hopefully they're not terrible this year,

(05:28):
and if they're not, and they continue to be even
better than not terrible and actually get to a place
where they're contending on a consistent basis, guess what they're
gonna have, even in a non salary cap league. Some
really tough decisions to make, really tough decisions about boy,
Do I trade away this player before he hits free agency?

(05:48):
Do I sign this guy long term? Do I maybe
overpay him. They're gonna have some tough decisions to make
in recent years, not that many, not that many tough decisions.
You don't have a lot of tough decisions when you
don't have really good players Reds for the better part
of the last I'll say thirty years if you want,
But really, since twenty thirteen, how many really, really, really

(06:09):
good players have they had? I mean really good players,
not dudes who showed up and had a nice season,
or guys who came to town and had a four
home run game, or not guys who were cool gold
chains and had an interesting month and started a fight
or two. Like really good players, foundational pieces, Guys that
you're like, dude, extend that guy, built around that guy,
pay that guy, and sure the happiness of that guy.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Not a ton. They've had some, not a ton.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
The idea what the Reds moving forward is obviously you
want to win with this group, but you want them
to have such a huge stockpile of talent that you
really have to think about, Okay, what are we going
to do with these guys? Which ones might we move
on from to get a player who fills a position
of need. Right even with the young pitching they have,
could they get to a point maybe this year, where

(06:55):
you go, you know what, let's trade away this guy
because even though we like his ceiling, like his long
term he can help is get someone who fills an
immediate need. Those are tough, tough, tough decisions to make.
I want the Reds to be there. I think they're
getting there. Good teams equals tough decisions. The Bengals last

(07:16):
year had a bad team. There's no getting around that.
Some good players bad team because the team was bad
and they don't have enough good players. It's a no brainer.
Pay the handful of good players you have. I'm not
talking about rookies who are not close to getting extended,
who you're not close to having to make decisions about.

(07:37):
I'm talking about the players they drafted in twenty one
and twenty two. I'm talking about the guys they brought
it in free agency that didn't work out that now
they should move on from.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
As a general.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
Rule, let's move forward understanding this. If you got a
bad team with a bunch of bad players, the decisions
are not difficult. It's not hard to make up your
mind about cut players. When you've got a bad team
filled with bad players, it's not hard to say, uh, oh,
we're not paying that dude, or we're cutting this guy,

(08:09):
or we made a financial mistake and need to move
on from this dude. When you got a bad team. Unfortunately,
the decisions are pretty easy. So what the Bengals are
doing right now, you might want to credit them for
driving a Brink trucks to brings truck to Jamar Chase's
house if you want. And you might want to credit
them for seeing the light as it relates to t Higgins.

(08:30):
And you might want to credit them for paying Trey
hendrickson something they were reluctant to do a year ago.
And that's fine. But these are no brainers, almost no brainers.
These are easy decisions. Why are they easy decisions? Because
bad teams present decision makers with easy decisions to make.
There aren't a lot of options. Tough decisions involved lots

(08:53):
of different options. Tough decisions involved, you know, maybe at times,
having to say goodbye to somebody or understanding, you know what,
we want this guy, and we want this guy. This
guy we're probably gonna squeeze out even though we really
like him. Tough decisions involve, you know, trading aways an
asset that you really value, that you've developed because he

(09:15):
can help us fill a short term need. I want
the Reds to have tough decisions. I want the Bengals
to have tough decisions. Recently, neither has had that many
tough decisions because the teams have been bad. Obviously, the
Reds period of bed goes back a lot further than
the Bengals. That's why they are where they are. I

(09:36):
boil it down to that very basic simple thing. You
want to dive into the kapinomics of it, which I
can't even say, go for it. You want to do
salary cap gymnastics, do it. You want to lose your
mind over what the cap is going to do and
what it means. This is easy for me. I got
a team, not a lot of good players, not a

(09:58):
lot of tough decisions. So we only have one or
two decisions to make that makes those decisions no brainers.
T Jamar Trey should stay in Cincinnati. Ideally, you have
a core group of players worth investing in, a core
group of players worth giving pay raises to, a core

(10:19):
group of players worth moving forward with a core group
of players that you build around. And if you do
that and the core is big enough, yeah, man, there's
gonna be. There's gonna be, especially in a cap league,
there are going to be some tough decisions. You know what,
this player is really good, but we think we can
replace them, and we think we can replace them.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Because we're really good at drafting, and.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
So, you know what, we're gonna keep this guy, this guy,
this guy in over here. Maybe he's a little bit
of a luxury item. Bengals don't have any luxury items.
They haven't played in the playoffs in two years, which
when you have an a lister at quarterback, is an eternity.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Eternity.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
It's almost inexcusable to miss the playoffs in one season,
much less two. So these decisions are easy. There's no
real tough one, no real collateral damage. That's where they
are moving forward. Let's understand this. We can apply it
to the Bengals, we can apply it to the reds Hell.

(11:17):
We can apply it to college teams now in this
day and age, bad teams equals easy decisions. The decision
about t and Jamar and Trey easy because there are
no other difficult decisions to be made. Quarter after three
ESPN fifteen thirty. My phone number is five point three

(11:37):
seven four nine fifteen thirty and eight sixty six seven
h two three seven seven six Xavier wins last night
a mid first half onslaught against Butler, where the game
was like nineteen all and you didn't really think Xavier
was going to lose. Butler is not very good. And
then suddenly, on the strength of their defense and some

(11:59):
bad offense and what Dalen Swain is doing on both
ends of the floor, it went from like nineteen nineteen
to forty six twenty five in the blink of an eye.
The Musketeers are trending in the right direction. Rick Buring
talks about them and nkau Norse basketball. Coming up in
just about thirty minutes, we'll touch on UC versus West
Virginia tonight. I am optimistic. I am optimistic about tonight's game.

(12:26):
We'll explain why coming up in the four o'clock hour.
If you're a UC sports fan, you should be really
optimistic about the baseball program. So Jordan bischels in year two,
we had them on the show two three weeks ago.
UC started the season winning two out of three on
the road against a nationally ranked duke team, and now,
for the first time in program history, Jordan Bischell's team
is nationally ranked itself. He'll join us next on ESPN

(12:50):
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

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truck at the Route four bypass and southbound Reading Road
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Speaker 2 (13:29):
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Speaker 3 (13:32):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. My name's Mulwegor. Thank you
so much for listening today. Anything you might have missed
or may miss on this show you can listen to
on the iHeartRadio app, including our chat yesterday with Pat Noonan,
the head coach of FC Cincinnati, who plays tonight the
Kunka CAF Champions Cup podcast at the show a service
of Long Neck Sports Girl. Speaking of head coaches, Jordan

(13:54):
Bischel is the head baseball coach at the University of Cincinnati,
the Bearcats in the season at Duke this weekend and
won two out of three, and they did so by
stealing bases and getting hit by pitches and walking and
forcing the issue and playing small ball, and as a result,
two wins in three games and the program's first ever

(14:17):
national ranking, which is pretty cool. Jordan Bischell joins us,
I know it's one series at the beginning of the season.
It is a tiny, tiny, tiny part of your schedule.
The idea isn't well be ranked and we're good here.
At the same time, it's got to be pretty cool
for you and your guys to look at the national
rankings and there Cincinnati.

Speaker 7 (14:38):
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think we have enough
older guys that they understand it. It doesn't really carry
any weight. But we also know that kind of when
we embarked in this conference and our staff on this
job a year and a half ago, that kind of
an afterthought to think we'd be in any sort of
national ranking within a year or two. So great validation

(15:01):
for our guys to see that the work they're putting
in is paying off in the buy and they've showed
us paying off. And now we also understand if we
go out and play it four weekend. You can kiss
all that stuff good bye pretty quickly.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
You take two out of three against a really good
team on the road. A lot of good stuff happened.
At the top of the list of things you're pleased
about in regards to how your team played against Dukes,
what's at the very top of it.

Speaker 7 (15:25):
You know, we talked a lot to our guys about
you're not going to be great at everything, but we
want to be great at the things that we emphasize,
the things that we really hearing our hats on, and
certainly one of those things is our ability to pressure
you with the short game. And we talked about some
of that hit by pitch stuff last time. I mean,
we got hit by eight pitches, we bunted for I
think seven hits, we stole ten bases, took a bunch

(15:48):
of walks. That looks like just the easy, little short
game stuff, but it takes a heck of a lot
of time and prep work. So to see that payoff
was big. We spent a lot of time with our
pitchers on mentality and toughness, and even though we probably
walked too many guys, we served up a lot of
home runs. Ultimately for the most part avoid at the beginning,
and that's again sudden.

Speaker 8 (16:08):
We preach a lot.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
We've talked about the short game and stealing bases and
drawing walks and working counts. Is it's such a valuable
skill set at any level of baseball. Kind of walk
me through the process of teaching a young hitter how
to go about working account working a picture so that
he can draw a bunch of walks.

Speaker 7 (16:28):
It's an interesting process because you don't land here by
being a high school hitter that stands up there trying
to walk right you could hit. Your coaches in high
school probably are telling you you should never take a
strike in anything you can, because they're talented guys, and
so getting that buy in takes a little bit of time,

(16:48):
and it really starts with preaching these guys. We're not
trying to take the bat out of their hands. We're
trying to create them getting good pitches to hit. You know,
if ultimately they show tremendous discipline and it forces the
pitcher to give in to them. And hitting is a
lot more fun when you're getting pitches down the heart
of the plate. And we saw that at times this week,
and when we forced them over the heart of the plate,

(17:09):
it's gonna be a lot easier to put a barrel
on a baseball. And so it's it's we want our
guys to think aggressively, but just discipline.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
You mentioned the base stealing ten over the weekend. You're
year one, you guys were second in the Big twelve
and stolen bases. This is something you have emphasized. Do
your guys have the green light? Do you have certain
guys who if they get the first they can go.
Other guys need the signal from the dugout. How does
that work?

Speaker 7 (17:35):
Yeah, you know, we have way improved communications from years
ago where they all have you know, an electronic watch
type device on their risks that we can put in
different signals and a series of things. So it's rarely
just the blanket green light. But there's a lot of
situations where we where we will green light them for

(17:55):
you know, extended amount of pitches and things like that.
So nobody's got it just start to finish throughout the game,
but we we put those on a lot. Ultimately, if
you only if you're gonna be a great base stealing team,
you can't tell a guy which pitch should go on
you have to have jumps, you have to have their
right foot work, and so you have to give these
guys a lot of Flexibility's what's tricky with that is

(18:16):
we take a lot of pride in not getting thrown out.
We don't want to just go to go. We want
to be close to ninety percent, which is really really
hard to do, and that's where the work comes in.
For us to trust these guys to go and still
trust they're going to make it ninety percent of the
time takes a lot of work on their part and
a lot of discipline, and they've really brought into it
so far.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, I would imagine then, you know, I say this
as somebody who never had the green light. If I
got down there, there's at the lower levels. You know,
you're fast, you can get a jump, you go. Maybe
you're not reading a picture, maybe there's not as much
into it. Walk me through the process of teaching a
guy how to be more than just a fast based
runner and instead a good base dealer.

Speaker 7 (18:54):
Yeah, we you know, your full work is huge. You
can't have any false steps, any loss steps. We spend
a ton of time watching video of picture tendencies, little
tips that we think will tell us when we think
the ball is going to be delivered, understanding of when
they like to pick off, and then there's a lot
of footwork involved with kind of gaining some ground. Basically,

(19:16):
if you run from a standstill, it's pretty hard to
steal on a lot of pitchers, and so we do
what we call different vaulting techniques where you're kind of
getting a little head start with a little jump, but
you have to have enough balance where if they pick off,
you can get back. And it's pretty advanced stuff and
you don't see it ton of the which makes it
hard to defend. It's it's not a lot of teams
that do it, so it's tough to prepare for. But

(19:38):
what people don't see is we really have our better
base runners probably three times a week starting in August,
are doing some of this technique stuff, and so it
takes a lot of time.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
Jordan Bischel is with us. The Bearcats off to a
terrific start. Took two out of three against Duke. Over
the weekend, they're off to Vegas for four against UNLV,
then four against UC sand Yego. Obviously, it sort of
depends on the part of the country you're in and
you've spent your career in the northern part of the
United States. Walk me through the process of assembling a

(20:09):
college baseball schedule in a cold weather city.

Speaker 7 (20:13):
Yeah, well we failed this week. We scheduled a home
game for February eighteen, so we see how that panned out.
But actually we didn't even have that one planned. We
had a cancelation, so we had to try to get
something in. But you know, I'm pretty involved in the scheduling.
You know, we've played ten league weekends, so obviously that's
set up for us. My goal early is is to

(20:34):
not be crazy running back and forth. And so if
you look at this coming week, we go out to
UNLV and we stay out there and play at at
U SEE San Diego. That sounds really terrible for most
people listening right now. I'm sure we'll have to suffer
through that seventy five and sunny every day. But what
I found, and being up north even further, we've had
years where we played twenty or twenty five games before

(20:56):
we had a home game. It's a back and forth
that really can wear these guys out. We got home
about four thirty in the morning on Sunday night, which
means your Monday is pretty shot and before you know it,
you're back on road Thursday, which you can do here
and there, but if you do that three, four or
five straight weeks, it takes a toll. So we try
to be strategic with when we travel, maybe staying on
the road a little bit longer. You'll see with our

(21:17):
midweek games, we try to play a lot either at
home or fairly local out of Miami, Ohio, out of Davier. Again,
the big twelves all over the country, so we have
to be a little strategic that if they're spending all
their time on buses and airplanes, it takes out of
our practice time, it takes out of our rest time,
it takes out of their school time, and so it
does take quite a bit of work to figure out
how to best schedule those those twenty six non conference games.

(21:40):
And you got a factor and strint to schedule too, right.
Who you play does matter a little bit when your
league has several at large bits every year.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
What are the logistics that might might not be aware
of when you take a college baseball team on the
road for over a week.

Speaker 7 (21:56):
Oh my, yeah, the planning for the food is the
ability of me to not eat what the players are eating.
They get said like high level college athletes, and then
I eat what they eat, but eat the ice cream
afterwards too. So that's a problem, but it is. It's
amazing the team of people that goes with us. We've
got some of that coordinates all our video, got some
of the coordinates all our travel. We've got our strength coach,

(22:18):
our athletic trainer, our social media team, will send somebody
on top of roster obviously, and so it We've got
such great staff. We've got such such great people at Cincinnati.
And that's not just baseball people, equipment people and athletic training,
and I mean it, it makes my job a lot easier,
but it is.

Speaker 9 (22:37):
We traveled.

Speaker 7 (22:38):
We had a group of fifty travel to Duke over
the weekend, and that you know, included thirty four players.
But then you've got sixteen other bodies trying to help
these guys out.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Uh off to Vegas, then La Joya, and then hopefully
the weather turns for the better and you get blessed
with good conditions when you come home to take on
Toledo on the fifth, and the whole slate will start
then and hopefully you guys are still ranked.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Certainly rooting for that.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
I appreciate the time as always, coach, many thanks, appreciate it.

Speaker 7 (23:08):
We've got two weeks for everybody to buy their tickets.

Speaker 9 (23:11):
Get out there.

Speaker 7 (23:11):
I can't promise wins. Where I can promise you come
out you'll see fast, exciting baseball.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah, I would concur with that.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
That's Jordan Bischel, the baseball coach at You See Bearcats
ranked in the top twenty five D one baseball for
the first time in program history. It is twenty eight
away from four o'clock sports headlines coming up on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 3 (24:17):
Sports headlines for our service at Kelsey chevala home of
lifetime power train protection and guarantee credit approval from their
family to yours for life kelseyshev dot come in goodyear
today now. Yesterday the big news was Terry Francona Tito,
that they call him Tito. Tito says, well, the first

(24:39):
Cactus League day when they played two games, they played
the Guardians and they played the Brewers. Yesterday, Tito said,
We're gonna have Hunter Green pitch one of those games,
and then we're gonna have Graham Ashcraft pitch one of
those games. But he didn't specify, and so I don't
know about you. I laid awake all night last night,
thinking to myself, God, what is he gonna When are

(25:00):
we going to get an answer? Do you pitch Hunter
against the Guardians or do you pitch Hunter against the Brewers.
What's gonna happen here? Thankfully, today Tito clarified for all
of us, and I don't know about you. But I'll
rest easy. Tonight, Hunter Green's going to pitch against the Guardians.
I believe that game is in good Year, and Graham

(25:21):
Ashcraft is going to pitch against the Brewers.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
I believe that game is in Marydale.

Speaker 3 (25:24):
The Brewers Spring Complex is not when you want to
go to just calling it what it is.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
So there you go. Now you know, now you know.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
College basketball tonight you see is on the road against
West Virginia Mountaineers beat the Bearcats by thirteen seventeen days ago.
Seven o'clock is tonight's tip off on seven hundred Wlow.
Many are calling it a must win for the Bearcats.
I would concur also tonight Kentucky battles Vanderbilt Wildcats lost
the first meeting against the Doors. So to speak, no

(25:55):
La mont Butler, no Jackson Robinson again Tonight's tip seven o'clock.
Pregame five on ESPN fifteen thirty. FC Cincinnati starts. It's
twenty twenty five slate tonight in the Kunka CAF champions Cup,
the Orange and Blue taking on Matagua. That game is
gonna be in Honduras. Tom Gletter is gonna call it

(26:16):
on Fox Sports thirteen sixteen. Game starts at ten o'clock.
Tommy g joins us at five oh five. Will we
be discussing whether or not he brings me back cigars?

Speaker 2 (26:25):
Probably?

Speaker 3 (26:27):
Also tonight, the Cincinnati Cyclones are skating at home against Toledo.
I saw a billboard on I seventy four this morning
that informed me and other motorists that tonight's beers are
two dollars.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
So there you go.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
Well, they have beer that's not two dollars, but they
tonight you could buy certain beers for two bucks. If
the billboard is correct, and I believe it is. Puck
drops at seven thirty downtown, we're gonna talk about the
Musketeers on the Norse with Rick Burring in just a
few minutes. I am optimistic about the bear game tonight
because I like how they have played, and you know

(27:05):
that was This isn't about moral victories. There are no
moral victories. The game against Iowa State, there was a
talent gap. Iowa States just better. They're also at home,
and the whistle in the second half was not very
friendly to the Bearcats. But I liked, for the most
part how the Bearcats played. They have to be better
on the glass They're not a good rebounding team to
begin with, and so most games, chances are they're gonna

(27:27):
give up some boards, and they're gonna give up some
second chance points. The second chance point gap against anybody
cannot be seventeen to two. But what I saw against
Iowa State was for the most part, a continuation of
the offensive improvement that they have made since the West
Virginia game. If that continues, I think they can beat

(27:47):
a very okay West Virginia team. We're not really certain
about the status of Simas Lukaschius, who came out of
the game in Ams on Saturday with a shoulder issue.
And let's be honest, one of the key storylines for
this team right now is what to make of Dan Skillings.
How much should he play, how much will he play?

(28:08):
And when he does play, does he give them anything?
Because against Iowa State and in other games he has
given them nothing.

Speaker 11 (28:18):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
We'll elaborate on that coming up in the four o'clock hour,
But first, the King of Facebook, Rick Boring on the
Muskies and the Nurse and this week's Facebook assignment. Next
on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 6 (28:35):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. At u see Health,
you'll find comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your
best tomorrow possible. That's foundless care for better outcomes. Expect
more at UCHealth dot com. Eastbound Simms Road at the
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Dana Avenue. It's a disabled vehicle that is near seventy

(28:57):
one eight mile road closed off due to flooding between
Kellogg Road and Old Kellogg Road. Please seek an alternate route.
I'm at e Zelik with traffic.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Report is ESPN fifteen thirty on OEGAR. Thank you for
listening today. Rick Boring joins us on Wednesdays, color analysts
for NKU Radio broadcasts The Nurse Take on Wright State
on Friday night. The proprietor of Musketeer Report dot com.
He is part of the Skinny Podcast. He is part
of the NKU Coaches Show. He is the host of

(29:29):
the Darren Horn Show, and he continues to maintain a
very active Facebook presence as as well.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
You have a you have a full dance card.

Speaker 12 (29:38):
As we say, I'd like to keep it busy, mat
I understand.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
I understand well, it's it's good to have you.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
I've asked you this question on and off now for
nearly four months.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Is Xavier good now?

Speaker 8 (29:54):
Yeah, I think at this point, if we look at
what they've done since the bat how January tenth or so,
that's I think went in between the Saint John's loss,
the back to back losses to Georgetown Saint John's, and
then when they went on that three game winning streak
against the Paul, Villanova and Marquette. Really, since that three

(30:15):
game winning streak, I think we can say they've played
pretty good basketball. Now, have there been some moments like
a sixteen point lead in the second half at Saint
John's that they fumbled away and ended up losing in overtime,
and some other instances late in games or what have
you where they haven't been great. Yeah, I think that's
definitely the case, and this team has flawed for certain

(30:35):
But overall, I mean, you've won what seven or so
of eight of your last eleven games, so I think
all three losses were too really good competition, and for
the most part, they've taken care of business during that stretch.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
Let's say that on the night of selection Sunday, we
find out that their team number sixty nine or seventy,
What is the game? What is the The Musketeer fans
are going to look back and go like we did
with the Bengals right when they lost, when they were
on the outside looking at the playoffs and we were
debating which games you should go back and agonize over.
Which ones will Xavier fans be agonizing over the most?

Speaker 12 (31:14):
Oh?

Speaker 8 (31:14):
Man, there are so many. I think the game at
u See is turning out to be a really big one.
I mean when you look at where Xavier was in
that game late game, had a two possession lead and
then it completely turned around on them in about ninety
seconds or so. That game that they will lost by
one possession on the road is really going to be costly.

(31:35):
Looking back the Yukon game that they lost in overtime
at Yukon, where it looked like, you know, they kind
of had that game won and then fumbled it away.
There are really a number of games like that, But
I think those those opportunities for the quad one wins
that they had on the road, like Yukon and like
at uc those are going to be the ones where

(31:56):
you really look back to and say, man, one more
quad one road win would have gotten us clearly into
the tournament. And those are games where, you know, especially
like the UC game. Now, I think a lot of
ZA your fans will look back and say, we think
we're as good or better than this UC team, and
we had the late lead in that game.

Speaker 12 (32:13):
How did we let that one get away?

Speaker 3 (32:15):
So I think this has been framed as they've got
to win out. You've got all these games that you're
not going to get much credit for winning if you do.
But then there's the Creighton game and they come here.
Now you go back to the first one, and I
will look ahead past Seaton Haul. If you look back
at the first game against Creighton, they had moments where
it felt like if they could get a stop, you know,

(32:37):
then maybe the outcome is perhaps a little bit different.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
They couldn't get it.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
Creighton's a very good offensive team and really fun to
watch when they're clicking on all cylinders. Can they beat
the Blue Jays here?

Speaker 8 (32:49):
They can? And to your point about the game at crighton,
I think in some ways, you know, Xavier probably performed
better in that game than I would have expected them to.

Speaker 12 (32:58):
They had their chances in that one.

Speaker 8 (33:00):
So that should make you feel much better about them
coming back and playing Creighton at home. The problem with
Creighton is Xavier really doesn't have an answer for Ryan Kulkbrenner,
and he's not typically a dominant offensive player, but he's
a very good one, and he's over seven feet tall,
and when you don't have an answer for a guy
who's over seven.

Speaker 12 (33:17):
Feet tall like that, it makes it very.

Speaker 8 (33:19):
Difficult to pile up stops like you were talking about.
On the defensive end, it felt like Creighton, when things
really got tough for them offensively, they could just throw
the ball into their big guy or throw up a
lob to him, or he'd get an offensive rebound and
kind of end their struggles. So that's going to be
a big question. Also, the style of defense that Creighton
plays is the style of defense that has really given

(33:41):
Xavier the most trouble this year, and that's they stick
to three point shooters. They really get out and try
to deny passing length and funnel everything into their shot
block or Ryan Kulkbrenner at the rim. Veiger hasn't done
nearly as well offensively against those style of teams. So
they fared pretty well in the first game, I think
on the offensive against Creighton, but they really couldn't stop

(34:02):
the Blue Jays. I think at home, you're just hoping
Creighton's shooting much worse. They're just cold because they're they're
on the road, and you come up with something to
do with Ryan Kulkbrenner.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
I know they beat Yukon by a point.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
I think Seaton Hall is the worst high major team
I've watched this year. So am I being am I
okay overlooking them that game this weekend?

Speaker 12 (34:24):
Yeah? I would think so.

Speaker 8 (34:25):
And in some ways, the fact that they got the
win out of their way, They got their big win
against Yukon. You knew it was going to come at
some point. This is the Big East. Shaheen Halloway is
a tough minded, competitive guy. They have enough talent on
that team that they were going to win one game
at some point in conference play. They weren't going to
continue that long losing street. So I think you almost
feel better about the fact that they that they beat

(34:46):
Yukon and got it out of the way.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
Rick Buring Musketeer Report dot Com on Twitter, at Rick
Buring on Facebook, at Rick Buring NKU Radio Friday, The
North taking on Wright State.

Speaker 2 (34:57):
They split the.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Games in Wisconsin, beat Doug gott Leeb and a really
bad Green Bay team, and then kind of got smoked
against Milwaukee.

Speaker 8 (35:03):
What happened, Well, you know, it was interesting because they
started off playing really well, I thought in that game
at Milwaukee, and Milwaukee's a team that I think is
a difficult matchup for ENDKU because of their athleticism and.

Speaker 12 (35:17):
The way they rebound.

Speaker 8 (35:18):
Inside and their defensive presence. It makes it hard for
ENKU to score. But the North were trading baskets early
with them, and I thought really kind of set the
tone with their physicality early.

Speaker 12 (35:27):
In that game. But man, they had a.

Speaker 8 (35:30):
Bad stretch right before the half where it could have
been like a tie game or one possession game going
in a halftime, and it turned into a multi possession
deficit just because of a few turnovers for ENKU at
the end of the half there and then second half
NT you just could not rebound. Jamichael Stillwell, six '
eight forward for Milwaukee, who I think as a candidate

(35:50):
to transfer up after the season is over out of
the Horizon League. He was absolutely dominant with nine offensive
rebounds in that game and really was the second chance
points that did.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Can they win the Horizon League Tournament?

Speaker 8 (36:04):
Well, I think the thing they've showed is that they
can beat anybody in the conference in a one game setting.
They beat Cleveland State just a few weeks ago. You know,
they won at Oakland the game before that. So it's
not that they can't compete with the teams at the
top of the conference. But the problem is they're going
to have to string together four wins in a row

(36:25):
in the conference tournament, and right now that would seem
like a big ask for this team, given that they
haven't won four games in a row yet in conference play.
But this seems to be the time of year where
for some reason mentally, I don't know if it's just
the fact that Darren Horn talks about it all season
long and doesn't shy away from this is the goal
to get to the Riding League Tournament and play our best.

Speaker 9 (36:46):
They seem to.

Speaker 8 (36:46):
Handle that pressure a little bit better than some of
these other teams. So when you look at a team
like a Robert Morris maybe who hasn't been in this situation,
or like a Purdue Fort Wayne who has been here
a few times, where they have a good team, but
they've kind of fall heard in the conference tournament. Maybe
you have a mental edge there against some of those teams.
I think that's what you're hoping for if you're an
NKU fan.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
All Right, I asked you last week on Facebook to
rank the Horizon League cities because you were in Green
Bay for Valentine's Day.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Do you guys have a nice time?

Speaker 8 (37:17):
Yeah, I mean it's just not We got seven inches
of snow overnight before our trip to Milwaukee, so we
had to leave early for there. And as I've put
in my right up there on Facebook, MO, if you're
going to Green Bay in the middle of February, you
better be really really excited about seeing lambeau Field because
there's just nothing else to do there.

Speaker 11 (37:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
I've been to Green Bay and that was to go
to lambeau Field, and so I don't know what else.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Is in Green Bay.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
I thought you had Milwaukee a little bit low, but
still made the top four of that's okay?

Speaker 2 (37:47):
Are you ready for this week's assignment?

Speaker 8 (37:51):
Well, I'd kind of like to hear where you have
Milwaukee on that list.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
Higher than Indianapolis, higher than Cleveland.

Speaker 8 (37:59):
Well, why do you like Milwaukee so much?

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Good? Breweries.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
There's a German restaurant called Mats that I really like.
There's a steakhouse called the Five o'clock Steakhouse that I
really like, and they tailgate for baseball.

Speaker 8 (38:11):
Okay, fair enough, Yeah, I mean, admittedly these are influenced
by the fact that I visit them in like January
and February and at a hotel with a team where
we don't see a ton of the city always.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
And you should tell mkay, you to stay at the
Knickerbocker Hotel number one.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
I'm in Knicks fan number two. They got a cool bar.

Speaker 8 (38:29):
Okay, I will put that request in.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Very good, very good.

Speaker 5 (38:33):
All right.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
I'm gonna let you work ahead because I have two
assignments and you could choose in which order to do them.
So the first one is I want you to rank
and you can make it top eight or top ten
or top fifteen because people love lists. The best uniforms
in college basketball.

Speaker 12 (38:52):
Oh yeah, okay, good one.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
This is right up your ally. You like this.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
You're big into a sartorial splendor, so to speak. So
I want your best, not even interested in worst. But
if you want to throw them in, go ahead, because
I've got a list of my favorites, and I want
to see if they match up. And then obviously the
big topic now is the tournament. It might expand, it
should expand, it shouldn't expand, and I need you to
weigh in on that.

Speaker 8 (39:15):
Oh okay, Yeah, those are two good topics.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
And you these are absolute layups.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
You can get both done tonight, work ahead, and then
like we'll talk about one next week and then the
next one.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
You're good.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
I mean you could just you could do these two
in your sleep. I'm making this very easy on you.

Speaker 8 (39:31):
Yeah, you really are. I appreciate that.

Speaker 12 (39:33):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
That's what they're a great editor. Sure, all right, thanks, Rick,
appreciate it as always.

Speaker 12 (39:39):
All right, thanks Bo.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
That's our buddy, Rick Browing Musketeer Report dot com. And
you'll hear them on Friday night MKU Radio with Jim
Kelch the Norse taking on Wright State at seven pm.
That game at the Another Center. It is a couple
of minutes away from four o'clock. Jake Golde, you see,
linebacker is going to join us for a few minutes
coming up at four o'clock. We are looking forward to that.

(40:03):
I'm not into the V word. I'll make that make
sense Next ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
Single game tickets for Cincinnati Women's Banal.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Your chance to win one thousand dollars. Enter this nationwide.
Keyword on our website. Money, that's money.

Speaker 12 (40:21):
Enter it now.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
Money. What's up?

Speaker 3 (40:24):
Five minutes after four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
I'm oegar. Thank you for listening today. Hope you're having
an awesome Wednesday. We are out of the way early
to make room for UK basketball, the Wildcats taking on
Vandy tonight with a tip off at seven pm from Rapperina.
Our buddy Tom Gletter is going to join us from Honduras,

(40:47):
voice of FC Cincinnati. He's got the match tonight in
the CONCACAFF champions Cup. Conka calf is fun to say.
That airs on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. Tommy g joins
us on ESPN fifteen thirty and one hour. Also, UC
linebacker Jake Golda is going to be on this show
in just about thirty minutes.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
We are looking forward to that.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
Speaking of the Bearcats, more on tonight's game in Morgant.
Tonight's game is really interesting for a bunch of different reasons,
and we'll get to some of them coming up here
in a bit. There's also what they meaning outside voices,
national media, former players, people on the shouty shows, what

(41:29):
they would be saying if the Bengals didn't try to
keep t Higgins and Jamar Chase together that later on
the vibes in Goodyear, you may have read, you may
have heard the vibes and Goodyear are awesome.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
You may have read that this year and heard that
this year.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
You may have heard and read that last year, and
you may have heard and read that two years ago.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
And I would expect the vibes and Goodyear to be good.
This should be.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
I think the Reds had a good off season, not
a great offseason. I think ESPN did it today. It
might have been MLB dot Com. Sometimes this stuff runs together.
The grade for the off season was a bee, and
I think that's about right. I think the Reds had
a good offseason. I think they had a good off
season because some guys who were not healthy last year
appear to be healthier and ready to go, like Matt McClain.

(42:18):
I think they had a good off season because the
acquisitions they made made sense. I'm not sure any one
of them really moves the meter.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
That much.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
But Gavin Lux gives them depth. This team badly needs depth.
Austin Hayes gives them a guy who can hit lefties.
This team badly needs somebody who can hit lefties. The
bullpen acquisitions Taylor Rodgers, I think is gonna be very helpful.
They needed bullpen help. Brady Singer gives them what they need,
a starter who has been through a full big league
season uninterrupted like they did address needs. There's still a

(42:48):
lot of questions. I have no remote idea who's gonna
play third base. I am not that bullish on what
the overall corner outfield production is going to be. But yeah,
the vibes should be good, better health, good offseason, and
a great manager. I'm the first to admit man that
oftentimes when things go south and people want to point

(43:08):
the finger at the manager, I kind of tune out
because I think it's more about players. And this year,
if the Reds win the division, Terry Francone is going
to get Manager of the Year of votes and he's
going to get a lot of credit. Hunter Green said
this in one of the many interviews he's done in
a good year over the last couple of days.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
If the Reds are good this year.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
If they make the playoffs, if they win the division,
if they get this advance in the playoffs, which you
are allowed to do, Terry Francone is going to get
a lot of credit. Really, their credit should go to
the players. And I think, Tito, we'd be the first
to acknowledge that the vibes are good, and they should
be good. The Reds have some promising players. There's a
very good piece Doug greg redleg nation dot com who

(43:46):
kind of points out this team's not that young, and
if you think about some of the main characters, something
like we're talking about dudes who have been a part
of this organization now for a while. Like this team's
young ish. This isn't the squad from two years ago,
This isn't from three years ago. This team's not that young.
The guys they acquired aren't that young either. They've gotten older.

(44:11):
There's some dudes who have now been here for a while.
So the vibes should be good. The vibe, though, should
be pressure and I think it's gonna be interesting, Like
they're in good year now and it's it's fun and
everybody loves Terry Francona and everybody's excited about the season,
and it is. I've seen folks on social media often

(44:34):
even had a post like this, like trying not to
fall in the trap of getting too excited. Dude, get
excited at sports. I get your hopes up, and I
think this is a first of all, very likable team,
and it's it's a team that's got some interesting players
and some players who have a chance to be pretty good,
and like, get excited and get excited that. Terry Francona said, yeah, man,
I want to manage these guys. This wasn't some dude

(44:55):
who just grabbed a paycheck, like came out of retirement.
This guy's legacy is safe. I'm gonna go manage that
team that says something that's good. That's good, that's exciting.
But what I'm interested in is what happens when the
season starts and there's pressure, because there should be pressure.

(45:17):
This is year five basically of a process that started.
If you think about it prior to the twenty twenty
one season, which seems forever ago.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Was a half a decade ago.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
Not to completely rehash everything that went down then, but
you might remember in twenty twenty no fans went to
games because of COVID, and the next offseason Dick Williams
quit stepped down short shortly after the twenty twenty drive
through season where they played in the playoffs as a
seven seed against Atlanta, didn't score, and then the team

(45:56):
that offseason didn't do anything to get better. They gave
away Rice cel Iglesias, you might recall, they gave away
Archie Bradley.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
You might recall.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
Now those moves might not have been awful at face value,
but they certainly signaled what was about to happen. And
then what did happen a year later was not that shocking.
They punted right wrong for the better, for the worse,
they punted, and that started a process where they traded

(46:27):
away a Euhaneo Souarez and Jesse Winker, and they gave
away Tucker Barnhart, and eventually they traded away during the
season Luis Castillo. But it's a process that started before
the twenty twenty one season, continued deep into the twenty
twenty two season, deep into it, trading away Castillo and

(46:47):
Tyler Mallley, And the process was all about we got
to get younger, We have to start developing players and
have a pipeline that is continuing to crank out play.
We are building toward the future. We are aiming at
longer stretches of success. We don't want the peaks and valleys,

(47:10):
all that verbiage. That's five years it started five years ago. Well,
at some point there has to be a payoff. At
some point, there has to be something beyond constantly reassuring
people our future is bright. At some point your present
has to matter. This is when that is supposed to happen.

(47:33):
I mean, if I would have said to anybody, whether
it was somebody, excuse me, somebody on board with what
the Reds were doing, or somebody opposed to what the
Reds were doing, and I admittedly sort of saw both sides,
But if I would have said to anybody prior to
the twenty twenty two season, twenty twenty two is when
they lost one hundred games, right started three and twenty two,

(47:55):
Phil Castelini on opening Day, where you're gonna go all
that stuff? If I would have said to anybody in
March twenty two, hey, here's the deal. They're gonna go
through this teardown and they're gonna try to to accumulate
a lot of really good young players, and after the

(48:16):
twenty twenty five season, we're still gonna be waiting for
them to play in the playoffs. You would have said, no,
then don't do this. Then this is this isn't gonna work,
This is a this is bad, this is not.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
What they should do.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
If I would have said to anybody who cares about
the Cincinnati Reads three years ago, this month, February of
twenty twenty two, hey look man, this team's about to stink.
And we all knew that team was gonna stink. Hey,
this team's about to stink. But the bad news is
still gonna be waiting for them to play in the playoffs.
When spring training twenty six begins, you would have said,

(48:51):
I'm out, uh huh, not doing it, forget it. So
that to me is the vibe, the good vibes and
good awesome, Like there's good vibes every spring training, every year,
every team. I have yet to read a story where
it's like, uh, you know, vibes aren't so good. Players

(49:11):
are miserable coming to work already, they hate the manager.
Everybody thinks they're gonna lose, even like in twenty two,
when we knew that team was gonna suck. Every story
was like, oh, you know, there's a rejuvenation to spring training.
David Bell's keeping a positive attitude. I'm interested in what
happens when the season begins and there's pressure. What happens

(49:32):
when the season begins and there's high expectations from the
outset and expectations to do something early in the season
besides start ten and twenty or whatever god awful record
has littered this franchise his recent history in April and March.
What happens when there's a losing streak, What happens when

(49:53):
there's some second guessing being aimed at the manager? What
happens when the games actually start there should be I
hope they're in. Is a lot of pressure on this team,
like legitimate pressure to go to the playoffs, because that's
what this season should be about. And so that's what
I'm curious by the way. They obviously have a manager
who can handle a lot of that stuff. But do

(50:15):
they have a team that does do they have players
that do Does this team live up to expectation, does
it exceed it? And what's it look like if by
the middle of the summer it's abundantly clear that we're
gonna have to wait another year. Like at some point

(50:38):
there has to be a payoff, right, and I think
there can be. I'll start with the starting pitching, which
I think has a chance to be really good. I
think we might be talking about a staff that could
finish in the top third just in terms of an
overall statistical profile in the league. They need health, They
need guys to stay healthy, many who have not.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
The raw talent is there.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
I'm less interested in the spring training vibe than i
am the game number twenty vibe, the game number fifty vibe,
the vibe that occurs the first time they lose five
or six in a row, The vibe that comes with
in season pressure, the vibe that comes with putting the

(51:25):
front office in a position where they have no choice
but to make an acquisition and get help from the outside.
To me, at least, that's what this season is about.
Two years ago, it was gravy, man. It was they're
ahead of schedule, this is fun, this is unexpected, boy,
you know, and and god knows we had to hear

(51:46):
about how you can't make a move to make that
team better. But it was I mean, it was a
total honeymoon. Last year is a little bit different. Last
year was not so much a honeymoon. Last year got
the other manager fired. Last year was a disappointment. Was also,
to a degree not entirely unexpected. Let's be honest, the

(52:08):
Reds finishing with seventy seven wins last year might have
been disappointing. I don't know that it was that surprising.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Was it this year?

Speaker 3 (52:19):
This year completely unacceptable? Manager would be the first to
tell you that. I think Nick Krawl would be the
first to tell you that. But one of the things
that makes this season interesting is what looms over it,
which is the questions that come if in a year

(52:42):
we're still clinging to really good vibes instead of wondering
how they build upon a playoff appearance or postseason advancement,
or if they could repeat as champions of something that
I've said privately and publicly, I think the Reds this

(53:04):
season are maybe Baseball's most interesting team.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
That's not me being a homer.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
I know folks are going to talk about every player
the Dodgers have acquired, and there's validity to that. In
the Wan Soto situation with the Mets and what's happening
with the Blue Jays and they're going to screw up
letting Vladimir Garero get away. I think the Reds are fascinating.
There's a core of young players, an enviable core of
young players. There's some holes. There's a great manager, there's

(53:32):
a GM slash President of Baseball Operations, a front office
that is in year five of this, Like, this has
to be a year where there's like legitimate movement toward
winning something more substantial than eighty two regular season games
and finishing two games out of the money in the postseason.
At some point your plan has to deliver a payoff,

(53:55):
and if it doesn't happen, then there's fallout. And part
of looms over the year, over the season is what
that fallout is. Hopefully it's not something we ever explore
or discuss. Hopefully it's something we're laughing at by the
time we get to midsummer. But like, all right, vibes
are great in Arizona, and everybody loves Tito and they're

(54:16):
shooting hoops outside the clubhouse and awesome, But this, for me,
at least, this is a different type of year. There
has to be payoff, and I can't speak for you
or any other Reds fan. I kind of shrugged my
shoulders throughout much of last season and thought like, all right, yeah,

(54:37):
this it was a little silly to expect them to
go from eighty two wins in twenty twenty three when
it was so unforeseen. It came from so far out
of left field, and they had such good luck with
all the good players getting called up, and yeah, man,
health last year was a major, major factor. That's inarguable.
But I kind of shrugged my shoulders and I went, Okay,
maybe that was the necessary step back before they take

(54:59):
a major step forward. The major step forward has to happen,
and if it doesn't, I don't think the finger is
going to be pointed at Tito. It's going to be
pointed at a lot of players who will have started
to wear it. They're welcome, and it's really going to
be pointed at Nickkrawl. Let's be honest.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
This has been his baby. This has been his baby.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
Started the process in twenty one, which just a couple
of months after Dick Williams walked away from the organization.
So year five, man, and we all knew it was
going to take a while, but this is year five,
So it cannot be sitting here a year from now
or two years from now. All right, it's year six.

(55:43):
Here you go, year set. It's there has to start
to be a payoff this year. The relationship that this
city and fans have with this franchise has been a
topic now for a while, and we, god knows, we
spent a lot of time examining issues like attendance and interest.
Those are conversations they're not going to want to hear

(56:04):
a gabp if this season turns out to be a
losing one. So I'm I'm here for the fun vibes
of February in March, I'm I'm all in, and it's
fun to read about. And it's certainly fun to read
about when it's never stops snowing here and like spring training,

(56:25):
to me, is all about like buying in, getting excited,
believe in the hype, like do it man, like there's
no harm. But what I'm really curious is is this
the year we get a payoff? And how does this
team play with a fair amount of pressure bearing down
on it. They are the most interesting team in the sport.

(56:46):
And again, you could call me a homer. I've never
said that before about this team.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Year five.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
Let's go twenty one after four five point three seven
four nine, fifteen thirty and eight sixty six, seven oh
two three seven seven.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
I need a sighting tonight.

Speaker 4 (57:03):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (57:09):
Traffic southbound seventy five. It's an accident near seventh Street.
Another accident Hamilton Avenue at Strubole Road and eastbound Sims Road.
An overturned truck at the Route four bypass. Kellogg Avenue
closed off due to flooding between Wilmer Avenue and Apple
Hill Road. I'm at Ezelek with traffic.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
It's twenty six sorry, twenty six minutes after you just
come back on that, you know, But I.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
Do at times during the breaks, I look at what's
happening on social media and I read emails, and I'm
amused by a lot of the things I see when
I look at social media and reading. This particular email
was an internal email regarding a contest we might do
to give away some tickets to a horse race, and
I was just sending for approval some of the ideas

(57:58):
I had to give away tickets for a horse race
coming up later in the spring, and in my ideas,
I amused myself with my ideas. I don't know that
the ideas will be approved, but I had some ideas
trivia ideas, so just just amusing myself. This will be

(58:19):
short because Jake Goldey, from a UC linebacker getting set
for hopefully another big season that you see, is going
to join us in just a few minutes. Our numbers
are five one thirty seven, four nine, fifteen thirty and
will squeeze it in. UC plays tonight against West Virginia,
and I said before I I'm optimistic about tonight because
I do like the way the Bearcats are playing, and

(58:41):
it's easy to get kind of bogged down in the
results of certain games and go, well, they you know,
they lost, and so let's wipe away all the good
things we said about them. I like how u se
played in that game against Iowa State. I didn't love it,
but understanding what their deficiencies are, they're going to have
to improve upon the I think what I'm looking for tonight,

(59:02):
more than anything else, has Dan Skillings reached the point
of no return. He played a season low number of
points against Iowa State, and within those fourteen minutes, certainly
didn't do anything to make you feel like, God, he
should play a little bit more, and you can get
exasperated with him, and I think we all have. And
you can say unfair things about him if you want,

(59:24):
which I haven't done, but I think you have to
acknowledge two things about him. Number One, he does or
he is at least supposed to possess a skill set
pretty much unmatched on the team. If you want this
team to get better on the glass, I don't know
how that happens without Dan's participation. That's kind of why

(59:44):
he has been so frustrating. When he got hurt early
in the season and a lot of folks were wondering, like, God,
is he gonna play against Xavier? Is he gonna play
against Dayton? Is he going to be okay for Big
twelve play? That concern was based on the fact that
he is supposed to be a guy who can do
a little.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
Bit of everything.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Also, you know, do do we know about Sima's Lukasius
Tonight came out of the last game with the shoulder issue.
Errington Page got banged up. Like there's all the stuff
that Dan is supposed to be able to do. He
is also supposed to be one of their top two
or three players, and right now he can't. He's not
doing anything really well right now. Right now, not only

(01:00:28):
is he not one of their top two or three players,
he's a guy that it's really hard to justify putting
on the floor. And we saw last year Wes Miller
kind of benched Victor Lockin and like when large stretches
of games without playing, And could we get to a
point where Wes is actually not playing a guy who

(01:00:49):
was supposed to be a centerpiece of the team. And
if he does play him, if the idea is for
UC to still make the tournament, which is obviously going
to be really hard, win five out of six, how
does that happen without him helping on both ends of
the floor. Twenty nine minutes after four o'clock five one, three, seven, four, nine,

(01:01:11):
Uh fifteen thirty j Golde Next, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:01:16):
He's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:01:19):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (01:01:22):
At uce health, you'll find comprehensive care that's so personal
it makes your best tomorrow possible. That's boundless care for
better outcomes. Expect more at UCHealth dot com. Keeping an
eye on a couple of accidents out there. The first
one on Hamilton Avenue over at Struble Road, and the
second one Martin Luther King Drive that is east of

(01:01:43):
Central Parkway northbound seventy five. Traffic slow from Mitchell Avenue
up toward Paddock Road. I'm at Ezelek with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
This report is.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moweger. We'll do sports
headlines in just a few minutes, but first, because he
is standing by, we don't want to make him wait.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Jake Golda is with us.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
Jake came to UC last season to play linebacker after
starting his college football career at Central Arkansas, and in
his first year at the FBS level, he was terrific
second on the team with fifty eight tackles, honorable mention
all Big Twelve accolades, and getting said for his second
season at UC. With springball quickly approaching, the Arlington, Tennessee

(01:02:27):
native is kind enough to give us a few minutes
this afternoon. Jake Golday, it's good to have you. Good afternoon.
How are you.

Speaker 12 (01:02:33):
Oh, I'm doing great.

Speaker 13 (01:02:34):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
I appreciate you doing this.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
You guys last played a football game on November thirtieth.
Springball is fast approaching. How much are you chomping at
the bit?

Speaker 13 (01:02:46):
Oh, We've been going out of like crazy this year.
I think coach Nico put together a great plan for
us this all season.

Speaker 8 (01:02:54):
And I mean.

Speaker 12 (01:02:55):
We've been working.

Speaker 13 (01:02:56):
I mean, I don't think there's many teams in the
country that are doing what we're doing every single day,
day in and day out.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
How does it differ from what things were like a
year ago.

Speaker 13 (01:03:07):
It's a lot different. There's a lot more that goes
into it at this level. I feel like, not only
are we working out every single day, but we're also
meeting as like a group in our position groups and
the front six unit meetings, team meetings, making sure everybody's
on the same page at all times, spending a lot

(01:03:30):
extra time up here at the facility just to make
sure that we're all going after the same goal and
that we're all locked in.

Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
A year ago, you know, you come to the program
and there's a new defensive coordinator and so it's a
lot of new guys, and it's also a new scheme.
There are obviously new players, but it's the same defensive
staff and the same scheme.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
How helpful. Is that going to be.

Speaker 13 (01:03:53):
Yes, sir, I think it's gonna be great for the
team and for me personally. I think coming in last
year and coming in during the summer and having Tom
learn the playbook immediately and learn the brand new position
was a little stressful on me at first, and it
took me a couple of games throughout the season to
get comfortable. This year, I'm already comfortable with the defense.
So not only will I be able to succeed and

(01:04:15):
thrive in our defense because I think I fit the
scheme very well in the position that I'm buying, but
I'll also be able to help all the newcomers that
are coming in that we're in the same position as me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
Give us an idea of what the newcomers are going
to bring to your defense.

Speaker 8 (01:04:29):
Oh and we got a bunch of great guys.

Speaker 13 (01:04:31):
What I'm looking forward to the most is some of
our d line guys. I think they'll be able to
rush the passer extremely well, get the quarterback off as mark,
and then also in the run game. They're strong dudes.
You can see like what they're putting up in the
weight room is really impressive. Those edge guys so I'm
super excited for those guys.

Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
Whether it be on the defense or even on the
other side of the ball. There are a lot of
players who are attempting to do what you did success
yes fully last year, which is to make the leap
from FCS football to high major FBS football at the
Big twelve level. What's your word of advice to players
who are trying to do what you did a year ago.

Speaker 13 (01:05:13):
So when I came in, my goal was just to
put my head down and then earn no respect. I
knew it wasn't going to be given because I was
coming from an FCS school, So all I wanted to
do was earn that respect for my teammates and also
for my coaches. And then once I get that respect
and that confidence, that just takes off from there. So
what I would just tell all the newcomers is just
to put your head down and work. Don't expect anything

(01:05:34):
to be given to you.

Speaker 8 (01:05:36):
What you did at the FCS level, yeah it.

Speaker 13 (01:05:38):
Was impressive, but that doesn't matter now you're playing with
the top dogs at college football.

Speaker 3 (01:05:44):
How much, whether it be you and the guys who
were here in twenty twenty four or you with the
players who are new to the program. How much have
you guys talked about the way things unfolded down the
stretch last season.

Speaker 13 (01:05:56):
Uh, yeah, we've talked about it a good bit. Not
more recently.

Speaker 8 (01:05:59):
We're to pass that, but definitely the.

Speaker 13 (01:06:02):
Guys from last season, we definitely went over where we
think we went wrong and what we have to do
to change the culture here and how we're going to
attack next season. But I think that was short lived
and now that that's out of the way, now we're
just focused on this upcoming season.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
Do you have as with your game individually and you
had such a good season last year, do you have
like individual things you're looking to accomplish with your own
game between now and when fall camp begins in early August.

Speaker 9 (01:06:35):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 13 (01:06:35):
So for me personally, I'm wanting to be able to
learn all three of the linebacker positions, the Sam, the Will,
and the mic linebacker spots, just so that I can
get some more productivity, so that I'm not just stuck
at one position the entire game. So if I need
to if something happens throughout the game and I need
to move to mike linebacker, I'm completely comfortable at the

(01:06:56):
position and then also another goal of mine is I
want to be more of a leader, more vocally a leader.
I think last year I did a good job of
leading by example, but this year I want to be
more vocally to pull those guys along with me. And
then lastly, I want to be an All Conference guy.
I don't want to be an honorable mentioned guy this year.
I want to I want to do the I want
to be All Conference first team this year.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
Those are those are good, like reasonably stated goals. I've
had a lot of conversations with a lot of athletes
and they'll give me something pretty abstract like, well, I
just I want to be more you know, attuned to
the defense, that sort of thing. I like the specific
the specifics that you outlined for me.

Speaker 13 (01:07:33):
That's good, yes, sir, I've I've taken some great thought
into those those goals this year, and I'm taking it
pretty seriously.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
What do you like about playing at the University of Cincinnati.

Speaker 12 (01:07:44):
Well, I just love the.

Speaker 13 (01:07:45):
City Cincinnati, uh and in the atmosphere at Knifford Stadium
is not like undescribable. I've played at a couple of
different stadiums, like when I played SCS ball, I played
at Old Miss and I played at Oklahoma State, and
nothing compares to Knifford Stadium. I mean, even though way
games that we had this year, Nip at Night was

(01:08:08):
an amazing feeling. The last game of the season, it's
just running out the tunnel at the very beginning of
the game.

Speaker 8 (01:08:15):
It's undescribable feeling.

Speaker 13 (01:08:17):
And then just the love we get from the fans.
I mean, there's many things that I can't think of
right now, but there's so many things that go into
it why Cincinnati is amazing.

Speaker 8 (01:08:27):
And then also I don't want to leave this one out.
The coaching here is great. It feels like a family.

Speaker 13 (01:08:32):
It's authentic, and that's probably the main reason why I
love it here Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
Yeah, I've I've talked to a lot of players who
have said something similar.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
You know, you mentioned nip and night.

Speaker 3 (01:08:41):
I think that's a goal for a lot of us
this year is for you guys to have more night games.
Because you didn't have one until the last one of
the season.

Speaker 9 (01:08:47):
I know I was.

Speaker 13 (01:08:48):
I was looking forward to one all season and I
had to wait till the very last game. But at
least we got one, and I was very excited for
that game.

Speaker 9 (01:08:57):
Experience.

Speaker 3 (01:08:57):
It was Yeah, the every every college football player. You know,
the rules are different, right, so you can bounce around,
you can transfer, you can go find a different situation.
Who knows if it's going to be a better situation.
Give me an idea of some of the things you
thought about, just as it relates to you and where
you ultimately chose to play when last season came to

(01:09:18):
an end.

Speaker 13 (01:09:20):
Yeah, So it felt like a pretty big risk for
me to move to transfer from Fts to Big twelve football,
just because I didn't know really what they expect. I
always have the confidence of myself that I could play
at this level, but I didn't know what I was
walking into. I didn't know what the locker room would
be like, and if they had the guys that they

(01:09:41):
wanted and that they were just filling in some guys
for depth. I didn't really know the situation. But after
I talked to the coaches, I had a pretty good
feeling of what exactly I was walking into. And just
the love and the support, like I mentioned earlier, from
the coaches, from the players roaching out to me every
single day. Tell I mean, like, we got to get
you here, man, You're a key piece to what we're doing,
and all those kind of things is what kind of

(01:10:02):
led me in the direction to come to Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
All right, I got like committed here in your off
season downtime, what are you doing.

Speaker 13 (01:10:11):
I like to go on hikes with my dog and
my girlfriend, and then I also like to play.

Speaker 12 (01:10:17):
Golf with some of the buddies.

Speaker 13 (01:10:18):
And I also picked up pickle ball last off season
and that was a lot of fun. So I'm looking
forward to getting it back to playing a little bit
of pickleball.

Speaker 8 (01:10:25):
So I just I like to stay active. I'm a
busy buddy, so I like to just stay active.

Speaker 12 (01:10:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
You know, when somebody would have asked me that question
when I was in college, I wouldn't have said I
like to go on hikes. So I guess we're different
in that regard. I appreciate you doing this. Good luck
getting ready for the season. You were one of the
bright spots last year and excited to see how they
use you and what you and your teammates do coming
up in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
Jake, thanks so.

Speaker 8 (01:10:49):
Much, Yes, sir, thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (01:10:51):
That's Jake Golde, linebacker, University of Cincinnati and honorable mention
all Big twelve performer last year, you see, is getting
closer and closer to spring ball, and I think today
I think they are one hundred and ninety nine days away.
I believe I saw that on I think I got
an email yesterday said it was two hundred days away
from the opener. Oh no, that's two hundred days away

(01:11:12):
from the first game in KC. Nonetheless, you can get
tickets to any one of, if not all, seven home games.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
At Nippertish here.

Speaker 3 (01:11:23):
Good to go Bearcats dot com and get your tickets now,
Jake Golda. Good's tough, all right. We were guests free
until five. Our guy Tommy G is joining us Tarran.
He's not like calling it off as TV in the basement.
He is in Honduras. Correct, Yes, okay, just making sure
you know FC Cincinnati isn't one of those cheap franchises

(01:11:45):
that doesn't send their announcers. But I just I didn't
want to like, yeah, hey man, how's Honduras And he's like, dude,
I'm in pleasant Ridge, Like leave me alone. So Tommy
G will join us from Honduras where he is gonna
call the game tonight.

Speaker 10 (01:11:58):
That means you probably want get you a go.

Speaker 3 (01:12:00):
Yeah, if I'm getting my cigars from Honduras, we asked
Pat noon in this yesterday. I doubt Pat Noonan is
gonna bring me back to cigars, But if there's anybody
who can and will, Tommy Jesus cigar guy, or at
least he used to be, I don't know I smoked
a cigar with Tommy before, but that's who's gonna get
me my Honduran cigars. I gonna do sports headlines even

(01:12:20):
though we are a little bit late here. Sports headlines
are a service of Kelsey chevroleg home of lifetime power
train protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family to
yours for life, Kelsey chev dot com. Red's going through
another day of workouts in Goodyear. Hunter Green is gonna
pitch Saturday against the Guardians. Graham Ashcraft is gonna pitch

(01:12:42):
on Saturday against the Brewers College Hoops you see is
at West Virginia tonight, a tip off at seven on
seven hundred WLW Kentucky again without Lamont Butler again without
Jackson Robinson will take on Vanderbilt tonight at seven. UK
lost the first meeting against the Commodore's ESPN fifteen thirty
has that game for you with pregame at five thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
FC Cincinnati in the.

Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
CONCA CALF champion Huh, the CONCA CAFF champions Cup. I
don't know what happened to me there they're battling Matagua.
I think it's Matagua correct. Well, ask Tommy and the
Cyclones played tonight at home against Toledo Downtown. The puck
drops at seven thirty. By the way, tomorrow is gonna

(01:13:27):
be fun with the hockey. You got us playing Canada
in the Four Nations Final. Tickets on the secondary market
going for four figures. US and Canada. I guess we've
decided we hate each other now, So there's that that's
gonna be fun Tomorrow night, fourteen away from five o'clock.
As my commentary on the pucks and the politics. Fourteen

(01:13:49):
away from five o'clock. This is esp and fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (01:13:53):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the.

Speaker 5 (01:14:00):
See Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (01:14:01):
At you See Health, you'll find comprehensive care that's so
personal it makes your best tomorrow possible. That's boundless care
for better outcomes. Expect more at ucehealth dot com. It
is an accident on Martin Luther King Drive east of
Central Parkway southbound seventy one. Traffic slow between Martin Luther
King Junior Drive and Liberty Street. That is a five

(01:14:23):
minute delay and miles road closed due to flooding between
Covered Bridge and Daily Road. I'm at Eazelic with traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
Hey, from five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Let's
talk to some other people who probably will make a
lot more sense than I do. Five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty, and thank you for your patience.
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Hey, brother, what's up?

Speaker 11 (01:14:52):
I got a new a new idea this this week?
Usually I'm calling you at three questions about the three
different Cincinnati teens. I'm gonna stick to the red. All right, everybody,
this could be a poll question. I'm not saying my
idea is they're.

Speaker 2 (01:15:10):
All right, lay it on me.

Speaker 3 (01:15:11):
We need to we need we need a poll question
today and so make this count go ahead.

Speaker 11 (01:15:17):
Okay, Now, why are Cincinnati fans? Uh you got a
brainstorm with me? Why are Cincinnati fans? Are you afraid
of losing. Is it a fear or is it, you know, heartbreak.

(01:15:38):
I have no fears. I've been through it so many times,
so many years that at this point I'm like, screw it, man,
just go all in, just be one hundred fan. And
you know I posed that. Uh someone told me the

(01:15:59):
other day. They were like, hey, you know, if you
bet fifty dollars on the Red win the world period
right now, you could win like five thousand dollars.

Speaker 7 (01:16:10):
And I'm like, you know what I'm gonna do that.

Speaker 11 (01:16:12):
I'm not afraid to lose fifty dollars. I'm not afraid
to be wrong, and I'm asto not afraid to be
a fan, you know. And a lot of people I
feel like they don't want to be wrong, so they
are on the side of caution. There's some kind of
poll question there. I'm not the best, you know at that,

(01:16:33):
but maybe you could better than me.

Speaker 3 (01:16:34):
I think it's it's afraid of being hurt. It's afraid
of heartbreak, it's afraid of disappointment, which we've all experienced, right,
you know. It's it's why people have a hard time
sometimes jumping into relationships with people that they know they
really like and like being around, but they've been hurt
before and so they're a little cautious, and so I
think from you know, being a fan is about emotion.

(01:16:57):
Being a fan is about the emotional investment, and I
think unfortunately with the Red specifically, but you can apply
this obviously to other teams here. There have been a
lot of years where people have decided to go all
in emotionally and they've been burned, and so now they
act with some trepidation when it comes to jumping back
in emotionally with an individual team, it makes total sense

(01:17:19):
to me. I guess for me, though, I can combine
the emotion and the logic, and I think there's a
lot of upside with this team.

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
I am optimistic about what they could do.

Speaker 3 (01:17:32):
I'm also not planning on them winning the World Series,
although I certainly do like the idea of betting on
them to win the World Series with the odds at
sixty to one. I have a hard time not getting
excited when there's reason for excitement, and I think there's
reason for excitement with this team. Should it be measured excitement, sure,

(01:17:53):
should it be excitement with some degree of cautious of
caution because of how they've let us down in the past. Sure,
but I think if you look at it logically, there
are there's enough to like to at least be somewhat
optimistic about the direction this club is going in.

Speaker 11 (01:18:12):
Yeah, I guess that I would close out by saying,
you know, I'm not afraid to initially be all in.
You know, it only takes a month or two to
kind of figure it out the other way, so there's
there's some time to break the fall, you know. But
what's wrong with with getting the blood pumping and having

(01:18:35):
that feeling at least for a little bit. And if not,
if it doesn't go that way, Hey man, somebody that
has like a psychology degree, you can make a lot
of money in this city. Maybe pair up with Cynthy's shirts,
you know, with so close almost but not yet, you know,
kind of deal and just cater to the fans of

(01:18:58):
the city. You know, we need someone to like I
call you and I'm you're like my sports psychologist. I'm
just kidding. But someone can make a lot of money here,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:19:09):
We might we might rebrand the show. And I hear
what you're saying, man, thank you very much. Yeah, you know,
I think you know, for me, it's I think it's
it's it's no fun to follow sports and not have
an emotional investment, like I cannot imagine. I from day

(01:19:30):
one we've done this show has been from the standpoint
of a fan, because I cannot imagine following sports and
not caring about who wins and who loses. It doesn't
make any sense to it. I can't relate to that.
But I think you can take logic and reason, like
in twenty twenty two, we knew that team was gonna stink,
and so you might not have liked it, and you

(01:19:52):
might have hoped you were wrong about it. But I
think it was easy to look at that team and go,
this team's not going to be very good, and thus
I not going to jump in as far emotionally as
I would with other teams. This team looks like it
has a chance to be better. How much better we'll
find out, but better. Tommy G from Honduras on FC
Cincinnati next.

Speaker 1 (01:20:13):
Now your chance to win one thousand dollars. Enter this
nationwide keyword on our website. Credit that's credit. Enter it
now here you go.

Speaker 3 (01:20:22):
Five O five, ESPN fifteen to thirty. M Oeger thank
you for joining us. We are done in twenty five minutes.
UK hoops at five thirty. The Wildcats hosting Vanderbilt tip
off at seven o'clock tonight on Fox Sports thirteen sixty.

Speaker 2 (01:20:40):
FC Cincinnati plays.

Speaker 3 (01:20:42):
It's a first game that counts, and it's twenty twenty
five slate in the CONCACAV Champions Cup against Matagua.

Speaker 2 (01:20:50):
The game is in Honduras.

Speaker 3 (01:20:52):
You'll hear it with pregame coverage right around nine to
thirty on Fox Sports thirteen sixty.

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
The Voice of the Orange and in his tenth season as.

Speaker 3 (01:21:02):
The voice of FC Cincinnati on the call tonight, Tom
Galer's with us.

Speaker 2 (01:21:05):
How are you, sir, No, I'm great.

Speaker 10 (01:21:08):
I'm excited.

Speaker 14 (01:21:09):
We're gonna fire it up season number ten. Like you said,
can't wait to get it started here in a few hours.
Champions Cup once again, I mean, some new faces for
FC Cincinnati. I'm sure we'll talk about here momentarily, but
I'm excited, man, I'm really thrilled to get this season started.
And see what Pat Noonan's men, you know, have tonight

(01:21:30):
against this metogra side.

Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
Yeah, there are a lot of moving parts here throughout
the course of the preseason. How would you describe the
way the last couple of weeks.

Speaker 10 (01:21:37):
Have unfolded chaotic? Probably.

Speaker 14 (01:21:41):
I think if you watched the press conference yesterday with
Chris Albright and Pat noon In, there was probably a
little bit of relief that we got to this point
where the dominoes have fallen into place and Evander is
here in the move with Lucco to Dallas. But I
mean it was chaotic, I think the the entire stretch

(01:22:02):
from the match where they lost in Game three to
New York City at Tquel Stadium until last week when
when some of these moves were finalized and everything came
to fruition on Monday with the Evander signing, And you know,
we were kind of in shock when FC seen saning
loses to New York City, right, and you're sitting there
and Kevin and I sign off the air that night,
and I mean, you've been there with teams where you

(01:22:23):
sign off that last night, and you kind of sit
there for a little bit and in shock that it's over,
whether that's the NCAA.

Speaker 10 (01:22:28):
Tournament or a bowl game, or you know, whatever it
might be.

Speaker 14 (01:22:31):
And I'm walking downstairs, I'm looking at my phone and
I'm starting to see all of the social media posts
about Lucco's comments, and you know, I'm gonna ask Pat tonight.
You know, you would think year number four for any
head coaching any sport, having made the playoffs three consecutive years,
year four preseason should be pretty smooth, right, your signings

(01:22:51):
in place, You're a proven winner, And honestly, for my money,
this was probably his most frustrating preseason with the late
departures and everything else. But you know, it starts back
in November with Lucco's public comments and saying that he
felt like his time had come to a close here
in Cincinnati, and then you know how it all played
out until now. But I think that actually Cincinnati got better,

(01:23:14):
and they immediately got better with Kevin Denk signing, and
then you know, obviously with a Vander coming in, a
player who was a finalist for MVP last year. So
I think there's a lot to be excited about despite
the chaos of the past few weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:23:28):
So you know how most of us are going to
do this. We're going to instantly compare Luco Acosta to
a Vander. Compare the two for me from somebody who
knows a lot more about this than I do.

Speaker 10 (01:23:38):
Well.

Speaker 14 (01:23:38):
A couple of years younger is a Vander. Couple winches
taller is a Vander if that's helpful in some ways.
But this is a guy fifteen goals, nineteen assists last
year led the league in assists. Like I said, the
finalist top three for MVP was really really consistent with Portland.
I think he's going to be a player that's involved
in every face hit of the attack.

Speaker 10 (01:23:59):
I can't wait to see him playing a match.

Speaker 14 (01:24:01):
He's sloting well to the system of what Pat Nowonon
is trying to accomplish in the attack. He's He's deadly
both on his service and on shots from distance. If
you watch some of his highlights of those fifteen goals
from last year, many were outside of the eighteen and
he could pick out a spot.

Speaker 10 (01:24:18):
Look.

Speaker 14 (01:24:18):
Luco could do the same, and there were many nights
in the last four years where Luco was spectacular where
you guys would play the highlights on on air the
next day, where he would just make your jaw drop.
But a Vanders is going to do that as well,
and I think people should be really excited to see
this Brazilian. You know, wearing the FC Cincinnati kid to

(01:24:38):
come in and potentially have another MVP caliber season, and
if he does, then that's gonna set up f C
Cincinnati for a whole lot of success.

Speaker 3 (01:24:47):
I asked her this a couple of times in the
middle part of the season last year, where it felt
to me like they were asking Luco at times to
do too much right where it was you know what,
Luco's gonna do something cool and we're gonna be okay.
And by the way, that often did work because he
is he is such a great player. How do they
balance getting the most out of Evander without maybe putting

(01:25:09):
that type of burden on him.

Speaker 14 (01:25:11):
Well, I think that's the addition of Kevin Denke, right,
And that was Lucco's frustration when he kind of voiced
his concerns after that loss to New York City in
the playoffs that he didn't feel like there was a
you know, a striker that helped him up there. Obviously,
the Aaron Bupenza situation played out last year and didn't
play out in a way that was positive for SC Cincinnati.

Speaker 10 (01:25:31):
And getting goals.

Speaker 14 (01:25:32):
And then there was other reported strikers they tried to
bring in during the summer window that didn't work out.

Speaker 10 (01:25:38):
And they never really had that reliable striker.

Speaker 14 (01:25:41):
The hope is that they found that player in Kevin Denke,
a young twenty four year old native of Togo, a
proven goal scorer and a guy that they're hoping will
come in. And you know, they haven't publicly put a
target on it. But if I'm going to publicly put
a target out, and I think that's my job, twenty
goals should be the target for him. And if he's
giving you those kinds numbers in the Vanders, performing like
he did last year, well that's going to create more

(01:26:03):
chances for a Vander because he's gonna get attention. You know,
Kevin's gonna get attention, so people then will open up
a Vander. If you're giving a Vander too much attention,
that's going to give Kevin Dank a lot of space.

Speaker 10 (01:26:13):
And he's just deadly, you know.

Speaker 14 (01:26:14):
I unfortunately haven't seen him train a whole lot because
they were down in Florida, but man, the clips I've
seen of him, what I did see of him when
he was training in Cincinnati, so much skill on Kevin
Dank that I'm you know, really excited to see these two,
and Chris pointed out in the press conference yesterday, like

(01:26:35):
there aren't many general managers in Major League Soccer who
have an ownership group who will empower them with twenty
eight million dollars to improve your attack. Like I mean,
there are many people period who are just handing out
twenty eight million dollars. And you know, Carl Lindner and
his ownership group empowered Chris Albright with with twenty eight

(01:26:56):
million dollars to get Kevin dank and a Vander Like
that remarkable. They're gms who would dream of that over
five years to be able to spend you know, you
sell Luco for what was a report of five million
dollars with potential for some more based on how he plays,
and they said, okay, go out spend more to get
his replacement. Like that's that's just remarkable. There's probably five

(01:27:16):
teams in the league that would empower a GM to
have that kind of offseason. So those two guys, I'm
hoping they're electric. They should be electric. There's a lot
of positivity around them, and you could hear it with
Chris and Pat talking yesterday about how excited they are
to have him as part of this club.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
FC Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (01:27:34):
Tonight, Fox Sports thirteen sixty pregame at nine thirty taking
on Matagua in the CONCA CAF Champions Cup. Well, we'll
talk about the MLS season here in a second handicap
their chances in this competition that starts tonight.

Speaker 14 (01:27:46):
Yeah, it's interesting, you know, this Matagua team, I think
on paper FC Cincinnati should should defeat in this round
right and move on and get an opportunity to go
back to Mexico and get in a round of sixteen
and get further the they did last year. They I
think on their side of the bracket, they got a
really tough draw. It's not gonna be easy, but you
kind of know that in this competition now, by no

(01:28:07):
means can we just expect them to show up and
win tonight in Honduras, Right, Wild things happen in cop
calf There are upsets. Matagua has had a little bit
of a Cinderella run one year, so they you know,
not not these guys per se, but they know what
it's about and getting the opportunity to upset an MLS team.
Now they're gonna have to come here next week and

(01:28:29):
play you know, late February soccer in the Queen City,
you know, and and it's gonna be a little bit
different conditions than they're used to in Honduras weatherwise.

Speaker 2 (01:28:38):
But look, I.

Speaker 14 (01:28:39):
Think they're the underdog in that is is Matagua, but
etally Cincinnati if they can get through. And I think
the biggest question that everyone's gonna be asking this team
is how are they gonna come together because some of
the pieces, you know, Lucas Engo came in late because
when his visa got cleared and joined the team. Hilberto Flores,
same type of thing, visa getting cleared, joined the team,
getting into the mix, Luca Orshono coming in late, Kubo

(01:29:02):
coming in late, obviously a vander just signed and coming
into the team. That they got to get some chemistry together.
But if this chemistry comes together quickly and the back
line can hold it together while they wait for Matt
Miasga to come back because it was revealed he's still
a couple of weeks away, so we won't see him
here in this first stretch of games, then I think
this team could be set up, you know, for quite

(01:29:22):
a bit of success in this tournament.

Speaker 10 (01:29:24):
And there's no question.

Speaker 14 (01:29:25):
Pat Newton wants to win trophies, including this COCKYCAFF Champions
Cup that has a big reward for them. So I
think that that you're going to see a very strong
team tonight, but throughout the tournament, andF she Cincinnati very
much going for it. But I think too they did
get a tough draw beyond the Tagua if they do
advance the.

Speaker 3 (01:29:42):
The MLS regular season, which obviously starts on Saturday, a
home game against the reigning Eastern Conference champion New York
Red Bulls. Last year, and I would ask you about this,
it felt like a three team race at the top
of the East, right, Miami, Columbus and Cincinnati, And then
the playoffs start and none of the those teams even
get to the conference semifinals. What does that tell us

(01:30:03):
about how much more wide open the East might be
during the regular season this year?

Speaker 10 (01:30:07):
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, Mo.

Speaker 14 (01:30:10):
And and that's what I've talked to folks about really
all week, is that they're they're look, Miami, I guess
on paper will be the favorite I think I put
out on my ex.

Speaker 10 (01:30:19):
Account, you know, I tweeted, are we still allowed to
say that? Do you still tweet, yeah, I tweet Yes, Yeah,
me too.

Speaker 14 (01:30:25):
Okay, just want to make sure, you know, I put
it out there like what some of the MLS experts predicted,
and they all kind of had FC cents any in
that one, two three range somewhere in there.

Speaker 10 (01:30:35):
I'm I'm interested to see New York ribbles.

Speaker 12 (01:30:38):
Right.

Speaker 14 (01:30:38):
They were in that bottom half of these Aren Conference
playoff teams last year and made that great run to
go take on the LA Galaxy and m Moss Cup Final.
You know, will they pick up that momentum? They had
quite a bit of turnover, and they have some new
players in and some regulars who are no longer part
of that team. Will they be strong? What's New York
City going to look like? You know, Miami's gonna be good.
Columbus lost to really really important pieces. Kuco is gone,

(01:31:02):
Christian Ramirez is gone and when and they haven't brought
anybody in yet, and I think their fan base is
a little bit frustrated that there hasn't been They haven't
seen the replacements and the spend like FC Cincinnati has,
you know, to bring in in guys in the attack.
So I'm interested to see, you know, but the season's
not gonna be made in March and April as well,
So Columbus is gonna be lingering right there. I don't

(01:31:23):
think there's any question. Philadelphia has a new coach. They
of course missed the playoffs last year. You know what
will they look like? Can they get back to their
playoff form? So I think you're right. I think that
the Eastern Conference there's gonna be a lot more teams
in the mix for those playoff slots than people expect.
And look, I think Fccintinnaty should very much be in

(01:31:43):
contention to win the Eastern Conference in the regular season,
especially if they can get this thing rolling with these
new pieces awesome stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:31:50):
As always, have a great call tonight. You're always so
kind enough to join us, and it's just getting started.
We'll reach out soon. Thanks so much, ma'am.

Speaker 10 (01:31:57):
Yeah, no doubt everybody in Queens.

Speaker 14 (01:31:58):
Staddy blowed up on coffee, right, Americanos whatever you like,
load up on your coffee. It's a late kick tonight.
You got to be up with us to midnight. But
Kevin and I year number ten together, let's fire it
up here shortly.

Speaker 3 (01:32:11):
Congratulations on that. That's a pretty cool milestone and we'll
talk soon, man, Thanks so much. All right, all best
know Tom glad Our, voice of FC Cincinnati. The Orange
and Blue taking on Matagua in Honduras. Pregame after UC
Women's basketball tonight on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. They're scheduled
to go in the air at nine thirty in the
game starts at ten pm. Of course, the Orange and

(01:32:33):
Blue home on Saturday for a tilt against the defending
Eastern Conference champion New York Red Bulls on Saturday night,
first game of the MLS regular season. That'll also be
heard on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. And we had Pat
Noonan on the show yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:32:47):
He joined us.

Speaker 3 (01:32:48):
And if you miss that, you can go listen to
that conversation on the iHeart Radio app. It is seventeen
minutes after five o'clock. We're done in thirteen minutes than
you and I between now and then. On ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (01:33:03):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:33:09):
From the UC Health Traffic Center at UCE Health, you'll
find comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your best
tomorrow possible. That's foundless care for better outcomes. Expect more
at UCHealth dot com. So I found seventy five before
Mitchell Avenue the right lane blocked from an accident. Looking
at a five minute delay there from Town Street on

(01:33:29):
Martin Luther King Drive. It's an accident east of Central
Parkway and Don McKelvin Avenue. Another accident at Clifton Avenue.
I'm at Ezelek with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:33:39):
This report is.

Speaker 3 (01:33:41):
Twenty two after five ESPN fifteen thirty UK hoops coming
up in seven minutes. You see tonight on seven hundred WLW.
It wasn't the greatest college basketball night last night. I
think what stood out to most was BYU's total deconstruction
of Kansas. That is a different Cougars team on their
home floor, and I have felt like for most of

(01:34:05):
the season, kansas reputation and name supersedes how good they
actually are, even in Hunter Dickinson's ninth year of college basketball.
The game that I think most people have talked about
today occurred late last night. Ucla, with Mick Cronin looking
for his five hundredth career victory, looked like they were
in complete control at home against a very pedestrian Minnesota team.

(01:34:27):
They were up by eight with eight and a half
to go, and then the Bruins melted down. They lose
at home, sixty four to sixty one, and the main
culprit was free throw shooting. Mick Cronin's team goes nine
for nineteen from the free throw line and they lose
a game they had no business losing after playing quite
well for the last couple of weeks. Mis postgame press

(01:34:48):
conferences are always interesting and have been since he was here.
This year, they've kind of taken on a life of
their own, and he's played the hits. He's talked about
his team being soft, and he's talked about officiating. He's
you know, had the requisite complaints about the Big Ten schedule.
Among the things he harped on last night were fans

(01:35:08):
at Paulie Pavilion reacting to his team's bad free throw shooting.

Speaker 2 (01:35:13):
Worried about again.

Speaker 15 (01:35:14):
I'm gonna say this again, because all we're worried about
is our shooting instead of playing defense. And it's yeah,
I've been doing this a long time. I know when
my team's mind is on the wrong stuff, our crowd's
mind is on the wrong stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:35:28):
Our crowd makes they make it worse.

Speaker 15 (01:35:30):
When a guy misses a free throw, you, I mean
distress and Paulie's crazy When a guy, I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:35:36):
The guy's not trying, how about help the guy?

Speaker 15 (01:35:38):
How about you here for the guy? I mean, there
is so not like he's trying to miss the free throw.
That just makes it worse. Everybody's worried about the wrong stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:35:48):
Look, I root for McK cronin. I genuinely do like him.
Good to me when he was here. I genuinely root.
I have a pair of UCLA shorts because Mick as
the coach. But that's rich. Now, Like, have you watched
Mick crone on the sideline when his guys are screwing up?

Speaker 2 (01:36:08):
Is he cheering for them?

Speaker 3 (01:36:14):
I wonder how that act is going to play in
Bloomington next year. Mike, we got like three minutes you're
on ESPN fifteen thirty go ahead.

Speaker 16 (01:36:23):
Well that wasn't funny.

Speaker 9 (01:36:24):
What the hell was funny about that?

Speaker 3 (01:36:26):
Mick cronin blaming his fans for being exasperated with his
team's free throw shooting.

Speaker 9 (01:36:31):
Yeah, I love it. Two Today they need a dose
of Ohio and Kentucky and Indiana, so wake them up.

Speaker 3 (01:36:39):
Well, I watched that game last night and like you
could hear the grum I mean and understandably. So there's
nothing worse when you're a fan and your team in
a close game can't make free throws. What are just
posted cheer like that? There's a there's a human response
to that, And I heard that from the folks at
poly Pavilion last night.

Speaker 9 (01:37:00):
Yeah, so it was something at least they reacted with someone.
Hey quickly, you mentioned give me age earlier. College basketball.
My favorite is UCLA because the color scheme is incredibly gorgeous.

Speaker 3 (01:37:12):
Yes, they my two favorite uniforms in college basketball, and
there are going to be a lot of folks listening
to this.

Speaker 2 (01:37:19):
Who don't like to hear this. Number one.

Speaker 3 (01:37:22):
UCLA's home and road uniforms now when they go black,
I don't like those, but the home and road uniforms
to me, are the absolute best. And when Xavier breaks
out the dribbling Musketeer uniform, those are awesome. Their other
uniforms are fine, but the old school Xavier uniform with
the dribbling Musketeer, whether it's white or blue, those with

(01:37:44):
UCLA are my absolute favorites.

Speaker 9 (01:37:47):
I'm wicked and Milwaukee you put that down in your
favorite Milwaukee to fund out. When I went on bloot
Camp Lead, there was a there was a bar there.

Speaker 16 (01:37:56):
This was in nineteen seventy called the Safe House, and
you'd walk into this little antel room and there was
a phone boost and you had to have the phone number,
and then the back panel would pop out and you
could get into this rock and roll bar. So cool.

Speaker 3 (01:38:12):
Milwaukee is a Milwaukee's a fun town, and I have
been to a lot of when UC was in the
Big East, and then Conference USA, a lot of UC
versus Marquette games, and then my buddies and I go
see the Reds on the road every year. One of
our friends is from Milwaukee, and so we typically will
have gone a bunch of times up there to go
see the Reds play.

Speaker 2 (01:38:32):
Milwaukee's a fun town. The ballpark they play in is cool.

Speaker 3 (01:38:37):
Obviously, it's got a roof if they need it, which
I'm fine with because you know they're gonna play. My
second favorite steakhouse in the United States of America is
in Milwaukee, and so I love I like going up there.

Speaker 9 (01:38:52):
That's pretty impressive. Last thing I wanted to leave you
two days I was kidding Tony about this earlier. You know,
you don't call it, Harry Francona Tito unless you're a
buddy of this, otherwise you like it slapped. The only
person that calls is Tito is his wife in the bedroom. Okay,
that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:39:10):
I think everybody calls him Tito.

Speaker 9 (01:39:12):
Mike, Yeah, I know, I'm gonna trying to have one.

Speaker 17 (01:39:16):
And the last thing is MLB came out with the
nine most improved teams for twenty twenty five through their
farm system, and guess who was number one?

Speaker 9 (01:39:30):
Red Unfortunately Cleveland.

Speaker 2 (01:39:32):
Really all right, well I'll have to go find that.

Speaker 3 (01:39:37):
I'm looking at it right now. I'm looking at it.
They got the Reds seventh. All right, Well I'll give
that a reading, Mike, I got a run man.

Speaker 9 (01:39:46):
Thank you, Thank you pal.

Speaker 3 (01:39:48):
Tomorrow on the show, Tommy Thrall joins us from Goodyear
at three twenty, Chad Brendle on the Bearcats at three
forty five, and so much more. Have an awesome night,
Thank you for listening, Thanks to and planned for producing.
UK basketball is next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,

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2/19/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

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