March 3, 2025 • 19 mins
Bracketologist Mike Decourcy talks Xavier and UC's NCAA Tournament Chances
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
All right, let's get this thing rolling right along as
we go out to our good friend the Hall of
Famer from the Sporting News and the Big Ten Network
and Fox and pretty much anybody else that wants quality
college basketball content, they have Mike de Courci on staff.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
How you doing, Mike, Chad, how are you? I'm good.
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I would have been a little better maybe if things
would have gone a little differently in Houston on Saturday.
But such as life against Covin Sampson's machine that he
has operating down there.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's unbelievable how good they are.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
And I was thinking about this yesterday, and I hope
you'll indulge this go ahead. I was thinking about how
in the last days of and I know some people
aren't going to hit like hearing this, but the last
days of NCK Cronin at Cincinnati, they were the better
program than Houston was, and Cincinnati had the opportunity at
(01:00):
that point to lock him up for a decade, and
the athletic director at the time decided that was imprudent.
That athletic director, maybe not the best ad in the
history of college sports, certainly did not make a wise decision.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
There no, he didn't make many wise decisions behind the scenes.
Doesn't sound like over time. But I digress before we
get into UC and Xavier, because those are obviously the
major relevant topics. How in the world does the committee
handle the SEC this year? Because the eye test says
(01:37):
they should have probably a record number of teams.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
The metrics tend to agree.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
But boy, putting six win conference teams in has got
to be a challenge to figure out how to navigate that.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, see, I don't. First of all, the conference record
is not on the board. I know when you're in
the room, it's not there, and I know that people
are aware of it. But it's six wins in this
SEC is is a remarkable number. This SEC is the
strongest conference relative to its season. I mean, this is
(02:12):
not the eighty five Big East with Pinckney and Mullin
and Ewing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that,
but relative to its season, there has never been a
league that dominated. It's it that that dominated its season
like this SEC is. And when I say never, I'm talking,
I'm gonna I'm gonna use the the expanded bracket area
(02:35):
era back to eighty five as my uh as as
a time frame, because that's when that's about when I
began covering. It's it's when the tournament got right. And
so it's a pretty good convenient window for us to
look at that. And there's never been a league that
has done what this league did in that time frame.
(02:57):
And so you win six games in this league, you
have accomplished something, and I think that that has to
be considered. And look, look Arkansas. Off the top of
my head, I think they have six wins, but I
mean in non conference Arkansas did significant things. It's not
like it's not like they just went out and won
(03:20):
six games against this tough SEC and did nothing else.
I mean, they played out of conference and they beat Michigan.
That's a pretty good win. A lot of people would
love to have that win. And then in the league
they've beaten a lot of quality opponents. Now it went
out and lost to South Carolina on Sunday, excuse me,
on Saturday, and they have to play at Vanderbilt tomorrow,
(03:43):
and then they've closed with Mississippi State. Having blown that
South Carolina opportunity and the fashion that they did, there's
a lot of pressure on them to at least split
these games and maybe get them both. So you're not
guaranteed to get in by any means, but what you
have accomplished in the SEC, and what your metrics say
(04:05):
and all of that, it all factors in. But the
only people that are having trouble with the concept of
an six win SEC team team getting in are people
from other leagues that want to be in that maybe
aren't having as good a year.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Also, the SEC went fourteen and two against the ACC,
which is just a glorified A ten right now.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I mean, they didn't just go I know, I know,
but I had to get my shot in.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
No no, no, no, no no, because my shot is
better like it was. I don't have the exact numbers now,
but at one point I think they were thirty nine
to three. Yeah they were, I mean, and you know,
one of one of the things that you can point
out is that against the like Louisville's like second in
the ACC now tied for second and having a wonderful year,
(04:55):
and they went zero to four against the SEC. Right
Clemson went to South Carolina, the worst team in the
SEC by far, and lost on their on South Carolina's floor,
and Clemson again tie for second in the in the ACC.
So you've got Michigan, which lost games to multiple teams
Oklahoma and Arkansas. That's Michigan's second in the Big Ten
(05:19):
and they lost to teams that are fighting to get
in with those six SEC wins.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
You talked about.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Agreed, let's get to UC and Xavier. We'll start with
Xavier since they were victorious by a convincing margin against
Creighton at home on Saturday. Their metrics didn't move a
whole lot, but that was the one left on their
schedule that that said this game could give Xavier a boost.
(05:47):
How much bump do they get from beating that Creighton
team convincingly like they did in a raucous Centas Center.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
It helps.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
If you look at their metrics, there's one outlier on
them that I'm not sure that I quite understand. Their
result metrics strength the record from ESPN forty three wins
above bubble forty eight. And then their KPI number is
sixty one, and that's the only number of the six
total numbers that are on the team sheets that aren't
(06:19):
that in that basically ten to eleven number that you
would if you if you divide it out, they averaged
out to about a forty four. You divide that by four,
they're about an eleven. But it's hard to put a
one to nine team against Quadrant one as a as
an eleven seed, it's hard to put a seven and
ten team in there. It would be helpful for them
(06:42):
if they closed up their Quad one Quad two combined
record to closer to five hundred. Doesn't have to be
five hundred, but closer would be better. And that one
and nine. I'm gonna have to go back and look,
I have not done this yet. I'd need to do
it anyway because Carolina is basically in the same position.
But I don't know that there have been teams that
(07:04):
have gotten in at that. It's, you know, other than
teams that win the automatic bit. So if Xavier goes
to New York and wins a couple of Quad one games,
it changes their math in every direction by a significant margin. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I think the most recent team to get in with
only one Quad one win was Houston in twenty twenty two,
but they had an eleven and five Quad one to
two record. They dominated Quad two. They only had one
Quad one win, and Xavier doesn't necessarily have that.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
But have to be impressed.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Not for me, the most impressive thing that Sean Miller
has done with the Xavier team is took a team
that we thought was going to be a turnstyle on
defense to start the season and were a turnstyle on
defense at times to start the season and turn them
into a pretty good defensive team. I think that is
why they are, you know, still with a fairly strong
(08:04):
pulse as we go into the last week of the
regular season.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah, I mean, I think at times they have played
really well. I mean they've gotten the defensive rating all
the way up. Yeah, forty first in Ken Palm. That's
their efficiency number. And I think that of all the
teams that are out there, the team that's better than
its record, to me most the team that's most better
(08:29):
than its record is Xavior. I watched them play and
they're in games all the time. I remember that that
Saint John's game that went to overtime. I have never
seen three more blatantly blown calls that were blown against
them than I saw that night, and I thought, how
could this be happening? And then I saw Roger Ayers
(08:50):
was on the game, and I'm like, how does that happen?
With him? There, and I don't think he made any
of those calls. But it's like like Roger Air should
have the power to say no, that's the word seen
doing it the other way. I mean, there was one
play in that game. I can't remember who the player was.
I think it was R. J. Lewis, but I'm not
sure who saved the ball back in bounds to Edgy
(09:11):
of four under the goal with his foot bisecting the baseline.
His foot was standing literally on the baseline and it went.
They did, and they called it and they let it
fly as and it became an easy bucket. And that
that was the worst. But then there were two that
were nearly as bad. And I feel bad for them
because if they win that game, one I think it
(09:33):
changes their season, and two they would give them another
significant win. And that's all they need is some significant.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Wins going on to the Bearcats. January was an unmitigated disaster.
February has been really good. I mean, they're five and three.
They played very well at Iowa State, but Iowa State
is very tough at home. They played well at Houston.
Houston is a monster at home. The crazy thing is
(10:03):
they played Houston closer at home at Houston than anybody
not named Texas Tech who beat them in overtime, but
same problem. Not a lot of meat on the bone
in Quad one. I think they've still got the second
most Quad two wins in the country, but it just
feels like it's probably not going to be enough for Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Probably. Yeah, I thought that. I thought that that West
Virginia game was a pivotal game for them. Agreed that
it gets you a second Quad one win, and it
certainly was a team that they were capable of beating
on that night without a doubt, and generally I think
they are They're as good as WVU is, But on
that night, I did not think West Virginia played great,
(10:46):
and they still didn't quite get at the final few minutes, just.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Let it slip away completely.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And if you look at their result metrics, they're not
anywhere near the field. They're probably two three lines away.
Predictives don't save them, and so it would. I'm not
going to say they can't go to Kansas City and
go on a run and maybe change the maths some,
but it's it's a lot more difficult for them to
do that one because if you're going to turn around
(11:14):
and bump into somebody like Iowa State or Houston, and
that's going to be hard. And then you also have
a more difficult mathematical challenge than Xavier does.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
At this point, Gisel James and Dade Thomas have kind
of been that the head of the snake of the
resurgence for this Cincinnati team is the way that they
play a foreseeable like path going forward. For West Miller,
if he were to bring the two of them back
to be essentially the head of the snake for the
(11:46):
Bearcats next year, oh absolutely.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I mean, because guys usually get better from year to year.
It's it's very.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Rare that that's a touchy subject right here.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Mike Skillings, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Well, it's very rare that players don't they get worse,
and it's it's not it's not that common that they stagnate.
Even usually players get better with more experience, and so
I think those having two guards that experience would really
help them. And so it would be great for that
to be the case. Now they're going to have to
(12:22):
have enough around them. It'd be nice to have Dylan
Mitchell back for another year. I think Ben Diego's out
of eligibility if I'm not.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Mistaken technically, yes, but we'll see. Well, there's there's there's
talk about any of the guys that had to sit
out for the double transfer rule that there might be
something that happens this offseason that allows them to get
a year back, but that hasn't happened yet, so we'll see.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah. So, but I think I think it's a good
place to start if you have those two guys and
and I you know, especially with as well as just
has played the last five or six weeks, you know,
I think that they he would be wonderful to have
back in a Bearcats uniform and then and then see
what you can build around him. Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Kentucky, it's been it's been a weird season for them,
just because the SEC is so good. They've had some
very high highs, some some tough lows if you're a
Kentucky fan. But is this a team that can they
don't defend all that well, they can put points on you.
Is this a team that can get to a second
(13:26):
weekend in the NCAA Tournament that weekend without Jackson Robinson?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Yeah, I think they can survive without him, who they
can't survive without or thrive without is Lamont Butler. Yeah,
I love Jackson Robinson, don't get me wrong, But they've
got other guys who can do more or less what
he does not as well, don't get me wrong, but
who can fill those minutes with productive basketball. You have
(13:52):
other guys who can do that there, but they don't
have any other Lamont Butler's, especially since Kerkkriesa still has
not returned, and they've had like they had to, for
lack of a better term, fake it at point guard
for Lamont's entire absence. I mean, you're playing basically Amari
Williams as a point guard. He's a six to eleventh center.
I mean they and it worked against Tennessee, but then
(14:13):
once other teams saw it, it was harder to make
it work. So that so Lamont has to be himself,
and he was more, you know he was. He was
not great in his first game back. He filed out.
He did some good things, but he filed out. The
Auburn game. He was better. Now Auburn was so far
ahead of them, and there's it's such a tough opponent.
(14:35):
I think that this is a big week for Lamont
to get to start to get back in the rhythm
and for them to get back in the rhythm of
having him. They've still got difficult games, but he, to
me is their most important player. And when you talked
about the highs and the lows and all that, I mean,
there's there's no team that's in the upper half of
any projected bracket that's been banged up as much as
(14:57):
his team has. I mean, you lose a player like Crisa.
I don't know whether he's there's any chance he comes back,
but effectively they've lost him for the year because he
hasn't been playing since the ninth game. Then you lose
Jackson Robinson, and then you lose Butler for eight games.
Uh Car missed the game, Garrison missed the game. There's
there's nobody that's been as has banged up that that
(15:19):
that that's at the top of the field as these
guys have been.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
What do you make of the statements sent out by
Bill self yesterday for those that don't know, essentially apologizing
to Kansas fans for their performance of.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Late Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
I don't know why he comes compelled to do that
me either. He's Bill self, He doesn't know anybody in apology.
I gave you seventeen conference titles in a row. Uh,
we're having a rough time. We'll be better next year,
and you don't have to say anything. He's won two
NCA titles, and they won all those conferences and have dominated.
(16:00):
He doesn't know anybody in apology. I don't know why
he did. I do think it was probably worthwhile for
him to give Goodman the statement about him not thinking
about retirement, because there is you know, there has been
a trend for coaches his age or ballpark his age
to just say it's you know, for the most part,
(16:21):
what they're really saying is I went from having and
ridiculously consuming seventy hour a week job out of season,
one hundred hour a week job in season, to a
ridiculously consuming one hundred hour a week year round job,
and I don't want to do that anymore. I got
too much money. That's what they're really saying. You can
(16:41):
make it about, oh, this is what I signed up
for whatever like, but no one. Thing I haven't seen
from anybody who said that this isn't what they signed
up for is for any of them to go do
what they signed up for, right.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
You could do that a degree.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
If that's what you signed up for. You could still
coach that, but none of them have done it. So
what they're really saying is I got a ton of money.
This job is way too consuming and it's not worth
that many years of my health, and I get it.
That would be me.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Oh yeah, if I had that much money, you'd never
hear from me again. Mike.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Yes, but that's not Bill. That's not iszz Oh, that's
not cal That's not what they want to do. Okay,
I can honor that too, but it's never been about
this is not what I signed up for.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That's pr you'd find me at a teaky hut in
Costa Rica if you were looking for it.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
I'd be the only place you could find me. Real quick.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Before I let you go, I'm giving you Duke Auburn,
Houston or the Field.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Here you go.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Wow, here's why you're the most generous radio host of all, Chad,
because this is the third time I've been asked a
variation of this question.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
And I gave you Houston too, and you.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Gave me Houston too, So I already said you give
me Cooper flag Ange and I broom and I'm all in.
But now you're giving me L J. Cryer too, So
I'm certainly taking that side.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
And the guy that you covered when you first got
into covering college basketball and Jawan Roberts very good.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
That was that was a very good variation on that
old guy joke.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Absolutely on the Ellis who the kid that played for
Carry Perry Ellis.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yeah, I trying to remember his name, Mary.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I'm pretty sure Perry Ellis is Jawan Roberts dad.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
So that Harry Ellis is that he played four years?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Four years?
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Yeah, ches, but he just looked a little older than everybody.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
And he was really good forever, so like you just
felt like he was there forever. People said that about
Gary Clark, They're like, Gary Clark has been in Cincinnati
for one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
It felt like it until he was gone.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
And Cincinnati for one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Please come back is really good. Thanks, Mike, appreciate.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
It, all right, you bet, Chad, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
There you go. The Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Mike Decorsi from the Sporting News and Big Ten Network,
in Fox and all the other places that you can
find Mike. You can find him at tsn MIC on Twitter.
Let's take a break. I'm gonna check on Terran and
see if he's awake since Attie's ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
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Speaker 2 (19:50):
This report is sponsored by
All right, let's get this thing rolling right along as
we go out to our good friend the Hall of
Famer from the Sporting News and the Big Ten Network
and Fox and pretty much anybody else that wants quality
college basketball content, they have Mike de Courci on staff.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
How you doing, Mike, Chad, how are you? I'm good.
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I would have been a little better maybe if things
would have gone a little differently in Houston on Saturday.
But such as life against Covin Sampson's machine that he
has operating down there.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's unbelievable how good they are.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
And I was thinking about this yesterday, and I hope
you'll indulge this go ahead. I was thinking about how
in the last days of and I know some people
aren't going to hit like hearing this, but the last
days of NCK Cronin at Cincinnati, they were the better
program than Houston was, and Cincinnati had the opportunity at
(01:00):
that point to lock him up for a decade, and
the athletic director at the time decided that was imprudent.
That athletic director, maybe not the best ad in the
history of college sports, certainly did not make a wise decision.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
There no, he didn't make many wise decisions behind the scenes.
Doesn't sound like over time. But I digress before we
get into UC and Xavier, because those are obviously the
major relevant topics. How in the world does the committee
handle the SEC this year? Because the eye test says
(01:37):
they should have probably a record number of teams.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
The metrics tend to agree.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
But boy, putting six win conference teams in has got
to be a challenge to figure out how to navigate that.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, see, I don't. First of all, the conference record
is not on the board. I know when you're in
the room, it's not there, and I know that people
are aware of it. But it's six wins in this
SEC is is a remarkable number. This SEC is the
strongest conference relative to its season. I mean, this is
(02:12):
not the eighty five Big East with Pinckney and Mullin
and Ewing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that,
but relative to its season, there has never been a
league that dominated. It's it that that dominated its season
like this SEC is. And when I say never, I'm talking,
I'm gonna I'm gonna use the the expanded bracket area
(02:35):
era back to eighty five as my uh as as
a time frame, because that's when that's about when I
began covering. It's it's when the tournament got right. And
so it's a pretty good convenient window for us to
look at that. And there's never been a league that
has done what this league did in that time frame.
(02:57):
And so you win six games in this league, you
have accomplished something, and I think that that has to
be considered. And look, look Arkansas. Off the top of
my head, I think they have six wins, but I
mean in non conference Arkansas did significant things. It's not
like it's not like they just went out and won
(03:20):
six games against this tough SEC and did nothing else.
I mean, they played out of conference and they beat Michigan.
That's a pretty good win. A lot of people would
love to have that win. And then in the league
they've beaten a lot of quality opponents. Now it went
out and lost to South Carolina on Sunday, excuse me,
on Saturday, and they have to play at Vanderbilt tomorrow,
(03:43):
and then they've closed with Mississippi State. Having blown that
South Carolina opportunity and the fashion that they did, there's
a lot of pressure on them to at least split
these games and maybe get them both. So you're not
guaranteed to get in by any means, but what you
have accomplished in the SEC, and what your metrics say
(04:05):
and all of that, it all factors in. But the
only people that are having trouble with the concept of
an six win SEC team team getting in are people
from other leagues that want to be in that maybe
aren't having as good a year.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Also, the SEC went fourteen and two against the ACC,
which is just a glorified A ten right now.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I mean, they didn't just go I know, I know,
but I had to get my shot in.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
No no, no, no, no no, because my shot is
better like it was. I don't have the exact numbers now,
but at one point I think they were thirty nine
to three. Yeah they were, I mean, and you know,
one of one of the things that you can point
out is that against the like Louisville's like second in
the ACC now tied for second and having a wonderful year,
(04:55):
and they went zero to four against the SEC. Right
Clemson went to South Carolina, the worst team in the
SEC by far, and lost on their on South Carolina's floor,
and Clemson again tie for second in the in the ACC.
So you've got Michigan, which lost games to multiple teams
Oklahoma and Arkansas. That's Michigan's second in the Big Ten
(05:19):
and they lost to teams that are fighting to get
in with those six SEC wins.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
You talked about.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Agreed, let's get to UC and Xavier. We'll start with
Xavier since they were victorious by a convincing margin against
Creighton at home on Saturday. Their metrics didn't move a
whole lot, but that was the one left on their
schedule that that said this game could give Xavier a boost.
(05:47):
How much bump do they get from beating that Creighton
team convincingly like they did in a raucous Centas Center.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
It helps.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
If you look at their metrics, there's one outlier on
them that I'm not sure that I quite understand. Their
result metrics strength the record from ESPN forty three wins
above bubble forty eight. And then their KPI number is
sixty one, and that's the only number of the six
total numbers that are on the team sheets that aren't
(06:19):
that in that basically ten to eleven number that you
would if you if you divide it out, they averaged
out to about a forty four. You divide that by four,
they're about an eleven. But it's hard to put a
one to nine team against Quadrant one as a as
an eleven seed, it's hard to put a seven and
ten team in there. It would be helpful for them
(06:42):
if they closed up their Quad one Quad two combined
record to closer to five hundred. Doesn't have to be
five hundred, but closer would be better. And that one
and nine. I'm gonna have to go back and look,
I have not done this yet. I'd need to do
it anyway because Carolina is basically in the same position.
But I don't know that there have been teams that
(07:04):
have gotten in at that. It's, you know, other than
teams that win the automatic bit. So if Xavier goes
to New York and wins a couple of Quad one games,
it changes their math in every direction by a significant margin. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I think the most recent team to get in with
only one Quad one win was Houston in twenty twenty two,
but they had an eleven and five Quad one to
two record. They dominated Quad two. They only had one
Quad one win, and Xavier doesn't necessarily have that.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
But have to be impressed.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Not for me, the most impressive thing that Sean Miller
has done with the Xavier team is took a team
that we thought was going to be a turnstyle on
defense to start the season and were a turnstyle on
defense at times to start the season and turn them
into a pretty good defensive team. I think that is
why they are, you know, still with a fairly strong
(08:04):
pulse as we go into the last week of the
regular season.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah, I mean, I think at times they have played
really well. I mean they've gotten the defensive rating all
the way up. Yeah, forty first in Ken Palm. That's
their efficiency number. And I think that of all the
teams that are out there, the team that's better than
its record, to me most the team that's most better
(08:29):
than its record is Xavior. I watched them play and
they're in games all the time. I remember that that
Saint John's game that went to overtime. I have never
seen three more blatantly blown calls that were blown against
them than I saw that night, and I thought, how
could this be happening? And then I saw Roger Ayers
(08:50):
was on the game, and I'm like, how does that happen?
With him? There, and I don't think he made any
of those calls. But it's like like Roger Air should
have the power to say no, that's the word seen
doing it the other way. I mean, there was one
play in that game. I can't remember who the player was.
I think it was R. J. Lewis, but I'm not
sure who saved the ball back in bounds to Edgy
(09:11):
of four under the goal with his foot bisecting the baseline.
His foot was standing literally on the baseline and it went.
They did, and they called it and they let it
fly as and it became an easy bucket. And that
that was the worst. But then there were two that
were nearly as bad. And I feel bad for them
because if they win that game, one I think it
(09:33):
changes their season, and two they would give them another
significant win. And that's all they need is some significant.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Wins going on to the Bearcats. January was an unmitigated disaster.
February has been really good. I mean, they're five and three.
They played very well at Iowa State, but Iowa State
is very tough at home. They played well at Houston.
Houston is a monster at home. The crazy thing is
(10:03):
they played Houston closer at home at Houston than anybody
not named Texas Tech who beat them in overtime, but
same problem. Not a lot of meat on the bone
in Quad one. I think they've still got the second
most Quad two wins in the country, but it just
feels like it's probably not going to be enough for Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Probably. Yeah, I thought that. I thought that that West
Virginia game was a pivotal game for them. Agreed that
it gets you a second Quad one win, and it
certainly was a team that they were capable of beating
on that night without a doubt, and generally I think
they are They're as good as WVU is, But on
that night, I did not think West Virginia played great,
(10:46):
and they still didn't quite get at the final few minutes, just.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Let it slip away completely.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And if you look at their result metrics, they're not
anywhere near the field. They're probably two three lines away.
Predictives don't save them, and so it would. I'm not
going to say they can't go to Kansas City and
go on a run and maybe change the maths some,
but it's it's a lot more difficult for them to
do that one because if you're going to turn around
(11:14):
and bump into somebody like Iowa State or Houston, and
that's going to be hard. And then you also have
a more difficult mathematical challenge than Xavier does.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
At this point, Gisel James and Dade Thomas have kind
of been that the head of the snake of the
resurgence for this Cincinnati team is the way that they
play a foreseeable like path going forward. For West Miller,
if he were to bring the two of them back
to be essentially the head of the snake for the
(11:46):
Bearcats next year, oh absolutely.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I mean, because guys usually get better from year to year.
It's it's very.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Rare that that's a touchy subject right here.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Mike Skillings, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Well, it's very rare that players don't they get worse,
and it's it's not it's not that common that they stagnate.
Even usually players get better with more experience, and so
I think those having two guards that experience would really
help them. And so it would be great for that
to be the case. Now they're going to have to
(12:22):
have enough around them. It'd be nice to have Dylan
Mitchell back for another year. I think Ben Diego's out
of eligibility if I'm not.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Mistaken technically, yes, but we'll see. Well, there's there's there's
talk about any of the guys that had to sit
out for the double transfer rule that there might be
something that happens this offseason that allows them to get
a year back, but that hasn't happened yet, so we'll see.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah. So, but I think I think it's a good
place to start if you have those two guys and
and I you know, especially with as well as just
has played the last five or six weeks, you know,
I think that they he would be wonderful to have
back in a Bearcats uniform and then and then see
what you can build around him. Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Kentucky, it's been it's been a weird season for them,
just because the SEC is so good. They've had some
very high highs, some some tough lows if you're a
Kentucky fan. But is this a team that can they
don't defend all that well, they can put points on you.
Is this a team that can get to a second
(13:26):
weekend in the NCAA Tournament that weekend without Jackson Robinson?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Yeah, I think they can survive without him, who they
can't survive without or thrive without is Lamont Butler. Yeah,
I love Jackson Robinson, don't get me wrong, But they've
got other guys who can do more or less what
he does not as well, don't get me wrong, but
who can fill those minutes with productive basketball. You have
(13:52):
other guys who can do that there, but they don't
have any other Lamont Butler's, especially since Kerkkriesa still has
not returned, and they've had like they had to, for
lack of a better term, fake it at point guard
for Lamont's entire absence. I mean, you're playing basically Amari
Williams as a point guard. He's a six to eleventh center.
I mean they and it worked against Tennessee, but then
(14:13):
once other teams saw it, it was harder to make
it work. So that so Lamont has to be himself,
and he was more, you know he was. He was
not great in his first game back. He filed out.
He did some good things, but he filed out. The
Auburn game. He was better. Now Auburn was so far
ahead of them, and there's it's such a tough opponent.
(14:35):
I think that this is a big week for Lamont
to get to start to get back in the rhythm
and for them to get back in the rhythm of
having him. They've still got difficult games, but he, to
me is their most important player. And when you talked
about the highs and the lows and all that, I mean,
there's there's no team that's in the upper half of
any projected bracket that's been banged up as much as
(14:57):
his team has. I mean, you lose a player like Crisa.
I don't know whether he's there's any chance he comes back,
but effectively they've lost him for the year because he
hasn't been playing since the ninth game. Then you lose
Jackson Robinson, and then you lose Butler for eight games.
Uh Car missed the game, Garrison missed the game. There's
there's nobody that's been as has banged up that that
(15:19):
that that's at the top of the field as these
guys have been.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
What do you make of the statements sent out by
Bill self yesterday for those that don't know, essentially apologizing
to Kansas fans for their performance of.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Late Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
I don't know why he comes compelled to do that
me either. He's Bill self, He doesn't know anybody in apology.
I gave you seventeen conference titles in a row. Uh,
we're having a rough time. We'll be better next year,
and you don't have to say anything. He's won two
NCA titles, and they won all those conferences and have dominated.
(16:00):
He doesn't know anybody in apology. I don't know why
he did. I do think it was probably worthwhile for
him to give Goodman the statement about him not thinking
about retirement, because there is you know, there has been
a trend for coaches his age or ballpark his age
to just say it's you know, for the most part,
(16:21):
what they're really saying is I went from having and
ridiculously consuming seventy hour a week job out of season,
one hundred hour a week job in season, to a
ridiculously consuming one hundred hour a week year round job,
and I don't want to do that anymore. I got
too much money. That's what they're really saying. You can
(16:41):
make it about, oh, this is what I signed up
for whatever like, but no one. Thing I haven't seen
from anybody who said that this isn't what they signed
up for is for any of them to go do
what they signed up for, right.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
You could do that a degree.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
If that's what you signed up for. You could still
coach that, but none of them have done it. So
what they're really saying is I got a ton of money.
This job is way too consuming and it's not worth
that many years of my health, and I get it.
That would be me.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Oh yeah, if I had that much money, you'd never
hear from me again. Mike.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Yes, but that's not Bill. That's not iszz Oh, that's
not cal That's not what they want to do. Okay,
I can honor that too, but it's never been about
this is not what I signed up for.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That's pr you'd find me at a teaky hut in
Costa Rica if you were looking for it.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
I'd be the only place you could find me. Real quick.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Before I let you go, I'm giving you Duke Auburn,
Houston or the Field.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Here you go.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Wow, here's why you're the most generous radio host of all, Chad,
because this is the third time I've been asked a
variation of this question.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
And I gave you Houston too, and you.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Gave me Houston too, So I already said you give
me Cooper flag Ange and I broom and I'm all in.
But now you're giving me L J. Cryer too, So
I'm certainly taking that side.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
And the guy that you covered when you first got
into covering college basketball and Jawan Roberts very good.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
That was that was a very good variation on that
old guy joke.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Absolutely on the Ellis who the kid that played for
Carry Perry Ellis.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yeah, I trying to remember his name, Mary.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I'm pretty sure Perry Ellis is Jawan Roberts dad.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
So that Harry Ellis is that he played four years?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Four years?
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Yeah, ches, but he just looked a little older than everybody.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
And he was really good forever, so like you just
felt like he was there forever. People said that about
Gary Clark, They're like, Gary Clark has been in Cincinnati
for one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
It felt like it until he was gone.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
And Cincinnati for one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Please come back is really good. Thanks, Mike, appreciate.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
It, all right, you bet, Chad, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
There you go. The Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Mike Decorsi from the Sporting News and Big Ten Network,
in Fox and all the other places that you can
find Mike. You can find him at tsn MIC on Twitter.
Let's take a break. I'm gonna check on Terran and
see if he's awake since Attie's ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. When it comes
to multiple sclerosis, trust the experts at you see Gardner
Neuroscience Institute for Innovative and Comprehensive Care. Learn more at
ucehealth dot com. Northbound seventy one seventy five between Donaldson
Road and two seventy five, it's an accident off on
(19:40):
to the left shoulder. Three minute delay in through there
and northbound seventy one accident on the right shoulder after
Martin Luther King Junior Drive. I'm at ezalik with traffic.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
This report is sponsored by
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