3/12/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you ready for some football? Yes, yes, I am,
we are.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
This is Dave Laplock and you're listening to the Home
of the Bengals a r ESPN fifty.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Oh, thank you, five after three. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
I'm mooweger, thank you for listening. Hook You're having an
awesome Wednesday afternoon. Not an awesome Wednesday afternoon for the
UC Bearcats, who pulled within three in the second half,
still get beaten badly, lose by twenty seventy six to
fifty six. The final score Cincinnati's Big Twelve Tournaments stay

(00:31):
is over. It's not a run. You have to win
multiple games. Last year would be a run. They won
two games in the Big Twelve Tournament. Win one game
and then lose the next is not a run. So
their stay in the Big Twelve Tournament is over. Seventy
six to fifty six. The final score. There is a
lot to get to. We've got some Bengals stuff and
some Red stuff a little bit later on plus Rick

(00:53):
browing on Xavier and NKU basketball coming up back to
three forty five. Focus will be on the Musketeers as
XU get set to play Marquette tomorrow in the Big
East Tournament. Full show preview kind of available on Twitter
at Moeger thanks to Emory Federal Credit Union. Your credit
union with Hart since nineteen thirty nine. Go to EMORYFCU

(01:16):
dot org. Needless to say, the Bearcat team that showed
up yesterday in Kansas City against Oklahoma State did not
show up today, and the Oklahoma State team that the
Bearcats rolled over yesterday did not show up today either,
because Iowa State as much, much, much better. I will
be honest with you. This game had a twenty point
final margin. It should have been more. At halftime, Iowa

(01:40):
State led by nine, It should have been twenty at halftime.
Cincinnati had eight made baskets, seven turnovers. They kind of
rectified the turnover issue in the second half, they really
didn't rectify anything else in the second half. Iowa State
shot close to fifty four percent. The Bearcat shot close
to thirty three percent. State outrebounded Cincinnati forty one to

(02:02):
twenty three. Iowa State had ten offensive rebounds eleven offensive rebounds.
I'm sorry Cincinnati had thirteen defensive rebounds. You see, was
not going to win this game. You and I both
know that Iowa State is better. If Iowa State and
UC played ten times, the Cyclones would win probably nine,
maybe ten. Maybe the Bearcats would get lucky and make

(02:22):
it eight. It doesn't matter. You and I knew that
you see wasn't going to be at Iowa State. That's
a problem. Admittedly, that's a problem because you haven't arrived
as a program until you look at every school in
your conference as an equal at least, and you can't
say that. You can't say that about UC basketball in

(02:44):
Iowa State, Kansas, Arizona, certainly Houston, and maybe one or
two others. But that's okay. This was a year where
we said the expectation is to make the NCAA Tournament,
make the NCAA Tournament. Nobody was talking about winning in
the NCAA tournam Nobody was talking about making the NCAA
Tournament with a certain seed. Nobody was talking about getting

(03:05):
to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. The directive
this year, the expectation this season was make the NCAA Tournament.
That went up in smoke when the bear Cats lost
five games this year to non NCAA tournament teams. They
lost in early December to a bad Villanova team. Call
it what it is. A shaky Villanova team will do

(03:27):
it that way. They lost to them on the road.
They lost twice to Kansas State, not an NCAA tournament team.
They lost to Oklahoma State last Saturday. They lost to
Utah on the road. They also went one in three
against Baylor in West Virginia. Now, those are both likely
NCAA tournament teams. They're not in the upper crust of
the Big twelve at best. Those are fifty to fifty games,

(03:50):
one in eight in those games, and because they went
one and eight in those games, they needed to win
five and five, and they needed to beat a Final
four caliber Iowa State team just to have a chance
to win three more games. They put themselves in position
to be punted from any remote NCAA tournament consideration because

(04:12):
they couldn't take care of business that they're supposed to
be against teams that they're supposed to be better than.
That's why they're on the outside looking in. It's not
losing to Iowa State. It's not the final score. It's
not even the effort, which over the last three or
four minutes was I gotta be honest with you, A putrid.
What sticks in micrawl is waking up today thinking, you see,

(04:33):
he's gonna play at twelve thirty and they have to win.
You do not want to put yourself in a position
where you have to win in a conference tournament. And
you certainly don't want to put yourself in a position
where you have to win in a conference tournament against
a team that has a legit chance to go to
a final four. And you don't want to have to
put yourself in a position where you have to win
on a Wednesday afternoon in the conference tournament, just to

(04:54):
put yourself in a position to have to win again
the next day. West Miller after the game in the
Big twelve Conference postgame press conference.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
Obviously, our whole program was disappointed coming into the tournament
with our play the last week of the regular season,
and I was really proud of the way our guys
came here and responded. And I thought we played with
great effort yesterday, and I thought for thirty five minutes tonight,
we played with great effort. You know again, I thought

(05:29):
that our frustration kind of got the best of us
when it felt out of hand there at the end,
but our guys fought and I thought there was a
lit on it a little bit tonight. They're a great
defensive team, but we generated some really good shots tonight
and just felt like we couldn't get them to go
like we wanted, but we kind of stayed with it.
And then I think Dylan's dunk at fourteen left in

(05:50):
the second half cuts it to three. We get it
back to five a couple times. Like you know, I'm
obviously not happy with the outcome and disappointed, but.

Speaker 5 (06:00):
We had our chances against a good team.

Speaker 6 (06:03):
Coach, what happens from here?

Speaker 7 (06:05):
Assuming you go to the Crown Tournament that's nineteen days away,
what does the schedule look like. I'm sure you haven't
really wrapped your head around that, but it's a long time.

Speaker 8 (06:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (06:15):
Now, the.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Thing that we've been focused on is trying to play
in the nsub A tournament, you know. And I think
we were fortieth in the net before we played Kansas
State at home less than a week ago, right, so
it felt within reach.

Speaker 5 (06:30):
You come here.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
We felt like we could play with everybody in this
league and make a run here. So that's been our
We haven't talked about anything past past that at.

Speaker 5 (06:38):
This point, and I think The thing.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
That I told our guys in the locker room is,
and Gisel just echoed it a little bit, is listen, man,
we're disappointed to be in the position we're in. We
felt like we had a team that could make a
run in the ENSUBLA tournament, not just before the season starts,
but a bunch of points throughout the year. You know.

(07:03):
The thing that I implored each of them to do,
and I think we need to do the same thing
as a staff. Every one of us is to take
what we experience this year and learn from it. Like this,
this can be a very very valuable thing for all
of us moving forward if we'll learn from it.

Speaker 5 (07:22):
There's a lot of lessons to be learned this year.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
And to me, that's again my mindset right now is there,
and my mindset is, you know, getting this team back
to Cincinnati.

Speaker 7 (07:35):
Would you have enough if you've got into another pun.

Speaker 5 (07:39):
I hadn't thought about it.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
I didn't thought about anything other than the NCAA tournament
at this point.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
There you go, Wes Miller. The crown is bizarre, which
hasn't happened yet. It's a tournament that would start on
March thirty. First. My understanding is if you qualify as
an automatic qualifier, you're required by your league to go.
The question is who's on your team by the time
the tournament begins. We could talk about the crown. That's
kind of a separate conversation. The bigger question is what now,

(08:09):
Like this program's in a very weird odd spot. Let's
call this season what it is, a major, massive disappointment.
Now a lot of us could be accused of being
guilty of overrating this team, overrating its roster, overrating some
of the individual players. I'll raise my hand, I'll take

(08:31):
that I'm guilty of it. But if I would have
said to anybody, if I would have said into this
microphone four months ago, five months ago, if I would
have had a conversation with anybody who cares even remotely
about Bearcat basketball back in October, and if I would
have said, the Bearcats will not only not make the

(08:52):
NCAA tournament, they won't even really come close. Like we're
not going to wake up on Selection Sunday thinking maybe
they've got a chance. They're not gonna to be team
number sixty nine. They're going to be closer to team
eighty than team sixty nine, like, we're not going to
be discussing how they got snubbed on Monday. We're not
even really going to be talking about them, is my guess.

(09:15):
If I would have said in October, you see is
going to finish with thirteen regular season league losses and
not even come close to the NCAA Tournament, I would
have been screened at. I don't know of a Bearcat
fan that didn't view this team as having bona fide
potential to make the NCAA Tournament. So the fact that

(09:36):
they haven't come close is a massive disappointment. This was
a team that at one point this year was ranked
as high as fourteenth in the country. Poles get it
wrong all the time. There's all sorts of teams that
have been ranked high in polls in November and December
and don't come close to making the big dance in March.

(09:56):
But still, this is a major dis appointment. Advanced metrics
like this team early in the season, by the way,
it was a season where they weren't decimated by injury.
Would have been nice to have Tyler McKinley. Maybe c
mos Lukaches's shoulder bothered him toward the end of the season,

(10:17):
they were mostly intact, and so that disappointment looms over
next season. Now, your guess is as good as mine
as to what the roster is going to look like.
I have no idea. I have no idea how many
of these players will stay. I have no idea how
many of these players the coaches want to stay. I'm

(10:37):
not even sure I know what the composition of the
coaching staff is going to be. I don't know who
they go get from outside. I don't know. What I
do know is this, there is rampant and loud fan
distrust and impatience as it relates to this basketball program.

(10:59):
And that's not going to change come November. That's not
going to come close to change and come November. And
so Wes Miller has a hell of a task on
his hand. He's got to for whatever players come back,
he's got to help them individually get better. He's got
to fix the roster as a whole. He's got to
build a team that can accomplish what neither of his

(11:22):
previous four teams have accomplished, and that's just get to
the NCAA Tournament. He's got to have a team next
year that's capable of beating non n Cuba tournament teams
and more looks the part against uppercross big twelve teams,
and he's got to do this, I think, under the
cloud of a mandate to get to the tournament next year,

(11:44):
because if he doesn't, I'm not so sure that the
comments from John Cunningham we read last week are going
to be copied and pasted next year. I think this
program is in a very weird in large part because
of the climate that we are in, but a very
tough place to be right now. It's a tough place

(12:06):
to be if you're westm It's tough to go into
a year where it feels like if you don't get
to the tournament next season, that's it. And by the way,
I'm not even entirely sure that in terms of fan
distrust and impatience, Like, let's say you, if you're a
UC fan a year from now they get in as
a ten seed and lose in the first round, is

(12:30):
there gonna be a real sense of, yes, this is working,
let's keep it going. My guess is the answer is no.
So I think this season was all right, get back
to the field of sixty eight and then go from there.
I'm not sure the and then go from there in
twenty twenty six is changing. It's not unlike UC football,

(12:51):
where this past season a lot of us said, got
to get to six and six, got to get to
a bowl game. Scott Saderfield's team did not do that.
We were saying those things about the twenty twenty four
UC football team. It was six and six and get
to a bowl game and then go from there start
to legitimately compete at the top of the Big twelve.

(13:13):
I don't know that that's changing for UC football in
twenty twenty five. I don't think hey, get to six
and six and we're good. Here applies. I think there's
a similar dynamic with the basketball team. I'm not sure
meeting this year's expectations next year for most fans, for you,
if you're a UC basketball fan, is going to be enough.

(13:35):
And so there's two different ways to talk about this.
There's the season that was and I know they may
still play in the Crown. There's the season that was
why it went awry and the expectations that weren't met
and the disappointment that hovers over all of this, and
the different what ifs and the different games that could
have gone their way or should have gone their way,

(13:56):
and why they were in a position today to have
to beat Iowa State, just to be in a position
to have to win tomorrow against BYU. But then there's
what's next. A year ago, at this time, what's next
felt pretty promising. They lost in the quarterfinals of the NIIT,
and then we found out soon thereafter most of the
really good players, the players we wanted to come back,

(14:18):
we're all gonna come back. And then there was a
pretty steady torrent of news involving players from other programs
who were gonna come to UC. I think there was
legitimate optimism as the season came to an end. Last year,
you see, had held their own in the Big Twelve,
played well down the stretch. A year later, things feel different.

(14:39):
Wes Miller is coming back to be the coach this season.
John Cunningham said as much. He's not gonna go back
on his word. So what now? What now? And what
amount of faith do you have if you're a UC
basketball fan that a year from now the feeling is
going to be different. Hell that a year from there
they're still playing basketball, meaningful basketball. Five point three, seven,

(15:02):
four nine fifteen thirty is our phone number eight sixty
six seven zero two three seven seven six works as
well at moegar on Twitter. We have a lot of
ground to cover between now and six. Uh, speaking of
like an interesting place, the word urgency doesn't necessarily apply
when we talk about Bengals free agency, at least as
of right now. And UH, that's interesting. We'll explain why.

(15:27):
Plus Rick Brooring coming up later in the hour on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station twenty five after three.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on moeger Rick Brooring in
twenty minutes.

Speaker 10 (15:41):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
By the way, Uh, Musketeer fans getting set for tomorrow
as the Muskies battle Marquette at Madison Square Garden. Also
paying attention to other teams that are on the bubble
as they play this week. North Carolina is one of them.
They're in the ACC Tournament, which makes sense because they're
in the ACC taking on Notre Dame right now and
with forty seven seconds ago, the tar Hills lead that

(16:04):
game forty two to twenty three. There are others, including tonight,
either Georgia or Oklahoma's going to get a win because
they play against each other. So this is this is
my favorite week on the sports calendar. I just enjoyed
even more when my team actually matters at twenty six
after three o'clock, y I has got to win after

(16:24):
Even though he say he doesn't hear about SEC tournament, Yeah,
Coach Cal has famously and he doubled down on this
last week the last few years at UK, and their
performance would suggest as much. You know, he's long maintained
the SEC Tournament's not that big of a deal. I
don't care about it. And one of the frustrating things
for a lot of UK fans, and the frustration is understandable,

(16:45):
is you know, they go to Nashville or they go
to wherever the SEC tournament is and John John's team
hasn't gone like we're buddies. Cal's team hasn't played like
a team that gave a crap about it, and that's frustrating.
And well then they play in the NCAA tournament. They
lose to Oakland. They lose the same p they lose early.
In an interview this week, he doubled down on that,
talking about how we don't care about the SEC tournament,

(17:10):
but this year it kind of feels like they needed
to care about the SEC Tournament because they have gone
into the SEC Tournament with some work to do.

Speaker 6 (17:19):
Well.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
Today, they did do some work and beat South Carolina.
By the way, that game, the spread closed at four
and a half. Arkansas won by four if you bought
it it two and a half, which you should have done.
Congratulations if you waited. Sorry, all right, We'll keep you
updated on what's happening with all the college hoops. I

(17:41):
love daytime college basketball, sot of my team loses by
twenty Dave, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty. What's up, hey, Mo?

Speaker 6 (17:51):
How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (17:51):
I'm well, man, what's up?

Speaker 11 (17:54):
Hey?

Speaker 9 (17:55):
Just you know the UC game today and yeah, got
a chance to watch it, which yesterday wasn't able to.
But I don't know the inconsistency with this team. And
you know, yesterday, of course they played well. Then today,
I mean barely got out of twenty points in the

(18:15):
first half. And I don't know when does a team
take on the personality.

Speaker 6 (18:21):
Of their coach?

Speaker 11 (18:22):
You know, I mean, but you know.

Speaker 9 (18:27):
Under two minutes ago, run two minutes and they're down
twenty or about about sixteen seventeen points.

Speaker 6 (18:35):
And you didn't see anything.

Speaker 9 (18:37):
You didn't see a time out called, you didn't see
a foul or anything to show that you know, we're
in this to possibly try to win, And I don't know,
very frustrating as a UCE fan and grad. And I
just don't know what the direction is with the basketball

(18:59):
team right now.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
That's the thing. That's that's the thing. It's impossible to
articulate what the direction and the identity are. I agree, right.

Speaker 9 (19:11):
And I they I don't think the direction right now
with him is the best direction. I think they need
to move on and I think they need to bring
somebody in that.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (19:25):
I mean, how many times today you see guys going
in for layups and they're uncontested. I mean you see defense,
you know, guys just walking in and they even comment
on TV there they are junior high, he said. The
announcers said something about going in like a right handed
junior high layup. Back in Hug's day, those guys, those

(19:48):
guys wouldn't have gone in for a layup. I mean
they would have been fouled and knocked to the floor.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
And uh, or just just just contested. I mean, you
don't have to knock somebody to the floor, just contest
the show, especially when Azise Mandego played most of the
afternoon and fol Trouble only played twenty twenty two minutes.
Whatever was when he got his fourth foul, I felt
like the game was over. You might argue, well, the
disease doesn't add all that much offensively, but I woa
state when he wasn't in the game got whatever it wanted.

(20:16):
And so what they're gonna have to have next year
and maybe a guy like Tyler McKinley being healthy next
year helps rectify this. They're gonna need front court depth
that allows them to play a little bit more physically,
that gives them some guys who can protect the rim
or at least stop straight line drives at the basket. Now,
along with that, the help defense was non existent, not

(20:37):
just today, but for much of the year. They had
guards who couldn't keep guys in front of him. They
had times this year were awfuls guarding the pick and
roll on the perimeter. But you're right, man, especially when
Azis was out of the game, it was just a
parade to the rim. And unfortunately today wasn't the only
day that was the case.

Speaker 9 (20:56):
And my answer this question, though, you know, like with
college football ball game, guys opt out for reasons. Can
can these players opt out of playing in this tournament?
So this Crown tournament.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
So this is what's interesting about it. There is an
nil component to this tournament where basically the players are
gonna get paid. But I wonder how many would care
if you've got to make a decision about where you're
gonna go next, and there's another program that's gonna take
you and say, all right, here's what we're gonna pay you.
Do you look at that money that you can make
by playing in a tournament that doesn't start until March

(21:28):
thirty first, and go, yeah, to heck with that? I
don't think this is just a UC thing either. I
wonder in this sixteen team tournament in Vegas that starts
on March thirty first, you might say, well, some of
these schools are required to send a team. What rosters
are some of those teams gonna be sending?

Speaker 12 (21:50):
Well?

Speaker 6 (21:50):
And right?

Speaker 9 (21:51):
And you see situation, I mean, what are they going
to have?

Speaker 1 (21:55):
And and by the way, and by the way, David,
it might not be the players who opt to leave.
You could have coaches who are just ready to turn
the page and tell a guy we're not bringing you back.
And you know in that case, you're not going to
bring the dude Vegas to play in the Crown, are you.

Speaker 9 (22:13):
I don't think so. Macage Sports is a mess, and
you know, who knows what's going to happen. But hey,
I enjoined you on the radio. I listen to you
a lot Monday through Friday, so appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
You're a good man, Dave. Thank you very much. I
was just texting with somebody about the Crown. So there
is a requirement if you're one of the teams that
qualify in the leagues that have made an agreement with
the Crown, which is this new tournament in Vegas, that
you've got to go. Well, okay, that's fine, but do
you think a player who's looking to go elsewhere, who

(22:46):
has financial opportunities elsewhere, cares that your school has a
requirement to send a team. Again, this tournament doesn't start
until March thirty first, the day before Sunday, March thirtieth,
we will round out the final four. When the Crown begins,
we will know who's not We will know who is

(23:07):
in the final four of the NCAA tournament. So they're
going to start this thing on March thirty. First, you
see looks like one of the teams that's going to
qualify and by rule be required to go. How many
players on this team will make that trip. I've got
to think that's a question that a lot of coaches

(23:28):
of teams that could be invited to this thing, or
could be required to go to this thing, are wrestling with.
I don't know how this event works, like I know
the mechanics of it, like I don't know in the
real world, in the portal era, how this works. I
do not know. Twenty seven away from four o'clock, more

(23:49):
of your phone calls are coming up. Five point three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty plus Rick Browing in twelve minutes, we'll get
to what the Bengals haven't done in free agency coming
up as well on ESPN fifteen thirty cents an sports station.

Speaker 13 (24:01):
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Speaker 1 (24:39):
Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of
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to yours for life kelseyshev dot Com. Iowa State beat
Cincinnati seventy six to fifty six. UC's Big twelve stay
is over the Bearcats. I guess will now playing something

(25:00):
called the Crown in Las Vegas. Wes Miller, you heard
the SoundBite from about thirty minutes ago, talked about how
he liked his team effort, his team's effort for thirty
five minutes. He didn't say forty minutes. Effort and energy.
Those were themes all season long. Those are not supposed
to be themes. They're supposed to be themes of your
program that are built in. I have been a UC

(25:24):
basketball fan for almost exactly thirty five years. I cannot
recall the season where on a recurring basis we discussed
this team's effort, how hard they played anecdotally, and some

(25:46):
of the best teams the Bearcats have had, you've heard
the coach complain about effort, toughness, all that sort of stuff,
but it hasn't come up as frequently as it did
this year, including just last week. So I don't care
that they played hard today. They didn't play hard the
last four or five minutes. Quite frankly, that is supposed

(26:08):
to be built in. It's supposed to be something you assume.
It is supposed to be something you can hang your
hat on and know about your team no matter what.
And for a very long time that was the case.
And I think that is the most disconcerting thing for
and you can tell me if you disagree. That is
the most disconcerting thing if you're a Bearcat fan that

(26:31):
for years, that is primarily what you associated with this program. Effort, toughness,
that sort of stuff. And those things came up time
and again for either being lacking or you saw them
and they stood out because they had been lacking. Later
on tonight in the Big Ten Tournament, Ohio State battles Iowa,

(26:52):
another game involving a bubble team buck Eys. According to
many bracketologists, among the last four inn today, it's the
Reds and Rangers. Nick Martinez will get the ball for Cincinnati.
That game will start at four oh five. Cooper Bowman,
who was picked up by the Reds and the Rule
five Draft, has been returned to the A's. The Athletics,

(27:13):
Remember they're not the Oakland Athletics anymore, but they're also
not officially the Sacramento Athletics. But they're also not the
Las Vegas Athletics. They're just the Athletics. I hope that
franchise loses every game for the rest of its history,
including today. Marco Wilson has it's been made official the
Bengals have resigned him. That was reported yesterday, one year

(27:35):
deal through the twenty twenty five season. We'll get to
a David and PJ and Vernon, but first we'll spend
some time with our guy Rick boring Xavier getting set
to play in the Biggies Tournament tomorrow against Marquette. Rick
talks about that and more next on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 13 (27:51):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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This report is sponsored by.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Bm O Eggerman. The Big East Tournament Madison Square Garden
is actually about to get underway here in about fifteen minutes.
First of three follower in Providence. The first game on
Peacock Tomorrow, Xavier battles Marquette in a matchup between the
Muskies and the twenty fifth ranked Warriors. I still call

(28:51):
them the Warriors. That is going to be at two
thirty tomorrow, so we will basically be on the air
for much of that game and instant reaction from MSG
immediately afterward. On Wednesdays, our buddy Rick Boring joins US
Musketeer Report dot com NKU radio host of The Darren
Horn Show, The King of Facebook, The Skinny Podcast, and

(29:12):
so much more. High Rick.

Speaker 9 (29:15):
Name.

Speaker 14 (29:15):
For a second, I thought Sean and the Boys were
gonna be facing Steph Curry.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, I'm sorry, there's you know, of all the and
they became the Golden Eagles like twenty five thirty years ago.
And I don't do this because, yeah, I don't do
this because I'm politically incorrect. But like the like, I
have no problem calling Miami University the RedHawks, like that's
that's who they are, or the Saint John Saint John's

(29:43):
Red Storm, the Red Storm. The one that I constantly
get stuck on is Marquette because they were the Warriors
when I was growing up. And I don't call them
the Warriors just because I insist on being politically incorrect.
I legitimately just sometimes forget because I'm a dunce.

Speaker 5 (30:01):
I get it.

Speaker 14 (30:01):
It happens to the best of us. With conference realignment,
it's a constant issue.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yes, yes it is. Xavier split with Marquette this year,
each team winning on the other's home floor. Of that game, here,
x you made a late comeback at the end, got
a bad whistle, lose and then go there and score
just fifty seven points and win. Uh. Marquette. Down the stretch,
they lose their last two to Yukon and Saint John's.

(30:25):
There's nothing to be ashamed of there. It did feel
like the air came out of the balloon midway through
the Big East season. Why did it?

Speaker 14 (30:33):
Yeah, it's an interesting question, you know. The one thing
to look at is the way the schedule se up
for these two teams. I mean, we talked all year
about how Xavier was like really struggling when we were
back in January, and then all of a sudden, Xavier
caught fire at the end of the year. But in reality,
the schedule was really difficult in terms of the Big
East Conference schedule. It was really front loaded for them

(30:54):
early and the back end was much easier, and they
handled that well. For Marquette, it was the visit. They
had an early schedule easy and then a really difficult
schedule late, and I think that caught up to them
a bit. But I also think in the Big East
Conference where you play that double round robin and every
team has seen Cam Jones for a couple of years already,

(31:17):
he was like the best player in college basketball in
the non conference slate that no one could stop. He
was average like thirty points a game or something coming
into Big East play. That the Big East teams came
up with a game plan for him and that made
Marquette a little more stagnant on the offensive end.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
How did the musket Teers beat him on a neutral floor?

Speaker 14 (31:37):
Well, I think they have to mucket up again and
make it ugly. It comes down to the last game.
They were able to slow Cam Jones down. They held
him to eleven point He was just one of six
from three point range in that game. And there's a
really interesting matchup thing to watch in this game. Last time,
Zager did something defensively with Davion McKnight, their point guard,

(31:57):
where they stuck him on Marquette's biggest player, their center,
Ben Gold is six foot eleven. Davion McKnight six foot.
They had him guarding a six to eleven center because
Ben Gold typically just goes sets the screen and then
pops to the perimeter looking to shoot a three. And
what Xavier was looking to do was instead of trying
to maneuver and handle all those screens, they just switched

(32:19):
it right away and then they had Davion McKnight, their
point guard guarding Cam Jones, one of the best downhill
drivers in the country coming off that screen, and so
it worked really well. Like I said, they were able
to limit Cam Jones with that game plan. The question
is if you go back, do you go back to
it in the matchup tomorrow? And if so, you know

(32:39):
Shaka Smart and his coaching staff have been working on
a counter for that. So what does that look like
and does that force Xavier to adjust then? And how
do we go from there? So, I mean that game
plan was beautiful. It worked really well for Xavier last time.
It made it really ugly and they were able to
squeak out a two point win. Will that be enough
again tomorrow when they're at.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Madison Square Guard. So I know the results of games
involving teams like North Carolina and Ohio State, Oklahoma Oklahoma's
playing Georgia, who could use a win tonight in Texas
Boise s Data. I know games involving those teams could
go at least a little bit of a ways toward
answering this question. But I think for most of us
it feels like win and in tomorrow for Xavier, is

(33:20):
that the case in your opinion.

Speaker 14 (33:24):
Yeah, I don't know about that necessarily. I think it
probably depends on.

Speaker 6 (33:29):
How they've viewed Xavier right now.

Speaker 14 (33:31):
And all the people who do this every year and
put together this bracketology projections and follow it much more
closely than I do, seem to believe that Xavier is
on the right side of the cut line, but just
barely one of the last few teams in, and so
I will agree with them on that, And then the
question from there becomes do you have bid thieves? And

(33:55):
I think you know one thing that's helped Zavier out
a little bit over the last twenty four hours is
they've actually picked up a second quad one win here
because I.

Speaker 6 (34:06):
Believe it was.

Speaker 14 (34:09):
Who was it, Creighton or Yukon slid back into a
quad one game, so one of their wins now get
the win at home over Yukon slid back into a
quad one win. So Xavier now has two quad one
wins as opposed to just one, so that will help
them on their resume.

Speaker 6 (34:27):
That was really the biggest.

Speaker 14 (34:29):
Glaring red flag when you looked at Xavier's NCAA tournament
resume for an at large bid. With the second quad
one win, that makes it look a little bit better
for them. I think the biggest concern I would have
if I was a Xavier fan is what does this
North Carolina the team do and what does Texas do?
I think Xavier's pretty clearly ahead of North Carolina with Texas.

(34:51):
You would think they are because Texas has a seventeen
and fourteen overall record. But if they really factor in
conference tournaments as much as as we think they do
as fans, if Texas picks up two more quad one
wins in the SEC tournament, which both of their first
two games in the tournament would be Quad one opportunities,
they'd get up to nineteen total wins and they'd have

(35:12):
a seven and eleven record in quad one games. That'd
be hard to overlook when we're talking about a team
with very similar metrics to Xavier. So that would probably
be my biggest concern. But right now, without multiple bid thieves,
we're talking like three four bid thieves. I think Xavier
is in the tournament.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
Yeah, Texas literally just tipped off a minute ago. Carolina
is up nineteen on Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament
and would play Georgia Tech if they hold on tomorrow.
I have asked you throughout the course of the season
at different points, is Xavier good? And I think when
you have gone more than a month without losing a game,
the answer is yes, you're good. If they win tomorrow,

(35:54):
do we start to slide them into the category of
quote teams you don't want to see in March?

Speaker 10 (36:00):
Yeah, I think you kind of have to write.

Speaker 14 (36:04):
There always seems to be that play in eleven seed
type team that makes some noise in the tournament and
at least scare some people if not make the deep run.
Right now, out of the teams that are on that
cut line, Xavior seems to be the hottest of those teams.
So I think that's a fair thing to say about
this group. And mo I wrote this. You gave me

(36:25):
the prompt for Facebook to write about whether or not
they should expand the NCAA tournament, and I wrote about
the fact that with the transfer portal and the way
it's changed the sport so much, the fact that you're
going to turn over a lot of your roster from
year to year, I think we're going to see more
cases like Xavier where it takes you some time to

(36:46):
develop and gel together as a group. Maybe it didn't
click for certain guys right away that you were counting
on that were transferring in, and maybe you had a
front loaded schedule, but then all of a sudden, you
get it going and you end up being one of
the more talented teams in your comp and potentially even
the country. So it wouldn't surprise me if Vager ends
up being a dangerous team late in the year.

Speaker 12 (37:06):
Here.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
So I read your your piece, and you know I
am emphatic. I don't want to see it expanded. You're
a little bit more lukewarm on the overall topic. But
in writing about it, you made the case for something
that I just I failed to believe what actually happened.
So you could sway me on the idea of expansion
if you could promise me it was fewer schools with

(37:27):
the resume of let's just use them for an example.
Cincinnati Bearcats are not an NCAA tournament team, do not
deserve to be an NCAA tournament team. I don't want
more teams that finish seven and thirteen in their league
in major conferences. I'm not convinced that expansion would mean
that more bids would be given to mid majors and

(37:48):
low majors. If you can convince me of that, I'd
be a little bit more open minded. I don't think
you can convince me that that would be the driver
behind expansion.

Speaker 14 (37:58):
I agree with you there, I believe in my heart
of hearts that that's what would actually happen.

Speaker 6 (38:03):
In fact, we know it's not what would.

Speaker 14 (38:04):
Happen because it's not who controls the sport. See SEC
in the Big ten pretty much control everything right now,
and they would just be trying to think of as
many loop wormholes that they can to get their teams
into the tournament, and fewer mid major teams in. So
I'm with you there. I would be all for it, though,

(38:24):
as I wrote in that post that if you could
guarantee me a few things for mid majors, like give
me a pool of at large bids for just mid
major teams. Give me if you're gonna expand the tournament
and you're gonna add some more spots, set aside a
field them for just at large bids for the mid majors.
That way, like we at least don't leave in Indiana

(38:44):
State out like last year, that teams like that should
never be left out of the tournament, and if expanding
the tournament a little bit guarantees a team like that
won't be left out, then I'm okay with putting up
with a few more mediocre, middling high major teams in
a few more games during March. I mean, bad basketball
is still basketball during March.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
I was listening, and unfortunately, the Norse lost the game
in Cleveland and the quarterfinals of the Horizon League Tournament.
I want to talk about the offseason for MKU basketball,
but first that game in Cleveland. I listened to the
entire second half, and it felt like every time a
free throw was being shot, there was a woman in
the background screaming like she was being stabbed. Did you
hear that?

Speaker 8 (39:26):
I believe I did.

Speaker 14 (39:28):
I was not able to check on her, but I
never saw any type of medics calls, commotion behind us,
or anything, So I think she ended up being okay.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
But you know the piercing screen that I'm referring to, correct.

Speaker 14 (39:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard it.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Oh yeah, sounded like she was sitting right next to you.
I thought it was your engineer or something. It's not
like you're just saying right next to you, guys, So.

Speaker 14 (39:51):
It was that was actually just Keltch taking off this
headset in between you know, breaks during exercise, the vocal
courts from time to time.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
What is this offseason going to look like for NKU basketball.

Speaker 5 (40:04):
That's a great question, Mo.

Speaker 14 (40:07):
It's so hard to know in the transfer portal era
and the era. What we do know is that Trey
Robinson is going to be gone after five years. It's
going to be strange to see NK you take the
court without Trey Robinson. Sam Vinson is in theory out
of eligibility, but last season he missed a large percentage
doe to that ACL injury. They have appealed to the

(40:29):
NCAA to try to get that year of eligibility back
with a red shirt. It remains to be seen what
will happen there. And then if he does come, if
he does get that year of eligibility back, will he
decide to come back to NKU or would he look
to potentially transfer. But that's going to be a huge storyline.
The other one that now looks really big for MKU
is Dan Carezker, the Division two transfer who came up

(40:51):
and really struggled early in the year and then late
January they kind of pushed him back into the lineup
and said, hey, we don't have a choice. Our upside
is for you playing better. And three games or so
later he really took off and averaged sixteen points per
game over the final eleven when Mku went eight and
three over that stretch. He shot over forty five percent

(41:12):
from three point range during those eleven games. So obviously
his numbers aren't great overall, but he puts something on
film at the end of the year that could entice
some other teams. So keeping Dan gerezger to give you
something at point guard going into next year is a
huge storyline of the offseason. And then from there you
have a couple more guys that could come back in

(41:33):
LJ Wells, Randall, Pettis, Kean at Tzera. Those are kind
of the main names that you look to that'll have
to make a decision about the transfer portal. But I
think the big thing is Dan Grezer and Sam Vinson.
If you can get those two guys back, you have
some really nice building blocks for next season.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Have you been given the invite to join me at
the Holy Grail Thursday morning next Thursday morning?

Speaker 14 (41:54):
I have not been officially given one, but I mark
it off every year.

Speaker 6 (41:58):
I always love that show.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
I'll see you then.

Speaker 6 (42:01):
I appreciate it. Thank you, Rick.

Speaker 1 (42:02):
Boring Musketeer Report dot Com. Xavier getting set to take
on Marquette in the Big East the Golden Eagles. Thank
you Rick. He'll join me on Thursday morning. Next Thursday morning.
We have done this every year, I think since twenty eleven.
I think since the first year the Grail opened at
the Banks. In fact, I know I did a show

(42:24):
at the Grail before they opened at the Banks, when
they were in Clifton. But anyway, Holy Grail Thursday morning,
ten to noon before the games tip off, our annual
NCAA Tournament preview show. I will not be on in
the afternoon. We'll be on in the morning. Rick will
be a part of that show ten to noon, and
then we do the show and then we hang out
and watch college basketball all day. It's going to be
a blast sea there next Thursday. Rick will be there.

(42:48):
Hopefully you are too. Four o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty. Yeah,
there we are. Wants to turn the headphones off. It's
six half before this is ESPN fifteen thirty on Lueger.
Thank you for listening, and if you have been waiting
on hold, thank you for waiting on hold. I am
not gonna do anything else, Okay, I have no more

(43:08):
hard hitting sports opinions to throw at you. I'm not
gonna change topics. We're not going to bring on another guest.
We've got people who have called the show, want to
be on the show, have carved out a chunk of
their day to be on the show, and we're not
gonna make them wait anymore. Okay, We're gonna violate the
golden rule of sports talk radio and we're gonna take

(43:30):
calls at the top of the hour. I worked for
a guy once who if you did that, if you
took a phone call at the top of the hour,
he would yell and scream at you. And we're not
gonna do that. We're not. I mean, number one, why
are you yelling and screaming at an adult? Number two,
I think that that handbook is garbage. So we're gonna
take phone calls to start the hour because we have

(43:51):
people waiting. Starting with PJ. Street, what's up? You're on
ESPN fifteen thirty. No, how you doing? Man?

Speaker 12 (44:02):
Not well? I'm demoralized, deconstructed by the another awful bearcut Floss.

Speaker 9 (44:14):
Budd.

Speaker 12 (44:14):
He were the same age, with the same kind of fan,
and I just I can't express my feelings around this season.
I really can't. I mean, I know I took these
guys today at seventeen.

Speaker 10 (44:29):
And a half, seventeen and a half are.

Speaker 12 (44:32):
All spread just to get a little like one shining moment,
no one shining moment.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Did you do that in game? Or did you move
the line before?

Speaker 10 (44:43):
Well no, I moved.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
I moved here.

Speaker 12 (44:47):
I still can't. Let me salvage the season. Let me
get something out of this.

Speaker 5 (44:53):
Nothing.

Speaker 11 (44:55):
Look, it was a two.

Speaker 12 (44:56):
Hunter dollar bet.

Speaker 8 (44:56):
Let me get toward me.

Speaker 12 (44:57):
I just, I'm what what happened here.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
Than what happened today or this season.

Speaker 9 (45:06):
All of it.

Speaker 12 (45:07):
I mean for the last decade or more, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Today they had no answer for a supremely better team.

Speaker 10 (45:15):
I understand that now.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Now the the answer. The part of that is why
are they supremely better? Right? Like? Why why why are
we talking about U see basketball playing in the conference
tournament acknowledging they have next to no chance to win
a game, Like that's fair.

Speaker 10 (45:33):
And that's that's the other thing.

Speaker 12 (45:35):
Like I listened to you every day I have for
ten years, and you're talking about expectations, Well, the expectation
will be its effort, and it's you know, it's all
this stuff that's the bare minimum. As you said, my
bare minerroom was can you cover something team and a half?

Speaker 1 (45:53):
I'm sure, But you know, like I, I went into this,
like I went into the season thinking, okay, like they
were picked to finish sixth in the Big Twelve at
the start of the year, and I thought, like, all right,
that makes sense if they realize that if they do that,
if they finished sixth, there's still going to be a

(46:15):
rung below those schools like Houston and Iowa State and
you know Kansas right, But what you thought was that
means they beat for the most part, not that they're
not allowed to slip up, but they beat the non
NCUBLEA tournament teams that they're supposed to beat. They beat
the lower rung teams. They beat Kansas State, they beat

(46:37):
Oklahoma State. Villanova was not very good this year. They
beat Villanova. They had eight losses this season against either
non NCAA tournament teams or Big twelve teams that are
not quite in that upper tier, like West Virginia and Baylor,
and so I went into the season thinking, if you
pull off an upset against Kansas or Arizona or Iowa

(46:59):
State or Houston, that's great, that's great, that's awesome. But
they'll be fine because they will have a team that
is good enough to overwhelmingly do well against. And I'm
not talking about like you know, the non league by
games in their league, the teams that are supposed to

(47:20):
finish lower than them, the teams that are in the
second half, the bottom half of the league, they do
overwhelmingly well against them. Instead, they did not, And.

Speaker 12 (47:30):
That's fair enough. Look, I'm not looking for Danny Fortson.
I'm looking for Kenyan Martin. I'm looking for, like what
you said, can we be mid tier, make some progress.
That's all I'm looking for.

Speaker 15 (47:43):
That's that's all that's all about.

Speaker 12 (47:46):
I've ever looked for here.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
But I think that's why this season is so frustrating,
because I think I think if you look at just
forget all those other all those other teams that came
before it, if you just look at the last three years,
like west Miller's first year. I don't want to say
I didn't care, but it's hard to be a new
coach in a first year, especially back then when everybody
was trying to figure out nil and so whatever. It's

(48:09):
the second coaching change in two years. My expectations were meager.
Year two. I want to see the program get stabilized,
and I felt like in that second season things were
moving forward. Maybe not at the pace that we would
have liked, but things were moving forward. I thought last year,
first year of the Big Twelve, they for the most
part held their own. There were frustrating losses, there were

(48:31):
games that maybe got out of hand, but I felt
like they looked and played for the most part like
a Big twelve team. I thought you could see the
building blocks of what would be a better team moving forward.
Then at the end of last season, when they kept
all those building blocks for the most part, I felt
like last year could be considered a success. It at
least felt like the program was moving forward. This year,

(48:52):
it did not feel like it was moving forward. And
if you're not moving forward, you're moving backward.

Speaker 12 (48:58):
No look looking for Connie Dirky this year.

Speaker 8 (49:02):
I'm just I'm not.

Speaker 12 (49:04):
I'm not like I'm looking to hang banner, you know,
hang banners. I want competitive progress, Yeah, and it's not happened.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Didn't happen this year. They did not progress.

Speaker 12 (49:16):
It's and I just loved you see, and I just
it's it's it's the most frustrating season of my life
as a sportsman until next year to win the Bengals structure.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Well, it's good to hear it from you, man, Thanks
so much, all right, thanks mo. I think that's why
this year is so disappointing. Whether you want to make
it the most frustrating season of your life as a
Bearcat fan, I guess that's up to you in your
individual criteria. But this was massively disappointing to me. Number one,

(49:50):
The expectations weren't that through the roof. This team was
picked in the Big twelve preseason poll to finish sixth,
and most of us looked at that and said, that's reasonable.
And if they're six in the Big Twelve, they're a
tournament team, and they're a tournament team with ease. Before

(50:14):
the season started, nobody was lobbying that this should be
a team contending for the Big twelve regular season title.
Nobody was talking about them being ranked. It was you
know what, finished sixth in the Big Twelve. That's good
enough to get you in and the drought, which relatively
speaking in the recent decade or the recent history of

(50:37):
UC basketball, a five year period without making the tournament
is a drought. So this year was be more competitive
in the Big Twelve, finish five hundred in the league,
have your name on the screen on Selection Sunday, and
that's a successful season. So number one, the expectations were
relatively meager. They were not met. They finished seven to

(51:02):
thirteen in the regular season in the conference. They will
not come close to the NCAA tournament. There is also
a sense that things aren't moving forward. Last year I
felt like was a successful season. No, they didn't make
the tournament. No, they didn't come close, but I thought
they acquitted themselves well in the Big Twelve, even a

(51:23):
lot of the games they lost, they were right there.
They played pretty well in the NIT, and they kept
the building blocks of what we thought was going to
be a better team. This year, it doesn't feel like
things are moving forward this season. But the number one
reason for me why it's so incredibly disappointing, Like if

(51:44):
you are talking about effort, which we did often this year,
then it's almost inconsequential to talk about results. It's almost
pointless to talk about strategies and player usage and personnel
and how they match up against certain teams. For most
of my life as a UC fan, we haven't talked

(52:06):
that much about effort. We've talked about how the coaches
have at times demanded more effort. We've rarely lamented the
fact that the Bearcats didn't play hard. That was a
recurring theme this year. It was a recurring theme leading
up to the last week of the regular season. It
was a recurring theme that included the last week of

(52:26):
the regular season. It was a theme that came up
during the final few minutes of the game. Today, even
if it was garbage time, if you're still talking about
toughness and effort and Cincinnati getting its ass kicked on
the glass forty one to twenty three. Again, yeah they
may be outmanned, Yeah they may be outsized, But any

(52:49):
basketball coach, we'll talk about how rebounding is, toughness and effort,
and those things were often lacking this year. Those things
have rarely been lacking in the history of UC backs basketball.
The fact that the conversations have often centered around those
themes add that to the losses to add that to

(53:10):
the losses to teams that weren't tournament caliber, add that
to the fact that they're on the outside looking in
of the tournament bubble, much less the tournament again this year.
It makes up for a massively disappointing season. Massively disappointing season,
and massive disappointment leads to distrust, disaffection, skepticism, and all

(53:32):
those things exist when it comes to I think the
average Bearcat fans relationship with Wes Miller. I felt like
over the last three years, Wes did a pretty good job.
I really do. I'd get laughed at for saying that,
but I think if you kind of understood the context
that he was operating in, like you know, it wasn't
perfect by any stretch, but I felt like there were

(53:54):
things to cling to in each of those first three years.
If at the end of the four season, if at
the end of an individual season, we're wondering about the
team's effort, we're wondering about the team's collective give a crap,
then that's that's really hard and for most folks, that's

(54:16):
going to reflect on the head coach, especially when you
don't have a lot of pelts on the wall to
begin with. But this season, this was for me at least,
supposed to be the year where they took care of
business on a regular enough basis against inferior opponents and
equal opponents that they would get in. I do not

(54:41):
recall before the season starting anybody talking about them competing
for a Big twelve championship or making the Sweet sixteen.
The expectations were not outsized. They may have become outsized
because they did play pretty well in November. I remember

(55:01):
when they beat Georgia Tech, which was on the road
in Atlanta, a very okay Georgia Tech team. Bearkatz looked
really good that day, and there a lot of folks
were like, man, this team might be really good. And
you know when they beat Xavier, which is kind of
a different entity onto itself, they beat Xavier. Oh good,
Xavior team, a saver team that's on the bubble right now,
you know, then it was like, all right, they checked
that box. Now the next one is get to the tournament.

(55:23):
This team can do that. I felt that way, and
so maybe expectations got a little outsized. Then maybe with
the the number fourteen ranking. I think they got as
high as fourteenth in the ap top twenty five. Maybe
some started to have visions of sweet sixteens dancing in
their head. For me, it was always get to the

(55:44):
NCAA tournament. Check that box. We're not gonna be talking
about a tournament drought anymore. Check that box. And by
the middle of the Big twelve season, not only were
we not talking about the NCAA tournament, we were just
wondering can this team consistently play hard? That's not progress,

(56:06):
It just isn't that. That's not moving forward. That's not
anything that makes anybody feel good about where the program
is going. Last caller use the word direction. Many have
often used the word identity. Find me a Bearcat fan,

(56:27):
and I'll show you someone who is wondering, A what
is the current direction of this program? And B what's
its identity? And I know we are in a different age.
It's almost entirely unfair to compare anything with any college
basketball program ten years ago, fifteen years ago, twenty years ago, heck,

(56:50):
maybe even five years ago to the climate and era
we're in now. I understand that, But for most of
us who deeply care about this program, we spent most
of our lives being able to tell anybody who cared
A what the identity is and b what the current

(57:12):
direction of the program is. You can't do that now.
It's at least really hard to do that now. And
when that's the case, and the coach is going into
his fifth season and there's a lot of fan disaffection

(57:34):
and there's a great amount of uncertainty, not just regarding
the roster, which there is with every program, but I
think a lot of folks look at the team this
year and have a hard time wrapping their brains around
which players they really want back. But it adds up
to a really weird, really awkward, and frankly not good environment.

(57:55):
Twenty one minutes after four o'clock, you're gonna hear from
Matt McLean and Elie de la Cruz and Terry Frank
Kna coming up. More of your phone calls are welcome.
In addition to all that, And uh, Bengals haven't done
anything today, not sure how much.

Speaker 6 (58:08):
Top happy, new league.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Coppy, new league, and the new league year is underway.
Oh wait, the Bengals did make an official They are
resigning bj Hill. The Bengals realize they have a chance
to be pretty good this year, right, that's coming up
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 13 (58:23):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
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Learn more at UCHealth dot com. Gilbert Avenue, it is
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Speaker 1 (59:00):
A service of Kelsey Chevrolet Home of lifetime powertrain protection
and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for
life kelseyshev dot com. Uh, it's not sports headline time,
is it. Well, I'll tell you this. Reds are playing
the Rangers. Jock Peterson a three run home r A
Christian and karnassion strand error not helping the Red's cause.

(59:23):
In the bottom of the first inning, Nick Martinez on
the mount for Cincinnati Texas lead Cincinnati three zip as
the Rangers get set to come to the plate in
the bottom of the second. The rest of the sports
headlines I will do at the time that we designate
for sports headlines. I am a disorganized mess some days. Well,
put all the sports headline stuff over there. We'll do

(59:43):
it at four thirty five. Between now and then, Vernon,
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty Vernon, Thank you for your patients.
How are you, Vernon? I hear something happening about Vernon,
vern Vernon. We think Vernon's okay. Should we just leave

(01:00:05):
Vernon's line open while we continue the rest of the show. No,
I just put them on and put them on hold,
like there's there's something going on in them. I hope
Vernon's okay. Is it one of those deals like when
when Mike calls us and we go to him and
he's like, you know, yelling at somebody or something. Maybe
maybe Jim is in Westchester. Hi, Jim, I hope you're there.
Are you with Vernon?

Speaker 8 (01:00:26):
Well we first time, longtime brother, so we're definitely here.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
Oh nice to have.

Speaker 8 (01:00:30):
You, Yeah, nice, nice to talk to you. So question
would be prefacing with I've been a season ticket holder
with U SEE since nineteen ninety seven and been through
some good times, been through some bad times, off and on,
and it just seems like over the last pretty much

(01:00:55):
Luke or when Nick left, you know, Luke's gone. It's
just both, you know, football in basketball, it's like, man,
it's just a bomber and I'm hardcore. I don't, I don't,
I never have. I don't do the kids. You know,

(01:01:18):
that's just principally speaking, that's just how we roll. But
it's like, man, the whole organization, It's like, is it
bigger than the kids? Is it? Is there something else
that you know? Is it the capability of getting better
coaches than how we're trending? You know, I don't know.

(01:01:40):
Those are my thoughts.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Well, an athletic director has a lot of responsibilities, but
ultimately what they're judged by most, and understandably so are
there hires with regard to the head football coaching position
and the men's basketball head coaching position. No disrespect to
other sports, but those are the two things that matter

(01:02:02):
most to the most amount of people. Well, John Cunningham
has hired a football coach who thus far has not
achieved very good results, and he's hired a basketball coach
who has yet to coach a game in the NCAA
Tournament at U See. And you know, look, you talked
about the history of the two sports. I think what
hurts John Cunningham right now, it hurts the school. What

(01:02:24):
hurts the athletic department right now is and over the
last thirty or so years, they've always at any particular time,
they've been good at one right like when Mick Cronin
was rebuilt in the basketball program, Brian Kelly had the
football program off and running and kind of post Mick.
In twenty nineteen when the basketball program dipped, Luke Fikele
had that football program on the way to a college

(01:02:45):
football playoff. Or right now U See's on the outside
looking into the NCAA Tournament for a six consecutive year,
and the UC football program has won over the last
two years a combined total of nine games. So that
doesn't help. But yeah, you are ultimately judged by who
you hire as football and men's basketball coaches, and right

(01:03:06):
now both are pretty unpopular, and uh, there's a great
amount of skepticism about both, and at some point that
folds into skepticism about the person who hires those positions.

Speaker 8 (01:03:18):
Yeah, that's you know, that's a ten thousand foot view.
You know, at one time having six basketball for football
and paying above above ticket prices, and it's like, this
is just this is a bummer. Yeah, it's sad, and

(01:03:38):
it's it's like, it's just discouraging and we love the Bearcats.
We bleed red and black. At one time, I was
aware of the fact that Nil, you know, Luke was
you know, not a big believer in it and was
trying to be steadfast with you know, you know one

(01:04:00):
through four years of playing in his program, and might
have been one of the reasons why there wasn't a
lot of support Nil here. And it's like, and again,
whose call is that?

Speaker 10 (01:04:12):
Is that his?

Speaker 8 (01:04:14):
You know, times are changing, But isn't that more of
the direction of the ad than the coaches?

Speaker 9 (01:04:21):
Sure?

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
Sure, now, I I mean, look, UC's roster was not
cheap this year. You know they have by playing for
free now, So I don't want to say the Nil
piece has been rectified. I think when you are starting
from the the somewhat behind position that you see was
starting in by the time they embraced it, you know,
you still have some catching up to do. It's I

(01:04:42):
think it's more complex than people realize. But you know,
we're we're not talking about a college football team that
has failed to qualify for the playoffs. We're talking about
one that over the last couple of years has failed
to qualify for ball games that honestly got worse as
the season went on over the final five games last year.
And a basketball team that with you know, they weren't

(01:05:04):
bringing in players from mid majors, they weren't bringing in
players from lower level conferences. They they had what they had,
and then they added a player from usc They added
one two years ago from Kentucky and Iowa. They added
Semas Lucash's came from from Butler. You know, they added
Dylan Mitchell from Texas. I mean, this, this team, the collection,

(01:05:25):
the the individual parts are supposed to add up to
a hole that's better than what we saw, regardless of
what they're getting paid. And ultimately the inability to do
that might not solely fall on wes Miller, but most
of it is. And then if you look at the
failures of wes Miller and the failures of Scott Saderfield
relative to what everybody's expectations were, who hired him, it's

(01:05:48):
John Cunningham, and so yeah, I think there's a lot
of iyre being aimed at him, and I think he'd
be the first to tell you understandably.

Speaker 8 (01:05:55):
So yeah, and I appreciate what you're saying. It's just
you and Lance for such a long time. I don't
hear a lot of it starts at the top or
you know, expectations of of doing better than who they've hired.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
Look, this was this was a basketball program that from
nineteen ninety two through twenty nineteen missed the NCAA Tournament
five times. They've they've now missed it six consecutive years, So.

Speaker 8 (01:06:27):
Going to the basketball banquets, I mean that was the last.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
So so I mean that. Yeah, that's and you could,
you can, you could certainly factor into the conversation the
difficulty of moving up from the AAC to the Big twelve.
We all understand that. But for folks like yourself, who
you know, are longtime basketball followers, you know, to have
the program not in that, not even in the NCUBAA

(01:06:52):
tournament conversation leading up to selection Sunday, when it was
a mainstay for close to three decades, that's really hard
pill to swallow. Then you add to it, it's a
college football program that three years ago was playing for
a national championship, that had just authored back to back
undefeated seasons. The twenty twenty year was a little bit

(01:07:14):
different because of COVID, but over the course of two
regular seasons, won twenty one consecutive games, and now in
consecutive years are not qualifying for a bowl game. So
you know, Scott Saderfield's in charge of one, Wes Miller's
in charge of one. John Cunningham's in charge of both,
and so yeah, I would imagine that if you talk
to a lot of your fellow season ticket holders or

(01:07:37):
people that operate in your your circle of friends who
love UC sports, they're gonna express a lot of dissatisfaction
with the director of athletics. Jim I got a run man,
Thank you very.

Speaker 8 (01:07:47):
Much, Thanks for the call.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
Appreciate it all right, Thank you you called me. It's
twenty five away from five. We'll hear from some reds
and we'll hear more from you.

Speaker 14 (01:07:56):
Next.

Speaker 13 (01:07:56):
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's esp Yeah fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. When it comes
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Speaker 6 (01:08:34):
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kelseyshew dot com. Reds are still losing three nothing in
a game that doesn't count Jock Peterson a three run
homer off Nick Martinez, Cincinnati batting in the top of
the third. UC lost to Iowa State in the Big
twelve tournament today seventy six to fifty six. Ohio State

(01:09:00):
a Big Ten Tournament game tonight against Iowa. The Buck
guys could badly use a win to bolster their NCAA
tournament resume. That is obviously a game if you're a
Xavier fan. You're paying close attention to the Musketeers taking
on Marquette tomorrow in the Big East Tournament. A couple
of other games involving quote bubble teams North Carolina one
today over Notre Dame by the same score of the

(01:09:21):
Bearcats lost two seventy six to fifty six. That in
the ACC Tournament. The tar Hills will go up against
Georgia Tech tomorrow. Arkansas feels like they're in. John Callaperi's
team did what he often didn't do in recent years
of Kentucky. They won an SEC tournament game, the Razorbacks,
knocking off South Carolina by a score of seventy two

(01:09:42):
to sixty eight. Tonight Oklahoma plays Georgia. Those are two
teams that each could use a resume boost winning or
that one will take on Kentucky tomorrow night. A couple
of other scores. If you still care about the Big
twelve Tournament, West Virginia leeds Colorado forty six to four two.
The Mountaineers feel like they're in no matter what. In fact,

(01:10:03):
our guy, Nky Brackett Guy has them as a nine seed.
Big East Tournament happening right now at Madison Square Garden.
Butler a first half lead over Providence thirty to twenty seven.
Neither of those teams anywhere close to being an at large.
Bj Hill has signed his contract extension with the Bengals,
was originally reported earlier this week. Bengals made that official

(01:10:24):
just a few minutes ago, and same for the signing
of Marco Wilson. One other Red's note, really quick, remember
Connor Bowen. Connor Bowman probably not, don't need to remember him.
He has been sent back to the A's after being
taken by the Reds and the Rule five draft. The
Reds were the subject of thirty clubs in fifteen days

(01:10:45):
on MLB Network. This is a good series. This is
a good series though, if you watch, if you watch
all of these for all thirty teams, they would make
you feel like each one of Major League Baseball's thirty
teams is not only a World Series contender, but a
World Series face. Here is Brian Kenny and Mark de
Rosa with Red's manager Terry Francona.

Speaker 8 (01:11:09):
Down three.

Speaker 6 (01:11:10):
You know, I know, you know what?

Speaker 16 (01:11:11):
Hey, they couldn't you know what, be more fortunate to
have you back, do you.

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
I'm gonna tell you truth, I was not thinking about
coming back manager.

Speaker 6 (01:11:18):
Really no, I had a good year. I really did.

Speaker 3 (01:11:20):
When they came and I caught myself early on like saying, hey,
well we could do this week, and I'm like, whoa, whoa.

Speaker 6 (01:11:25):
Whoa slow. So now it just felt right.

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
It felt right twelve years ago when I was in Cleveland,
and it felt right again.

Speaker 6 (01:11:31):
I like where I'm at and that's a good thing.

Speaker 9 (01:11:33):
Man.

Speaker 16 (01:11:33):
Yeah, So when you walk in you addressed the guys
for the first time, what was the message.

Speaker 3 (01:11:38):
I probably got a little charged up, because you know,
I can get a little excited talking about baseball. But
with this group, when you talk to them, like they
look at you and they nod and they listen. I mean,
they want to get better. And I pulled them. I said,
we're going to go through this together. It's not like
when we play good. It's it's awesome when we play bad.
As you We'll do this together. And that's how I've

(01:12:00):
always felt.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
What is it like to manage Elie Delacruz. That's a
different person, right, What.

Speaker 3 (01:12:05):
Do you think great person? I mean, if I had
his town, I'd be that happy too.

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
What's the right number for a guy who is the
best base dealer?

Speaker 9 (01:12:12):
Of the game.

Speaker 3 (01:12:13):
The right number for me is more how much are
you successful, not the actual number. If we can run
the bases aggressively and that added intelligence were.

Speaker 16 (01:12:21):
Good, the game begins and ends on the mound. You
know that you got a frontline guy and Hunter Green.
You got guys that are ready to take that next
step the road.

Speaker 3 (01:12:31):
Truth be told, they've all got nicked up a little
bit along the way. We got to keep healthy. Hunter
Green like a lot of good young players. He looks
ready to take another step. Lodolo's right behind him. And
we got singer from Kansas City. I love his professionalism.

Speaker 6 (01:12:45):
That's why you're perfect.

Speaker 3 (01:12:47):
They're good for me, though sometimes I'm like, yeah, it's
the other way around. These guys are energizing me. Like
talk to Matt McClain for five minutes or freedom. I mean,
it's fun man.

Speaker 6 (01:12:58):
One last thing, how is your health?

Speaker 5 (01:13:00):
How are you holding up these days?

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
I think I'm okay. I wouldn't have done this if
I didn't feel all right. I get up in the
morning and make myself swim at five point thirty, and
when I do that, I can actually move around. Some
days I use this for a fungo. Some days for
a cane. I told the coaches there'll be days when
I got to get off my legs, but I'm just
trying to keep it to a minimum because I want
to be able to do my job, and I didn't

(01:13:22):
feel like at the end in Cleveland, I was doing
my job the way you're supposed to do and it
really bothered me.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
So there you go, Terry Francona on an MLB network.
Not a lot of new stuff there. I will just
Terry Francona when he retired from the Cleveland Guardians at
the end of the twenty twenty three season. I saw
it every Terry Francona interview he did, cause he's just
a fun guy to listen to. The Reds might lose

(01:13:48):
one hundred and twenty games this year, I don't think
they will. Terry Francona is probably still gonna be fun
to listen to. In fact, I think he'd be fun
to listen to in the face of massive failure. I
don't think the Reds will experience massive failure. You'll hear
a little bit later on more of that from Ellie
de la Cruz. Am getting up at five am for anything.
If I'm getting up at five am. My house better

(01:14:10):
be on fire. Getting up at five thirty to swim. Now,
if you said, hey, we're going to get up at
five thirty in the morning and do some cocktails in
the pool, maybe do a bloody Mary in the maybe
not that early, I might roll over and go. Can
we get to seven getting up at five thirty in swimming?

Speaker 9 (01:14:29):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
The list of activities I will get up at five
thirty in the morning for is very very very small,
very small. I've done afternoon drive radio for seventeen years.
The first five years I worked for this company, I
worked with Jim Scott, and I had to get to
work at four fifteen in the morning. And now like

(01:14:51):
that is a lifestyle. I have friends who work in
like TV. They do TV morning shows, get they get
up at one o'clock in the morning. God love you
for doing that. And I know like third shift workers,
second shift workers getting up at five thirty in the
morning for anything. No, I will never do morning radio ever.
I just I'm a night out. I stay up late,
I sleep. I don't sleep in as much as I

(01:15:13):
used to because I get my daughter ready for school
and got to have her dropped off by like eight
forty five. We're not getting up at five thirty for that.
No chance in hell, much less to go swimming. There's
the big takeaway from that segment. Let's should we try
Vernon again before we break? Vernon? Are you there this time? Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:15:37):
I'm here.

Speaker 10 (01:15:37):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 1 (01:15:38):
I can hear you? Can you hear me?

Speaker 14 (01:15:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (01:15:41):
That's right. I'm sorry about that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
Sure.

Speaker 10 (01:15:43):
Yeah, you got to try my work schedule. I have
to be to work at two, so I'm up at one.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
Oh oh, Vernon, I God love you.

Speaker 10 (01:15:49):
I couldn't do it and doing this for close to.

Speaker 1 (01:15:53):
Seventy you're a better person than me.

Speaker 10 (01:15:58):
You're talking about this Crown Tournament. Yeah, I wouldn't take
them boys to the zoo. I really wouldn't. You would
because they wouldn't just they wouldn't do what the coach
tells them to do. This is this. You You ran
off eight games that they could have won, five games
that they should have won. And I've heard the same

(01:16:21):
thing all year. Effort, effort, effort, effort. Okay, that boys
down the coature. So you can't get these boys to play.
You may not be the coach for them because you
obviously can't get the wants to play that you recruited,
you know, that's that you can't. So that means you
can't take them nowhere. It was a few years ago.

(01:16:43):
There was a tournament that they went to, some little
clown tournament that they had to like round the players up.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
The CBI two thousand and eight, they played Bradley. Yes,
the CBI. They had to call the kids off of
spring break to go play.

Speaker 10 (01:16:56):
Right, And if I'm gonna have tael classes and all
this other stuff, now we're dealing with n I A
and you know now they're trying to get paid. Yeah,
well so I wouldn't waste no time. Nobody's gonna be
watching that anyway, because we're, like you said, we'll be
into the final four. I think Houston will win it all,
Houston or Auburns. You know, Houston's players look like they

(01:17:20):
just got off work.

Speaker 1 (01:17:24):
They do. They're grown men.

Speaker 10 (01:17:27):
Yeah, they like they've just grown ass men. Out here
with the wife and the kids in the car. They're
gonna play some basketball, baby, and I'd be on home.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
You know.

Speaker 10 (01:17:38):
So I just I just don't see the purpose of
them going out there unlessed some money involved and getting embarrassed.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
So but I think this is I think this is
the thing about it. Though in years past you could
say no to an n I T bid, the way
this is structured, my understanding is because of the Crowns
agreement with the Big Twelve. If if you qualify, you
are required to send a team. The question is, given

(01:18:06):
the fact that that tournament starts in nineteen days, who's
going to be on your team? Yeah, let's let's just
say you're a player on the Bearcats with options and
another program is telling you, here's the nil money, here's
the scholarship. Leave Now are you not gonna leave because
you're gonna go play in the Crown Now, maybe you
could figure out a way to double dip I. Just

(01:18:28):
in an era where wor see where we are seeing
players opt out of bowl games, why are players not
going to opt out of a college basketball tournament that
doesn't mean all that much.

Speaker 10 (01:18:38):
Yeah, and who wants to see a team with eighteen losses?
Who's trying to see that?

Speaker 6 (01:18:44):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:18:45):
Yeah, I mean it's at the end of the day,
it's it's at the end of the day, it's it's
it's the problem with watching these second rate tournaments that
aren't the NCAA tournament. The difference here is there isn't
nil component, which at face value is supposed to incentivized
players to play in it. But again, you're talking about
the school may be required to send a team. I

(01:19:06):
don't know that anybody on the team is required to go.

Speaker 10 (01:19:10):
Yes, I think that's gonna be a waste of time.
But that's all I had. Did the Bingles sign any
more of guys that works with CBS. They don't know
who the hell these these cornerbacks are that was on
the team that I never even noticed.

Speaker 1 (01:19:24):
No, they haven't signed any any corners yet, Vernon, I hate.

Speaker 9 (01:19:28):
To tell you.

Speaker 10 (01:19:29):
Okay, okay, all right, well oh right, well hopefully nobody
breaks the nobody's house and we'll be good.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
That would be That would best. That's something that's general,
thank you, Vernon. As a general rule. I hope that
that's not the case. You know, really quick on the era,
we're in a college basketball like we talk about, like, well,
college bowl games work, and I'm as pro nil as anybody,
and I'm as pro portal as anybody. We're going to
have a player opt out of the NCAA tournament one day.

(01:19:59):
We we already have because of just how things are
structured on the calendar. Miami. The University of Miami hired
j Lucas, a duke assistant coach who coached his last
game for the Blue Devils on Saturday, not sticking around
for the conference tournament, not sticking around for the NCAA tournament,
And you cannot blame him because of how quickly things

(01:20:22):
start to churn once the offseason begins. That crown thing
is very very interesting to me because sixteen teams who
are going to be on those teams. We are way late,
eight away from five ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 13 (01:20:36):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
UC Health Traffic Center. When it comes to stroke, every
second counts. That's why the u SEE Health Comprehensive Stroke
Learn more at ucehealth dot com. Northbound seventy five after
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another accident on the right shoulder near Ezra Charles Drive

(01:21:04):
on Main Street. It's an accident between ninth and Court Street.
Pedestrianstruck their Police on scene. I at Ezelk with traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:21:12):
This report.

Speaker 1 (01:21:20):
That's me come a away from five o'clock. If you
missed Paul Danner Junior yesterday, what were you doing? What
was so damned port? We had a one hour long
discussion about the Bengals. If you missed it, it's available
on the iHeartRadio app. Also get it on the podcast
page of ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. Podcast of this
show are a service of Longneck Sports Grill, which is

(01:21:44):
an awesome place to watch college hoops if you're in
northern Kentucky and if you're a UK fan, well, tomorrow
night Kentucky plays, you should go watch the game at
Longneck's Wilder Hebrin and rich Wood. So Paul and I
a lot to talk about as it relates to the Bengals,
because seemingly there's a lot going on, but at the
same time, there's nothing going on because they haven't exactly

(01:22:07):
been that active in free agency. And so I asked
him yesterday, right around quarter after three, how would you
assess what the Bengals have done in free agency to
that point? And he gave me an answer. Well more
than twenty four hours later, I can ask him the

(01:22:28):
same question and he can give me the same answer
because nothing has changed. So go listen to the entire segment.
We covered the Bengals in free agency, including obviously their players.
They apparently want to try to resign in so much more.
Go get that segment on the iHeartRadio app. I do
have a question for the Bengals and I will ask
it coming up here at five oh five. The UC

(01:22:52):
conversation has been good today. We'll keep that up as
well on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 14 (01:22:56):
Men, this is listening to the Home of the Bengals,
ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
What's up. This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moweger. Thank
you for listening. Three minutes after five o'clock today. Been busy,
been busy, good day today, minus the results in Kansas City.
I got some Bengals stuff. We haven't really done much
on the Bengals today, to be honest, Bengals, it's kind
of weird right now. Today is the start of the
league year. There have been few teams in the NFL

(01:23:26):
in the week leading up or the week or so
leading up to free agency that have been talked about
more than the Bengals. So on one level, it feels
like there's a lot going on right Jamar, Chase t Higgins,
Trey Hendrickson, Joe Burrows comments, and then free agency. It
feels like lots of stuff. On the other hand, they've

(01:23:48):
been very inactive. We found out about the two players
they have agreed to terms with. Neither have been made official.
The new league year is just starting today. That was
on Monday. Since then, nothing so like. On one hand it
has felt like chaos and a lot of stuff happening,

(01:24:08):
and then on the other inactivity. I have a question
for the Cincinnati Bengals. I will ask it coming up
in just about fifteen minutes. We'll have a poll question
for you here in just a few minutes on Twitter
at Mulegar thanks to United Heartland Insurance. It to be
about the UC basketball season, which I hate to say

(01:24:30):
effectively came to an end today, But it effectively came
to an end today. Look, one thing matters in college basketball.
Do you make the NCAA Tournament. Now, let's be honest
about this. Most of us assumed, I'll say new the
Bearcats were gonna have to win the Big Twelve tournament
to make the NCAA tournament. But you woke up this
morning and at least that was a possibility, if not realistically,

(01:24:54):
at least mathematically right, at least from the standpoint of
stranger things have happened, or you never know. Well, now
you do know. Oh, the Bearcats lost to Iowa Stay today,
seventy six to fifty six. This game was never really
in doubt. The Bearcats did cut the Iowa State lead
to three in the second half. They couldn't get stops.

(01:25:15):
The Cyclone shot fifty four percent. They couldn't get buckets.
Bad combination, not getting stops, not getting buckets. Cincinnati shot
thirty three percent at halftime. You see, had eight made
field goals and seven turnovers. It was a miracle. They
were only down by seven points. They got their tails
kicked on the glass. Cincinnati had thirteen defensive rebounds. Iowa

(01:25:37):
State had eleven offensive rebounds. The overall rebounding margin eighteen
forty one to twenty three. Cincinnati loses in the Big
Twelve Tournament. The Bearcats are not going to the NCAA Tournament,
which is something we could have said all along, but
it's something we know now. They may play in the Crown.
I have no idea. Here's Wes Miller after the game.

Speaker 4 (01:25:59):
Obviously, our whole program was disappointed coming into the tournament
with our play the last week of the regular season,
and I was really proud of the way our guys
came here and responded. And I thought we played with
great effort yesterday, and I thought for thirty five minutes tonight,
we played with great effort.

Speaker 9 (01:26:19):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:26:19):
Again, I thought that our frustration kind of got the
best of us when it felt out of hand there
at the end, but our guys fought, and I thought
there was a lit on it a little bit tonight.
They're a great defensive team, but we generated some really
good shots tonight and just felt like we couldn't get
them to go like we wanted, but we kind of
stayed with it. And then I think Dylan's dunk at

(01:26:40):
fourteen left in the second half cuts it to three.

Speaker 5 (01:26:43):
We get it back to five a couple times.

Speaker 4 (01:26:45):
Like you know, I'm obviously not happy with the outcome
and disappointed, but we had our chances against a good team.

Speaker 6 (01:26:54):
Coach, what happens from here?

Speaker 7 (01:26:56):
Assuming you go to the Crown Tournament that's nineteen days
is away, what does the schedule look like? And I'm
sure you haven't really wrapped your head around that, but
that's a long time.

Speaker 10 (01:27:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:27:06):
Now, the the thing that we've been focused on is
trying to play in the ensub A Tournament, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:27:12):
And I think we were.

Speaker 4 (01:27:14):
Fortieth in the net before we played Kansas State at
home less than a week ago, right, so it felt
within reach.

Speaker 5 (01:27:21):
You come here.

Speaker 4 (01:27:22):
We felt like we could play with everybody in this
league and make a run here. So that's been our
We haven't talked about anything past past that at this point.

Speaker 5 (01:27:32):
And I think the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:27:34):
That that that I told our guys in the locker
room is, and Gisel just echoed it a little bit,
is listen, man, we're disappointed to be in the position
we're in. We felt like we had a team that
could make a run in the ENSUBLA Tournament, not just
before the season started, but a bunch of points throughout
the year.

Speaker 1 (01:27:54):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:27:54):
The thing that I implored each of them to do,
and I think we need to do the same thing
a staff, every one of us is to take what we.

Speaker 5 (01:28:04):
Experience this year and learn from it.

Speaker 4 (01:28:07):
Like this, this can be a very very valuable thing
for all of us moving forward if we'll learn from it.
There's a lot of lessons to be learned this year,
and to me, that's that's again my mindset right now
is there, and my mindset is, you know, getting this
team back to Cincinnati.

Speaker 7 (01:28:26):
Would you have enough if you've got into another pun.

Speaker 5 (01:28:30):
I hadn't thought about it.

Speaker 4 (01:28:31):
I didn't thought about anything other than the NCAA Tournament
at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:28:34):
His mindset is to get him back to Cincinnati. He's
not flying the plane, right Vus Miller after today's a
loss to Iowa State thus concludes the NCAA Tournament. Hopeful
portion of what I think goes down as a massively
disappointing season. I've thrown out the poll question on Twitter

(01:28:55):
at Mulleger thanks to United Heartland Insurance. Whatever you're in
surance needs are United Heartland Insurance can help make sure
you check out uhi ns dot com. The season a
massive disappointment, B minor speed bump here is what I
hope for. I hope that four or five years from

(01:29:18):
now we look back at the season as a minor
speed bump. Many I think Chad Brenda and I have
talked about this have compared this season to two thousand
and nine twenty ten, which if you remember, and it's
been a while now that was the Lan Stevenson year,
and that was a year where in October and November,
when we found out UC was getting Lan Stevenson, we
talked about like, all right, wait has been long enough.

(01:29:39):
This is year four for Mick get to the NCAA Tournament.
And that team never really completely came together, lost in
the NIT to Dayton, and it was it was pretty
clear by the time we got to early February, mid
February like that this team was not going to live
up to expectation, was not a tournament team, and was

(01:30:02):
going to go down as a disappointment. Now, that was
the last year under Mick Cronin that the Bearcats failed
to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. They made it the
next year, won a game. Two years later made the
Sweet sixteen, and while they had a whole slew of
postseason early exits, from that point moving forward, they never

(01:30:22):
again missed the NCAA Tournament. And so history we'll look
at that season and say minor speed bump, and maybe
that's the case. Maybe next year's U SEE team with
some of these guys is really really good. I think
it's fair to wonder how many of these guys are
gonna be here. I think it's fair to wonder how
many of these guys are they gonna want to be here.
But I certainly hope to God that six seven years

(01:30:44):
from now, we look back at this season ago man,
in real time. That was a tremendous disappointment. They did
not live up to expectation. It was extraordinarily frustrating to
watch them. But you know what, at the end of
the day, they've proven to be NCAA tournament mays. Maybe
they're competing for a conference title or two. By the way,
this might sound really far fetched right now, I hope

(01:31:07):
that's the case. Sometimes sometimes subsequent events can impact how
we look back on something that's happening right now. I
hope that made sense. I hope we can look at
this season down the road as yes, frustrating, but you
know what, it was something that they learned from, or

(01:31:30):
something they got better from, or something that just kind
of had to happen before things got better. Maybe that's
the case moving forward. It's hard to feel that way
right now. This feels like a massive disappointment, And I
know I've gone down this road before before the season began.

(01:31:52):
If I would have said on November the first I
believe you see basketball this year, they're going to finish
with seven regular season league wins. You would have called
me stupid. If I would have said, not only will
they not make the NCAA Tournament, but on Selection Sunday,
we're not even going to entertain the possibility they make
the NCAA tournament, you would have set them out of

(01:32:13):
my mind. If at various points in November and even December,
I would have said, you know what, I'm just not there.
They're not gonna make it, you would have said you're nuts,
And yet here we are. I couldn't find anybody. I
couldn't find anybody who hates UC basketball who told me,

(01:32:34):
who would have told me in October or November or
even early December mode they're not going to make the tournament.
They were picked to finish sixth in the Big Twelve,
which we all looked at and said, yes, that's realistic,
that's reasonable. They're not yet in the conversation with Houston,
Iowa State, Kansas, Arizona, Texas Tech. As it turns out

(01:32:55):
BYU they're not there, but they could be in that
next rung. And if they're in that next run and
they're not only in the tournament, they're safely in the tournament,
and maybe they can win a game in the tournament
instead on the outside looking in. And while they did
have a stretch in mid February late February where they
played pretty well, most of us stopped expecting the tournament

(01:33:18):
a long time ago. I'd say massive disappointment. That is
an incredible disappointment. But it's not, you know, it's not
just that, it's that it is hard to feel like
things are moving in the right direction. I think it's
fair to say it is that it is really hard

(01:33:41):
to articulate specifically what the identity of this program is.
And I do think that's hard to carry over year
to year to year in this day and age, relative
to ten, fifteen years ago. I think that's fair. But still,
and it's that things that made up the UC basketball
identity for decades were often absent this season. You just

(01:34:04):
heard Wes Miller reference effort for thirty five minutes. Two
things about that. Number One, he didn't say forty minutes,
and the length of the game today was forty minutes.
Number Two, that shouldn't have to be said. You shouldn't
have to point out when your team plays hard, because
it's supposed to be built in. And for years, and
this isn't the only program, for sure, but for years,

(01:34:25):
you just assumed it. You assume that NOE no matter
what the composition of the team was, no matter what
they had, no matter their strengths or weaknesses, no matter
which league they were in, no matter how good the
team was, effort was always built in. It was always there.
Toughness was always built in, was always there. You see,
got out rebounded by eighteen today. Not the first time

(01:34:46):
that's happened. And so you combined the disappointing results with
the withering away of a program's identity, and by the way,
that comes from the coach. The coach is the one
who has talked about lack of effort this season, as

(01:35:08):
we all have. It's hard to feel good about things
right now.

Speaker 4 (01:35:11):
It just is.

Speaker 1 (01:35:14):
And there have been times where you know, I've been
accused with certain teams of setting the bar too high.
I think a lot of Reds fans were guilty of
this last year. You know, they won eighty two games
in twenty twenty three, and so that just automatically assume
they're gonna win like ninety this year, and you know,
you didn't want to be the guy that said, hey,
tap the brakes a little bit, it's not going to

(01:35:35):
be that surprising if they take a little bit of
a step backwards this year. I think there are some
Reds fans who last year you could say, we're a
little bit guilty of getting kind of ahead of themselves.
And maybe that was the lesson from last year, right
that they overachieved so much in twenty twenty three that
it was a little bit unreasonable to set the bar

(01:35:57):
so high for twenty twenty four. I don't think our
expectations were outsized this year. Nobody. Nobody was talking about,
you know, the Bearcats. They could win the Big twelve title.
You know, they could be a top three, top four
seed in the NAA Tournament. They could make the Sweet sixteen. Yeah,
they're a Final four dark horse. It was just have
your name on the screen on selection Sunday, get in

(01:36:22):
his goat playing date in the first four. You could
break down today's game if you want. I think one
of the frustrating things is they're still playing games that
you know they have almost no chance of winning. This
was not the first one this year. It was not
the first win against Iowa State. But what doomed this
team this season wasn't losing to Iowa State, wasn't losing

(01:36:44):
to Houston, wasn't losing to Arizona. It was the games
they lost that put them in a position late in
the year to almost have to go to Houston and win,
which is a really tough ask. It was the games
they lost this season to put them in a position
to have to win the Big Twelve tournament. And in
order to win the Big Twelve Tournament, you have to
beat Iowa State on a neutral floor, and if you don't,

(01:37:06):
your season's over. I'm talking about the game to Villanova
early in the season. We knew it at the time
that Villanova team wasn't very good, weren't terrible. Not an
NCAA tournament team. Two losses this season, the Kansas State
not a tournament team. Two losses this year to an
Okay West Virginia team that's a tournament team, but a

(01:37:27):
second maybe third tier, second or third tier Big Twelve team.
The road lost to Utah, the road lost to Oklahoma State.
You're allowed slip ups, You're allowed to lose games to
teams you shouldn't lose to. It happens, there are upsets.
It's hard to win every game in your conference, especially
on the road, but there were way too many of
them this year, and that shrunk the margin of errors

(01:37:49):
so much that they had to beat teams that quite frankly,
they're not as good as not even close, that outmanned them,
outsize them, out tough in them, outskill them. And this
was a year where I thought a lot of us
thought that was gonna change. Not that they would win
all those games, but that they wouldn't have. I make

(01:38:11):
it about those nine games. K State twice, Oklahoma State, Utah, Villanova, Baylor,
West Virginia one in eight in those games, those are
either non NCAA tournament teams or tournament teams that are
going to get in as nine or ten seeds. Yes,

(01:38:31):
they did beat teams like Georgia Tech, and they beat Dayton,
who has turned out to be a little bit of
a disappointment this year. In fact, I think a lot
of bit of a disappointment this year. It all adds
up to not only a massively disappointing season, but an
environment where Wes Miller is going to go into year five.
I'm not sure there's been this must this much distrust

(01:38:54):
in the head coach as you're going to have going
into his fifth season. That you see. You may not
like me saying that. Wes Miller, I'm sure would not
like me saying that, but I think that is the case.
I think if you did a canvas of one thousand
UC fans and said, do you trust Wes Miller to
get this done? And by get this done, I mean
like get the Bearcats back in the national conversation, most

(01:39:16):
are going to say no. And I think this was
a season where you thought, you know what, they can
start to take the steps toward being back in the
national conversation. And the first step you take is you're
in the big dance, and instead they're not only not
in the big dance. It feels like this year the

(01:39:36):
program took a bit of a step backward. Twenty minutes
after five o'clock, your phone calls are coming up. The
u SE conversation has been fun today, even if the
topic itself is for me at least kind of painful.
Plus a question for the Bengals next ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 13 (01:39:50):
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Speaker 1 (01:40:28):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moagar. Thank you for
listening today. We've been light on the Bengals so far
this afternoon because the Bengals really haven't done anything today. Urgency.
All I can do. It's five twenty five in the afternoon, Wednesday,
March twelfth. All I can do is react right now

(01:40:49):
to what has happened so far, and what has happened
so far, and maybe this changes, Maybe this changes and
the conversation's different. Twenty four hours from now, Maybe the
conversation changes and things are different an hour from now,
maybe in ten minutes maybe by the end of the show.
All I could do is react to what has happened
so far as it relates to the Bengals and free agency.

(01:41:14):
So my reaction is this. It could change. My reaction
right now is this that if you were to judge
how last year's team was and how good it was,
how it performed, by what the Bengals have done so
far in free agency, you would think last year's team
did not have the deficiencies that it had. The Bengals

(01:41:41):
had offensive line issues last year, right like that was
the thing that happened. I did not imagine that correct.
So far, have you heard or read anything about the
Bengals signing an interior offensive lineman. There are still some
good players availablem Guy Beckden is a guy that I
really like. First round flame out from the Jets, goes
to Philly, change's positions, ends up playing very well. Last

(01:42:04):
I saw. He is still out there. Kevin Zeitler, old friend,
He is still out there. Tevin Jenkins. We asked Paul
Danner about him yesterday. To the best of my knowledge,
he hasn't signed anywhere. And so there are still some
guys available, and maybe the Bengals end up with one.
But based on what we saw the Bengals need last year,
this week has been pretty underwhelming. They needed offensive line

(01:42:26):
help now. I know they brought back Cody Ford, which
is fine. They haven't yet gotten it. We watched the
Bengals last year have no real pass rush beyond one guy.
Now that one guy is still here, Trey Hendrickson and
should play for the Bengals this season. That's my expectation.
I think that's everybody's expectation right now. Aside from Trey Hendrickson,

(01:42:49):
have they made the pass rush better? The answer is no.
Safety play was a problem last year. Now maybe they're
gonna run it back. It feels like they will with
Geno Stone, maybe Jordan Battles a part of that mix.
Have they made safety play any better using free agency?
Have they made cornerback play? Have they added to the
depth at that position in the secondary? I'm very okay

(01:43:13):
with giving a lot of these guys they've drafted a
chance under a new defensive coordinator. Have they ensured themselves
at all so far using free agency? No, it doesn't
feel like urgency is the word that would apply to
the Bengals approach and free agency yet it feels like

(01:43:34):
urgency should apply to everything they do because they have
a chance to be really good next year. Like I
kind of want to ask them this simply put you guys,
realize you have a chance to be really good next year, right,
Like you know who your quarterback is? You know. I

(01:43:55):
think they're in a very unique place. I think they're
in a very unique place in the overall landscape. I
think they're in a very unique place relative to their
own franchise history. They have a quarterback who could claim
to be the best in the NFL. You may believe

(01:44:16):
it's Josh Allen, or you may believe it's Lamar Jackson,
or you may believe it's Patrick Mahomes. But nobody would
laugh at you if you said Joe Burrow is the
best quarterback in the National Football League. He is the
best at playing the position of quarterback. Nobody would laugh
at you for saying that. It's not like you're saying,
you know who the best in the league of playing
quarterback is, it's that Kenny Pickett. Like, no, it's a

(01:44:36):
legitimate claim. I believe, for the first time in their history,
they could claim that they have the best quarterback in
the National Football League. They have a twenty eight year
old QB who has had MVP caliber seasons, multiple MVP

(01:44:57):
caliber seasons. He has checked every There is no amount
of uncertainty regarding Joe Burrow's game, skill level, level of commitment,
leadership capabilities. Like he's it. He is exactly what NFL
teams and fans dream of having, like they've got one
of them. It's like dating a supermodel man like everybody

(01:45:19):
else looks at I wish I had that. Do you
know how many teams would love and would love to
have under contract for the foreseeable future? Joe Burrow. I'll
go ahead and say it. He is the best quarterback
in franchise history. He is going into his sixth NFL season.

(01:45:40):
The clock is ticking. He has made public statements about
what he wants to see you do. He has shown
vividly his frustration with how seasons have gone. You have
to take advantage of this. By the way, want to
build up some goodwill as it relates to your stadium
situation in the public. Take advantage of this. You have

(01:46:02):
been given a gift. It is the ultimate gift in
all of sports. A high end MVP caliber quarterback. Who's
a great dude, a great leader, does everything you ever
could have asked, win with him, give him exactly what
he needs. Now, they're gonna have Jamar Chase this year,

(01:46:24):
and they're gonna have t Higgins this year, and it
looks like right now they're gonna have Trey Hendrickson this year.
But like there have been no real resolutions to any
of those things that would suggest there's less likely of
a offseason or training camp disturbance with one of those guys.
Like right now, it feels like there's gonna be something
a hold in, a hold out noise around training camp,

(01:46:48):
noise around OTA's noise around the preseason because of some
of these unresolved issues and some of that I think
you just have to live with. But you just you
kind of want to knock on their door and go,
like you realize what you have you how lies you
have a chance to be good? And if you realize
you have a chance to be good, it feels to
me like you're acting with some degree of urgency that
it doesn't feel like the Bengals are acting with now.

(01:47:10):
Like Danner said to us yesterday, well it feels like
at least from a defensive perspective. They're throwing the onus
on defensive coordinator. They're making it sound like, you know,
it was really lou An Arumo's fault, and so we'll
add a piece here or there on defense, But really
Al Golden's going to take these same guys and fix it.
And maybe that's the case, and maybe the new offensive
line coach is going to fix it without going and

(01:47:32):
getting a guard, although I still believe they're going to
go get one. And again, all I can do is
react to what has happened right now. But for a
franchise that is at such an interesting place where the
last two years have been underachievement and what's coming up
next is going to define the Joe Burrow era in Cincinnati,
I believe that the next not five years, six years,

(01:47:54):
ten years, the next three will define the Joe Burrow
era in Cincinnati. If they're going to win a super
Bowl with him, chances are it's more likely to come
years six through eight than years nine through twelve. You
wouldn't know that by what's happened this week, now, would you? Again?

(01:48:15):
This could change. Maybe by the end of the week.
We are talking about, like you know, the Bengals kind
of had a really sneaky good first wave of free agency,
But with each passing day in this stretch of time
that they don't do anything to make the team better,
they shift the focus even further to the draft, and

(01:48:38):
the results there recently have been limited. Now, I am
very optimistic about their twenty twenty four draft class, So
remove that from the conversation here for just a second.
But if you look at the twenty twenty two, really,
if you look at the twenty twenty one, the twenty
twenty two and twenty twenty three drafts, not a lot
of they're there. As we say, so, the team that

(01:49:01):
hasn't drafted well recently, specifically on defense, has to get
some stuff done on defense. The more they don't get
some stuff done on defense and free agency and again
orin Burke's looks like a nice player. TJ. Slayton looks
like somebody who can help, but it doesn't really feel
like they've addressed their biggest issues from outside. The more
they don't do that with established NFL players, the more

(01:49:22):
they have to do that in an area where they
haven't been that successful recently, and that's the draft, and
more than anything the vibe in the feel of this week.
Don't mesh with the concept of urgency, which you would
think would be defining this franchise right now. More of
your phone calls coming up, eh, and I'll hit Puberty

(01:49:43):
five point three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty plus Matt
McLain and Elie de la Cruz coming up on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 13 (01:49:48):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Radiosports Headlines, a service of a Kelsey Chevroale home of
lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family
and yours for life Kelsey chev dot com. Reds are
playing the Arrangers right now. Road game for Cincinnati. It's
four to three Texas. Bottom of the sixth inning. Nick
Martinez started, gave up a three run homer in the
first two. Jock Peterson when four innings struck out one

(01:50:47):
four runs total four hits. Cincinnati got a thought. I
thought jam Or Candelario hit a home run. He did not.
He did not hit a home he had a three
run double. There you go. More on the red sierrang Jes.
Second you see lost Iowa State in the Big Twelve
Tournament seventy six to two fifty six. Interesting result. In

(01:51:10):
the Big Twelve Tournament, West Virginia melted down, collapsed, had
a nine point lead with about nine minutes to go
to the last place team in the conference, and lost.
Colorado storms back to beat the Mountaineers sixty seven to sixty.
I think WVU right now would be considered in but
I am curious as to how much that loss will damage.

(01:51:31):
They're at large chances. A couple of other scores of interest.
I think if you're a Xavier fan, these are are
games you're paying attention to. North Carolina won its ACC
Tournament game over Notre Dame seventy six to fifty six.
The Tar Heels will battle Georgia Tech tomorrow. Arkansas a
winner today over South Carolina seventy two to sixty eight

(01:51:51):
in the SEC Tournament. Texas is winning their SEC Tournament
game with six and a half to go, up fourteen
on van to Build sixty five to fifty one. Also
in the Big East Tournament, which got underway at four
o'clock today, Butler leads Providence sixty four to fifty three
with five point twenty to go. Bengals made it official

(01:52:12):
that BJ Hill has signed his contract extension, and there
has been huh and there has been very little else.
We played some of that audio from MLB Network thirty
clubs in fifteen days. Here's Ellie Dela Cruz on that show.

Speaker 16 (01:52:27):
Most important thing you're working on in spring training? Is
it defense? Is it becoming a better right handed hitter?
What are you focused on the most in spring.

Speaker 17 (01:52:37):
I'm focused on taking a qualities ABS on every day,
every AB comps even here in spring training, and like
b my, my buddy's ready.

Speaker 6 (01:52:49):
To yeh to start the season. Be healthy healthy? Is
it in Decay? How about from both sides the plate.

Speaker 14 (01:52:57):
How much have you been How much work do you
do lefty and then righty?

Speaker 6 (01:53:01):
Well, you've been much better as a left handed hitter.

Speaker 5 (01:53:03):
How much do you work on the right hand side?

Speaker 17 (01:53:05):
I worked like a lot in the cages and buy
in practice, I worked the same on both sides, and
I've been feeling comfortable on both sides right now.

Speaker 16 (01:53:14):
I've never seen a guy honestly attack the base pads
the way you're able to attach. It's like four strides
in your ninety feet.

Speaker 6 (01:53:23):
Is that something you've vote You've obviously.

Speaker 16 (01:53:25):
Always been blessed with speed, But are you working on it?

Speaker 6 (01:53:28):
Are you working on your craft running the bags? Yeah,
we're working on it.

Speaker 17 (01:53:33):
And here since another daylight running the basis, yeah. And
I work on that in the off season and here
in spring training, and we're working on it a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:53:42):
Yeah. So there's Ellie de la Cruz and he talked
about two things there that I think are important. I
remember we had Chris Vilaka on the show The Red's
new hitting Coach, and we talked about the team itself
cutting down on strikeouts, and he said something to the
effect of, you know, it's it's strike three, but also
how did we get to strike three? Meaning how how
did the hitter get to two strike count? And with

(01:54:03):
Ellie de la Cruz, we've often talked about what he's
like as a two strike hitter. And I'm certainly among
the millions to believe the key to being a really
good hitter is being a good hitter with two strikes.
But there were times last year where watching Ellie de
la Cruz that felt like he got to two strikes
way too easily, and so I'm interested in how that changes.
And then you heard a conversation there about the about

(01:54:24):
the lefty righty splits. His ops as a right handed
batter was more than two hundred points lower than it
was as a left handed batter. His power came from
the left side of the plate. He's going to have
more at bats against right e's because there are more
right e's, but he does need to bring his his level.

(01:54:45):
He does need to bring his production against left handed
pitchers up. He's still going to get more than two
hundred AB's this season against lefties. His numbers against lefties,
Just to give it to you in over in two
hundred and seventeen played appearance, is he batted two twenty
four with an ops and six sixty one and had
six homers. Again, the overwhelming number of his at pats

(01:55:07):
are going to come against right handed pitchers. He does
need to be better against lefties.

Speaker 6 (01:55:12):
So there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:55:13):
Uh, let me talk to Bob here. Bob, You're on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Bob. How are you hey?

Speaker 6 (01:55:20):
Is it is it me?

Speaker 1 (01:55:21):
Moo at you?

Speaker 4 (01:55:23):
Hey?

Speaker 15 (01:55:24):
Art Bell used to have the best answer to that question.
Did you ever listen to him moBack.

Speaker 1 (01:55:29):
In the old base overnight? Yes, fifty five KRC from
like two am to five am.

Speaker 15 (01:55:35):
One of the funniest things he ever said. He would
he would have the callers and they weren't sure it
was them, you know, and they'd say, uh, Bob, and
he'd say, is it me Art? He'd say, only you
would know that for sure, but it sounds like you.

Speaker 1 (01:55:54):
Yes. Yes. I stumbled on Art Bell by accident driving
to the radio station when I was going to UD
and I worked on the on the morning show, and
I would find stuff to listen to overnight, and suddenly
I was listening to this guy who was talking about
aliens and the paranormal, and I didn't think he was
as much of a kook as others did.

Speaker 15 (01:56:13):
Oh yeah for sure. Yeah, Hey, well as far as
you see. I mean, I don't think anybody thought they
would win today. But you know, I think what this
season has kind of at least had shown to me.
And I'm curious as to what you think. If you
look at the front court for us, You've got you've

(01:56:38):
got Azase, You've got Dylan Mitchell and at times this
year of skillings, what what's the similar thing of all
those guys?

Speaker 1 (01:56:53):
Uh? Well, none of those players are back to the
basket offensive players.

Speaker 15 (01:57:00):
Okay, that's one thing for me. It's the body type.

Speaker 10 (01:57:05):
I mean, those guys.

Speaker 15 (01:57:08):
You look at the guys that had dominated Cincinnati this
year inside and it looks like the guys you used
to recruit, And it to me is so obvious. And
I hope Wes hasn't gotten enthralled by where these guys
are coming from. You know, he signed a kid out

(01:57:30):
of USC and of course got Dan out of Texas.
And all I keep hearing from every team out there
is this guy came in from Saint Francis.

Speaker 11 (01:57:41):
Where is that this.

Speaker 15 (01:57:43):
Guy came in from Seattle? The only thing I knew
of Seattle was It's where Elgin Baylor.

Speaker 10 (01:57:47):
Went to school.

Speaker 15 (01:57:49):
You know, it's there are guys, I think everywhere out there,
and I hope Wes just doesn't get enthralled with the
fact that these guys played big school and gosh, they've
got to be good.

Speaker 1 (01:58:03):
Yeah, I mean, it's not maybe the most fair comparison,
because God knows, they had their struggles this season. But
as Xavier brings in Dante Maddox from Toledo, Ryan Conwell
comes from Indiana State, a really good Indiana State team,
but comes from Toledo, I mean, you can, you know,
you can bring in players from quote lower level schools.

(01:58:24):
I'm not interested as much in where the player comes from,
although that is the first thing we all look at.
I'm looking at upside, I'm looking at body type, I'm
looking at skill level, I'm looking at production. And but
you know, I mean, I do think if you looked
at the roster at the beginning of the season and
saw where some of these guys came from, you did

(01:58:45):
feel like the overall production was going to be greater
than what it ended up being. Dylan Mitchell had some
really good games, including Jesse yesterday when he was went
for eighteen and fifteen, but look at what he did
over the course of the prior three when he didn't
even come close to double figures in any of them.

Speaker 15 (01:59:01):
And you know what, we got nineteen yesterday. It wasn't nineteen,
it was eighteen tags. But yeah, and it was a while.
The game went on today and the guy hadn't put
up a shot yet.

Speaker 1 (01:59:12):
It was interesting. They ran the offense yesterday through Dylan
Mitchell and it took him five minutes today to get
a touch.

Speaker 15 (01:59:19):
Yeah, it just I don't know.

Speaker 10 (01:59:23):
To me, they just they just.

Speaker 15 (01:59:27):
It's like the knowledge or for some of the guys,
that's where it's like skilling sometimes as things where I.

Speaker 11 (01:59:35):
Go, gosh, is that guy.

Speaker 12 (01:59:37):
Played basketball before?

Speaker 15 (01:59:38):
I mean, he does some amazing things, but then again
he'll do some of the dumbest things.

Speaker 1 (01:59:43):
It's inconsistency and it's having a lot of guys that
you cannot count on. Really good players are allowed to
have bad games. I think the problem is on a game,
in a game out basis, with so many of these guys,
you had no idea what they were going to give you.
To apply that to Gisel James, who made some shots
in the second half to get him back in the

(02:00:04):
game today. But in the first half goes one for six.
He had a bad pass, turnover on an alleyup that
went awry, he had a traveling violation, and again you're
allowed to do those things. But I think on a
game in a game out basis, there are just number
one too many players that you do not know what
you're going to get from them. And then if you go, okay, well,
this guy's not going to be at his best, so

(02:00:25):
this player is not going to give him a good game.
This player can slide into that role. There's nobody who
can do that either. Yeah.

Speaker 10 (02:00:34):
Well, I hate to say it, but I hope.

Speaker 15 (02:00:37):
I mean, obviously there's gonna be a lot of turnover
this year, or at least you'd have to think so. But
I hope Wes really looks hard at this roster and
for some of these guys. He you know, he certainly
was quick to say goodbye to the big Russian kids,
who's had a pretty good year. So I hope he

(02:01:01):
really does take a hard look at some of these
guys and realizes that they're not what he needs to,
you know, make this program successful.

Speaker 1 (02:01:09):
Well, I think he's going to take a good hard look, Bob,
thank you very much. I think he's going to take
a good hard look at how do the pieces fit better?
I think there are some really talented individual players on
this team. The pieces did not quite fit this year.
And so, yes, you want talented guys, Yes you want

(02:01:30):
players who bring a certain skill set. I would like
to see more players who can do more than one thing.
But how do the pieces fit and how do you
make them fit? And this year the pieces often didn't
seem to fit, and Wes Miller didn't make them fit.
You know, it's roster constructions about that. It's not about

(02:01:53):
assembling a fantasy basketball team or a bunch of guys
who have come from other high major programs or a
bunch of dudes who have all averaged double figure How
do you make the pieces fit? And I think that's
the question of the offseason. How do they put a
roster on the floor next year that fits, because this
year they did not. We have to go. Thank you

(02:02:13):
for listening, Tarren Bland, thank you for producing. We'll talk
to you tomorrow at three oh five. Have a great night.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 13 (02:02:25):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 2 (02:02:30):
every second counts. That's why the UCE Health Comprehensive Stroke
Learn more at UCHealth dot com. On five Mile Road,
it's an accident at two seventy five West. Found two
seventy five accident on the left shoulder approaching seventy four.

(02:02:52):
On Running Road, it's police activity at Clinton Springs Avenue.
Avoid that area as police are investigating a shooting that
he's like with traffic the

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