Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is twenty five after three. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
My name is Malwager. Thank you so much for joining us.
Rick Brouring covers Xavier basketball for Musketeer Report dot Com.
Has a good piece on Sean Miller. Go read it now.
He's also got his hot board total coverage of the
coaching search, Sean Miller's departure, the transfer portal, the players
(00:26):
hitting the portal, the players who may hit the portal,
the players who aren't going to hit all of it
at musketeer Report dot com. He has been very busy,
so I'm thankful for his time. Rick. What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Hey, it's all fifty percent off too, Mo, sign up
Musketeerreport dot com. We've got a sale going on.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
There you go, musketeer Report dot com. I read your
piece on Sean Miller, and I never thought that reading
a piece about Sean Miller would make me think of
Butch Jones that you see but here we are, so congratulations.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
That's the exact person that came to my mind today, MO,
when I saw Sean Miller get up there and tell
Texas fans that his culture is all about quote all in,
which is the motto that he just used for the
entire last season and even made a documentary around here
at Xavier. All I could think of was Butch Jones
(01:18):
going from Cincinnati with Rep the Sea, moving to Tennessee
and using Rep the Tee. That was the first thing
that came to my mind, and quite honestly one of
the things that prompted me to write that.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
It is interesting, and I think at phase value, a
lot of us go okay, he was here for three years,
made a Sweet sixteen, made the tournament this year, won
a game for what it's worth, sandwiched around a season
that was very, very underwhelming. I guess at phase value,
I look at that and go, okay, that's not a
bad run. When I step away from it, and when
(01:50):
I read europe Piece, suddenly I feel like, God, you
know what the entire Sean Miller experienced these last three years.
Kind of underwhelming.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
That's the right word to use. It's not that it
was bad. It's not that Sean Miller wasn't a slight
improvement from the four years of Travis Steel. It was
a slight improvement. But Xavier didn't bring back Sean Miller,
who everyone at the time, I think felt was one
of was probably their best coach in school history at
that point, to do slightly better than what they had
done the last four years. They brought Sean Miller back
(02:22):
with the idea that he was going to build something
in Savior and that he was going to get them
to a higher level, take them to the next level,
is the way he phrased it, which everyone understands at
Xavier is a Final four And I'm not saying that
should be the standard that coaches are held to a Zavier.
It's never happened there before. But to come in have
the first losing season since nineteen ninety five ninety six,
(02:44):
the first year that the Xavier went to the A ten,
I believe, and follow that up with the year in
which had you not gotten an absolute miracle run down
the stretch winning seven straight games, you wouldn't have made
the tournament again in back to back years. I don't
think that's what Xavier fans had in mind for him
coming back. And again, this wasn't just a random coach
(03:05):
that XAVI was hiring. This was Sean Miller coming back
to Xavier after he had gone through all the stuff
he went through with the FBI investigation, getting fired from Arizona,
being without a job for multiple years, and wanting to
get back into the sport. Xavier stuck their neck out
for him because of what he could bring to them,
because of the upside that he could bring, and the
(03:27):
thought that he was going to do something special there.
Looking at it through that prism, I don't think there's
any way to see it as he achieved anything close
to that.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
How much of that is do the factors beyond his
direct control?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I think he would tell you everything, and I think
people behind the scenes that Xavier would tell you they
had Ani Helmaney that was very competitive in the Big
eats and quite honestly, looking forward, the way things are
going to go with revenue sharing in the Big Ten
and SEC going to the school that had a giant
football program that is Priority one, two and three, and oh,
(04:03):
by the way, you're also behind baseball at that school
year third behind football and baseball at Texas, I don't
know that you're in that much better of a situation
from an NIL and being able to get player standpoint.
Certainly Texas has a much bigger brand, certainly has Texas
has more overall resources. But Texas with all of those resources,
(04:24):
and with a top five pick in the draft this
season and another first projected first rounder this season, finished
fourteenth out of sixteen teams in the SEC. It ain't
going to be easy there either, And I don't I
mean with the excuses we see keep cropping up every year,
Like one years they played too tough of a schedule,
it was unfair because they had to play Houston and Purdue.
(04:44):
Then the next year it was one guy got injured
who averaged ten points at a mid major school, and
that was going to be a difference between Xavier making
a Final four run or not. I just don't know
that that's how this works. I think Xavier is actually
in a pretty good spot and actually does have pretty
good resources in the big He's for a coach that
views it as that type of job, but Sean clearly didn't.
(05:04):
Sean you did as a lower level job and a
place he needed to get out of quickly because he
felt he needed every advantage that he could get to
get to a Final four.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Rick Burring Musketeer Report dot Com. We'll talk about who's
next in the head coach's office, what do you expect
to happen, and maybe to a degree. What has happened
with regard to the players who were on the team
as of Friday night in the transfer.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Portal, there's like one or two of them left. I
think Ryan Godwell still at Xager, Roddy Anderson still at Xavier.
That might be about it. There might be someone else.
I'm forgetting there, but it doesn't really matter. I mean,
everyone who wants to leave will leave. You're basically going
to be starting over completely. But that's kind of how
(05:50):
it goes in this sport in general. I mean, even
if you don't lose your coach, you kind of have
to turn over most of your roster from year to
year now and without when a coach leaves, it's almost
always a complete rebuild. The Sean Miller situation with Travis
Steel's team was very, very unique that first year that
he took over, where he was able to kind of
keep nearly the whole team in place and make a
run to the Sweet sixteen with Steels players. I think
(06:12):
that was a situation that you're not going to see
very often. So if I was a Xavier fan, I
would definitely be expecting more of a rebuild this time around.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Why haven't they hired Chris Mack.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yet, well, I think they want to go through a process.
I mean, look, this thing just happened yesterday, and there
are other I think everyone heard that Chris Mack was
very interested in this job before it was even open,
and so initially all the momentum in terms of public
information and buzz went Chris Mack's direction. And that's not
to say that he isn't the favorite, because I think
(06:42):
he is. I think it's probable that he'll be Xavier's
next head coach, but I don't think it's done yet.
I think there are still other candidates, and I just
think they don't have the means to back channel like
Chris did before the job opened, to get his name
out there through local media and other things. So partly
that's why you're hearing so much momentum behind Chris's name. Initially,
(07:04):
I think you know, each time that Greg Christopher is
hired a new head coach, since I've been doing this,
it's been about a three to four day process, so
I would imagine that's probably a reasonable timeline. Once again,
I know I've seen the flight tracker information that there's
a flight coming in from Charles Stint to lunkin this evening.
Maybe that's Chris Mack, And maybe it really will be
(07:25):
done that soon because of the transfer portal era, and
you need to get these things done so quickly now.
But based on what I've been hearing this afternoon, I
don't believe that to be the case. I think there's
still gonna be a little bit bit of a process
that needs to play out.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Will there have to be broken relationships or hurt feelings
that need to get fixed. If Chris is the guy,
I think.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Those have probably already been taken care of. I mean,
it's been a while he's been back at Xavier. You know,
I assume that you know, there's rumors out there about
Chris and Greg Christopher, the athletic director, and how well
they got along at the end end of the tenure
before he left to Louisville. But with most of these things,
I mean, you're talking about two professional guys. I mean,
you know, Chris, he's a down to earth, normal good guy,
(08:09):
and Greg Christopher is a very smart, measured, level headed
human being. Like I think two grown ups like that
can pretty easily get over whatever differences they might have
had in the heat of a moment. When when Greg
was when Sean Chris was taking a bigger job at Louisville.
So I imagine there are no issues on that front.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
If if Chris Mack decided, would none of us expect
him to do to go you know what, I'm good,
I'm gonna go hang out in Charleston for another year.
Who then would be the best candidate? That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I don't know. I don't know nough to be honest
with you, Like, what do you want me to say
they're best candidate? I don't know. There are going to
be other candidates that they look at. If you're asking
me for like my favorite candidate probably wouldn't be on there.
Board If you're talking about other names that I've heard,
which I think is a more interesting conversation, Like Rick
Patino Junior is a name that I've heard. I think
(09:08):
they they wanted to get involved with Pat Kelsey. I
think his buyout prohibits that. I think Luke Murray, the
assistant at Yukon, who was an assistant for Chris mac
at Xavier, is an interesting name. But yeah, I think
I think those are some of the other names I've heard.
There's probably one or two other that are involved in
the process, but I do think Chris is the favorite
right now.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, and uh and should be all right, man, I
know you have a lot going on. I appreciate you
doing this as always, and we'll probably bother you again soon.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
All right, thank boll you got it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Rick Burring, Musketeer Report dot com. Go his piece on
Sean Miller is good. He done pull any punches and
the accompanying photo in the in the piece is it
makes the piece even better. So go read that now,
Musketeer Report dot com. We're subscriptions, as you heard Rick say,
fifty percent off now, Musketeerreport dot com. All right, we
(09:58):
are way late, as always, twenty five away from four o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
CINCY three sixty with Tony Pike.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Do we want to move on?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
They got to keep going and Boston Elmore.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I think you should continue.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Let me keep going there Sincy three sixty tomorrow at
twelve noons on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. For National Doctor's Day,
we honor the UC Health physicians who are leading breakthroughs
for better tomorrows. Learn more at UCHealth dot com. East
found two seventy five on the Ohio side. It's an
accident blocking the ramp lane two I seventy five northbound
seventy one at US sixty eighth. The left lane blocked
(10:48):
off from an accident. And East found Ronald Reagan. It's
a disabled vehicle on the right shoulder between Ridge and
Planefield Road on that ezelic with traffic.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
This report is sponsored by Generator Franchise dot com Mill
It is twenty five after three. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
My name is Malwager. Thank you so much for joining us.
Rick Brouring covers Xavier basketball for Musketeer Report dot Com.
Has a good piece on Sean Miller. Go read it now.
He's also got his hot board total coverage of the
coaching search, Sean Miller's departure, the transfer portal, the players
(00:26):
hitting the portal, the players who may hit the portal,
the players who aren't going to hit all of it
at musketeer Report dot com. He has been very busy,
so I'm thankful for his time. Rick. What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Hey, it's all fifty percent off too, Mo, sign up
Musketeerreport dot com. We've got a sale going on.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
There you go, musketeer Report dot com. I read your
piece on Sean Miller, and I never thought that reading
a piece about Sean Miller would make me think of
Butch Jones that you see but here we are, so congratulations.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
That's the exact person that came to my mind today, MO,
when I saw Sean Miller get up there and tell
Texas fans that his culture is all about quote all in,
which is the motto that he just used for the
entire last season and even made a documentary around here
at Xavier. All I could think of was Butch Jones
(01:18):
going from Cincinnati with Rep the Sea, moving to Tennessee
and using Rep the Tee. That was the first thing
that came to my mind, and quite honestly one of
the things that prompted me to write that.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
It is interesting, and I think at phase value, a
lot of us go okay, he was here for three years,
made a Sweet sixteen, made the tournament this year, won
a game for what it's worth, sandwiched around a season
that was very, very underwhelming. I guess at phase value,
I look at that and go, okay, that's not a
bad run. When I step away from it, and when
(01:50):
I read europe Piece, suddenly I feel like, God, you
know what the entire Sean Miller experienced these last three years.
Kind of underwhelming.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
That's the right word to use. It's not that it
was bad. It's not that Sean Miller wasn't a slight
improvement from the four years of Travis Steel. It was
a slight improvement. But Xavier didn't bring back Sean Miller,
who everyone at the time, I think felt was one
of was probably their best coach in school history at
that point, to do slightly better than what they had
done the last four years. They brought Sean Miller back
(02:22):
with the idea that he was going to build something
in Savior and that he was going to get them
to a higher level, take them to the next level,
is the way he phrased it, which everyone understands at
Xavier is a Final four And I'm not saying that
should be the standard that coaches are held to a Zavier.
It's never happened there before. But to come in have
the first losing season since nineteen ninety five ninety six,
(02:44):
the first year that the Xavier went to the A ten,
I believe, and follow that up with the year in
which had you not gotten an absolute miracle run down
the stretch winning seven straight games, you wouldn't have made
the tournament again in back to back years. I don't
think that's what Xavier fans had in mind for him
coming back. And again, this wasn't just a random coach
(03:05):
that XAVI was hiring. This was Sean Miller coming back
to Xavier after he had gone through all the stuff
he went through with the FBI investigation, getting fired from Arizona,
being without a job for multiple years, and wanting to
get back into the sport. Xavier stuck their neck out
for him because of what he could bring to them,
because of the upside that he could bring, and the
(03:27):
thought that he was going to do something special there.
Looking at it through that prism, I don't think there's
any way to see it as he achieved anything close
to that.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
How much of that is do the factors beyond his
direct control?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I think he would tell you everything, and I think
people behind the scenes that Xavier would tell you they
had Ani Helmaney that was very competitive in the Big
eats and quite honestly, looking forward, the way things are
going to go with revenue sharing in the Big Ten
and SEC going to the school that had a giant
football program that is Priority one, two and three, and oh,
(04:03):
by the way, you're also behind baseball at that school
year third behind football and baseball at Texas, I don't
know that you're in that much better of a situation
from an NIL and being able to get player standpoint.
Certainly Texas has a much bigger brand, certainly has Texas
has more overall resources. But Texas with all of those resources,
(04:24):
and with a top five pick in the draft this
season and another first projected first rounder this season, finished
fourteenth out of sixteen teams in the SEC. It ain't
going to be easy there either, And I don't I
mean with the excuses we see keep cropping up every year,
Like one years they played too tough of a schedule,
it was unfair because they had to play Houston and Purdue.
(04:44):
Then the next year it was one guy got injured
who averaged ten points at a mid major school, and
that was going to be a difference between Xavier making
a Final four run or not. I just don't know
that that's how this works. I think Xavier is actually
in a pretty good spot and actually does have pretty
good resources in the big He's for a coach that
views it as that type of job, but Sean clearly didn't.
(05:04):
Sean you did as a lower level job and a
place he needed to get out of quickly because he
felt he needed every advantage that he could get to
get to a Final four.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Rick Burring Musketeer Report dot Com. We'll talk about who's
next in the head coach's office, what do you expect
to happen, and maybe to a degree. What has happened
with regard to the players who were on the team
as of Friday night in the transfer.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Portal, there's like one or two of them left. I
think Ryan Godwell still at Xager, Roddy Anderson still at Xavier.
That might be about it. There might be someone else.
I'm forgetting there, but it doesn't really matter. I mean,
everyone who wants to leave will leave. You're basically going
to be starting over completely. But that's kind of how
(05:50):
it goes in this sport in general. I mean, even
if you don't lose your coach, you kind of have
to turn over most of your roster from year to
year now and without when a coach leaves, it's almost
always a complete rebuild. The Sean Miller situation with Travis
Steel's team was very, very unique that first year that
he took over, where he was able to kind of
keep nearly the whole team in place and make a
run to the Sweet sixteen with Steels players. I think
(06:12):
that was a situation that you're not going to see
very often. So if I was a Xavier fan, I
would definitely be expecting more of a rebuild this time around.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Why haven't they hired Chris Mack.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yet, well, I think they want to go through a process.
I mean, look, this thing just happened yesterday, and there
are other I think everyone heard that Chris Mack was
very interested in this job before it was even open,
and so initially all the momentum in terms of public
information and buzz went Chris Mack's direction. And that's not
to say that he isn't the favorite, because I think
(06:42):
he is. I think it's probable that he'll be Xavier's
next head coach, but I don't think it's done yet.
I think there are still other candidates, and I just
think they don't have the means to back channel like
Chris did before the job opened, to get his name
out there through local media and other things. So partly
that's why you're hearing so much momentum behind Chris's name. Initially,
(07:04):
I think you know, each time that Greg Christopher is
hired a new head coach, since I've been doing this,
it's been about a three to four day process, so
I would imagine that's probably a reasonable timeline. Once again,
I know I've seen the flight tracker information that there's
a flight coming in from Charles Stint to lunkin this evening.
Maybe that's Chris Mack, And maybe it really will be
(07:25):
done that soon because of the transfer portal era, and
you need to get these things done so quickly now.
But based on what I've been hearing this afternoon, I
don't believe that to be the case. I think there's
still gonna be a little bit bit of a process
that needs to play out.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Will there have to be broken relationships or hurt feelings
that need to get fixed. If Chris is the guy,
I think.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Those have probably already been taken care of. I mean,
it's been a while he's been back at Xavier. You know,
I assume that you know, there's rumors out there about
Chris and Greg Christopher, the athletic director, and how well
they got along at the end end of the tenure
before he left to Louisville. But with most of these things,
I mean, you're talking about two professional guys. I mean,
you know, Chris, he's a down to earth, normal good guy,
(08:09):
and Greg Christopher is a very smart, measured, level headed
human being. Like I think two grown ups like that
can pretty easily get over whatever differences they might have
had in the heat of a moment. When when Greg
was when Sean Chris was taking a bigger job at Louisville.
So I imagine there are no issues on that front.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
If if Chris Mack decided, would none of us expect
him to do to go you know what, I'm good,
I'm gonna go hang out in Charleston for another year.
Who then would be the best candidate? That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I don't know. I don't know nough to be honest
with you, Like, what do you want me to say
they're best candidate? I don't know. There are going to
be other candidates that they look at. If you're asking
me for like my favorite candidate probably wouldn't be on there.
Board If you're talking about other names that I've heard,
which I think is a more interesting conversation, Like Rick
Patino Junior is a name that I've heard. I think
(09:08):
they they wanted to get involved with Pat Kelsey. I
think his buyout prohibits that. I think Luke Murray, the
assistant at Yukon, who was an assistant for Chris mac
at Xavier, is an interesting name. But yeah, I think
I think those are some of the other names I've heard.
There's probably one or two other that are involved in
the process, but I do think Chris is the favorite
right now.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, and uh and should be all right, man, I
know you have a lot going on. I appreciate you
doing this as always, and we'll probably bother you again soon.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
All right, thank boll you got it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Rick Burring, Musketeer Report dot com. Go his piece on
Sean Miller is good. He done pull any punches and
the accompanying photo in the in the piece is it
makes the piece even better. So go read that now,
Musketeer Report dot com. We're subscriptions, as you heard Rick say,
fifty percent off now, Musketeerreport dot com. All right, we
(09:58):
are way late, as always, twenty five away from four o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
CINCY three sixty with Tony Pike.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Do we want to move on?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
They got to keep going and Boston Elmore.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I think you should continue.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Let me keep going there Sincy three sixty tomorrow at
twelve noons on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. For National Doctor's Day,
we honor the UC Health physicians who are leading breakthroughs
for better tomorrows. Learn more at UCHealth dot com. East
found two seventy five on the Ohio side. It's an
accident blocking the ramp lane two I seventy five northbound
seventy one at US sixty eighth. The left lane blocked
(10:48):
off from an accident. And East found Ronald Reagan. It's
a disabled vehicle on the right shoulder between Ridge and
Planefield Road on that ezelic with traffic.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
This report is sponsored by Generator Franchise dot com Mill
Mo Egger News
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