May 1, 2025 • 13 mins
Tony talks with Bob Mangine from NovaCare about transfer portal physicals and the Flying Pig Marathon, on ESPN 1530!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back our three You heard it right there, thanks
to Penn Station. Thank you for listening on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Our good friends at Novacare have
joined with us and allow us to get to talk
with our good friend Bob man Jean each and every
week from the University of Cincinnati and Novacare, which we
will do right now to kick off the third and
final hour of Cincy three to sixty. Bob man Jean
(00:22):
is with us. What's up, Bob.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Tony just having a great day to do here on campus,
you know, getting going through trying to put a team
back together and getting some physicals done. And you know,
this is our one month to where we can if
you're going to try to relax a little bit, this
is about the only months you've got a chance to
have a personal life.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I want to talk a little bit about what's coming
up this weekend with the Flying Pig, but before we
get to that, I talked a little bit earlier in
the show about the portal process, and it's a it's
an absolute circus. But from your end, the involvement of
your side in the portal process, to me is just
as important as anything when a prospective player is visiting
(01:08):
or coming through, we're at in the process. Are you
able to get with that player to go through a
physical to kind of give the sign off I would
assume to a coach before there's any offers or anything
like that made. How does that process work for you?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, I mean, again, in football and basketball, we do
our best to screen. It's no different than the NFL
nowadays and NBA free agency. You know, you've got these
kids in the portal. They're in the portal for a reason.
So it's not like they said, oh gee, I don't
like the landscaping at my last school, so I'm going
to go on to portal. They're in there for some reason.
(01:46):
And so when the coach says, hey, we're bringing an
athlete in for a visit, we look at the history
with the athlete. We look at you know, especially orthopedic injuries, concussions,
those type of injuries, and then we need follow up,
you know, evaluation. Then we'll do that prior to you know,
(02:07):
making a recommendation to the coach. Oftentimes, you know, we
the trainers will talk among themselves or the trainers. Once
the student athlete gives his permission to uh, you know,
new medical disclosures. Then we can, uh you know, then
we can try to contact the previous school and find out, uh,
you know, what's going on. Of course, you know, like
(02:28):
we've already resigned a young man out of the portal
from West Virginia, and one from Baylor, and one from
George Mason, so you know, one from Kentucky. So I mean,
you know, you're looking at that young man when they
come in and try to make sure that they're going
to be able to play for you know, the year
two years that they have left. And a lot of
the kids in the portal, you know, they're usually one
(02:50):
or two years left of college ball, so you're just
making sure that they're healthy enough to get through that.
And and if you look at the numbers of the poor,
I mean, they're really you know what, recent article came
out looking at portal and approximately sixty five percent of
all the Division one basketball players to enter the transfer portal,
(03:11):
regardless of competition level that their career began at, they
generally transferred down a level or some of them don't
even find a new home. So you know, again it's
when the king goes into portal, you know, it's it's
a crapshoot that you know again in today's word inn il,
(03:32):
you know you've got to be a little careful with
with you know, making sure that the young man coming
in if they're being able to compete for a year
to two years.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
How how thorough from the process again, because we're now
talking about large amounts of money that a lot of
universities are paying these kids out of the portal, So
how much pressure, how much difference does it put on
your end to do the research, to talk to to
maybe the staff of where he previously was or whether
the athlete previously was, and then coming in to do
(04:01):
a thorough evaluation because of the type of money that
we're talking about being thrown around in the portal, well.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Obviously we great them just like you know, you went
through the NFL draft and you know that when you
had your physical, they created you a to F and
so we use a very similar system. Aaron Himmler has
done an outstanding job with with putting together or worked
with the Bengals who working with the system. If we
need to get an MRI, we'll get an MRI. If
(04:29):
we need to get X rays, we'll get x rays.
You know, obviously you want the young man to be
an airb which is generally no history of injury, or
an injury in which they come back and played for
a whole year, at which point then you know you
don't need to do a lot of work versus a
young man who may have gotten injured and missed the
(04:50):
whole last year. Now you're guessing that they're going to
be back for you know, by the time we get
to our eight week discretionary period which starts on June third,
so you know, you're that young person is going to
get a more thorough evaluation than somebody who competed at
a high level who was never injured and you know,
(05:12):
has nothing to really report. So you're really looking into
the hit and the medical history of what you're you know,
and by the by the time they are third fourth
year players coming into their fifth year, fourth year, almost
all of them have some sort of issue that you
have to fen through and and make sure that you're
(05:34):
getting a good evaluation on it.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Outside of the transfer portal, there is a big happening
this weekend in Cincinnati. It's the Flying Pig Marathon. It
it happens all weekend there's there's multiple races that are
going to take place. When you talk about training or
the preparation, obviously that the training has already been done
(05:57):
and the miles have been run. But when you're talking
about the final few days before a marathon, what are
you advising runners to be doing as they lead up
to that race.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Well, like you just said, almost all of them have
already trained to the point that they're ready to go.
So now they're they're making sure that they're getting their
rest or getting hydrated there. You know, they're making sure
that they're going to do a good warm up the
day of the race. From the medical side, UH, this
this race has an outstanding group of individuals who who
(06:33):
sort of manage every element of it. Last year and
this year, I'll be working in the garage where we
have what we call the heat pod. Aaron Hemmler and myself,
some of our other athletic trainers, along with a ton
of doctors, uh nurses work the heat We call it
the heat pod, in which the runners are brought in
(06:56):
either with heat exhaustion, some even with heat stroke. And
last year at the Pig we had twenty two twenty
might have been twenty seven ambulance trends, so you know,
we're there to sort of help them guide through the
cold down process and hopefully avoid anything more serious. A
(07:17):
lot of times those people did not train enough. Those
people did not press the day the two days before,
they didn't They really didn't come in there prepared to run,
you know, the full marathon. And the other group we
had were people we had a large number of half
(07:38):
marathons only because they thought, well, exam, I've only run
to half marathon. You know, I do five miles all
the time. Well, now all of a sudden, I'm going
to kick it up to thirteen miles. And we actually
had more issues with the half marathoners last year than
we did the marathons. So you know, my number one
recommendation is don't bite off more than you can shoot.
If you haven't run at least seventy five eighty percent
(08:02):
of the marathon of a marathon distance, you're not ready
to do it. I don't care who you are, but
it has to go off to you know, you see,
health has to go off to the other hospitals that
bring people in. You're very familiar with John Devine. Our
(08:22):
head team positioned him here and doctor Grady from over
at Xavier and Try Health. Try Health does a great
job having enough staff and the city of Cincinnati with
the ambulances. It's an unbelievable group of people who are
there to help save lives and make sure people stay
(08:47):
safe through the whole run.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
How much does weather affect what's going to be happening
because we're predicted to get some rain over the weekend.
How much does that go into different problems that may
come or different things that a runner needs to watch
out for.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Well, again, I think we're gonna be pretty lucky this year.
I think the high is only going to be like
sixty two, so when they start the race, it'll be
in the low fifties, so, you know, hopefully that'll be
UH that'll be comfortable enough for individuals to run the race.
There will be very high humidity. Obviously it might even
(09:26):
rain that day, so you've got to worry about your
sweat rate. Make sure you're drinking as you're you know,
we have so many hydration stations throughout the UH throughout
the course that you know, make sure that you're continuing
to hydrate as you go through the UH the race. Also,
we have different stations with some different snacks if you
need a little help from a snack standpoint. So again,
(09:49):
the race organizers, they pretty much think of everything. But
I think this year, with a little luck, you know,
we might we might do Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
What about the the moments after the race. You know,
the race is done. You may be feeling good or
your body may be breaking down. But what do those
next hours or even those next couple of days look
like from an important standpoint that the runners need to
be aware of.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Well, they're pretty much all putting themselves into some level
of low rabdough or mid rab dough. So hydration is
absolutely critical. Avoid alcohol, make sure you get a good
amount of protein in you after the race, because you're
gonna be breaking down muscle fiber. So I mean, those
post race time periods are critical. They I know, they
(10:35):
always have a party at the end of the race.
They have a big party going on, and there's a
lot of product over there for people to start eating
and getting something to drink and the ability to start
restoring your body back to balance. The people shouldn't go
out drinking the night before, two nights before. People should
(10:55):
make sure they get their rest, make sure they're hydrating
and get their uh you know, they need a lot
of carb carbs before uh they they run, and hopefully
people are taking care of themself.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Uh, Bob. Before I let you go, I do have
to ask, as a avid Pittsburgh Steeler fan, Uh, at
what point do you think they'll reach out to me
to play quarterback? Since no one else wants to play
quarterback for the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I called you know, Art reading grade school together up
there at Saint Cerol Allentander Grade School in Pittsburgh on
the North side, because I grew up in that part
of time where the stadium is. And I called Art
the other day and I said, Art, I got a
gem in the rough down here named Tony Pike. And
Tommy still got his wife in his arm and shoulder,
and uh, you know, I think since you know, he's
(11:44):
probably younger than Aaron Rodgers, maybe another year or two
out of them, and I'll be happy to be his agent,
and uh you know, we'll we'll come up and do
a visit, we'll do some throwing.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
You could be more than my agent, because you I'm
gonna I'm gonna need about eight hours just to prepare
to go practice once so just let you know that
that's what you're uh you're in store for Bob. Always
a pleasure. I look forward to talking again very soon.
Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Thanks Tony, you and us have a good day. And uh,
you know, I keep tell Austin, I'll keep praying for
the Reds. You know, really good and yeah they got
a winning record. They hit a little steep bumped us,
they hit a little so but you guys have a
good day, and uh, you know, hopefully Sunday for the
marathon will turn out well for everybody, and people just
(12:31):
need to make sure they are prepared to run that race.
And don't think that's just running. You know, five miles,
six miles kicks you ready for for a marathon.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Bob, you're the best. We'll talk again soon. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
You're welcome, Tony. You guys have a great day.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
That is Bob man Jean from the University of Cincinnati
and Novacare. Finding time for physical therapy doesn't have to
be a challenge because with over twenty three locations through
our Greater Cincinnati, Novacare Rehabilitation makes it easy to get
the care you need where you need it. From Matt
let me at the University of Cincinnati, to average folks
looking to live life without pain. Novacare's experts have seen
it all. Find a center near you at novacare dot com. Today,
(13:07):
plenty more still to go. We're just getting started. Out
number three thanks to Pennstation on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
sports station
Welcome back our three You heard it right there, thanks
to Penn Station. Thank you for listening on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Our good friends at Novacare have
joined with us and allow us to get to talk
with our good friend Bob man Jean each and every
week from the University of Cincinnati and Novacare, which we
will do right now to kick off the third and
final hour of Cincy three to sixty. Bob man Jean
(00:22):
is with us. What's up, Bob.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Tony just having a great day to do here on campus,
you know, getting going through trying to put a team
back together and getting some physicals done. And you know,
this is our one month to where we can if
you're going to try to relax a little bit, this
is about the only months you've got a chance to
have a personal life.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I want to talk a little bit about what's coming
up this weekend with the Flying Pig, but before we
get to that, I talked a little bit earlier in
the show about the portal process, and it's a it's
an absolute circus. But from your end, the involvement of
your side in the portal process, to me is just
as important as anything when a prospective player is visiting
(01:08):
or coming through, we're at in the process. Are you
able to get with that player to go through a
physical to kind of give the sign off I would
assume to a coach before there's any offers or anything
like that made. How does that process work for you?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, I mean, again, in football and basketball, we do
our best to screen. It's no different than the NFL
nowadays and NBA free agency. You know, you've got these
kids in the portal. They're in the portal for a reason.
So it's not like they said, oh gee, I don't
like the landscaping at my last school, so I'm going
to go on to portal. They're in there for some reason.
(01:46):
And so when the coach says, hey, we're bringing an
athlete in for a visit, we look at the history
with the athlete. We look at you know, especially orthopedic injuries, concussions,
those type of injuries, and then we need follow up,
you know, evaluation. Then we'll do that prior to you know,
(02:07):
making a recommendation to the coach. Oftentimes, you know, we
the trainers will talk among themselves or the trainers. Once
the student athlete gives his permission to uh, you know,
new medical disclosures. Then we can, uh you know, then
we can try to contact the previous school and find out, uh,
you know, what's going on. Of course, you know, like
(02:28):
we've already resigned a young man out of the portal
from West Virginia, and one from Baylor, and one from
George Mason, so you know, one from Kentucky. So I mean,
you know, you're looking at that young man when they
come in and try to make sure that they're going
to be able to play for you know, the year
two years that they have left. And a lot of
the kids in the portal, you know, they're usually one
(02:50):
or two years left of college ball, so you're just
making sure that they're healthy enough to get through that.
And and if you look at the numbers of the poor,
I mean, they're really you know what, recent article came
out looking at portal and approximately sixty five percent of
all the Division one basketball players to enter the transfer portal,
(03:11):
regardless of competition level that their career began at, they
generally transferred down a level or some of them don't
even find a new home. So you know, again it's
when the king goes into portal, you know, it's it's
a crapshoot that you know again in today's word inn il,
(03:32):
you know you've got to be a little careful with
with you know, making sure that the young man coming
in if they're being able to compete for a year
to two years.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
How how thorough from the process again, because we're now
talking about large amounts of money that a lot of
universities are paying these kids out of the portal, So
how much pressure, how much difference does it put on
your end to do the research, to talk to to
maybe the staff of where he previously was or whether
the athlete previously was, and then coming in to do
(04:01):
a thorough evaluation because of the type of money that
we're talking about being thrown around in the portal, well.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Obviously we great them just like you know, you went
through the NFL draft and you know that when you
had your physical, they created you a to F and
so we use a very similar system. Aaron Himmler has
done an outstanding job with with putting together or worked
with the Bengals who working with the system. If we
need to get an MRI, we'll get an MRI. If
(04:29):
we need to get X rays, we'll get x rays.
You know, obviously you want the young man to be
an airb which is generally no history of injury, or
an injury in which they come back and played for
a whole year, at which point then you know you
don't need to do a lot of work versus a
young man who may have gotten injured and missed the
(04:50):
whole last year. Now you're guessing that they're going to
be back for you know, by the time we get
to our eight week discretionary period which starts on June third,
so you know, you're that young person is going to
get a more thorough evaluation than somebody who competed at
a high level who was never injured and you know,
(05:12):
has nothing to really report. So you're really looking into
the hit and the medical history of what you're you know,
and by the by the time they are third fourth
year players coming into their fifth year, fourth year, almost
all of them have some sort of issue that you
have to fen through and and make sure that you're
(05:34):
getting a good evaluation on it.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Outside of the transfer portal, there is a big happening
this weekend in Cincinnati. It's the Flying Pig Marathon. It
it happens all weekend there's there's multiple races that are
going to take place. When you talk about training or
the preparation, obviously that the training has already been done
(05:57):
and the miles have been run. But when you're talking
about the final few days before a marathon, what are
you advising runners to be doing as they lead up
to that race.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Well, like you just said, almost all of them have
already trained to the point that they're ready to go.
So now they're they're making sure that they're getting their
rest or getting hydrated there. You know, they're making sure
that they're going to do a good warm up the
day of the race. From the medical side, UH, this
this race has an outstanding group of individuals who who
(06:33):
sort of manage every element of it. Last year and
this year, I'll be working in the garage where we
have what we call the heat pod. Aaron Hemmler and myself,
some of our other athletic trainers, along with a ton
of doctors, uh nurses work the heat We call it
the heat pod, in which the runners are brought in
(06:56):
either with heat exhaustion, some even with heat stroke. And
last year at the Pig we had twenty two twenty
might have been twenty seven ambulance trends, so you know,
we're there to sort of help them guide through the
cold down process and hopefully avoid anything more serious. A
(07:17):
lot of times those people did not train enough. Those
people did not press the day the two days before,
they didn't They really didn't come in there prepared to run,
you know, the full marathon. And the other group we
had were people we had a large number of half
(07:38):
marathons only because they thought, well, exam, I've only run
to half marathon. You know, I do five miles all
the time. Well, now all of a sudden, I'm going
to kick it up to thirteen miles. And we actually
had more issues with the half marathoners last year than
we did the marathons. So you know, my number one
recommendation is don't bite off more than you can shoot.
If you haven't run at least seventy five eighty percent
(08:02):
of the marathon of a marathon distance, you're not ready
to do it. I don't care who you are, but
it has to go off to you know, you see,
health has to go off to the other hospitals that
bring people in. You're very familiar with John Devine. Our
(08:22):
head team positioned him here and doctor Grady from over
at Xavier and Try Health. Try Health does a great
job having enough staff and the city of Cincinnati with
the ambulances. It's an unbelievable group of people who are
there to help save lives and make sure people stay
(08:47):
safe through the whole run.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
How much does weather affect what's going to be happening
because we're predicted to get some rain over the weekend.
How much does that go into different problems that may
come or different things that a runner needs to watch
out for.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Well, again, I think we're gonna be pretty lucky this year.
I think the high is only going to be like
sixty two, so when they start the race, it'll be
in the low fifties, so, you know, hopefully that'll be
UH that'll be comfortable enough for individuals to run the race.
There will be very high humidity. Obviously it might even
(09:26):
rain that day, so you've got to worry about your
sweat rate. Make sure you're drinking as you're you know,
we have so many hydration stations throughout the UH throughout
the course that you know, make sure that you're continuing
to hydrate as you go through the UH the race. Also,
we have different stations with some different snacks if you
need a little help from a snack standpoint. So again,
(09:49):
the race organizers, they pretty much think of everything. But
I think this year, with a little luck, you know,
we might we might do Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
What about the the moments after the race. You know,
the race is done. You may be feeling good or
your body may be breaking down. But what do those
next hours or even those next couple of days look
like from an important standpoint that the runners need to
be aware of.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Well, they're pretty much all putting themselves into some level
of low rabdough or mid rab dough. So hydration is
absolutely critical. Avoid alcohol, make sure you get a good
amount of protein in you after the race, because you're
gonna be breaking down muscle fiber. So I mean, those
post race time periods are critical. They I know, they
(10:35):
always have a party at the end of the race.
They have a big party going on, and there's a
lot of product over there for people to start eating
and getting something to drink and the ability to start
restoring your body back to balance. The people shouldn't go
out drinking the night before, two nights before. People should
(10:55):
make sure they get their rest, make sure they're hydrating
and get their uh you know, they need a lot
of carb carbs before uh they they run, and hopefully
people are taking care of themself.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Uh, Bob. Before I let you go, I do have
to ask, as a avid Pittsburgh Steeler fan, Uh, at
what point do you think they'll reach out to me
to play quarterback? Since no one else wants to play
quarterback for the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I called you know, Art reading grade school together up
there at Saint Cerol Allentander Grade School in Pittsburgh on
the North side, because I grew up in that part
of time where the stadium is. And I called Art
the other day and I said, Art, I got a
gem in the rough down here named Tony Pike. And
Tommy still got his wife in his arm and shoulder,
and uh, you know, I think since you know, he's
(11:44):
probably younger than Aaron Rodgers, maybe another year or two
out of them, and I'll be happy to be his agent,
and uh you know, we'll we'll come up and do
a visit, we'll do some throwing.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
You could be more than my agent, because you I'm
gonna I'm gonna need about eight hours just to prepare
to go practice once so just let you know that
that's what you're uh you're in store for Bob. Always
a pleasure. I look forward to talking again very soon.
Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Thanks Tony, you and us have a good day. And uh,
you know, I keep tell Austin, I'll keep praying for
the Reds. You know, really good and yeah they got
a winning record. They hit a little steep bumped us,
they hit a little so but you guys have a
good day, and uh, you know, hopefully Sunday for the
marathon will turn out well for everybody, and people just
(12:31):
need to make sure they are prepared to run that race.
And don't think that's just running. You know, five miles,
six miles kicks you ready for for a marathon.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Bob, you're the best. We'll talk again soon. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
You're welcome, Tony. You guys have a great day.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
That is Bob man Jean from the University of Cincinnati
and Novacare. Finding time for physical therapy doesn't have to
be a challenge because with over twenty three locations through
our Greater Cincinnati, Novacare Rehabilitation makes it easy to get
the care you need where you need it. From Matt
let me at the University of Cincinnati, to average folks
looking to live life without pain. Novacare's experts have seen
it all. Find a center near you at novacare dot com. Today,
(13:07):
plenty more still to go. We're just getting started. Out
number three thanks to Pennstation on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
sports station
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