Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Your chance to win one thousand dollars. Enter this nationwide
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pay tay. What's up, Kidnefner Mowegger. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you so much for listening. Done early today at
five thirty, We're done. UK basketball takes over the Wildcats
(00:22):
battling Tennessee tonight tip off at seven pregame at five thirty.
Later on this evening the Huntsman Center, which is then
you were Chuck mayshat got kicked out of a game
during the two thousand and three NCAA Tournament. The UC
Bearcats try to go one for two in Utah, with
the game against the Utah Run in utes ten o'clock.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Tip at nine thirty.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Pre game on seven hundred WLW enjoying I guess stay
number five in Utah covering the Bearcats for The Inquirer
and Cincinnati dot Com to talk about UCE hoops in
the aftermath of Saturday's twenty eight point blowout loss to
BYU and what folks like me hope is a win tonight.
Our friend Scott Springer is with his hou's Utah Well.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Utah is beautiful. It's just wonderful. You look out. I
met my place in Salt Lake City here near Utah,
looking at the mountains again, escape them. It's majestic. It
just gets ugly when you get to a basketball court.
So that needs to be fixed.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
H it does?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
It does?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I guess I'll ask you the same question. I got
a lot yesterday about Saturday night, and that is what.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Was that you got me? You know, it was one
of those games. And you know, if you follow this historically,
UC typically has not won in recent years when they're
down at the half. So when you were up one
against Kansas, there was some reason for hope. Maybe you
pull that out. The only game they won this year
went down a halftime was Xavier Skyline Chili Crosstown shootout.
(01:52):
So when Semos hits a three and ties it at
twenty three, you're thinking, well, maybe U And then they
get the ball back if they draw up a play,
Data gets a decent shot, missus and then Demon gets fouled.
Igor Ig or whatever his name is, just you can shoot.
(02:13):
But you know he scored the final five points of
the half, and he cans with three to start the
second half, and it's just a runaway train after that,
and you know, typically, you know, I don't know if
it's an insider secret or not, but you know, okay,
I have to get something in at the buzzer as
quick as I can some semblance of a story. We
(02:35):
come back and we update to put quotes in and
print it up. But you know, a lot of games,
you kind of have a feeling where it's going to go.
So you start writing one way, and I've had it
backfire on me a couple of times, and you're hitting delete, delete,
de leade. But I'm telling you this game about fifteen
minutes ago. I'm writing, No, you know it's I think
(02:56):
the time out at sixty to forty two. I think
there might have been eleven minutes left, and I remember writing,
and you know, I'm fully dated references. But the Great
Lou Panella would say, you know, I've seen enough. And
I said, if former Reds manager Lou Panella was here,
he'd say I've seen enough. Because it was ridiculous. They
(03:18):
caught fire. There's seventeen thousand crazy people there, all wired
on milkshakes and dairy products and stuff, and it was nuts.
It is a very intense atmosphere I will tell you
that last year's went there was highly impressive to me
because they came back from being down seven and half
and then won by eleven. And I thought as nuts
(03:41):
as Allen field House was, I thought the BYU game
was crazier. So it didn't surprise me that their fans
were nuts. My wife and my youngest son and his
wife were there and they got the experience and they were,
you know, going away by it too. It's just a
tough place to play. And if they're in threes like that,
I mean that rom looked like a hula hoop to them.
(04:04):
They were just firing them in at will, you know,
throw them over their head. It's like globe trotters in
Washington Generals. And I don't think it was a great
secret that by you shoot Freeze and then the other thing.
Cincinnati's not shot him very well. So after the game,
asked Kevin Young, did you expect them to shoot that
many threes? And he said, well, we had hoped that
(04:26):
they would. Basically, you know, we didn't want them to
throw it inside because they've been so tough in the paint,
and so there's a reason they fired of twenty eight.
And if you look, it's not for Seamos. Semos goes
four for eight, the rest of the team goes one
for twenty. That's not winning basketball. Now, if I had
(04:47):
the great answer for it, I'd surely tell Wes my
job is easier when when West Miller wins. But if
we're looking at at facts, it's like something's not working
and it needs to change, like now, preferably tonight. You
and I have been on road tris with teams. Life
is better when you can go home with a win.
(05:07):
You feel better about your job. Every buck feels better.
And then you know, if they can pull one out tonight,
and now I see they're favored by a point and
a half, if they kind of flipped during the day,
then you got West Virginia Sunday, not agamme. Your next
handful of games are against teams that are in similar
straits as you. You know, Utah's in the same boat.
(05:27):
They need wins. They've been slumping some West Virginia's dropped
two in a row. Here they've been jack one hyde
And then you see f is a very dangerous team.
You have to go there next week. They played some
really good games. They're tough there and that's your next
opportunity at a quad one win at UCF. Because West
(05:51):
Virginia is now not a quad one opportunity neither tonight.
Your next opportunity is on the road at UCF.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
You know, I think we knew a couple of things
going into Saturday. I knew that was going to be
a tough environment. Knew it was going to be a
team that liked to shoot threes and had some guys
who could get hot, and that obviously happened. We know
that you see as not a good three point shooting team.
We knew they're not a good outside shooting team, and
maybe that changes, but they haven't been all season long.
(06:19):
I think what a lot of people took issue with
was just how the game looked. The Bearcats effort listless
would apply. Some have accused the team of quitting. I
think that's a heavy accusation. You were there, You've watched
a lot of college basketball, You've watched some of the
some teams known for how hard they play and for
(06:39):
effort and for toughness and things like that. What would
you say to someone who said that that team on
Saturday night, from an effort perspective, quit.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It's tough to debate, to be honest with you. Now,
I'm sitting way up high because you know, press Row
used to be right on the court so you could
see faces and expressions and get more of a pulse
of the game. So now they move you up a
little bit, and with minus binoculars, it's kind of tough
to get the real feel of it. But what I
did see, I just don't like the body language I'm
(07:09):
seeing out of some guys. And here's the deal. Let's
face facts. I wrote this today and you kind of
tap dance around it to be polite. But okay, you
were happy to get seven guys back or nine or
whatever it was, But okay, do the math. I'm guessing
they got an increase. You know, the players are now paid,
(07:33):
so I guess it was in their best interest to return.
And everyone was happy that they returned. And they blew
out Ohio State and in a game that didn't count,
and everyone was happy that they returned. And now it's like, well, dudes,
you know, if you're wanting to advance your career, maybe
you need to produce because diminishing returns. I know in
(07:54):
our business and a lot of businesses it doesn't fly.
You get cut, you get whacked. And I don't know
what league they think they're going to go in if
they're looking to go to the league from here, But
do you see an NBA player out there? You see one?
I mean, I don't know what if we're going to
go to the league, you know, maybe there's an industrial
(08:15):
league somewhere. The G League probably is a pay cut,
you know, And maybe this sounds harsh to people, but
it's the truth. If the players want to be paid,
and that's the way the system is now going. The
expectations are there, you know, to who much is given,
much is expected, and they have to start producing. I
(08:38):
know Rick Barnes has told his team at Tennessee in
so many words what I just said, and it's like, Okay,
you guys want this now you need to produce, and
right now you're not producing. I'm just a guy that
writes about it. I've got no halftime speeches. But that's
just what I see. Yeah, and it's fair.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
At the same time, they're getting paid everywhere, right, I mean,
And there are a lot of players who have come
back to the school that they were at last year,
and I'm sure we're financially incentivized to do so. And
I don't know, and how many of those places they're
talking about effort. It's but I think that was the
takeaway from Saturday. You could say, well, fine, you know,
blowouts happened, and you could talk about how BYU was
(09:20):
eleven for fifteen from three and you know what, it
could have been one of those nights. Number one, they've
had one of those nights now twice within the last
three weeks. And number two, I don't think it was
that that stood out to a lot of people and
made people here, Matt, it was that team lacked energy,
looked listless and if you want to go down this road,
I can't argue against it. It looked like they quit.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, well, and at some point you kind of need
to change something just for the sake of at least trying.
And West doesn't seem to want to change the lineup.
And I don't know if that's the answer or not.
But let's look, you know, three three starters from last
year's over BYU or here, and you know Dade was
(10:05):
starting last year and Gisel came off the bench and
Disease played a much better game. What are you missing though,
you're missing some some rebounding. Now Taker Lockin had a
pretty good game last year seventeen and seven, I believe.
Now toward the end of the season, you know, his
playing time diminish, and so did Jamie Reynolds. But you know,
(10:25):
I don't see that guy that can come in and
get you some boards and give you some postman now
Arrton Page. If you look at the minute he plays
and his alfensive production, I think he's doing pretty well.
And he's young. Au These is pretty much a lob
or nothing, and he's very intimidating at the basket, you know,
locking shots and all that. But when he is an
(10:46):
off game, it's very very evident. And you know, I
knew he had some back issues coming into the game,
so I don't know if that was a factor. Skillings
can give a little bit of pack of a pass
because he got blasted in the eye, so you know,
six points and one rebound with one eye and he
kept playing. But overall, Dan's Feelings is averaging two less
(11:09):
rebounds than he did a year ago, and that was
his forte That's why Wes Miller picked him out of
the crowd when he was seventeen years old. He saw
this kid, you know, rebounding like no other. And so
he gets this kid with the wingspan and everything, and
he's he's capable of having just lounster games. But I
don't know. They defended him well, he was injured. His
(11:31):
numbers are down. Dylan Mitchell has been great in some games,
but his rebounding numbers from Texas are down, and Pandego
is not rebounding like he did a year ago. Crash
the boards, get the ball, and you know, it's like
you said, effort and toughness are things that you can see.
(11:53):
And I don't know that you can always coach them.
You can try, but it's something that is certainly did
right now.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
No question about that.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
How good is Utah on paper? If you look on paper,
you know you see out to be a lot better
and beating a lot of teams. I think they're dangerous.
I mean, let's face facts. They just beat the YU
who beat U. See now that's kind of like a
zeber Uc game here because those two schools hate one another.
But if seventy three seventy two in overtime in Utah
(12:25):
got to win. They're recent games they've not played well.
If they score under seventy, they lose. They've only lost
three at home Houston down at Houston that they held
them to thirty six points. But you know the Cougars
or Final four material. But yeah, if you see confine
the defense that they had before the last two games
(12:47):
and hold them down and then find a way to
maybe get near seventy, they should win. I mean, should
they win, Yeah, probably should win. But you know, when
you're on the road, weird things happen. Can you rebound
from what happened against BYU? You have to erase that.
So I know they got the practice in the Utah
(13:08):
Jazz facility. I'm hoping that maybe some of those pros
were telling them, you guys don't know how well you
have it.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
So they're two hundred and ninety six in the country
and three point shooting percentage. I think a lot of
us thought this was going to be a decent outside
shooting team. I don't recall thinking they were going to
be a great outside shooting team. I would have lost
a lot of money if you would have told me
they would go into the last game in January barely
(13:36):
on the inside of the top three hundred in the country.
How good of an outside shooting team should we have
thought this was going to be.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I would have thought them to be better. But right
now you have one guy that's that's over thirty percent
in the Big twelve games, and that's Skillings. Semos has
come up. He's up to twenty nine. Gisel James now
two for twenty six. Tyler Betsy, who hit everything in December,
is now two for I don't know exactly off the
top of my head, but he's only made two. He's
(14:05):
taking no way more than two if he hits him.
You know, life is different, but you got to work
for him. In this league. You know, you need better
ball movement and you can't just chuck the ball back
and forth between two guards and somebody throws up a
desperation shot at twenty nine seconds, which is not going
to work. Sea Moskin every now and then hit one
(14:26):
of those, but they need something. You know. I'm not
the excess and those guys they're not paying me for that.
And I just have to report on what I see.
But I'm seeing what a lot of people see, and
it wasn't pleasant to watch what I saw late at night.
I'm sure a lot of people had a tough time
sleeping that night.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
I'm one of them, Yes, no question about it. Well,
enjoy the remainder of your time in Utah, and selfishly,
I hope you report on a win tonight.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Thank you as always. I would would hope to report
on a wind tonight. Again, I'm about me. It makes
my job a lot easier. And it's West Miller's birthday,
and so you know, maybe he gets a birthday win.
And Dan Skilling's birthday was yesterday, so we'll see. Hopefully
they light some candles and get on the plane and
(15:15):
head home with a win and then figure out how
to beat the Mountaineers.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Very good, all right, Well I'll have a piece of
cake tonight if they win in honor of everybody's birthday
and a victory, Thank you as always, all right, So yeah,
that's our guy. Scott Springer, The Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com.
Nineteen minutes after four o'clock, Reds have signed an outfielder
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