October 29, 2025 • 10 mins
UC Women's Basketball Head Coach Katrina Merriweather previews the 2025-26 season, on ESPN1530.
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Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
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Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, twenty seven from four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
I'm Oweger, thank you so much for listening today. The
University of Cincinnati women's basketball team opens up it's season
next Tuesday against Lehigh Lehi, the Patriot League champions. The
Bearcats are going to play four teams during non conference
play that advanced to the postseason last year. The Bearcats
(00:22):
played an exhibition two nights ago, defeating Taylor one oh
four to sixty seven. This is a highly anticipated season
in the Big Twelve for the University of Cincinnati women's
basketball program and the head coach, Katrina Merriweather, who I
think fresh out of a meeting kind enough to join us.
As always, coach, it's going to have you.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
How are you.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
It's great to talk to you. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
What's more fun sitting in a meeting or talking to me?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Absolutely talking to you with these meetings. That's how our
key is all the time.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
There's things that you have to do so that you
can do what you love to do, and that's what
meetings are for me.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
All right, So I'm sure you have a lot to discuss.
We're less than a week away from the opener. What
are those days just before the first game that counts
like for you and your staff.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah, we're doing a few days of skill development, trying
to clean up some things from the exhibition.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Playing Taylor was really good for us. They're gonna have
a great season.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
They have a really good player, and so we're gonna
have to do better maintaining and garden. And I was
happy with our offense. Defense not so much, so that'll
be an emphasis. And then a couple of days before
we'll start actually preparing for Lehigh and getting this prepared
as we can with it being the first game with
no previous games to watch.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
What do you like most about your team right now?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I love how they play together. I think we have
great chemistry.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
That's one of the reasons we were able to score
main points very rarely in the last couple of years
that we had more assistant turnovers. And so we've seen
a huge improvement just from our close scrimage to our
intrasquad scrimmage to our exhibition game.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So they are growing and getting better, and I love
how they play with each other.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I know what d Alexander has already meant to your program,
and I know what She's going to meet your program.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I just I put.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Myself in her shoes and I go, you know, you
build to this point, you're about to start your college
basketball career, and it's it's delayed, right, you have to wait,
and you come to grips with that. She's an athlete,
she's a competitor, she understands all that. That doesn't mean
it's it's easy. And so I guess my question is
how is she doing dealing with an injury that she
(02:37):
suffers right before the season begins.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Well, it's heartbreaking, right.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
You have a kid that comes in with all the hype,
and deservingly so, the All Star Games, the honors, the
all the things, and then she gets here and she
hits some obstacles and then this last.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
One obviously is going to take her out for a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
And we're just supporting her as best we can.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
We have a great medical team that's looking after her.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Her family and her friends have been phenomenal, and I
think her teammates, because of the type of person she is,
they've embraced her even more and they're doing everything they
can look out for her too. So in my opinion,
she's going to continue to do well. Because she knows
that we're behind her and we're supporting her.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
There are newcomers on every team and every sport, more
so than ever before. You have eight this year. What
has stood out about the way that they have blended
with each other and the players you bring back from
last season.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
I think our leadership from the five returners, where they
just want to continue taking steps forward for the program
and in the Big twelve, allows them to embrace the
eight new ones. Getting Mary Carden out of the portal,
giving us the more depth and size and the five
spot along with Maya Peri and Ohio native that.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Can shoot the pill.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Off the ball.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
We know how important it is to be able to
have an exterior threat, perimeter threat. And then those six freshmen,
they're all different, they all bring something very special to
the table. Outside of d Kalia de Vilisi is the
most decorated from high school and she's a phenomenal point guard.
Had seventeen points, seven assists, and two turnovers in our
(04:19):
exhibition game, proven that she can just score and bunches
as well as create for other people. Kylie Torrens is
probably our biggest and best surprise, as we picked her
up late in the spring after she decommitted, and she's
starting in the four spot, and she's energetic and the
impacts of game on both ends. And Julia Crawford is
(04:44):
a heck of an offensive player. And Cali Bard and
Page will be joining us soon, but they're sitting out
right now temporarily, so you know, there's a lot of
playing time available, so they better figure out how to
play well.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Thrown to the Wolves, what is I mean?
Speaker 1 (04:59):
There's the obviously, there's the size, the athleticism, the speed.
I mean, there are so many different things that you
have to get used to when you make the leap
from high school to this level of college basketball, getting said,
for a season in the Big twelve. Beyond the obvious,
what's the biggest adjustment, It's.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Always going to be time management. Right.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
We bring them in in the summer and we have
limited time to work out. The rules allow you to
do four hours of basketball and four hours of strength
and conditioning. They take one or two classes and their
days seem free, and then fall hits and it's five
classes and it's twenty hours worth of practice, and I
think their heads starts to spend a little bit, and
(05:40):
so what really they discover is the more they take
care of themselves, the more that they fuel and hydrate
and rest and go to treatment, and they're proactive and
preventative and still find in time to get the gym.
The slower the transition is. If you try to take
a nap, every chance to get in your days a
little fool So that's to me, the biggest challenge that
(06:03):
they have is managing all the things that are going
to be in a Division one athlete.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I couldn't manage my time in college and I played
intermural basketball forty five minutes a week, so I can't
even imagine you took your players on an international trip.
You went to Rome, you played international competition. I think
two games give me an idea of how that's paid
off for your kids.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Well, I have to be honest, the chemistry is the
number one factor. Like to watch them bond together, for
them to eat gelato, for us to have a cooking class,
for them to learn the culture and see all the
different the sites.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I think that that was the best part for them.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
The best part for me was being able to suit
up and play with some lineups because this freshman class
in particular is very versatile. So who is my backup
point guard? You know, who is going to be able
to play the three and four? Who's going to be
able to be on the floor and play well with who?
And that will always be the biggest benefit for me,
(07:08):
on top of watching them grow together as a team
and build and bond.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You had me a Gelatto. The rest of the other stuff.
I gotta be honest with you, it doesn't matter all
that much.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
The Gelato had all of us in the told yes, yes, we.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Went every night. We all went every night to finish
the night off. We were thre at the Gelatto shop.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, that sounds I'm going to daydream about that the
rest of the day. Uh, you checked the box last year,
first winning season in UCE women's basketball in five years,
and it's that's you have to improve upon that.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You know that.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
But do you feel like the foundation has kind of
been laid, you know, and it's like, all right, we
did this, We're a winning program, we're in the Big twelve.
We've put the growing pains of the first season or
two behind us, and now we can kind of take
off from here.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Well, I'm really optimistic about us being able to take
steps forward We'll have to see how that manifests. Because
you can't discount losing Jillian Hayes, right, and having someone
with so much experience and being an All Conference player
in the Big Twelve, including todaya Hilton you know, who
had sec experience and came in and just impacted our
(08:21):
team and program and conference in.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Such a positive way. Do I feel like we've replaced them?
I think it's difficult to do that, especially with just
one player.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
So what we just told this team is one thing
is for certain. This whole team needs this whole team,
and the way that we're going to take a step
forward is not going to be by individual performances. It's
going to be about playing together as a team on
both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Makes sense. I know you have a lot going on.
The opener is fast approaching. Cannot thank you enough. You're
always kind enough whenever we ask, even if you're in meetings.
Great best of luck this season and we'll chat as
the season unfolds.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I appreciate you. Thank you have a good one.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Katrina Merriwether the women's basketball coach at the University of Cincinnati.
Her team opens up the season against Lee High on
Tuesday at Fifth Third Arena. Our best wishes to d Alexander,
who is going to be at a while with an injury.
And you know, as decorated as she is, as as
much as she has emerged as the face of the
(09:25):
program before playing in a regular season game, you just
you feel, you feel for as much started a college
basketball career playing for her hometown school, and the rug
kind of gets pulled out from underneath our at least
for a while. It's eighteen away from five o'clock.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
No, it's not.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
It's eighteen away from four o'clock. She's talking about time management.
I can't even tell time at Malager on Twitter. Thanks
to Delta Dental, Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant
communities for all. Good to Delta dentaloh dot com. So
there's a ton of college football coaches who don't have
jobs anymore. What can we learn from that, our friend
Amy Wagner tells us Next
All right, twenty seven from four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
I'm Oweger, thank you so much for listening today. The
University of Cincinnati women's basketball team opens up it's season
next Tuesday against Lehigh Lehi, the Patriot League champions. The
Bearcats are going to play four teams during non conference
play that advanced to the postseason last year. The Bearcats
(00:22):
played an exhibition two nights ago, defeating Taylor one oh
four to sixty seven. This is a highly anticipated season
in the Big Twelve for the University of Cincinnati women's
basketball program and the head coach, Katrina Merriweather, who I
think fresh out of a meeting kind enough to join us.
As always, coach, it's going to have you.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
How are you.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
It's great to talk to you. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
What's more fun sitting in a meeting or talking to me?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Absolutely talking to you with these meetings. That's how our
key is all the time.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
There's things that you have to do so that you
can do what you love to do, and that's what
meetings are for me.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
All right, So I'm sure you have a lot to discuss.
We're less than a week away from the opener. What
are those days just before the first game that counts
like for you and your staff.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah, we're doing a few days of skill development, trying
to clean up some things from the exhibition.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Playing Taylor was really good for us. They're gonna have
a great season.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
They have a really good player, and so we're gonna
have to do better maintaining and garden. And I was
happy with our offense. Defense not so much, so that'll
be an emphasis. And then a couple of days before
we'll start actually preparing for Lehigh and getting this prepared
as we can with it being the first game with
no previous games to watch.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
What do you like most about your team right now?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I love how they play together. I think we have
great chemistry.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
That's one of the reasons we were able to score
main points very rarely in the last couple of years
that we had more assistant turnovers. And so we've seen
a huge improvement just from our close scrimage to our
intrasquad scrimmage to our exhibition game.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So they are growing and getting better, and I love
how they play with each other.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I know what d Alexander has already meant to your program,
and I know what She's going to meet your program.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I just I put.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Myself in her shoes and I go, you know, you
build to this point, you're about to start your college
basketball career, and it's it's delayed, right, you have to wait,
and you come to grips with that. She's an athlete,
she's a competitor, she understands all that. That doesn't mean
it's it's easy. And so I guess my question is
how is she doing dealing with an injury that she
(02:37):
suffers right before the season begins.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Well, it's heartbreaking, right.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
You have a kid that comes in with all the hype,
and deservingly so, the All Star Games, the honors, the
all the things, and then she gets here and she
hits some obstacles and then this last.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
One obviously is going to take her out for a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
And we're just supporting her as best we can.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
We have a great medical team that's looking after her.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Her family and her friends have been phenomenal, and I
think her teammates, because of the type of person she is,
they've embraced her even more and they're doing everything they
can look out for her too. So in my opinion,
she's going to continue to do well. Because she knows
that we're behind her and we're supporting her.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
There are newcomers on every team and every sport, more
so than ever before. You have eight this year. What
has stood out about the way that they have blended
with each other and the players you bring back from
last season.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
I think our leadership from the five returners, where they
just want to continue taking steps forward for the program
and in the Big twelve, allows them to embrace the
eight new ones. Getting Mary Carden out of the portal,
giving us the more depth and size and the five
spot along with Maya Peri and Ohio native that.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Can shoot the pill.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Off the ball.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
We know how important it is to be able to
have an exterior threat, perimeter threat. And then those six freshmen,
they're all different, they all bring something very special to
the table. Outside of d Kalia de Vilisi is the
most decorated from high school and she's a phenomenal point guard.
Had seventeen points, seven assists, and two turnovers in our
(04:19):
exhibition game, proven that she can just score and bunches
as well as create for other people. Kylie Torrens is
probably our biggest and best surprise, as we picked her
up late in the spring after she decommitted, and she's
starting in the four spot, and she's energetic and the
impacts of game on both ends. And Julia Crawford is
(04:44):
a heck of an offensive player. And Cali Bard and
Page will be joining us soon, but they're sitting out
right now temporarily, so you know, there's a lot of
playing time available, so they better figure out how to
play well.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Thrown to the Wolves, what is I mean?
Speaker 1 (04:59):
There's the obviously, there's the size, the athleticism, the speed.
I mean, there are so many different things that you
have to get used to when you make the leap
from high school to this level of college basketball, getting said,
for a season in the Big twelve. Beyond the obvious,
what's the biggest adjustment, It's.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Always going to be time management. Right.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
We bring them in in the summer and we have
limited time to work out. The rules allow you to
do four hours of basketball and four hours of strength
and conditioning. They take one or two classes and their
days seem free, and then fall hits and it's five
classes and it's twenty hours worth of practice, and I
think their heads starts to spend a little bit, and
(05:40):
so what really they discover is the more they take
care of themselves, the more that they fuel and hydrate
and rest and go to treatment, and they're proactive and
preventative and still find in time to get the gym.
The slower the transition is. If you try to take
a nap, every chance to get in your days a
little fool So that's to me, the biggest challenge that
(06:03):
they have is managing all the things that are going
to be in a Division one athlete.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I couldn't manage my time in college and I played
intermural basketball forty five minutes a week, so I can't
even imagine you took your players on an international trip.
You went to Rome, you played international competition. I think
two games give me an idea of how that's paid
off for your kids.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Well, I have to be honest, the chemistry is the
number one factor. Like to watch them bond together, for
them to eat gelato, for us to have a cooking class,
for them to learn the culture and see all the
different the sites.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I think that that was the best part for them.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
The best part for me was being able to suit
up and play with some lineups because this freshman class
in particular is very versatile. So who is my backup
point guard? You know, who is going to be able
to play the three and four? Who's going to be
able to be on the floor and play well with who?
And that will always be the biggest benefit for me,
(07:08):
on top of watching them grow together as a team
and build and bond.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You had me a Gelatto. The rest of the other stuff.
I gotta be honest with you, it doesn't matter all
that much.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
The Gelato had all of us in the told yes, yes, we.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Went every night. We all went every night to finish
the night off. We were thre at the Gelatto shop.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, that sounds I'm going to daydream about that the
rest of the day. Uh, you checked the box last year,
first winning season in UCE women's basketball in five years,
and it's that's you have to improve upon that.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You know that.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
But do you feel like the foundation has kind of
been laid, you know, and it's like, all right, we
did this, We're a winning program, we're in the Big twelve.
We've put the growing pains of the first season or
two behind us, and now we can kind of take
off from here.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Well, I'm really optimistic about us being able to take
steps forward We'll have to see how that manifests. Because
you can't discount losing Jillian Hayes, right, and having someone
with so much experience and being an All Conference player
in the Big Twelve, including todaya Hilton you know, who
had sec experience and came in and just impacted our
(08:21):
team and program and conference in.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Such a positive way. Do I feel like we've replaced them?
I think it's difficult to do that, especially with just
one player.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
So what we just told this team is one thing
is for certain. This whole team needs this whole team,
and the way that we're going to take a step
forward is not going to be by individual performances. It's
going to be about playing together as a team on
both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Makes sense. I know you have a lot going on.
The opener is fast approaching. Cannot thank you enough. You're
always kind enough whenever we ask, even if you're in meetings.
Great best of luck this season and we'll chat as
the season unfolds.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I appreciate you. Thank you have a good one.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Katrina Merriwether the women's basketball coach at the University of Cincinnati.
Her team opens up the season against Lee High on
Tuesday at Fifth Third Arena. Our best wishes to d Alexander,
who is going to be at a while with an injury.
And you know, as decorated as she is, as as
much as she has emerged as the face of the
(09:25):
program before playing in a regular season game, you just
you feel, you feel for as much started a college
basketball career playing for her hometown school, and the rug
kind of gets pulled out from underneath our at least
for a while. It's eighteen away from five o'clock.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
No, it's not.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
It's eighteen away from four o'clock. She's talking about time management.
I can't even tell time at Malager on Twitter. Thanks
to Delta Dental, Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant
communities for all. Good to Delta dentaloh dot com. So
there's a ton of college football coaches who don't have
jobs anymore. What can we learn from that, our friend
Amy Wagner tells us Next
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