November 15, 2024 • 8 mins
Katrina Merriweather is the Head Coach of the UC Women's Basketball program. She joined us to talk about her team's 3-0 start and her program's impressive signing day haul.
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Instagram too: @MoEgger
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.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Moeger this football season. No matter who you
root for, no matter if it's college or pro, you
can catch every game at Long Neck Sports Grill. They've
got four k TVs all over the place. And remember
the sound is on for every big game. And if
you haven't tried Long Next Wings, what are you waiting for?
There's tons of other great stuff on the menu, and
(00:20):
no place in Northern Kentucky has a better beer selection.
Locations in Wilder, rich Wood and Hebron Long Next Sports Grill,
Stay long, come often. Katrina Merriweather always kind enough to
give us a few minutes when we ask. It's good
to have you, coach. I know you're busy.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
How are you I'm doing great. Thanks for having me,
and I can always make time for you.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Well, it's nice to hear someone say that for once.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
H All right, you played three games and obviously still
a work in progress. But you know, every game for
a coach is a chance to learn about your your team.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
What have you learned through three games?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well?
Speaker 4 (00:56):
That Billian Hayes is everything that people think she is.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I tell people all the time, like she's our heartbeat.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
She's tough, she's gritty, but She's also skilled, and I
think that that is infectious and it goes through our team.
The addition of Today and Hilton has been phenomenal. She's
the point guard that we knew we needed going into
this season, the type of guard we promised Jill we
would get so when she came back, we would have.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
An opportunity to compete.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
And then a handful of returners that came back locked in,
focused and have improved from last year this year, and
our lone freshman, Chloe Mann, comes in with all the
speed and energy you can ask for.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So like being the only freshman on a college basketball team.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Exactly, it's a it's a challenge, for sure, but thankful.
We're thankful we have the leadership you know, of Jill
and Today and again some of our returners and and
they've embraced her, and you know, she refers to some
of them as as auntie, your grandma, and she's the key,
and they have their own joke about it. But everybody's
happy she's here.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Who gets called grandma?
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yep, Jill's grandma and Tanay is auntie very good?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
All right, Well, you know that's a little bit weird
for the age bracket. We're talking about here, but I
guess it makes sense. The schedule is about to turn
starting on Monday night when you play Seaton Hall. I
want you to kind of walk me through the philosophy
of scheduling understanding in the Big twelve. Now you know
that the bullets start to fly when conference play gets here,
(02:31):
and so you have to kind of schedule in the
non conference accordingly. Walk me through the sort of objectives
you have in mind when you make your schedule.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Well, I think playing you I see on the road,
who had eleven seniors and grads, was going to be
a challenge for us, and it was very much a
game that if we didn't show what rate to play
was not going to end in our favor.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So I felt that challenge early on was important.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Then we come home to a Delaware State team who
ended up having a couple of injuries, so that school
ended up more lopsided than anticipated, but we still think
that we got some good reps out of it because
they zoned us quite a bit. And then you have Davidson,
who be Florida Gulf Coast, who everyone knows is a
mid major power that upsets power foss on a regular basis.
(03:18):
So bringing them in here, we knew they'd be really
well coached and and very disciplined, and that they would
challenge us defensively. And now here we are receive in Hall,
who finishes in the top three of the Big East,
and coach Tonya has been there for a long time.
He's an alum, loves that program. They're going to have
Northeast basketball, and they're gonna look very similar to our
(03:40):
re e L.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Jackson.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Their shifty, fast, explosive, great ball handlers, and he had
the auDA to go get a couple of post players too,
So now they're a well routed team. That is it's
gonna be a really tough battle for us.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
On Monday, Katrina Merriweather is with us the women's basketball coach,
head coach at the University of Cincinnati. You've been preparing
for games and then rounding out your class twenty twenty five,
twenty twenty six, signing them and talking about them this week,
and I want you to run through the entire class.
I would imagine you know, I'm going to start by
asking about d Alexander.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
So I watched her a.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Year ago at Purcell and the person that I said
she might go to UC and I looked at him
and went, you're kidding me, And yet here she is.
She's coming to the University of Cincinnati. For those who
haven't had a chance to watch D give me the
scouting report.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Well, I have to start with my staff doing a
phenomenal job in a way that we all invested in
D and aba Junct was huge in the recruiting of her,
just in regard to finding out the right people, building
relationships with the right people. And that's what matters most
to D. Right, It isn't about score the most point.
(04:54):
She wants to win, and she wants to win championships
and that's why she's won three and why she He's
a three times basketball So you know, she's this well
rounded versa little kid that when you get the ball
fifteen feet and me in I don't know that we've
coached anybody better. And because she's so good at that range,
you likely did not see her shoot threes or maybe
(05:16):
even pull ups. And it's not that she can, it's
just that she hasn't had to. So I think that
the cool part about her is that as we coach her,
people are going to see all the different layers to
her game on both ends.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Of the floor.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
You know, what I liked was the competitiveness. And that
sounds cliche, right, Like, I mean, you can say that
about so many kids. I've watched a lot of high
school basketball in my life. I'll watch a lot of
girls high school basketball in my life. I haven't seen
many that just treated the competition the way she did.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, you know it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
We've seen her again win under armor, the circuit championship
and the state championship, and she just shows up and
she plays the same way. And I think that her
maturity in her can assistency is probably what you saw.
She's just gonna play her best game and make people
around her better because of how she plays.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
And I know that having.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Her commit early had a lot to do with while
we were able to put together the class, we did.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
All right, run through the rest of the class. Warning.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Okay, so next we have Kalia de Vilisi.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Known this little bit, she's the number one player in Maryland.
We went out there and tried to find the best
point guard that we could that we thought fit our system,
and she was it and we were incredibly fortunate to
land her. She You're just gonna love watching her play.
She's got incredible vision, she knows how to control tempo.
She's mature, far beyond her years on the floor, and
(06:43):
we see what today this year, how.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Important it is to have a point guard. So very
excited about her.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Joya Crawford is a two time offensive Player of the
Year in the state of Tennessee. We think she's arguably
the best one in Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
She's won state championship this past year as well.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Loves playing defense, athletic explosives, shoots logo threes. You know,
she's really exciting to watch. Cali Barrett from Florida. People
will probably think that she has slown under the radar.
I mean she's either the third or fourth ranked player
in the state of Florida. So I don't know how
(07:20):
under the radar she really is. But from a national
from a national standpoint, a lot of scouting services don't
have a range very high, and so we think we
got to steal She can shoot the ball. She's really smooth.
She can put it on the floor, stands about six
to two. When we were recruiting her, we joked and
I said, hey, you're a really smooth offensive player. I said,
but if you're going to be a bearcatch, you got
(07:41):
a rebound. And I went and watched to play in
that next.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Eval period in July. She was rebound the ball like crazy,
and I said, a little there's we go. That's our girl.
So it really excited to have her in last, but
not least.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
We've got Page with it from Memphis, a tremendous basketball
pedigree father coach in the NBA and then the G League.
Footwork is impeccable. She can really shoot the ball, and
I thought she would be a great compliment to this
class simply because she can stretch the floor. So we
got some downhill people, rebounding people, and some folks that
(08:17):
can knock down shots, but.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Only one that has a nickname. Little bit, When do
the other kids get nicknames?
Speaker 4 (08:23):
So I think that they all probably have some. Well
we'll figure out what we're gonna call them.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I think a little bit.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
She's got a little bit of a celebrity behind her too.
She's the niece of Muxy Bows, so yeah, you know
they are.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And I'll say this better, so I believe she's the cousin.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
So don't don't quote me on that. But I know
that he has showed up to some of her games,
and so she's her family deeply embedded in Baltimore.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I mean, if there's any.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Ballers who have come out of that area, including Alan Ifferson,
in that Virginia space, like, they all know each other.
So it's only city that she would have a that
she would have a nickname.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Right, that's just absolute where she grows up.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
We'll come up with some other ones for those of
those other stories.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Well, if you need any help, I'm here. I'm not
good at much, but I could do that. Good luck
in the coming stretch of games that you have. It's
always good to have your coach. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Thank you so much for having me talk to you soon.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Hey, it's Moeger.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
This football season, no matter who you root for, no
matter if it's college or pro, you can catch every
game at Long Neck Sports Grill. They've got four k
TVs all over the place. And remember the sound is
on for every big game. And if you haven't tried
Long Next Wings, what are you waiting for? There's tons
of other great stuff on the menu, and no place
in Northern Kentucky has a better beer selection. Locations in
(09:45):
Wilder rich Wood and Hebron Long Next Sports Grill, Stay long,
come often
Hey, it's Moeger this football season. No matter who you
root for, no matter if it's college or pro, you
can catch every game at Long Neck Sports Grill. They've
got four k TVs all over the place. And remember
the sound is on for every big game. And if
you haven't tried Long Next Wings, what are you waiting for?
There's tons of other great stuff on the menu, and
(00:20):
no place in Northern Kentucky has a better beer selection.
Locations in Wilder, rich Wood and Hebron Long Next Sports Grill,
Stay long, come often. Katrina Merriweather always kind enough to
give us a few minutes when we ask. It's good
to have you, coach. I know you're busy.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
How are you I'm doing great. Thanks for having me,
and I can always make time for you.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Well, it's nice to hear someone say that for once.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
H All right, you played three games and obviously still
a work in progress. But you know, every game for
a coach is a chance to learn about your your team.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
What have you learned through three games?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well?
Speaker 4 (00:56):
That Billian Hayes is everything that people think she is.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I tell people all the time, like she's our heartbeat.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
She's tough, she's gritty, but She's also skilled, and I
think that that is infectious and it goes through our team.
The addition of Today and Hilton has been phenomenal. She's
the point guard that we knew we needed going into
this season, the type of guard we promised Jill we
would get so when she came back, we would have.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
An opportunity to compete.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
And then a handful of returners that came back locked in,
focused and have improved from last year this year, and
our lone freshman, Chloe Mann, comes in with all the
speed and energy you can ask for.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So like being the only freshman on a college basketball team.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Exactly, it's a it's a challenge, for sure, but thankful.
We're thankful we have the leadership you know, of Jill
and Today and again some of our returners and and
they've embraced her, and you know, she refers to some
of them as as auntie, your grandma, and she's the key,
and they have their own joke about it. But everybody's
happy she's here.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Who gets called grandma?
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yep, Jill's grandma and Tanay is auntie very good?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
All right, Well, you know that's a little bit weird
for the age bracket. We're talking about here, but I
guess it makes sense. The schedule is about to turn
starting on Monday night when you play Seaton Hall. I
want you to kind of walk me through the philosophy
of scheduling understanding in the Big twelve. Now you know
that the bullets start to fly when conference play gets here,
(02:31):
and so you have to kind of schedule in the
non conference accordingly. Walk me through the sort of objectives
you have in mind when you make your schedule.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Well, I think playing you I see on the road,
who had eleven seniors and grads, was going to be
a challenge for us, and it was very much a
game that if we didn't show what rate to play
was not going to end in our favor.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So I felt that challenge early on was important.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Then we come home to a Delaware State team who
ended up having a couple of injuries, so that school
ended up more lopsided than anticipated, but we still think
that we got some good reps out of it because
they zoned us quite a bit. And then you have Davidson,
who be Florida Gulf Coast, who everyone knows is a
mid major power that upsets power foss on a regular basis.
(03:18):
So bringing them in here, we knew they'd be really
well coached and and very disciplined, and that they would
challenge us defensively. And now here we are receive in Hall,
who finishes in the top three of the Big East,
and coach Tonya has been there for a long time.
He's an alum, loves that program. They're going to have
Northeast basketball, and they're gonna look very similar to our
(03:40):
re e L.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Jackson.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Their shifty, fast, explosive, great ball handlers, and he had
the auDA to go get a couple of post players too,
So now they're a well routed team. That is it's
gonna be a really tough battle for us.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
On Monday, Katrina Merriweather is with us the women's basketball coach,
head coach at the University of Cincinnati. You've been preparing
for games and then rounding out your class twenty twenty five,
twenty twenty six, signing them and talking about them this week,
and I want you to run through the entire class.
I would imagine you know, I'm going to start by
asking about d Alexander.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
So I watched her a.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Year ago at Purcell and the person that I said
she might go to UC and I looked at him
and went, you're kidding me, And yet here she is.
She's coming to the University of Cincinnati. For those who
haven't had a chance to watch D give me the
scouting report.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Well, I have to start with my staff doing a
phenomenal job in a way that we all invested in
D and aba Junct was huge in the recruiting of her,
just in regard to finding out the right people, building
relationships with the right people. And that's what matters most
to D. Right, It isn't about score the most point.
(04:54):
She wants to win, and she wants to win championships
and that's why she's won three and why she He's
a three times basketball So you know, she's this well
rounded versa little kid that when you get the ball
fifteen feet and me in I don't know that we've
coached anybody better. And because she's so good at that range,
you likely did not see her shoot threes or maybe
(05:16):
even pull ups. And it's not that she can, it's
just that she hasn't had to. So I think that
the cool part about her is that as we coach her,
people are going to see all the different layers to
her game on both ends.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Of the floor.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
You know, what I liked was the competitiveness. And that
sounds cliche, right, Like, I mean, you can say that
about so many kids. I've watched a lot of high
school basketball in my life. I'll watch a lot of
girls high school basketball in my life. I haven't seen
many that just treated the competition the way she did.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, you know it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
We've seen her again win under armor, the circuit championship
and the state championship, and she just shows up and
she plays the same way. And I think that her
maturity in her can assistency is probably what you saw.
She's just gonna play her best game and make people
around her better because of how she plays.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
And I know that having.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Her commit early had a lot to do with while
we were able to put together the class, we did.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
All right, run through the rest of the class. Warning.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Okay, so next we have Kalia de Vilisi.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Known this little bit, she's the number one player in Maryland.
We went out there and tried to find the best
point guard that we could that we thought fit our system,
and she was it and we were incredibly fortunate to
land her. She You're just gonna love watching her play.
She's got incredible vision, she knows how to control tempo.
She's mature, far beyond her years on the floor, and
(06:43):
we see what today this year, how.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Important it is to have a point guard. So very
excited about her.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Joya Crawford is a two time offensive Player of the
Year in the state of Tennessee. We think she's arguably
the best one in Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
She's won state championship this past year as well.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Loves playing defense, athletic explosives, shoots logo threes. You know,
she's really exciting to watch. Cali Barrett from Florida. People
will probably think that she has slown under the radar.
I mean she's either the third or fourth ranked player
in the state of Florida. So I don't know how
(07:20):
under the radar she really is. But from a national
from a national standpoint, a lot of scouting services don't
have a range very high, and so we think we
got to steal She can shoot the ball. She's really smooth.
She can put it on the floor, stands about six
to two. When we were recruiting her, we joked and
I said, hey, you're a really smooth offensive player. I said,
but if you're going to be a bearcatch, you got
(07:41):
a rebound. And I went and watched to play in
that next.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Eval period in July. She was rebound the ball like crazy,
and I said, a little there's we go. That's our girl.
So it really excited to have her in last, but
not least.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
We've got Page with it from Memphis, a tremendous basketball
pedigree father coach in the NBA and then the G League.
Footwork is impeccable. She can really shoot the ball, and
I thought she would be a great compliment to this
class simply because she can stretch the floor. So we
got some downhill people, rebounding people, and some folks that
(08:17):
can knock down shots, but.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Only one that has a nickname. Little bit, When do
the other kids get nicknames?
Speaker 4 (08:23):
So I think that they all probably have some. Well
we'll figure out what we're gonna call them.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I think a little bit.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
She's got a little bit of a celebrity behind her too.
She's the niece of Muxy Bows, so yeah, you know
they are.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And I'll say this better, so I believe she's the cousin.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
So don't don't quote me on that. But I know
that he has showed up to some of her games,
and so she's her family deeply embedded in Baltimore.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I mean, if there's any.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Ballers who have come out of that area, including Alan Ifferson,
in that Virginia space, like, they all know each other.
So it's only city that she would have a that
she would have a nickname.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Right, that's just absolute where she grows up.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
We'll come up with some other ones for those of
those other stories.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Well, if you need any help, I'm here. I'm not
good at much, but I could do that. Good luck
in the coming stretch of games that you have. It's
always good to have your coach. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Thank you so much for having me talk to you soon.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Hey, it's Moeger.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
This football season, no matter who you root for, no
matter if it's college or pro, you can catch every
game at Long Neck Sports Grill. They've got four k
TVs all over the place. And remember the sound is
on for every big game. And if you haven't tried
Long Next Wings, what are you waiting for? There's tons
of other great stuff on the menu, and no place
in Northern Kentucky has a better beer selection. Locations in
(09:45):
Wilder rich Wood and Hebron Long Next Sports Grill, Stay long,
come often
Mo Egger News
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