Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rival ry tide. Oh Joe Burrow and his Bangles get
down to business with Pittsburgh Steelers in an AFC North
grudge mass hash.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Time for the poon touchdown.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Prepare for four quarters of a Rockham suck em action.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, Greg Sam sacks hemp.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
At every second of this slumper knocker from Dangerous Dan
Hood and Mighty Dave Leffman.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well into the zone touchdown.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
The coverage begins Sunday morning at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty,
the official home of the Lagals.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
All right, there you go, I'm gonna do that. What's
up to? Good afternoon, my Lagger, ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank
you for listening. Thank you for being at our audience.
Thank you for being on your way to Buffalo Wild Wings.
Thank you that gentleman that I was just telling Austin
and Tony about for getting pulled over, Because very gratifying
moment for yours. Truly. We're here at Buffalo Wild Wings
(00:55):
Anderson third time we've been here. We're on Beachmont. We
love Buffalo Wild Wings. We broadcast from one every single
Tuesday during the season. That calendar shifts a little bit
when the Bengals play on Monday night football, which they
obviously do in a couple of weeks. We'll worry about
that later. Here's what we'll tell you. At Buffalo Wild Wings.
They got a lot going on. Okay, got five dollars
(01:16):
bud light tolls, got to buy one, get one half
off traditional wings. You've got this is my favorite. This
is what I'm ordering from the six for nineteen to
ninety nine deal where you choose from two entrees, you
choose from two sides, and you get two fountain drinks.
In this day and age in particular, you cannot beat that.
(01:36):
You cannot beat that. Also, you know, a Buffalo Wild
Wings gift card makes a great gift for anybody in
your life, including your favorite radio host or me. And
here's the cool thing. At beat ups. You buy twenty
five dollars worth of holiday gift cards, you'll get a
five dollar bonus. So that's twenty five dollars to use
(01:56):
on you know, other people in your life, and then
five bucks for yourself. How about that? It gets even
better because we are here now. Keep this in mind.
Typically our show is obviously three to six Monday through Friday.
We're on in the afternoon for three hours and so
when we are beat ups, we're here to six o'clock.
Not today, because there's a UK basketball broadcast the Wildcats
(02:19):
taking on Western Kentucky. That game at Reparina will tip
off at six thirty, and so the pregame show bumps
us out of the way at five o'clock. So we
are here till five. And the reason I say that
is not just so you don't look ahead to a
magnificent hour of sports talk radio for me. But we've
got prizes thanks to our friends at bud Light, including
(02:40):
tickets to the game on Sunday Bengals Steelers. Now I know,
and make your jokes about Bengals tickets, you would take
free Bengal Steelers tickets, so you can win them if
you're here. So get here and we'll draw at five o'clock.
I see the entry box over there. If you get
here between now five o'clock, he'll have a chance to win.
(03:01):
And hopefully some of the other prizes are of your
liking as well. But again, we are here till five o'clock.
Our show today is absolutely loaded. We're packed, we're jammed.
We've got a lot going on. Kelsey Conway is going
to join us if you're wondering where Paul Danner Junior is.
The Bengals by week has sent Paul on vacation and
so he is off. I didn't do his podcast today
(03:24):
because he didn't do his podcast today, and he's not
doing my radio show today because he is off. But
we are going to spend a few minutes with our
friend Kelsey Conway of The Inquirer in Cincinnati dot com.
As we get said for Sunday Bengals Steelers and the
stretch drive of the season, it goes without saying a
must win game for this team. We'll talk about some
of the things that Evian McPherson had to say yesterday.
(03:46):
I thought Evan McPherson, for the criticism that he took
for maybe not being as available as folks would have
liked after the Chargers game, I thought he was illuminating.
I thought he was insightful. I thought it was cool
that he stood there and answered questions about a season that,
frankly for him, has kind of gone sideways. And so
(04:06):
we're going to talk about that and who may or
may not be playing or coaching for a job between
now and the end of the season, and so much more,
Kelsey would join us in just a few minutes on
this show. I have not had a chance to chat
about the Reds trading Jonathan India for Brady Singer, which
is a move that I approve of. Now I understand
(04:26):
the Reds are taking on some risk here by who
they've let go, because with Jonathan India, you're trading away
a reliable piece. I think we all could kind of
wrap our brain around what his typical season playing second
base would look like for the Reds. Not at all star,
not putting up killer numbers, but numbers that certainly aren't
worth sneezing at, and so are they gonna be okay
(04:49):
with Matt McClain playing that position. I am a proponent
of solving the outfield with actual outfielders and not converting
guys who haven't played the outfield much, haven't played the
outfield at all, and so I've kind of looked at
Jonathan India as utility guy or expendable piece, because I
want Matt McLain to play second base, but he didn't
(05:11):
play at all last year, and so you're taking on
some risk with his health. You're also taking on some
risk with you know, maybe exposing a little bit of
a lack of debt. Like if Jonathan India would have
been coming off the bench for the Reds this season
and played some third, played some second, maybe learn how
to play outfield, capable enough to back up that, that
would have been okay. At the same time, the Reds
(05:33):
badly needed somebody who has gotten through a big league
season in the starting rotation without interruption, without having to
go on the injured list. And you know, in an
ideal world, Brady Singer is not your best picture. If
he ends up being this team's best starting pitcher in
twenty twenty five, this team is probably going nowhere. But
(05:55):
in Kansas City, he has shown durability. He has shown
an ability and a willingness to eat innings, and the
Reds frankly need that. They can't have all of that.
They need the upside of Hunter Green, and they need
the upside of Hunter Green to show itself through thirty
two starts. And same for Nickolodolo, and same for Andrew Abbott,
and same for so many guys. But the projected starting
(06:16):
rotation and it really didn't have a whole lot of
guys who have gotten through a full Big league season,
and so now they've at least acquired that. I think
sometimes there is a tendency to look at trades and
individual moves in a vacuum. I saw a lot of
this on social media, like, well, he's not an outfielder. Well,
if we get to the end of the season or
(06:37):
the end of the offseason and the two biggest acquisitions
are Terry Francona and Brady Singer, that's not a very
good offseason. But if those two moves prove to be
pieces in an otherwise productive offseason, and we'll see what happens,
then my guess is we'll be talking about acquiring a
bat from somewhere, whether it's a trade, whether it's free agency.
(06:57):
They need outfield help. But as much as this franchise is,
success rests on the arms of all those younger pitchers.
They need depth, they need a durability. And Brady Singer's
a guy you get two years of team control. He
just turned twenty eight years old. For what it's worth,
he was on a good team last year, though he
hardly pitched in the postseason. We're gonna have on a
(07:19):
guy by the name of a Siren Petro, who is
I think at least one of the absolute best sports
talk radio hosts in the United States, and a guy
who knows more about the Kansas City Royals and Brady
Singer than anybody. He is going to join us coming
up right around three forty five. Also have a really
good college basketball guest at four to twenty. You know,
(07:44):
I have gotten away from in recent years getting on
a lot of like television analysts college basketball TV analysts
because they've sort of fit into two categories. TV analysts
who just tell you how great every coach is, or
Dan who has seemingly fallen off the reservation, and so
(08:04):
we've kind of stopped having Damn monk. But I have
enjoyed the work of Evan Miakawa, and Evan does. He's
got a website that's not that unlike Ken Palm, although
I think it's better and cooler and more insightful. Evan
Miakawa is very bullish on the Bearcats. He is very
bullish on the Kentucky Wildcats. He likes Xavier. He is
(08:26):
maybe not quite as bullish on the Musketeers as a
lot of the national pollsters, but he still thinks they're
very good. I think he ranks the twenty ninth and
his metrics go to evanmiya dot com. We're gonna talk
you see and Xavier in Kentucky basketball, and if there's
time squeeze in one or two others, we'll do that
coming up in the four o'clock hour. Xavier with a
win last night against South Carolina, kind of a gritty,
(08:47):
gutsy performance. And tell you I watched Indiana State play
a lot last year, because how could you not. Ryan
Conwell has I think so far this season proven to
be every bit as good as a lot of us
who watched him play lest year for Indiana State thought
he was going to be. We're ramping up to the
Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout, which is for my money, it's
(09:07):
it's my favorite Cincinnati sporting event. There's a lot of
basketball that's going to be played leading up to the
Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout, and I think the cool thing
for both of these teams is that game has a
chance to be a part of an otherwise really really
good season. Like we keep talking about, well, you Se
and Xavier both going to be ranked in the shootout.
(09:28):
Could both teams be in the top fifteen, Could both
teams be in the top twenty, and I hope that
those things are the case. I kind of look at
it more from a thirty thousand foot view. I think
both these teams have a chance to make the NCAA
Tournament and win games in the NCAAA Tournament as reasonably
high seeds. And so we'll talk about both teams. And
then obviously Kentucky is off to a great start with
(09:48):
the game tonight. Evan miha Kaw is going to join
us coming up at four twenty today. A lot to
get to between now and five o'clock. Show preview video
is up on X thanks to our friends at Emery
Federal Credit Union York Credit Union with heart since nineteen
thirty nine. Go to EMORYFCU dot org at moegar on
social media, go watch the video on X and maybe
(10:10):
some of the other platforms will allow for videos to
be posted sometime soon. First things first, our friend Kelsey
Conway from The Inquirer is going to join us. We're
here at Buffalo Wild Wings and Anderson until five o'clock
today on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Station Cincinnati's ESB.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
It was such a disappointing loss for many reasons last night.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
It's our playground for sports fans like you really since
E three sixty tomorrow which well noon on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
A playground for sports fans. What's up? Muagor ESPN fifteen thirty,
We're broadcasting at Buffalo wild Wings, a playground for Hungary
Here at beat Ups in Anderson until five o'clock Bengals
Steelers on Sunday. If you don't have tickets, or if
you have tickets and you don't want to sit out
(11:01):
in the cold, or if you try to win tickets
here but don't win them, you can watch the game
here and then after the game read the postgame coverage
of our friend Kelsey Conway of The Inquirer in Cincinnati
dot com. And if you're a UC basketball fan, you'll
watch her on the sideline tomorrow. As U S gets
set to return to the floor at fifth Third Arena,
Kelsey is on x at Kelsey el Conway and kind
(11:22):
enough to join us as the Bengals get set to
host Pittsburgh. Hi, Kelsey, Hi Lo, how you doing? I've
never been better? How about yourself?
Speaker 5 (11:33):
I'm pretty great. I'm excited for the UC basketball game
tomorrow night and then Thanksgiving.
Speaker 6 (11:39):
So I'm excited you didn't mention the Bengals game.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
I'm going dame bye, Dave.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Okay, very good you were. You were there yesterday among
those chatting with Evan McPherson, who was I think pretty
detailed and kind of outlining some of the issues that
he is dealing with. What were your takeaways from listening
to uh Evan Speaker's mind.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Well, one, it was really good on Evan, Like we
went up to him right away in open mocker room,
and you know, he didn't have any issues with talking
with us, which is always appreciated when the guys are
pros like that. So I'll first say that. But my
two main observations with it are one, he didn't really
(12:27):
seem Evan's kind of a happy, go lucky guy, Like
I'm not really sure i've ever seen Evan McPherson have
a bad day, but he really doesn't seem like he's
lost any confidence, Like I don't think he is like
dealing with what you would call like the yips, Like
I really think he views it as I've just missed
(12:49):
a lot of important kicks. He said, you know, I've
really got to make those. But I really pressed him
on Okay, this hasn't just been one or two kicks
he's missed, Like, you know, you've really strugg well this season.
What are the themes that you're figuring out when you
go back and you rewatch the kicks with Barring Simmons,
special teams coordinator, Like what is the theme?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And what he said?
Speaker 5 (13:11):
And I know you guys talked about it yesterday a
little bit when he played it sound, but he said
that it's been really unique for him because all of
his missions have been going wide left and he said
that's not really something that's ever happened to him before
in his career because he's a right foot kicker. So
just him breaking down the nuances of what's gone wrong
with his kicks, I think is a good thing. Like
(13:32):
they've identified the problem with him, but now it's about
correcting it. And I said, you know, do you still
feel confident that if the game's on the line on
Sunday in a cold weather game, that you can go
knock one through from fifty plus out? And he said absolutely.
So I think that those are my biggest observations. He
doesn't seem like he's lost any confidence, and he knows
what he's doing wrong. Now it's just on him to
(13:54):
fix it, and he's got to fix it fast because
there's only six games left in the regular season and
they need him to figure this out because they can't
go into another off season with a kicker controversy because
we've been dealing with the punter controversy every off season,
so the last thing they need is a kicker controversy.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
You know question, So you know, you said you don't
think that Evan has lost confidence in himself, and I
would agree with that based on what I watched and
listened to. The question that I have is as have
his teammates and coaches more importantly lost confidence in him.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
Well, that's something that well, we'll never know because you
asked Zach Taylor, and this is Zach Taylor all the time.
Like he's a super optimistic, positive person when talking about
the players on his team, and that's necessary. But you
learn a lot in just some of the decisions that
they've made, and I think that they'll I think the
(14:49):
bye week was a reset for every single person and
every coach, and I think they are really going to
make some decisions down the line, whether it be trotting
Evan out there a couple more times, because forget about
the playoffs, and you can't even talk about that right
now until the Bengals prove that they can win. They
need to find answers in these next six games and
(15:11):
finding out if Evan McPherson can get his swide back
and be the clutch kicker is one of the most
important questions that this team has to get answered because
it was not something that anyone was prepared for. So
I think it's something that is really really going to
be interesting to see down the stretch here. And I
think the only way you can really figure it out
with him is if you keep allowing him to see
(15:33):
if he can make some of these kicks, and if
he can't, then they're going to have to reevaluate it.
But I think the bye week they're using that as
a reset for a lot of players, including Evan McPherson.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
How does the reset impact the defense?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
The reset impacts the defense, And I'm not sure how
about we say we'll see because and I know you
guys have talked about it at nauseum on the show with.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
Sinner, but to me, I don't think that they can
fix their issues in one week. I think the Bengals
personnel is what it is right now, the scheme is
what it is. Do I think that they can play
better down the stretch, Absolutely, But I don't think that
they can fix their problems on defense in just a
week off. If I'm being completely honest, I think that
(16:26):
they have a major flaw in their personnel up front
and at the safety position. And I'm just not sure
that a week away is gonna, you know, fix all
of that for this team. But they're choosing to look
at it as a positive. And I said, there's one
of the questions I asked ak Taylor before the bye week.
I said, you know, you're really able to identify what
(16:47):
you want your offense to be, Like, what do you
think your defense needs to be down the stretch win
some games? Like if there's one thing you got to
do better? And he was like, we'll get off the
field on third down. Unfortunately, that involves every level of
the defense, so that's not just one or two things
that they can fix. So that's why I think, to me,
I'm not really sure you're gonna see much different from
(17:08):
Cincinnati's defense down the stretch. If I'm being completely honest.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, but they have a ping pong table back, so
I think that's going to be really the igniter to
a key last third of the season run.
Speaker 7 (17:21):
They have the ping pong tables back, but they don't
have Jackson Carmen on the ping pong tables. And he was,
of all Bengals players in the last couple of years,
the number one user of those ping pong tables.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
So maybe there's a correlation between Jackson's relative lack of
success with the Bengals and the time he was putting
in on the ping pong table. How much is Lil
Anna Rumo coaching for his gig over these final six games.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
You know, I've found a lot about that, and I
think everything is on the table. But I truly think
and this is me just having, you know, had conversations
over the last year. I'm not reporting anything as if
this is like new breaking news, but I really do
think that they believe well, I think it would probably
(18:10):
it depends on who you talk to the bank of organization,
right Like if you talk to a coach when things
aren't going wrong, they're the first to say, well, you know,
I could use more talent here. Here, here, here, and
then personnel. You know, they usually have their view of
how they would do things if they were a coach,
So everybody is always going to look out for themselves
in situations like this. But I just don't know if
(18:32):
you can go there with Lou an Arumo yet, because
the talent is just so bad at certain positions that
were bad going into this year. And you know, I
could have told you back in in May that the
defensive line wasn't going to be much better because you
know the fact that they thought Sheldon Rankins, who three
(18:52):
of his six sacts last year came in one game.
You always have to be worry of those those type
of performances like Sheldon Rankins and Chris Jenkins and McKinley Jackson.
We're going to be the answer to a defensive line
that was already struggling, Like I don't know how much
you can blame that on Lou. And if you don't
have any sort of a pass rush, it's going to
(19:14):
just completely deteriorate the rest of your defense. All where
Lou deserves, you know, blame for is the safety position
because he's a defensive back, you know, coach at heart.
Same with Cam Taylor Bray like he has his hands
in that regression of that and their inability to sign safeties.
But I'm just not sure that because of the way
(19:36):
things have gone this season that they're going to completely
look at it as you know, he is our problem
and we might need to move on from him just
because I don't know how you can say he deserves
to go, but all of the people that put the
roster together should get to stay. So it's going to
be interesting. But I think if it goes really bad,
then I think that conversation would you know, heat up.
(19:58):
But I'm just it's it's interesting because I know Zach
Taylor really believes in.
Speaker 6 (20:02):
Lou Lan or Rumoh.
Speaker 7 (20:03):
So we'll see how this goes.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I have two minutes here. I'm going to leave the
last topic of conversation up to you. I'll give you
a choice, Okay, okay, okay. We could talk about Joe Mixon,
or we could discuss where we're going to go in
San Antonio the weekend of the Final Four when we're
there to watch the Bearcats.
Speaker 7 (20:24):
Can I take the ladder? I think that you see basketball.
I'm really excited to watch, you know, with you when
the games really get going after the new year. But
I think tomorrow's game might be sneaky good against Alabama State.
We just had a chance to talk to coach Maddox
today as the broadcast crew, and they've played some of
(20:45):
these teams like right now, they're playing those games where
they get paid, and they played LSU pretty close. They
gave Akron a fight a couple of nights ago. So
I think this the first half might.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
Be sneaky good.
Speaker 7 (20:57):
And of all of the games you see has played
besides Georgia Tech, I think this one might be the closest,
just based off of al dam States personnel, but obviously
think it's tv a Cincinnati win. But I'm fired up
and I'm excited about UC's future in basketball. But as
we both know, all of it rides on that game
against Savior, right.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Well, you know, Kelsey, sure the Bearcats haven't won that
game since McK cronin's last season, but but you know
that game is that game is not the end all
and be all. It doesn't have to be for either team,
And so you know there are regardless of which school
you're root for, there are bigger fish to fry in
the two teams respective leagues, and so I am looking
(21:40):
forward to the Skyline Chile Crosstown shootout. But if the
Bearcats don't win, they can still have a very successful season.
That's me already laying the groundwork for how I might feel.
Speaker 7 (21:50):
If you're already giving yourself an excuse, Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
I've done this quite a while. Absolutely all right. Well
we'll stay with the game tomorrow. Thank you very much.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Though.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I one more thing. I have to ask you my
poll question because I mentioned the ping pong table. If
you were an NFL player, which table would you prefer
in your locker room? Ping pong, billiards, foosball or air hockey.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
I think I'm going air hockey.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Think I am too Think I am.
Speaker 7 (22:20):
Too good, Great minds think alike.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Right, Yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I haven't made a definitive choice, but I'm leaning air hockey. Night. Well,
we'll talk soon, Thank you very much. Thanks mal Kelsey
Conway does a terrific job covering the Bengals for the
Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com. We're gonna go to Kansas
City in fifteen minutes and learn more about the Red's
newest acquisition. But first everything you need to know about
(22:45):
one of the crown jewels of the Thanksgiving Slash Holiday
season in Cincinnati. Next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Station Sincy three sixty with Tony Pike. You don't want
to move on for doctor Keith Going and Boston Elmore.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
I think you chuld continent.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Let me keep going there, Sency three sixty Tomorrow which
twelve News On ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
ESPN Western Southern Thanksgiving Day Race is coming up on Thursday,
because Thursday is Thanksgiving and we're going to learn more
about it. In just a second. Quickly remind you UK
basketball tonight on ESPN fifteen thirty, the Wildcats hosting Western
Kentucky pre game at five o'clock. Miami has just knocked
off Mercer in Fort Myers seventy five to seventy two,
(23:31):
and Dayton plays tonight in the Maui Invitational. Played great,
a great game last night. Flyers built a twenty one
point lead fall in North Carolina. They play really good
Iowa State team tonight. That game scheduled to tip off
right around eight thirty. The Western and Southern Thanksgiving Day
Race went through a lot of changes last year, even
more this year. The venue of TQUL Stadium being involved,
(23:54):
I think has turned out to be a major hit.
The race director is our friend Julie Is, who's kind
enough to give us a few minutes during what I'm
sure is a very very busy time for her. Julie,
how are.
Speaker 8 (24:05):
You it's my favorite time of year, MO.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I'm sure it is. It's mine as well. So a
lot of new stuff with the race last year, and
I get the sense that some of the newness this
year is kind of playing off of some of the
stuff we saw last year.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Right, right, it's so important.
Speaker 8 (24:24):
It's a really good point is that the race, moving
it to TQL Stadium, adding the five k has been
phenomenal for the growth of the race, and we can
include more people. So with the Chick fil A five k,
and then we have the traditional Western Southern ten k
(24:45):
and the Pro Impact Kids run, we've got options for
the whole family. And Mo, that's what this race is
all about. Family, the family tradition. As the generations keep coming,
they it's just makes the race bigger and better.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Been around for over one hundred years, So give us
an idea of some of the new things for this
year in particular, but.
Speaker 8 (25:10):
We expanded the starting line and we work with the police.
This insime police to make the route much wider and
bigger to accommodate a bigger crowd. We never knew how
popular the new venue would be and the new Chick
fil A five k would be. It's added so many
more people to the race. We also changed the finish
(25:31):
line to Ezra Charles right by TQL Stadium, so we
keep the five k and ten k separate all the
way in which is great. We changed, we added more
food and more water, and then we kept some of
the really new things from last year. You get to
go on the field when you're finished with the race.
(25:52):
We have packet pick up right now TQL Stadium and
a huge expo, so that's really easy. Three parts king
that was hugely popular last year, and then that those
are the key elements.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
How cool is it to have an event like this?
Look there there are races ten k's five k's around
the country. How cool is it though, to have an
event like this end up an event you like TQL.
Speaker 8 (26:21):
It's amazing to have something of this stature in such
a just a beautiful stadium. It doesn't get much better
than this for a race like ours. And the other
really interesting thing is this race is one hundred and
fifteen years old, one of the oldest in the country.
(26:42):
Yet we keep adding new things to the oldness, so
it really is neat. I've been doing this for twenty
eight years now and it never loses its sense of
adventure and creativity and fun. It's everything a race should be.
You should forget your exercising and instead just enjoy the
(27:06):
time with your family. And also with the new venue change,
we kept the whole course in Cincinnati, so the ten
k course, you pass all three stadiums, you go from
over the Rhine down to the river, and you know,
so we've captured everything beautiful about our downtown area and
(27:28):
a part of all the new development on the west side.
And the other thing is out of over a million
people run Turkey Trots in the nation, so there are
thousands of Turkey Trots, and our race was voted Cincinnati's
race was voted the number six in the country, which
(27:48):
is phenomenal. And I just want to you know, TQL
Stadium is one of the reasons, and of course the
people that show up, the numbers who show up, and
the tradition that everyone's kept alive.
Speaker 9 (28:01):
It's just fun.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It is, yeah, tradition that goes back to at nineteen
oh seven. So the race is obviously Thursday, we're getting closed,
but there's still time to register. What can people do
if they want to sign up?
Speaker 8 (28:13):
Oh, it's so easy. Thanksgiving Day race dot com. It's
the website and you can register there. We have packet
pickup still at TQL Stadium right in the First Financial
Club pre parking. You can pick up your packets there
and you can register up till nine o'clock on race
day morning. So there's nothing stopping you.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
You know.
Speaker 8 (28:36):
It's make your I really always tell people, make your
Thanksgiving the best ever. Add some exercise with your family
in the morning. You can eat more pumpkin pie in
the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
It sounds amazing. Thanksgiving Day race dot Com goes back
to nineteen oh seven. It is a terrific Thanksgiving tradition
here in Cincinnati. Julie and I got a lot to do.
We'll let you run. Thank you so much.
Speaker 8 (29:01):
Okay, thanks maw.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
You're welcome. And of course the Western and Southern Thanksgiving
Day race could not happen without the support of the
Western and Southern Financial Group. Julius Fording, the very busy
director of the race one hundred and seventeen years right,
I'm doing that mathcre I am man one seventeen. Going
back to nineteen seven, We're gonna go to Kansas City.
(29:24):
Brady Singer good? Why was he available? And are they
excited about getting Jonathan India. We'll get answers to those questions. Next,
We're a Buffalo Wild Wings in Anderson here till five
o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station. Jonathan India
got traded for Brady Singer along with Joey Weimer, who
leaves the Reds with it on base percentage of one thousand.
(29:45):
So Brady Singer, let's learn about him. Saren Petrow is
part of a sports radio eight ten WHB and Kansas City.
This dude knows more about the Royals than anybody alive.
How good is Brady Singer?
Speaker 6 (29:59):
You know? I he's good. He's he's good to very good.
Speaker 10 (30:02):
He's dependable, he's a workhorse. He takes his craft serious
to the point that like he's happy to do interviews,
but he ain't gonna do him for him, right, You're
gonna get single word answers if you ask him like
do you feel good today?
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Yes? Right? Like he is a no.
Speaker 10 (30:16):
Nonsense type of guy, and that's the positive part about him.
And he is a workhorse, and he is an old
school baseball guy in the sense that he wants the
ball every that day, doesn't want to come out of
the games. That is that is the good part of
Brady Singer. The bad part is with those type of
guys also come stubbornness sometimes a belief and you know,
(30:36):
if I just work harder at what I've been doing,
it will get better that that hard work will be there.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
And maybe not really.
Speaker 10 (30:43):
Willing to tink or not really willing to add to
his repertoire. I think that was maybe some of the
frustrations that we're here in Kansas City. But he is
certainly a guy that you know, and I mean this
is a compliment. You Sometimes you call a quarterback a
game manager and they get upset. I think that's like
the next level below playmaker, right, Like, the're lots of
guys that are not game managers that stink.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
Well.
Speaker 10 (31:03):
I think workhorse and innings eaters sometimes for pitchers, they
don't like that, but I think that is what he is.
The question is can he ever be more than that
guy that's an innings either.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
All right, So to this point, you know he's eaten
up innings, he's been durable. Give me an idea of
his stuff. What kind of pitcher?
Speaker 11 (31:18):
Is he?
Speaker 6 (31:20):
A two pitch pitcher?
Speaker 10 (31:21):
And that's the frustration, right, fastball slider got a sinking
action to it. He can get a ground ball, and
those pitches are very good, and he wants to live
by those pitches. And the Royals spent a lot of
time trying to get him to add a third pitch,
really trying to get him to add a change up,
and he finally did.
Speaker 6 (31:37):
He would add it. He would throw it a couple
of times.
Speaker 10 (31:39):
They send him back to the minors several years ago,
telling him, listen, you've got to throw this pitch. We
know you can get triple a guys out with your
top two pitches. We need you to be able to
get guys out and set guys up with that third pitch.
He would throw it a few times. Come to the
big leagues, it would get hit around because he hadn't
really perfected it, and he would go back to just
the two pitches. And really this year, you know, you'll
see that he threw if you're if you're a deep
(32:00):
into the numbers guy and you go to the fanraff
and you'll see the change up up there. But really
what he did was he just got better with those
two pitches and he still really didn't incorporate the change
up in very much. And I think that's what limits
him left handers. And this is what we've kind of thought,
you know, because there's a lot of people have thought
Brady Singer's worth more than Jonathan India. Is weamer enough?
(32:21):
That's a debate to have did that even the score.
I mean, obviously the Reds thought he was worth more
than Jonathan India as well, But is that enough that
a lot of people can't the city say that that's
not enough for a dependable starting pitcher for what you're getting.
But I will tell you that he really doesn't have
a weapon for the left handers. And if you look
at it, if you break out his splits against losing
teams and against winning teams, you're going to see that
(32:41):
he really feaced on the losing teams and the winning
teams give him trouble, and that's one of the reasons
why when the Worlds got the playoffs, he was not
one of the three starters that they used. He only
pitched one inning in the postseason because they knew Reagan's
and Seth Lugo, who had a cy Young caliber season
this year or better, but so was Michael Walker, especially
coming down the stretch, and so he really didn't get
a chance to pitch in the postseason because against the
(33:03):
better teams and really against quality left handed hits, he
doesn't have the weapon.
Speaker 6 (33:07):
You need to get them out, you know.
Speaker 10 (33:08):
I remember Keith Law wrote about him when the Royals
drafted him. He was in the running going into that
year to be the number one overall pick, slid to
I think eighteen where the Royals took him, and Keith
Law's right up on him was that, you know, this
is the guy.
Speaker 6 (33:19):
That they'll try as a starter.
Speaker 10 (33:20):
He'll fail because he doesn't have a weapon for left handers,
and he'll end up being a top shelf reliever, maybe
a closer. That's what he was looking at, and that
was always in everybody's mind here in Kansas City. He's
clearly made it work as the start of the question
is can he go to that next level if the
Reds can get another pitch into his arsenal.
Speaker 6 (33:35):
There's more ceiling there.
Speaker 10 (33:37):
If he's willing to embrace that, if he's willing to
throw that, if he's willing to work on it. Otherwise,
with that home run rate in bank One Ballpark, a
lot of us are saying, Wow, this could be a
lot of fireworks with Cradie Singer when he pitches at
home and since ANACTA.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yeh know, so at face value, I'm like, you know,
teams in contending windows that have twenty eight year old
starting pitchers who have had a track record of durability
and who are under team control for a couple of years,
they don't just give them away. And so that was
my first question. Why why was he Why was he expendable?
Was it simply a matter of they've got enough dudes
and he's a bit of a surplus. Does he have
issues keeping the ball in the ballpark?
Speaker 6 (34:10):
Like?
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Why why would a good team like the Royals with
the guy's got two years of team control just give
him up.
Speaker 10 (34:17):
I think he was a couple of ELPs. One just
good old fashioned baseball trade. The Royals have a couple
other guys that they like to fit into that rotation.
They got Michael Waka re signed, so they haven't lost
anybody from the rotation. Alec Marsh came on again after
they you know, he had been the fist starter for
most of the year. They devoted and brought him back.
He did very well coming down the stretch. And then
Chris Bubach was coming back from Tommy John surgery. They
(34:38):
pitched him in the bullpen and he was dynamite. He
was probably their second best. Once they got Lucas Hersag,
he was their second best reliever out of the bullpen,
and but they've always had an eye towards moving him
back to the rotation and they've already stayed immediately after
the year. Chris Lubich is a starter, so he's going
to compete for that spot that's open. And Noah Cameron's
a guy they liked that. That's a youngster. Daniel Lynch
(34:58):
did very well as a reliever as well as a
long reliever. They think they can put him into that mix.
And I think they're willing to spend a little bit
more money here on the open market, moving singer on
India take up most of that money, but it does
create a little bit of extra money for them to
spend on the free agent market. So they really struggled.
This was a you know, I think this was a
need for need trade. The Royals leadof hitters were the
(35:19):
worst in baseball last year, collectively, having a two seventy
on base percentage, So did they overpay for a guy
with the three fifty on base percentage? Maybe maybe the
Reds got a little bit better of them. I think
that's entirely possible. But the Royals were desperate to get
somebody into that leadoff spot because they're two, three, four
performed extremely well. Bobby Wit, Junior, Vini, Pascaino, Salvado Perez,
you know, they all were on pace and Vinnie hadn't
(35:40):
gotten hurt the very end of the year. Would have
three one hundred RBI guys and that's what the two
seventy on base.
Speaker 6 (35:45):
Guy in the leadoff spot.
Speaker 10 (35:46):
So they really feel like they can get a lot
better offensively if they can shore that spot up, and
they're going to try to figure out where it all fits.
Because India go to the outfield, does Michael Massi go
to the outfield as one of them go to third base.
Speaker 6 (35:57):
That's something that.
Speaker 10 (35:58):
They're going to try to figure out, and I think
they'll figure out once they get done with whatever they
can accomplish here in the off season. But I think
this was just Look, they've had two years with their
new crew with Mac Guerrero and who came over from Tampa,
Paul Hoover who came over from Tampa, Brian Singer, Brian Sweeney,
excuse me, their pitching coach who came over from Cleveland.
(36:18):
You know, they've had their new guard guys work with
him for two years and they haven't really been able
to get him to.
Speaker 6 (36:22):
Embrace a third pitch.
Speaker 10 (36:23):
I think they felt like, look, with us, this is
as much as Brady's stinger is going to be.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
We've been at it for two years.
Speaker 10 (36:28):
Maybe Cincinnati can unlock more than If they can tip
your cap to him, congratulations. If not, we've got the
leadoff hit, or we need to make this offense better,
and we think we've got some good options to replace
him with the starting pitching. So, you know, long answer
summed up quickly. I think it's a surplus Bernid and
surplus Arni going both directions.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, makes sense. I mean you kind of answer my question.
I was going to ask Number one, how are they
going to use Jonathan India? Number two is their excitement
for his arrival in Casey, And it feels like there
is there.
Speaker 10 (36:58):
Is there's a lot of excitement because you know, there's
first of all, there's excitement for the last couple of
years of even though you know JJ Piccolo was in
house and came with Dayton Moore, Date Moore never really
did embrace the analytics, and he's certainly never embraced on
base percentage.
Speaker 6 (37:11):
Right, they won a world.
Speaker 10 (37:12):
Championship, won a second pennant doing a Date Moore's way,
But I think nowadays it just that was such a
one off of such an outlier. And JJ Piccolo does
embrace the analytics. He's very much grown the analytic department
for the Royals, and on basis like let's be honest,
we're talking about intro to analytics, we talk about on base,
we're talking about you know, nineteen ninety nine, two thousand analytics.
(37:33):
And he has made that, you know, given those marching
orders to the organization to go out and find on
base percentage, we have to be better at that and
so everybody in town has heard JJ talk about it.
They knew that's what he wanted to do, and now
he's done it. Everything he said he wanted to accomplish.
He gave a shopping list that he wanted to acquire
last year, he acquired everything on that list, and they
went thirty games better this year, going from fifty six
(37:55):
wins to eighty six. So there's a lot of excitement
behind JJ piccoll I think a lot of us that
have screened about the math the baseball are seeing the
math put into a fact and so, yes, Jonathan India,
is he perfect? No, do we think the power is
going to take a hit in Coffin. Yes, we're optimistic
the doubles we'll go up, the batting average will go
up thereby increasing the on base percentage even more. But
(38:17):
this is something that the Royals really needed. Now where
to play him? I thought it was very noteworthy. JJ
Picola said in his press conference Friday night after they
made the trade. You know, he was asked like, well,
you got Michael Garcia, third young guy that you like.
You got Michael Massey at second, Like where does he
fit in? They need outfielders, right, like, ideally, if Jonathan
India was a left fielder, this would be perfect.
Speaker 6 (38:37):
So I think left field's an option.
Speaker 10 (38:38):
But JJ said, we're not really even thinking about the
defense right now.
Speaker 6 (38:42):
We'll get everybody here.
Speaker 10 (38:43):
We'll get to spring training and we'll figure it out then,
which less some of us, myself included optimistic that there's
another move. Is there another back coming, is there an
outfield back?
Speaker 6 (38:51):
And then they'll play it out.
Speaker 10 (38:52):
Could Michael Garcia go to get an outfield back, Could
Michael Massey go to get an outfield back. Michael Massey
went to the organization and he's got more power, but
not be on base percentage that India has and say, listen,
I'm open to play in left field. He said that
to him last year when they had that problem. So
I think they do have options, whether it's India that
goes out there or they just keep them where he's
comfortable and maybe where his arm strength says he should
(39:13):
be at second base and they move somebody else. What
they really wanted was the bat, and I think there
is an element. They feel like they're good at short,
they're good behind the plate, they're good in center field,
so they can you know, maybe not be quite as
good at third or second or left field.
Speaker 11 (39:26):
If that's what they need to do to get the
on base percentage into the lineup, it's my.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Guy, Saren Petrow Sports Talk eight to ten WHP and
Kansas City. That's more info in the Kansas City Royals
than you ever would want. Red's making a deal with
Kansas City. Brady Singer comes to Cincinnati, Jonathan India, and
Joey Weimer gets sent to Casey. Reds needed a starting
pitcher who has been through a full Big league season uninterrupted,
(39:52):
and they got one. And it comes at the expense
of the twenty twenty one National League Rookie of the Year.
A lot to get to. Between now and five o'clock,
We're a Buffalo Wild Wings in Anderson. It's four o'clock
on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati Sports station is Sports centered.
(40:13):
I'm Christine Leacy.
Speaker 12 (40:14):
North Carolina football coach Mac Brown intended to return next season.
The school, though had other plans, announced that Brown will
not be back in twenty twenty five. He'll coach Saturday's
regular season finale. No decision yet if he'll coach the
tar Heels in their bowl game. Latest college football rankings
unveiled tonight eight Eastern exclusively on ESPN NFL Cowboys owner
Jerry Jones during today's appearance on one O five to three,
(40:36):
the fan was that if it's crazy to think that
coach Mike McCarthy could receive a contract offer after this season,
it's not crazy at all.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
According to Jones.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Mich McCarthy is I've been there and that, and he's
had a great idea. So bottom line is no place
in my body language or anything that have you stayed
indicat about what we're going to be doing relative to
the staff at the end.
Speaker 11 (41:04):
Of this year, and we should.
Speaker 12 (41:07):
Jones also said they've got a lot of football left.
The next three games for four and seven Dallas the
Giants on Thursday, follow by matchups against the Bengals and Panthers.
Speaker 13 (41:20):
Time with family, laughs with friends, and cash back. Discovers
got you covered on the last one. That's because discovered
doubles all the cash back you've earned on your credit
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Speaker 1 (41:37):
This report is Bengals and Steelers Coverage begins Sunday morning
at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of
the Bengals.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Fred Doubts, That is on Sunday. We're on from nine
to eleven thirty before the game, then count down and
kickoff in the game at one o'clock. We are, excuse me,
broadcasting from Buffalo Wild Wings on the East side of
Cincinnati Anderson Township, Beachmond. This is our third time here
we have and this is a lot going on. So
(42:09):
first of all, let me tell you this. We've got
buy one, get one half off traditional wings. Can't beat that.
We have these six for nineteen ninety nine menu. This
is what I'm ordering from as soon as I get
a chance to make my order. You get two entrees,
you get two sides, you get two found drinks for
just nineteen ninety nine. How about that? Also, Buffalo Wild
(42:30):
Wings gift cards are perfect for your holiday shopping list
by twenty five dollars and holiday gift cards get a
five dollar bonus. You cannot beat that. We've got five
dollar bud Light tolls and we're giving away tickets thanks
to our friends at bud Light. Sunday Bengals Stealers. It
is going to be cold, but still it's Bengals Stealers
(42:53):
one o'clock on Sunday. We have a pair of tickets
we're giving away now. Typically, our show, as you I
would hope no by now, goes until six o'clock, and
we always get a rush after five o'clock for obvious reasons,
people getting off work and stuff like that. UK plays
tonight and it's an earlier game than usual, six point thirty.
Kentucky obviously has a ninety minute pregame show, and so
(43:16):
our show is over at five o'clock today. So if
you want to win the tickets, if you're in the area,
you're on Beachmont driving around here on the east side
of Cincinnati, and you want to try to win the tickets,
come to Buffalo Wild Wings. Get here before five o'clock,
get something to eat, have a nice cold bud Light,
and if we draw your name, boom. Plus we've got
other stuff. I see some of those really cool looking
(43:37):
bud light Bengals, Nike golf hooties. Those are terrific and
so much more so, get here before five o'clock. We
have a lot to get to this hour. College basketball
at the start of the season, there's so much excitement
in this general area. The UC Bearcats have played really
well to start the season, understanding they haven't played anybody
(43:58):
really good. They did play a school from a high
major conference in Georgia Tech that is not, in my
opinion at least a very good Georgia Tech team. Xavier
wins a neutral site game last night against South Carolina.
I don't think it's very good, but you know, there's
a lot of hype for the skyline. Shelly Crosstown too
that there's a lot of hype for both UC and
(44:19):
Xavier this year, and even more so with each passing win.
Musketeers will obviously play Michigan tomorrow to go on the
road against TCU next week. UC has a bye game tomorrow.
They do go to Villanova next Tuesday, which is kind
of an interesting game. And then, amid all of this,
and not to ignore or slight anybody else in the area,
(44:40):
the dateon in North Carolina last night played a great game.
Flyers very much complicit in their own demise. Frustrating if
you're a Dayton fan, if you stayed up till about
one forty five this morning to watch it. They get
a chance for redemption tonight against an Iowa State team
that is really not fun to play at all. The
Kentucky Wildcats are off to a great start, and you know,
(45:03):
again sandwiched around the Duke game are games that you
would expect Kentucky to win. What I would say about
Kentucky is the same that I would say about Cincinnati,
understanding that they've got this this chip, if you will.
In the victory over Duke, which was a terrific game
and a signature win and one that took the hype
(45:23):
for what Mark Pope was doing and kicked it in
the hyper drive. In the other games they've played, they've
looked the part. And I've said that about you see,
they were supposed to win each of the games they
have played so far, but they've looked the part and
you could see how I think well constructed the roster is,
and you could see how difficult they're going to be
(45:43):
to defend. And I would say the same about Kentucky.
Mark Pope doesn't have what Wes Miller has, which is
a bunch of guys from last year's team that he's
added to via the transfer portal. But I think in
both instances, you see two teams that early in the season,
have played really well together, and I think with Kentucky
what's interesting is there's not one guy carrying the load.
(46:06):
It's been a little bit of everybody. And so this
is a long winded way of me saying that we're
gonna have on a guy by the name of Evan Miyakawa,
who's a college basketball analyst, does a great job, has
a website that is as good as you'll find. And
we're gonna focus on those three teams in particular because
I don't have an hour and a half to talk
about everybody. But he is really bullish on the Bearcats,
(46:28):
and I know this from texting with him over the
course of the last few games that you see as played.
He includes them among the absolute upper crust of the
Big Twelve. Now we're gonna get a chance to see
two of those teams in the Big Twelve tonight that
you consider uppercross with Houston plays Alabama and Kansas plays Duke.
(46:49):
But I'm looking forward to chatting with Evan, and so
we're gonna spend some time with him here in just
a few minutes. We always talk with our guy, Sean
sayat about the Bengals and about the NFL, and obviously
Sean's one of these tape heads who watches the games
really critically. He did not have to watch the Bengals
this week, but I am kind of interested in his
thoughts on the teams. The Bengals have to leap frog,
(47:11):
and we'll also talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are
next up for Cincinnati, and the Cincinnati Cyclones have a
big weekend as well. They've got a game tomorrow night,
They've got a Black Friday Mattinee. They also have a
new play by play voice who I haven't had a
chance to talk to yet. We will change that coming
up in just about twenty minutes. Pole question. Thanks to
(47:32):
our friends at United Heartland Insurance, Car Insurance, Boat Insurance,
House Insurance. Go to uchis dot com. I get an
office in Burlington, I got one in Cincinnati, one on
Hamilton uchins dot com. Bengals will bringing back the ping
pong table, which begs the question which table would you
(47:53):
want in your locker room if you were an NFL
player Ping pong pool aka billiards, foosball, or air hock.
That's X so I only get four choices, so I
couldn't throw in like poker, table or snooker, which I'm
not even sure what that is, Ping pong, billiards, foosball,
air hockey. My choice is air hockey, and then I
(48:14):
think pool. Right now, ping pong leads the way. Vote Now,
those are the four choices at Moegger again thanks to
United Heartland Insurance. All right, it's talk some college tubes
with our buddy Evan Miakawe. He joins us. Next, we're
Buffalo Wild Wings in Anderson till five o'clock today on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnati's ESPN.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
This is Football in the NATI, brought to you in
part by Modern Opus Methods, on the official home of
the Bengals, Cincinnatis, ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
I write Football in the NATI, Bengals, Steelers, We've got
folks signing up with the tickets here, and Buffalo Wild Wings.
We're gonna chat with our friend Sean sayat Stats and
Scheme podcastsumer sports dot com as well. Coming up in
just about twenty minut that's looking forward to that the
college basketball season is underway. Evan miat Kwa's website is
I think a must if you love college basketball, and
(49:10):
if you love college basketball on kind of a I
don't know, deeper level, you will love Evan's website. It's informative,
it's thorough, it's detailed, it's in depth, it's comprehensive. I'm
trying to see if I could burn all the adjectives
that I would use to describe Evan's website. You're going
(49:31):
to love it. It's evanmia dot com, Evan miya dot com.
It's good to have you. I've wanted to have you
on for a while. Let's start with this something you
tweeted out more so than even some of the national pollsters.
You're really bullish on the Bearcats.
Speaker 9 (49:49):
Yeah, that's correct. Cincinnati is checking at the AP pool
yesterday sixteenth, which is very good for them. But I
have them all the way up to six in the
country when it comes to predicting how good the Bearcats
are going to be the rest of the season. And
that might seem high, but I've been high on Cincinnati
since the preseason. I know, I had them inside the
top twenty coming into the year, and really what I
(50:10):
liked before the games even started was just how they've
made this roster together basically The key that I found
in a lot of my research for teams being successful
in this modern transfer portal era where you can get
guys from anywhere at any time, is if you can
return most of your really important pieces from the previous
year and then add one or two or three pieces
(50:32):
to raise your talent level. That's opot teams that are
the most successful. And that's exactly what Cincinnati's done. They've
kept a lot of their best pieces, they got some
key additions, including Dylan Mitchell from Texas, and I think
that's what's led them to be so successful this far
this year.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
It's a well constructed roster and that was kind of
my observation during the offseason. And you know, there's always
I don't want to say skepticism, but there's a built
in curiosity. Okay, how the piece is going to fit.
But before they played it, he didn't feel like just
a collection of dudes. And I see some programs where
it feels like just a collection of dudes. It really
does feel like the acquisitions were made with the returning
(51:09):
players in mind, and some of the other acquisitions as well,
a guy who I think last season kind of got
lost in the flood until he started making big shots
for the Bearcats. Is a guy who's off to a
great start this season in Simos Lukashis, I know you
love him. What do you love most?
Speaker 6 (51:25):
Oh Man?
Speaker 9 (51:26):
He is incredible. So I am a big Butler basketball fan.
So I watched Lukoshius back when he was a Butler
his freshman year and could tell back then that he
had the chops to be a really good playmaker, score
all those things. And so I'm just so happy that
he's found a fit with Cincinnati.
Speaker 11 (51:42):
And this is really what you.
Speaker 6 (51:43):
Like to see.
Speaker 9 (51:43):
Guys who transfer. Oftentimes if they stick with that program
the second that third year is often when they find
the most success. And man, he has been scalding hot
this year. You know, I did some analysis last week
basically looking at the players in the country who have
had the most impressive starts the year, and lukaches was
number one in all of D one college basketball because
(52:05):
not only at he you know, creating plays for others
like the Austin does, but he's been absolutely scorching from
three this year, shooting at least sixty percent to start
the year on a lot of attempts. He's just unstoppable
and so he's been absolutely incredible.
Speaker 6 (52:20):
That's what you want to see.
Speaker 9 (52:21):
And I think the thing too, is that they're not
relying on him every single night to be their best player,
because there are a lot of different key players on
this team, and so when you have him having that
freedom to be able to play as well as he does,
but you don't need him on a nightly basis, that's
really where you want to be.
Speaker 6 (52:36):
As a team.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
You know, I'm excited about how they've played. I'll acknowledge
the Georgia Tech team they played on Saturday isn't very
good up until then, no high major competition. They did
play a road game against NKU. The beauty of metrics
is there's a good way to sort of quantify the
caliber of competition. And so what do you say to
(52:57):
someone who's like, look, Bearkatz might have a good team
this season and they could be competitive in the Big twelve,
but let's tap the breaks because they haven't played anybody.
Speaker 9 (53:06):
I think that's a fair criticism purely in the sense
that we've not really we don't have a sample size
yet of them playing you know, a Big twelve level.
Speaker 6 (53:13):
Top fifty level competition.
Speaker 9 (53:15):
But with that being said, like you mentioned, all of
my analytics take strength of opponent into account, and so
them being the sixth team best team in the country
is me saying, hey, even though they've not played great teams,
based on how they've performed against expectations in those matches,
I still think that they are going to be around
that good even against the best teams in the country.
(53:35):
And so, yeah, like we haven't seen them play big
time opponents yet. Their schedule starts to heat up when
they get into December with some much more quality matchups,
and of course Big twelve play is as hard as
it gets in any conference in the country. But I
really do think that they are not going to dramatically,
you know, fall down the rankings or disappoint people, because
(53:56):
I really do think based on what they've showed so far,
even just the limited stretches, you know, against teams that
are kind of closer to that level, I think they've
looked really good and I don't think people should be
sleeping on them at all.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
Yeah, no, that's music to my years. What's kind of
interesting is they were picked in the Big twelve preseason
poll to finish sixth, and then above them the you know,
the five usual suspects that were ranked in the top
ten of the major polls. And I think for a
lot of us that that kind of felt right right, Like,
it felt like that's about where you would pick them
in the Big twelve. But they were a tier below Kansas, Houston,
(54:28):
Iowa State, et cetera. What I'm hearing from you is
a willingness to kind of lump the Bearheads in with
those schools.
Speaker 9 (54:36):
I absolutely think they should be in that top tier.
I mean, here's the crazy thing right now, you mentioned
that top tier. Coming into the season. It was Houston,
Iowa State, Kansas, Bayley, Arizona all were getting you know,
perennial top ten love in nationally, which is crazy for
covered to have five teams in that tier. Well, some
of these teams have disappointed a little bit. Baylor has
had some tough losses. You know, Kansas is still undefeated.
(55:00):
They have a game tonight against Duke, but they've not
really met expectations so far. Houston's been pretty solid. Iowa
State just took a tough loss against Auburn yesterday. So
right now I actually have Cincinnati ranked second in the
Big twelve. Now, do I think that there's a good
chance they finished top two in the Big Twelve. Probably
not just because there's so many good teams in this
(55:20):
conference that you know, random results thinks can go up
and down. But being in that top group of five
or six absolutely, I think is where they belong, and
I think that they are going to have some big
time wins against some of those other programs in the
Big twelve.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Evan Mia Kyle was with his website if you're a
college basketball fan is a Mustevanmia dot com. M I
y a Xaviers in between a game last night where
they win in Fort Myers against South Carolina, They'll take
on Michigan tomorrow, They've got another high major opponent in
TCU next week, and then you know, this part of
(55:55):
the country, as you well know, we get excited for
the UC Xavior matchup, and so there's the there's a
lot of hype for the possibility of these two teams
being undefeated when they play, maybe both teams being ranked
in the top ten or top fifteen when they play.
And there's obviously a lot of games that are going
to happen between now and then. I mentioned you're a
little bit higher on Cincinnati than some of the Polsters.
You've got Xavier in your top thirty I think twenty
(56:17):
ninth as of this morning, which is a little bit
lower than the major polls have them, So kind of
walk me through that with the Musketeers, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (56:27):
That's correct.
Speaker 9 (56:28):
When I was looking at my preseason rankings, I did
notice that Davira had them just a little bit lower
than other teams, and I think a main reason for
that is that I really really like they're starting five
or six players, but I'm not convinced by their depths.
A lot of my models just point to them having
a little bit of issues once you get past your
top five, six, seven players. But with that said, you know,
(56:51):
I think they're about met expectations so far. I had
them pre season, I think twenty eighth, and right now
they're twenty nine, so they're right around there. I think
the fun thing about that matchup coming up is that
Xavier has been undeniably the better team in that city
for multiple years, and so they certainly have the bragging rights,
so coming into this game, Cincinnati will likely be favored
(57:12):
in that game. Right now, I have Cincinnati favored by
eight or nine points, which seems like a lot given
the pedigree of these teams and.
Speaker 6 (57:20):
Where they've been.
Speaker 9 (57:21):
But I do think Cincinnati is going to be favored
in that game. But Xavier is the one who comes
in with the bragging rights, if you know what I mean.
And so I think it's going to be a lot.
Speaker 6 (57:28):
On the line.
Speaker 9 (57:29):
I think it's going to be, like you said, as
anticipatipated a matchup. As ever, will Cincinnati be able to
deliver on sort of the promise of what they've been doing,
or world Xavier kind of revert to the way that
they've been against this team in previous years. I'm really
excited to see it.
Speaker 2 (57:44):
You mentioned something that's kind of a favorite topic of mine,
and this isn't necessarily about either UC or Xavier or
any team in particular, but you talk about depth. So
I hear all the time in November and December, fans
talk about our team can play ten guys, they can
play eleven guys. You know, I've seen that with UC
this year. And then I watched games in January and
(58:04):
February in March, and nobody's playing that many players. You know,
some teams are playing seven, you know, ideally, I guess
in some cases eight. So when we talked about depth
and college basketball. I know this is going to sound
like a stupid question. When we talk about depth and
college basketball. For the good teams, how deep are we going?
Speaker 9 (58:25):
I think when you get to crunch time, we're talking.
If you can have its like eight eight men, eight
players who can really contribute, you're flying and that way.
On a given day, maybe you're not playing eight, you're
playing seven, but you have eight reliable pieces. I mean,
look at Auburn and the way that they've had two
big time wins this year against Iowa State and against Houston.
(58:47):
They're big man Dylan Cardwell, who's in the starting lineup,
played probably nine or ten minutes in their winning against Houston.
They just based on the scene they're running, they didn't
need him, but he played probably twenty five minutes last night,
and they're winning its Iowa State. So just because you
only play say six or seven guys in a particular matchup,
doesn't mean that you don't want that depth in other games,
(59:08):
just based on the way that the game is going.
And I think the other thing too, is when it's
so early in the season, there's still so much unknown
about how a team is going to play.
Speaker 6 (59:15):
Out.
Speaker 9 (59:16):
If you go into a season thinking that you can
rely on nine or ten guys, that what that really
means is that just based on how players are, evaluations
on them often are off. You know, maybe not all
nine or ten of those guys will be good by
the end of the season, but you'll have a really
solid seven or eight. And so that's often where it
comes is if you come into a season with a
lot of depth, your rotation might get shortwards the end
(59:37):
of the season, but you're almost guaranteeing yourself that you'll
still have the right number of players when it comes
down to March that you can really rely on all right.
Speaker 2 (59:44):
One more, I think college basketball is fun when Kentucky
is really good and when their fans are sticking their
chests out, and not that they have been bad, but
in recent years it has felt stale, It has felt stagnant.
You know, UK fans got tired of watching John on
Cala Perry running offense from fifteen years ago. And with
Mark Poppe, you talk about a collection of those guys
(01:00:06):
that seem to fit. I think he has that in Lexington.
I love how they play offense. Is that going to
translate as we talk about the eighth of the season
when they start playing teams in the SEC and even
some of the tougher games they have in non league
in the coming weeks.
Speaker 9 (01:00:25):
Yeah, I think so. I think they've already proved it.
I mean, they beat a Duke team that's as talented
as any in the country pretty convincingly a couple of
weeks ago, and Duke has since then, you know, had
some big wins, and they got an opportunity against Kansas
to night. I think Duke is, you know, one of
the national title favorites right now. So for Kentucky to
(01:00:45):
beat them is really impressive. And I think the thing too,
that maybe it's part of why people were sleeping in
Kentucky a little bit, is not only do you lose
your coach, not only do you lose your entire roster,
but all the transfers that brought in.
Speaker 6 (01:00:58):
None of those.
Speaker 9 (01:00:59):
Players were like big time all American Hike Lettle players.
All of them are really really good, all of them
are really really reliable, but there's not I don't think
there's a single player on the team that anyone would
have thought will be even all SEC level player.
Speaker 11 (01:01:13):
And so when you don't when you.
Speaker 9 (01:01:15):
Have that lack of a marquee player like that people
can sleep on you a little bit. But you look
at the flips that I mentioned this before, like every
single one of their transfers they've brought in is like
a really, really good piece. And according to my analytics,
like I was not really down on any of their
top you know, eight guys or so, I think they're
you know, from one to eight, Like there's deep as
(01:01:35):
any team in the country, and no matter what lineup
they're rolling out, Like there's a lot of flexibility right
now for Mark Pope to use in figuring out how
he wants to play against different teams. And I think
that's really a strength of theirs. And then you look
at how good they're playing just collectively as the unit.
You know, I think we've come to expect this from
Mark pope teams, but man, it is so impressive what
he's done, just because when you have an entire new
(01:01:57):
roster from scratch, you know, he only knew one player
previously in Jackson Robinson. All these other players are new.
Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
For them to be.
Speaker 9 (01:02:05):
Jelling this quickly, you know, that's a great sign.
Speaker 6 (01:02:08):
Of what's to come for them for the rest of
the year.
Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Evanmia dot com is the website. I mentioned how thorough
and in depth it is. It's certainly a labor of love.
I know it's something you've been working on for a
long time. For folks who haven't been, tell people what
they'll find when they go.
Speaker 9 (01:02:22):
Yeah, the main place is evanmea dot com. There's a
lot of stuff both for just casual fans to love
college basketball as well as for you know, a lot
of coaches use it for a lot of things, and
media members like yourself are deep in and as well,
so there's a lot for everybody. There's player ratings, team ratings,
game predictions, lineup analysis, really anything that fits your fancy
(01:02:44):
you can find there. I'm on all the usual social
media places that you can find links to all those
directly on my website as well.
Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
More in depth than anything you're gonna find. If you're
a college basketball ball fan, you have to check it out.
Evanmeia dot com. I love getting people on who talking
great detail about my favorite sport. Awesome to have you.
Hope we can do it again during the season. Evan,
thank you so much.
Speaker 6 (01:03:06):
Sound good.
Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
There you go. Evanmia dot com is the website where
a Buffalo Wild Wings in Anderson until five o'clock. The
new voice of the Cyclones joins us next on ESPN
fifteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
You've been listening to football in Thenetti on the official
home of the Bengals, Cincinnatis, ESPN fifteen thirty, which begins
Sunday morning at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official
home of the Bengals.
Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
Twenty minutes away from five o'clock, This is ESPN fifteen
thirty on molegor a few minutes late, we're broadcasting today
from Buffalo Wild Wings in Anderson. The night before Thanksgiving
is always a big night, at least when the home
schedule allows for the Cincinnati Cyclones, and this year is
no different. They've got a game against Kalamazoo tomorrow evening
(01:03:54):
with the puck dropping at seven thirty. It's Thanksgiving Eve.
Thanksgiving Eve, big party night, two dollars beers for that
game tomorrow, and then they've got a Black Friday Mattinee
afternoon game. So if you don't want to spend your
day at the mall, go down to the Heritage Bank
(01:04:15):
Center and watch some hockey. Cincinnati is hosting the Wheeling nailers,
and uh, the game is going to be featuring Peanuts
and they're going to have some really cool holiday theme
jerseys Peanuts characters that the players are gonna wear and
they're gonna auction them after the game. Now, the Cyclones
have to start playing better. They're just one, eight, three
and zero, so to tell us more is the new
(01:04:36):
play by play voice of the Cincinnati Cyclones, Rudy Hodgson
is with us. Rudy, it's good to have you. What's
going on.
Speaker 11 (01:04:43):
I'm glad to be here. Thanks for sitting down talking
with some hockey with me today.
Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
All right, well, I wish the hockey part was better.
What's gone wrong here in the first part of the season.
Speaker 11 (01:04:54):
You know what, this is a really young group of guys.
We just recently announced our affiliation with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
We have some really exciting young guys that are with
the team now. But it's just a matter of them
playing and finding that groove together as a team, building
that cohesion. And you know, it's been a less than
favorable start to this season, but I'm pretty optimistic that
(01:05:15):
they're going to start turning things around. Have a nice
long break and now We had him too Tomorrow's Thanksgiving
Eve game with a fresh, fresh set of legs. So
hopefully we start turning things around, and you know it
should be a great environment Tomorrow's die as well.
Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
When things turn around. What is that going to happen?
On the strength of where's this team going to be good?
Speaker 6 (01:05:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 11 (01:05:35):
Absolutely So, Like I said, those Maple Leaf guys that
we do have, we have some youngsters like Jazz Sharp
as a defenseman, he's leading the team in goals, he
has four this season. He's been dynamite, just really patrols
the blue line, really gives his team a chance to
win every single night. And then you have guys like
Ty Void, who you know, really finds his way. A
smaller guy, but he kind of he kind of reminds
(01:05:55):
me of Martin Saint Louis for all my diehard hockey
fans that know the name. Small, nimble, but a whole
lot of skill, has a great shot, and when he's
in his groove, he's absolutely the best player on the ice.
And those are just two really young guys that the
Maple Leafs gave us that we're excited to have here
in our line up in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
So one thing you mentioned, and I know this went
down shortly before you got here, is the affiliation with
the Toronto Maple Leafs, which first of all, is just cool, right,
It's original six, it's Toronto. It's just cool. The parent club, though,
is having a terrific year so far. Describe the trickle
down effect to this level.
Speaker 11 (01:06:32):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean you feel it every single time
there's a transaction with the big Club because they also
have the Marles, and we report to the Marles as well.
We give them players. As a matter of fact, some
of the names that I just listed off for you
are coming back from the Marleas because we had a
prolonged break. So the affiliation with the Maple Leaves has
been really important for us because it gives us a
chance to develop future NHL stars right here in our backyard, right.
(01:06:54):
So it's really really interesting to see how much they
prioritize the relationship with us, but also how we take
pride in really honing in the craft of these young
up and coming stars right here in the Queen City.
And it's really a great relationship. It's been nothing but fantastic,
and hopefully that starts to bear some fruit with some
(01:07:14):
wins here.
Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
You talked about there being a little bit of a break.
You guys are going to have four home games starting
tomorrow night in about a week and a half stretch,
and so it's a great time to put some things
that have been happening on the practice ice in use
in games that count. Now, let's talk about starting tomorrow night,
Thanksgiving Eve. This is going to be your first one
as a member of the Cyclones. This is gonna be
a big deal.
Speaker 6 (01:07:36):
Tomorrow night, that's right.
Speaker 11 (01:07:38):
Yeah, I mean it's gonna be awesome. We're expecting over
ten thousand year Heritage Banks Center, expecting a really good crowd.
This will be my first experience, as you just mentioned.
I mean I just got here about months ago. But
the Cyclone fan base is just so die hard. They
care so much about this team. So we're expecting a
big crowd, and we're expecting this team to bounce back
in a big way. I mean, they desperately need to
(01:08:00):
start turning the page here and finding some wins. And
how hopefully that break was just a good time for
these guys to just kind of put everything in the
back of their minds and focus on the next game,
focus on the next goal folks on the next bix
safe all.
Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Right, walk me through some of the events happening in
the coming week and a half or so with the cyclones.
Speaker 11 (01:08:18):
Absolutely, Well, you just alluded to our Peanuts night. We
have our Matinate games, So once everyone's done recovering from
the food coma, they can come down to Heritage Drank Center,
come watch a hockey game.
Speaker 6 (01:08:29):
Bring the kids.
Speaker 11 (01:08:29):
We'll have Snoopy and Charlie Brown up in the concourse.
It'll be a great environment. And also those jerseys are
going to be auctioned off and I'm not sure if
you've seen them yet, but they are absolutely dynamite.
Speaker 6 (01:08:40):
They're so cool.
Speaker 11 (01:08:42):
Should all be available online on our website, the same
with tickets. And then next week if Peanuts isn't your thing,
we also have Marvel Knight coming up. Or we have
these really cool Deadpool Seam jerseys four PM games so
you can watch the game and then go out for
a night out on the town next Saturday as well.
So we have some really good stuff coming around. We
hope people come out and join us. And like I said,
(01:09:03):
I just got here, but one thing that I've absolutely
seen is how much this city gets up for their
hockey team. So hopefully we can start rewarding those diehard
fans and wins here.
Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
Yeah, I want to talk about you for a second
because it's interesting that the season gets is about to
get started and you show up, which you've handled it well,
but that that can't be easy for somebody in your position.
Speaker 6 (01:09:25):
No, it was not. It was.
Speaker 11 (01:09:26):
It was very, very crazy, because I tell this story
all the time. So I get in the car Friday
from Chicago, drive down four hours to Cincinnati, call a game,
call the home opener the next day, and then on
the road to Kalamazoo, arrive at the hotel at four
in the morning. So very quick introduction to the EHL.
(01:09:50):
But this is what I love to do. I love
calling hockey games. I'm very fortunate to be here. Cincinnati
has been nothing but great to me. And it's been
a crazy, crazy month. I'll tell you that right now.
Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
I can't imagine. Well, welcome to town. Congratulations on the job.
The cyclones mean a lot to a lot of people
in this town. And you know, again, the affiliation with
the Maple Leafs is pretty cool. So hopefully things get
turned around and you're welcome anytime. Thank you, for joining.
Speaker 11 (01:10:21):
Us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 6 (01:10:23):
See you guys at a game very soon.
Speaker 2 (01:10:25):
Most definitely again. The game tomorrow night, seven thirty. That's
always a lot of fun. The Thanksgiving Eve tilt, and
then they have a day game on Black Friday. Cyclones
Hockey dot Com for schedule info, ticket info, Rudy Hodgen Hodgson,
Rudy Hodgson, how to get the guest name right, Voice
of the Cincinnati Cyclones. Till we have time for a
(01:10:46):
break and come back. We're done early. UK basketball is
coming up in twelve minutes. We're here at Buffalo wild
Wings on the east side of Cincinnati and Anderson on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Three games on Thursday.
I guess you can watch him and I don't know
if Buffalo Wildwin's O going on Thursday, but you can
watch most NFL games ere A beat ups. We are
(01:11:09):
almost done. UK basketball is coming up next. Kentucky hosting
Western Kentucky tonight, the school that I almost went to
school that I was this close to going to until
I saw the campus radio station at the University of Dayton.
So Western Kentucky's loss, I guess Dayton's game, but anyway,
UK Western Kentucky coming up here. Our buddy Sean Saie.
(01:11:30):
Do you ever watch back in the day late night
talk shows? And then I always bump a guest at
the end, and like I said, I apologize, our apologies
to so and so. Hopefully he'll come back sometime soon.
Our apologies to Sean Saye from the Stats and Scheme podcast.
But the good news is he will join us tomorrow.
I think right around five thirty. I don't know completely
for sure, but we will have him on. And I
(01:11:53):
want to thank the staff here at Buffalo Wild Wings
for taking such amazing care of us. We love coming
to Beat Ubs. This has been our third stop at
the Anderson location and we've loved it every single time.
We're back in studio tomorrow. It's our last show before Thanksgiving.
Next week, by the way, we will be at the
b Ups Bridgewater up there in Hamilton. Have a great night.
(01:12:14):
Thank you for listening. Thanks to Mike Mills and Tara
Planned for producing. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.
Speaker 6 (01:12:24):
This
Rival ry tide. Oh Joe Burrow and his Bangles get
down to business with Pittsburgh Steelers in an AFC North
grudge mass hash.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Time for the poon touchdown.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Prepare for four quarters of a Rockham suck em action.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, Greg Sam sacks hemp.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
At every second of this slumper knocker from Dangerous Dan
Hood and Mighty Dave Leffman.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well into the zone touchdown.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
The coverage begins Sunday morning at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty,
the official home of the Lagals.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
All right, there you go, I'm gonna do that. What's
up to? Good afternoon, my Lagger, ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank
you for listening. Thank you for being at our audience.
Thank you for being on your way to Buffalo Wild Wings.
Thank you that gentleman that I was just telling Austin
and Tony about for getting pulled over, Because very gratifying
moment for yours. Truly. We're here at Buffalo Wild Wings
(00:55):
Anderson third time we've been here. We're on Beachmont. We
love Buffalo Wild Wings. We broadcast from one every single
Tuesday during the season. That calendar shifts a little bit
when the Bengals play on Monday night football, which they
obviously do in a couple of weeks. We'll worry about
that later. Here's what we'll tell you. At Buffalo Wild Wings.
They got a lot going on. Okay, got five dollars
(01:16):
bud light tolls, got to buy one, get one half
off traditional wings. You've got this is my favorite. This
is what I'm ordering from the six for nineteen to
ninety nine deal where you choose from two entrees, you
choose from two sides, and you get two fountain drinks.
In this day and age in particular, you cannot beat that.
(01:36):
You cannot beat that. Also, you know, a Buffalo Wild
Wings gift card makes a great gift for anybody in
your life, including your favorite radio host or me. And
here's the cool thing. At beat ups. You buy twenty
five dollars worth of holiday gift cards, you'll get a
five dollar bonus. So that's twenty five dollars to use
(01:56):
on you know, other people in your life, and then
five bucks for yourself. How about that? It gets even
better because we are here now. Keep this in mind.
Typically our show is obviously three to six Monday through Friday.
We're on in the afternoon for three hours and so
when we are beat ups, we're here to six o'clock.
Not today, because there's a UK basketball broadcast the Wildcats
(02:19):
taking on Western Kentucky. That game at Reparina will tip
off at six thirty, and so the pregame show bumps
us out of the way at five o'clock. So we
are here till five. And the reason I say that
is not just so you don't look ahead to a
magnificent hour of sports talk radio for me. But we've
got prizes thanks to our friends at bud Light, including
(02:40):
tickets to the game on Sunday Bengals Steelers. Now I know,
and make your jokes about Bengals tickets, you would take
free Bengal Steelers tickets, so you can win them if
you're here. So get here and we'll draw at five o'clock.
I see the entry box over there. If you get
here between now five o'clock, he'll have a chance to win.
(03:01):
And hopefully some of the other prizes are of your
liking as well. But again, we are here till five o'clock.
Our show today is absolutely loaded. We're packed, we're jammed.
We've got a lot going on. Kelsey Conway is going
to join us if you're wondering where Paul Danner Junior is.
The Bengals by week has sent Paul on vacation and
so he is off. I didn't do his podcast today
(03:24):
because he didn't do his podcast today, and he's not
doing my radio show today because he is off. But
we are going to spend a few minutes with our
friend Kelsey Conway of The Inquirer in Cincinnati dot com.
As we get said for Sunday Bengals Steelers and the
stretch drive of the season, it goes without saying a
must win game for this team. We'll talk about some
of the things that Evian McPherson had to say yesterday.
(03:46):
I thought Evan McPherson, for the criticism that he took
for maybe not being as available as folks would have
liked after the Chargers game, I thought he was illuminating.
I thought he was insightful. I thought it was cool
that he stood there and answered questions about a season that,
frankly for him, has kind of gone sideways. And so
(04:06):
we're going to talk about that and who may or
may not be playing or coaching for a job between
now and the end of the season, and so much more,
Kelsey would join us in just a few minutes on
this show. I have not had a chance to chat
about the Reds trading Jonathan India for Brady Singer, which
is a move that I approve of. Now I understand
(04:26):
the Reds are taking on some risk here by who
they've let go, because with Jonathan India, you're trading away
a reliable piece. I think we all could kind of
wrap our brain around what his typical season playing second
base would look like for the Reds. Not at all star,
not putting up killer numbers, but numbers that certainly aren't
worth sneezing at, and so are they gonna be okay
(04:49):
with Matt McClain playing that position. I am a proponent
of solving the outfield with actual outfielders and not converting
guys who haven't played the outfield much, haven't played the
outfield at all, and so I've kind of looked at
Jonathan India as utility guy or expendable piece, because I
want Matt McLain to play second base, but he didn't
(05:11):
play at all last year, and so you're taking on
some risk with his health. You're also taking on some
risk with you know, maybe exposing a little bit of
a lack of debt. Like if Jonathan India would have
been coming off the bench for the Reds this season
and played some third, played some second, maybe learn how
to play outfield, capable enough to back up that, that
would have been okay. At the same time, the Reds
(05:33):
badly needed somebody who has gotten through a big league
season in the starting rotation without interruption, without having to
go on the injured list. And you know, in an
ideal world, Brady Singer is not your best picture. If
he ends up being this team's best starting pitcher in
twenty twenty five, this team is probably going nowhere. But
(05:55):
in Kansas City, he has shown durability. He has shown
an ability and a willingness to eat innings, and the
Reds frankly need that. They can't have all of that.
They need the upside of Hunter Green, and they need
the upside of Hunter Green to show itself through thirty
two starts. And same for Nickolodolo, and same for Andrew Abbott,
and same for so many guys. But the projected starting
(06:16):
rotation and it really didn't have a whole lot of
guys who have gotten through a full Big league season,
and so now they've at least acquired that. I think
sometimes there is a tendency to look at trades and
individual moves in a vacuum. I saw a lot of
this on social media, like, well, he's not an outfielder. Well,
if we get to the end of the season or
(06:37):
the end of the offseason and the two biggest acquisitions
are Terry Francona and Brady Singer, that's not a very
good offseason. But if those two moves prove to be
pieces in an otherwise productive offseason, and we'll see what happens,
then my guess is we'll be talking about acquiring a
bat from somewhere, whether it's a trade, whether it's free agency.
(06:57):
They need outfield help. But as much as this franchise is,
success rests on the arms of all those younger pitchers.
They need depth, they need a durability. And Brady Singer's
a guy you get two years of team control. He
just turned twenty eight years old. For what it's worth,
he was on a good team last year, though he
hardly pitched in the postseason. We're gonna have on a
(07:19):
guy by the name of a Siren Petro, who is
I think at least one of the absolute best sports
talk radio hosts in the United States, and a guy
who knows more about the Kansas City Royals and Brady
Singer than anybody. He is going to join us coming
up right around three forty five. Also have a really
good college basketball guest at four to twenty. You know,
(07:44):
I have gotten away from in recent years getting on
a lot of like television analysts college basketball TV analysts
because they've sort of fit into two categories. TV analysts
who just tell you how great every coach is, or
Dan who has seemingly fallen off the reservation, and so
(08:04):
we've kind of stopped having Damn monk. But I have
enjoyed the work of Evan Miakawa, and Evan does. He's
got a website that's not that unlike Ken Palm, although
I think it's better and cooler and more insightful. Evan
Miakawa is very bullish on the Bearcats. He is very
bullish on the Kentucky Wildcats. He likes Xavier. He is
(08:26):
maybe not quite as bullish on the Musketeers as a
lot of the national pollsters, but he still thinks they're
very good. I think he ranks the twenty ninth and
his metrics go to evanmiya dot com. We're gonna talk
you see and Xavier in Kentucky basketball, and if there's
time squeeze in one or two others, we'll do that
coming up in the four o'clock hour. Xavier with a
win last night against South Carolina, kind of a gritty,
(08:47):
gutsy performance. And tell you I watched Indiana State play
a lot last year, because how could you not. Ryan
Conwell has I think so far this season proven to
be every bit as good as a lot of us
who watched him play lest year for Indiana State thought
he was going to be. We're ramping up to the
Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout, which is for my money, it's
(09:07):
it's my favorite Cincinnati sporting event. There's a lot of
basketball that's going to be played leading up to the
Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout, and I think the cool thing
for both of these teams is that game has a
chance to be a part of an otherwise really really
good season. Like we keep talking about, well, you Se
and Xavier both going to be ranked in the shootout.
(09:28):
Could both teams be in the top fifteen, Could both
teams be in the top twenty, and I hope that
those things are the case. I kind of look at
it more from a thirty thousand foot view. I think
both these teams have a chance to make the NCAA
Tournament and win games in the NCAAA Tournament as reasonably
high seeds. And so we'll talk about both teams. And
then obviously Kentucky is off to a great start with
(09:48):
the game tonight. Evan miha Kaw is going to join
us coming up at four twenty today. A lot to
get to between now and five o'clock. Show preview video
is up on X thanks to our friends at Emery
Federal Credit Union York Credit Union with heart since nineteen
thirty nine. Go to EMORYFCU dot org at moegar on
social media, go watch the video on X and maybe
(10:10):
some of the other platforms will allow for videos to
be posted sometime soon. First things first, our friend Kelsey
Conway from The Inquirer is going to join us. We're
here at Buffalo Wild Wings and Anderson until five o'clock
today on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Station Cincinnati's ESB.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
It was such a disappointing loss for many reasons last night.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
It's our playground for sports fans like you really since
E three sixty tomorrow which well noon on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
A playground for sports fans. What's up? Muagor ESPN fifteen thirty,
We're broadcasting at Buffalo wild Wings, a playground for Hungary
Here at beat Ups in Anderson until five o'clock Bengals
Steelers on Sunday. If you don't have tickets, or if
you have tickets and you don't want to sit out
(11:01):
in the cold, or if you try to win tickets
here but don't win them, you can watch the game
here and then after the game read the postgame coverage
of our friend Kelsey Conway of The Inquirer in Cincinnati
dot com. And if you're a UC basketball fan, you'll
watch her on the sideline tomorrow. As U S gets
set to return to the floor at fifth Third Arena,
Kelsey is on x at Kelsey el Conway and kind
(11:22):
enough to join us as the Bengals get set to
host Pittsburgh. Hi, Kelsey, Hi Lo, how you doing? I've
never been better? How about yourself?
Speaker 5 (11:33):
I'm pretty great. I'm excited for the UC basketball game
tomorrow night and then Thanksgiving.
Speaker 6 (11:39):
So I'm excited you didn't mention the Bengals game.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
I'm going dame bye, Dave.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Okay, very good you were. You were there yesterday among
those chatting with Evan McPherson, who was I think pretty
detailed and kind of outlining some of the issues that
he is dealing with. What were your takeaways from listening
to uh Evan Speaker's mind.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Well, one, it was really good on Evan, Like we
went up to him right away in open mocker room,
and you know, he didn't have any issues with talking
with us, which is always appreciated when the guys are
pros like that. So I'll first say that. But my
two main observations with it are one, he didn't really
(12:27):
seem Evan's kind of a happy, go lucky guy, Like
I'm not really sure i've ever seen Evan McPherson have
a bad day, but he really doesn't seem like he's
lost any confidence, Like I don't think he is like
dealing with what you would call like the yips, Like
I really think he views it as I've just missed
(12:49):
a lot of important kicks. He said, you know, I've
really got to make those. But I really pressed him
on Okay, this hasn't just been one or two kicks
he's missed, Like, you know, you've really strugg well this season.
What are the themes that you're figuring out when you
go back and you rewatch the kicks with Barring Simmons,
special teams coordinator, Like what is the theme?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And what he said?
Speaker 5 (13:11):
And I know you guys talked about it yesterday a
little bit when he played it sound, but he said
that it's been really unique for him because all of
his missions have been going wide left and he said
that's not really something that's ever happened to him before
in his career because he's a right foot kicker. So
just him breaking down the nuances of what's gone wrong
with his kicks, I think is a good thing. Like
(13:32):
they've identified the problem with him, but now it's about
correcting it. And I said, you know, do you still
feel confident that if the game's on the line on
Sunday in a cold weather game, that you can go
knock one through from fifty plus out? And he said absolutely.
So I think that those are my biggest observations. He
doesn't seem like he's lost any confidence, and he knows
what he's doing wrong. Now it's just on him to
(13:54):
fix it, and he's got to fix it fast because
there's only six games left in the regular season and
they need him to figure this out because they can't
go into another off season with a kicker controversy because
we've been dealing with the punter controversy every off season,
so the last thing they need is a kicker controversy.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
You know question, So you know, you said you don't
think that Evan has lost confidence in himself, and I
would agree with that based on what I watched and
listened to. The question that I have is as have
his teammates and coaches more importantly lost confidence in him.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
Well, that's something that well, we'll never know because you
asked Zach Taylor, and this is Zach Taylor all the time.
Like he's a super optimistic, positive person when talking about
the players on his team, and that's necessary. But you
learn a lot in just some of the decisions that
they've made, and I think that they'll I think the
(14:49):
bye week was a reset for every single person and
every coach, and I think they are really going to
make some decisions down the line, whether it be trotting
Evan out there a couple more times, because forget about
the playoffs, and you can't even talk about that right
now until the Bengals prove that they can win. They
need to find answers in these next six games and
(15:11):
finding out if Evan McPherson can get his swide back
and be the clutch kicker is one of the most
important questions that this team has to get answered because
it was not something that anyone was prepared for. So
I think it's something that is really really going to
be interesting to see down the stretch here. And I
think the only way you can really figure it out
with him is if you keep allowing him to see
(15:33):
if he can make some of these kicks, and if
he can't, then they're going to have to reevaluate it.
But I think the bye week they're using that as
a reset for a lot of players, including Evan McPherson.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
How does the reset impact the defense?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
The reset impacts the defense, And I'm not sure how
about we say we'll see because and I know you
guys have talked about it at nauseum on the show with.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
Sinner, but to me, I don't think that they can
fix their issues in one week. I think the Bengals
personnel is what it is right now, the scheme is
what it is. Do I think that they can play
better down the stretch, Absolutely, But I don't think that
they can fix their problems on defense in just a
week off. If I'm being completely honest, I think that
(16:26):
they have a major flaw in their personnel up front
and at the safety position. And I'm just not sure
that a week away is gonna, you know, fix all
of that for this team. But they're choosing to look
at it as a positive. And I said, there's one
of the questions I asked ak Taylor before the bye week.
I said, you know, you're really able to identify what
(16:47):
you want your offense to be, Like, what do you
think your defense needs to be down the stretch win
some games? Like if there's one thing you got to
do better? And he was like, we'll get off the
field on third down. Unfortunately, that involves every level of
the defense, so that's not just one or two things
that they can fix. So that's why I think, to me,
I'm not really sure you're gonna see much different from
(17:08):
Cincinnati's defense down the stretch. If I'm being completely honest.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, but they have a ping pong table back, so
I think that's going to be really the igniter to
a key last third of the season run.
Speaker 7 (17:21):
They have the ping pong tables back, but they don't
have Jackson Carmen on the ping pong tables. And he was,
of all Bengals players in the last couple of years,
the number one user of those ping pong tables.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
So maybe there's a correlation between Jackson's relative lack of
success with the Bengals and the time he was putting
in on the ping pong table. How much is Lil
Anna Rumo coaching for his gig over these final six games.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
You know, I've found a lot about that, and I
think everything is on the table. But I truly think
and this is me just having, you know, had conversations
over the last year. I'm not reporting anything as if
this is like new breaking news, but I really do
think that they believe well, I think it would probably
(18:10):
it depends on who you talk to the bank of organization,
right Like if you talk to a coach when things
aren't going wrong, they're the first to say, well, you know,
I could use more talent here. Here, here, here, and
then personnel. You know, they usually have their view of
how they would do things if they were a coach,
So everybody is always going to look out for themselves
in situations like this. But I just don't know if
(18:32):
you can go there with Lou an Arumo yet, because
the talent is just so bad at certain positions that
were bad going into this year. And you know, I
could have told you back in in May that the
defensive line wasn't going to be much better because you
know the fact that they thought Sheldon Rankins, who three
(18:52):
of his six sacts last year came in one game.
You always have to be worry of those those type
of performances like Sheldon Rankins and Chris Jenkins and McKinley Jackson.
We're going to be the answer to a defensive line
that was already struggling, Like I don't know how much
you can blame that on Lou. And if you don't
have any sort of a pass rush, it's going to
(19:14):
just completely deteriorate the rest of your defense. All where
Lou deserves, you know, blame for is the safety position
because he's a defensive back, you know, coach at heart.
Same with Cam Taylor Bray like he has his hands
in that regression of that and their inability to sign safeties.
But I'm just not sure that because of the way
(19:36):
things have gone this season that they're going to completely
look at it as you know, he is our problem
and we might need to move on from him just
because I don't know how you can say he deserves
to go, but all of the people that put the
roster together should get to stay. So it's going to
be interesting. But I think if it goes really bad,
then I think that conversation would you know, heat up.
(19:58):
But I'm just it's it's interesting because I know Zach
Taylor really believes in.
Speaker 6 (20:02):
Lou Lan or Rumoh.
Speaker 7 (20:03):
So we'll see how this goes.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I have two minutes here. I'm going to leave the
last topic of conversation up to you. I'll give you
a choice, Okay, okay, okay. We could talk about Joe Mixon,
or we could discuss where we're going to go in
San Antonio the weekend of the Final Four when we're
there to watch the Bearcats.
Speaker 7 (20:24):
Can I take the ladder? I think that you see basketball.
I'm really excited to watch, you know, with you when
the games really get going after the new year. But
I think tomorrow's game might be sneaky good against Alabama State.
We just had a chance to talk to coach Maddox
today as the broadcast crew, and they've played some of
(20:45):
these teams like right now, they're playing those games where
they get paid, and they played LSU pretty close. They
gave Akron a fight a couple of nights ago. So
I think this the first half might.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
Be sneaky good.
Speaker 7 (20:57):
And of all of the games you see has played
besides Georgia Tech, I think this one might be the closest,
just based off of al dam States personnel, but obviously
think it's tv a Cincinnati win. But I'm fired up
and I'm excited about UC's future in basketball. But as
we both know, all of it rides on that game
against Savior, right.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Well, you know, Kelsey, sure the Bearcats haven't won that
game since McK cronin's last season, but but you know
that game is that game is not the end all
and be all. It doesn't have to be for either team,
And so you know there are regardless of which school
you're root for, there are bigger fish to fry in
the two teams respective leagues, and so I am looking
(21:40):
forward to the Skyline Chile Crosstown shootout. But if the
Bearcats don't win, they can still have a very successful season.
That's me already laying the groundwork for how I might feel.
Speaker 7 (21:50):
If you're already giving yourself an excuse, Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
I've done this quite a while. Absolutely all right. Well
we'll stay with the game tomorrow. Thank you very much.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Though.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I one more thing. I have to ask you my
poll question because I mentioned the ping pong table. If
you were an NFL player, which table would you prefer
in your locker room? Ping pong, billiards, foosball or air hockey.
Speaker 7 (22:16):
I think I'm going air hockey.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Think I am too Think I am.
Speaker 7 (22:20):
Too good, Great minds think alike.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Right, Yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I haven't made a definitive choice, but I'm leaning air hockey. Night. Well,
we'll talk soon, Thank you very much. Thanks mal Kelsey
Conway does a terrific job covering the Bengals for the
Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com. We're gonna go to Kansas
City in fifteen minutes and learn more about the Red's
newest acquisition. But first everything you need to know about
(22:45):
one of the crown jewels of the Thanksgiving Slash Holiday
season in Cincinnati. Next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Station Sincy three sixty with Tony Pike. You don't want
to move on for doctor Keith Going and Boston Elmore.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
I think you chuld continent.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Let me keep going there, Sency three sixty Tomorrow which
twelve News On ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
ESPN Western Southern Thanksgiving Day Race is coming up on Thursday,
because Thursday is Thanksgiving and we're going to learn more
about it. In just a second. Quickly remind you UK
basketball tonight on ESPN fifteen thirty, the Wildcats hosting Western
Kentucky pre game at five o'clock. Miami has just knocked
off Mercer in Fort Myers seventy five to seventy two,
(23:31):
and Dayton plays tonight in the Maui Invitational. Played great,
a great game last night. Flyers built a twenty one
point lead fall in North Carolina. They play really good
Iowa State team tonight. That game scheduled to tip off
right around eight thirty. The Western and Southern Thanksgiving Day
Race went through a lot of changes last year, even
more this year. The venue of TQUL Stadium being involved,
(23:54):
I think has turned out to be a major hit.
The race director is our friend Julie Is, who's kind
enough to give us a few minutes during what I'm
sure is a very very busy time for her. Julie,
how are.
Speaker 8 (24:05):
You it's my favorite time of year, MO.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I'm sure it is. It's mine as well. So a
lot of new stuff with the race last year, and
I get the sense that some of the newness this
year is kind of playing off of some of the
stuff we saw last year.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Right, right, it's so important.
Speaker 8 (24:24):
It's a really good point is that the race, moving
it to TQL Stadium, adding the five k has been
phenomenal for the growth of the race, and we can
include more people. So with the Chick fil A five k,
and then we have the traditional Western Southern ten k
(24:45):
and the Pro Impact Kids run, we've got options for
the whole family. And Mo, that's what this race is
all about. Family, the family tradition. As the generations keep coming,
they it's just makes the race bigger and better.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Been around for over one hundred years, So give us
an idea of some of the new things for this
year in particular, but.
Speaker 8 (25:10):
We expanded the starting line and we work with the police.
This insime police to make the route much wider and
bigger to accommodate a bigger crowd. We never knew how
popular the new venue would be and the new Chick
fil A five k would be. It's added so many
more people to the race. We also changed the finish
(25:31):
line to Ezra Charles right by TQL Stadium, so we
keep the five k and ten k separate all the
way in which is great. We changed, we added more
food and more water, and then we kept some of
the really new things from last year. You get to
go on the field when you're finished with the race.
(25:52):
We have packet pick up right now TQL Stadium and
a huge expo, so that's really easy. Three parts king
that was hugely popular last year, and then that those
are the key elements.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
How cool is it to have an event like this?
Look there there are races ten k's five k's around
the country. How cool is it though, to have an
event like this end up an event you like TQL.
Speaker 8 (26:21):
It's amazing to have something of this stature in such
a just a beautiful stadium. It doesn't get much better
than this for a race like ours. And the other
really interesting thing is this race is one hundred and
fifteen years old, one of the oldest in the country.
(26:42):
Yet we keep adding new things to the oldness, so
it really is neat. I've been doing this for twenty
eight years now and it never loses its sense of
adventure and creativity and fun. It's everything a race should be.
You should forget your exercising and instead just enjoy the
(27:06):
time with your family. And also with the new venue change,
we kept the whole course in Cincinnati, so the ten
k course, you pass all three stadiums, you go from
over the Rhine down to the river, and you know,
so we've captured everything beautiful about our downtown area and
(27:28):
a part of all the new development on the west side.
And the other thing is out of over a million
people run Turkey Trots in the nation, so there are
thousands of Turkey Trots, and our race was voted Cincinnati's
race was voted the number six in the country, which
(27:48):
is phenomenal. And I just want to you know, TQL
Stadium is one of the reasons, and of course the
people that show up, the numbers who show up, and
the tradition that everyone's kept alive.
Speaker 9 (28:01):
It's just fun.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It is, yeah, tradition that goes back to at nineteen
oh seven. So the race is obviously Thursday, we're getting closed,
but there's still time to register. What can people do
if they want to sign up?
Speaker 8 (28:13):
Oh, it's so easy. Thanksgiving Day race dot com. It's
the website and you can register there. We have packet
pickup still at TQL Stadium right in the First Financial
Club pre parking. You can pick up your packets there
and you can register up till nine o'clock on race
day morning. So there's nothing stopping you.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
You know.
Speaker 8 (28:36):
It's make your I really always tell people, make your
Thanksgiving the best ever. Add some exercise with your family
in the morning. You can eat more pumpkin pie in
the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
It sounds amazing. Thanksgiving Day race dot Com goes back
to nineteen oh seven. It is a terrific Thanksgiving tradition
here in Cincinnati. Julie and I got a lot to do.
We'll let you run. Thank you so much.
Speaker 8 (29:01):
Okay, thanks maw.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
You're welcome. And of course the Western and Southern Thanksgiving
Day race could not happen without the support of the
Western and Southern Financial Group. Julius Fording, the very busy
director of the race one hundred and seventeen years right,
I'm doing that mathcre I am man one seventeen. Going
back to nineteen seven, We're gonna go to Kansas City.
(29:24):
Brady Singer good? Why was he available? And are they
excited about getting Jonathan India. We'll get answers to those questions. Next,
We're a Buffalo Wild Wings in Anderson here till five
o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station. Jonathan India
got traded for Brady Singer along with Joey Weimer, who
leaves the Reds with it on base percentage of one thousand.
(29:45):
So Brady Singer, let's learn about him. Saren Petrow is
part of a sports radio eight ten WHB and Kansas City.
This dude knows more about the Royals than anybody alive.
How good is Brady Singer?
Speaker 6 (29:59):
You know? I he's good. He's he's good to very good.
Speaker 10 (30:02):
He's dependable, he's a workhorse. He takes his craft serious
to the point that like he's happy to do interviews,
but he ain't gonna do him for him, right, You're
gonna get single word answers if you ask him like
do you feel good today?
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Yes? Right? Like he is a no.
Speaker 10 (30:16):
Nonsense type of guy, and that's the positive part about him.
And he is a workhorse, and he is an old
school baseball guy in the sense that he wants the
ball every that day, doesn't want to come out of
the games. That is that is the good part of
Brady Singer. The bad part is with those type of
guys also come stubbornness sometimes a belief and you know,
(30:36):
if I just work harder at what I've been doing,
it will get better that that hard work will be there.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
And maybe not really.
Speaker 10 (30:43):
Willing to tink or not really willing to add to
his repertoire. I think that was maybe some of the
frustrations that we're here in Kansas City. But he is
certainly a guy that you know, and I mean this
is a compliment. You Sometimes you call a quarterback a
game manager and they get upset. I think that's like
the next level below playmaker, right, Like, the're lots of
guys that are not game managers that stink.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
Well.
Speaker 10 (31:03):
I think workhorse and innings eaters sometimes for pitchers, they
don't like that, but I think that is what he is.
The question is can he ever be more than that
guy that's an innings either.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
All right, So to this point, you know he's eaten
up innings, he's been durable. Give me an idea of
his stuff. What kind of pitcher?
Speaker 11 (31:18):
Is he?
Speaker 6 (31:20):
A two pitch pitcher?
Speaker 10 (31:21):
And that's the frustration, right, fastball slider got a sinking
action to it. He can get a ground ball, and
those pitches are very good, and he wants to live
by those pitches. And the Royals spent a lot of
time trying to get him to add a third pitch,
really trying to get him to add a change up,
and he finally did.
Speaker 6 (31:37):
He would add it. He would throw it a couple
of times.
Speaker 10 (31:39):
They send him back to the minors several years ago,
telling him, listen, you've got to throw this pitch. We
know you can get triple a guys out with your
top two pitches. We need you to be able to
get guys out and set guys up with that third pitch.
He would throw it a few times. Come to the
big leagues, it would get hit around because he hadn't
really perfected it, and he would go back to just
the two pitches. And really this year, you know, you'll
see that he threw if you're if you're a deep
(32:00):
into the numbers guy and you go to the fanraff
and you'll see the change up up there. But really
what he did was he just got better with those
two pitches and he still really didn't incorporate the change
up in very much. And I think that's what limits
him left handers. And this is what we've kind of thought,
you know, because there's a lot of people have thought
Brady Singer's worth more than Jonathan India. Is weamer enough?
(32:21):
That's a debate to have did that even the score.
I mean, obviously the Reds thought he was worth more
than Jonathan India as well, But is that enough that
a lot of people can't the city say that that's
not enough for a dependable starting pitcher for what you're getting.
But I will tell you that he really doesn't have
a weapon for the left handers. And if you look
at it, if you break out his splits against losing
teams and against winning teams, you're going to see that
(32:41):
he really feaced on the losing teams and the winning
teams give him trouble, and that's one of the reasons
why when the Worlds got the playoffs, he was not
one of the three starters that they used. He only
pitched one inning in the postseason because they knew Reagan's
and Seth Lugo, who had a cy Young caliber season
this year or better, but so was Michael Walker, especially
coming down the stretch, and so he really didn't get
a chance to pitch in the postseason because against the
(33:03):
better teams and really against quality left handed hits, he
doesn't have the weapon.
Speaker 6 (33:07):
You need to get them out, you know.
Speaker 10 (33:08):
I remember Keith Law wrote about him when the Royals
drafted him. He was in the running going into that
year to be the number one overall pick, slid to
I think eighteen where the Royals took him, and Keith
Law's right up on him was that, you know, this
is the guy.
Speaker 6 (33:19):
That they'll try as a starter.
Speaker 10 (33:20):
He'll fail because he doesn't have a weapon for left handers,
and he'll end up being a top shelf reliever, maybe
a closer. That's what he was looking at, and that
was always in everybody's mind here in Kansas City. He's
clearly made it work as the start of the question
is can he go to that next level if the
Reds can get another pitch into his arsenal.
Speaker 6 (33:35):
There's more ceiling there.
Speaker 10 (33:37):
If he's willing to embrace that, if he's willing to
throw that, if he's willing to work on it. Otherwise,
with that home run rate in bank One Ballpark, a
lot of us are saying, Wow, this could be a
lot of fireworks with Cradie Singer when he pitches at
home and since ANACTA.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yeh know, so at face value, I'm like, you know,
teams in contending windows that have twenty eight year old
starting pitchers who have had a track record of durability
and who are under team control for a couple of years,
they don't just give them away. And so that was
my first question. Why why was he Why was he expendable?
Was it simply a matter of they've got enough dudes
and he's a bit of a surplus. Does he have
issues keeping the ball in the ballpark?
Speaker 6 (34:10):
Like?
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Why why would a good team like the Royals with
the guy's got two years of team control just give
him up.
Speaker 10 (34:17):
I think he was a couple of ELPs. One just
good old fashioned baseball trade. The Royals have a couple
other guys that they like to fit into that rotation.
They got Michael Waka re signed, so they haven't lost
anybody from the rotation. Alec Marsh came on again after
they you know, he had been the fist starter for
most of the year. They devoted and brought him back.
He did very well coming down the stretch. And then
Chris Bubach was coming back from Tommy John surgery. They
(34:38):
pitched him in the bullpen and he was dynamite. He
was probably their second best. Once they got Lucas Hersag,
he was their second best reliever out of the bullpen,
and but they've always had an eye towards moving him
back to the rotation and they've already stayed immediately after
the year. Chris Lubich is a starter, so he's going
to compete for that spot that's open. And Noah Cameron's
a guy they liked that. That's a youngster. Daniel Lynch
(34:58):
did very well as a reliever as well as a
long reliever. They think they can put him into that mix.
And I think they're willing to spend a little bit
more money here on the open market, moving singer on
India take up most of that money, but it does
create a little bit of extra money for them to
spend on the free agent market. So they really struggled.
This was a you know, I think this was a
need for need trade. The Royals leadof hitters were the
(35:19):
worst in baseball last year, collectively, having a two seventy
on base percentage, So did they overpay for a guy
with the three fifty on base percentage? Maybe maybe the
Reds got a little bit better of them. I think
that's entirely possible. But the Royals were desperate to get
somebody into that leadoff spot because they're two, three, four
performed extremely well. Bobby Wit, Junior, Vini, Pascaino, Salvado Perez,
you know, they all were on pace and Vinnie hadn't
(35:40):
gotten hurt the very end of the year. Would have
three one hundred RBI guys and that's what the two
seventy on base.
Speaker 6 (35:45):
Guy in the leadoff spot.
Speaker 10 (35:46):
So they really feel like they can get a lot
better offensively if they can shore that spot up, and
they're going to try to figure out where it all fits.
Because India go to the outfield, does Michael Massi go
to the outfield as one of them go to third base.
Speaker 6 (35:57):
That's something that.
Speaker 10 (35:58):
They're going to try to figure out, and I think
they'll figure out once they get done with whatever they
can accomplish here in the off season. But I think
this was just Look, they've had two years with their
new crew with Mac Guerrero and who came over from Tampa,
Paul Hoover who came over from Tampa, Brian Singer, Brian Sweeney,
excuse me, their pitching coach who came over from Cleveland.
(36:18):
You know, they've had their new guard guys work with
him for two years and they haven't really been able
to get him to.
Speaker 6 (36:22):
Embrace a third pitch.
Speaker 10 (36:23):
I think they felt like, look, with us, this is
as much as Brady's stinger is going to be.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
We've been at it for two years.
Speaker 10 (36:28):
Maybe Cincinnati can unlock more than If they can tip
your cap to him, congratulations. If not, we've got the
leadoff hit, or we need to make this offense better,
and we think we've got some good options to replace
him with the starting pitching. So, you know, long answer
summed up quickly. I think it's a surplus Bernid and
surplus Arni going both directions.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, makes sense. I mean you kind of answer my question.
I was going to ask Number one, how are they
going to use Jonathan India? Number two is their excitement
for his arrival in Casey, And it feels like there
is there.
Speaker 10 (36:58):
Is there's a lot of excitement because you know, there's
first of all, there's excitement for the last couple of
years of even though you know JJ Piccolo was in
house and came with Dayton Moore, Date Moore never really
did embrace the analytics, and he's certainly never embraced on
base percentage.
Speaker 6 (37:11):
Right, they won a world.
Speaker 10 (37:12):
Championship, won a second pennant doing a Date Moore's way,
But I think nowadays it just that was such a
one off of such an outlier. And JJ Piccolo does
embrace the analytics. He's very much grown the analytic department
for the Royals, and on basis like let's be honest,
we're talking about intro to analytics, we talk about on base,
we're talking about you know, nineteen ninety nine, two thousand analytics.
(37:33):
And he has made that, you know, given those marching
orders to the organization to go out and find on
base percentage, we have to be better at that and
so everybody in town has heard JJ talk about it.
They knew that's what he wanted to do, and now
he's done it. Everything he said he wanted to accomplish.
He gave a shopping list that he wanted to acquire
last year, he acquired everything on that list, and they
went thirty games better this year, going from fifty six
(37:55):
wins to eighty six. So there's a lot of excitement
behind JJ piccoll I think a lot of us that
have screened about the math the baseball are seeing the
math put into a fact and so, yes, Jonathan India,
is he perfect? No, do we think the power is
going to take a hit in Coffin. Yes, we're optimistic
the doubles we'll go up, the batting average will go
up thereby increasing the on base percentage even more. But
(38:17):
this is something that the Royals really needed. Now where
to play him? I thought it was very noteworthy. JJ
Picola said in his press conference Friday night after they
made the trade. You know, he was asked like, well,
you got Michael Garcia, third young guy that you like.
You got Michael Massey at second, Like where does he
fit in? They need outfielders, right, like, ideally, if Jonathan
India was a left fielder, this would be perfect.
Speaker 6 (38:37):
So I think left field's an option.
Speaker 10 (38:38):
But JJ said, we're not really even thinking about the
defense right now.
Speaker 6 (38:42):
We'll get everybody here.
Speaker 10 (38:43):
We'll get to spring training and we'll figure it out then,
which less some of us, myself included optimistic that there's
another move. Is there another back coming, is there an
outfield back?
Speaker 6 (38:51):
And then they'll play it out.
Speaker 10 (38:52):
Could Michael Garcia go to get an outfield back, Could
Michael Massey go to get an outfield back. Michael Massey
went to the organization and he's got more power, but
not be on base percentage that India has and say, listen,
I'm open to play in left field. He said that
to him last year when they had that problem. So
I think they do have options, whether it's India that
goes out there or they just keep them where he's
comfortable and maybe where his arm strength says he should
(39:13):
be at second base and they move somebody else. What
they really wanted was the bat, and I think there
is an element. They feel like they're good at short,
they're good behind the plate, they're good in center field,
so they can you know, maybe not be quite as
good at third or second or left field.
Speaker 11 (39:26):
If that's what they need to do to get the
on base percentage into the lineup, it's my.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Guy, Saren Petrow Sports Talk eight to ten WHP and
Kansas City. That's more info in the Kansas City Royals
than you ever would want. Red's making a deal with
Kansas City. Brady Singer comes to Cincinnati, Jonathan India, and
Joey Weimer gets sent to Casey. Reds needed a starting
pitcher who has been through a full Big league season uninterrupted,
(39:52):
and they got one. And it comes at the expense
of the twenty twenty one National League Rookie of the Year.
A lot to get to. Between now and five o'clock,
We're a Buffalo Wild Wings in Anderson. It's four o'clock
on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati Sports station is Sports centered.
(40:13):
I'm Christine Leacy.
Speaker 12 (40:14):
North Carolina football coach Mac Brown intended to return next season.
The school, though had other plans, announced that Brown will
not be back in twenty twenty five. He'll coach Saturday's
regular season finale. No decision yet if he'll coach the
tar Heels in their bowl game. Latest college football rankings
unveiled tonight eight Eastern exclusively on ESPN NFL Cowboys owner
Jerry Jones during today's appearance on one O five to three,
(40:36):
the fan was that if it's crazy to think that
coach Mike McCarthy could receive a contract offer after this season,
it's not crazy at all.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
According to Jones.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Mich McCarthy is I've been there and that, and he's
had a great idea. So bottom line is no place
in my body language or anything that have you stayed
indicat about what we're going to be doing relative to
the staff at the end.
Speaker 11 (41:04):
Of this year, and we should.
Speaker 12 (41:07):
Jones also said they've got a lot of football left.
The next three games for four and seven Dallas the
Giants on Thursday, follow by matchups against the Bengals and Panthers.
Speaker 13 (41:20):
Time with family, laughs with friends, and cash back. Discovers
got you covered on the last one. That's because discovered
doubles all the cash back you've earned on your credit
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Speaker 1 (41:37):
This report is Bengals and Steelers Coverage begins Sunday morning
at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of
the Bengals.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Fred Doubts, That is on Sunday. We're on from nine
to eleven thirty before the game, then count down and
kickoff in the game at one o'clock. We are, excuse me,
broadcasting from Buffalo Wild Wings on the East side of
Cincinnati Anderson Township, Beachmond. This is our third time here
we have and this is a lot going on. So
(42:09):
first of all, let me tell you this. We've got
buy one, get one half off traditional wings. Can't beat that.
We have these six for nineteen ninety nine menu. This
is what I'm ordering from as soon as I get
a chance to make my order. You get two entrees,
you get two sides, you get two found drinks for
just nineteen ninety nine. How about that? Also, Buffalo Wild
(42:30):
Wings gift cards are perfect for your holiday shopping list
by twenty five dollars and holiday gift cards get a
five dollar bonus. You cannot beat that. We've got five
dollar bud Light tolls and we're giving away tickets thanks
to our friends at bud Light. Sunday Bengals Stealers. It
is going to be cold, but still it's Bengals Stealers
(42:53):
one o'clock on Sunday. We have a pair of tickets
we're giving away now. Typically, our show, as you I
would hope no by now, goes until six o'clock, and
we always get a rush after five o'clock for obvious reasons,
people getting off work and stuff like that. UK plays
tonight and it's an earlier game than usual, six point thirty.
Kentucky obviously has a ninety minute pregame show, and so
(43:16):
our show is over at five o'clock today. So if
you want to win the tickets, if you're in the area,
you're on Beachmont driving around here on the east side
of Cincinnati, and you want to try to win the tickets,
come to Buffalo Wild Wings. Get here before five o'clock,
get something to eat, have a nice cold bud Light,
and if we draw your name, boom. Plus we've got
other stuff. I see some of those really cool looking
(43:37):
bud light Bengals, Nike golf hooties. Those are terrific and
so much more so, get here before five o'clock. We
have a lot to get to this hour. College basketball
at the start of the season, there's so much excitement
in this general area. The UC Bearcats have played really
well to start the season, understanding they haven't played anybody
(43:58):
really good. They did play a school from a high
major conference in Georgia Tech that is not, in my
opinion at least a very good Georgia Tech team. Xavier
wins a neutral site game last night against South Carolina.
I don't think it's very good, but you know, there's
a lot of hype for the skyline. Shelly Crosstown too
that there's a lot of hype for both UC and
(44:19):
Xavier this year, and even more so with each passing win.
Musketeers will obviously play Michigan tomorrow to go on the
road against TCU next week. UC has a bye game tomorrow.
They do go to Villanova next Tuesday, which is kind
of an interesting game. And then, amid all of this,
and not to ignore or slight anybody else in the area,
(44:40):
the dateon in North Carolina last night played a great game.
Flyers very much complicit in their own demise. Frustrating if
you're a Dayton fan, if you stayed up till about
one forty five this morning to watch it. They get
a chance for redemption tonight against an Iowa State team
that is really not fun to play at all. The
Kentucky Wildcats are off to a great start, and you know,
(45:03):
again sandwiched around the Duke game are games that you
would expect Kentucky to win. What I would say about
Kentucky is the same that I would say about Cincinnati,
understanding that they've got this this chip, if you will.
In the victory over Duke, which was a terrific game
and a signature win and one that took the hype
(45:23):
for what Mark Pope was doing and kicked it in
the hyper drive. In the other games they've played, they've
looked the part. And I've said that about you see,
they were supposed to win each of the games they
have played so far, but they've looked the part and
you could see how I think well constructed the roster is,
and you could see how difficult they're going to be
(45:43):
to defend. And I would say the same about Kentucky.
Mark Pope doesn't have what Wes Miller has, which is
a bunch of guys from last year's team that he's
added to via the transfer portal. But I think in
both instances, you see two teams that early in the season,
have played really well together, and I think with Kentucky
what's interesting is there's not one guy carrying the load.
(46:06):
It's been a little bit of everybody. And so this
is a long winded way of me saying that we're
gonna have on a guy by the name of Evan Miyakawa,
who's a college basketball analyst, does a great job, has
a website that is as good as you'll find. And
we're gonna focus on those three teams in particular because
I don't have an hour and a half to talk
about everybody. But he is really bullish on the Bearcats,
(46:28):
and I know this from texting with him over the
course of the last few games that you see as played.
He includes them among the absolute upper crust of the
Big Twelve. Now we're gonna get a chance to see
two of those teams in the Big Twelve tonight that
you consider uppercross with Houston plays Alabama and Kansas plays Duke.
(46:49):
But I'm looking forward to chatting with Evan, and so
we're gonna spend some time with him here in just
a few minutes. We always talk with our guy, Sean
sayat about the Bengals and about the NFL, and obviously
Sean's one of these tape heads who watches the games
really critically. He did not have to watch the Bengals
this week, but I am kind of interested in his
thoughts on the teams. The Bengals have to leap frog,
(47:11):
and we'll also talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are
next up for Cincinnati, and the Cincinnati Cyclones have a
big weekend as well. They've got a game tomorrow night,
They've got a Black Friday Mattinee. They also have a
new play by play voice who I haven't had a
chance to talk to yet. We will change that coming
up in just about twenty minutes. Pole question. Thanks to
(47:32):
our friends at United Heartland Insurance, Car Insurance, Boat Insurance,
House Insurance. Go to uchis dot com. I get an
office in Burlington, I got one in Cincinnati, one on
Hamilton uchins dot com. Bengals will bringing back the ping
pong table, which begs the question which table would you
(47:53):
want in your locker room if you were an NFL
player Ping pong pool aka billiards, foosball, or air hock.
That's X so I only get four choices, so I
couldn't throw in like poker, table or snooker, which I'm
not even sure what that is, Ping pong, billiards, foosball,
air hockey. My choice is air hockey, and then I
(48:14):
think pool. Right now, ping pong leads the way. Vote Now,
those are the four choices at Moegger again thanks to
United Heartland Insurance. All right, it's talk some college tubes
with our buddy Evan Miakawe. He joins us. Next, we're
Buffalo Wild Wings in Anderson till five o'clock today on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnati's ESPN.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
This is Football in the NATI, brought to you in
part by Modern Opus Methods, on the official home of
the Bengals, Cincinnatis, ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
I write Football in the NATI, Bengals, Steelers, We've got
folks signing up with the tickets here, and Buffalo Wild Wings.
We're gonna chat with our friend Sean sayat Stats and
Scheme podcastsumer sports dot com as well. Coming up in
just about twenty minut that's looking forward to that the
college basketball season is underway. Evan miat Kwa's website is
I think a must if you love college basketball, and
(49:10):
if you love college basketball on kind of a I
don't know, deeper level, you will love Evan's website. It's informative,
it's thorough, it's detailed, it's in depth, it's comprehensive. I'm
trying to see if I could burn all the adjectives
that I would use to describe Evan's website. You're going
(49:31):
to love it. It's evanmia dot com, Evan miya dot com.
It's good to have you. I've wanted to have you
on for a while. Let's start with this something you
tweeted out more so than even some of the national pollsters.
You're really bullish on the Bearcats.
Speaker 9 (49:49):
Yeah, that's correct. Cincinnati is checking at the AP pool
yesterday sixteenth, which is very good for them. But I
have them all the way up to six in the
country when it comes to predicting how good the Bearcats
are going to be the rest of the season. And
that might seem high, but I've been high on Cincinnati
since the preseason. I know, I had them inside the
top twenty coming into the year, and really what I
(50:10):
liked before the games even started was just how they've
made this roster together basically The key that I found
in a lot of my research for teams being successful
in this modern transfer portal era where you can get
guys from anywhere at any time, is if you can
return most of your really important pieces from the previous
year and then add one or two or three pieces
(50:32):
to raise your talent level. That's opot teams that are
the most successful. And that's exactly what Cincinnati's done. They've
kept a lot of their best pieces, they got some
key additions, including Dylan Mitchell from Texas, and I think
that's what's led them to be so successful this far
this year.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
It's a well constructed roster and that was kind of
my observation during the offseason. And you know, there's always
I don't want to say skepticism, but there's a built
in curiosity. Okay, how the piece is going to fit.
But before they played it, he didn't feel like just
a collection of dudes. And I see some programs where
it feels like just a collection of dudes. It really
does feel like the acquisitions were made with the returning
(51:09):
players in mind, and some of the other acquisitions as well,
a guy who I think last season kind of got
lost in the flood until he started making big shots
for the Bearcats. Is a guy who's off to a
great start this season in Simos Lukashis, I know you
love him. What do you love most?
Speaker 6 (51:25):
Oh Man?
Speaker 9 (51:26):
He is incredible. So I am a big Butler basketball fan.
So I watched Lukoshius back when he was a Butler
his freshman year and could tell back then that he
had the chops to be a really good playmaker, score
all those things. And so I'm just so happy that
he's found a fit with Cincinnati.
Speaker 11 (51:42):
And this is really what you.
Speaker 6 (51:43):
Like to see.
Speaker 9 (51:43):
Guys who transfer. Oftentimes if they stick with that program
the second that third year is often when they find
the most success. And man, he has been scalding hot
this year. You know, I did some analysis last week
basically looking at the players in the country who have
had the most impressive starts the year, and lukaches was
number one in all of D one college basketball because
(52:05):
not only at he you know, creating plays for others
like the Austin does, but he's been absolutely scorching from
three this year, shooting at least sixty percent to start
the year on a lot of attempts. He's just unstoppable
and so he's been absolutely incredible.
Speaker 6 (52:20):
That's what you want to see.
Speaker 9 (52:21):
And I think the thing too, is that they're not
relying on him every single night to be their best player,
because there are a lot of different key players on
this team, and so when you have him having that
freedom to be able to play as well as he does,
but you don't need him on a nightly basis, that's
really where you want to be.
Speaker 6 (52:36):
As a team.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
You know, I'm excited about how they've played. I'll acknowledge
the Georgia Tech team they played on Saturday isn't very
good up until then, no high major competition. They did
play a road game against NKU. The beauty of metrics
is there's a good way to sort of quantify the
caliber of competition. And so what do you say to
(52:57):
someone who's like, look, Bearkatz might have a good team
this season and they could be competitive in the Big twelve,
but let's tap the breaks because they haven't played anybody.
Speaker 9 (53:06):
I think that's a fair criticism purely in the sense
that we've not really we don't have a sample size
yet of them playing you know, a Big twelve level.
Speaker 6 (53:13):
Top fifty level competition.
Speaker 9 (53:15):
But with that being said, like you mentioned, all of
my analytics take strength of opponent into account, and so
them being the sixth team best team in the country
is me saying, hey, even though they've not played great teams,
based on how they've performed against expectations in those matches,
I still think that they are going to be around
that good even against the best teams in the country.
(53:35):
And so, yeah, like we haven't seen them play big
time opponents yet. Their schedule starts to heat up when
they get into December with some much more quality matchups,
and of course Big twelve play is as hard as
it gets in any conference in the country. But I
really do think that they are not going to dramatically,
you know, fall down the rankings or disappoint people, because
(53:56):
I really do think based on what they've showed so far,
even just the limited stretches, you know, against teams that
are kind of closer to that level, I think they've
looked really good and I don't think people should be
sleeping on them at all.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
Yeah, no, that's music to my years. What's kind of
interesting is they were picked in the Big twelve preseason
poll to finish sixth, and then above them the you know,
the five usual suspects that were ranked in the top
ten of the major polls. And I think for a
lot of us that that kind of felt right right, Like,
it felt like that's about where you would pick them
in the Big twelve. But they were a tier below Kansas, Houston,
(54:28):
Iowa State, et cetera. What I'm hearing from you is
a willingness to kind of lump the Bearheads in with
those schools.
Speaker 9 (54:36):
I absolutely think they should be in that top tier.
I mean, here's the crazy thing right now, you mentioned
that top tier. Coming into the season. It was Houston,
Iowa State, Kansas, Bayley, Arizona all were getting you know,
perennial top ten love in nationally, which is crazy for
covered to have five teams in that tier. Well, some
of these teams have disappointed a little bit. Baylor has
had some tough losses. You know, Kansas is still undefeated.
(55:00):
They have a game tonight against Duke, but they've not
really met expectations so far. Houston's been pretty solid. Iowa
State just took a tough loss against Auburn yesterday. So
right now I actually have Cincinnati ranked second in the
Big twelve. Now, do I think that there's a good
chance they finished top two in the Big Twelve. Probably
not just because there's so many good teams in this
(55:20):
conference that you know, random results thinks can go up
and down. But being in that top group of five
or six absolutely, I think is where they belong, and
I think that they are going to have some big
time wins against some of those other programs in the
Big twelve.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Evan Mia Kyle was with his website if you're a
college basketball fan is a Mustevanmia dot com. M I
y a Xaviers in between a game last night where
they win in Fort Myers against South Carolina, They'll take
on Michigan tomorrow, They've got another high major opponent in
TCU next week, and then you know, this part of
(55:55):
the country, as you well know, we get excited for
the UC Xavior matchup, and so there's the there's a
lot of hype for the possibility of these two teams
being undefeated when they play, maybe both teams being ranked
in the top ten or top fifteen when they play.
And there's obviously a lot of games that are going
to happen between now and then. I mentioned you're a
little bit higher on Cincinnati than some of the Polsters.
You've got Xavier in your top thirty I think twenty
(56:17):
ninth as of this morning, which is a little bit
lower than the major polls have them, So kind of
walk me through that with the Musketeers, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (56:27):
That's correct.
Speaker 9 (56:28):
When I was looking at my preseason rankings, I did
notice that Davira had them just a little bit lower
than other teams, and I think a main reason for
that is that I really really like they're starting five
or six players, but I'm not convinced by their depths.
A lot of my models just point to them having
a little bit of issues once you get past your
top five, six, seven players. But with that said, you know,
(56:51):
I think they're about met expectations so far. I had
them pre season, I think twenty eighth, and right now
they're twenty nine, so they're right around there. I think
the fun thing about that matchup coming up is that
Xavier has been undeniably the better team in that city
for multiple years, and so they certainly have the bragging rights,
so coming into this game, Cincinnati will likely be favored
(57:12):
in that game. Right now, I have Cincinnati favored by
eight or nine points, which seems like a lot given
the pedigree of these teams and.
Speaker 6 (57:20):
Where they've been.
Speaker 9 (57:21):
But I do think Cincinnati is going to be favored
in that game. But Xavier is the one who comes
in with the bragging rights, if you know what I mean.
And so I think it's going to be a lot.
Speaker 6 (57:28):
On the line.
Speaker 9 (57:29):
I think it's going to be, like you said, as
anticipatipated a matchup. As ever, will Cincinnati be able to
deliver on sort of the promise of what they've been doing,
or world Xavier kind of revert to the way that
they've been against this team in previous years. I'm really
excited to see it.
Speaker 2 (57:44):
You mentioned something that's kind of a favorite topic of mine,
and this isn't necessarily about either UC or Xavier or
any team in particular, but you talk about depth. So
I hear all the time in November and December, fans
talk about our team can play ten guys, they can
play eleven guys. You know, I've seen that with UC
this year. And then I watched games in January and
(58:04):
February in March, and nobody's playing that many players. You know,
some teams are playing seven, you know, ideally, I guess
in some cases eight. So when we talked about depth
and college basketball. I know this is going to sound
like a stupid question. When we talk about depth and
college basketball. For the good teams, how deep are we going?
Speaker 9 (58:25):
I think when you get to crunch time, we're talking.
If you can have its like eight eight men, eight
players who can really contribute, you're flying and that way.
On a given day, maybe you're not playing eight, you're
playing seven, but you have eight reliable pieces. I mean,
look at Auburn and the way that they've had two
big time wins this year against Iowa State and against Houston.
(58:47):
They're big man Dylan Cardwell, who's in the starting lineup,
played probably nine or ten minutes in their winning against Houston.
They just based on the scene they're running, they didn't
need him, but he played probably twenty five minutes last night,
and they're winning its Iowa State. So just because you
only play say six or seven guys in a particular matchup,
doesn't mean that you don't want that depth in other games,
(59:08):
just based on the way that the game is going.
And I think the other thing too, is when it's
so early in the season, there's still so much unknown
about how a team is going to play.
Speaker 6 (59:15):
Out.
Speaker 9 (59:16):
If you go into a season thinking that you can
rely on nine or ten guys, that what that really
means is that just based on how players are, evaluations
on them often are off. You know, maybe not all
nine or ten of those guys will be good by
the end of the season, but you'll have a really
solid seven or eight. And so that's often where it
comes is if you come into a season with a
lot of depth, your rotation might get shortwards the end
(59:37):
of the season, but you're almost guaranteeing yourself that you'll
still have the right number of players when it comes
down to March that you can really rely on all right.
Speaker 2 (59:44):
One more, I think college basketball is fun when Kentucky
is really good and when their fans are sticking their
chests out, and not that they have been bad, but
in recent years it has felt stale, It has felt stagnant.
You know, UK fans got tired of watching John on
Cala Perry running offense from fifteen years ago. And with
Mark Poppe, you talk about a collection of those guys
(01:00:06):
that seem to fit. I think he has that in Lexington.
I love how they play offense. Is that going to
translate as we talk about the eighth of the season
when they start playing teams in the SEC and even
some of the tougher games they have in non league
in the coming weeks.
Speaker 9 (01:00:25):
Yeah, I think so. I think they've already proved it.
I mean, they beat a Duke team that's as talented
as any in the country pretty convincingly a couple of
weeks ago, and Duke has since then, you know, had
some big wins, and they got an opportunity against Kansas
to night. I think Duke is, you know, one of
the national title favorites right now. So for Kentucky to
(01:00:45):
beat them is really impressive. And I think the thing too,
that maybe it's part of why people were sleeping in
Kentucky a little bit, is not only do you lose
your coach, not only do you lose your entire roster,
but all the transfers that brought in.
Speaker 6 (01:00:58):
None of those.
Speaker 9 (01:00:59):
Players were like big time all American Hike Lettle players.
All of them are really really good, all of them
are really really reliable, but there's not I don't think
there's a single player on the team that anyone would
have thought will be even all SEC level player.
Speaker 11 (01:01:13):
And so when you don't when you.
Speaker 9 (01:01:15):
Have that lack of a marquee player like that people
can sleep on you a little bit. But you look
at the flips that I mentioned this before, like every
single one of their transfers they've brought in is like
a really, really good piece. And according to my analytics,
like I was not really down on any of their
top you know, eight guys or so, I think they're
you know, from one to eight, Like there's deep as
(01:01:35):
any team in the country, and no matter what lineup
they're rolling out, Like there's a lot of flexibility right
now for Mark Pope to use in figuring out how
he wants to play against different teams. And I think
that's really a strength of theirs. And then you look
at how good they're playing just collectively as the unit.
You know, I think we've come to expect this from
Mark pope teams, but man, it is so impressive what
he's done, just because when you have an entire new
(01:01:57):
roster from scratch, you know, he only knew one player
previously in Jackson Robinson. All these other players are new.
Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
For them to be.
Speaker 9 (01:02:05):
Jelling this quickly, you know, that's a great sign.
Speaker 6 (01:02:08):
Of what's to come for them for the rest of
the year.
Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Evanmia dot com is the website. I mentioned how thorough
and in depth it is. It's certainly a labor of love.
I know it's something you've been working on for a
long time. For folks who haven't been, tell people what
they'll find when they go.
Speaker 9 (01:02:22):
Yeah, the main place is evanmea dot com. There's a
lot of stuff both for just casual fans to love
college basketball as well as for you know, a lot
of coaches use it for a lot of things, and
media members like yourself are deep in and as well,
so there's a lot for everybody. There's player ratings, team ratings,
game predictions, lineup analysis, really anything that fits your fancy
(01:02:44):
you can find there. I'm on all the usual social
media places that you can find links to all those
directly on my website as well.
Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
More in depth than anything you're gonna find. If you're
a college basketball ball fan, you have to check it out.
Evanmeia dot com. I love getting people on who talking
great detail about my favorite sport. Awesome to have you.
Hope we can do it again during the season. Evan,
thank you so much.
Speaker 6 (01:03:06):
Sound good.
Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
There you go. Evanmia dot com is the website where
a Buffalo Wild Wings in Anderson until five o'clock. The
new voice of the Cyclones joins us next on ESPN
fifteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
You've been listening to football in Thenetti on the official
home of the Bengals, Cincinnatis, ESPN fifteen thirty, which begins
Sunday morning at nine on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official
home of the Bengals.
Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
Twenty minutes away from five o'clock, This is ESPN fifteen
thirty on molegor a few minutes late, we're broadcasting today
from Buffalo Wild Wings in Anderson. The night before Thanksgiving
is always a big night, at least when the home
schedule allows for the Cincinnati Cyclones, and this year is
no different. They've got a game against Kalamazoo tomorrow evening
(01:03:54):
with the puck dropping at seven thirty. It's Thanksgiving Eve.
Thanksgiving Eve, big party night, two dollars beers for that
game tomorrow, and then they've got a Black Friday Mattinee
afternoon game. So if you don't want to spend your
day at the mall, go down to the Heritage Bank
(01:04:15):
Center and watch some hockey. Cincinnati is hosting the Wheeling nailers,
and uh, the game is going to be featuring Peanuts
and they're going to have some really cool holiday theme
jerseys Peanuts characters that the players are gonna wear and
they're gonna auction them after the game. Now, the Cyclones
have to start playing better. They're just one, eight, three
and zero, so to tell us more is the new
(01:04:36):
play by play voice of the Cincinnati Cyclones, Rudy Hodgson
is with us. Rudy, it's good to have you. What's
going on.
Speaker 11 (01:04:43):
I'm glad to be here. Thanks for sitting down talking
with some hockey with me today.
Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
All right, well, I wish the hockey part was better.
What's gone wrong here in the first part of the season.
Speaker 11 (01:04:54):
You know what, this is a really young group of guys.
We just recently announced our affiliation with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
We have some really exciting young guys that are with
the team now. But it's just a matter of them
playing and finding that groove together as a team, building
that cohesion. And you know, it's been a less than
favorable start to this season, but I'm pretty optimistic that
(01:05:15):
they're going to start turning things around. Have a nice
long break and now We had him too Tomorrow's Thanksgiving
Eve game with a fresh, fresh set of legs. So
hopefully we start turning things around, and you know it
should be a great environment Tomorrow's die as well.
Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
When things turn around. What is that going to happen?
On the strength of where's this team going to be good?
Speaker 6 (01:05:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 11 (01:05:35):
Absolutely So, Like I said, those Maple Leaf guys that
we do have, we have some youngsters like Jazz Sharp
as a defenseman, he's leading the team in goals, he
has four this season. He's been dynamite, just really patrols
the blue line, really gives his team a chance to
win every single night. And then you have guys like
Ty Void, who you know, really finds his way. A
smaller guy, but he kind of he kind of reminds
(01:05:55):
me of Martin Saint Louis for all my diehard hockey
fans that know the name. Small, nimble, but a whole
lot of skill, has a great shot, and when he's
in his groove, he's absolutely the best player on the ice.
And those are just two really young guys that the
Maple Leafs gave us that we're excited to have here
in our line up in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
So one thing you mentioned, and I know this went
down shortly before you got here, is the affiliation with
the Toronto Maple Leafs, which first of all, is just cool, right,
It's original six, it's Toronto. It's just cool. The parent club, though,
is having a terrific year so far. Describe the trickle
down effect to this level.
Speaker 11 (01:06:32):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean you feel it every single time
there's a transaction with the big Club because they also
have the Marles, and we report to the Marles as well.
We give them players. As a matter of fact, some
of the names that I just listed off for you
are coming back from the Marleas because we had a
prolonged break. So the affiliation with the Maple Leaves has
been really important for us because it gives us a
chance to develop future NHL stars right here in our backyard, right.
(01:06:54):
So it's really really interesting to see how much they
prioritize the relationship with us, but also how we take
pride in really honing in the craft of these young
up and coming stars right here in the Queen City.
And it's really a great relationship. It's been nothing but fantastic,
and hopefully that starts to bear some fruit with some
(01:07:14):
wins here.
Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
You talked about there being a little bit of a break.
You guys are going to have four home games starting
tomorrow night in about a week and a half stretch,
and so it's a great time to put some things
that have been happening on the practice ice in use
in games that count. Now, let's talk about starting tomorrow night,
Thanksgiving Eve. This is going to be your first one
as a member of the Cyclones. This is gonna be
a big deal.
Speaker 6 (01:07:36):
Tomorrow night, that's right.
Speaker 11 (01:07:38):
Yeah, I mean it's gonna be awesome. We're expecting over
ten thousand year Heritage Banks Center, expecting a really good crowd.
This will be my first experience, as you just mentioned.
I mean I just got here about months ago. But
the Cyclone fan base is just so die hard. They
care so much about this team. So we're expecting a
big crowd, and we're expecting this team to bounce back
in a big way. I mean, they desperately need to
(01:08:00):
start turning the page here and finding some wins. And
how hopefully that break was just a good time for
these guys to just kind of put everything in the
back of their minds and focus on the next game,
focus on the next goal folks on the next bix
safe all.
Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Right, walk me through some of the events happening in
the coming week and a half or so with the cyclones.
Speaker 11 (01:08:18):
Absolutely, Well, you just alluded to our Peanuts night. We
have our Matinate games, So once everyone's done recovering from
the food coma, they can come down to Heritage Drank Center,
come watch a hockey game.
Speaker 6 (01:08:29):
Bring the kids.
Speaker 11 (01:08:29):
We'll have Snoopy and Charlie Brown up in the concourse.
It'll be a great environment. And also those jerseys are
going to be auctioned off and I'm not sure if
you've seen them yet, but they are absolutely dynamite.
Speaker 6 (01:08:40):
They're so cool.
Speaker 11 (01:08:42):
Should all be available online on our website, the same
with tickets. And then next week if Peanuts isn't your thing,
we also have Marvel Knight coming up. Or we have
these really cool Deadpool Seam jerseys four PM games so
you can watch the game and then go out for
a night out on the town next Saturday as well.
So we have some really good stuff coming around. We
hope people come out and join us. And like I said,
(01:09:03):
I just got here, but one thing that I've absolutely
seen is how much this city gets up for their
hockey team. So hopefully we can start rewarding those diehard
fans and wins here.
Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
Yeah, I want to talk about you for a second
because it's interesting that the season gets is about to
get started and you show up, which you've handled it well,
but that that can't be easy for somebody in your position.
Speaker 6 (01:09:25):
No, it was not. It was.
Speaker 11 (01:09:26):
It was very, very crazy, because I tell this story
all the time. So I get in the car Friday
from Chicago, drive down four hours to Cincinnati, call a game,
call the home opener the next day, and then on
the road to Kalamazoo, arrive at the hotel at four
in the morning. So very quick introduction to the EHL.
(01:09:50):
But this is what I love to do. I love
calling hockey games. I'm very fortunate to be here. Cincinnati
has been nothing but great to me. And it's been
a crazy, crazy month. I'll tell you that right now.
Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
I can't imagine. Well, welcome to town. Congratulations on the job.
The cyclones mean a lot to a lot of people
in this town. And you know, again, the affiliation with
the Maple Leafs is pretty cool. So hopefully things get
turned around and you're welcome anytime. Thank you, for joining.
Speaker 11 (01:10:21):
Us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 6 (01:10:23):
See you guys at a game very soon.
Speaker 2 (01:10:25):
Most definitely again. The game tomorrow night, seven thirty. That's
always a lot of fun. The Thanksgiving Eve tilt, and
then they have a day game on Black Friday. Cyclones
Hockey dot Com for schedule info, ticket info, Rudy Hodgen Hodgson,
Rudy Hodgson, how to get the guest name right, Voice
of the Cincinnati Cyclones. Till we have time for a
(01:10:46):
break and come back. We're done early. UK basketball is
coming up in twelve minutes. We're here at Buffalo wild
Wings on the east side of Cincinnati and Anderson on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Three games on Thursday.
I guess you can watch him and I don't know
if Buffalo Wildwin's O going on Thursday, but you can
watch most NFL games ere A beat ups. We are
(01:11:09):
almost done. UK basketball is coming up next. Kentucky hosting
Western Kentucky tonight, the school that I almost went to
school that I was this close to going to until
I saw the campus radio station at the University of Dayton.
So Western Kentucky's loss, I guess Dayton's game, but anyway,
UK Western Kentucky coming up here. Our buddy Sean Saie.
(01:11:30):
Do you ever watch back in the day late night
talk shows? And then I always bump a guest at
the end, and like I said, I apologize, our apologies
to so and so. Hopefully he'll come back sometime soon.
Our apologies to Sean Saye from the Stats and Scheme podcast.
But the good news is he will join us tomorrow.
I think right around five thirty. I don't know completely
for sure, but we will have him on. And I
(01:11:53):
want to thank the staff here at Buffalo Wild Wings
for taking such amazing care of us. We love coming
to Beat Ubs. This has been our third stop at
the Anderson location and we've loved it every single time.
We're back in studio tomorrow. It's our last show before Thanksgiving.
Next week, by the way, we will be at the
b Ups Bridgewater up there in Hamilton. Have a great night.
(01:12:14):
Thank you for listening. Thanks to Mike Mills and Tara
Planned for producing. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.
Speaker 6 (01:12:24):
This
Mo Egger News
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