1/15/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

1/15/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports. All Right, there you go, it's
six after three. This is ESPN fifteen thirty on mo Edgar.
Thank you for listening. Hopefully having an awesome Thursday afternoon.
We are because we have Andrew Abbott and Emelio Pagan
in studio to start the show, getting set for Reds Fest,
which runs tomorrow and Saturday at the Cincinnati Convention Center.

(00:25):
Two of the faces of the twenty twenty five and
twenty twenty six Reds two of the faces of redsvest
and a Emilio's case. Sitting in the exact same chair
he was in last year. And look what he did
last season. Thirty two Saves had a great year. Andrew
Witherson studio. Gentlemen, it's awesome to have you guys.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
How are we doing, Yeah, doing great, Thanks for having
us on, Thanks for having us.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
The All Star Andrew Abbot, Let's look back before we
look look ahead, and I'll start with you, Andrew. You
have an all Star season. But I was I was
talking with TJ. Friedel yesterday about you know, those games
in September, and there were so many of them were
at felt like, boy, if they don't win tonight, it's
gonna go the other way. One of them was the
game in San Diego where you guys win two to one,

(01:07):
you go eight, And it was one of and there
were a bunch of just awesome pitching performances down the stretch.
So reflect on what it was like to play in
all those high leverage games and then have the payoff
of finally getting to the postseason.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah, the San Diego game, it was after a rough
stretch for me, two or three bad starts back to
back to back, So I fell a little chip on
my shoulder that I needed to kind of go back
to myself earn that kind of you know, respect again.
But you know, with these guys backing up the whole time,
team's playing well, So just going out and doing your
job at the end of the day. But yeah, playing
those games down the road, I mean it was a

(01:41):
lot of fun. I mean, ep smiles. All those guys
kind of elluded that we were, you know, in the race,
like we just needed to stay loose like they had
been in the situation, like just keep playing, keep doing
what we've been doing all year, and you know, things
started to click. We won the games we needed to win.
And there we were in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
A lot of high leverage outs for you last year, Emilio,
both in September and then across the course of the season.
And I remember you sitting with me here last year
and you talked about like having something to prove twenty
twenty four, Dinco the way you wanted, I would say,
in that regard, mission accomplished.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, I mean kind of. I mean yeah, you know,
I individually, I had a pretty good year. We made
the playoffs, but we didn't win the World Series. So
you know, that's what we're in this industry for is
to is to win at trophies, and you know, you
don't get a trophy for being the last team into
the playoffs. So you know, I was happy to put

(02:32):
a better product on the field. I felt like I
you know, like I told you last year, I felt
like I let the city down, let the organization down
in twenty twenty four by not being out there as
much as I normally am in my career. And so
putting a better foot forward for me and and and
really for the team was my main focus. And so

(02:53):
I was glad to be able to go out there
and throw as many times as I did.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
And for what it's worth, Reads made it official today
what had been reported over the week, and Pierce Johnson
so another reliever that's been an area of emphasis. And
it feels like going into spring training, we know what
your role is going to be, but it's a little
bit easier to define who is supposed to do what
because of who they've acquired this offseason and who you
bring back.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, I mean it can in theory, but you know,
in theory last year, there's no way I was gonna
be throwing the ninth inning. So things change, you know,
injuries happen, Results don't always, you know, go our way.
As players, you know, there there is a look factor
in this game, and so you know, on paper, yeah,

(03:36):
for sure, our bullpen looks like it's going to be
a strength which is backing up and even stronger starting rotation,
and so the pitching side should be fun to watch.
You know. I'm excited to watch our our our unit,
our group as a whole and what we're able to accomplish.
I think we've got a super talented group and excited
for what we can do moving forward.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Andrew an All Star season right and coming into the
year it's let's let's let's hope that all these guys
stay healthy, and that wasn't the case. But you kind
of put the rotation on your back for a while
early in the summer, and you get rewarded by getting
a chance to go to and pitch in the All
Star Game. When you think of that season, what things
come to mind.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
That's a dream come true for me personally, you know,
being able to represent the team, my teammates, being able
to represent Cincinnati, my family in that game was you
know what dreams are made of. Like I said, it's
you know it was it was. It was just amazing
to get the call to get told to go tell
my family that it happened. But yeah, like I said,
I'm not I'm a product of everybody around me. I

(04:38):
had amazing defense from TJ and everybody in the outfield,
saving runs, you know, doing all that so I could
be successful. You know, ep Tony, all those guys in
the back end closing down games to give me wins
and stuff. So like a lot of it took. It
takes a team effort to get you there. So it's
remiss to say it's all you, because it's really not.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, you talk about the defense, then they go and
get you the best, maybe the best defensive player in
the sport to play third base. M hm.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
That's he's a backing cleaner over their third dase. It's
it's it's really nice to know that he's back there.
I mean, ep, he can speak about it too. But
when it's a hard hit ball or like there's a
chance for some crazy play to happen, he's making routine plays.
He's making these diving plays getting up. His timing is
elite with like throwing guys to go and throw in
a first space to get him out. And he's just

(05:22):
a nice dude too. He's a great character in the
locker room and he's a great leader for our team.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Neilio. Last year we talked about you kind of wanting
to pivot from what was a little bit of a
lost twenty twenty four. Everybody gathers in good Year and
you hear about the vibes, and the vibes were based
on guys like yourself with something to prove. Were guys
who wanted to bounce back from you know, having an
injury in twenty twenty four, but also a lot of
new guys newness with manager, coaches, guys brought in from

(05:48):
other organizations, and I think brought in in large part
because they had won before. What do you guys, I'll
throw this to both of you, what do you guys
anticipate the vibe being like when you guys gets a
good year in a couple of weeks. This year is
compared to last year.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
I think the biggest difference between our team now compared
to you know, when I first got here in twenty
twenty four. When I got here, there was a lot
of hope, you know, there was a lot of you know,
we got this this young core that has come up
and these guys are going to be the guys that
steer the ship for this organization moving forward. And while
that's still true, I think that hope has turned into

(06:24):
now belief, you know, like we believe, like we belong,
We believe like we're one of the better teams in
the league. It's hard to truly believe it if you
haven't gotten your foot in the door and played in
the playoffs. And so now a lot of our best
players with who are our young guys, have been there,
have tasted it, have seen what it takes to go
the one sixty two to deal with ups and downs,

(06:44):
the struggles, the successes, and still get to a chance
to play for a trophy at the end of the season.
And so now that our guys who hadn't experience that
have there's a there's a different you know, while the
word is very similar, you go from hope to belief,
there's a different urgency that comes along with that, you know,
like we believe, like we belong. Now it's just go
and execute as at high a level as we can

(07:06):
and hopefully win a division and give ourselves some home
playoff games for this city and this fan base.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Similar sort of answer from you, Andrew.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, I mean I just did that. I would just
say like being resilient, being confident as well, knowing that
we have what it takes to get there, but knowing
that we still have the job to go out and
do that. Improving on small things, refining, we constantly learn,
we constantly get better at this game. So just taking
that to hard at spring training and then using spring
training as a springboard into the season.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Everybody is asked about the Tito effect, and from a
position player standpoint, maybe it's a little bit different than
a picture because you had the same pitching coach right,
which I think you guys are grateful for in Derek Johnson.
So acknowledging that from your guys perspective, where was where
was the biggest way where Tito had an impact that
maybe we as fans don't get a chance to see.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
To me, it's how calm me stays. You know, it's
everybody talks about trying to stay levelhead and let your
emotions get the best of you. Obviously in professional sports
everything's magnified. There's especially in today's world where there's social media,
there's radio, there's media at all times.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah. Radio is always nice to here.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, And so you know, having Tito around where he's
not gonna get too down with the downs, he's not
gonna get too up with the ups over the course
of one sixty two that that's extremely important because we're
all gonna struggle. You know, we're gonna have our days
where we go out there and give up four or
five runs. We're gonna have or not us personally, but
our teammates are gonna have stretches where they don't get

(08:33):
a hit for a series or two. Having a guy
that's been there for so long, seen so many teams
get to the playoffs and have a chance to play
for a World Series, and then ultimately he's won a
few World Series. You know, having that is invaluable. It's
hard to put a word or a level of importance
on it. And seeing how calm he stays, it helps

(08:56):
our young guys stay calm and just understand like, hey,
we're good enough to be here and and make a difference.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Felt like Andrew that that was the strength of this team.
We kept calling you guys cockroaches, right because it was.
There were so many games last year that didn't go
your way, and as fans and as like weathered fans
that have been through some tough seasons, you're sort of
thinking like, all right, that's that's the loss that's gonna
send them into a downward spiral. And you guys bounce
back every time. And it always felt like after every

(09:23):
game win or lost, the message from Tito was flush it.
You know, we may have blown a game, may have
blown a game that we were supposed to have, may
have gotten blown out. We may have come back and
orchestrated a great comeback victory. There was always this that's
cool we'll talk about it, then we're gonna flush it.
And to me again as an outsiders, that message got
through all season long.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Yeah, it makes it very simple to us as well,
Like you know, we dwell on stuff like I don't
know about Emilia, but like if I have a bad
start and I give the team a bad beginning of
the game, like I'm gonna dwell on that just for
the game. But then I know, with the confidence coming
from Tito and the rest of my teammates, like, hey,
you're gonna be back out there in four days, like
we need you to go win another one or go
give us another good one. So like you said, I
mean just having him at the you know, captain of

(10:07):
the ship, weren hatt and stuff, Just having him there
with the confidence and the players the traditional mindset of
baseball like just go do it, go compete. It doesn't
go our way, then you know, screw it, Like let's
just move on and go win the next one.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
It's got to be so much fun for you. The
strength of this team is pitching and and it's got
to be so much fun for you and that and
that group of starters where boy, a lot of you
guys got here roughly the same time you after many
of them, but still all sort of coming of age
at the same time and all enjoying individual and collective
success at the same time. I can't imagine how cool

(10:40):
that is.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah, I mean we're all friends, Like I've known Hunter
for years, I've known Dola for years, Burns for years.
Like I mean, you typically you just know everybody. If
you played college, you know them. If you played high school,
you basically know everybody. But you know, like you said,
there's an internal competition between us, like we want to
outdo each other in a friendly matter, like we want
success for each other. But Hunter goes out and deals
like Lodolo's. The next day he wants to go out

(11:03):
and you know, one up Hunter, Let's get one more
out than Hunter. And then I want to do the
same thing. Lodolo and Singer was the same way, and
then Nick Martinez was the same way, and Burns when
he came up with the same way, and that just breeds,
you know, just success, Like doesn't matter what we do.
Let's just give our chance to give the team a
chance to win. And then I just want to beat
that person.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Amelio, you got here in twenty four you weren't pitching
the ninth last year. You did. And you hear commentators
all the time say, like, gu he's you know, he's
good in high leverage situations, but he's not a ninth
inning guy. You were a ninth inning guy last year
and an effective one. Does the mindset change? Do you
pitch the ninth inning differently than he might coming in
the eighth inning one out, two on one run game

(11:41):
as opposed to the ninth when you've got to get
three outs and there's nobody on. Yeah, you know that.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Uh, the answer to that question for me would have
been different a couple of years ago. You know, I
had a couple of chances to close earlier in my career,
and I closed in college, and so I had it
on this pedestal, right, like I wanted to be known
as a major league closer for what what whatever that means.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Because closers get paid whatever.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
You know it is, it's it's a fun roll, right,
And so I had all this emotion tied into it,
thinking I had to be perfect and put so much
unneeded stress on myself. And in the moment, you know,
you go out there and you try to be this
this hero right now, I would say that I've I've

(12:27):
matured enough. I've I've been around the game long enough
that I don't approach it any differently. To me, it's
it's really simple, like can I execute one pitch? And
then if I do, can I execute the next pitch?
And if I do that, at the end of the day,
the results are going to be what they are, and
so I have to be okay with what that result is.
If I'm executing pitches. Now, the days that I do

(12:49):
get upset, whether I get the job done or not,
whether we have a W next to the team or
or a blown say next to my name. If I'm
not executing, then that's the days that I'm upset, even
if we do win, because I know that that's not
sustainable success in this league. The hitters are too good,
the scouting reports are too good. If I'm not executing pitches,
then yeah, sure I might have got the job done tonight,

(13:11):
but you know the next week might look pretty bad.
And so to me, I try to approach every inning
the same way now, where you know, I'm a couple
of years ago, I would have had a different answer,
and I'm glad I've matured to a point where I
just now, it's just go pitch through.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
A complete game. Last year, right which is you know,
I'm old enough to remember when like Joaquin Andrew Harr
would lead the league in complete games with like seventeen
of them. Right now, if you have two, you're going
to lead the league. But you threw the one in
Cleveland last year, and I you know, as a fan,
you're like, I want to see this guy finish it.
I think you walk the leadoff guy the night. Yeah,
and it's like, man, I want to see him finish this.

(13:48):
He tried this with Hunter in San Francisco early in
the season. At the same time, got a good bullpen.
I got this guy. You know, in this day and age,
are you looking at the bullpen? Are you thinking I
walked the dude? Now he's gonna pull me? Are you
looking to I mean, what is it like? And that's
a weird question. I get it, but we don't see

(14:08):
complete games, especially in one nothing games anymore.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
I mean just that night in particular, they he came
up to me and said, how do you feel you
have one hundred pitches? Can you go back out or
do you want do you need help?

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Do you ever say no, I'm good, No, put the
warm up on no, right, Yeah, I'd rather end it
on my want the ball. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
But he asked me how I felt. I said, I'm
ready to go. When I walked the guy, I got nervous.
I was like, oh, man, here we go.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
Then you turn around and you see Emelia moving up
and you're like, oh, he's gonna come in with traffic.
It's not going to be an easy you're an easier
type situation.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
For the record, when they're throwing like that and they
get to the ninth, I want them to finish it. Like,
he's clearly our best option today. Let's let's just let
this guy go finish the game so you're not waving Yeah.
Hunters thrown the way he did in San France, and
when he's throwing the way he did in Cleveland, it's like, man,
those were not a better option down here today. Let's
let these guys finish the game, right. Show That game

(15:01):
was awesome to watch, and I would just piggyback off that.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
I mean, when we know it's such a long season
and you know EP's been in a lot more than
I am, but helping out the bullpen giving him an
extra day, Like, if we can throw six seven innings
in a game and save two of those guys just
for whatever situation that comes in the next few games,
then that will matter down the stretch when they have
to throw back to back to back or back to back,

(15:23):
you know whatever it may call them. And I mean,
he can speak to it a lot better than I can.
But just knowing that you play a role in that
kind of mini success, that limited success, is big for us.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
You know, there's a generation of us tonight. I still
when I see I'll see the pitching matchup that night,
I think of being a kid or a younger guy,
and it's like, you know, Jose Rio is going to
pitch against Greg Maddox, and you're thinking, Okay, those guys
are going to go eight, maybe one's gonna go nine.
Maybe they're both going to go nine, and that's what
you're gonna watch for the night. So you're thinking, those
guys are approaching their job going I'm pitching nine innings tonight.

(15:56):
Given the fact that we have a scarcity of complete games.
When you take the mound, what length are you thinking about?
Are you thinking I'm going seven? Are you thinking, man,
you know what, if I'm afishing, I can get to nine, Like,
what's what are you planning on throwing that night?

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Honestly, just try to get out, yeah, you know, however
many it may be. I mean, obviously the goal is
to go six or seven every time, but from the
first pitch until my last pitch, I'm literally just trying
to count out. So I'm like, how can I shorten
this game with a good situation for the team And
is it the best situation for the team to win?

Speaker 4 (16:26):
Right?

Speaker 3 (16:26):
And if I can do that, then more times than not,
it's going to be a good situation all the.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
Way around.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
The off season beyond having to do this and talk
to me and preparing for the season. Have you guys
done anything cool?

Speaker 4 (16:39):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Watch my daughters grow up sign a contract as one
of them, which is not insignificant at all. No it's not,
But for me, the highlights always what are my daughters doing?
You know, they played they both played softball, my oldest
playing basketball right now. They're both doing great in school
and so we miss so much of the growth for
them as players through that the season because we're at

(17:02):
the field so many hours in a day. So the
off season is all about, you know, being with them
as much as possible. What do they want to do?
And so for me, it's it's been fun watching them.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Andrew, I took the family on a nice beach trip
down the Isle of Palms.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Pretty good there.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
So just for a week, you know, give them together
around the holidays and have some fun. But other than that,
just been fixing up the house and getting ready to train.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
When do you, guys, when does training start? Like how
much time do you give yourself where you don't do
anything before you get back at it.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
I never stopped throwing, no, no. I took two weeks
off of like conditioning and lifting, and then I was
back into it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
I normally start around November first, So okay, you give
it two or three weeks. Yeah, a good deal.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Can't wait for spring training, can't wait for the season
to begin. The contract thing. Congratulations, thank you, thank you.
Was it ever up in the air with Cincinnati always?
You know what I'm signing here and that's it? Like
what was the process?

Speaker 4 (17:56):
Like?

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah, I mean I knew I wanted to be in Cincinnati,
and I wasn't shy about you know, letting people here
know that. Let my agent know that, you know, there
was definitely some other teams calling, and that's a super
humbling experience, right.

Speaker 6 (18:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Now, our dream as kids just to play in the
big leagues, and so when any major league team is
calling and offering you a contract like super humbling experience.
And I don't take that lightly. And I'm very thankful
for those phone calls and those conversations. But ultimately I
knew I wanted to be here. I knew I wanted
to be with this group, with this coaching staff, with
a chance to you know, do something special for this

(18:32):
organization and this fan base.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
And so.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
It's always fun. You know, I've been a free agent
now twice, and both times I had a good time
and enjoyed the experience. But for me, at the end
of the day, I knew this is where I wanted
to be and I'm glad we were able to get
it done.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Awesome to have you back. Congratulations on an All Star season, Andrew,
Congratulations on a great year.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, it's cool. If you get back, if you get
to the All Star Game together, that'd be that. I'll
take credit for it.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, that cool.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
Side of work. Red's fast, this is happening this weekend tomorrow,
starting at three o'clock and on Saturday at the Cincinnati
Convention Center. Emelio and Andrew will both be there among
more than eighty current and former Reds players, coaches, and broadcasters.
Reds dot com slash Redsfest is where you can get
your tickets. It's an awesome event. I love it in

(19:19):
January because Redsfest we turn the page. You guys will
be in good year. It'll start to get warm here
sometime soon, and opening day will be here before you
know it. I can't wait. I know you guys are
excited as well. Absolutely Yeah. Emilio Pagan and Andrew Abbott
joining us in studio. Gentlemen, thanks so much. It's twenty
five after three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati

(19:40):
Sports Team. All right, all right, all right, it's twenty
nine after three. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. That was fun.
That was a good time. Now I'll pull back the
curtain just a little bit. As you probably know, Andrew
and Emilio are on a bit of a media tour
and we swapped swapped, uh we sapped swapped time slots

(20:02):
with another show in this building and so we thought
we were having them at three thirty. But that was good, Taran,
Let's let's do this. Let's let's make excuse me, an
adjustment on the fly. So I had talked to Chad
Brendle last night. Chad Bearcat Journal dot Com typically joins
us at three forty five on Thursdays. Today's Thursday. We

(20:25):
were gonna have those guys in studio, and so I said, Chad, hey,
can we do four to twenty. But since we already
had those guys, can we move Chad to his normal time?
You think Chad will do that for us? I think
he can make that happen. I mean, it's less than
twenty four hours ago he thought he was gonna be
onto three forty five. I cannot imagine he has filled

(20:45):
that time slot with something much much more important. So
we'll do that at three forty five and talk about
last night's Bearcat's victory. We've got some college hoops to
get to. Between Kentucky's miracle finish, Xavier running Butler out
of the building, and the bear Cat playing well enough
to win a big twelve game, we've got to do

(21:06):
something that I it's gonna be me admitting that we
try to figure out the best way to put this.
We need to talk about the tweet about fans wearing
bags at the game last night. I'll just I'll try
to put that in the least clumsy way possible. There
is a lot of ground to cover. We have a
point shaving scandal in college basketball and all the silly
takes that will come with that. We've got some Bengal

(21:28):
stuff to get to as well. There's lots of ground
to cover. Between now and six o'clock. Sports headlines are next.
We have a new offensive coordinator at uc CO offensive
coordinator at U See as well, So there's a lot
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station twenty four from
five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Molegger. Very briefly,

(21:50):
very briefly. Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet,
Home of lifetime power train protection and guaranteed credit approval
from their family to you for life. I'm reading this
on Bearcat journal dot com. Brad Glenn not gonna have
his contract renewed to be the Cincinnati offensive coordinator. He

(22:10):
has been in that role for the last three seasons.
Quarterbacks coach Pete Thomas an offensive line coach Nick Cardwell
will be promoted to co offensive coordinators. This obviously means
the Bearcats will have new defensive end offensive coordinators in
twenty twenty six. More on that. In addition to the
hoops with our guy Chad Brendle here in just a

(22:33):
few minutes, and we are looking forward to that. What
else do we have? It is a very very light
day in terms of local sports headlines. We have NKU
basketball tonight as the Norse host Detroit Mercy. Seven o'clock
is a tip off, NKU hosting the first of back
to back games. The Reds made official what was reported

(22:53):
over the weekend that Pierce Johnson has agreed to a
one year contract to help roun doubt the bullpen. He's
got a mutual option from twenty twenty seven. Had an
ERA of three point zero five across sixty five appearances
with the Atlanta Braves last season, and I believe that's it.
I believe that's I do not think I'm missing anything.

(23:15):
If you missed anything on this show, we just had
Emilio Pagan and Andrew Abbotten studio, which was a lot
of fun. If you missed TJ. Friedel yesterday, or if
you miss anything on this show, you could go get
it listen to it anytime you want, anywhere you want
on the iHeartRadio app, or go to my page at
ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. Podcasts of this show are

(23:37):
a service of Long Neck Sports Grill. A great place
to watch the NFL Playoffs this weekend. A great place
to watch the college football playoff national championship game on Monday.
A great place to watch a favorite college basketball team,
or you know what, a great place to not watch
anything and like talk to the person you're with, or
go by yourself and stare at your phone, or just
stare off into space. Doesn't matter. The food is awesome,

(24:01):
beer selections top notch. You will love long next three
locations Wilder, Hebrin, and rich Wood. It is twenty one
minutes away from four o'clock to college basketball last night,
and there's a story today about a widespread college basketball
point shaving scandal, no local schools involved, and we are

(24:22):
gonna touch on it. College basketball's got issues. I think
this is more of a college basketball issue, quite frankly,
than it is a legalized gambling issue. College basketball has
all sorts of issues when it comes to the portal
and nil and the fan discontent with, you know, not
having a connection to the players because the players don't

(24:43):
stay very long. But the on court action is so good.
Last night was an awesome night of college hoops. And
locally you had Kentucky's staving off disaster with the Malachai
Moreno Christian Latner esque shot to beat LSU after the
Wildcats trailed by as many as eighteen points in Baton Rouge.
The difference between eleven and six and ten and seven

(25:06):
for the Wildcats pretty stark. You had Xavier just running
Butler out of the building and we talked about this
with Rick Browing yesterday. Also a conversation that you can
find on the iHeartRadio app. Xavier's chances of making the
NCAA Tournament as an at large are very, very, very small,
and I'm probably under selling how small those chances are,

(25:30):
but I do think there's something in achieving a respectable
final placement in the Big East, if you will. It
feels like there's one super team in the Big East,
three or four pretty good ones, and then this large
middle or large bottom of teams that want to ascend

(25:53):
to the middle. Xavier's next game is against Creighton, who
kicked the hell out of him at the centas setter
by forty one. They still have their two games against
Saint John's, including one in nine days at the Centa Center.
They have to go to Seat In Hall. Pirates are
pretty good this year. They host to Paul de Paul's,
beating them once this season. They still have to go

(26:14):
to Yukon. You gotta win your home games. You gotta
win your home games that are fifty to fifty games. Xaviers,
whatever issues that team may have from a talent perspective,
when they're in the open court and running the way
they did last night, they're fun to watch. They were
fun to watch last night. Then there are the Bearcats,
who are gonna talk about with Chad Brandle next on

(26:35):
ESPN fifteen thirty. All right, fourteen from four. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. My name is Malwager. Thank you for listening.
I feel like the start of the show has been hectic.
I feel like the show all week long has been hectic.
But you know what got a little bounce of my step.
You see one last night Bearcats played like a really

(26:57):
good thirty minutes, thirty two minutes maybe against Colorado last night,
picking up their first big twelve win. I thought it
was awesome that as the game went on, the focus
became what was happening on the floor. Chad Brendle Bearcat
Journal dot Com has all that covered and the new
offensive coordinator situation that you see covered as well. And

(27:19):
even though we've sort of bounced around when we're gonna
have Chad on today, he's with us. Now, Hi, Chad, Hi, Mo?

Speaker 5 (27:25):
How's it going.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
The Bearcats won a game last.

Speaker 6 (27:27):
Night, So I don't know if this had anything to
do with it, but I slept so well last night
after that win. Yeah that I slept straight through my alarm,
woke up at nine thirty and my daughter was two
hours late this morning. That really happened.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Father of the year as far as I'm concerned. See,
I would have once it got to nine thirty, I
would have said, you know, what day off for everybody?
But that's just me.

Speaker 6 (28:05):
Yeah. Probably, But I woke up No, I mean I
wake up at six point thirty every morning. I woke
up and it was daylight and I was like, uh, oh,
this is bad.

Speaker 5 (28:20):
All right?

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Well do you do you think Wes Miller slept any
better last night?

Speaker 6 (28:25):
I hope so, I hope so it's been looked. It
would be one thing if I know it's been brutal.
I know things have not been good. I imagine it's
even worse losing three Big Twelve, your first three Big
Twelve games, five grand total of what ten points? Like,

(28:46):
I imagine that's even more unsettling than if you got
blown out every game, especially the way they've lost the
three games that they lost, so being able to hang on. Look,
it got to five and then Dade Thomas goes on
that that you know, makes the three in a layup Favelah,
Miller scores. It's back to twelve. You think, all right,

(29:08):
they stem the tide. It's gonna be all right. You
blink aight, o't run Colorado. It's back to four. Oh
my god, they're gonna lose this game. Like they're really
gonna lose this game. And tudos to the Bearcats for
making free throws down the stretch and getting across the
finish line. And also, I don't know if you watched

(29:30):
it last night or not, I kind of loved Tad
Boyle his postgame press conference was outstanding.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Really, I did not pay attention to Tad Boyle. I
know their radio broadcast was still going on when everybody
else in the arena had left.

Speaker 6 (29:48):
He legitimately had. He looked at the statute he was
talking about the first half because I was asking him
about Cincinnati cutting up his own defense, and he looked
at me and he said, they shot fifty seven percent
in the first half. When's the last time this Cincinnati
team shot fifty to seven percent?

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Right?

Speaker 6 (30:05):
That doesn't happen a whole lot, does it. I was like, no,
it doesn't. It was great. Go watch it tonight. It's
really I mean, he called his team soft like three times.
He said that Cincinnati's offense isn't good, but seeing Colorado
on the schedule is what ails you. It was all

(30:30):
the things we want coaches to sound like in a
post game. That was Tad Boyle last night.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
I think a lot of folks have looked at these
next two games not just as automatic losses, but games
in which they won't even compete. Is that unfair?

Speaker 6 (30:47):
I mean, it's not unfair. I watched Iowa State and
get their doors blown off Tuesday night. That's not great. Now,
I will say, if you look at last year, they
had a really good team, they kind of lost games
in like bunches, you know, lost two or three in
a row, lost three and four. So we'll see if

(31:09):
maybe this is that point in the season where Iowa
State kind of self corrects and has a little blip
and then gets back on track. But they're so good.
I mean, go look at what they did to Purdue
in Macki Arena, right, Like, that is an outstanding basketball team.
And then who's been more consistent than Arizona this year?

(31:31):
And I think Michigan's been the better team, but Arizona
just consistently their guard play, they're bigs that they've got
an elite forward and Coopete like just match up alone
is not pretty for this Bearcats team. Those both of
those teams have outstanding guards. And I think that's where,

(31:56):
you know, when we do the post mortem on the
West Miller tenure, I think the lead the lead paragraph
is the guards just weren't good enough.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
You mentioned the West Miller tenure. Is it salvagable?

Speaker 6 (32:15):
Can they make the NCAA Tournament.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
At nine and eight?

Speaker 6 (32:19):
I think that's right. I don't think so, Like I
just I want to see it be saligible. But I mean,
you've got Iowa State, You've got Arizona, You've got Houston,
You've got BYU, You've got Texas Tech, you've got Kansas.
Like there's not the math doesn't math on. I mean

(32:44):
what we're we're four games, then there's fourteen left. They
probably need to go ten and four, so win all
the toss up games and then knock off a couple
of the top twenty teams that are in the conference.
It just it feels pretty far out of reach, unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
I think the one observation that people have made really
coming out of the UCF game, where they were again
in a position to win, is that these are a
collection of players worth not bailing on. That's been part
of Wes's message, right it's us against the world. My
guys aren't quitting. I'm not going to quit on them.
I'm paraphrasing them. I think for a lot of us,

(33:31):
I looked at last night and said, if the losing continues,
you kind of wonder, like, especially in this day and age,
where dudes are going to start to have other opportunities, right, Like,
if the losing continues, does it become problematic and you
start to go, Okay, you know, maybe not everybody is
going to be as nearly all in as they should
or as you want them to be. You're around these

(33:53):
guys and you know them will How legitimate or illegitimate
is that concern?

Speaker 6 (33:59):
It's Scotlake not to be fair, it's the transfer portal era.
I don't know as well as I used to, right Sure,
Like you know, I started watching Troy Kopain when he
was fifteen sixteen years old.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
Sure, but you know him when he.

Speaker 6 (34:12):
Was like a freshman in high school. Yes, yet, Yes,
I'm just saying it's like it's a different era in
terms of having a sense for that type of thing.
You know what, Like Tyler McKinley, I guarantee you Tyler
McKinley's wanted to be a bearcat his whole life. I've
never seen Tyler McKinley's effort dipping. But I mean this one,

(34:35):
if this thing gets to you know, one in eight
in conference play, then how much buying really is there? Like,
because these guys don't have a lot of the point
I was getting at MO. These guys don't have a
lot of skin in the game that you see they're
here now. I think this team likes each other. I

(34:55):
think they are playing hard, fighting, you know, putting out
the the best effort that they're capable of displaying.

Speaker 4 (35:04):
But what is that?

Speaker 6 (35:06):
What is that breaking point? You get to January one
to nine or February one and nine, how much is
everybody's heart still in it? That's a legitimate.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
Question, right, No, it's fair, especially in this day and age.
Quickly football two new coordinators start with on defense, How's
it going to look differently in twenty twenty six, It's
going to.

Speaker 6 (35:30):
Look more like if you watch Scott Ciderfield at Louisville,
if you watched him at Appalachian State, it's going to
look more like that. Nate Woody was his defensive coordinator
at Appalachian State from twenty fourteen to twenty seventeen. Brian Brown,
who was his defensive coordinator here when he first got here,

(35:50):
worked under Nate Woody. It's called the East Coast three four.
That's the system that Nate Woody has designed. I always
like having a coordinator that designed his own system. Like,
if you get your own system named like, I think
your chances are you're probably pretty good. Right, It's a
three four, it's more aggressive. There's a couple of hybrid spots.

(36:13):
One of the linebackers like a hybrid rush end. One
of the linebackers is more of a hybrid coverage safety
type guy. So in a sense, it's kind of like
a four, two five or a three fives, as Woody
is referred to it. The main thing is, I don't

(36:34):
care about the front. I don't care about the alignment.
I care about how aggressive you play. I care about
that you're not dropping eight yards on third and six
because I saw it. You know, especially through the back
end of the year, I saw offenses that weren't afraid
of third and six, right, they were fine with third

(36:56):
and six. Oh it's thirty and six, thirty seven, no problem,
We're gonna con hurt because we know Cincinnati's defense is
going to give this cushion and we're gonna be able
to get a first down. That opens up a ton
of the playbook when you know you don't have to
be in you know, third and three. So that's more
important to me than anything. The style is supposed to
be a lot more aggressive, supposed to get after the

(37:17):
quarterback more. I want to see that. I want to
see a little bit more press coverage from the corners.
I want to see corners turn their head and look
at the ball when the ball was in the air.
Those are supposed to be things that will be fixed
and that we will see more of.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
What about on offense with co offensive coordinators, I.

Speaker 6 (37:37):
Don't think a whole lot changes here. It's still Scott
Saderfield's offense. He's still going to be calling the plays.
I think it's a raise and an elevation for two
guys that have earned it. And Pete Thomas did a
phenomenal job of helping develop Brendon Soorsby. And I don't
know if there's anybody that would that would even put

(37:59):
up a remote debate if you said Nick Cardwell has
been the best assistant on this statmm hmm. So those
two guys, if you would figure when it comes to
game planning, Pete Thomas will handle the passing game, Nick
Cardwell will handle more of the running game responsibilities. Scott
Saderfield will call the plays. I think both of those

(38:20):
guys have done a great job. They deserve to raise,
They deserved a promotion, and they got one.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
Well said, and uh, I appreciate you joining us as always,
and we will talk next week.

Speaker 6 (38:30):
You're so you're not gonna call me still at four twenty?

Speaker 1 (38:33):
I mean, I'm more than happy. Are you gonna take
a nap? I mean, did you sleep enough today?

Speaker 6 (38:37):
Is?

Speaker 4 (38:37):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (38:37):
You gotta go pick your kid up?

Speaker 6 (38:39):
Like what, she's at pilates. She does hot pilates every day,
so she's at hot pilates right now and I'm just
hanging out waiting for her to get done. I do
feel refreshed. I feel great today.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
I totally understand. I can totally relate. All right, man,
Thank you as always, Thanks to Gotch, Brendel, Bearcat Journal.
It's coming up on four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station. All right, foe, sorry, sorry, I forgot.
We got to hand out some money. Check check enter

(39:16):
it now. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for listening.
By the way, tomorrow in the show, I believe we
have Travis Steele. Tarn was working on nailing down a time.
You know, we take requests on this show, and I've
gotten a lot of requests. You're gonna have Travis Steele on.

Speaker 5 (39:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Sure, we got to get to some red stuff. A
little bit later on. I guess we have to talk
about Phil Castelini being booed last night at the Saver game.

Speaker 5 (39:43):
Two.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
On the same day, we had a couple of his
players in studio, Emilio Pagan and Andrew Rabbit, which we'll
get on the iHeartRadio app if you missed it. Those
guys were terrific the UC game last night. Look, man,
this season hasn't gone well, and the questions about Wes
Miller's future are real, and they're legitimate. And you know,

(40:09):
I read Jason Williams column in The Inquirer. I think
his overarching points a fair one. You know, how is
this school going to compete in basketball to make people
feel like the program is back to what it used
to be in this day and age. Part of my
counter to that would be, like they've spent They've spent
I don't know if the word is generously. They spent
a lot of money on this year's roster. But there

(40:32):
are two months left in the season. I'm sure there
are people who are rooting against the Bearcats who consider
themselves to be UC fans because they believe that may
expedite a coaching change. As I said, yesterday, you fan
the way you went a fan, I'm not wired that way.
I was happy they played well last night. I think

(40:53):
with a college team more than a pro team. Quite frankly,
but I do think this approble excuse me applies to
pro sports as well. I think if you root for
a team, you're rooting for those players. And if you
have players who are as hokey as it may sound,
giving it, they're all you like to see them get rewarded.
I looked at that game last night solely through that lens.

(41:15):
Can these guys enjoy a victory which has eluded them
through their own doing. It's not like they've been innocent bystanders.
But can these guys who all appear to be pretty
good dudes who seem to like playing with each other?
Can they taste success? Can they taste victory after playing

(41:37):
well enough to earn one? And last night they did.
I was happy for them. It doesn't have to necessarily
change the trajectory the season. One home win against a
middle of the pack Big twelve team is not going
to do that. Now pick off the next two. Maybe
the conversation changes just a little bit. I was happy

(41:57):
that the game last night the actual game itself became
the story. And there were nine thousand folks at Fifth
Third last night, which is well short of capacity. It's not,
you know, three four five thousand. I'm sure there were
folks who went because they had the tickets, but maybe
ordinarily would not have purchased them. I thought the crowd,

(42:19):
quite frankly, early in the game lacked energy, which is
to be expected. It's it's the job of the team
to energize the crowd. As the game went on, I
felt like the crowd got a little bit more into it.
I bring this up because I think in the run
up to the game, you see in Colorado, we talked
more about this movement, this initiative where fans were gonna

(42:43):
wear bags to the game. It was written about in
the Enquirer. We didn't devote a ton of time to it,
but I was asked, are you actually gonna talk about
this or are you gonna duck it? We don't duck
things on this show, and so I talked about it
for like once segment and then half of another segment.
Dan Horde brought it up on the pregame show last

(43:05):
night to Terry Nelson, who had a long and I
think pretty good answer from his perspective as a former
player on this initiative, this movement to have fans, I
guess students more than anybody else show up to wear
bags at the game last night. Now, my take on
it is it reflects my take on pretty much everything

(43:27):
in life. You do you If you wanted to wear
a bag to the basketball game last night, and you
could sneak a bag past security, okay, fine, if you're
not harming anybody, if you're not getting in the way
of anybody else having a good time, do your thing.
Man Like ah, just I very much lived my life

(43:47):
by the rule of you do you As long as
you're not hurting anybody, I don't care. It's kind of
how I viewed the bag thing. I would not have
done it because I think that's an f you to
the players, and I don't think those players deserve an
f you quite frankly, but I think and I'm pointing
the finger at myself, but I'm also pointing the finger
at folks in the media industry and maybe to fans

(44:13):
as a whole. Like I think we have to talk
about what makes a thing a thing. So the the
UC barstool social media account is the one that tweeted basically,
everybody's gonna wear a bag to the game. It's bag night.
I follow the UC barstool account because I've known some

(44:36):
of the previous admins. It's harmless for the most part.
They have a keen interest in UCE athletics. I have
a keen interest in UC athletics. I think they're back
and forth with you know, other barstool affiliates, whether it's
Xavier or some of the schools in the Big Twelve.
I think are funny, are lighthearted. I follow the Xavier

(44:57):
barstool as well, at least I think I do. They've
used their platform for good, which I'm a fan of.
Taran and I once bold in a U See Barstool
versus Xavier Barstool bowling event for charity, and I thought like,
this is cool. These are college kids and I don't
remember what the cause was, but they're getting together for
something good. So I followed the account I find and

(45:17):
by the way, I don't follow a lot of anonymous accounts.
I follow that one and we'll continue to. But at
the end of the day, the whole like where a
bag to the UC game? Thing was one anonymous person
tweeting about it. It was not a movement. I've seen

(45:38):
sports movements. I've seen fans get mobilized. I've seen fans
get mobilized to boycott. I've seen fans get mobilized to
turn their backs to things that maybe happening on the
field or on the court. I've seen fan movements for
everybody to wear the same color, or everybody to wear
the same color in the section they're in, Like, those

(45:59):
are movements, right, The ring of red is a movement,
a wide out is a movement. It's this section where
black at a Bengals game, in this section where orange
at a Bengals game. Those are movements. This was some
rando sending a tweet. And again, man, nothing against the accounts,

(46:21):
but it was some rando running some account where nobody
know who's behind the account sending a tweet about wearing
bags to the basketball game. And yet if you would
have heard people talk about it. I came to work

(46:41):
Tuesday and I got here and there were folks who
are not on social media who are like, gonna wear
a bag to the game, Moe, And It's like, I
don't think that would be good for me professionally, But no,
I wouldn't because I think it's a middle finger to
the players. Those folks were aware of it. Scott Springer,

(47:02):
who does an awesome job covering UC sports, had to
write about the movement to have people wear bags to
the game. I got tweets about it. It never really
was a thing. Now, maybe there were people who tried
to sneak a bag into fifth Third last night and
they were frisked or padded down, and the bag was

(47:24):
discovered and the bag got taken away. I don't know.
I'm going to guess that the number of people who
tried to bring a bag to the UC basketball game
last night I could probably count on both my hands,
maybe on one. I got a text from a friend

(47:45):
of mine who was at the Xavier game, and she
said to me, like, hey, take pictures of the bags,
and I go, I don't think there's gonna be any
I think the pushback from former players. I think the
logistics of wearing a bag to a basketball game. I
think the fact that most people think this is sort
of stupid is going to add up to not that
many bags. But okay, fine, So I looked, I scanned,

(48:06):
I scanned the student sections. I didn't see one bag. Now,
I guess you weren't allowed to bring on last night
because it violates the clear bag policy. And so maybe
if you see didn't have a clear bag policy, fans
would have wore bags to the game. I'm gonna guess, however,
that even had that been the case, that number would
have been fractional, tiny, micro fractional compared to the over

(48:31):
nine thousand people that were at the game and the
few hundred students that get into the games for free.
And so I guess my point is we paid attention
to something that was never really a thing. It was
one person. Like to me, if you're going to start
a movement, the first thing you have to do is
tell us who you are. Like, if you're going to

(48:53):
mobilize fans to behave in a certain way, if you're
going to mobilize people to do a certain thing, it's
got a little bit more heft to it if we
know who's behind it. And on an account like that,
if you run it, I don't know if you're not
allowed to tell us who you are, I don't know
if it's just best for you to not tell us
who you are but you probably have a better chance

(49:14):
to get people to kind of back you up if
we know who you are with that particular account as
okay as it might be nobody knows, but like we
paid a lot of attention. You had Miami University dunking
on UC, which it's funny. Now. My counter to that
would be, you have an undefeated basketball team which has
a good chance of being ranked next week. That in

(49:36):
itself should be enough for you to sell tickets. But okay, fine, haha,
have fun at UC's expense when you're not winning. You
deserve it. But you would have thought, based on how
this was discussed, that there were actually people that were
going to show up to the game last night wearing
bags over their heads. I'm going to believe, because I

(49:58):
think this is true, that if you really wanted to
get a bag in a fifth third arena last night,
it wouldn't have been that hard, And if you really
wanted to put the bag on your head during the game,
it wouldn't have been that hard. Ultimately, maybe it would
have been confiscated, confiscated, or maybe ultimately you would have
decided kind of hard to drink a beer, have a

(50:21):
soft drink while I'm wearing a bag, or maybe the
sort of dichotomy of I'm wearing a bag to show
that I'm embarrassed, but I'm gonna root my heart out
for these guys was enough to make people go, you
know what, I'm just gonna go root for the team
to win. I don't know, but I think sometimes we
need to step back. And I can be guilty of
this just because one social media account post something doesn't

(50:44):
represent like an actual thing, an actual movement, an actual initiative.
And I'm kind of scolding myself. But the way this
was talked about for about a day and a half
would make you think. I mean, like, I had a
dude who lives in Florida text me yesterday, so, what's

(51:05):
it going to look like with all those bags in
the stands? And I wrote back, like, it's gonna look
like there are no bags in the stands because nobody's
gonna wear one. So this this did take on a
life of its own, which speaks to the power of
social media, speaks to some of the shortcomings of social media,
speaks to the following that that account, that account has.
It also does speak to the overall frustration that many

(51:27):
feel and I share that frustration. Like, at the end
of the day, we're all sort of in this together.
If you love the Bearcats, maybe you're pro bag. Maybe
you were anti bag. Maybe you thought the account was stupid.
Maybe you thought, you know what, that's a great idea,
and I would wear a bag, but I'm not going
to the game. Whatever. But like I think, sometimes we
in this business. I think sometimes we as consumers of

(51:51):
content and of news, need to make the distinction between
when something is actually a thing and when something's not.
This never really was a thing. One person tweets it's
gonna be bag night, Haha, that's funny. I don't know

(52:12):
anybody who is like, yes, showing up wearing a bag.
I never saw anybody on social media go yes, I
will be there bag in hand. Never saw anybody say yes,
next time I go to Kroger or Meyer, I'm asking
for paper and not plastic, so I can have a
paper bag. So there it is. And again, man, I'm

(52:36):
kind of pointing the finger at myself. I talked about
it because it did feel like a thing. The reality, though,
is it never really was. So if we do this
every time somebody tweets something, it's gonna be exhausting, right,
Like it is going to be exhausting if some rando
who doesn't even tell us who they are, decides here's

(52:59):
the thing we're gonna do and nobody follows, we should
probably not really make it out to be something that
it's not fair. And again, man like if you wanted
to wear a bag of the game last night, you
know whatever, I have already probably devoted more time to

(53:19):
this than it actually deserves. I've seen fans mobilize like
I watched in the late nineteen nineties, Mark Amazon, who
obviously used to be on the air in this market
on this radio station, like he organized a fan boycott
of the Bengals. I remember that. I remember walking through

(53:42):
the boycotters outside Riverfront Stadium to go to a Bengals
game with my dad. Like I've seen fan mobilization efforts.
I've seen people like join bandwagons to go to Bowl
games to show that fans can travel. I've seen students
mobilized to bring big heads to basketball games. This was

(54:07):
nothing like any of that, and yet we paid attention
to it like it was something that actually mattered. And
so I think there are a lot of us and
I'm I'm putting myself on the list. There are a
lot of us who need to take inventory of when
something's actually a thing or when it's not.

Speaker 4 (54:27):
This was not.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
Five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty. Is the
phone number eight sixty six seven oh two three seven
seven six works as well? Twenty after four o'clock. On
top of the the Xavier performance over Butler last night,
they announced their partnership with the Reds, which like cool, awesome,
and now is is is one person gonna tweet Hey,

(54:51):
I'm a UC grad. I'm not going to Reds games
anymore because Xavier is the official school of the Reds.
And if they do, is that going to be a thing?

Speaker 3 (54:59):
Now?

Speaker 1 (54:59):
Now it's gonna to be somebody tweeting something out of
anger that they probably don't even mean. But the Reds
were there and Phil Castelini got booed, and I guess
we had to spend some time on that because that
actually was a thing that happened last night on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station and yeah man, last night,
Wes Miller got booed during introductions. These are the things

(55:22):
that come with losing, and you know, happy for Wes
that his team won the game last night. I thought
the last two games he's coached good games. I think
he would be the first to admit, like the boos
are understandable, use him to fuel you. Hopefully they win
enough games that it changes that. It is a fan

(55:42):
base that has been, I think, for the most part,
very very patient. I think the Reds fan base, so
Phil Castellini was booed loudly last night. They announced Xavier
and the Reds announced the partnership. And I cannot understand
anybody who didn't go to Xavier getting mad about this.
But we're addicted to outrage. So here you go. So
they announced their partnership Xavier, and you see the Xavior

(56:04):
base or the Xavier and the Reds. You see not
announcing a partnership Xavier and the Reds. Xavier's the official
university of the Cincinnati Reds. If this means you're not
going to watch Reds games anymore, you probably weren't going
to watch Reds games to begin with. Xavier Baseball is
going to play a game at GABP here for that.
You see in Louisville played a game of GABP. Want

(56:26):
to say in twenty thirteen. It was a cool event.
Played it early in the year, so the weather wasn't awesome.
College baseball being promoted in this town is something that
should happen more often. Xavier's going to play Creighton, so
that's cool as hell. As part of I guess announcing
this partnership, Phil Castellini got on the microphone during a
time out and was booed and booed as we say, lustily.

(56:49):
And you know, I'm not surprised. I'm not sure that
Phil would even be surprised. I think here's the thing
about this. Austin and I were talking about this off air,
and I think he made this point on air, like
at this point, he's Roger Goodell, he's Adam Silver, He's
Rob Manfred. Now I would boot Rob Manfred, But the

(57:12):
commissioner gives out the trophy after a championship event. The
commissioner gets booed. This is basically in sports how it's
supposed to work, whether it's been Bud Sea, leg Rob Manfred,
Gary Bettman who gets booed maybe louder than anybody. Roger Goodell,
Adam Silver before him, David Stern, the president of the NCAA,

(57:34):
gets booed at the final four Conference presidents get booed
to come. I mean, it's just it's like booing the principle.
And I think Phil Castellini is is like in that
category now. But I do think it's worth pointing out
as much as the booing might have hurt him, as

(57:54):
much as the booing may I guess have been a
surprise that for a good like fifteen years, Red's ownership
was given an enormous pass, an enormous pass. I know
that to a degree because I did shows at times

(58:20):
going like, man, people just crush the Bengals, but like,
you know, the Reds really haven't won anything of substance
over whatever amount of time since this group bought the team.
And you know, it was always like, well, you know,
but the Reds vest is cool community for all these
things that are awesome. We just did an interview about
Redsveiss all these things that are awesome but don't have

(58:41):
that much to do with baseball. And I think for
years the Reds are really good at making people feel
so good about the brand that they kind of shoved
aside the on field performance. Also, I think a lot
of folks have done a good job of portraying the
Reds as this hapless organization that's only hapless because of
baseball's economic rules. It's really only been until the last

(59:06):
four or five years that Red's ownership has gotten a
lot of public scorn. So you might not have liked
the booze, and you might thought of I saw people
describe the booze as unbecoming and beneath Xavier University and
an embarrassment. Number one, eighty three wins in JJ Bladay

(59:26):
doesn't changed things. Number two, This is an ownership group
that got like fifteen years of nothing, fifteen years of patience,
fifteen years of people nodding along during failed rebuilds, fifteen
years of people nodding along while the ballpark they played
games and has never hosted a home team winning a

(59:49):
playoff game. So, yeah, it stinks. It stinks to be booed.
I'm not sure that's going to change anything. Maybe the
only thing that changes it is win the World Series.
On of the Red's gonna win the World Series this year.
I certainly hope they do. But if you see that
as like, boy, the fans are being really mean. Yeah, yes,

(01:00:10):
for fifteen years they were as nice as you could
be to an ownership group that hasn't won anything. They
may get mad at me for saying that, but it's true.
Handful of division titles isn't all that much, certainly not
relative to the We're gonna bring championship Baseball to Cincinnati
proclamation in the winner of five to six. So might

(01:00:30):
not like it, might find it off putting. For fifteen
years there were nothing but cheers. When patience was finally exhausted,
the cheers turned to booze. Eighty three wins and a
quick exit from the postseason is not gonna change that.
Twenty nine away from five o'clock. All right, phone calls
are coming up. Five point three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty.

(01:00:51):
I've babbled long enough. This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati
Sports Station NKU hoops tonight on ESPN fifteen thirty. Rick
Boring on the show yesterday to talk about the Norse,
which was really good. MKU hosting Detroit Mercy at seven pm.

(01:01:11):
That game is on ESPN fifteen thirty. Pre game at
six thirty with Jim Kelch and Rick. So there you go.
Let's let's talk to some other folks. Five point three
seven nine, fifteen thirty Scott and Dayton. You're on ESPN
fifteen thirty Scott. Good afternoon.

Speaker 5 (01:01:31):
How are you?

Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
I am great? Now? How about you?

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
I've never been better in my life. What's going on
at a boy?

Speaker 4 (01:01:38):
Yeah, that's a positive attitude we're looking for.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
I have a positive attitude. I find this is the
first time in a week and a half I have
actually felt good. So I'm I'm whatever I had, I'm
out of it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:49):
That's great. So there's a move afoot. I don't know
if you've seen it heard of it, of bringing U D,
Alma Mater and Saint Louis to the Big East. Well,
do you feel like that's realistic or do you think
Xavier's gonna say? Uh uh?

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
I think if Xavier had any appetite to have U
D in the Big East, it would have already happened.

Speaker 4 (01:02:18):
Right, I agree with that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
So I've seen two senators, John Houston from Ohio and
I guess the Missouri Senator are putting pressure on the
Big East Conference to expand their membership to Dayton in
Saint Louis.

Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
Correct, Yes, yeah, that's correct.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
I think if the Big East Conference wanted Saint Louis
and Dayton, they would already have Saint Louis and Dayton.

Speaker 4 (01:02:40):
Yeah, I don't disagree with that. I wonder a little
bit about that, only because I think Dayton, probably this
may anger some Xavier people, has a better profile than
Xavier does as far as basketball.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Ghost, don't you think nationally No? No, uh, I mean
I think Xavier has been recent this season. Notwithstanding, I
think if you look at the last thirty nearly forty years,
Xavier has been an NCAA tournament mainstay. They've played, that

(01:03:20):
program has played deep into the tournament, you know, going
back and I'm trying to do this off the top
of my head, going back to the Sweet sixteen and
nineteen ninety. The profile has slowly built, moving into the
Atlantic Ten, then obviously moving into the Big East. Xavier
basketball has been a one seed and a two seed

(01:03:41):
within the last decade while playing in the Big East.
I think Xavier's national profile frankly dramatically exceeds that from
a basketball perspective of the University of Dayton.

Speaker 4 (01:03:54):
Oh Nita mentioned the Elite eight.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
Sure, yes, but I again, that was one year. It
was an awesome year. Twenty fourteen, it was wan e
lead eight. It was great. I think if you go,
if you.

Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
Would have been a one seedy.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
Twenty twenty one of the most heartbreaking sports developments of
my life. But I think if you went around the
country and said, tell me more about U D basketball
or Xavier basketball. While I certainly think you would have
folks who are like man, I don't know about either,
I think more fans would be able to spit out
facts about Xavier basketball.

Speaker 4 (01:04:30):
Yeah, I guess there's some to that, but I don't
know that there's a more rabid or loyal.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
Fan base than you'd I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 4 (01:04:42):
Selling out that arena in Dayton, Ohio every for most
every game is remarkable.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
So I guess what would what would have to be
I guess what would have to be impressed upon the
folks who can make such things happen would be this.
I don't know what the Big East makes annually, Like
I don't know what their TV contracts as a whole
haul in. Do they want to split that two more ways?

(01:05:12):
I mean do they do?

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
They do?

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
They do?

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
They want to take right? So do they want to
take less per school to give Dayton and Saint Louis's share,
or do Dayton and Saint Louis bring enough value to
the Big East that they're going to bring in more
and thus each school will get more per school than
they're getting right now. Now, I'm maybe overly simplifying it, Hew,
maybe I'm overly complicating it. But to me, that's that's

(01:05:38):
the equation, Like if if I'm if I'm making that
decision on behalf of Xavier University, my question is, can
our school get more money if we allow Dayton and
Saint Louis in And if the answer is yes, we'll
bring them in. And if the answer is no, hard pass,
and I don't know what right now, apparently it feels
like the answer is we don't think those two school

(01:06:00):
was bringing enough value for us to to believe that
we're going to make more money just by bringing them in.

Speaker 4 (01:06:06):
Well, the Saint Louis television market certainly is worthwhile. And
I don't believe the Big East has a school in
the Midwest like that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Uh got a school and it's got a school in Omaha, Nebraska, Yeah, uh.

Speaker 4 (01:06:25):
Oh, Creighton yeah yeah yeah yeah, But this is Saint Louis.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
That's great TV market, Yeah, awesome I again, like, does
that matter to the Big East. I maybe maybe the
answer is going to be yes and and and maybe
there's a huge desire by the Big East current membership. Hey,
you know what we want that that eastern Missouri market
and awesome, awesome for Saint Louis, right, Like Saint Louis

(01:06:53):
basketball is a big ish deal in in that part
of the country, and Dayton basketball and in in Southwest Ohio,
the Dayton metro area is a really big deal. I
would love it as a Dayton fan, as a Dayton
grad if you're telling me they could play Villanova and
Xavier and Yukon and those schools as opposed to Fordham

(01:07:16):
and LaSalle and Loyola Chicago. I know loyal Chicago had
sister Gina made the NCAA Tournament, that's a no brainer.
But I don't know that a couple of politicians are
going to be able to get that done for those
two respective institutions.

Speaker 4 (01:07:32):
No, And I do think that's right. All I can
say is Rutgers is in the Big Ten.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
It's also the New York market. Yeah, I know, right,
And I would really but see here's the thing, like
I would wonder this and I've wondered this for a while.
If you ask your typical Dayton alum or a fan,
and I'm both, you want to be in the Big
East or the Eight Ten. We'll say Big East because

(01:08:02):
I feel like they could compete, right and it maybe
wouldn't beat Yukon, but there's some commonality. Geography doesn't matter anymore.
There's schools west of Dayton in the Big East, like
De Paul, Marquette and Creighton. There's obviously the built in
geographical rivalry with Xavior, but there's commonality there. Those schools
are all roughly the same size, All but one are
Catholic based, right, all or but one are non Division

(01:08:26):
I football schools. There's commonality there, and so I think
I think every I'm looking at this is from a
men's basketball perspective, but I think every fan or a
grad would say, yeah, man, we can compete in the
Big East. I think if you ask most Rutgers fans
or alums, how do you feel about the Big Ten,
they would say it's not an asset. We get swarmed

(01:08:47):
in football. We might have a marginal chance of competing
in basketball. It's already a school that how many people
outside of die hard Rutgers fans really care because you've
got the New York market and all the pro sports
teams to the east, and you're not that far from
Philadelphia and all the sports teams to the southwest. Your

(01:09:10):
football team, which wasn't exactly a Big East powerhouse on
an annual basis, although they had good teams in the
mid two thousands with Brian Leonard and Ray Rice and
Greg Ciano. From a football perspective, they're a non factor.
They have no chance of ever competing for a championship,
shy of Kurt Signetti two point zero showing up in Piscataway.

(01:09:31):
So what I would ask most Rutgers fans is are
you enjoying this? Do you feel like you can win?

Speaker 5 (01:09:37):
So?

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
Yeah, sure, it's cool if Ohio State and Michigan come
to your campus and bring all their alums with them,
and there's a ton of lums from those two schools
in that area, But do you feel like your team
has a chance to win? They would say no. I
would prefer membership where we can legitimately compete, Whereas I
think a Dayton fan would look at the Big East
and say, you know what, we can compete in that
league because of there being some commonality with all the

(01:09:59):
other school wasn't it right?

Speaker 4 (01:10:02):
Totally agree?

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
YEP, So I wish, I wish. I wish these two
politicians nothing but the best. I hope it works, but
I'm skeptical that it will go ahead.

Speaker 4 (01:10:12):
Yeah, as far as the Reds go, I know everybody's
poo pooing this year and and apparently just totally discounting
that they made the playoffs last year. But we have
time at our finger. What I mean by that is
all of those players, young players are going to be

(01:10:33):
a year older and hopefully better. How how many pitchers
did we not play with last year so the pitching
staff could be fortified. I'm an optimist. I don't see
the downside and what the Reds have done so far.

(01:10:54):
I know we could use a bat but it just
hasn't worked.

Speaker 1 (01:11:01):
Well, it hasn't worked because they really haven't tried.

Speaker 4 (01:11:05):
And everything you say is that's fair.

Speaker 1 (01:11:08):
Everything you say is true, Like, there are some players
who could be better, But if you were running a
Major League Baseball franchise, would that be your strategy? Hey,
you know we got some guys who might be better.
Shouldn't you always be looking for upgrades, And by the way,
what if you acquire an upgrade from what you already
had and some of those players perform better. Like I

(01:11:30):
think the Reds are right now about an eighty three
to eighty four win team, and that might be enough
to get him into the postseason. What I want to
do is go to spring training thinking they have a
ninety five win team and I don't believe it's currently
constructed they have that.

Speaker 4 (01:11:46):
You have to admit that's impossible in today's market or
economic market really with how baseball, Yeah, I mean, how
are we supposed to get copete with what the Dodgers
can can do?

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
Don't pay they forget competing with the Dodgers, compete with
the Milwaukee Brewers.

Speaker 4 (01:12:09):
No, I get that. I agree you just want to
get in.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
But we saw how the Milwaukee Brewers won ninety seven
games last year. The year before that they won ninety three,
the year before that they won ninety two. Two years
prior to that, they won ninety five. By the way,
the Brewers last year with a payroll less than the Reds.
So this whole thing about well, we can't compete with
the Dodgers, awesome, Yeah, you're right, the Dodgers have a

(01:12:35):
financial advantage. I don't want to say it's unfair because
everybody's operating under the rules that everybody agreed on. But okay,
there's an economic imbalance in the sport. Can't compete with
the Dodgers. Can you compete with the Milwaukee Brewers?

Speaker 5 (01:12:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
Right, they won ninety seven games last year. I know
the counter is going to be, well, they haven't gotten
to the World Series yet. Okay, but if I said
to you over for the next five years, you're gonna
win ninety two games minimum, would you would you take
your chances? Would you take your chances regularly making the postseason?
Usually making the postseason with time to do stuff like,

(01:13:12):
I don't know, set your pitching rotation, which the Reds
couldn't do last year, or play games at home in
the first round, or get a buy in Round one. Well,
the Brewers do that, and by the way, the Cardinals
for decades did it in the National League Central when
there weren't as many teams making the postseason. So like
every time I hear, well, they can't compete with the

(01:13:33):
Dodgers and they can't compete with the Mets. Cool, don't
compete with the Brewers and Cardinals, and over the last
thirty years, the Reds have failed to do that. Right, Scott,
It's always a pleasure. I got a run, man, Okay,
oh all right, yeah, all right. It's eleven away from
five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station

(01:13:53):
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Damn Straight four after five. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty on oas here. Thanks for listening today.
Hopefully your Thursday is going as well as mine. I've
complained this week about not feeling well and it's been you.

(01:14:13):
You want a little transparency, a little transparency, I'll give
you a little transparency. The week or so after the
Bengals season ends is always hard. And look, man, these
are first world problems. This is not a real job.
I'll never complain about this job. Anybody who does what

(01:14:34):
we do for a living and complains about it shouldn't
be allowed. We are not solving the world's problems. I
sit in a room and I talk about sports. I mean,
come on, but the first week or two after the
Bengals are done, especially after a season like this is
or it's always a little bit hard for me. And
in ways that I'm probably not going to be very
good at explaining, so I won't try. So there's been that,

(01:14:56):
and I just like, for a week and a half,
like so many other folks, whatever it's been, I've just
felt like garbage. And today is the first day that
I legitimately feel like myself. So thanks for bearing with
me over the last week and a half. Much appreciated.
What are we doing tomorrow? Tomorrow? We got Travis Steel, right, Terren?
We have Travis Steel on the show tomorrow. Yes, it's

(01:15:18):
still confirming of time, still confirming a time. What Travis?
Do we have the nky bracket guy tomorrow?

Speaker 3 (01:15:24):
Maybe?

Speaker 1 (01:15:25):
Maybe was he too big time now for us? He's
developing his own media empire. Yes, yes, the time slide
that you wanted. Oh oh, we adds flexible whatever, it
doesn't matter, and we can do whatever all kinds. We'll
move everything around for him. I have him at Travis
Steel on together perhaps all right, So that's what we
got coming up of tomorrow. More college basketball later on

(01:15:46):
this hour. I've not spent time because I haven't done
admittedly a full dive into it, but there's a college
basketball point shaving scheme that involves more than thirty nine
players on seventeen NCAA Division One teams resulting in games.
Let me instead of paraphrasing this and being clumsy about it,

(01:16:10):
let me just read it verbatim. This is from ESPN
dot com. A college basketball point shaving scheme involving more
than thirty nine players on seventeen NCAA Division One teams
resulted in dozens of games in the previous two seasons
being fixed by a gambling ring that included a former
NBA player. According to a federal indictment unsealed today in

(01:16:33):
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, twenty of the twenty six
defendants played college basketball during the twenty twenty three to
twenty four and or twenty twenty four to twenty twenty
five seasons. According to the indictment, four of the players
charged have played for their current teams in the past week.

(01:16:53):
None of the allegations against these players were from this season.
And so I have just in the course of prepping
for the show and doing a bunch of other stuff,
I've read this on a surface level, but I know
what's going to happen here is this is going to
be the latest piece of ammunition that folks who want

(01:17:15):
to make sports wagering illegal, this is going to be
what they use. And I am for there being some
tweaking as to the rules. I would be fully on
board with there being no prop bets on college players.
I've never made a wager on a prop bet involving

(01:17:38):
a college player. I think the sports books and full
Disclosure I speak for a FanDuel I do their commercials.
I think the books, at the very least, if the
States aren't going to make them illegal, I think the
books should say, you know what, we're just not going
to take prop betting action on college athletes. Frankly, I

(01:17:58):
don't expect that to happen. I also believe prop bets
at the highest levels at you know, the NFL, NBA level,
et cetera, I think those should be rained in a
little bit. I think if you want to make a
prop bet on how many points Steph Curry's going to
score in a basketball game, that's one thing. Or if
you want to make a prop bet on how many
touchdowns Joe Burrow may throw or how many yards he

(01:18:20):
may throw for that's one thing. I think when you're
getting into the deeper part of the roster, and it's hey, Mitchell,
Tinsley's receiving yards. Nothing against Mitch. I don't know if
we need that. Like I think there should should be
some degree of threshold, some threshold that you know a

(01:18:44):
player's participation has to clear before you could make a
prop bet on them. How realistic that is, man, I
have no idea, but it's something I would like to
see the books do. I am certainly aware of the
ills of or it's gambling, just like I'm aware of
the ills of alcoholism, of drug addiction, of of people

(01:19:09):
over eating, indulging in the wrong things. I'm aware of
a lot of these things.

Speaker 5 (01:19:14):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:19:14):
I don't want most drugs to be legal, but the
other stuff is legal and and it should be, as
should sports gambling. And I look at it through the
same lens that I think a lot of people do.
The irregularities in play here we're we're not We're not
talking about college basketball players from like huge programs. We're

(01:19:36):
we're talking about Kennessaw State and UH Eastern Michigan and
South Alabama, or we're we're not. We're not We're not
talking about like athletes from Yukon and Kansas and Houston.
We're talking about kennessa state. I guess Sa Lewis is

(01:20:00):
also in the mix. Anyway, the fact that sports wagering
is legal makes it easier to detect irregularities and then
identify bad actors and bring them the justice. And I
do think over the last four or five years, even

(01:20:20):
with that weird case involving college baseball and the University
of Cincinnati baseball program was like tangentially involved involved the
Alabama baseball coach who lost his job. Legal wagers were made,
but there were irregularities that caused a red flag to

(01:20:42):
go up, and then what needed to happen after that happened.
And I think that's what's in play here. Whereas in
the previous few centuries of sport, when not everything has
been on the up and up, the irregularities are really
hard to detect. Point shaving scandals are not new, game

(01:21:07):
fixing scandals are not new. Every single one of them
is unfortunate, every single one of them brings into question
the integrity of the athlete, the team, the coach, and
maybe the sport as a whole. But they're not new.
But what we have now is because sports wagering is
so widespread legal It's not legal everywhere, but because the

(01:21:28):
legalization of it has become so widespread, I think it's
easier to detect irregularities line movement wagers being made, bizarre
bets being placed that you wouldn't expect to be placed
unless somebody had inside information, like a player being bought off.

(01:21:50):
I'm sure there's gonna be game fixing issues that go
beneath the radar. Maybe the baseball thing involving Emmanuel Classe
and his teammate with the Guardians. Maybe that undetected if
Emmanuel Classe doesn't try to get his teammate involved. But
I think what we have with the legalization of sports wagering,
and look, man, I'm biased. I love to make a
good sports wager. Like I love betting on the NFL playoffs,

(01:22:13):
like betan on college basketball. I like betton first five
innings in baseball. I like betting on home run hitters.
I betting on anytime touchdown scores. Like it's enjoyable, it's fun.
I believe in personal responsibility. I believe adults should be
able to do it pretty much whatever they want. I
am as pro sports, legal sports wagering. As you'll find,

(01:22:36):
we've been doing sports wagering segments on this radio station
since well before sports wagering was legal in Ohio and
then obviously in Kentucky. So yeah, I'm a little bit biased,
But I do think when it comes to detecting illicit activity,
nefarious activity, integrity, compromised activity, or just simple irregularities because

(01:23:01):
of a certain amount of money being placed on a
certain team, I think these things are easier to find
because of the things in place that result from sports
wagering being legalized. So I would be willing to bet
there's going to be a whole slew of think pieces
about how this is why we shouldn't have legalized sports betting,

(01:23:24):
and and again, like I do think prop bets could
be a problem. I think on I think certainly on
a micro level where in baseball and maybe basketball as well,
you know, if if your point total is twelve and
a half, you could play your ass off to score
those first twelve points, then simply take yourself out of

(01:23:46):
the game.

Speaker 5 (01:23:47):
Like, I.

Speaker 1 (01:23:48):
Would be okay with reigning in the ability to make
prop bets on everything, Totally on board with that, Totally
on board with not making prop bets on college athletes,
who I think are easier to prey upon, and especially
at some of the schools that aren't as high profile
than the professional ranks. I don't know if we need
to make bets on, Hey, this pitch is going to

(01:24:09):
be a strike or a ball or this this particular pitch,
and the fourth inning of a game in the middle
of June is going to be under or over ninety
three and a half miles per hour would be more
than okay with not having those things. But I do
think the fact that we have legal sports wagering, the
red bells or red flags or alarm bells, I mixed

(01:24:33):
my metaphors there that went off and triggered an investigation.
I don't think they go off or go up if
sports wagering is not legal. So there I one of
my soapbox about that. Fifteen minutes after five o'clock ESPN
fifteen thirty five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty
is our number eight sixty six seven oh two three

(01:24:54):
seven seven six. We had Andrew Abbott and Amelia Pagan
in studio earlier. We'll have that for you on iHeartRadio
app Redsfest. Is this weekend, we go from Reds Fest,
and then we turn the page to spring training, which
is gonna start February the ninth, and Cactus League games
pretty much less than two weeks after that, Reds and

(01:25:14):
Guardians on Saturday, February the twenty first, and so just
over a month away. It is very reasonable. We were
talking about this with a caller last hour. It is
very reasonable to expect a number of players from last
year's team to perform better this year. Would it be

(01:25:35):
shocking if Elie Dela Cruz had a better season in
twenty twenty six. Not only would it not be shocking,
it should be what you expect because you're anticipating better
health and you're also anticipating the manager managing his playing
time better. Would it be shocking to see Matt McClain
have a turnaround season? No, Now, twenty twenty three was

(01:25:59):
a while ago, and his leash cannot be as long
this year as it was last year, and you cannot
write him in in black magic marker as the team's
two hole hitter batting second like they did last year.
But I don't think anybody would be surprised if he
just had a better year, had a good year. Would
it be shocking if Sal Stewart had a twenty five

(01:26:22):
to thirty home run season, And maybe I'm being conservative, Oh,
it wouldn't be shocking. But the fact that those things
wouldn't be shocking developments, or the fact that you may
think you can count on those things, I believe, should
not preclude you from being more aggressive and making the
team better. We say it all the time, right, there's

(01:26:45):
room for multiple truths. It is true that the Reds
have some guys that I think you could reasonably expect
to perform better this year. It is also true that
even with that, the roster as a whole could use
a little bit more offensive punch. They have been I

(01:27:07):
think almost unforgivably slow or maybe just negligent when it
comes to making the team better Via the outside seventeen
minutes after five o'clock at Mullegger on Twitter Thanks to
Delta Dental, Delta Dental is building healthy, smart and vibrant
communities for all your phone calls. Are coming up on

(01:27:27):
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, Guaranteed Human. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty on Mulegger five point three seven nine
fifteen thirty is our homeowner. Let's uh talk to Mike. Mike,
you are on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon. How are you.

Speaker 5 (01:27:51):
Thanks mo cutting me off or just appreciate it? So, I, uh,
I ask you. I want to talk to you a
little bit about the spreads on the college.

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
I know you're not doing.

Speaker 4 (01:28:07):
What was what?

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
What was your program called Locks of the Night? But
if somebody wants to help us bring it back, locks
of the Night could return.

Speaker 5 (01:28:17):
I might put it in my will. I might put
it my will really perpetuity. Wow, well that would be
a great public service because things are looking kind of dismal.

Speaker 1 (01:28:29):
But anyway, Mike, do you have the kind of money
that that dude who left UCLA football and basketball seven
million dollars had?

Speaker 5 (01:28:37):
No, sir, but I got a little bit. I got
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:28:41):
You have enough to fund the return of Locks of
the Night.

Speaker 5 (01:28:44):
I don't know how much it costs. What's the cost?

Speaker 1 (01:28:47):
I have no idea. I'm not on the business side
of things.

Speaker 5 (01:28:50):
We'll tell them to call me. Okay, yeah, okay. So
I want to thank you for straightening out the Lola
land redstands that called you earlier. At least one of them.
I'm sure he's a very nice man, and I don't
have anything against them, But I think these people are
living out in weft field somewhere, and I'm comparing. The

(01:29:14):
reason I'm saying that is since we haven't done Jack, Okay,
we got a couple of relievers.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
Yeah, good pickups. Caleb Ferguson and Pierce Johnson, I think,
in particular, are good pickups. There's no reason to be
opposed to what they have done. In an effort to
shoot down what they haven't done, I can do both.
I think they've made their bullpen slightly better. I refuse
to believe that offensively, they have solved what was a
glaring issue last year.

Speaker 5 (01:29:44):
And that's the reason you're talking about eighty three wins.
It's just about the picking. You're talking about it because
of the lack of RBI production. That's what you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
I think it's I think you know what I think
it is, Mike. I think it's a lack of an
offense of identity. They don't revolve their offense around dudes
who can hit the ball out of the ballpark or
can make you think they're likely to hit the ball
out of the ballpark. Okay, but like you go back
to twenty twenty three, their offensive identity was we're gonna
put pressure on the other team's defense. We're gonna steal bases.

(01:30:18):
We're gonna take the extra base that went away last year.
And so if you're to me, if you don't have
a team that can hit the ball out of the
ballpark with regularity, then you want a team that's a
little bit more speed oriented, a little bit more on
base oriented, like the Reds two hole hitters last year.
I think we're the second least productive in the entire sport.

(01:30:39):
So if you go, look, man, we're we don't have
a thumper who's gonna hit thirty five awesome, then can
you score? Because you get a lot of guys on base,
and when they get on base, you're good at getting
them in And you could play some little ball as
much as I don't love bunting, and you'll you'll steal
a bag and you'll put pressure on the defense. And
we have a lot of guys who can string together hits.

(01:31:01):
They didn't have that either. So you know, if you
wanted to tell me, look, we didn't go get a
forty home run guy. We didn't get Kyle Schwerber. But
we're making our offense around a lot of guys who
get on base a bunch and steel bags. Cool, but
you didn't do it with the same collection of players
last year, So why should I believe you this year?
There's no offensive identity. One way to have an offensive identity, though,

(01:31:24):
is by putting a guy in the middle of the
order that is a thumper that provides a level of
protection to Ellie Dela Cruz that wasn't there last year,
that provides a level of protection to the guys at
the top of the order that wasn't there last year
that you got go into a game going we can't
have a lot of traffic on bases when this guy
comes up because he can hit a two three or
or two or three run homer or a grand Slam.

(01:31:47):
They don't have that. Maybe Ellie becomes that because he's healthy,
Maybe Sal Stewart becomes that, but they didn't get a
guy who's established at being able to do that. And
that's frustrating.

Speaker 5 (01:32:00):
It's always maybe me. This is what bugs me. Now, Now,
who's in the World Series last year? Okay, the Dodgers,
Why because they hit a lot of home runs Blue Jays.
Why because they hit a lot of home runs. They
got home run hitters plus guys that get on base
and do their thing. Come on, Reds, wake up. I
mean the Pirates have done more than the Reds in

(01:32:21):
an effort to keep Schemes around. I think part of
it is probably was thinking, you know, we got to
do something to get some hitting going here, to keep
Paul Schemes around from one to get the hell out
of here as soon as he can.

Speaker 1 (01:32:32):
And I'm not I'm not even sure it's about the
total number of home runs like the Reds hit. I
think one or two more home runs than the Brewers
did last year. But it's I think when you looked
at the Reds last season, it was there there was
nobody that you were afraid to pitch to. There was
nobody that you said, we can't let these guys get
on base because this guy could do major damage. And

(01:32:54):
then you combine that with the fact that they weren't
great at you know, stringing together a bunch of hits
to square runs or stealing bases or taking the extra
bag to put pressure on the defense, like there's no
offensive identity. I think the best offensive identity to have
is to have guys that can hit the ball out
of the ballpark. We're not asking for the Reds to

(01:33:15):
line their batting order with guys who are gonna hit
twenty five per We were hoping they would get one
who can maybe hit thirty. They haven't done that.

Speaker 5 (01:33:23):
Yeah, like with the big Red Machine, Tony Perez, Tony
I think lifetime hitler was probably about two seventy five.
But he would always get that clutch home run, always
get that clutch double. You know, we just don't have
those goods, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
And the fact and the fact that they tried to
get Kyle Schwarber is an acknowledgment. I think at least
we need home runs. We won home runs. This dude
hit fifty six last year. If he has a down year,
he's gonna hit forty. And so the frustrating thing for
me is by going after him, you acknowledged there was
a need to have what he brings to the table.
Once he didn't bring it to the table, apparently that

(01:33:58):
need went away.

Speaker 5 (01:34:00):
But how hard did they try? How hard did they try?

Speaker 1 (01:34:03):
I think it's I am led to believe that in
their minds they tried hard I think an outsider like
you and I would say that that effort was not
as fullhearted as it needed to be.

Speaker 5 (01:34:15):
Well, maybe he likes it in Philly, you know, and
he feels like they have a better chance to get
another ring. And you can't blame the guy for that. Okay,
let me switch topic and then I'll get out of
your hair. This college Football Championship coming up on Monday.
So the spread ended up initially was seven and a half.
You now it's went up to eight and a half.

(01:34:36):
The over under forty eight and a half. And before
I go, and the money line is Miami plus step
two seventy.

Speaker 6 (01:34:43):
I believe.

Speaker 5 (01:34:46):
I want to ask you and that you know what's
ironic about this? Indiana has the longest the losiness program
in Division one in NCAA history, if I'm not mistaken.
And what the Signetti guy has done is absolutely use
a saint. I mean, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:35:06):
Incredible, awesome, awesome, It's it's an awesome story. It's added
an element of newness that this sport badly needed. There's
a Cinderella story aspect to it, but they don't play
like a Cinderella's It's cool as hell, I hope they
finished the job. The number is eight and a half.
I think they cover it, and I think they cover

(01:35:27):
it because Miami's offense is not that explosive, at least
not what you expect for a team that's playing for
the national title, and I think that feeds right into
how Indiana plays. I think they can put a lot
of pressure on Carson Beck and I don't think he's great,
and he's I don't think he's great under pressure. The
statistics bear that out. And I think an offense that

(01:35:51):
is already lacking explosiveness is going to be it's going
to be really hard pressed to find ways to score
enough against that Indiana defense.

Speaker 5 (01:36:02):
And I don't think the whole field advantage means in
anything to Indiana. I think they could care less. I'm
probably glad they're going to be playing.

Speaker 4 (01:36:09):
A little.

Speaker 5 (01:36:11):
Better.

Speaker 1 (01:36:12):
I don't see that. I don't I don't know if
that's going to be a huge factor. I hope they
finished the job. Like I think, Indiana being good at
football is one of the cooler stories we've had in
quite a while. Mike, I gotta run man, Thank you,
Thanks bal It's twenty nine away from six o'clock. Five
point three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty will touch on
last night's college hoops on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports

(01:36:34):
Station and k U basketball Tonight on ESPN fifteen thirty,
The Norse hosting Detroit Mercy tip off at seven pregame
at six thirty. Last night. Fun night of college basketball
around the country, certainly in the area. Maybe the first
thirty minutes or so. Not very fun for Kentucky Wildcats

(01:36:54):
fans last night. Down sixteen and a half, down eighteen
at one point against a bad LSU team, the Wildcats
storm back and win at the Horn, seventy five to
seventy four. Here's how it sounded on the They don't
call it the Big Blue Sports Network anymore, the Kentucky
Sports Network.

Speaker 2 (01:37:13):
Chandler Lookie throws it way up into front porch, Morino catches.

Speaker 1 (01:37:18):
Shoots for the win.

Speaker 5 (01:37:20):
You got it, get mine? Oh my, they're gonna look
at it.

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
But the young fella, oh man, what a great pass
and catch in traffic. Tom Leach and Goose Gibbons last
night calling Malachi Monroe's game winner as Kentucky completes an
eighteen point comeback against the Tigers, who choked that game
away by missing a couple of free throws in the

(01:37:48):
closing seconds. The Wildcats survive. It felt like the difference
between being eleven and six with the win and ten
and seven with that loss were enorm Xavier wins last
night the Musketeers, we talked about this a little bit earlier.
They get out and transition and and for all of

(01:38:09):
their ills, and they've they've had them on both ends
and the floor, and they've had him at times finishing
at the rim. They really outpaced Providence on Saturday, did
the same against Butler last night, and the Musketeers win
their second consecutive game. And you know, if you go
back to mid November, I think if I would have

(01:38:30):
said that Xavier is going to have eleven wins, that
might have felt generous. Now, there are a lot of
games to go, a lot of tough games to go
in the Big East. It's tough to go back to Yukon.
They've got two with Saint John's, for what it's worth,
got to play the Paul again, who beat him up
in Chicago. They got the seat in Hall Tilts. I mean,

(01:38:50):
there's there's some real, real, real tough sledding for for Xavier,
But I don't know, man, Like there was a time
where you would have set the Biggies to win total
over under it like five and a half, six and
a half, and some wondering like, well they even get
to ten, eleven, twelve wins and they have what you
get for that is not that much, but it's worth stating. Nonetheless,

(01:39:13):
and I do think Richard Patino is getting They've had
some lobsided games, and they had the game against Marquette,
which you know, frankly they should have won. They were
just destroyed on the glass late in the second half
of that game. But they haven't folded. I think the
pretty well coached I think he's getting as much out
of those players as you could ask. You see wins

(01:39:35):
last night. We talked about this a little bit earlier.
I was glad the story became what was on the
floor and not what didn't happen in the stands. Bear
Katz played well last night. What it matters for the season,
I guess time's gonna tell. If you weren't feeling great
about the trajectory of the team or the trajectory of
the program before last night, last night's game probably didn't
make you feel any better. I viewed it through a

(01:39:57):
very simple lens. The dudes have played hard, and maybe
that's the bare minimum that you should expect. It is
the bare minimum. I guess it should be built in.
You don't get medals for trying. But if you root
for a program, you root for the guys, and you
want to see the guys get rewarded when their effort's
there and the effort has been there, and last night

(01:40:17):
I like seeing it get rewarded. I do not want
to know how that game would have unfolded had Dayda
Thomas not scored five consecutive points between like the five
minute mark and the four to twenty mark. Fortunately he
did right when it felt like another one was about
to get away. Chad Brendle on the Bearcats next Redsfest.

(01:40:41):
Reds Fest starts tomorrow at three o'clock. I wish we
were broadcasting from Redsfest there, I said it. Chad Brendle's
here Bearcat Journal dot com. I slept well last night
for the first time in like two weeks because I
haven't felt great. How do you think Wes Miller's left?

Speaker 6 (01:41:04):
I hope so, I hope so it's been look it
would be one thing if I know it's been brutal.
I know things have not been good. I imagine it's
even worse losing three Big Twelve, your first three Big
Twelve games five grand total of what ten points? Like,

(01:41:25):
I imagine that's even more unsettling than if you got
blown out every game, especially the way they've lost the
three games that they lost, so being able to hang on. Look,
it got to five and then Dade Thomas goes on
that that you know, makes the three in a layup
five bah Miller scores, it's back to twelve. You think,

(01:41:45):
all right, they stem Tide. It's gonna be all right.
You blink aight, Oh run Colorado, it's back to four.
Oh my god, they're gonna lose this game. Like they're
really gonna lose this game. And tudo to the Bearcats
for making free throws down the stretch and getting across
the finish line. And also, I don't know if you

(01:42:08):
watched it last night or not, I kind of loved
Tad Boyle. His postgame press conference was outstanding.

Speaker 1 (01:42:18):
Really, I did not pay attention to Tad Boyle. I
know their radio broadcast was still going on when everybody
else in the arena had left.

Speaker 6 (01:42:27):
He legitimately had. He looked at the statute he was
talking about the first half because I was asking him
about Cincinnati cutting up his own defense, and he looked
at me and he said, they shot fifty seven percent
in the first half. When's the last time this Cincinnati
team shot fifty to seven percent? Right, that doesn't happen
a whole lot, does it. I was like, no, it doesn't.

(01:42:50):
It was great, go watch it tonight. It's really I mean,
he called his team soft like three times. He said
that Cincinnati's offense isn't good. But seeing Colorado on the schedule, like,
is what ails you? It was all the things we
want coaches to sound like in a post game. That

(01:43:12):
was Tad Boyle last night.

Speaker 1 (01:43:14):
I think a lot of folks have looked at these
next two games not just as automatic losses, but games
in which they won't even compete. Is that unfair?

Speaker 6 (01:43:26):
I mean, it's not unfair. I watched Iowa State and
get their doors blown off Tuesday night. That's not great. Now.
I will say, if you look at last year, they
had a really good team. They kind of lost games
in like bunches, right, you know, lost two or three
in a row, lost three or four, So we'll see

(01:43:47):
if maybe this is that point in the season where
Iowa State kind of self corrects and has a little
blip and then gets back on track. But they're so good.
I mean, go look at what they did to Purdue
in area like that is an outstanding basketball team. And
then who's been more consistent than Arizona this year? And

(01:44:09):
I think Michigan's been the better team, But Arizona just
consistently their guard play, that they're bigs, that they've got
an elite forward in co opete, Like just match up
alone is not pretty for this Bearcats team. Those both
of those teams have outstanding guards. And I think that's

(01:44:34):
where you know, when we do the post mortem on
the West Miller tenure, I think the lead the lead
paragraph is the guards just weren't good enough.

Speaker 1 (01:44:47):
You mentioned the West Miller tenure. Is it salvagable?

Speaker 6 (01:44:53):
Can they make the NCAA tournament at I think that's
what right? I don't think so, Like I just I
want to see it be saligible. But I mean, you've
got Iowa State, You've got Arizona, You've got Houston, You've
got BYU, You've got Texas Tech, You've got Kansas, Like,

(01:45:18):
there's not the math doesn't math on. I mean, what,
we're four games in, there's fourteen left. They probably need
to go ten and four, so win all the toss
up games and then knock off a couple of the

(01:45:39):
top twenty teams that are in the conference. It just
it feels pretty far out of reach, unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (01:45:48):
I think the one observation that people have made really
coming out of the UCF game, where they were again
in a position to win, is that these are a
collection of players worth not bailing on. That's been part
of Wes's message, right it's it's us against the world.
My guys aren't quitting. I'm not going to quit on them.
I'm paraphrasing them. I think for a lot of us.

(01:46:10):
I looked at last night and said, if the losing continues,
you kind of wonder, like, especially in this day and age,
where dudes are going to start to have other opportunities, right, Like,
if the losing continues, does it become problematic and you
start to go, Okay, you know, maybe maybe not everybody
is going to be as nearly all in as they
should or as you want them to be. You're around

(01:46:31):
these guys and you know them well, how legitimate or
illegitimate is that concern?

Speaker 6 (01:46:37):
It's comp of a concern. Not to be fair, it's
a transfer portal era.

Speaker 3 (01:46:40):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:46:40):
I don't know them as well as I used to, right, Sure,
Like right, I started watching Troy Kpain when he was fifteen,
sixteen years old. Sure, but you know them, you know
them when he was like a freshman in high school.

Speaker 1 (01:46:52):
You still know them more than most.

Speaker 6 (01:46:55):
Yes, yet, Yes, I'm just saying it's like it's a
different era in terms of having a sense for that
type of thing, you know what, Like Tyler McKinley, I
guarantee you Tyler McKinley's wanted to be a bearcat his
his whole life. I've never seen Tyler McKinley's effort dipping.
But I mean, what if this thing gets to you know,

(01:47:15):
one in eight in conference play, then how much buying
really is there? Like, because these guys don't have a
lot of the point I was getting at MO, these
guys don't have a lot of skin in the game
that you see. They're here now. I think this team
likes each other. I think they are playing hard fighting,

(01:47:37):
you know, putting out the best effort that they're capable
of displaying.

Speaker 1 (01:47:43):
But what is that?

Speaker 6 (01:47:44):
What is that breaking point? You know, you get to
January one to nine or February one and nine, how
much is everybody's heart still in it? That's a legitimate.

Speaker 1 (01:47:54):
Question, right, No, it's fair, especially in this day and age.
Quickly football two new coordinators start with on defense, how's
it going to look differently in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 6 (01:48:08):
It's gonna look more like if you watch Scott Saderfield
at Louisville, if you watched him at Appalachian State, it's
gonna look more like that. Nate Woody was his defensive
coordinator at Appalachian State from twenty fourteen to twenty seventeen.
Brian Brown, who was his defensive coordinator here when he
first got here, worked under Nate Woody. It's called the

(01:48:31):
East Coast three four. That's the system that Nate Woody
has designed. I always like having a coordinator that designed
his own system. Like, if you get your own system named,
I think your chances are you're probably pretty good. Right,
it's a three to four. It's more aggressive. There's a
couple of hybrid spots. One of the linebackers like a

(01:48:53):
hybrid rush end. One of the linebackers is more of
a hybrid coverage, say D type guy. So in a sense,
it's kind of like a four to two five or
a three fives, as Woody is referred to it. The
main thing is, I don't care about the front. I

(01:49:14):
don't care about the alignment. I care about how aggressive
you play. I care about that you're not dropping eight
yards on third and six because I saw it, you know,
especially Drough the back end of the year. I saw
offenses that weren't afraid of third and six, right, they
were fine with third and six. Oh it's thirty and six,

(01:49:36):
thirty seven, No problem, we're gonna convert because we know
Cincinnati's defense is going to give this cushion and we're
gonna be able to get a first down. That opens
up a ton of the playbook when you know you
don't have to be in you know, third and three.
So that's more important to me than anything. The style
is supposed to be a lot more aggressive, supposed to
get after the quarterback more. I want to see that.

(01:49:58):
I want to see a little bit more pressed coverage
from the corners. I want to see corners turn their
head and look at the ball when the ball was
in the air. Those are supposed to be things that
will be fixed and that we will see more of.

Speaker 1 (01:50:11):
What about on offense with co offensive coordinators, I.

Speaker 6 (01:50:16):
Don't think a whole lot changes here. It's still Scott
Saderfield's offense. He's still going to be calling the plays.
I think it's a raise and an elevation for two
guys that have earned it. And Pete Thomas did a
phenomenal job of helping develop Brendon Soorsby. And I don't
know if there's anybody that would even put up a

(01:50:39):
remote debate if you said Nick Cardwell's been the best
assistant on this stat So those two guys, if you
would figure, when it comes to game planning, Pete Thomas
will handle the passing game, Nick Cardwell will handle more
of the running game responsibilities. Scott Saderfield will call the plays.
I think both of those guys have done a great job.

(01:50:59):
They deserve to raise, They deserved a promotion, and they
got one.

Speaker 1 (01:51:03):
Well said, and uh, I appreciate you joining us as always,
and we will talk next week.

Speaker 6 (01:51:09):
You're you're not gonna call me still at four twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:51:11):
I mean, I'm more than happy. Are you gonna take
a nap? I mean, did you sleep enough today?

Speaker 3 (01:51:15):
Is?

Speaker 1 (01:51:16):
Uh? You gonna go pick your kid up? Like what?

Speaker 6 (01:51:19):
She's at pilates? She does hot pilates every day. Oh
so she's at hot pilates right now and I'm just
hanging out waiting for her to get done. I do
feel refreshed. I feel great today.

Speaker 1 (01:51:29):
I totally understand. I can totally relate. All right, man,
Thank you as always.

Speaker 6 (01:51:35):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:51:36):
That's our guy. Chad Brendel, Bearcat Journal dot com. We
are done, show is over. Got to go tomorrow, Travis Steele,
among others, have a great night. Thank you for listening.
Don't forget Tony Pike. Sincy three sixty is tomorrow at noon.
Thank you for listening. Thanks to Tarren Bland for producing.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station