December 4, 2024 • 8 mins
Rick Broering of Musketeer Report and NKU radio broadcasts joined us to talk about the Muskies and the Norse.
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Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
More sobering performance for the Musketeers, the loss that kind
of got out of hand at the end on a
neutral floor to Michigan, or the narrow winning home over
South Carolina State.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Weirdly, I think it was actually the South Carolina State game,
because I think it is kind of easy to look
past the Michigan game for the reasons you just gave.
You're on the road, it's your first real road test,
and even since that Zager game, we've got even more
evidence that Michigan is looking like a pretty difficult team
to match up with. Given there they're two seven footers,
(00:34):
one of them being the very skilled Danny Wolf who's
playing the four spot for them, and he really gave
Zager a lot of trouble. So I think it was
easy to look past that game and say, bad matchup
on the road, that's a one off. They crumbled at
the end of the game. They got to get a
little bit deeper, get more out of their bench, maybe,
But then you turn around and you see them struggle
to score again against South Carolina State, a team that
(00:57):
has been giving up a lot of easy baskets because
they like to pressure the ball, and that leads them
susceptible to easy layups at the rim, wide open threes
on the back end of their defense, and Xavier couldn't
really beat their pressure consistently to get to the easy buckets.
And so I think that's where it became a bit
more sobering for Xavier fans of Oh no, this isn't
just a one off, and this isn't just we played
(01:18):
a bad matchup for us. This is a we have
some real offensive issues going on right now that we
have to work through.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So let me talk about the Michigan game first, because
you know, it just it felt like their size was
way too much and they could do things against Xavier
that the Musketeers and Sean Miller had no real answer
for just looking at the roster.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
How concerning should that be when.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
You start to talk about TCU or some of the
teams they play in the Big East.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, I mean, I think the size of Michigan is
very unique, and that's something that you're not really going
to see replicated by probably anyone else on your schedule.
I mean, you'll have Creighton where you have to go
up against the seven foot shop blocker and Ryan Kolberner
at the rim, but they don't have a second seven
foot or playing next to them at beforeward spot who's
very skilled and going to challenge you in those ways.
So I think the real concern that I see coming
(02:08):
from the Michigan game and the matchup there was what
Michigan did defensively, because Michigan essentially gambles defensively on the
idea that they're not going to play a lot of
help defense. They want to guard you one on one
and not give up open threes because they're helping off
of your shooters and not giving up easy opportunities because
they want to help. And now they're scrambling all around,
(02:29):
chasing the ball around in the half court. They want
to guard you one on one, be solid, pressure the
ball out the perimeter with their length, and then funnel
your drivers into their length at the rim to block
your shot. And Zavier really had trouble beating that aggressive
perimeter pressure. You know, obviously, with the guys they have now,
they have a lot of shooters, a lot more skilled players,
(02:49):
guys that have come up from the mid major level,
but they haven't really shown anyone that could beat their
man one on one off the dribble. Last year they
had a guy that could do that a little bit
more in Desmond Claude. This year, they obviously haven't proven
to be able to get that done, so I think
that was one of the that was definitely the biggest
concern coming from the Michigan game. And part of the
(03:09):
reason is the big concern is because that's a similar
style of defense to what Cincinnati is going to play
in the Crosstown shootout. It's similar to what they're going
to see when they play Creighton. There are other teams
in the Big East that play a similar style of
defense this where they're going to pressure the ball on
the perimeter and not help off your shooters a lot.
So Zieger has to find a way to counteract.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Then Trey Green comes off the bench and makes those
four huge free throws at the end.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
What's his role when they play good teams.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, that's a really good question. I mean, in that game,
it was essentially Ryan Conwell, the best free throw shooter
for Xavier, had filed out in the game. So they
threw Trey Green into that moment after almost benching him
for most of the second half, and fortunately for them,
he's an extraordinary free throw shooter and he was able
to knock them down, but you know, he's not getting
a lot of minutes in general, and had have not
(04:00):
been dealing with bal trouble in that game with Ryan Conwell,
he might not have played much at all. They're also
not playing Dante Maddox Junior Hartley at all. The transferred
from Toledo, So they have two guards off their bench
who are talented scorers, but that they don't trust to
do what they need defensively and doing other small things
on the offensive in terms of running the offense and
taking care of the ball and making good decisions to
(04:23):
where they're really just playing about a six man rotation
right now, with Jerome Hunter being their only sub off
the bench.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
You get Sean Miller versus Jamie Dixon in a redo
of an NCAA tournament Classic from the late two thousands.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Is TCU any good year?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Well, they're struggling a little bit right now. They have
some young guys. They have a brand new team that
they're trying to put together with transfers like a lot
of teams are. And they're ranked eighty second in Ken Palm.
After going four and three to start the season. They
lost each of their last two games, which were at
an MTE in California. Those were the Santa Clara and Colorado.
They also lost to Michigan, who we were just talking
(05:02):
about Xavier losing too, so you have a common opponent there.
But the thing about this PCU team that really stands
out to me MO is the ranked one hundred and
sixty fifth in offensive efficiency, so not a good scoring
team at all, but defensively they're thirty third in the country,
and you know what they do well. They have big,
tough guards that switch on the perimeter and put a
lot of pressure on you, and so exactly what we've
(05:23):
been talking about Zavier struggling with. I'm sure TCU is
watching the film from last two games and saying, hey,
this is a team that fits what we do, that
we match up well against. We can really make some
hay here at home and get back on the winning
side of things. So I think this is going to
be a real challenge.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Receiver Rick Burning is with this Musketeer Report dot com
color Man on NKU radio broadcast. You were there to
watch Tamori Johnson score twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
I was in studio.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I came on after you guys, and you were nice
enough to join me from outside the team bus when
NKU lost to the College of Charleston. And you know,
it's cliche to say a coach sounds frustrated when he
taught chats postgame after a loss, but I felt like
there was, and you would know more than I a
little bit of an edge to Darren Horne after that game,
(06:10):
he sounded perturbed.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I can't imagine last night did anything to Sweetness move.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, no, I think he wasn't happy with it.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
In a lot of ways, I think they played better
against Akron than they did at College. And Charles, did
you know Akron is a team that's very talented on
the offense, and then they shoot really well from three
and they had a guy into Bari Johnson go off
for twenty seven points on eleven shots last night. He
was four of six from three. So he was the
guy that came into the game not shooting all that well.
They knew he could shoot, they were paying attention to him,
(06:39):
but it was kind of a game plan to focus
a little bit more on some of their other guys
and hope Tabari Johnson didn't go off in the way
that he did. You know, the fact that NKU was
able to score on their end of the floor scored
seventy three points. Typically with the way they played play defense,
that's going to be enough for them to win, especially
on the road when they get into Briidon League play.
So I think the showing at Akron was much better
than the show at Charleston. But the problem is, and
(07:02):
the reason Darren Horn probably is frustrated mo is they
continuously are doing things in these games for extended spurts
where they're shooting themselves in the foot and giving themselves
no chance to win. In the Charleston game, they were
down by seventeen points at one point in the first half,
nineteen points in the second half. In this Acron game,
they were down by seventeen points at one point in
the first half. And a lot of it has to
(07:23):
do with things like they just refused to rebound for
long stretches. You know, they were out rebounded in this
game thirty nine to twenty three in total rebounds the
sixteen rebound differential, and that led to twenty second chance
points for Akron in this game. If you just hold
that reasonably in check and kind of match them there,
it's a completely different ball game. So I think that's
(07:45):
where Darren Horn is probably most frustrated, is the fact
that his team keeps shooting itself in the foot. Aside
from the Bellerman game over the weekend where they played
really well and put forty four minutes together, a lot
of these other games they've had chances and had some
good spurts of playing well, but just not for entire game.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Well said, Thank you as always, We'll talk next week.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Thanks Bo.
More sobering performance for the Musketeers, the loss that kind
of got out of hand at the end on a
neutral floor to Michigan, or the narrow winning home over
South Carolina State.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Weirdly, I think it was actually the South Carolina State game,
because I think it is kind of easy to look
past the Michigan game for the reasons you just gave.
You're on the road, it's your first real road test,
and even since that Zager game, we've got even more
evidence that Michigan is looking like a pretty difficult team
to match up with. Given there they're two seven footers,
(00:34):
one of them being the very skilled Danny Wolf who's
playing the four spot for them, and he really gave
Zager a lot of trouble. So I think it was
easy to look past that game and say, bad matchup
on the road, that's a one off. They crumbled at
the end of the game. They got to get a
little bit deeper, get more out of their bench, maybe,
But then you turn around and you see them struggle
to score again against South Carolina State, a team that
(00:57):
has been giving up a lot of easy baskets because
they like to pressure the ball, and that leads them
susceptible to easy layups at the rim, wide open threes
on the back end of their defense, and Xavier couldn't
really beat their pressure consistently to get to the easy buckets.
And so I think that's where it became a bit
more sobering for Xavier fans of Oh no, this isn't
just a one off, and this isn't just we played
(01:18):
a bad matchup for us. This is a we have
some real offensive issues going on right now that we
have to work through.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So let me talk about the Michigan game first, because
you know, it just it felt like their size was
way too much and they could do things against Xavier
that the Musketeers and Sean Miller had no real answer
for just looking at the roster.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
How concerning should that be when.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
You start to talk about TCU or some of the
teams they play in the Big East.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, I mean, I think the size of Michigan is
very unique, and that's something that you're not really going
to see replicated by probably anyone else on your schedule.
I mean, you'll have Creighton where you have to go
up against the seven foot shop blocker and Ryan Kolberner
at the rim, but they don't have a second seven
foot or playing next to them at beforeward spot who's
very skilled and going to challenge you in those ways.
So I think the real concern that I see coming
(02:08):
from the Michigan game and the matchup there was what
Michigan did defensively, because Michigan essentially gambles defensively on the
idea that they're not going to play a lot of
help defense. They want to guard you one on one
and not give up open threes because they're helping off
of your shooters and not giving up easy opportunities because
they want to help. And now they're scrambling all around,
(02:29):
chasing the ball around in the half court. They want
to guard you one on one, be solid, pressure the
ball out the perimeter with their length, and then funnel
your drivers into their length at the rim to block
your shot. And Zavier really had trouble beating that aggressive
perimeter pressure. You know, obviously, with the guys they have now,
they have a lot of shooters, a lot more skilled players,
(02:49):
guys that have come up from the mid major level,
but they haven't really shown anyone that could beat their
man one on one off the dribble. Last year they
had a guy that could do that a little bit
more in Desmond Claude. This year, they obviously haven't proven
to be able to get that done, so I think
that was one of the that was definitely the biggest
concern coming from the Michigan game. And part of the
(03:09):
reason is the big concern is because that's a similar
style of defense to what Cincinnati is going to play
in the Crosstown shootout. It's similar to what they're going
to see when they play Creighton. There are other teams
in the Big East that play a similar style of
defense this where they're going to pressure the ball on
the perimeter and not help off your shooters a lot.
So Zieger has to find a way to counteract.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Then Trey Green comes off the bench and makes those
four huge free throws at the end.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
What's his role when they play good teams.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, that's a really good question. I mean, in that game,
it was essentially Ryan Conwell, the best free throw shooter
for Xavier, had filed out in the game. So they
threw Trey Green into that moment after almost benching him
for most of the second half, and fortunately for them,
he's an extraordinary free throw shooter and he was able
to knock them down, but you know, he's not getting
a lot of minutes in general, and had have not
(04:00):
been dealing with bal trouble in that game with Ryan Conwell,
he might not have played much at all. They're also
not playing Dante Maddox Junior Hartley at all. The transferred
from Toledo, So they have two guards off their bench
who are talented scorers, but that they don't trust to
do what they need defensively and doing other small things
on the offensive in terms of running the offense and
taking care of the ball and making good decisions to
(04:23):
where they're really just playing about a six man rotation
right now, with Jerome Hunter being their only sub off
the bench.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
You get Sean Miller versus Jamie Dixon in a redo
of an NCAA tournament Classic from the late two thousands.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Is TCU any good year?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Well, they're struggling a little bit right now. They have
some young guys. They have a brand new team that
they're trying to put together with transfers like a lot
of teams are. And they're ranked eighty second in Ken Palm.
After going four and three to start the season. They
lost each of their last two games, which were at
an MTE in California. Those were the Santa Clara and Colorado.
They also lost to Michigan, who we were just talking
(05:02):
about Xavier losing too, so you have a common opponent there.
But the thing about this PCU team that really stands
out to me MO is the ranked one hundred and
sixty fifth in offensive efficiency, so not a good scoring
team at all, but defensively they're thirty third in the country,
and you know what they do well. They have big,
tough guards that switch on the perimeter and put a
lot of pressure on you, and so exactly what we've
(05:23):
been talking about Zavier struggling with. I'm sure TCU is
watching the film from last two games and saying, hey,
this is a team that fits what we do, that
we match up well against. We can really make some
hay here at home and get back on the winning
side of things. So I think this is going to
be a real challenge.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Receiver Rick Burning is with this Musketeer Report dot com
color Man on NKU radio broadcast. You were there to
watch Tamori Johnson score twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
I was in studio.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I came on after you guys, and you were nice
enough to join me from outside the team bus when
NKU lost to the College of Charleston. And you know,
it's cliche to say a coach sounds frustrated when he
taught chats postgame after a loss, but I felt like
there was, and you would know more than I a
little bit of an edge to Darren Horne after that game,
(06:10):
he sounded perturbed.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I can't imagine last night did anything to Sweetness move.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, no, I think he wasn't happy with it.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
In a lot of ways, I think they played better
against Akron than they did at College. And Charles, did
you know Akron is a team that's very talented on
the offense, and then they shoot really well from three
and they had a guy into Bari Johnson go off
for twenty seven points on eleven shots last night. He
was four of six from three. So he was the
guy that came into the game not shooting all that well.
They knew he could shoot, they were paying attention to him,
(06:39):
but it was kind of a game plan to focus
a little bit more on some of their other guys
and hope Tabari Johnson didn't go off in the way
that he did. You know, the fact that NKU was
able to score on their end of the floor scored
seventy three points. Typically with the way they played play defense,
that's going to be enough for them to win, especially
on the road when they get into Briidon League play.
So I think the showing at Akron was much better
than the show at Charleston. But the problem is, and
(07:02):
the reason Darren Horn probably is frustrated mo is they
continuously are doing things in these games for extended spurts
where they're shooting themselves in the foot and giving themselves
no chance to win. In the Charleston game, they were
down by seventeen points at one point in the first half,
nineteen points in the second half. In this Acron game,
they were down by seventeen points at one point in
the first half. And a lot of it has to
(07:23):
do with things like they just refused to rebound for
long stretches. You know, they were out rebounded in this
game thirty nine to twenty three in total rebounds the
sixteen rebound differential, and that led to twenty second chance
points for Akron in this game. If you just hold
that reasonably in check and kind of match them there,
it's a completely different ball game. So I think that's
(07:45):
where Darren Horn is probably most frustrated, is the fact
that his team keeps shooting itself in the foot. Aside
from the Bellerman game over the weekend where they played
really well and put forty four minutes together, a lot
of these other games they've had chances and had some
good spurts of playing well, but just not for entire game.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Well said, Thank you as always, We'll talk next week.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Thanks Bo.
Mo Egger News
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