Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cutting soon.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
No one covers the Bengals like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
All right, thank you, it's five oh four. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. Moleger, thank you so much for listening.
Hopefully you're having an awesome Thursday. We are twenty six
and a half hours away from tip off tomorrow night
at the Centa Center, the Skyline Chile Crosstown Shootout. The
game is on TNT. This year, TNT's college basketball coverage
(00:30):
is awesome. I said this like two and a half
weeks ago. TNT had dateon net Marquette, which was a
great game Flyers one, and I remember the next day
we talked about how like there was a bigness to
that game because of the game presentation. TNT does it
first class. They treat college basketball well, and so the
game is in good hands tomorrow. There's also a greade
(00:51):
a announcing crew Brian Anderson, Robbie Hummel, and Lauren Jamarrow.
Brian Anderson is no stranger to Cincinnati years calling Milwaukee
Brewers games.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
He called Roy.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Halliday throwing a no hitter against the Reds in twenty ten,
which I've gone back and watched and that doesn't make
me very happy. But he's got the game tomorrow on
TNT and very kind enough to give us a few
minutes this afternoon. Brian, It's awesome to have you.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
How are you doing great? Man, Good to be back
in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
My second trip here this week, so I can't remember
ever being in Cincinnati in the wintertime until this year.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Now that we have college basketball, so it's all good.
It's all good. For trees are up, all it's all good.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Well, you've called the match. You've called the French Open Golf,
the NFL, the NCAA Tournament, the NBA, the Tons of
League Championship Series. This is the pinnacle, Brian, the Skyline,
Chili crossdown shootouts and congratulations.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, I'm in man. I love everything I do and
I can't wait for this. We've been on a little
text thread, you know. We got a little appetizer with
Xavier on Monday night. We were coming off obviously Thanksgiving,
but we did a tournament thing thank Giving week in Vegas,
so we were all working quite a bit. We had
multiple crews there. We did multiple games a day. Michigan
(02:08):
won that Player's air a tournament, so we were talking
about this game, then, for me, it's a little underrated.
You know, nationally, I've always loved this game. I've had
Cincinnati and Xavier at different times throughout my career in
March Madness. Even in the first four they didn't play
each other, but they were there at the same time
(02:29):
in Dayton back what I used to call the First Four.
And you know, it's just for me, it's a great games,
it's a great moment, it's a great scene, and no
matter what arena you're in.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
So I think we'll do it justice. We've got our
you know, we had a.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Set day to day, our directors in town, same crew
that's been doing the NBA. They kind of left us
at the altar. So we didn't know what to do
with our money and our resources. So we put it
into college basketball. And so I appreciate you saying that
about our coverage. We take it seriously and we're basically
running the same show.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
That we ran in the NBA. Would just bring it.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
To the college level, and the Big Ten and the
Big East have been the beneficiaries of that.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So we're we're looking forward to it. Man. I can't
wait to get out there tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Having Richard Patino's team on Monday night. Give me some
impressions of the Musketeers from watching them up close.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
That's a tough read Monday.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I mean, San Francis is a team that did make
the NCAA Tournament last year, but they're going Division three
next season. They're you know, they've got players, but and
they may have a chance to make a run in
the nc but they're they're not in the class of Xavier,
and there's always a little bit of a letdown energy wise,
even though coaches despised that he was killing his players
(03:50):
all day before the shoot around because he was just
trying to create a little edge with these guys. And
you know, I thought they played well. They did what
they had to do, They played hard enough. I do
like how he's playing. I mean they feel like I
don't mean this.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
In a bad way, don't take it that way, but they.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Feel like a very strong mid major style of play,
meaning they spread it out. They're a little undersized, but
they can all shoot. They can switch.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Their bench is plays a little differently than their.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Starters, which is interesting. I think that's a good curveball.
I actually like that. Grant Hill and I talked about
that on Monday. But you know, they're a different kind
of team when they roll in their bench players, and
so I think that can actually work. And if they
make threes, you're not always gonna make threes. So they're
going to suffer some brutal losses. You've already kind of
(04:46):
felt that once this year with Santa Clara. But you're
gonna have a little bit of that because you relying
upon the three point shooting.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
But it also means.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
You've got to punch your chance to pretty much beat
anyone on any in the Big East especially, And so
I like that about their team.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
They've got some older guys, you know, the two.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Serbian guys that came from New Mexico. I call them
the Leech and Beach Show. They know the system, they
know Patino well, they came with him. That serves him well,
I think with a bunch of new players, and so yeah,
I think they're going to punch above their weight in
the Big East this year.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
You're folding in Brian Anderson from tnt IS with this
play by play the Skyline Chili Crossdown shootout tomorrow night.
You're folding in a national audience for a local game right,
two schools within three and a half miles of each other,
and so there's always storytelling. Is it more difficult to
engage in storytelling in this era college basketball when you
have teams, you know, basically turning over entire rosters from
(05:47):
one year to the next.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
No, I think it actually exposes it more too, because
even though the rosters turn over, and I mean, we're
so used to this in the NBA, and obviously you
think about great rye rivalries in the NBA, and.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You know playoff series that I've done.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Recently, Pacers and Knicks, all those players they don't remember
anything from Pacers and Knicks back in the day. But
it doesn't mean the rivalry is still is not great.
And that's a chance for us to do some storytelling.
And do you know we have smaller windows obviously in
basketball in the college game, maybe coming out from break,
(06:25):
we don't want to, you know, stop the game and
slow it down. But also it gives us a chance
to they're the combatants. It gives us a chance to
recognize and honor what this rivalry is, the history behind it,
some of the great players that have passed through it
through the years. And then you know, we'll shine a
pretty bright spotlight on it. We got a full pre
(06:48):
and postgame studio show. There will be you know, there'll
be a lot of social media traffic. That's one thing,
you know, other than the games themselves on the televised
the linear television side. It's also dreaming on HBO Max
by the way. But you know, our social teams, we
we get after it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
You know, I don't know any of them. They're somewhere
in New York or Atlanta, but they just.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
You'll see, like I mean, it's a it will be
our timelines will be flooded TNT Sports and TNT Sports
PR and you know.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
All of that's available to the school.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So that's one thing we carried over our sensibilities from
doing the NBA and the MLB postseason. You know, we're
we're pretty good at that and I think we do
a good job. So it doesn't just exist on a
linear channel. That what you're asking, like the storytelling part,
that can all exist in a lot of different ways,
a lot of social a lot of clips, you know, youtubees,
(07:41):
all of that. So and you know, we attack all
of that and the kind of the same way that
we attack the linear side.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
When we're presenting the game, I asked about Xavier, because
you've had them, you're prepping for Cincinnati, and you'll have
them for the first time tomorrow night. What have you
come to learn about the Bearcats?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, I feel you know, they're very similar. They're in
a much tougher league. So the Big East is down generally.
I think it's safe to say at this point it's
pretty top heavy with Yukon, maybe Saint John. Saint John's
is a little sketch right now. So Big East is down.
Xavier picked preseason eight. That's they're probably gonna punch higher
than that. I think Cincinnati is in a brutal conference.
(08:24):
I mean, the Big twelve is probably as good as against.
I had a bunch of those teams that players there
in Vegas.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So there.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I say it this way, they're gonna have more than
enough chances to rack up quad one wins. Also means
they've got a chance to rack up a ton of losses.
And you don't want to see what happened to Cincinnati
last year happened this year. Where they were riding high,
they got to fourteenth in the rankings. They were they're
(08:54):
pushing it they're in a great spot and then they
go what seven and thirteen in conference play and they
miss out.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I think it's a pivotal year. I really do.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
I mean, I think Wes is a great coach. I
think he's had a tough draw here in the last
few years as the portal era has turned over in
the nil era, that's a that's you know, a fairly
new thing for these guys. They've had to navigate that.
But I do like their team. I think they have
a lot of guys that are elite level players, and
(09:27):
you know, I just don't I think they're middle.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Of the pack in the Big twelve. Uh if it's
a good year, that.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
But that doesn't mean that can't get him into the
NCAA tournament.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
So I think the.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Goal there is to grab as many quad one wins
as you can. You know that they have veteran they
have a veteran point guard and a young point guard.
But mc kerr chrisa who I've covered forever. I mean,
I feel like i've six year in college. I remember
when he was a freshman in Arizona and he was
talking trash, and I mean we had him in the
(09:58):
NCAA tournament. My crew, me and I think it was
Chris Webber back then, even pre was that pre pandemic
must have been anyway, So.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That really play pays off plays well.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
When you have kind of a veteran guy who's been
through it knows that he's not going to be alarmed
by tomorrow's environment or any other Big twelve environment though.
So the kind of environment these guys are going to
face tomorrow Xavier at Sentaw Center is it's going to
be very similar, maybe even more so many times throughout
the years. So I think that'll probably serve them well.
(10:32):
Tomorrow's game will, But Maba Miller being back is important.
I think they you know, they're going to need a
few more layers. They're a good defensive team, but they're
gonna need a few more layers of offense. So that's
where you're hoping guys like a Buyer can keep trending.
I like him a lot key chan Tillery might be
a little bit of a key guy. You know, he
(10:53):
only played four minutes last game. It felt like he
kind of got bench or got relegated out.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Of the rotation. Curious to see what that looks like
coming back. And then the biggest news is the Gigsel.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
James story, which you know we were here Monday and
the chatter about that, so I have no info on that.
I just it just felt odd to me that a
press conference went down after a game Monday and then
there was an answer a question about Gigsel James and
a very thorough thoughtful answer that he's family, he's in
the enrolled, we love him. And then the next day
he's basically back with the program. So I'm very curious
(11:27):
to hear all about this tomorrow when we talk to
coach Miller and the rest of that staff.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah, you have as many questions about that as we do,
so I'm looking forward to seeing how that story continues
to unfold. Can thank you enough. I know you have
a lot going on. Enjoy the game, have a great call.
Thank you for the time, Brian, much appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Hey Man, great to be with you. You got it.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
That's oundtime, you got it, Brian Anderson. Tomorrow Night T
and T and HBO Max has the Call with Robbie
Hummel and Lauren Jabaris seven point thirty tomorrow, evening the
Skyline Chilestown shootout. Jay Morrison next