12/17/25: Mo Egger with Chad Brendel

Chad Brendel from BearcatJournal.com joined us to talk about the return of Jizzle James.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Chad Brendle's with this.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I think he's hosting this show tomorrow because I am
off Bearkat Journal dot com. Gisel James is back with
the UC basketball team men's basketball team. They play Alabama
State tonight.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi, Chad, Hi, how you doing.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
I'm well, there's a lot going on, Gizsel James has returned.
It felt like that was not going to be the
case as recently as a few weeks ago. So what changed.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
A few weeks ago? They weren't six and four. I'm
you know, like the there are some some things that
played into it. Jalen Hayes is out. Jalen Celestine is
dealing dealing with the back injury. Kyler McKinley is dealing
with the knee injury. Like those two aren't. The guys

(00:48):
are out, but they aren't limited. It has cost them
time and games. You need bodies, You need guys you
can count on. They can play at a high major level.
Guy that can play at a high major level. He
was in your program. Here it is, let's let's see
what it looks like. I guess uh.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Some have wondered, is he gonna disrupt team chemistry? My
counter to that is what chemistry? Is that a fair
way of looking at it.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, do you think this team's that if you've watched
this team? Thought, man, the synergy on this team is outstanding,
Like you've watched the Bengals in the reds for too long,
So it's it's if that's your main concern, then yeah,
bring Gisel James back. Like they're not playing well, They're

(01:40):
they're not handling adversity well, they play well in short stretches.
Then it falls apart and then you wonder how long
it's gonna take to get it back if they get
it back. I mean, you know, the Georgia n. Louisville
games both had the same script. They started really well,
they look cohesive, they looked really good, and then as

(02:01):
soon as they got punched in the mouth, they went
all right, well, I guess we got Alabama State on Wednesday. Like,
if that, if he's gonna mess that up?

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Oh, how prominent a role do you expect him to
have in Wes's rotation?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
I would imagine pretty small tonight. Just to get him
back out on the floor, you know, I think you
want to ease him into it. He hasn't been practicing
for long. He's really only been back in town about
a month. He's been practicing for a couple of weeks. Like,
I don't think he's gonna be at peak performance tonight,

(02:41):
so I could see a couple of rotations eight twelve minutes,
maybe fifteen if he's playing. Well. That's a different answer
if you ask me how much he's gonna play on
Sunday versus Clemson, because you're probably gonna need him if
you got any chance to beat Clemson more than eight
to twelve minutes.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
If this team is nine and one is Gisel James
playing for the Bearcats tonight.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
My instinct says probably not. Like if the only loss
is Louisville and a game that you played really well,
and you know, a top ten, fifteen team whatever it is, OUTLASTU,
I don't think you feel like you need to break
glass in case of emergency, right, Like, is that what

(03:31):
this feels like? Break glass in case of emergency? You
mentioned something that I just wanted to expand on a
little bit, like Les Miller's jobs on the line, and
then to put that in numerical terms, Le's Wes Miller's
multi million dollar job is on the line. If I
had a multi million dollar job and I had an emergency,

(03:55):
I would break glass. I think we all would. That's
what it feels like is happening here. So you know,
I don't necessarily fault him for it. I might not
agree with it, but things are dire right now. This
team needs a bleeping miracle to make the ncublea tournament,
and making the NC doublea tournament sounlt like what needed

(04:16):
to happen for West to continue on here. So the
glass is broken, We're in the emergency. Let's see how
it goes.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
So acknowledging that they are breaking the glass because this
is an emergency, and also acknowledging that from a basketball perspective.
Last season, and I said this to you months ago,
Gisell left a little bit to be desired. But it's
interesting because a lot of players from last year's team
have left gone to play for other programs, high major programs,
and they're contributing. And so that is a common lament

(04:45):
that along with this frankly awful start to the season,
you're watching all of these players go and succeed elsewhere. Well,
among all those players, Gisel James led him in scoring
last season. He averaged sixteen and a half over the
last thirteen games of the year. He wasn't great by
any stretch. Maybe wasn't the most efficient player, maybe dribbled
a little bit too much, but he's not a nothing.
And so if I would have said on Monday morning, look,

(05:07):
this team is going to get a guy who led
a Big twelve team in scoring and averaged sixteen plus
over the last thirteen games of the season last year,
would you want him back? Regardless of position, most would
say yes.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
I agree. The only thing I would at least make
a dendum to the guys that left are essentially the
same players they were when they were here. I don't
other than maybe Arrington Page, but like, if you watch
Dan Skillings play, looks just like Dan Skillings. But yes,

(05:42):
Sizzel was the leading scorer on a team with a
bunch of high major dudes on it. So you're getting
a guy back that can play at the Big twelve level,
and this team needs guys that can play at the
Big twelve level. So one plus one doesn't equal three
in this instance, I don't think.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Well said enjoy the show tomorrow, We'll see you tonight,
see you tonight.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Now, are you just is the helicopter coming? Is it ready?

Speaker 1 (06:10):
The helicopter is going to arrive at five point fifty
and on top of the building here in Kenwood, and
I'm told that I will be at fifth third Arena
by ten after six.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
I'm looking forward to seeing you.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Likewise, we'll see you then.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Thanks V.