1/22/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Enter it now. Bonus, enter it now. The Reds are
gonna benefit from something that illustrates baseball's biggest problem. That
coming up in about fifteen minutes. My name is Mullager.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you so much for listening.
Hopefully you're having like the greatest Thursday of all time.
Chad Brendle in forty minutes on the Bearcats who lost

(00:23):
last night. We expected them to lose. Let's be honest,
them losing on the road to the undefeated, unanimous number
one team in the country is not all that shocking.
I think most of us expected that result. Frankly, I
think most of us expected the game to kind of
look like that. Cincinnati has a good defensive team. Now,

(00:43):
nobody may want to admit that, because the season isn't
going great. Last night's loss dropped him to ten to nine,
But the Bearcats all season long have been pretty good defensively,
and last night, for most of the game, they were
pretty good defensively. Arizona did not run away and hide.
Arizona and the Bearcats were in a game that, at
least at the half you could squint and talk yourself

(01:05):
into the Bearcats having a chance in the final five minutes.
The problem is the Wildcats about four or five minutes
into the second half, went on an eight to nothing run,
and that basically ended the game. If Cincinnati was gonna
win last night, if the Bearcats were gonna pull off
the Shaker, if the Bearcats were really gonna jump start
their season by beating the number one ranked team in

(01:28):
the country mere days after beating the second ranked team
in the country, they were gonna have to play a
perfect game. And to play a perfect game, they were
gonna have to do things that they haven't done most
of the season. They were gonna have to be awesome
from outside. Bearcats came into last night dead last in
three point shooting in the Big Twelve. They were gonna

(01:51):
have to be much better than thirty percent, which is
what they were coming into last night. Well, they finished
four for twenty one, less than twenty percent. Not good.
They were gonna have to be really good with the ball.
I think looking at turnover numbers is a little bit
of an outdated way of assessing turnovers. I look at

(02:13):
turnover percentage percentage of offensive possessions that end in a turnover.
The Bearcats were gonna have to have that number last night,
probably in the single digits. Now, for the game, they
turned it over fourteen times, but if you look at
it on a per possession basis, twenty two percent of

(02:34):
their possessions last night ended in a turnover. Not good enough.
Not good enough against teams like West Virginia or Kansas
State or Oklahoma State. Deadly when you're playing Arizona, the
unanimous number one ranked team in the country, they were
gonna have to be uber efficient last night. The Bearcats

(02:54):
all season long have not been very efficient on the
offensive end. Last night, they finish with point seven nine
to seven points per possession. Just to give that some context,
if a team went the entire season scoring point seven
nine to seven points per possession, they would finish dead

(03:15):
last in all of Division one men's college basketball in
offensive efficiency. So just to me look at those three numbers,
you could also compare the number of field goals made
seventeen to the number of turnovers fourteen. Cincinnati was probably
not going to be able to win the game if
Arizona shot twice as many free throws. What happened last night,

(03:37):
Arizona attempted twenty eight free throws. Cincinnati attempted fourteen. Now,
the Bearcats were good once they got to the free
throw line, but they were gonna have to get to
the free throw line a lot. They were gonna have
to hold their own on the glass. Arizona came into
last night fourth and all of college basketball and offensive
rebounding percentage. I do not want to bore you with

(03:57):
a ton of metrics and numbers here, but they came
in the last fourth in in Division one men's college
basketball in offensive rebounding percentage roughly about forty percent. Last night,
Arizona rebounded the ball in the offensive end roughly about
forty percent. They were gonna have to hold their own
in the paint. Arizona outscored them in the paint forty

(04:18):
eight to fourteen. They were gonna have to limit second
chance points. The Bearcats did not do that. And so,
in the absence of playing perfect, and in the absence
of doing things they haven't done all season long, in
the absence of somebody emerging who hasn't emerged all season,
last night's outcome was frankly inevitable. Maybe he didn't think

(04:39):
they were gonna lose by twenty six points, and they
weren't down at down six and a half, and the
game did kind of unfold poorly late in the second
half and got out of hand, And you might argue
the final margin of victory isn't completely reflective of how
the game was played, and all of those things were fair,
but their biggest issue really bubbled to the surface last night.
I think team's biggest issue come to the forefront against

(05:02):
the really good teams like the Reds last year, once
they got to the postseason, right, small sample size, just
two games, but every time they needed a big hit,
they didn't get it because they weren't a good offensive team.
Good pitching beats good hitting. Against the really good teams
in the really hard environments, your biggest flaws come to
the surface. Cincinnati's biggest flaw all season long has been

(05:25):
on the offensive end, and it's twofold and both sort
of fuddel into the same overarching problem. One is the
Bearcats in the half court simply do not execute very well.
They will have possessions where they do. There are a
couple of patents set plays they run that work. The
one where the ball goes into the corner then finds
its way into the post, it's typically good for a
bucket once or twice per game. But as a general rule,

(05:48):
you watch the Bearcats on offense, and the metrics bear
this out. They're not great in the half court. They
also don't have a guy. Arizona put that game away
with what wasn't eight to nothing run four or five
minutes into the second half. And the biggest I don't
know observation I've made and I'm far from alone, because

(06:10):
chances are you've made it to and you can tell
me if I'm wrong. At five point three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty, nobody to go get a bucket, right, nobody
to go get a bucket. Really good teams, really good
teams don't allow the opponent to go on eight nothing,
ten nothing, twelve nothing runs because even when the other
team has momentum, somebody gets a bucket. Somebody creates. When

(06:33):
the half court offense falls apart, somebody can make a play.
It's not that the Bearcats don't have good players. They
do have some good players. It's not that the Bearcats
don't have some talented offensive performers. They do. But who's
going to create in the hard games? Who's going to
create the answer last night was nobody. And I think
the frustrating thing for this entire season, and one might

(06:56):
argue for most of the last four and a half years,
is the answer far too often has been nobody. I
think there was a way to look at that game, though.
I think there was a way to look at that
game and like, I know what we all do with
this team, right, It's make the tournament. Wes hasn't made
the tournament. If it doesn't make the tournament this year,
feels like he's gonna lose his gig. Do the Bearcats

(07:18):
make the tournament? What can they do to be a
tournament team? I have a different question. I'll tell you
what it is coming up in the next hour. Xavier
loses last night. Musketeers nearly did something that I cannot
imagine has been done all that often in college basketball,
where you lose at home by more than forty which
for Xavier was a record setting loss at the Centas Center,

(07:42):
and then come back and beat that team on their floor.
Xavier came this close last night. As a sports fan,
my general rule is I don't really complain about officiating
because number one, it just it gets old, sounds like
sour grapes. Admit it. Man, Whenever you hear a fan

(08:04):
of a team that you don't root for complain about officiating,
it sounds like whining. I don't like to sound like
a whiner, but I understand if you're a Xavier fan
of how you walked away from that game feeling like
opportunity was lost in part because the officiating was a problem.
It was an issue last night, including on the play
that won the game for Creighton. I think the biggest

(08:28):
cop out in college basketball is when an official calls
a double technical. So Philip borovichen In was awesome last night,
but he fouled out and he picked up his fifth
foul because he was assessed too early earlier in the game,
because he got a technical foul, got a technical foul
because the dude on Creighton's team, Jason Green, was like

(08:49):
screaming at him. I'm not sure what Borovichinen did to
deserve a technical foul, but you see this happen all
the time in college basketball. There's a double technical called
because the official either can't or won't take a stand
and call the technical on the player who actually deserves it.

(09:09):
I don't think Philip Borovinchenen deserved the technical foul last night,
that might not be the biggest reason why they didn't
win the game. Look at the end of the day,
Austin Schwartz misses a free throw, grabbed the ball, Isaiah Walker,
the ball's right there, grab it. But I can understand,
and I as a general rule, we don't talk about officiating.

(09:29):
I lean into the human element. I don't want replay.
I think games that are played by human beings should
be officiated by human beings. I want as little replay
as possible. But I could understand why a Xavier fan
might walk away from last night's game thinking more about
the officiating than the performance of either of the two teams.

(09:49):
That was nearly nearly a really, really gutsy win for
the Xavier Musketeers. More on that coming up here in
just a bit. By the way, show preview is available
right now on Twitter at Moegger watch it. It's thanks
to Shareffacts credit Union. You can become a member shareffacs
credit union is to sharefactx dot org. Justin Vive of
the Cyclones is going to join us. At four to twenty.

(10:11):
They have their best event of the season and even
if you're not a hockey fan. Now, I know Saturday
the weather is going to be a little bit dicey.
By the way, there have been some sporting events for
this weekend that have been moved, like nku's game against
Wright State's now going to tip off at one o'clock
on Saturday at the Nutter Center, so keep that in mind.
But at four o'clock on Saturday, the Cyclones are hosting

(10:31):
their Teddy Bear Toss. I love this event. This is
the best thing, and the Cyclones do a lot of
really good things. This is the best thing they do.
We'll talk about it in greater detail coming up at
four twenty today. Chad Brendle's on the show. In just
about thirty minutes. I would have spent some time. And
you know, we've talked a lot about Redsfest and Terry

(10:53):
Francona and some of the comments that have come from
Red's management and what they have and haven't done. Let's
be very honest about what the twenty twenty six Reds
are all about. They're all about one guy. Legitimately, They're
all about Ellie de la Cruz. Is this the season
that he performs and puts up numbers reflective of his

(11:16):
superstar status. It's a fair question. If the answer is yes,
this team's probably gonna be okay. If the answer is no,
then what we'll get to that coming up a little
bit later on as well. Speaking of the Reds, they
are about to benefit from something that I think just sucks.
For lack of a better way of putting it, I'll

(11:37):
explain next on ESPN fifteen thirty twenty two after three.
This is ESPN fifteen to thirty. Baseball is gonna have
a lockout at the end of the upcoming season. Spring
training is just a few weeks away. This will, I
don't want to say, dominate the discourse between now and
the end of this coming season, but you're gonna hear
a lot about it, and everybody wants a different economic model.

(11:58):
I can't blame anybody who does, you know. My point
has been, if you got consumers, customers and a lot
of them, or potential consumers and customers who believe their
team has pretty much no chance because of your economic model,
then you should take a good hard look at your
economic model. Good luck getting the players to go along
with that. The Milwaukee Brewers traded away Freddie Peralta, a

(12:23):
mainstay of that team for a while, and a dude
who last year. This will be the only time I
reference pitcher wins and losses on this show, because as
a rule we don't do it, but to illustrate what
he did for the Milwaukee Brewers last year. He led
the league and wins. Now, I think Pitcher wins and
losses are mostly a meaningless stat, but I'll use it anyway.

(12:46):
Won seventeen games, two time All Star, got Cy Young
votes last year, a big part of a team that
had the best record in the National League. Last year,
the Brewers traded him to the New York Mets for
a couple of prospects. Now, this is good, right, because
everybody in the Central is chasing Milwaukee. Chicago is You
might argue don a little bit more. I'm not sure

(13:07):
the Cardinals have done anything that matters. Don't think the
Pirates are ready yet. Jurry is very much out on
the Reds. I think they're gonna be an eighty three
win team for what it's worth when the same amount
of games they did last year. By the way, I
nailed that on the money last season. Nobody gave me credit.
But yes, the team they're trying to chase down the
team they finished fourteen games behind last year, just traded

(13:29):
away as staff Ace, one of the best pitchers in baseball. This,
if you're a Reds fan, I think you would agree
is good. When your enemies are weakened, I guess you're
by extension made stronger, So this is good. The Milwaukee
Brewers are not as good today as they were yesterday morning,

(13:51):
and they have set the standard in this division for
a while now, so that is good. Now, you might
argue what would have been better had they traded him
to an americanly team, And it does feel like people
who follow prospects and farm systems do like the return
the Brewers got from New York. But still, this is
good if you're a Reds fan. It's also I think

(14:15):
reflective of a big, big issue in baseball. And I
bring this up because you know the Dodgers, they go
get Kyle Tucker, and it feels like a tipping point,
right and understandably so, because again, you have millions of
baseball fans who feel like their team has no chance.
And if you feel like your team has no chance,

(14:35):
you're less likely to invest in the team and in
the sport emotionally and financially. So it's something baseball has
to deal with. But what happens when and you heard
this last week, right, like the Dodgers get Kyle Tucker
and everybody gets mad at the Dodgers. You saw in
the World Series last year, everybody was runing for Toronto
because well, the big bad Dodgers are ruining baseball. I

(14:56):
actually believe, and you could tell me if I'm wrong.
A bigger problem in the sport is the normalization of
teams doing what the Brewers did, not that it's never
strategically sound to move on from an asset that could
leave via free agency, so you get something for him.
But if I'm a Brewers fan, I would have wanted

(15:18):
to do well one of two other things. A sign
Freddy Peralta beyond this season, or be at least keep
him on the team this year to try to win
with him. Now, to the Brewers' credit, they've moved on
from a lot of guys Willie Adamis Corbyn Burns, handful
of others, and they've still been competitive. They've still won

(15:38):
a bunch of games. Still wont a bunch of National
League Central Division titles, and so there are lots of
reasons to believe that the Brewers could still matter this year.
But you tell me what a bigger issue is owners
playing by the rules who decide we're going to spend whatever,
We're going to take advantage of our financial might and
of the revenue disparity it works in our favor. Got

(16:01):
a bigger issue or teams blatantly making themselves worse because
they don't want to pay a guy, Like we've normalized
that in this sport. Now the Reds are gonna benefit
from it, but we've normalized in this sport essentially not trying.
The NFL a Major League Baseball are different. But make

(16:22):
it about the Reds here for a second. Like the
Bengals are gonna be forced to try this offseason. There
is a salary floor and there is a draft, so
the league makes you participate in the draft. You get
seven picks, may have more, may have less, depending on
you know what you do with free agents, trades, you
may make that sort of stuff. But the league gives
you seven picks. You don't have a choice. You can't

(16:44):
set out the offseason. But imagine the Cincinnati Bengals looking
at their defense from last year, going, yeah, we're not
really gonna do anything. No, you might argue, and I
think successfully that that's actually what they did last offseason.
I keep coming back to this and maybe it annoys you.
I don't know, but Terry Francona at a LANCE on
Friday night talking about the fact that he knows the

(17:05):
Reds are not going to lead the league and run scored,
acknowledging this team's fatal flaw, and a lot of folks
just shrug their shoulders, right, just okay, yeah, just s ruck.
Well that's they tried for gls Schwerber. But you know,
small market and hold your pockets out, like dude, an

(17:25):
entity that's worth nearly two billion dollars wouldn't spend a
few extra bucks to bring the reigning National League home
run champion home. And we just we just kind of
nod along with that. Baseball fans do this all over
the country. The Milwaukee Brewers, a team that has been
really good for a while, a team that has in
this division a chance to get back to the postseason,

(17:47):
just traded away a staff ace and we we just
we just sort of go along with it. I don't
know about you, but to me, that's a bigger problem
than what the do. It's a bigger problem when what
the Mets do. It's a bigger problem than what big
market teams do. I've seen this argument on social media. Well,

(18:10):
the Brewers, they're less equipped to be able to afford
a mistake. Freddie Parraltz is not a mistake. Yeah, you
might lose them in free agency, and if that team's stunk,
you would say trade him and get prospects. That team's
probably got a chance to at least not stink this
year and maybe be again, really really good. We have

(18:32):
normalized in this sport baseball teams deciding to not really try.
And I think that's a bigger issue than anything that
Dodgers do or don't do. And the one thing that
I think over the last thirty years that baseball has
done well is they've gone out of their way to
convince fans in smaller markets that it's best to not try.

(18:55):
I think that's a thing. I don't know how this
is going over with Milwaukee fans. As a Reds fan, awesome,
they're not as good. But the topic of the day
for a lot of baseball fans is the feeling of
helplessness that comes with watching the Dodgers continue to load up.
I share that helplessness, but I think what should make

(19:16):
you feel equally helpless if you're a Reds fan is
obvious flaw. Didn't address it, largely because they won't pay
weren't willing to throw a few more dollars at Kyle
Schwarber in an effort to get him to not leave
without signing a contract. A team in the division choosing
to not be as good even though the core of

(19:37):
a team that won ninety seven games last year remains intact.
That's a bigger issue. You could tell me if you disagree.
If five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty, I
think good news if you're a Bengals fan. Next on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Sports Headlines are a service at Kelsey
Chevrolet Homuff Lifetime power train protection and guarantee credit approval

(19:59):
from their family to yours for life, Kelsey chev dot Com.
So Zach Robinson has been hired by the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers as their offensive coordinator, which means Dan Pitcher is
not going to be hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
to be their offensive coordinator. He may still have opportunities

(20:20):
to interview with other teams. The Cleveland Browns head coaching decision,
at least publicly, has not yet been made, but Dan
did interview virtually yesterday with the Bucks. Today, Tampa has
hired Zach Robinson to be the OC, not Dan Pitcher.
That's good news, Like that's that's good news, Like, man,

(20:42):
I understand, you know, Brian Callahan would have been planned
b Brian Callahan's had success here. If you have to
lose your offensive course, Dan Pitcher is really highly thought of.
I think. Now, do the smart thing spend the off
season examining whether or not it makes sense for Dan
to have a more active role in calling play on
game day. Not about Zach Taylor being a great play caller,

(21:04):
bad play caller in their opinions all over the plays.
When it comes to that, can the offense function more
efficiently than it does? I think most would agree the
answer is yes. Okay, Then in order for it to
function more efficiently and more effectively, would it make sense
to have somebody else call the plays? I don't know.
I do think it should be looked into, and my

(21:25):
guess is you would see an uptick in productivity and
efficiency if they let Dan Pitcher call plays. A couple
of notes on games that are scheduled for this weekend.
We're obviously due for a lot of snow, and this
one's been interesting. This has nothing to do with sports,
but this one's been interesting. To pay attention to area

(21:45):
meteorologists because whether people at times get accused of going
overboard with the hype and scaring people, and I think
for the most part those criticisms are invalid, but you
hear it sometimes or they get beaten up for being
wrong with this one. Over the last day or so,
nearly every meteorologist I have seen on television, or that

(22:07):
I've heard on one of our radio stations, or that
I follow on social media has admitted not quite sure
when the snow is gonna start on Saturday, not quite
sure exactly how much we're gonna get, but we are
gonna get some snow, and chances are it's gonna be
a lot stick around, and we'll let you know. They're
exercising some caution that at times they get accused, perhaps unfairly,

(22:30):
of not using. But it does feel like we're gonna
get a lot of snow this weekend, So MKU. The
Norris are playing Right State on Saturday, best rivalry in
the Horizon League. That game was scheduled for a seven
o'clock tip off at the Nutter Center. Instead, they're gonna
play at one o'clock on Saturday. So keep that in
mind if you have tickets to that game, or if

(22:51):
you're planning on going to that game, it's gonna be
at one o'clock on Saturday. The women's game at you see,
the UC women are set to play Arizon in a
State on Saturday. The original tip off time for that
game was going to be at two o'clock. They are
now going to play two hours earlier and tip off
at noon, I would imagine. So that's to give Arizona

(23:11):
State a better chance to get out of Dodge instead
of being stuck in Cincinnati after that game. I'm sure
there's gonna be more games that have their start times
adjusted based on the weather, and we will certainly keep
you up to date as those things unfold. Hockey tonight
the Columbus Bluejacket Skate against the Dallas Stars. Hey, we

(23:32):
had good stuff yesterday. The NKY bracket Guy, the official
bracketologist of this show, we talked about the Miami RedHawks
and they're at large chances. We talked about the Kentucky Wildcats,
who got a pretty important victory against Texas. Could you
actually consider UK now hot? Like they haven't exactly played
great during this brief winning streak, fell behind by eighteen

(23:55):
against LSU, fell behind by seventeen against to see they
won the games. Now they continue to deal with just
a whole host of injuries, but they do win. Last
night anyway, Hunter Sansum, the NKY bracket guy, talked to Miami, Kentucky,
Ohio State. We even did a little UC and Xavier

(24:18):
and if you miss that conversation, it's available on the
iHeartRadio app. So too is our chat with Rick Boring
on NKU and Xavier basketball and so much more, plus
Paul Dayner Junior on the Bengals in the off season
at Orlando Brown and Dan Pitcher. Anything you might have
missed or anything you want to hear again, you can

(24:39):
go find on the iHeartRadio app or the podcast page
of ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. And by the way,
while you're using the iHeartRadio app, make sure you have
our station set as one of your presets. Podcasts of
the show or a service of long neck sports Grill.
No better place to post up and watch the NFL
playoffs on Sunday, your favorite college basketball team, or so

(24:59):
much or you know what, just sitty to play the
wings long neck sports Grill. You got Wilder, you got Hebren,
you got Richwood. All three locations are awesome. I think
there's a way to view that game last night if
you're a Bearcat fan, and it's not. It's not from
the standpoint of, you know, another reason to hammer away

(25:20):
at West Miller. It's not from the perspective of what
it might cost the team in terms of the tournament.
Like they're ten and nine. Had they won the game
last night, the the the effort, the battle to get
to the tournament was going to be insanely tough. They're
ten and nine right now. They're not going to the
NCAA tournament this year. I looked at that game through

(25:40):
a different lens. I'll tell you which lens. It was
coming up at four oh five plus, justin ive of
the Cyclones. Chad Brendle Bearcat Journal dot Com though on Cincinnati,
the lost to Arizona and what's next next fourteen from
four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Moegger. Chad Brendle

(26:01):
joins us on Thursdays to talk about the Bearcats. His
website is the appropriately named Bearcat Journal dot com, is
on Twitter at Chad Brendel, and he's with us now
following last night's You See lost to Arizona in Tucson.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Hi, Chad, I'm ol.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Is there any sort of overarching takeaway from last night's
you See lost to the Wildcats?

Speaker 2 (26:30):
That Arizona's roster at every position was significantly better than Cincinnatis.
That was my takeaway.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, I knew that going in. Yeah, last night was
confirmation of it. I guess for me it was I
don't know. We could talk about how good Arizona is.
They were gonna have to play a perfect game last
night offensively and they did not, And they were gonna
need somebody to step up and create offensively and that
didn't happen either.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, I mean that's look Iowa State, Like you can
you can trace why the offense was successful against Iowa State.
Iowa State likes to gamble. They like to put pressure
on you. If you can beat that pressure, then you
can score on Iowa State. Arizona basically just plays you

(27:25):
straight up. They switch one through four. They'll play drop coverage.
You know where their their center plays all when you
put him in a pick and roll. They have great size.
Their smallest guy is six three. Most of their team
is six seven, six, eight and up. And they just
say we're gonna play sound, We're gonna stay in front

(27:46):
of you, We're gonna make you make shots over the top.
And uh, Cincinnati's not a great shooting team. They're not
a great shooting team from three. They're not a great
shooting team from two. They hestd thirteen of fourteen from
the line. Though, you get upset when that happens with
as bad as this team is. The free throw shooting

(28:07):
that they lose the ninety two game. But yeah, I mean,
you know, offensively they are not good And it comes
down to one simple thing though. In a matchup with
high level teams in the Big twelve, Cincinnati's had a
significant disadvantage at guard and that was evident last night.

(28:31):
They had an opportunity to be better than Arizona's guards,
who didn't play all that well, and they were significantly worse.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Yeah, I mean, I watched that game to the lens
of this is this is the barometer, right, this is
the standard against which all Big twelve teams are going
to be measured. Nothing against Iowa STATEA look, maybe Arizona
doesn't win the Big twelve, who knows, Maybe Arizona gets
beaten early in the in the NCAA tournament. But I
would have went Big twelve one day, right, I want

(29:01):
to play in games where there's a single digit number
next to Cincinnati, and for the for the progress the
Bearcats have made over the last couple of weeks, and
as well as they played against Iowa State, and as
cool as it was for them to win that game,
I looked at Arizona, I looked at Cincinnati, and the
distance between the two feels like it's it's, it's it's

(29:22):
it's so expansive that I'm having a hard time even
imagining the Bearcats looking like that anytime soon.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I would State was
number two in the country and Cincinnati matched up. I
think a lot of it is matchups, style of play styles,
make fights. Arizona was a bad style for Cincinnati, But
ultimately you are from that prism looking at the number

(29:50):
one team in the country. And it's certainly even you know,
four days after beating the number two team in the country,
it certainly felt like Arizona was quite a bit further
along in the process than Cincinnati. I really like Tommy
Lloyd as a coach. They run really good stuff on offense.
They're very difficult to guard. I do want to make

(30:13):
a correction to Wes Miller, Tony Pike, and a lot
of people that I've heard yesterday and today about that game.
Arizona's not a bad three point shooting team. Well, I
said it last night in the both games.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, yes, they shoot.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
What would you give for Cincinnati to shoot thirty six
and a half percent from three over a season?

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, I mean they were I think going into last
night six in the Big twelve and three point shooting.
I think they were like forty fifth in the country.
It's funny because I heard folks say that, I heard
Tony say it, and I'm like, you know that, that
doesn't mess with what I've seen. I've seen a team
that doesn't shoot a lot, and I think they're on
the lower end of you know, power four, power five

(30:57):
teams take three point shooting in ten but they're not
a bad outside shooting team.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
No, that one was like, I think we're missing on
the fact that they don't make a lot of threes
a game, as they're not a good shooting team wins.
It's been a long time since Cincinnati's had a team
shoots thirty six and a half percent from three collectively.
If that's bad, man, we got a long way to

(31:25):
go to be bad. They're well constructed. They're well constructed
as a team. They've got a couple of really good
veteran guards, some awesome freshmen, they've got size, they're well coached. Like, yeah,
they're They're definitely the talk of the Big twelve so

(31:47):
far this year for a million reasons.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Can the bear Cats be Arizona State?

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Boy? They better? I don't know if you've monitored things.
Bobby Hurley, who's not as endearing as his brother that
is a friend of this show. Bobby's talking about, I
can't reach my team. They're not taking the coaching. They

(32:15):
don't respond, they don't listen. I'm sure he's trying to
use that to light a fire under them. They've got
some And here's here's always the concern, Bo even as
you get to the bottom teams in this league. They've
all got some guards that can put up buckets. And
if Cincinnati's off that night, disaster always loss. The question

(32:40):
is can they keep their confidence up even after how
the last ten minutes played out in Tucson. So far,
this has been a resilient team for the most part.
But boy, they really got their butt kicked. So butts
kicked over those last ten minut that's how today bounce

(33:01):
back and I will and I know this is what
this is. I say this is a grain of salt
mo because McK cronin. Mc cronin was very good at
finding things and still is maybe the best at finding
things to self motivate. Is that a good way to
put it. Mick hated the second game of a long

(33:26):
road trip, and they went out to Arizona on Tuesday.
I mean, god knows when they're going to get back.
They're certainly not going to be able to get back
in town Saturday night after the game. I wouldn't think.
So it's a long trip, you just got your butt kicked.

(33:47):
How do these guys handle today and tomorrow? Getting Rednan
all day on Saturday waiting for that game at ten
o'clock Saturday night. You're playing a team that's not good,
but you're playing a team that that has some talent
that is probably gonna win a couple games on their
home floor. Can wes Miller avoid something that has been

(34:09):
a problem for Wes Miller, and that is going on
the road against a wounded animal like Arizona State and losing.
This is one they absolutely have to win if we're
gonna keep any level of interest in this season beyond.
Does Cincinnati make a coaching change?

Speaker 3 (34:29):
All right?

Speaker 1 (34:29):
So if they do that right, they get a chance
to come home and play three of the next four
at fifth third. Baylor's not very good. They do have
to go to Houston. That's gonna be a problem. Come
home for West Virginia, a team they should have beaten
the first time. Come home for UCF, a team they
should have beaten the first time. At Kansas State, the
Wildcats are not very good. Play Utah here the youths

(34:52):
are putrid. Like, okay, some of those are fifty to
fifty games, are probably not gonna win them all. But
I look at it like this, if you could a
get a Tempee and Arizona State, which you should the
schedule does open up a little bit, and they do
have a chance. I am not gonna say they're gonna
make the NCAA tournament, but if you're hoping to watch
them win some games and change the conversation in season

(35:15):
a little bit, the schedule does present those opportunities, and
the team that I've watched play three of the three
and a quarter of the last four games, can can
reel off some wins.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
They can. I mean, that's the right back to that
same thing we talked about me, can Wes Miller put
this team in a position to win some of these
A games you should win and be coin flip games,
because if you look at the last two years since
they've joined the Big twelve, mo, if they would just
have won a couple more of those type games, we

(35:53):
wouldn't be talking about Wes Miller on the hot seat.
We'd be talking about can Cincinnati make their third tournament
a row, their third tournament in a row, or their
second out of three since joining the Big twelve? Because
two years ago that was they lost a bunch of
close games, the Oklahoma State game, the West Virginia game,

(36:14):
like there were games that could have got them to
nine and nine, ten and eight that would have gotten
them in the tournament. That look a lot like this
stretch of five games that's coming up. So I had
what success, four and one, three and two.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Yeah, yeah, they again taking how they've played, including how
they played for a stretch last night that combined with
how the schedule does even ease up, they do have
an opportunity. We'll see if they take advantage. That's a big,
big if.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
As always, there is a chance for momentum.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
No, that's all you can ask for a chance. Thank
you as well. And I hope you've stocked up on
cigars and bourbon.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
I do that no matter what the weather is. But yes,
I am well stocked for the weekend and the looming apocalypse.
It's coming up on four o'clock. I'm owegar. This is
esp AT fifteen to thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 5 (37:13):
Agency to the draft and everything in between. We've got
the Bengals off season covered on ESPN fifteen thirty, the
official home of the Bengals.

Speaker 6 (37:25):
Now here's your chance to win one thousand dollars. Just
enter this nation keyword on our website. Friend, that's friend,
Enter it now.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Yeah, we got the off season covered. It's interesting if
you if you follow the Bengals fans on Twitter, a
lot of folks who cover the Bengals or podcast about
the Bengals. I feel like already, and the NFL season
is not even over yet, but I feel like already,

(37:57):
Like I've read about like fifteen different players ANGLE should
take with their first round pick. Like I, I kind
of made a maybe not so much of a New
Year's resolution. I mean I did make I did make
a New Year's resolution that has nothing to do with sports,
nothing to do with my job. I also rewarded myself

(38:18):
for keeping my New Year's resolution lay No. My New
Year's resolution last year was I was going to interact
as little as pop as possible with anonymous people on
social media, and I stuck to it. But I kind
of said, you know what, I'm gonna dive more into
the draft than I typically do. And typically number one,
we do a show on Draft night, and so there's

(38:41):
always an intense amount of prep for it. But like
I just I have felt like in recent years, we
get a lot of experts on I want to know,
maybe not as much about them, but close, and so
I want to do that at the same time, like
who the Bengals should draft, who they should take in
the first I want that to be informed, at least

(39:03):
in large part by what they do or don't do
in free agency. It is impossible to imagine the Bengals
being substantially better next season without absolutely crushing it in
free agency. Now, that does not mean they shouldn't draft well.
At some point this franchise, repeatedly, year in and year out,

(39:25):
are gonna need draft classes that yield instant dividends. Like
no more red shirts. I can't do any more, Dax
hills we can't do any more. Miles Murphy's like the
draft class, we can't do anymore, show our Stewart. It's
like it's you can only do so much if players
get hurt. But even that twenty twenty three draft class,
we only really started to talk about it as a

(39:46):
whole this year. Can't wait three years before we talk
about an entire class. So yes, obviously this franchise has
to get really good and stay really good at drafting
players who make an immediate impact. This is a cheap
labor league. This is not a developmental league. They need

(40:07):
cheap labor. They need dudes who show up. You're not
paying them all that much and they give you a lot.
But it is impossible to imagine the Bengals in twenty
twenty six being substantially better if the Bengals don't nail
it in free agency. And so, like the whole you know,

(40:29):
who should they draft and who are the best? Obviously
Duke Tobin and his staff should be working hard on that,
but this is an off season. They this is a
gross oversimplification. But like, who's this year's version of DJ Reader?
You can't tell me it's gonna be TJ. Slayton. Who's
this year's version of DJ Reader? Maybe not somebody you overpay,

(40:53):
and they didn't overpay DJ Reader because they had to.
But who is a guy that plays that position that
can provide pass rush up the middle? Who's maybe not
a household name one of the great I don't know misnomers.
If that's the right word about free agency is well,
you got to go make splash signings or the Bengals
aren't gonna spend wildly. Bengals don't need to spend wildly.

(41:17):
They need to spend wisely. Change one letter, not wildly wisely.
I guess that's two letters. When the Bengals use free
agency to build that championship defense in twenty twenty one,
it wasn't making splash, you know, signings. When they acquired
Trey Hendrickson, I think everybody's first reaction was, are we

(41:42):
sure he's better than Carl Lawson? Like we did the
entire thing where we went up and down like Trey
Hendrickson sacks that last year where he kind of broke
out in New Orleans and kind of broke it down
and looked at him like, all right, you know, was
he the benefit of great coverage? Was he just a
sack compiler, you know, getting sacks on passing? It was
not a household name played into one here should Oba

(42:04):
a Woozier. When the Bengals got should Oba a Woozier,
many said, wait a minute, why did they do that?
Not as good as William Jackson and up and down
the list, Mike Hilton, Von Bell, so many of them,
and so I'm looking for and I think if you're
a Bengals fan, you are to some version of those players.

(42:25):
And then once they get them, then let's talk about
who they draft. And everybody's gonna have their favorites, like
I'm you know, as much of a Caleb Downs guys,
I think anybody obviously there's an Ohio state connection, which
should not matter, but for a lot of fans it does.
You watched him play at high profile games. He's everything
they've lacked in safety for a very long time. Fair

(42:46):
to wonder if he's going to be there, fair to
believe that he could be there, just because of how
infrequently safeties go in the top ten. But this is
an off season, yes, largely defined by the draft, but
there have to be not huge swings in free agency.
Just hit a few doubles. Starting caliber players at every

(43:09):
level of the defense, starting caliber players all over the place.
Maybe some who are ascending. This is not a comparison
that anybody is gonna like. But when the Bengals got
Geno Stone, we were excited. I don't remember anybody who
said they shouldn't have signed Geno Stone. I was excited

(43:29):
about it because I think you saw a player who
the more was put on his plate in Baltimore, the
more heroes to the occasion now at flatline here, and
I think all of us are going to do cartwheels
when we find out officially that he's no longer a
member of this team, but like who fits that profile
flies maybe a little bit under the radar regardless of position.

(43:54):
You know, a guy that kind of slowly had to
earn more playing time, earn more responsibility, and every time
he did, he met the occasion. Who's this year's version
of a player like that? It's this March. I can't wait.
I mean, I think if you're a Bengals fan, and
God knows I am, you're so eager to turn the

(44:14):
page from what they were last year to what they
might be this coming season, you can't wait till March
because it's it's gonna be fascinating to see which positions
they prioritize. I think the absolute test is gonna be
the approaching linebacker, because it could go one of two ways.

(44:35):
One is, hey, Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter accumulated experience,
and now that experience and the growing pains of last year,
there's gonna be a payoff this year. You can hear it, now,
can't you? Another year in Al Golden's defense, more familiarity,
they go through their first real NFL offseason, they'll learn

(45:00):
from all the issues and growing pains they went through
last year and the payoff is gonna be better linebacker play.
You could hear it, you could see it. You could
also hear or see if they're acting with urgency going
you know what, it didn't work, We're not gonna run
it back because we can't take a chance on it
not working again. That doesn't mean that those players can't

(45:21):
be a part of next year's team. There is I
think a world where Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight are
still you know, decent NFL players and maybe players who contribute.
But I think it's that to me, is is really
where the off season conversation gets interesting, because it's I
think it's hard to for anybody to imagine that they

(45:43):
don't find, you know, another edge. They don't find another
defensive tackle, somebody who's good at getting after the passers.
It's hard for I think a lot of us to
imagine they don't find a corner somewhere, even if it's
a slot guy. I think it's hard for most to
imagine that they don't find some safety help, whether it's
somebody who's depth piece, backup or a Day one starter.

(46:07):
What do they do at linebacker? Is there another version
of Oron Buroks. I watched every snap of this season.
I'm not sure if I can recall Oron Burkes making
a tangible contribution to this football team. So is there
a version of that or do they go get a
guy who just instantly you know that dude's gonna play

(46:29):
because it feels like they need at least one. And
then if it's you know, veteran experienced linebacker who knows
where to be, knows how to be in position, doesn't
make assignment errors, can simply tackle a guy who's running
at him. And if he's occupying one of your linebacker
spots and then the other is Barrett Carter or Demetrius

(46:52):
Knight or whatever's behind door number two. I think most
of us would live with that. What would be hard
to swa would be we're gonna address the defense in
all these other areas, but we're bringing back these same
two linebackers who struggled so much as rookies. You're trying
to win a title in twenty twenty six, you're trying

(47:14):
to do it again. Get off to a really really
fast start in twenty twenty six. And by the way,
like the whole fast start thing which it's gotten to
the point that it's cliche. And one of the more
ironic things about this season was Bengals did get off
to a fast start. They won their first two games.
They were doing, oh right, the whole thing what we
spent months talking about, They've got to get off to

(47:36):
a fast start. They won their first two games. They
never do. They finally did. Still didn't make the postseason.
But the most interesting dynamic for this team right now
is continuity versus change. Just look in their own division,
so and then you know, look around the NFL, look
at some of the teams that they'll be competing with
in the AFC, like Buffalo. Maybe not a lot of

(48:00):
change in Kansas City, a though Eric Bienemy's gonna be back.
But Patrick Mahomes Week one, big question mark. So you
have new coaches in your division, You're gonna have a
new coach in Buffalo, Patrick Mahomes TBD Week one. Continuity's
got to pay off week one, Like, yes, get off
to a fast start every year. Yes, they've needed to

(48:21):
prioritize getting off to a fast start, which they did
last year, but now like start fast so that when
you know, things get normal in Baltimore, things get normal
in Pittsburgh, or things get normal and well, things are
never normal in Cleveland. But you know, by the time
the situation's there with the new coaches get settled, they've
got a big game of catch up. Like that's once

(48:45):
we clear free agency and we clear the draft, there's
the storyline. Should be a normal offseason for Joe Burrow again. Right,
But the continuity versus change dynamic matters a lot more
in September than it will in November. In December. So
if there's some sort of adjustment period or there's some

(49:07):
sort of just acclimation process because there's a new coach,
take advantage Bury those teams early, make them play catch up.
Make them by the time things are settled and the
acclaimation process is over, they're looking up at you in
the AFC North, which comes back to knee. Draft picks

(49:29):
need free agents that can make an immediate impact. Starting
fast always matters. Starting fast for the twenty twenty six
Bengals could give them an enormous advantage. Sixteen minutes after
four o'clock, you can send me a tweet at Moeger
thanks to a Delta dental. Delta Dental is building healthy, smart,

(49:49):
vibrant communities for all good at Delta Dentaloh dot com.
I'm on Instagram too. I was told I need to
start pumping my Instagram feed where I post pictures and
videos like the pictures and videos I post on Twitter
at Mueger five one, three, seven, four nine fifteen thirty
will get you in. Justin five of the Cyclones played

(50:10):
this weekend in his five hundredth game as a member
of that organization. Their best event of the year happens
on Saturday. Justin, we'll talk about that and his career
milestone with us next.

Speaker 7 (50:26):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (50:29):
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You see CEC northbound Cold Rain is now shut down
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(50:51):
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ten minute delay.

Speaker 9 (51:00):
I'm at Ezelic with the traffic.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
This report twenty minutes after four o'clock. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. One of the highlights of the Cincinnati Cyclone
season is Saturday, the annual Teddy Bear Toss game. Last year,
by the way, the Cyclones collected more than ten thousand bears.
The record is more than thirteen thousand, so hopefully we

(51:22):
can break that. On Saturday, four o'clock. Puck's gonna drop
as the Clones the Battle Fort Wayne. The Fort Wayne
comets in town. Justin Vive, Cincinnati Cyclones, all time leader
in games played, celebrated this weekend for appearing in his
five hundredth game as a member of the Cyclones, is
with us. It's good to have you. Congratulations on the milestone, Justin.

(51:43):
Thanks for joining us. How are you.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
I'm good.

Speaker 10 (51:47):
I'm good. I appreciate it and excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
It's awesome to have you five hundred games as a
member of this organization. When you think of that number,
what things come to mind?

Speaker 10 (52:00):
Oh, I mean, obviously kind of a wave of emotion,
obviously realizing how long you've been been playing a sport.
But I think the biggest thing to me is just
kind of recognizing the franchise and the organization as a whole.
You know, anytime somebody hits a number like that with

(52:21):
an organization in any sport, you know, obviously they must
be doing things right, treating their player as well. And
you know, kudos to them because they've made it easy
along the way.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
You know, you thinking, you and I talked about this
when you came back to the Cyclones. You played your
college hockey at Miami. You've been a part of this
organization for eleven of your fifteen years. So over the
last two decades you've made Cincinnati holme. What has it
been like as somebody who did not grow up here
sort of carving out an identity in this market.

Speaker 10 (52:54):
I mean, I guess it's never easy when you first
arrived somewhere and you're you're in a new city, you
don't really have any family or friends.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
But over the years now being.

Speaker 10 (53:05):
Married to a lady from Cincinnati and having a daughter
with her and her family's here and making a ton
of friends outside of hockey, it's just been amazing. Now,
you know, it's something special that I was able to
have people in the building on Saturday to kind of
watch that game and have my daughter down on the
ice after the game and stuff like that. It's something

(53:27):
I guess I never really set out or seeing when
you first start, but now that it's kind of came
and went, it's just an awesome memory that will happen forever.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
You have teammates who are like fifteen years your junior,
maybe younger than that, right, perhaps closer to your daughter's age.
I don't know, But like I mean, you have teammates
who are just starting their professional careers, twenty twenty one
years old, young guys, you know, dudes who are just
trying to figure out what being a pro hockey player is. Like,
how do you relate to those guys?

Speaker 10 (54:01):
I mean, I guess it's a combination. It's funny that
you said that. One of the guys this year, he
just turned twenty one, and actually I played with his
dad my second year. His dad was my roommate on
the road, so it is officially gone full circle through
a generation. But I think with that, I guess, just

(54:23):
you know, I try to connect with them on things
other than hockey.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
Obviously, no matter what your age is, we all have
the love.

Speaker 10 (54:30):
And the passion for hockey, and that's why we're here,
But I think if you can kind of connect with
them on their family level, friends, girlfriends, wives, even just
as much as trying to stay as hard as it
is up to date with all the kind of the
pop culture and social media stuff going on. That's kind
of what I try to do, and that way it

(54:50):
just kind of stay connected in the conversations and stuff
with them.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
What's the hardest what's the hardest part of this For
those guys who are breaking in his pros for the first.

Speaker 10 (55:02):
I'd probably say sorry, you can hear my dog in
the back end. But I think it's just the consistency
of it all. I think going into college or junior hockey,
you kind of are a little bit, you know, guided
through things, and I think when you finally make that
jump to pro hockey, it's it's a huge step. You know,

(55:24):
you don't have any billet parents or your coaches or
nutrition iss and stuff kind of following you around at
classes and everything. It's you're officially on your own and
you just got to make sure you take care of yourself,
take care of your body, and just you're ready to
go every single day. I think consistency has kind of
been the one word that I've preached my whole career
to a lot of the young guys.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
Justin vibe of the Cyclones is with us. The Clones
host their Teddy Bear Toss game against Fort Wayne four
o'clock on Saturday, five hundred game. Now, typically when when
you get celebrated for a milestone like that, it's it's
kind of coming at the close of a career. You're
thirty six, I would imagine number one, that after games
you feel different than you did when your career started.

(56:08):
But I would also imagine, like you you still have
some hockey left, and you have you started to think
about the end, how much how much longer do you
want to play?

Speaker 10 (56:19):
I mean, I guess I try not to think about
the end, because anytime you start thinking that way, it
just kind of starts to put that doing gloom or
negativity on the season or on your career. So I
try not to think about that at all. I mean,
I'm I'm feeling great. I feel as good as I
did any other year at this point in the season.
So I kind of keep telling myself, whether you're thirty six,

(56:41):
twenty six, whatever it is, if you can still kind
of contribute and help in any way for the team
to win. That's kind of what I'm focusing on and
just trying to stay healthy. And I guess kind of
see where this leads. I mean, who knows. I assume
I'd probably want to stay stay in hockey and some
kind of facet. Don't know what that would be exactly,

(57:03):
but I guess the only time will tell.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
All Right, you talk about how good you feel, and
I know you're not lying to me, but what does
the morning after a game feel like at this age
versus fifteen years ago?

Speaker 10 (57:17):
I guess it's a twofold question. I'm up a lot
earlier with my daughter, so that's definitely been an adjustment
and just kind of getting used to balancing the work
and home life.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
But I guess, I.

Speaker 3 (57:33):
Mean i'd be lying. One game, I can kind of.

Speaker 10 (57:36):
I say it's pretty similar, but we get into those
stretches of two games in a row, three games in
a row.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
Four games and five nights.

Speaker 10 (57:44):
Those are some pretty rough mornings and definitely kind of
makes you feel your age. But I mean, I guess
just trying to focus more on taking care of yourself
and your body and getting your sleep and recovery has
become a lot more important. I mean, I know a
lot of the older guys, you know, the Tom Brady's
Lebron like, those guys talk about so much how they

(58:05):
take care of their bodies and that they feel as
good as they are because of that. So obviously not
to that magnitude, but just trying to focus on that more.
I feel like when you're twenty one, twenty two, I mean,
everybody remembers when they.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Were in college.

Speaker 10 (58:19):
You could you could stay up all night studying, partying
for whatever it was, and wait studying next morning, study
a couple of exactly studying, and you'd feel just as
good as you did with ten hours of sleep. So
I think that's definitely the biggest focus for me.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
You mentioned your guys schedule, and this is something I
talked about for for a little while because there was
a time we weren't we didn't know if this game
on Saturday was going to happen, if it was going
to be postponed, because it was a very brief player strike,
and I was kind of making the point on this
show going through what your your schedule, and when I
say you, you and your your fellow EHL players, what

(58:57):
the scheduled you guys have and the grind that it is.
Did the strike or the new CBA did it make
any of that better moving forward?

Speaker 10 (59:06):
Yeah, And I think that was one of the bigger
kind of hot button issues that I know, all sports
has been really focusing on lately, with you know, all
the sports science data coming out and kind of some
of the leagues doing the load management stuff like that.
But that was that was definitely one of the big things.
It was mainly based around recovery. Like we understand that

(59:30):
obviously we're going to be playing two games and two nights,
three games and three nights, just because the way the
buildings work and the ticket sales and all that, Like,
we weren't kind of blind to that, but definitely trying
to scheduling more off days, kind of less travel in
between games, and then also just focusing on the long
extended kind of grinds where you know, all of a sudden,

(59:53):
you're playing seven games and nine nights in six cities
kind of thing. That that's what was one of the
bigger issues.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
I feel like following this season, you guys will go
through a four or five game stretch where it feels
like you guys are about to take off and go,
and then there'll be a three or four game stretch
where it feels like you guys spin your tires a
little bit. What has to happen for you guys to
have more of those stretches where it feels like you
guys are about to take off and go.

Speaker 10 (01:00:24):
I'd say the internal just kind of growth. We have
an extremely young team, and I know that there's definitely
growing pains with any team that's that young. But I
think with that, I think we just you know, we
need to stop I guess, for lack of better terms,
kind of shooting.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
Ourselves in the foot.

Speaker 10 (01:00:45):
Well, you know, we'll play great for a period or
two periods and then kind of whether we let off
the gas or we make a couple just mistakes that
let them kind of get back into games. We just
got to, you know, like back to what I said earlier,
just pick up that kind of consistency that is required
in pro sports and just bring the same kind of

(01:01:06):
level of effort and execution every night.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
All right, let's talk specifically about Saturday. Now, you're you're
going to be focused on winning the game against Fort Wayne,
a team you've played for, but it's the Teddy Bear
Toss and you've been the Teddy Bear goalscorer I think
three times, which is really cool for the uninitiated. This
is an awesome event. It's really important what happens on Saturday.

Speaker 11 (01:01:31):
Oh.

Speaker 10 (01:01:32):
I mean, I think it's probably the coolest kind of
a game or event in sports from a fan perspective.
And I guess everybody because you know, everybody is involved, interactive.
You know, the first goal score to the of the
game for us. Anybody that brings Teddy Bears to the game,
you could bring one, ten, twenty. I've seen huge garbage

(01:01:56):
bags full. There's no limit, and basically you just have
fun and chuck them on the ice and.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
You just watch bears rain for about three.

Speaker 10 (01:02:05):
To five minutes street. You know, there's police cars out there,
there's sirns, there's music. It's a whole spectacle in the
best way possible. And at the end of the day,
it's awesome because it's all for a great cause, no.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Question about it. The Bears go to the Cincinnati Police
and Fire helps out their efforts with children who are
faced with difficult situations when officers are in the field,
and the rest of the Bears go to Matthew twenty
five's ministries. There are global relief efforts. There were bears
from this event last year that made it as far
as the Ukraine, so you're helping out on a global

(01:02:42):
level as well, in additional to a local one. It
is an awesome cause. It should be a lot of
fun on Saturday. Cyclones Hockey dot Com for tickets. Justin,
congratulations on the milestone. We'll talk after game number one thousand.

Speaker 11 (01:02:54):
Okay, all right, sounds good.

Speaker 10 (01:02:58):
I'll hold you to it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
We'll make that happened. Definitely. Congratulations, justin, Thanks so much, Aye,
thank you, justin Vive of the Cincinnati Cyclones. The Clones
hosting Fort Wayne four o'clock Saturday is when the puck
is gonna drop and again, bring a Teddy Bear. Bring
as many bears as you want, chuck them on the
ice after the Clone score their first goal. It's a
fun visual. It's an awesome cause. And I know a

(01:03:21):
handful of Cincinnati police officers who have been directly involved
with this, and they talk about how far something as
simple as having a Teddy Bear at their disposal can
be when you know there's a situation and there's an
innocent child involved and what that little stuffed animal can
do to comfort them. So go to the game on Saturday,
shower the ice with bears, and hopefully see the Cyclones

(01:03:44):
get a victory. We are late twenty seven away from
five o'clock sports headlines. Next ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (01:03:51):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. You see cancer center
offers advanced surgical options for complex liver and pancreas cancers
and trials you won't find anywhere else. Get a second
opinion now call five one three five eighty five u SECC.

Speaker 7 (01:04:07):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 8 (01:04:11):
In Ohio southbound seventy one and accident blocks the right
lane between Field's Irdle and two seventy five. A five
minute to lay to get through their injury accidents on
Cluff Pike near Nagel Roade. Multiple crashes occurring there. I'm
at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
This report Sports Headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet,
home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from
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it official Robert solid new head coach of the Titans

(01:04:50):
college basketball. This is the only tip off time that
has been moved that I have seen, actually two of them.
The nk you men's game on Saturday against Wright State
was supposed to be a seven o'clock tip off at
the Nutter Center. That game instead is going to start
at one PM. So keep that in mind if you're

(01:05:13):
thinking of going to that game, or if you have tickets.
One o'clock on Saturday. The snow, according to most is
expected to hit, you know, kind of mid to late afternoon.
We will see. I'm not a meteorologist. We might have
to get a weather person. We might have to bother
Jennifer ketch Mark tomorrow because by tomorrow all anybody will
be talking about is the snow. I did see that

(01:05:35):
the UC women's game on Saturday, which was scheduled for
a two o'clock tip off against Arizona State, that has
been moved to a noon tip off. I'm doing this
off the top of my head. We just talked with
Justin Vive of the Cyclones. That game is scheduled for
four o'clock. I have not seen anything suggesting that that

(01:05:56):
face off time is going to be moved. Xavier has
a day game, a men's day game. It's obviously the
Patino Bowl, Richard versus Rick. Uh. That game is scheduled
to tip off at two point thirty. That's a TNT
double header, the second game of a TNT Biggies doubleheader Georgia,
Georgetown and Providence of the first game. I don't know

(01:06:17):
how that may or may not complicate things, but as
of now, the Xavier tip off time remains two thirty.
I'm guessing that could move.

Speaker 9 (01:06:26):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
I think it'd be interesting. The Bearcats. We're talking about
this with Chad. The Bearcats are playing Arizona State late
on Saturday night. It's gonna be fascinating to see if
they get back to town in time. UH So, there
you go. We'll keep you up to date on anything
that may have moved or ultimately gets canceled. Hockey tonight,
the Blue Jackets skate against Dallas. We have we've not

(01:06:49):
taken a phone call today. Our lines are open five
point three seven four nine fifteen thirty at eight six
six seven h two three seven seven six. The big
problem with last night's UC game. Is not that they lost.
It's it's not that they lost by a lopsided final margin.
I'll tell you what it is coming up at five

(01:07:09):
oh five right now, though we have Mike, Mike, go ahead,
you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 11 (01:07:16):
Well, you caught me off sard a little bit, thank you,
though you're very welcome. I really think that I'm sorry,
mo I, I'm sorry. Just give me one second.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
I'm sorry, FI, I e in my arms.

Speaker 11 (01:07:33):
It doesn't hurt.

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
Okay, okay, all right, Mike, you good, all right, you're
gonna be okay.

Speaker 11 (01:07:41):
Yeah, okay, test off right now. They don't understand.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
Oh, go ahead.

Speaker 11 (01:07:48):
I want to get to Xavier and U see basketball.
But uh, I really don't. I really think Denver has
more of a chance than people may give them, even
with still am a quarterback. I'll tell you why. Drake
May's verse two playoff games have not been impressive.

Speaker 9 (01:08:04):
At all, correct, not really correct.

Speaker 11 (01:08:07):
And their offensive line is really not that good. I
think the Bengals offensive line, other than Orlando Brown is
probably as good as New England's. So I give Denver chance.
I give him a fighting chance in this game.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
Buddy, Yeah, I give him a fighting chance. You know,
I guess I would love to hang my hat on
Denver's defense, but I can't. In the second half of
the season it was more inconsistent than I think it
was in the first half of the season. A very
a very limited Buffalo offense hung thirty on them in

(01:08:47):
regulation last week. But at the end of the day, like,
all right, Drake May hasn't been awesome in the postseason. No,
Jared Stidham is such a wildcard, I mean, just such
a wild card. But can I give you a value?
Can I? Can I give you a value bet that
I think is a lot of fun. And I was

(01:09:09):
just thinking about this, and I was just thinking about this,
and I haven't even looked up what the odds are
Jared Jared stid him as Super Bowl MVP.

Speaker 11 (01:09:21):
Okay, right with that?

Speaker 1 (01:09:24):
Well, if if they the the MVP award historically has
been a quarterbacks award. If you believe the Broncos can
beat New England, I'm gonna look this up during the break.
If you believe the Broncos can beat New England, which
they're underdogs five and a half points, well then they'll
win away from winning the whole thing. If they win

(01:09:44):
the whole thing, I think you'll have people who give
him a vote if it's between him and another guy,
because of the story of a dude who's you know,
started one NFL game winning the Super Bowl. Like I
bet you the the value on that is if you
believe Denver can win on Sunday, and I'm taking New England.
Although I do think you make a good point. The

(01:10:05):
Broncos do have a good defense, although it's been inconsistent day.
Do you have a good offensive line if you believe
the Broncos can win that game. I don't know why
you wouldn't chase the value on Jared Stidham's Super Bowl MVP.

Speaker 11 (01:10:18):
What's there's what's the number? Is there a number on this?

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
I am I am going to as as you talk
about whatever is on your mind. Next, I am gonna
pull this up on FanDuel to see.

Speaker 11 (01:10:29):
If I can find you're the best. Okay, now, let's
get the UC Last night at first half, but I
was so jacked up. I thought, Baba Miller Man, you're
looking like a stud. You look like uh, Danny Manning
or something. I don't know. I was so jacked up
and your rookie kid would look so good to left hander.

(01:10:50):
I thought, we're we're, we're going to be in this game.

Speaker 2 (01:10:53):
Nah.

Speaker 11 (01:10:54):
Not enough depths, not.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
Enough, not enough depth, not enough depth, and not enough offense.
I mean, I think the lack of offense is a
bigger issue. You know, we've talked about it all afternoon.
They have struggled in the half court all season long. Well,
if you're struggling in the half court against teams like
Georgia and Clemson, who are good teams, what's gonna happen
when you play a team that looks like the best

(01:11:19):
in the country, and then if you don't have a
guy who can go and get you buckets, it sort
of amplifies yours your issues in the half court. They
just offensively. I thought they defended okay last night, but
they were gonna have to do things on offense they
haven't done all season long, and they didn't. I found it.
Mike plus seventeen hundred to be so the odds on
favorite to be Super Bowl MVP are the three quarterbacks.

(01:11:41):
Donald plus two seventy, Stafford plus two to eighty, and
May plus three ten. And then from there it's a
pretty big. It's a pretty big difference. So then JSN
plus twelve hundred Pukinakua plus seventeen hundred. But you could
get Jared Stidham Super Bowl MVP right now at plus
seven hundred. Wow, Like I, if you believe the Broncos

(01:12:05):
have a chance, I don't know how you don't. Let's
just say, drop twenty five on it. That'll pay for
twenty five. Like, well, yeah, if you If you think
Denver has more than a puncher's chance at home, I
don't know then, because obviously the odds are gonna fall
significantly if they win the game. So I am gonna

(01:12:25):
make that wager even though I think New England's gonna
win and I think New England's going to cover, I'm
gonna I'm gonna take my Jared Stidham Super Bowl MVP
flyer plus seventeen hundred because the value is insane.

Speaker 11 (01:12:38):
I always follow you, well, not always, but as much
as I can. So thank you Moe for that. Thank
you Moe for that. Jimmy de Moo, Greek, gimme the
Greek agar whatever. Okay, my last point, real quick, how
cool is this coming up? That at the syntax Patino's
the senior, Patino Junior going for nine hundred. And you

(01:13:00):
know what people, you and I have talked about, because
a lot of people forget about Rick Patino Senior, who
started as an assistant at the University of Hawaii for
crying out loud, then he ended up in Providence with
Ernie di Gregorio back in the day. And then he
goes ahead and wins two national championships at two different
schools in the same state. So Platino Junior comes from

(01:13:25):
some serious lineage and he's had to have learned a
whole bunch from dad. And I see Xavier Whites out
in the next few years, I really do.

Speaker 1 (01:13:36):
Well. Let me correct you on two things. I don't
believe that Rick Patino coached Ernie d Gregorio, who played
for Providence in the seventies, so I don't think. But yes,
Rick Patino did take Providence to the Final four in
nineteen eighty seven. Number two, Rick Patino's only won one
national championship, of course.

Speaker 11 (01:13:56):
No, he won one at Louisvio and one at Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
I don't know about the one in Louisville that you're
talking about. That never happened. Oh my god, look it up, Rick,
go look it up. Rick Patino and Louisville did not
win a national championship.

Speaker 11 (01:14:16):
That could have scenty one. One at Kentucky too, he
must have got to.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
Wait, won one of Kentucky and ninety the Kentucky won
one in ninety six, went to the final four in
ninety three, played for the championship in nineteen ninety seven,
lost to Arizona and Miles Simon and Mike Bibbie in
an overtime game. But at Louisville, Rick Patino, he took
him to the final four in two thousand and five,
but he did not win a nation the NCAA. I'm
looking at it right now. List of national champions I

(01:14:40):
don't see the Louisville. Louisville's last national title. I'm looking
at it right now. Nineteen eighty six, Tanny Crumb, Purvis
Ellison beat Duke in the final.

Speaker 11 (01:14:48):
Wagner, Nope, Wagner and all them guys.

Speaker 12 (01:14:50):
Yeah, let's not do this, Brough. I've seen Kevin wear broadleage.

Speaker 1 (01:14:56):
They I'm looking right now. The official n C Double
A n C double A dot Com College.

Speaker 12 (01:15:04):
We know what we saw. They beat Michigan.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
List of college basketball national champions I don't see Louisville
listed beyond nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty.

Speaker 11 (01:15:14):
Six, Karen, I know he won two national championships. I
would go to my grade saying that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
I can only I can only go by what the
record books say.

Speaker 12 (01:15:25):
I'm going by what I told me. I watched it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
I don't remember. I don't mind. I don't have any
recollection of that. So I had to look it up
on the internet, and uh, I don't what year was that?

Speaker 12 (01:15:37):
Tarran twenty thirteen Louisville, Michigan in the National Championship game.
Kevin were broken nasty.

Speaker 1 (01:15:45):
Well, that didn't happen in international happened in an Elite
eight game.

Speaker 12 (01:15:49):
Right, But I don't know it was on their path
to the National Championship game.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
I'm looking at NCUBA dot com D one men's basketball history.
What your two thousand? It's actually funny, and I'm obviously joking.
It's funny. If you go to NCAA dot com, they
still list Louisville as a national champion. I'm messing with you, Mike,
but here's my take. Are you ready for it? I'm

(01:16:16):
being silly. I think I think Rick Patino is the
greatest college basketball coach of all time.

Speaker 11 (01:16:22):
Yeah, over John Wooden, and that kills me to say that,
but he is. He is.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
Yeah. So I think with Rick Patino, it's the number
of schools he's won at. I obviously do count the
twenty thirteen because I did see it with my own
eyes they beat Michigan in a fun national title game.
It's the number of schools he's won at. I also
think people and he did this in the late eighties
in the NBA too, but he really leaned into it

(01:16:48):
in college. So the three point revolution that we've enjoyed
over the last few decades, when Rick Patino decided to
embrace and weaponize the three while playing presty defense, that
was revolutionary. Now everybody shoots threes, but like I remember
those Kentucky teams really leaning into the three, and it

(01:17:10):
it changed to a large degree how the game was played.
I think Rick Patino is the greatest college basketball coach
of all time. Also, with my Knicks, he won an
Atlantic Division title in nineteen eighty nine. Now you're gonna
be find folks who say Mike, you know, Mike Krzyzewski
or Dean Smith or Bob Knight. That's all I ain't.
Rick Patino is the greatest college basketball coach of all time.
And yes he did win two national titles, and it's

(01:17:30):
ridiculous to say that he did in twenty thirteen. I
like to do that because it needles Louisville people, and
I like doing that.

Speaker 11 (01:17:37):
Oh you just did it to me, and I thought
we were better than that. But anyway, was that is
ben No, you know what, I'll tell you what, brother,
you that's the worst you've ever done me right there? Okay,
so you owe me one more question, Okay, go ahead.

(01:17:58):
Was Patino the coachman? Bernard was there?

Speaker 3 (01:18:01):
No?

Speaker 9 (01:18:02):
Okay, No, he was?

Speaker 1 (01:18:04):
You know what he was?

Speaker 11 (01:18:05):
He was?

Speaker 1 (01:18:05):
Yeah, it was he was an assistant. He was an assistant. No.
So Patino went to Providence goes to the final four
in eighty seven with Billy Donovan. That was the final
four with Syracuse and Indiana in the final and Keith
Smart made the shot Indiana's most recent college basketball national championship.
He went from Providence to the Knicks, and by then

(01:18:26):
Bernard King was a Washington bullet.

Speaker 11 (01:18:30):
Okay, god, my my top one of my five favorite
NBA players all times, Bernard King without.

Speaker 1 (01:18:38):
Yes, my all time favorite, My all time favorite NBA.

Speaker 11 (01:18:41):
Thanks, Mo, appreciate your time. Like I'm not completely plowed
out of my mind. Damn. Oh that's harsh when you
start treating cancer victims like that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:54):
Oh, no, you're gonna make me feel bad. I'm just
messing with you. Mike.

Speaker 11 (01:18:57):
Hey, a blood pressure go off to two oh seven.

Speaker 3 (01:19:05):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:19:05):
I don't know if that's good or bad, Mike or
We're always thinking of you. Thank you, thank you very much.
That was that was my That was my I like
doing that. But yeah, I think Rick Patino, who goes
for win number nine hundred against his son on Saturday,
I believe Rick Patino is the greatest college basketball coach
of all time. If you asked me to win a game,

(01:19:29):
maybe maybe not start a program, but to win a
game college basketball coach at the last forty years, who
do I want to win that game with? I'll say
Rick Patino. And that may anger some people. And if
that opinion angers you, I then it's your problem for
letting a sports opinion anger you. But yeah, I think
Rick Rick Patino is the greatest college basketball coach of

(01:19:50):
all time. We are way late because I don't know
how to read a clock seven away from five o'clock.
Speaking of college basketball coaches, Wes Miller's team last night
defended well well, they didn't play offense very well. The
problem isn't a loss in January. The problem is November
and December. We need to start talking about these college
basketball seasons differently. In the Big twelve. I'll make that

(01:20:13):
make sense. At five oh five on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 7 (01:20:15):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 9 (01:20:19):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 8 (01:20:23):
U SEE Cancer Center offers advanced surgical options for complex
liver and pancreas cancers, and clinical trials you won't find
anywhere else. Get a second opinion now called five one three,
five eighty five u SEECC westbound on Fort Washington Way,
there is an accident after seventy one that's got the
center lane blocked off southbound seventy one in Ohio. Before

(01:20:45):
two seventy five, it's an accident on the right shoulder.
Traffic backed up from Fields Eardle. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:20:52):
This report is sponsored by daw Here's your chance to
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Speaker 3 (01:21:00):
Pay.

Speaker 9 (01:21:01):
That's pay entering now No one.

Speaker 12 (01:21:04):
That was the Bengals, Like ESPN fifteen to thirty, Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (01:21:09):
Five, Yes, thank you very much, five vote five. ESPN
fifteen to thirty, Moegar, thanks for listening. I hope you're
having a boss boss. And we said Thursday afternoon.

Speaker 4 (01:21:18):
The best part of this week has been getting off
work in six and like leaving ten after six, especially
like headed west, there's still like traces of daylight.

Speaker 1 (01:21:30):
Like it's it's been miserably cold, and it's been windy,
and we're gonna get somewhere between five and five thousand
inches of snow this weekend. But at least there's a little,
if not light at the end of the tunnel, at
least a little bit more light later in the day.
And makes makes me happy. You see, winning last night
would have made me happy. Bearcats lose to Arizona and

(01:21:53):
we were talking about this last hour. So Cincinnati gets
beat by the Wildcats. They lose to the number one
team in the country. They lose a game that was
a six point game at halftime. Let's be honest, wasn't
really a point in that game. Even when the Bearcats
were hanging in there where you felt like they're going
to win, they lose by twenty six. For u SE

(01:22:15):
to win that game last night, they were gonna have
to do things they've done well all season long, like
play defense. And for much of the game last night,
you see, defensively was fine. They weren't perfect, but they
were fine. They were good enough to stay in the
game for much of the night. But they were gonna
have to be something on offense they haven't been all

(01:22:36):
season long. They were gonna have to be great from
behind the arc. You see, came into last night dead
last in the big twelve in three point shooting percentage.
They were gonna have to be awesome last night. Not
merely better than they usually are, but awesome. Well, they weren't.
They went four for twenty one. They were gonna have
to be excellent at taking care of the ball. Fourteen

(01:23:00):
turnovers last night. That number only tells part of the story.
The bigger number for me is percentage of possessions that
end in a turnover. Last night, that number was twenty
one point nine percent, so close to one quarter of
UC's possessions against the top rated team in college basketball.

(01:23:21):
They didn't even get off a shot, turned it over
in one way or another. They were gonna have to
be more efficient on offense. Well, they finished with point
seven nine to seven points per possession. Nobody wants to
get bogged down at a bunch of stats, so I'm
not gonna do that. But just to put that in context,
if you went an entire season scoring point seven nine

(01:23:45):
to seven points per possession, you will finish dead last
in that metric among all three hundred and sixty five
Division one men's college basketball programs. So they were gonna
have to be things they haven't been all season long.
At face value, you losing that game doesn't matter. The
big issue for me last night wasn't the game, how
they played, the outcome. It was the fact that they

(01:24:09):
went into that game with eight losses. Right like, frame
it this way, if they go into last night fourteen
and four, that game going into it is viewed as
here's a golden opportunity, here's a resume booster. But if
they lose, who cares? Not gonna kill their resume? Maybe
a missed opportunity, but who cares doesn't torpedo your season.

(01:24:33):
Had they gone into last night, let's say twelve and six,
Let's say they beat Eastern Michigan Xavier. We'll talk about
the Muskies last night here in a second. But let's
say they go into last night twelve and six. All right,
missed opportunity. It's a seventh loss, which is last the
night ideal. They've got some ground to make up here,
but you know what, at least the result matters. I

(01:24:55):
think the frustrating thing about a game like that last
night is if they win, they're eleven and eight. It
may have jump started their season, and the schedule does
soften up a little bit here starting on Saturday night,
where you could have maybe talked yourself into them going
on a little bit of a run. And by the way,
I think it can be dead wrong about this, but

(01:25:16):
I think it's fair to believe that starting on Saturday,
if you take the way they have played for much
of the last two weeks, they could go on a
little bit of a run here and at least be interesting,
or at least make the conversation about what they're doing
on the floor instead of what's gonna happen with the
head coach at the end of the season, But I

(01:25:36):
was thinking about this after the game last night. Last
night was lost. Number nine, you see has lost four
games in conference play last season. You see went into
conference play with one loss to Villanova on the road
early December. Say what you want about their schedule. I'm
not really sure prepared Uce for Big Twelve play. But

(01:25:58):
they played three true road games. Played Xavier beat the Musketeers,
played Dayton, what we all thought was gonna be a
good Dayton team on a neutral floor. When into conference
play with one loss, still didn't make the tournament, still
didn't come close. But when conference play ended, you felt
pretty good about the loss total. So you knew that

(01:26:18):
they had some losses coming in the Big Twelve. You
knew that was gonna happen. Maybe not as many as
they lost, but you knew they were gonna lose games.
But they built in a margin for error. The problem
with this year's team no margin for error. Once Big
Twelve play started by losing the games they did, and
you know, in a vacuum, each one of those losses

(01:26:39):
could be forgiven, some more so than others. A Georgia
team they played in Atlanta's pretty good. I'm not really
sure how good Louisville is. But when they played him
in November, folks were talking about them in like final
four terms, lost essentially a road game to Clemson. You know,
this is not a great Xavier team. Musketeer felt like

(01:27:00):
they were there for the taking. Obviously, there's a quarter
of a century long losing streak for UC at the
centa Center that just hangs over that game every time
Xavier hosts it. But it's not a great Xavier team.
You see was favored. Okay, fine, Still, it's a rivalry game.
Those are tough to win, even the Eastern Michigan loss, which,
by the way, that team is nine to ten on

(01:27:21):
the season. Keep that in mind when you talk about
not only Eastern Michigan beating Uce, but the season that
Miami is having. But okay, fine, off night, you lose
a by game, not ideal, doesn't happen that often, but
it does, like in a vacuum, each one of those games,
you kind of shrug your shoulders, add them all up,

(01:27:41):
and there's no margin for air in the Big twelve.
So that's got to be a thing moving forward, And
it's got to be a thing moving forward in a
day and age where there's less continuity than ever. You
have to schedule well enough so that it helps you
with your resume, helps you from a metrics perspective. You've
got to edule tough enough that it prepares you for

(01:28:02):
the Big Twelve. But you also have to survive that schedule,
like in a league like this that is unforgiving, where
you're playing Texas Tech, Iowa State, Houston, a terrific Arizona team.
You know, we used to talk about the American Athletic

(01:28:23):
Conference and how the schedule worked against UC because there
weren't a lot of great teams, but there were all
these land mines where you would find schools sub two
hundred in the net, and you know, the margin for
error wasn't there, because if you lost a game to
like a crappy USF team or allows E Tulsa team,
the metrics just killed you. That's kind of a thing

(01:28:46):
in the past. Now moving forward, no bad losses in
the Big twelve. Maybe some teams that aren't great, but
no losses metrics are going to destroy you. But now
it's kind of the opposite. If you don't play well
and win enough games in the non conference, once you
get into Big twelve play, those individual losses kill you.

(01:29:09):
Problem with last night was Cincinnati had eight losses going in.
So one of the things I'm curious about moving forward,
regardless of who the head coach is, can they be
better in November and December? And they were good enough
last year. I'm not sure how well they played, but like,
can they be good enough in November and December? By
the way, it's easier to be good in November and December.

(01:29:31):
If there's some continuity, that's harder than ever to achieve.
But like, that's to me, that's the story of the
season that once Big twelve play started, you needed to
do better than you were probably capable of doing because
of all the games they lost in non conference play.
The Xavier game last night, I felt bad for Richard

(01:29:52):
Patino's team. Trey Carroll was awesome, Philip Orovichenen was really good.
Last night. It felt like seven or eight minutes into
the game like it was already on the verge of
getting away. And not only did it not get away,
the Musketeers were in a position to win the game,
and I thought there were a couple of times when
they would go up by four where it felt like

(01:30:15):
if they get a stop, maybe they're not home free,
but you love their chances and they just couldn't get
that stop. I thought the whistle last night was tough,
like I am. Maybe I'm I'm like you, but I
roll my eyes whenever I see or hear people instantly
defer to how bad the officiating is. But I think

(01:30:37):
in a game like that that was this close, decided
on a shot made after an offensively rebounded miss free throw,
I get why if you're a Xavier fan, you had
a grit. That was one of those games that was
there for the taking, and you just wonder in this
league on the road, say which one about the quality
of the Big East this year? Games like that you
gotta get and you know, like with you, you see,

(01:31:00):
we're not talking about the Musketeers and NCAA tournament terms.
But it was still a gut punch of a loss.
And that was one of the rare occasions where I
would understand why anybody would default to how bad the
officiating was tough loss for the Muskies. We talked last
hour about the Patino Bowl on Saturday, Richard versus Rick,

(01:31:21):
Saint John's versus x U. I know that both Richard
and Rick Will want to downplay the father versus son dynamic.
Good luck with that quarter. After five Kentucky wins. Last night,
Wildcats played well. The injury bug continues to hit Mark
Pope's team. But you know, say what you want about
the holes they've dug themselves in, and they've been substantial.

(01:31:43):
And I watched Big Blue Nation on Twitter at halftime
of the LSU game and they were destroying and understandably
so Mark Pope, and same for a stretch against Tennessee.
They have won four consecutive games. They do have an
above five hundred record in the SEC. They're just one
game out of first place. Now, you know, we'll see

(01:32:07):
what the rest of the schedule has in store for him.
The the injury situation with the Wildcats, Cam Williams broke
his foot last night. You add that to some of
the already built in issues. But they have won four
consecutive games. And if I would have said at halftime
of the LSU game that not only will they win
that one, but they'll win the next two, you would
have said no chance. By the way, Sean Miller watching

(01:32:31):
Kentucky Texas last night, Sean Miller looks like he's aged
about eight years since last March. I like Sean terrific coach.
Sean looks like he's gotten about five to eight years
older since he coaches last game at Xavier H ten
months ago. Five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty

(01:32:52):
is our phone number. It's been a pretty quiet day.
Bengals news is good. Dan Pitcher's not going to go
to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which is a good thing
for the Bengals. It's maybe not such such a good
thing for the for Dan Pitcher. The Bucks have hired
an offensive coordinator in Zach Robinson, so it's not going
to be Dan Pitcher. We'll see if he gets other opportunities,

(01:33:15):
but he interviewed virtually yesterday and they're not going to
hire him, so right now he is still the Bengals
offensive coordinator. The National League Central had something really big
happened late last night and the Reds are going to
benefit from it, and you should still hate it if
you're a baseball fan. I'll explain next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 7 (01:33:36):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 9 (01:33:40):

Speaker 8 (01:33:43):
You see cancer center offers advanced surgical options for complex
liver and pancreas, cancers, and clinical trials you won't find
anywhere else. Get a second opinion now call five one, three,
five eight five U SEECC. The left two lanes are
now blocked from an accident west bound on Fort Washington Wade.
That's after I seventy one southbound on North Bend Road

(01:34:06):
at seventy four, the right lane blocked off from a
disabled semi. I'm at Eazelic with traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:34:11):
Dk Y, Cincinnati and iHeartRadio station Guaranteed Human ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 9 (01:34:19):
I heard radio.

Speaker 1 (01:34:23):
Twenty three after five. According to Jordan Schultz, friend of
the show, host of The Schultz Report, NFL insider, Jesse
Minterter is gonna be the new head coach of the
Baltimore Ravens. CONGRATU congratulations to Jesse. Obviously Jesse with major

(01:34:46):
Cincinnati ties. Rick Minner's son, four year starter, four year
wide receiver at least at Mount Saint Joe. Congratulations to Jesse.
I believe I have I think I have had Jesse
on our show way back when, and I don't necessarily
I believe it when he was at might have been

(01:35:07):
when he was at Indiana State. I know he was
a grad assistant under Brian Kelly, and then I think
he was like linebackers coach or secondary coach at Indiana State.
And I think for some reason this is wholly, wholly irrelevant.
Jesse Mintter one of the three AFC North teams with
head coaching vacancies. It had been reported earlier in the

(01:35:29):
day I think also by Jordan Schultz, that jesse Minter
had turned down a second interview with the Baltimore Ravens.
Instead he takes over the or he had turned down
a second interview with the Cleveland Browns. My apologies, had
turned down a second interview with Cleveland. And now, according
to Jordans, said to be the new head coach of
the Baltimore Ravens. He leaves Jim Harbaugh staff with the

(01:35:53):
Chargers to take over for John Harball in Baltimore. NAFC
North team has settled on its head coach Jesse Minner,
who did obviously renowned work at Michigan defensive coordinator for
their teams in twenty twenty two, in twenty twenty three,

(01:36:15):
a defensive coordinator when they won the national title a
couple of years ago. I believe, and yeah, he was
has been on Baltimore's staff. He worked under John Harbaugh
as an assistant defensive backs coach. He was a defensive
assistant defensive backs coach in the COVID year twenty twenty,
went to Vanderbilt Michigan for a couple of seasons, last
two years with the Chargers, and now said to be

(01:36:38):
Lamar Jackson's new head coach. It's interesting, you know. You
often hear people talk about NFL teams with vacancies if
they have a head coach who was or had a
head coach who was let's say, for example, an offensive guy,
that the prevailing wisdom is you replace him with a
defensive guy. John Harball is a special teams guy, and

(01:37:00):
so which direction they went in was gonna be interesting.
They go with a defensive oriented guy, Jesse Minner, So
there you go. He takes over for John Harball, who
obviously has since moved on to the New York Giants.
I thought, by the way, that Paul Daanner Junior on
this show on Tuesday was excellent, and he always is.

(01:37:22):
But I believe the Bengals are gonna be AFC North
favorites when the twenty twenty six season begins, like, I
don't know when those odds are gonna go up, but
I would be I would be willing to bet that
you can make this bet that Bengals to win AFC North,

(01:37:45):
that they're favored. It ain't gonna be Cleveland, it may
be Baltimore. Baltimore has a star at quarterback. Bengals have
a star at quarterback. I think odds makers are gonna
lean into continuity, just like the Bengals have. And maybe
they're not going to be overwhelming favorites, but I think
they're going to be favored, and I would make them

(01:38:07):
favorites right. They're the continuity in the AFC North should
be an asset. We will see. And by the way,
Lamar played unevenly this season might not have been one
hundred percent. In fact, nobody thinks he was a hundred percent.
Did miss he did miss games this year. But we
were talking about the Bengals being considered perhaps AFC North favorites,

(01:38:31):
and Paul talked about how the Steelers job is not
a good job. I think, obviously it's remarkable that the
Pittsburgh Steelers have had three head coaches since nineteen sixty nine.
The last two had like almost immediate success. Like Bill

(01:38:56):
Kauer took over for Chuck Noll in UH nineteen ninety
two and he was the NFL's Coach of the Year,
like had almost instant success. Mike Tomlin took over for
Bill Kauer and had almost instant success. His first year

(01:39:19):
they go ten and six. The second year they win
the Super Bowl. Bill Kwer was in a Super Bowl
his fourth season, and so yeah, man, huge longevity. Cower
was the coach all the way through the two thousand
and six season, coached his last game in Cincinnati when
they beat the Bengals and eliminated the Bengals from the postseason. Obviously,

(01:39:42):
Mike Tomlin took takes over for Bill Cower and coaches forever.
I think people look at the fact that those two
coaches were there forever and go well, in Pittsburgh, you'll
have longevity. The Rooney family is extraordinarily patient. But I
think you get the longevity because you have instant success.
Javan Lewis had longevity because he had instant success. It's relative,

(01:40:04):
but year three he went eleven and five. Year one
he came this close to making the postseason and so
in Pittsburgh you could say, well, yeah, there's longevity, but
like Tomlin and Cower won almost immediately. Cower's first four seasons,
he wins eleven games, nine games, twelve games, eleven games,

(01:40:25):
then ten games, then eleven games. Is the new head
coach in Pittsburgh gonna have that? Like that is a franchise,
and I'll get accused of while you're using your Bengals
fan bias. I think you can look at this objectively
and say the same thing. That is a team that
feels like it's badly in need of a reboot, badly

(01:40:46):
in need of hitting the reset button. Okay, hitting the
reset button is not necessarily conducive to immediate success, which
makes that job perhaps not as good as it's made
out to be. Like I think the Steelers are fascinating
because they've been in purgatory for a while. They've cycled

(01:41:06):
through different quarterbacks, the offense has looked the same, things
did feel stale in recent years under Tomlin, as awesome
as a coach as he might have been. I don't
think it's a stretch to say, like, the Bengals won
a playoff game before the Steelers do. Like I don't.
And I can be as down on the Bengals as anybody,
and then the Browns are a whole different story. But anyway,

(01:41:28):
Jesse Minner is the new head coach in Baltimore, and
Baltimore is fascinating because I think the reason why it
felt like it was time to move on from hardball
was the roster still looks really good, and the roster
is still gonna look really good. But not only a
new head coach, a first time head coach. The Bengals

(01:41:49):
got to get off to a fast start. You have
to make those teams pay when they make changes and
have to go through what are supposed to be the
inevitable growing pains. You gotta take advance, You gotta play
from ahead. You gotta get off to a fast art,
which means you need instant impact free agents and instant
impact draft picks. I didn't tell you what one major

(01:42:13):
league team did that the Reds will benefit from, but
why you should still hate it? So I'll do it next.

Speaker 7 (01:42:20):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 8 (01:42:25):
From the UC Health Traffic Center u See Cancer Center
offers advanced surgical options for complex liver and pancreas cancers
and clinical trials you won't find anywhere else. Get a
second opinion now called five one three five eighty five.
U see CCE southbound seventy five at Paddock Road, the
right lane blocked off from an accident. Traffic is stop

(01:42:46):
and go back from Shepherd Lane with a thirty minute
delay and eastbound Montgomery Road accident blocking the left lane
at Columbia Road on at Ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:42:55):
This report is sponsored efteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports.

Speaker 1 (01:42:59):
Station Skyline sounds amazing. I think I sold myself on
getting some cheese. Cony's sports headlines are a service at
Kelsey Chevrolet, home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit
approval from their family to yours for life kelseyshev dot com.
Jesse Minner is going to be the new head coach

(01:43:20):
of the Baltimore Ravens Rick Minnerson, former UC grad assistant,
former wide receiver for Mount Saint Joe. Also, Dan Pitcher
is not going to be the offensive coordinator of the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers because Zach Robinson will be College basketball.
A couple of games that have had their TIT times
adjusted NKU and Wright State on Saturday is now going

(01:43:44):
to begin at one o'clock on Saturday instead of seven pm.
That game is going to be at the Nutter Center,
and the UC Women's game at Fifth Third on Saturday
instead of starting at two o'clock. Bearcats will take on
Arizona State at noon. Columbus Bluejacket Skate against Dallas. Chad
Brendle on the Bearcats coming up. In just a few minutes,

(01:44:04):
we'll talk about last night's Cincinnati lost to Arizona. One
other big baseball story this impacts the National League Central.
Freddy Parolza was traded by the Milwaukee Brewers to the
New York Mets in exchange for prospects. Now, Freddy Parolta
last year for a ninety seven win Milwaukee team was

(01:44:26):
an All Star, finished fifth in the National League. Say
Young Voting had a terrific season, but a big part
of that team. It's it's felt like Freddy Paralza has
pitched for the Brewers since the mid nineties, since they
were in the American League. So the National League Central
was made worse. Now. You might argue the biggest beneficiary

(01:44:47):
of this is going to be the Chicago Cubs, because
the Cubs finished in second last year and have had
a pretty active offseason. But everybody in the division stands
to benefit. If you're a team like the Reds, the
team that you're chasing has made itself in the short
term worse you win. Now. People who cover minor league
systems and know a lot about prospects seem to really

(01:45:10):
like the players the Brewers got back in exchange from
the Mets. But you know, we talked about this last week.
The Kyle Tucker thing felt like a huge tipping point
for a lot of baseball fans. Baseball is gonna have
a lockout at the end of the season. We'll see
if it bleeds into next year. We'll see if games
get canceled. We'll see if the season gets canceled. Even

(01:45:30):
as an anti salary cap guy, it is very easy
to acknowledge that baseball has an issue with a lot
of fans, a lot of customers, a lot of possible
customers who simply throw up their hands because they believe
their team has no chance to compete. And as long
as that is the case, you've got a problem. Got
to win those people back, and so some restructuring of

(01:45:53):
baseball's economics may be in order. I am more than
open to that possibility. But you know, a lot of
fans blame the Dodgers, blame the Mets, blame the big
market teams. Yep, say what you want about the Dodgers,
and I will absolutely admit, absolutely admit that it is
fatiguing seeing them just load it up. But number one,

(01:46:16):
they're playing within the rules. Number two, they're at least
trying to win. May not like it, but they are
at least trying to win. The Mets this offseason have
tried to win. The Milwaukee Brewers knowingly and actively probably
made their team worse this year. Again on you may

(01:46:39):
you may look at those prospects and go, boy, those
are dudes who are going to help the Brewers for
years to come. Maybe that's the case, And yeah, there is.
There is some sense behind the idea that you trade
away a guy before he can leave in free agency,
and you get pretty much nothing for him, and so
you want to trade me, get out in front of
it and get something in return, except if you have
a team that actually has a chance to win. And
I think it's a bigger problem in the sport than

(01:47:02):
the big market teams trying to win. I think the
bigger issue is we've normalized not trying, like even the
Reds this offseason. It's not like they haven't tried, because
they have made their bullpend better, but we've just sort
of accepted that the manager acknowledges our offense probably not
going to be all that good. I'm paraphrasing them here,

(01:47:23):
and we just NodD along. We've normalized baseball teams not
doing everything they can to win. We've normalized it here,
or at least we did for a while. I think
that's a bigger issue for the sport owners actively trying
not to win, teams competitive teams, otherwise good teams making

(01:47:43):
themselves worse. That's a bigger issue than teams actually trying.
So yes, the Reds benefit awesome. I hope the Brewers
totally dismantled their team. I'm not sure that that's good
for the sport, although when we'll talk about what's not
good for the sport, they'll focus on the teams that
are trying. I think it's a wrong way of doing it.

(01:48:07):
Uh UC was not perfect last night, but they needed
to be. Chad Brendle's always perfect, he joins us.

Speaker 7 (01:48:12):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 9 (01:48:17):

Speaker 8 (01:48:20):
U SEE Cancer Center offers advanced surgical options for complex
liver and pancreas cancers, and clinical trials you won't find
anywhere else. Get a second opinion now called five one
three five eighty five u SEECC southbound seventy five. An
accident has now been cleared away from the left lane
after down Breath Road about a thirty five minute delay,

(01:48:40):
though from Shepherd Lane, its traffic returns to posted speeds
and still got that crash westbound Fort Washington Way at
seventy one. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:48:50):
This report is sponsored a lot Qui ESPN fifteen thirty.
U SE gets trounced in the second half by Arizona
On Thursdays. We're joined by Chad Brendel at Journal dot com.
What was the overarching takeaway from last night?

Speaker 2 (01:49:05):
Uh? That Arizona's roster at every position was significantly better
than Cincinnatides. That was my takeaway.

Speaker 1 (01:49:15):
Yeah, I knew that going in. Uh. Yeah, last night
was confirmation of it. I guess for me it was
I don't know. We we can talk about how good
Arizona is. They were gonna have to play a perfect
game last night offensively, and they did not, And they
were gonna need somebody to step up and create offensively,
and that didn't happen either.

Speaker 2 (01:49:36):
Yeah, I mean that's look Iowa State like you can
you can trace why the offense was successful against Iowa State.
Iowa State likes to gamble. They like to put pressure
on you. If you can beat that pressure, then you
can score on Iowa State. Arizona basically just plays you

(01:50:01):
straight up. They switch one through four. They'll play drop coverage.
You know where their their center plays all when you
put him in a pick and roll. They have great size.
The smallest guy is six to three. Most of their
team is six seven, six eight and up. And they
just say we're gonna play sound, We're gonna stay in

(01:50:22):
front of you, We're gonna make you make shots over
the top. And uh, Cincinnati's not a great shooting team.
They're not a great shooting team from three. They're not
a great shooting team from two. They wasted thirteen to
fourteen from the line. Though, you get upset when that happens.
With as bad as this team is, the free throw

(01:50:42):
shooting that they lose the ninety two game. But yeah,
I mean, you know, offensively they are not good. And
it comes down to one simple thing though. In a
matchup with high level teams in the Big Twelve, Cincinnati's
had a significant disadvantage at guard and that was evident

(01:51:06):
last night. They had an opportunity to be better than
Arizona's guards, who didn't play all that well, and they
were significantly worse.

Speaker 1 (01:51:17):
Yeah, I mean I watched that game to the lens
of this is this is the barometer, right, this is
the standard against which all Big twelve teams are going
to be measured. Nothing against Iowa State. It look maybe
Arizona doesn't win the Big twelve, who knows, Maybe Arizona
gets beaten early in the in the NCAA tournament. But
I want to win the Big twelve one day, right,
I want to play in games where there's a single

(01:51:39):
digit number next to Cincinnati. And for the for the
progress the Bearcats have made over the last couple of weeks,
and as well as they played against Iowa State, and
as cool as it was for them to win that game,
I looked at Arizona, I looked at Cincinnati, and the
distance between the two feels like, it's, it's, it's, it's
it's so expansive that I'm having a hard time even

(01:52:01):
imagining the Bearcats looking like that anytime soon.

Speaker 2 (01:52:06):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I would state was
number two in the country and Cincinnati matched up. I
think a lot of it is matchups, style of play styles,
make fights. Arizona was a bad style for Cincinnati. But
ultimately you are from that prism looking at the number

(01:52:26):
one team in the country, and it's certainly even you know,
four days after beating the number two team in the country,
it certainly felt like Arizona was quite a bit further
along in the process than Cincinnati. I really like Tommy
Lloyd as a coach. They run really good stuff on offense.
They're very difficult to guard. I do want to make

(01:52:49):
a correction to Wes Miller, Tony Pike, and a lot
of people that I've heard yesterday and today about that game.
Arizona's not a bad three point shooting team. Well said
last night.

Speaker 11 (01:53:02):
In the game.

Speaker 1 (01:53:03):
Yeah, yes, they shoot.

Speaker 2 (01:53:06):
What would you give for Cincinnati to shoot thirty six
and a half percent from three over a season?

Speaker 1 (01:53:12):
Yeah, I mean they were I think going into last
night six in the Big Twelve and three point shooting.
I think they were like forty fifth in the country.
It's funny because I heard folks say that, I heard
Tony say it, and I'm like, you know that, that
doesn't mess with what I've seen. I've seen a team
that doesn't shoot a lot, and I think they're on
the lower end of you know, power four, power five

(01:53:33):
teams three point shooting attempts. But they're not a bad
outside shooting team.

Speaker 2 (01:53:40):
No. That one was like, uh, I think we're missing
on the fact that they don't make a lot of
threes a game, as they're not a good shooting team wins.
It's been a long time since Cincinnati's had a team
shoots thirty six and a half percent from three collectively.
If that's bad, man, we got a long way to

(01:54:01):
go to be bad. They're constructed. They're well constructed as
a team. They've got a couple of really good veteran guards,
some awesome freshmen, they've got size, they're well coached. Like, yeah,
they're there. They're definitely the talk of the Big Twelve

(01:54:22):
so far this year for a million reasons.

Speaker 1 (01:54:27):
Can the Bearcats be Arizona State?

Speaker 2 (01:54:30):
Boy? They better I don't know if you've monitored things
from Bobby Hurley, who's not as endearing as his brother
that is a friend of this show. Bobby's talking about
I can't reach my team. They're not taking the coaching,
they don't respond, they don't listen. I'm sure he's trying

(01:54:56):
to use that to light a fire under them. They've
got some And here's here's always the concern, Mo, even
as you get to the bottom teams in this league,
they've all got some guards that can put up buckets.
And if Cincinnati's off that night, disaster always loss. The
question is can they keep their confidence up even after

(01:55:21):
how the last ten minutes played out in Tucson. So far,
this has been a resilient team for the most part,
but boy, they really got their butt kicked. So butts
kicked over those last ten minutes. How do they bounce back?
And I will and I know this is what this is.

(01:55:42):
I say this with a grain of salt, MO, because
mc cronin. Mccronin was very good at finding things and
still is maybe the best at finding things to uh
self motivate. Is that a good way to put it.
Mick Hay did the second game of a long road trip,

(01:56:05):
and they went out to Arizona on Tuesday. I mean,
god knows when they're gonna get back. They're certainly not
gonna be able to get back in town Saturday night
after the game. I wouldn't think.

Speaker 3 (01:56:18):
So.

Speaker 2 (01:56:19):
It's a long trip. You just got your butt kicked.
How do these guys handle today and tomorrow? Getting Redman
all day on Saturday waiting for that game at ten
o'clock Saturday night. You're playing a team that's not good,
but you're playing a team that has some talent that
is probably gonna win a couple games on their home floor.

(01:56:41):
Can Wes Miller avoid something that has been a problem
for Wes Miller, and that is going on the road
against a wounded animal like Arizona State and losing. This
is one they absolutely have to win if we're gonna
keep any level of interest in this season beyond. Does

(01:57:02):
Cincinnati make a coaching change?

Speaker 1 (01:57:05):
All right? So if they do that right, they get
a chance to come home and play three of the
next four at fifth third. Baylor's not very good, they
do have to go to Houston. That's gonna be a
problem come home for West Virginia, a team they should
have beaten the first time. Come home for UCF, a
team they should have beaten the first time. At Kansas State,
the Wildcats are not very good. Uh play Utah here

(01:57:27):
the utes are putrid. Like okay, some of those are
fifty to fifty games, are probably not gonna win them all.
But I look at it like this, if you could
a get a Tempe and beat Arizona State, which you should,
the schedule does open up a little bit, and they
do have a chance. I am not gonna say they're
gonna make the NCAA tournament, but if you're hoping to
watch them win some games and change the conversation in

(01:57:50):
season a little bit, the schedule does present those opportunities.
And the team that I've watched play three of the
three in a cour of the last four games can
can reel off some wins.

Speaker 2 (01:58:04):
They can. I mean, that's the right back to that
same thing we talked about. No can Wes Miller put
this team in a position to win some of these
A games you should win and be coin flip games,
because if you look at the last two years since
they've joined the Big twelve mo if they would just
have won a couple more of those type games, we

(01:58:29):
wouldn't be talking about Wes Miller on the hot seat.
We'd be talking about can Cincinnati make their third tournament
in a row, or their third tournament in a row,
or their second out of three since joining the Big twelve,
because two years ago that was they lost a bunch
of close games, the Oklahoma State game, the West Virginia game,

(01:58:49):
like there were games that could have got them to
nine and nine, ten and eight, that would have gotten
them in the tournament. That look a lot like this
stretch of five games that's coming up. So I had
ahead four, one, three and two.

Speaker 1 (01:59:05):
Yeah, yeah, they again, taking how they've played, including how
they played for a stretch last night that combined with
how the schedule does even ease up, they they do
have an opportunity. We'll see if they take advantage. That's
a big, big if. Thank you as always that there is.

Speaker 2 (01:59:26):
A chance for momentum. No, that's all you can ask
for a chance. Thank you as well. And uh, I
hope you've stocked up on cigars and bourbon.

Speaker 1 (01:59:35):
I do that no matter what the weather is. But
yes I am. I am well stocked for the weekend
and the looming Apocalypse. That's our guy, Chad Brendle, Bearcat
Journal dot Com. Show is over, Gotta go. We return
tomorrow at three oh five to preview the Snow. Don't
forget Tony Pike since he three sixty is at noon.
We'll talk to you at three oh five. Have a

(01:59:56):
great afternoon, have a great evening, have a great life.
Thanks to Terrem black and for producing. Thanks to you
for listening. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.

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