Episode Transcript
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There you go.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's at five minutes after four o'clock. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. Im Oeger, thank you so much for spending
part of your Friday afternoon with us. A couple of
your weekends off to a great start. I just threw
two poll questions up on Twitter thanks to United Heartland Insurance.
United Heartland Insurance has a website and you should go
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need or question or concern you may have. We'll get
to our pole questions here in a little bit and
you'll hear you'll hear some tantalizing thoughts on Elie Dela
Cruz from the guy who I think is MLB Network's
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best personality. That coming up in just about thirty minutes
and West Miller as well. It loaded college basketball weekend.
You know, typically this time of year, we will we've
often in the past we've gotten on a bracketologist and
so earlier this week before UC played Utah, Tarren said
to me, if the Bearcats win, do we want to
(01:14):
get on a bracketologist. And I said yeah, yeah, because
then I think the at least for the Bearcats, the
tournament conversation becomes a little bit more real. There's still
I think, on the outside looking in, with a lot
of work to do in a very uphill battle. But
I said, yes, let's get one. And the Bearcats won.
And then so Tarren and I are sitting around and
he was crafting his playlist for the sexy music he's
(01:36):
playing on Valentine's Day. And you know that there are
some really well known bracketologists and we've gotten them on.
But I often reference the bracket Matrix, which is a
website that kind of aggregates a lot of different bracketologists.
Put him into one place and it's a very nice resource.
And I'm thinking, well, you know, there's a guy who
I I follow him, and then I went to his account.
(01:58):
It turned out I wasn't following him anymore, which I
don't know how that happened, but whatever. There's there's an
account on social media bracket and khy nkhy bracket guy
from our backyard right here in Covington. And it turns
out he's on the bracket matrix. So I'm thinking, you know,
this show could use an official bracketologist. Why don't we
reach out to this guy whose work I have followed.
(02:20):
He seems like he knows what he's doing. He creates
these bubble charts that look like eye charts, look like
those hidden meaning posters people used to put in offices.
Let's get him on. We'll talk about some bubble teams
and see if he's interested in and qualified for the
unpaid gig of official bracketologists of the Moegger Show. He's
(02:41):
got a website nkybracketology dot com. And after the longest
intro to a guest I've ever done, Hunter Sansom is
with us. High Hunter, how's it going?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Hemo good? How are you? Sir? Good?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Are you interested in this job? By the way, I.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Am one interested.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Unpaid gigs are my kind of forte I guess on Twitter.
As I sit here at you see in my office
doing this.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I understand. Well, let me tell you something. If the
powers that be at my company here that you're interested
in unpaid work, you'll be getting a lot of phone calls,
I'm glad you're with us. How did you get into bracketology?
Just a sort of a side gig, a side hustle
something you thought, you know what, this is going to
be my new hobby. Did you have a bracketology hero? Outline?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
This for me? So?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Super interested in college basketball. Wife went to Xavier, I
went to NKU. We were at in school while Xavier
was kind of doing the one seed thing and Cronin
was that you see. So I was just trying to
project out everything and I learned that I was basically
doing bracketology without publishing it anywhere. So I thought maybe
somebody wanted to hear my ramblings. Made a Twitter account.
(03:47):
It has become kind of a passion of mine, and
it's something that I've kind of grown into and really
just enjoy doing. The Conversation with fans are amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, well, I'm sure, I'm sure you're You're hearing a
lot from fans of local schools. How did you get
your work on the bracket matrix?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
So?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I did my first year without the bracket matrix kind
of proved that I was at least putting a coherent
bracket together. Second year, we got connected through some mutual
colleagues on Twitter. Next thing I knew I was getting
published on there. Ended up as the thirteenth rinked bracketologist
in the country last year out of a little over
two hundred and fifty or so. So thankfully doing pretty
(04:24):
well at this for now. So it's a moving target,
but seem to have kind of figured out something I'm
decent at.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
All right, And the website is nkybracketology dot.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Com, Yes, sir, and I keep my most up to
date bracket on there. But at bracket ink why is
the best place to find me? On Twitter? I'm much
more active on that.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Very good, all right, Well, let's talk about some local teams.
I think most have operated under the assumption that if
UC finishes ten and ten in the Big Twelve in
the regular season, that they're going to be in, regardless
of what happens in Kansas City. Now, for that to happen,
they have to go five and two the rest of
the way, So kind of a two part question. Number
one that if they finished ten and ten of the
(05:04):
Big Twelve, do you agree they're almost a lock to
be in? And shy of finishing ten and ten in
the Big twelve. Is there a mark they have to
hit that could at least get them solid consideration on
selection Sunday.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So ten and ten I won't call them a lock
just because they're going to on conference this week, but
ten and ten I would be very, very surprised if
they're not in the tournament.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
They may not even be playing in that first four
games in Dayton.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
At that point, a ten and ten Big twelve team
is a good team, and I think the committee will
recognize that. Leaving the conference tournament out of it for now,
I think five and two is absolutely gonna get them
in the tournament.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
The bubble is very weak.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I have Cincinnati is my fifth team out currently, so
right there along the cut line already coming climbing quick.
I do think that they probably do need to win
at least two more quad one games. The good thing
is they have four opportunities, So if they split those
and win the rest of games, that gets you to
five and two, and I think that puts them in
the tournament.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Do that go ahead and finish? Go ahead?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Oh, I was just.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Gonna say, with regards to the conference tournament, I don't
love playing the game of what if they do this?
Or that in Kansas City, we will evaluate that. I
think once we get there, we'll know a little bit
better about the picture. But that is such a moving target.
It's hard to kind of project that out this far.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I feel like, and I'm going to ask about some
other schools here in a second. I feel like, and
I could I could be making this up in my
own mind, but I feel like oftentimes, on the night
of selection Sunday, I will look at the bracket, I
will look at who got in, I will look at
where teams are seeded, and I will look at who
didn't get in, and I will arrive at the conclusion
the conference tournament week is overrated when it comes to
(06:43):
how they select and see the field.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Is that accurate, yes, sir. Traditionally that is very accurate.
They did last year move a couple of teams, a
couple of seed lines, and through some bracketologists off because
of the conference tournaments. But traditionally they do not at
all kind of really consider that unless you take a
terrible loss, like said, you're losing to the Paul a
couple of years back, all.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Right, But for the to Paul, that was the COVID year,
So it didn't count. But yeah, it felt like that
night at MSG they punted themselves out of out of contention.
Let's let's pivot to the Musketeers. I think the general
consensus is they've got to win out, in large part
because beyond Creighton, the teams they play aren't that good.
Are you on the same wavelength, Yes, sir, gotta win out,
(07:26):
all right, gotta win out. If they do win out
going into New York, are they going to have work
to do?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
They at least can't take a loss to the Paul
Seaton Hall Providence type of team. So it'll depend on
their matchup, but they cannot take another bad loss on Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday of the biggest tournament.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Where do you have them relative to the bracket right now?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Sixteen outs? So one step behind Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
All right? Uh so you see and Xavier are both
neck and neck on the bubble. In certain years, you'll
hear people talk about how big the bubble is. Is
the bubble ever?
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Small?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
This year the bubble is small. I mean, it's it's rough.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I have eight teams, nine teams right now that I'm
considering total. Last year there were like twenty four teams
that I had out that I had lined up and
had to look through this year's bubble just it seems
like these teams are just bad. I don't want to
call Cincinnati or z are bad that their resumes just
aren't there yet. I mean, Zager sitting here, I have
their sheet up right now. They've got quad two losses
(08:28):
and only one quad one win. Cincinnati, I think they
have one quad one. Yeah, they've got the one quadrant
one win, which is a metric and I won't go
too deep into the weeds on the metrics, but they
have the one quadrant one win. That just feels light,
and that feels like a bad resume right now. So
that's why we say they have work to do.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, you know, as we're talking about some of these teams,
and unfortunately you see and Xavier in that mix, you know,
there's obviously a movement to expand the field to seventy
two or seventy six or maybe even beyond. And as
I look at some of these teams this year, I
don't want to watch any of them in the Crown
Jewel event of college basketball.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yes, yeah, I mean we're talking about wake Forest. If
we expanded it to seventy six teams like Wake Forest
and Kansas State would be in the tournament right now.
So it's a double edged sword to expand. I understand
why we want to do it. Some fans like it,
but I think.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
It would take away from a crown jewel.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
As you said, Uh, you mentioned metrics, and you know
you can certainly step into the trap of diving too
deep into the weeds and you bore people. But there
are so many out there right There are so many
that we look at. Ken Palm has obviously talked about
a lot. Bart Torvik, which I have found useful, is
discussed a lot. The net rankings and team sheets are
all out there for the public to consume. Which metrics
(09:41):
should we be paying closest attention to in the weeks
between now in selection Sunday.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
So you mentioned Bart Torovic's website, I am going to
just go ahead and give him a shout out.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Now. He has it's called team sheet Ranks on his website.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
If you go there, it has all of the metrics,
It has all of the resume and quality based metrics
and your QUADR records in one place for you. I
would recommend anybody watching the bubble or watching for a
top seed or whatever. To go there and look at
your resume and your quality averages. So the resume is
what you've done, the quality is your predictives, and you
can get the averages of the three different metrics and
(10:16):
do it that way. The committee has added a couple
of metrics this year, so there's six different ones to
look at. So I think the averages are the best
avenue to do it because that gives you kind of
a consensus of all three on each side.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
What is the seed ceiling and the seed floor? For
the Kentucky Wildcats.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Seed ceiling, I'll still say a one seed, even though
it's very unlikely if they want out, we could talk
about a one seed floor. I can't see them going
below a five or maybe a six, but their wins
are just.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Too good at the top right now.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I know they've got a lot of losses, but their
winds make up for those losses right now.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
There are a lot of bracketologists your one, and then
there are people who do it from a different perspective,
and that's bubble Watch, where they will list teams that
clearly are in, teams that should be in, and as
long as they don't fall apart, and then teams that
still have a lot to do. ESPN does this exercise,
the athletic does this exercise. I looked at ESPNS. They
(11:17):
have the Ohio State Buckeyes as should be in. How
close to the bracket do you have the Buckeyes.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I have them as my first ten seeds, so they're
set their eight spots above the cut line.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
But right now, as I mentioned the bubble.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Being weak, they're clearly in the field. Did I don't
even consider that a bubble team at this point? With
just how bad those teams are down the list?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Did Indiana start to make a case or is it
too little too late? With their win over Michigan State.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Indiana is my fourth team out right now, so they
are very much in the mix.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
All right, So what we have right now is we
have Hoosier fans, Bearcat fans, and Musketeer fans all rooting
against each other. This should make it for a lot
of fun over the next couple of weeks. Absolutely, very good.
I think he did good. I think I mean, you know, again,
it's a completely unpegged, very unglamorous gig. But I'd like
to have you on a couple of times, assuming like
(12:13):
you know, everybody is still kind of in it. Like
my My guess is we're we're going to be talking
about these teams NCAA tournament Bona Fides at least for
a couple of weeks. So I want to bring you back.
Is that okay?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Absolutely? Yes, sir, feel free to reach out. I'm can
pretty much be available any day around this time.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yeah, we don't feel like we don't feel like dealing
with Joe Lonardi's publicist, and we don't want to have
to plug his book, and we don't want to have
on Jerry Pond. We want to have like you. We
want you to be our bracket guy. Yes, sir, I
got you all very good. So the best place to
get your projections? Explain something to me? Because I saw this.
I think the folks at Musketeer Report dot com have
(12:50):
have stolen this from you. But you came up with
a grid right. It's a bubble hate watch guide, and
the first time I looked at it, my head started
to hurt. Uh, describe what it is and will you
be releasing one for this massive college basketball weekend that
starts tonight?
Speaker 2 (13:06):
So I called it a hate watch guide. It actually
came from the Musketeer report board. I try to get
into the boards to look around a little bit, make
sure people don't have questions, kind of offer my advice
or my thoughts with that. They asked for a hate watch,
So I list out all of the games that are
bubble teams and all of the bubble teams. So I
have the last fourh and the first eight to ten out.
(13:28):
So for this weekend, I'm gonna have one out. It's
gonna look a little bit better. I am not a
graphic design person, so that has taken me some time,
but it definitely made.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
My head hurt the first time as well. I will
have one out for tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I'll have it out here probably in a couple of hours,
and it'll have Xavier, Cincinnati, Indiana will all be.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Featured on that.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
You'll know who you need to root for and against
as soon as I publish it.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Now, your your work is becoming my favorite among all
the bracketologists. Probably my second favorite is the guy who
runs the Barkingcrow dot com, which is a website voted
to nit bracketology. Will you be doing any nit bracketology?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So I'm trying to lean in a little bit to
the local flavors, so I will be putting out some
n or there's another Crown it's called the Crown Tournament
that it's for Big ten, Big twelve, and Big East teams,
so that is going to include Zavier, Cincinnati, Indiana will
all be in that kind of category. So I'll have
some work coming out about that. I've got a partner
(14:25):
I'm actually working with on that, but I want to
kind of lean in and make sure that we follow
the postseason of all the local teams as far as
we can.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
All right, well, I cannot thank you enough for doing
this and keep up the good work. I literally like,
I looked yesterday to look at your account and I
didn't see the following. I must have unfollowed you at
some point, which don't. I can barely run my life,
much less my Twitter feeds, so but I have followed
for a while and I like the fact there's somebody
(14:52):
in our backyard who's enthusiastic about this. It's not an
exact science, but it's a lot of fun. So we're
we're gonna call you. Okay, we appreciate the time, and
you passed the audition, all right, thank you?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
So much.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
All right, thank you very much. Follow this guy on
Twitter at bracket n k y Hunter Sansom. He is
the new official bracketologist of The Moegger Show, which is awesome, Tarreen.
How do you think he did give him solid bus
that many times? Yeah, he's gonna drop that, I mean it.
(15:25):
That doesn't need to we know formalities here, Okay, it's
it's a it's a sports talk radio show. Yeah. When
we'll give him some post production notes and drop the sir.
We don't have to do that, but I think it's
a give him an A minus. I'll dock him. I
won't dock him as harshly as you for the sir,
because he gave that to me a couple of times.
Do you think he didn't know my name?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (15:43):
No, how he know your name? Because we'll do that sometimes,
like I'll call say yes, sure, sir, like I don't
know who you are because I'm awful with names. But
this dude's name I know Hunter. Maybe it might be
a first radio hit, so it might be a little
nervous show. And here's the thing we're going this is
how it works on our show. This is how my
life works. Right, We're gonna get this guy on right,
and we're gonna make this guy a star, and we're
(16:03):
gonna make this guy the go to bracket guy. And
then watch every other show, podcast, TV show. Suddenly you're
gonna see this guy on all over the place. This
is what we do. This is what we get people on.
And then suddenly, oh yeah, Lands has now he's on
with Ken Broon and the three sixty guys got him,
(16:25):
and heys Scott Sloan and he's gonna be on the
chatterbox like that's what happens. We give people a shot.
We were the first to have folks on and then
oh yeah, I had a pretty good idea of getting
that guy on. Now we're gonna do it. So we
should make a condition. He could say yes to the
three sixty guys because we're teammates, but we should have
(16:45):
told him that as a condition unless he's getting paid. Now,
we're not gonna keep the guy from making money because
we're not paying him. But he can't go on any
other outlet if he's gonna be the official I'm making
that up. Of course he can go. Is gonna be
our Elie de la Cruz.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
He'll do if you hits with us a day and
he'll get paid somewhere else and leave us.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Correct. Yes, right, it's you know, sort of like when
the Reds will bring in like guys to talk about Redsfest,
Like I'll never forget the year Joey Vada was brought
in to talk about Redsfest and it was like before
anybody knew who he was. And then years later it's like, hey,
can we get Joey Evada one? And we got laughed at.
(17:23):
So we hope that bracket Nky guy just explodes like
Jeff Passing a ESPN. Well, it was when he was
an up and coming guy Yahoo writing books. You you
couldn't have that guy on enough. He was like begging
to come on, now forget it. So that's what I
want to happen here to this dude. But it will
(17:44):
be funny because folks steal our ideas. You know, you
know who you are. Folks steal our ideas, and then
it's like, glad, glad, we could help. Gotta at Bracketnky
dot com. He's got his e webs, he's got his
email on his Twitter feed. So if you're booking another
show and you're like, god, you know what there's Mo
(18:06):
and Tarn doing the legwork. I'll just steal their guest.
There's the email address. Go ahead and email. I enjoyed that.
That was good. Twenty two after four o'clock, we'll get
to our poll questions. We'll hear Greg Amsinger from MLB
Network on Ellie Dela Cruz coming up on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
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