2/14/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Your chance. Do it on our website. Credit that's credit.
Enter it now.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
I've listened to Kyle Tequila's to the podcast I can't
even talk. I've listened to Kyle Tequila's podcast. I really
got to know if his name is really Kyle Tequila,
although I don't know that he spells his last name
like the like the stuff you put it on, Margarita,

(00:32):
How you doing five after three? This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
I mowgor. Thank you so much for listening. I hope
your weekend is off to a great start. And if
your weekend is not off to a great start, well
I hope it gets going here quickly. Thank you for
spending your Friday afternoon with us, or at least a
part of it. In one hour, the ESPN fifteen thirty

(00:54):
debut of Nky Bracket Guy. We know the guy's name
is Hunter. I've listened to his podcast. He's on the
bracket Matrix. You know, this is the time of year
we start getting on people who who do bracketology, and
in years past we've had on Jerry Palm, and we've
gotten on Joel Andardi and those people are great, but
we got a guy in our backyard. He's on the
bracket matrix. Like you know, we don't. We don't need

(01:15):
one of those folks. So we got nky bracket guy.
I am excited to talk with him in one hour
about college basketball teams on the bubble, whether some area
teams can play themselves off the bubble and into the bracket,
whether some teams can play themselves from not being on
the bubble to being on the bubble, and more that
comes up in one hour. I'm excited. I'm excited. I

(01:37):
hope you are too. Full show Rundown is available on
Twitter at mullager thanks to Emery Federal Credit Union, your
credit union with heart since nineteen thirty nine. Good to
Emery FCU dott Or. I got a tweet just a
few minutes ago about how I feel. I guess I've
made a big deal this. I even't felt great this week,

(01:58):
and I know there's a strand going around and whatever
it is. I slept last night for almost twelve hours,
almost twelve hours, and so today is the first day
day I feel semi good. I think I'm like one
more good night of sleep away from like feeling like
myself again. So thank you for bearing with me. I

(02:19):
know at times this week I haven't sounded great, and
my apologize for that. I've been trying to grind through.
I've tested for COVID. It's nothing like that. So I
feel good today. I'm not stuffy, I'm not as achy,
I'm not as tired. I'm raring to go. We'll see
if that holds up. For the next few hours, you'll
hear Greg Amsinger from MLB Network on Ellie Dela Cruz.

(02:40):
I'm stoked for this Red season for a lot of
different reasons. There's primarily aside from you know, just seeing
if they can finally get to the playoffs and maybe
maybe advancing the playoffs for the first time in three decades.
This could be the year of Ellie Dela Cruz in baseball.
It really could. Now. Is he gonna be show Hey
Tani or Aaron Judge? No, maybe not, But to be honest,

(03:02):
the idea is for him to be clustered with that
elite group of names, and I think it can happen.
Will it? We will discuss. I am an enormous fan
of a lot of the folks who cover the Cincinnati Bengals.
A lot of the folks who cover closely sports around town,
and I think we're really lucky here. I'm not saying

(03:24):
this to Panna, to anybody. I think we're really lucky here.
And I think at times, the sports fans we take
for granted how good the coverage is, and how good
the coverage is in some very non traditional platforms. Right
I think we have a lot of folks who cover
the pro and college teams here in town who are
really really good. And I love the different perspectives. I

(03:47):
love the different platforms, I love the different opinions, and
so I think we're really lucky here. Obviously, everybody who
covers the Bengals is talking about t Higgins and Joe Burrow.
That's it's not going away. It's arguably the biggest story
in the NFL right now. So I'm reading Paul Danner

(04:09):
Junior's mail bag, and Paul joins our show every Tuesday,
though he's I guess, going to be at Disney next week,
so he's not going to be on our show on Tuesday.
Maybe we'll find a replacement, Maybe we'll see if somebody
sit in for But anyway, I'm reading Paul Danner Junior's
mail bag Theathletic dot Com and he's asked a question
here is tagging T Higgins's second time on the table.

(04:29):
Obviously T Higgins last year played on the franchise tag,
And the person who writes the question, Michael C. Continues,
it seems like it should be, but I feel like
all I hear is extend him or let him walk
is the options. And Paul's response is I've gotten this
sense that neither side has interest in forcing Tiggin and
forcing Higgins to play on the franchise tag again, And

(04:52):
he continues, it's within the Bengals rights, of course, but
I think trying to force him to do it again
would cause irreparable harm to the CULD sure in dynamics
of the team. I think everyone is aware of that.
So essentially that's Paul who has locked in and has
connected to that franchise as anybody has covered the team
for a very long time, does a great job and

(05:16):
a good friend of mine. So he throws water on
the suggestion that, you know, the Bengals could maybe should
tag T Higgins. Now, conversely, my guy James Rapine, you
know James's history with this show, produced this show for
about four years. Very good friend of mine, somebody we
have on the show all the time, joined me on

(05:36):
Friday afternoon of last week. And James, what he does
covering the team is awesome and across multiple platforms, and
he's plugged in. He has sources, he talks to people,
and he's not afraid to share an opinion either, which
I love. James is of the belief that tagging not
tagging T Higgins would be quote unforgivable. In fact, that's

(06:00):
exactly what he wrote. Not tagging T Higgins at this
point would be unforgivable, and he continues, the Bengals better
tag him parentheses. I think they will. What they do
after that is one thing, But unless you have a
time machine, the best thing they can do is use
the tag on Higgins when the window opens next week.
The tag window opens on Tuesday, so we could get

(06:21):
a better idea of what the plan moving forward with T.
Higgins is. So this is interesting to me because two
people whose opinions I respect, to people who I think
are really plugged in, to people whose work I devour
and enjoy and take advantage of and steal from, and
two people that I have on this show for their
perspective all the time, have divergent views of what the

(06:44):
path is going to be and what the path should
be as it relates to t Higgins. This is interesting
to me. So there's a couple of questions here. One
is should the Bengals PLoP the franchise tag on T Higgins?
And the answer to me is pretty obvious, Yes, yes
you should if you really really, really really really want

(07:07):
him to play for you next year, and if you
really really really really have designs on signing him long term.
I want the Bengals to sign t Higgins long term.
I've made no bones about that. I'm far from alone.
And I hear the counter to that, which is, you know,
you can only pay so much money to guys who

(07:28):
play the same position. You've got to fix the rest
of your team. And I think, number one, there's the creativity, right,
there's the creativity you could use to get it done. Financially,
there is the cap space the Bengals have, and the
cap space that the Bengals can create by cutting players
that have expired, their usefulness has expired. And I think

(07:52):
if you're good in the front office with drafting and
signing free agents, who makes sense and finding some guys
who fit that might not be the splashtiest type of guys,
but they fit what your scheme is and you can
coach them up a little bit. I think there's a
way to do this. I think there's a way to
do this. So the answer for me is, if you
want T Higgins to be a Bengal next year, and

(08:13):
you do not want him to hit free agency, and
you're willing to work out a deal, but you want
to be the only team that negotiates with him, and
you have the failsafe of having him play under the
tag again this coming season, if you can't get a
deal done with him, kind of a no brainer for me,
tag T Higgins. That's the answer to that question. The
bigger question, though, is, and this has been This has

(08:37):
been a really interesting last couple of months for a
lot of different reasons. Number One, the Bengals played really
well down the end of the season, down the stretch
drive of the season, which I think to a degree,
gave us some optimism for what's next. But more than anything,
it's Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow has started to talk about T. Higgins.
Joe wants T to be on the Bengals. You may
have heard he has made no bones about it. He

(08:59):
is heated it. He has now stated this publicly more
than a dozen times. There is no ambiguity, there's no
great area. He wants t Higgins to get paid. He
wants t Higgins to sign a long term contract extension.
That's what he wants, and that has It hasn't even
changed the conversation. It's created conversations that probably we're not
going to exist had Joe not started on this Gotta

(09:23):
sign T Higgins blitz right after the Dallas Cowboys game
on December the ninth. So we know what Joe wants.
We know how the conversation has changed and how it's restarted.
We know what the discourse out there is. What we
don't know is if the Bengals have dramatically changed their
plans it relates to T Higgins. Like we keep talking

(09:45):
about how well, you can't let him get to free agency,
and that's why you would tag him right to not
let him get to free agency. Can't let him get
to free agency. Gotta pay him what he wants, Gotta
figure out a way to get it done, Gotta be creative.
Here's what Joe Burrow wants have the Bengals really changed
their mind. There was the Duke Tobin Q and A
last week, and you know, he didn't come out and

(10:07):
say we're gonna let Tee Higgins walk. He also didn't
come out and say we're gonna sign T Higgins Duke Tobin.
I think a lot of people right into it and said, okay,
well you know T's probably gone, But he didn't totally
dismiss the idea they were going to bring him back.
But when this when this was being talked about a
year ago, and this was being talked about at the
franchise deadline last year, during the franchise window last year,

(10:30):
it was they're gonna tag him and they're probably not
really gonna negotiate with them with them, which they didn't.
Right they tagged him and then it was like he's
gonna sign because he has no choice. He's gonna sign
the tag tender. And it was a matter of when's
he gonna sign it, not what will they get a
deal done? There were real, no real negotiations and the
reasons are probably valid, right, concerns about his injury history

(10:53):
still there. Understanding they're gonna have to pay Jamar Chase.
Now they're gonna have to probably pay him even more,
understanding that they're gonna have a lot of areas to
address on the roster financially. And that wasn't That wasn't
gonna go away, and that didn't go away. So I
guess what I want to know is is we talk
about what Joe wants, and we talk about what the
Bengals can do, and we talk about what they can

(11:15):
and can't do with the franchise tag. For me, this
is pretty obvious. If you want him to play for
you next year, tag him. If you do not want
him to hit free agency in a couple of weeks,
tag him. But all along it kind of felt like
the Bengals were okay with him getting to free agency.
We talked about that in July and in August, and

(11:37):
in September and October and in November, we talked about
Tea basically playing his final season, basically playing his final games.
When when he was brought out as one of the
three captains before that Dallas game, it was because or
the way we talked about it was they did that
because this this we're going into Tea's last month with
the team, the last month of those three together. Why

(11:59):
were we doing that? We were doing that because, by
all appearances and by all accounts, the Bengals were comfortable
letting Tea walk. They wanted him for one more year,
thought that the best way to win a title this
season was to run it back with t in twenty
twenty four. I guess had an inkling that he wouldn't
make much of a fuss out of being tagged, and

(12:19):
then they would look at each other. They were not
going to pay him what he wants. He was going
to hit free agency and we're good. So I guess
there's two ways of doing this. Number One, do you
want the Bengals to tag T Higgins? I think the
answer to that question comes down to do you want
t to be on the team this year, not even
twenty twenty six, not even twenty twenty seven, not even

(12:40):
twenty twenty eight. Do you want T Higgins to be
a Bengal in twenty twenty five with the clock kind
of ticking now? Do you want him to be on
the team next year? And are you okay with a
very similar set of circumstances, albeit with him making more
money this coming season? Where Tea is back, he's playing
on a one year contract, and we do this whole
thing again at the end of the same season and

(13:01):
maybe have another year where Joe Burrow talks about the
need to extend t Higgins. If they can't get something done,
do you tag him just to buy some time knowing
you're gonna get a deal done again. The answer to
me is yes, I'm tagging him, and at worst case,
he's on my team next year, and best case, I
get a deal done. And there's a lot more flexibility

(13:22):
with getting the deal done while he's on the franchise
tag than having him play under a one year franchise
tag contract. But the other part of this, and the
part that's hard to answer, is what do the Bengals want?
Are they still okay with him getting the free agency?
Has franchise tagging him always been a possibility that's on

(13:47):
the table? Has it not been on the table? But
it's on the table, like this is. And I'm giving
you a lot here, and I'm asking a lot of
different questions, many of which we don't have answers to.
But there's so much interesting stuff. There's so many interesting
components to this. Not the least of which is and
I'm certainly not calling anybody out here, two people who

(14:09):
I think are as plugged in as anybody, two people
who have a pro's perspective, two people who have a
who are smart, rational, sensible people have divergent opinions on
what should happen and what will happen. Well, if those
guys don't know, those guys can't come to a consensus,
if those guys have different opinions, and clearly we are,

(14:30):
and I think it speaks to the grand mystery of
this whole thing. Right, Joe Burrow's been talking about t
Higgins anywhere there's a microphone put in front of him
for over two months. Now. What we don't know is
what the Bengals are truly thinking and what their plan
really is with t Higgins. Like you hear people saying,
we'll read people, they've got to get it done, can't

(14:53):
let them get to free agency, And I don't disagree,
But what if all along they've kind of themselves come
to an understanding, Yeah, we're gonna let him hit free agency,
and then you know, it's on to what's next. If
these guys don't know, and you know, one may know,
one may not I mean, then if these guys don't know.

(15:14):
And by the way, I could do this with a
lot of people who cover the team, because I've talked
to a lot of folks. You think he's coming back,
I'll hear yes, you think he's coming back. I'll hear no,
I think they're gonna tag Tea And maybe some will
say absolutely not. You know, everybody around the NFL is
talking about this, writing about this. It's one of the
leading off season storylines. Joe Burrow has made it one

(15:36):
of the leading off season storylines. We do not know.
I think you and I both know what Joe wants,
and we know that if if the Bengals want to
give Joe what he wants, that you could argue the
best way to do it is just do not let
t get to free agency, tag him and then figure
it out. But is that what the Bengals really want

(15:59):
or are they okay letting him walk, which we assumed
for basically an entire year they were. You know, there
is there is a there is a there's a part
of me that like every day I'm like, Okay, what
more to this is there? But it really is truly
one of the most fascinating dynamics. I think in the
recent history of any pro sports team here in town,

(16:22):
there's never been anything like this. There have been a
lot of free agents. There have been a lot of
free agents that you can make cases for signing and
free agents, you can make cases for letting walk, and
free agents who had maybe a year or just a
couple of months left on their deal, and you can
make the case for trading. Like been been a lot
of there have been nothing like this. Man, I've been
following Cincinnati sports my entire life. There's been nothing like this.

(16:46):
Uber popular player who has stated that he wants to
stay here, plays the same position as a guy who
happens to be the best in the sport, MVP caliber
dude making the case for him, no real idea what
the fallout is going to be if the arter back
Joe Burrow doesn't get what he wants, roles in place
that allow you to keep the guy, not letting him
hit free agency. If you do that, the potential collateral

(17:09):
damage you're dealing with here, Like, there's so much to it.
There's so much to it. Frankly, it's a sports talk
radio host dream. If they do the right thing, it
could be a fans dream as well, but what they
do it's I would tag him, would you? And do
we think the Bengals have dramatically altered how they view

(17:31):
t Higgins just because what Joe Burrow has said? Our
phone numbers if you want to jump in five point
three seven four nine, fifteen thirty and eight six six
seven oh two three seven seven six. I've got people
sending me Valentine's Day poems. I just looked in my
email mall at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. I had

(17:51):
a listener here who emails all the time, and we
appreciate that he's setting Lance and I both Valentine's Day poems.
All right, oh wait, maybe we'll do that a little
bit later on to read it. Well, okay, here you go.
This is from Chalsh. Shorty, roses are red, violets are blue.
Love is lame and so are the Bengals. Uh hey

(18:17):
for creativity, Well love is You might think that love
is not lame. I mean, I I'm I don't know
uh Chalsh's uh you know, dating story here, but I mean,
you know, you might say the Bengals are lame. Okay,
I don't know Love's not lame. I love love too,
I love love. It's Valentine's Day. Wow, we are way late.

(18:39):
I love being late for breaks. Twenty three minutes after
three o'clock. NKY Bracket Guy coming up back to four
five Valentine's Day poems. I love it. Uh. Let's see
at Moegger on Twitter. Thanks to Delts Dental, Delta Dental
is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all good adulta Dental.
Oh dot com are the cat's playing with house money tomorrow?

(19:02):
Not necessarily, but dot dot dot do coming up at
three thirty five and more as we look ahead to
the weekend. In college basketball, which starts tonight, NKU plays
Green Bay on ESPN fifteen thirty. It's twenty four after
three on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. For more than
two hundred years, the experts at you See Health have
been giving heart patients a chance at better outcomes. That's
foundless care you can trust, Expect more at UCHealth dot com.
Southbound seventy five at Ronald Reagan Highway, the right lane
blocked from an accident. Looking at traffic stuff and go

(19:43):
from Sheperd Lane about a five minute to lay northbound
seventy one. It's an accident off on to the left shoulder.
That is at Kenwood Road. I'm at Ezelek with traffic.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radio. Joe Burrow will
not ask for a trade, at least not when you're
thinking he will. That coming up at four h five,
Terreen's going to be playing sexy Valentine's Day music all
afternoon long. And uh, do you want to see with
with everyone? If I can guess the artist, is that

(20:16):
what you're going to try to do to me? This
is easy? This is Ralph Tresvan. Yeah, I try to
give you an easy one. This song came out in
nineteen ninety one. Agree where you went in nineteen ninety one,
I was graduating from the eighth grade. My Valentine, my
Valentine's Day, my Valentine that year, or I should put it.
The girl I wanted to be my Valentine that year

(20:38):
was Kelly Rovner. She wouldn't having any of it. And
you'll find if you continue to play songs from when
I was, you know, in junior high or high school,
or even college. That's a recurring theme. So there you go,
all afternoon, Taran playing sexy Valentine's Day music. This is
this is your favorite holiday? Am I correct? Top three?
Top three? So like for me, it's it's it's Thanksgiving,

(21:02):
it's Memorial Day and Christmas. Valentine's Day is in the
top three for you.

Speaker 5 (21:06):
Yes, it comes in number two, right after Christmas and
Memorial Day is three.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Okay, very good, All right, well all afternoon. Do you
have do you have a special Valentine's Day tradition? Uh? No, okay,
neither know why except playing sexy Valentine's Day music coming
out of the breaks on our show. We're a little
bit late here. We're gonna get to Vernon and you

(21:32):
five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty, we'll look
at the weekend in college basketball and are the twenty
twenty five Reds just like the twenty twenty five Bengals.
That insanely good sports talk radio topic is coming up
on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
two hundred years, the experts that you see health have
foundless care you can trust, expect more at uchelp dot com.
Southbound seventy five at Ronald Reagan Highway, the right lane
blocked from an accident. Looking at traffic, stuff and go

(22:14):
from Shepherd Lane. About a five minute delay northbound seventy one.
It's an accident off on to the left shoulder. That
is at Kenwood Road. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
More sexy Valentines. Let me say find tradition. I have
no idea who this is. What was transmit a part
of a new edition? Is this new new edition or
old new edition? Old new edition nineteen? I believe a
good by the way really quick. I mentioned this at

(22:45):
the top of the show. I haven't been feeling great
and it's really just a killer cold. I also I've
had next soarness, and so I I went to orthosincey
this morning for them to take a look at my neck.
And I saw our friend doctor and Alaskez and uh
and and everything's okay. It's it's nothing dramatic, but but
he gave me a prescription. So at ten o'clock this morning,

(23:08):
I drive back to the West side of Cincinnati, and
I go to CVS, one of the CVS stores there,
And you want to talk about like a sausage fest
CVS on the morning of Valentine's Day with every man
on the West side of Cincinnati buying a card, looking

(23:29):
for a chocolate rose, a box of chocolates, some sort
of stuffed animal. I mean, just doing people waited till
the last This is what men do you know? I mean,
I mean, I get it. I'm a man too, But
what do we do? I mean? And I all I
had to do was pick up a prescription, so I
was good. I got to avoid all that I bought.
I bought my stuff last night. I mean, if you

(23:52):
got in line this morning, like you were like typically CVS,
you're not gonna wait more than what two or three
people deep in line? Right, the line was like ten
to twelve deep. And I mean the card aisle full
and like men just taking whatever card they could get
because they were running low. So if like you needed
a card for your wife, there were men in there

(24:13):
who are like, well, there are no more cards for
my wife. I'll just get one for my daughter and
cross out daughter and write in wife I mean you could.
They should sell like concessions on Valentine's Morning at a
place like CVS, and like I walk in, I'm like, man,
what is going on here? And I'm like, ah, yes,
everybody's in the candy aisle. Everybody's in the Cardisle Sports

(24:33):
headlines the service of a Kelsey Chevrolet home of lifetime
power train protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family
to yours for life kelseyshev dot Com. No major sports headlines.
The remainder of the rest of the Reds. Huh, that's redundant.
All the Reds players who haven't reported yet have until
tomorrow to report. Spring training underway. First Cactus League games,

(24:55):
two of them a week from tomorrow. College basketball Tonight,
NKU battles Green, a road game for the Norse. By
the way, Doug Gottlieb is their coach, sports talk radio
host and college basketball coach. They've won two games this season.
There is an excellent story on him and how he's
juggling both. And I'll be honest with you, I have
no idea. Well, he's not juggling both. His team has

(25:17):
won two games. It's a great read. Go get it
at the athletic and if they get a subscription based
on that free plug, I should get some money. The
game tonight at seven on ESPN fifteen thirty. Also tonight,
Indiana battles UCLA in Bloomington. Tomorrow Xavier's home forward to
Paul another must win another game for the Musketeers. They
will not get credit for winning, but could torpedo their

(25:39):
season if they lose. Cincinnati's an Iowa State tomorrow night.
I don't like the term house money as it relates
to this game, but let's be honest, this is one
that if you were if you were looking at the
final ten games, in the final eight games, this along
with the Houston games, were ones you just figured they
weren't going to win. At the same time, I don't
want to see something non competitive, and let's let's face it,

(26:01):
with the Bearcats this year, we've seen non competitive games.
I want to see something that would suggest that offensively
they're good enough to score against a team that's in
the top ten of every defensive efficiency metric there is.
The Bearcats have been great offensively against not good defensive teams.
Can that change tomorrow? They're twelve and a half point

(26:22):
Underdog's four o'clock on seven hundred WLW. Tomorrow, it's UK
at Texas on ESPN fifteen thirty. Also this weekend, Miami's
at Western Michigan. Dayton takes on Duquesne. Sunday, Ohio State
battles Michigan, and NKU plays the second game of its
Wisconsin tour against Milwaukee. Cyclones are on the road tonight
against Fort Wayne, then on the road on Saturday tomorrow

(26:44):
against Bloomington, then turn around and play a day game
on Sunday against Indye. Puck drops Sunday afternoon at three o'clock.
There you go. Let's talk to other folks. Five point
three seven four nine, fifteen thirty. Vernon, you're on ESPN
fifteen thirty. Thank you for hanging on. How are you?

Speaker 6 (27:02):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 1 (27:03):
I can hear you? Can you hear me?

Speaker 7 (27:05):
Oh?

Speaker 8 (27:05):
Yeah, yeah I can. Okay, okay, I've been hearing hearing
this stuff. I've never called you guys before, really.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
But I just got to.

Speaker 8 (27:12):
I think I talked to Terrence one other time when
he was doing another show in your station while back.
But the Bengals, if you watch.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
The Super Bowl.

Speaker 8 (27:24):
Back and I think they can continue to draft decent receivers.
I mean can't get right. He's kind of a number
eighty one we call him can't get right. I mean
by the time the season stars, who knows what his
boy's gonna be living at. I mean, he can be
living in a shelter. But you can get receivers in

(27:45):
the second and third round. You got to protect your quarterback.
If you saw those hits that Mahomes was taken, uh
and you saw the hits that Barrel took this year, Boode,
you can't be taking hits like that on a billion
dollars quarterback, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
And you.

Speaker 8 (28:03):
Can get the pieces, you can get safe. This is
why I like the defensive coordinator because he can coach
these guys up. If anybody watched them when they played
the Chargers, they lost that game, But the Chargers had
a lot of second, third, and fourth round starters on
their team that went to the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Mine didn't.

Speaker 8 (28:24):
Chargers managed the playoffs. They didn't get nowhere. They coached that,
they coached their players up. That's what you need that
type of defensive coordinator for. If you let it T
Higgins walk, that's twenty two million you get rid of
dodgeball man playing middle linebacker. That's another seven million. You
start cutting somebody, just catch, you can wind to win

(28:45):
almost one hundred million dollars to spend, and you can
get some great tackles to protect your quarterback. And if
anybody remembers the Cincinnati Bengals, the very first pick they
ever made of the organization was the.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Offensive Yeah, all right, so a couple so a couple
of a couple of things are really quick. I think
they're good at tackle. I think they're happy with what
they have a tackle. I think they expect Marius Mims
to be a really good player. And I think they're
happy with Orlando Brown. So on the offensive line, I
think they're looking for upgrades at guard, and I would be,

(29:19):
but they need help on the offensive Alex. They have
to they have to do better than those guys, and
and so I were in agreement there. Anybody who watched
them would would understand that. I think though, if you
look at the Eagles, right they have two offensive linemen who,
if you look at the total value of their contract,
are I think among the ten highest paid in the

(29:40):
sport right. Landon Dickerson is one of them, and uh
Jordan Mylotta is the other. So they have two highly
paid offensive linemen. They also have two wide receivers who
are among the highest paid in the sport. They've also
got a quarterback under a major, massive contract, and they
signed Saquon Barkley. But they were creative with the money.
They were creative with aj Rounds money and creative with

(30:01):
Demante Smith's money. So what I think my point is here.
You're right, they have to fix the defense on every level,
and they need to be better on the offensive line.
I don't think keeping t Higgins should preclude them from
doing that. Number One, I think you as a front
office can be creative with the money you're given to Tea,
with Joe's contract and with Jamar's Number two, if you

(30:24):
cut loose Cordel Vohlson, Jermaine Burton, if you do not
bring back Mike Hilton, if you move on from Zach Moss,
if if you if you cut Sam Hubbard, who I
think they'll do a restructure with. But if you cut them,
there's a whole slew of guys that if you cut,
you're gonna save a lot of money and probably create

(30:45):
close to one hundred million dollars in cap space, and
that's what and that's without moving on from t Higgins
and it's without moving on from Trey Hendrickson. So I
think there's still money to spend, and they also get
picks in the draft. And if you look at what
the Eagles did where they dominated the game on Sunday,
was upfront on defense, with guys they drafted and with

(31:06):
free agents they signed that weren't huge dollar free agents.

Speaker 8 (31:10):
Yeah, so we so we probably maybe get a we
don't want to say the word scouting department? Can we
can we say that where Bengals.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Can, Can the scouting department do better? That's completely fair?

Speaker 9 (31:21):
Do we have one?

Speaker 1 (31:23):
Well? I mean, look, yes they do. It's not a
big one. But so okay, that's probably not gonna change. Right,
So it's in comment on the scouting department to do better,
and it's incoming on on Duke Tobin to do better. Now, Look,
Duke last year had a draft that I think we're
all pretty bullish on. Right. Amarius Mims looks good, Draye
Burton doesn't, but Chris Jenkins looks like a player. McKinley

(31:46):
Jackson looks like a player. If you go back two
years ago, Chase Brown certainly feels like a guy that
they're going to get credit for taking. But they've got
to nail it in the early rounds on defense, and
in recent years that hasn't happened.

Speaker 8 (31:58):
They've they've got to be able to play on Sunday.
We we don't have time to watch a guy to
route anymore.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
He's got to play right now.

Speaker 6 (32:06):
I get right down there, pick him up. You know,
I got an extra room.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Call.

Speaker 6 (32:13):
Oh, be careful, I know that much.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
I would I would get a pretty I would get
cash for the security deposit. Okay, if you do that,
Vernon again, call again. I appreciate it. I The t
Higgins thing for me is not about ignoring the other
areas of the team. It's I think it's about understanding
what they already have financially right they they have like

(32:40):
forty five million dollars in cap space, and if they're
proactive with guys, they should move on from You know,
we all, like Sam Hubbard, I think most of us
expect them to do at the very least some sort
of offer to him a la Joe Mixon, where hey, restructure,
take a pay cut, but we bring it back. But
if you just want to cut him, You're going to
save a lot of money. If you cut Moss, you're

(33:00):
gonna save a lot of money. If you cut Volsen,
you're gonna save a lot of money. If you cut
Jermaine Pratt, you're gonna save a lot of money. If
if you cut Ginos. Still like those five players, right,
that's a lot of money. So if you take all
of that and add it to what you already have,
it's close to one hundred million dollars. And that's not
even accounting for t Higgins, and it's obviously still including

(33:21):
Trey Hendrickson. So and then there's you know, Joe talked
about this on one of the podcasts last week, like,
you can get creative. If you look at Philadelphia, the
two wide receivers they have are among the top eleven
highest paid players at their position in overall contract contract
value and overall value of the contract, but neither our

(33:44):
making this year, neither made this past season a salary
that would make them the top two or three highest
paid at their position. So be creative there, and regardless
of what you do with t Higgins, regardless of what
you do with Trey Hendrickson, the league is gonna give
you this year. They have six picks, going to give
him six picks in the draft. The league is gonna

(34:04):
Here are six opportunities to draft players who could help you.
The Eagles drafted to last year who ended up being
finalists for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award. The
Eagles blueprint it's not easy to follow. If so, everybody
would follow it. But the Eagles blueprint did not involve
going bargain basement at wide receiver help they signed in

(34:27):
free agency, or running back to an expensive contract in
an age where nobody does that. So keeping T Higgins
should not preclude them from doing that. Now. If you
tag them, well, that dollar amount is going to be
pretty much set in stone. There's no wiggle room there.
What you're hoping to do if you want to bring

(34:48):
him back is tag him, keep him from getting the
free agency and hope that he makes due on his
word that he really wants to stay in Cincinnati and
he negotiates with you, and he negotiates with you a
contract that gives you the kind of flexi ability you're
looking for. Now. The X factor in all this could
be what Jamar Chase demands and what he deserves. But

(35:08):
I simply, and I could be dead wrong about this time,
will tell I do not subscribe to the belief that
if you give Jamar Chase what he's looking for, and
if you keep t Higgins here a long term, that
you are sinking your chances of making the team better elsewhere.
Some of the Eagles, if the Eagles of the blueprint

(35:29):
right now, some of the Eagles most valuable free agents,
including on the offensive line mcguy Becton. Now, is there
a guy like that out there?

Speaker 10 (35:36):
Well?

Speaker 1 (35:37):
In the NFL, dozens of players hit free agency. Many
of them are guys just like him, dudes who maybe
didn't play up to the level of expectation with the
team that drafted them. But you go, you know what,
we can coach this guy up. We can help him
increase his value. With McKay Beckton, he changed positions on
the offensive line and he was a stalwart for that team.
Zach Bond is another example. A guy signs a one

(35:57):
year contract not worth all that much, and now he's
one of the prize free agents in the entire sport
after one season in Philadelphia. There's a whole list of
guys like that. You've got to find the right ones.
You've got to get them, and then you've got to
make him fit. You've got to coach them up. You've
got to find ways to get out of them, maybe
what other teams couldn't get out of them. And you've

(36:19):
got to nail it in the draft. I'm making it
sound very easy when you talk about the Eagles blueprint,
it does sound very easy. But like I've seen, folks
have talked about this on social media of at the
last day or so, the size of the Bengal scouting department. Yes,
I wish they had one hundred people in that department.
That that's not going to change. I want the people

(36:41):
who aren't in that department to do better work. I
want that department the personnel department, I'll fold scouting into it.
I want that department to do better in the draft
and in free agency. Bengals used free agency this past offseason,
spent money on guys. It didn't work. That's got to
change and the drafting has to change. And if those
has changed for the better, then you're gonna be fine,

(37:01):
even if you're still paying Ta Higgins a lot of money.
Nine away from four o'clock, Uh, we are we're basically
auditioning for a new favorite bracketologist, and uh, I have
really high hopes for our guy coming up at four
oh five, the n k Y bracket guy Tarn. Have
we learned his last name yet? Yes, I just don't

(37:22):
know how to pronounce it. Okay, Hunter, his first name's Hunter. Minutes. Okay,
what is it like? You want to even take a
stab at it? Because I listened to his podcast he
only says his first name. He's like a like a
kiss one oh seven DJ. Right, Hey, I'm blaze right
like that sort of thing. All right, Well, the n
k Y.

Speaker 5 (37:42):
Bracket guy sand somem Sandsom a n s O M.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Sansom. That's not that hard Sansom, Hunter Sansom. On his podcast,
he just goes by Hunter. Maybe he doesn't want anybody
to know we've just blown his cover. He'll join us
coming up at four four five, and you'll hear an
MLB analyst say a bunch of really nice things about
Elie Dela Cruz. And we'll hear from West Miller on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (38:12):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center for more than
two hundred years. The experts at you See Health have
found this care you can trust. Expect more at UCHealth
dot com. Southbound seventy one before Western Row Road, the
right lane blocked off from an accident. Looking at about

(38:34):
a ten minute delay back from State Route forty eight
on Montana Avenue. Use caution near I seventy four, reports
of an object on the roadway. I'm at ezalk with traffic.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
This reporting is sponsored by Rapid Radios. Rapid Radios are in.
I've heard this before, but I don't know who it is.
Hang on, this isn't color me bad? Is it okay? Maybe? Maybe? Maybe?
I don't give me a time frame. Is is everything

(39:08):
that I'm gonna be listening to from like the ninth
the eighties and nineties? Yes, okay, this guy will be
performing here this Saturday night. Same up. Look Keith Sweat,
Keith Sweat, I like I wanna that's not this though,
Keith Sweat, make it last forever making that's what this
is called. Yes, all right? Worse? He performing this weekend

(39:30):
the Heritage Benson. He's at the He's at the arena yes,
he sweat is he's by himself?

Speaker 5 (39:35):
No, I believe it's Helm Anthony Hamilton's silk and one twelve.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
All right, I know who Keith Sweat is very good.
I'm I'm enjoying this. I'm enjoying this. You try to
pull this crap though on Sweetest Day Friday, I'm not.
I'm not doing. I don't do. We don't do Sweetest Day.
We barely do Valentine's Day. We barely. But so but
this is fine. It's good. It's Valentine's Day, and so
I'm excited to hear h your collection of Valentine's Day

(40:02):
sexy Valentine's Day music. Throughout the course of the afternoon,
we are going to see if what we say, his
name is Hunter, what's his last name? Shalom Sansong Sandsng,
And we're gonna see if this guy can be the
official bracketologist in the Moeger Show. Big big opportunity for
him coming up next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Hey,
what could you do with an extra.

Speaker 11 (40:22):
Soent Now your chance to win one thousand dollars enter
this nationwide keyword on our website.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Bonus. That's bonus, bonus, Enter it now, bonus.

Speaker 10 (40:32):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
It's at five minutes after four o'clock. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty on Moegor. 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

(40:54):
to it. They ask our three locations Hamilton, Cincinnati, and
Northern Kentucky. You him as dot com. They'll handle any
insurance need or question or concern you may have. We'll
get to our poll 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

(41:15):
Network's 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 U See played Utah, Tarren
said to me, if the Bearcats win, do we want

(41:37):
to 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 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

(41:58):
music he's playing on Valence Time's Day. And you know,
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

(42:20):
went to his account and it turned out I wasn't
following him anymore, which I don't know how that happened,
but whatever, There's an account on social media bracket and
khy NK why 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

(42:41):
whose work I have followed. 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 un paid gig of official
bracketologist of the Moegger Show. He's got a website, nky

(43:05):
bracketology 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 9 (43:13):
Hemo good? How are you?

Speaker 6 (43:14):
Sir? Good?

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Are you interested in this job? By the way, I
am one interested.

Speaker 9 (43:19):
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 (43:27):
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 gonna be
my new hobby. Did you have a bracketology hero? Outline?
This for me?

Speaker 9 (43:46):
So 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.

(44:09):
It has become kind of a passion of mine, and
it's something that I've kind of grown into and really
just enjoyed doing. The conversation with fans are amazing.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
Yeah, well, I'm sure you're hearing a lot from fans
of local schools. How did you get your work on
the bracket matrix?

Speaker 9 (44:26):
So 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 the little
over two hundred and fifty or so, so thankfully doing

(44:47):
pretty well at this for now. So it's a moving target,
but seemed to have kind of figured out something I'm
decent at.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
All right, And the website is nky bracketology dot.

Speaker 9 (44:57):
Com, Yes, sir, and I keep my most up to
date brack 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 (45:05):
Very good? All right, Well, let's let's talk about some
local teams. I think most have operated under the assumption
that if U see 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, if that if they finished

(45:26):
ten and ten in the 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 9 (45:42):
So ten and ten I won't call them a lock
just because they're going to on conference was weak, but
ten and ten I would be very, very surprised if
they're not in the tournament. They may not even be
playing in that first four games in Dayton. 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

(46:04):
and two is absolutely gonna get them in the tournament.
The bubble is very weak. I have Cincinnati is my
fifth team out currently, so right there along the cut
line already come and 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

(46:25):
that puts them in the tournament.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
Do that go ahead and finish? Go ahead?

Speaker 9 (46:29):
Oh, I was just 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 (46:44):
I feel like, and I'm gonna ask about some other
schools here in a second. I feel like, and I
could be 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 seated, and I will look at it
who didn't get in, and I will arrive at the
conclusion the conference tournament week is overrated when it comes

(47:05):
to how they select and see the field.

Speaker 9 (47:07):
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 threw 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 I said, you're losing to De Paul
a couple.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Of years back, all right, But for the De 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 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.

Speaker 9 (47:46):
Yes, sir, gotta win out, all right?

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Gotta win out. If they do win out going into
New York, are they going to have work to do?

Speaker 9 (47:57):
They at least can't take a loss to De 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 (48:07):
Where do you have them relative to the bracket right now?

Speaker 9 (48:11):
Six team outs, so one step behind Cincinnati?

Speaker 1 (48:13):
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 small? This year the bubble is small.
I mean, it's it's rough.

Speaker 9 (48:29):
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 they are bad that their resumes
just aren't there yet. I mean, Zaiger sitting here, I
have their sheet up right now. They've got quad two

(48:50):
losses 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 quadran 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 (49:06):
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 9 (49:25):
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. Yeah,
so it's a double edged sword to expand. I understand
why we want to do it. Some fans like it,
but I think it would take away from a crown jewel.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
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 is obviously talked about
a lot. Bar 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

(50:03):
should we be paying closest attention to in the weeks
between now and selection Sunday.

Speaker 9 (50:08):
So you mentioned Bartrovic's website. I am going to just
go ahead and give him a shout out. Now. He
has it's called team sheet Ranks on his website. If
you go there, it has all of the metrics. It
has all of the resume and quality based metrics and
your quadrant 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

(50:30):
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 do
it that way. The committee has added a couple 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 (50:51):
What is the seed ceiling and the seed floor? For
the Kentucky Wildcats.

Speaker 9 (50:58):
Seed ceiling, I'll still one seed, even though it's very
unlikely if they won 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
too good at the top right now. There. I know
they've got a lot of losses, but their wins make
up for those losses right now.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
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 ESPN's they

(51:39):
have the Ohio State Buckeyes as should be in. How
close to the bracket do you have the Buckeyes.

Speaker 9 (51:47):
I have them as my first ten seeds, so they're
set their eight spots above the cut line. But right now,
as I mentioned the bubble 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 (52:03):
Did Indiana start to make a case or is it
too little too late with their win over Michigan State.

Speaker 9 (52:10):
Indiana is my fourth team out right now, so they
are very much in the mix.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
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

(52:35):
you know, everybody is still kind of in it. Like
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 9 (52:46):
Absolutely? Yes, sir, feel free to reach out. I can
pretty much be available any day around this time.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
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 don't have like you. We want
you to be our bracket guy.

Speaker 9 (53:03):
Yes, sir, I got you all very good.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
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 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

(53:25):
massive college basketball weekend that starts tonight?

Speaker 9 (53:28):
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 and
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 fourteenth and the first eight

(53:50):
to ten out, 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 my head the
first time as well. I will have one out for tomorrow.
I'll have it out here probably in a couple of hours,
and it'll have Xavier, Cincinnati, Indiana will all be featured
on that. You'll know who you need to root for

(54:11):
and against as soon as I publish it.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
Now, 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 devoted to nit bracketology.
Will you be doing any nit bracketology?

Speaker 9 (54:27):
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 Xavier, 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

(54:47):
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 (54:54):
All right, well, I cannot thank you enough for doing
this and keep up the good work. 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 and uh, I like the fact there's somebody in

(55:14):
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 so much. 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,

(55:40):
How do you think you did solid by times? Yeah,
he's gonna drop that. I mean, it doesn't need to
be no 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 uh, I think it's a give
Hi an a minus. I'll doc I won't talk him

(56:00):
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? Oh? No, how he'd know
your name because we'll do that sometimes, like I'll call
say yes, uh 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 gonna this is how it
works on our show, This is how my life works. Right,

(56:22):
We're gonna get this guy on right, and we're gonna
make this guy a star, and we're 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 we. We get people on. And
then suddenly oh yeah, Lands has and now he's on

(56:44):
with Ken Broon and the three sixty guys got im in,
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, yeah,
I'm a had a pretty good idea 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

(57:05):
we're teammates, but we should have told him that as
a condition unless he's getting paid. Now, we're not going
to keep the guy from making money because we're not
paying him. But he can't go on any other outlet
if he's going to be the official I'm making that up.
Of course he can go.

Speaker 5 (57:20):
Is gonna be our Eli Dela Cruz. He'll do a
few hissor with us and Dan. He'll get paid somewhere
else and leave us.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
Correct. Yes, right, it's you know, sort of like when
the Reds will bring in like guys to talk about
Reds Fest, Like I'll never forget the year Joey Vado
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. So we hope that bracket

(57:48):
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 be funny because folks steal our ideas.

(58:11):
You know, you know who you are. Folks steal our ideas,
and then it's like, glad we could help. Got a
at bracketnky dot com. He's got his email 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 and Tarn doing the legwork. I'll just steal

(58:31):
their guest. There's the email address, go ahead and email
them I enjoyed that. That was good. Twenty two after
four o'clock, we'll get to our poll up questions. We'll
hear Greg Amsinger from MLB Network on Elie Dela Cruz
coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
two hundred years, the experts that you see health have
been giving our patients a chance at better outcomes. That's
boundless care you can trust. Expect more at uc heelp
dot com. Westbound Norwood Lateral. The left lane blocked off
from an accident involving three vehicles between Reading and Paddock Road,

(59:15):
Goodman Street. It's an accident at Vine Street and on Harrison,
an accident over at Boudinot Avenue. I'm at Ezelek with traffic.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
I think that our our guy here, n k Y
bracket guy, what he what he should have to do,
and he hasn't done it yet. On his Twitter feed
it should say the official Bracketologist. Sometimes I just ran
over the hook there. Let me let me let me
finish making my point about n k Y Bracketology guy,
and then we'll address what's happening in my ears right now?
He should put on his his website, he should put

(59:47):
on his Twitter Twitter feed. The official bracketologist of The
Mugger Show. All right now, what is this? L cool Jay? Yes?
Hell yeah? I sort of feel like this is a
lost art The slow oh Jam rap song Oh it
It most definitely is right. This was a staple of
the late eighties, early nineties, nineteen eighty seven, Like Kendrick

(01:00:09):
Lamar doesn't have something like this? Does he? Yes? Okay,
he's one. I think he's one of a few that
can still do it. What about Drake? Yes, he's dropped
that one to day? Did anybody like it? Now? Is
his album a bunch of songs about Kendrick Lamar? Is
that how this works?

Speaker 10 (01:00:26):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
No, no, no? What are his songs about? He actually dropped
like a Valentine's Day album? Really? Yes? Have you listened
to it? Not yet? Will you? Probably not team Kendrick
over here? Most it feels like everybody is. I feel
like I feel like if you're like a team Drake,
it's like saying I'm team wearing jeorts during summertime. I

(01:00:47):
don't know, I mean, I I think he has become
the world's easiest target at this point, Pole Questions. It's
not sports headlines time yet. Pole Questions are a service
of a United Heartland Insurance and sure you're Valentine by
going to a uhi ns dot com. We have two questions.
One is should the Bengals tag T Higgins? Should they
apply to franchise tag to T Higgins for a second time?

(01:01:09):
Vote yes or no? Early early voting sixty three and
a half percent of you say yes.

Speaker 6 (01:01:14):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
The other one has to do. I was mentioning before
I was at CVS this morning picking up a prescription
for my neck, my busted neck, and I'm not making
this up, man. I should have taken a picture. There
were more. There were more dudes in the card and
candy aisle at CVS on Harrison this morning than you

(01:01:35):
will find in a sports bar at one o'clock on
an NFL Sunday. They literally could have sold hot dogs
and beers between the line to buy stuff, the line
to buy stuffed animals and candy and cards. I'm not joking, man, like,
there are a lot of dudes, a lot of dudes

(01:01:55):
buying last minute Valentine's Day stuff. So we asked when
do you your significant other Valentine's Day gifts day of
day before well in advance or option D. Valentine's Day
is for ninth graders and I'm an adult. Vote now,
by the way, that is that is currently the leading

(01:02:16):
the leading answer forty nine and a half percent. In
our house. It was easy. My wife just said to
me last night, I didn't get you anything, and like, fine, whatever,
because the real gift is each other. All right. Sports
headlines and a guy on MLB network says a bunch
of really nice things about Elie Dela Cruz.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:02:41):
two hundred years, the experts at you See Health have
been giving heart patients a chance that better outcomes. That's
boundless care you can trust. Expect more at uchelp dot com.
Once found nor Wood Lateral the left lane blocked off
from an accident involving three vehicles between Reading and Paddock Road.

(01:03:03):
Goodman Street. It's an accident at Vine Street and Don Harrison.
An accident over at Boudinot Avenue. I'm at ezelic with
traffic this reported.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet Home of
a lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their
family to yours for life kelseyshev dot Com. I gotta
do the sports headlines. We'll talk about what you're playing

(01:03:36):
right now. This is from uh, I mean it's it's
the one that the Notorious Big sampled when I was
in high school. What is the name of this song?
Terry between the sheet? This is a jam? This is
it right now? Like if I was, if I was,
if I was having someone special over and I had

(01:03:58):
a fire going and I had some sort of like
silky robe on this this is the music that I
that's this go ahead and place was it over? This
is what I would be playing now this bros. Right So,
the the you know, the the Notorious Big Big Papa
song came out in nineteen ninety four, nineteen ninety five,

(01:04:19):
somewhere in there. I was a senior in high school.
And because I was, and frankly still I am, an
idiot for like five years of my life, I had
no idea that he, you know, took that riff from
the Isley Brothers. And then when I became aware of that,
it changed my life. What do we have? College basketball?
Tonight NK you was at Green Bay. It's a coaching

(01:04:41):
matchup between Darren Horne and Doug Gottlieb. Seven o'clock is
tip off, Rick and Rick Browing. I don't know if
he has done this, but we gave him a homework
assignment on his Facebook page, which was to write about
the Horizon League cities from most to least that he
would like to spend Valentine's Day, and tonight he's in
Green Bay. He and Jim Kelch will be spending Valentine's

(01:05:02):
Day night in that Green Bay calling a college basketball game,
which I'm sure is a dream come true for both.
Pregame at six thirty on ESPN fifteen thirty. Also tonight.
Mick Cronin's back in the Tri State, UCLA at IU
this weekend. Tomorrow Xavier hosting DePaul of Paul noon tomorrow
on seven hundred WLW. I might attend that game. We'll

(01:05:25):
see you see that, Iowa stated at four o'clock in
Ames on seven hundred WLW. Kentucky's at Texas at eight
on ESPN fifteen thirty. Also tomorrow, Miami. Where As my
grandma would say, Miama is at Western Michigan. Dayton battles
Duquine Sunday at Ohio State versus Michigan Big Rivalry. Is

(01:05:46):
a flag going to be planted on the floor? Hope not?
Did that weirdo politician get that pass? Is that going
to be a felony? Remember that? Okay? Also on Sunday,
Nku's at Milwaukee. Cyclones played tonight at Fort Wayne play
tomorrow at Bloomington. I assume that's Bloomington, Illinois. I don't
think Bloomington, Indiana has a hockey team really carry the way.

(01:06:08):
And uh, Sunday they're hosting Indy at three o'clock.

Speaker 5 (01:06:13):
I feel like we need to might have to get
Rick going, Like why would we wait till next Wednesday
to find out the best cities for Valentine's Day?

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
Well? Uh, because he's he's he's trying to cultivate a
Facebook presence by writing sports columns on Facebook.

Speaker 5 (01:06:30):
No, I get that, but I feel like it should
be done now. I wont Valentine's Day?

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
All right, Well, I'm I'm I'm looking here. See how
I'm doing this in real time, to see if if
if if Rick has posted the work that we asked
him to post. What I noticed here is there's a
lot of people named Rick. In fact, Rick has two
Facebook pages that might be like Rick's dad, but there's

(01:06:56):
there's a there's a bunch of people on Facebook named
Rick Brooring and wow, yeah, so well you know, here's
the one here. He's got a picture of himself. He's
got a picture from the arena there in Tonight Green Bay,
and uh, his preview at Norse Illustrated. And then there's
a story about Xavier. He has not yet written his
story on the Horizon League cities you would most like

(01:07:19):
to spend Valentine's Day at In the Horizon League cities,
you don't want to spend Valentine's Day in. I'm interested
where he puts Highland Heights be number one means the river,
So Highland Heights. I mean I was in Highland Heights
this morning. I went to Orthos, Cincy, and uh, I
stopped and got a cup of coffee at a fast

(01:07:40):
food restaurant before I went in there. And there's an Applebee's,
there's a Barley Corns nearby. So I've got to think
Highland Heights very high on Rick's list, right, Uh high
on the list of MLB's top players. Hopefully by the
end of the season, Elie de la Cruz MLB network
is doing like their their top ten guys every position

(01:08:01):
and their top one hundred players in the sport. Greg Amsinger,
who is my favorite MLB network personality who has been
on this show before. In fact, I think he is
the official MLB Network personality of the Moeger Show, he
had this to say about Ellie dela Cruz.

Speaker 12 (01:08:16):
I want to focus on Ellie de la Cruz me too.
A year ago, we saw Bobby Witt Junior ranked at
number twenty. Defensively, Bobby Witt was coming off a poor
season Defensively, in twenty twenty three, he improved in every
single category.

Speaker 1 (01:08:31):
In twenty twenty four, we were.

Speaker 12 (01:08:33):
Projecting on a young short stop and we ended up
looking smart.

Speaker 9 (01:08:37):
Ellie dayla Cruz is up sixty nine spots.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
Are we are projecting a lot of good things.

Speaker 12 (01:08:41):
But Steve, I'm sorry, this is a top twenty talent
and mark my words, Ellie de la Cruz will be
a perennial top three player on this list. I say
top three because Shoho Tani exists.

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
That's the only reason I wouldn't say number one.

Speaker 13 (01:08:55):
So when we started thinking about this and looking at it,
and I thought, no, I think he's in the right spot.
But I got to tell you, actually more coming around
to your camp a little bit, we may be underrated.
And listen, strikeouts need to get better. Write a lot
of swing and miss for him right there. But the
stolen base factor, the power factor, and honestly meaning is,
if not the most exciting player in baseball, one of

(01:09:15):
the top three most exciting players in all of baseball.
He can impact the baseball for the right side and
left side. Obviously, maybe at some point in the future
he only gets from the left side, we'll see. But
this guy can do damage in every aspect of the game.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
He has all the.

Speaker 13 (01:09:30):
Tools translating them into skills, and I think you're right.
He may propel himself off this list to the very top.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
And there's so that last person. Okay, that's uh, you
heard there, Greg Amsinger, and then Steve Phillips. Steve Phillips
used to be the GM and the Mets, and I
think he got fired for having sex with the wrong person.
And then he was at ESPN and got fired for
having sex with the wrong person. And now he's at

(01:09:57):
MLB Network and hopefully he has discontinued that behavior. Ellie
Dela Cruz ranked thirty first on MLB Network's Top one hundred,
which I have not sat down to rank all the
baseball players on my own, and maybe this weekend I'll
do that. But he was one hundred going into twenty
twenty four on the heels of his debut season where

(01:10:19):
he played four months and did a lot of really
cool things. Last year sixty nine going in and then
number thirty one, this year, number thirty one. I'm screwing
this up. He was one hundredth, then he was thirty first,
and now he's he was one hundredth, then he was
sixty ninth. Right, No, he was one hundredth He's always

(01:10:40):
thirty first. I have totally confused myself. I'm so hung
up on Valentine's Day music and our bracketology. Guy, he
was one hundredth after twenty twenty three. He's now thirty
first after twenty twenty four, which is a major leap.
This is the story of the season. This is the
story of the season from an individual PERSPECTI and there's
lots of cool ones, right, Hunter Green maybe goes through

(01:11:03):
a full season. Is he does he put himself legitimately
in a Cy Young conversation? Is he that good? Can
the starting staff as a whole take a major step forward?
Is Matt McLain good again and healthy? Is is Tyler
Stevenson poised to repeat the season that he had last
year and even do better? Lots of different stories, This
is number one for me. From an individual perspective. Obviously,

(01:11:23):
the team story is do they make the playoffs? Do
they finally win? Can we stop talking about nineteen ninety
five and then what's next? Right? But this from an
individual perspective, I'm really excited because he was good last year.
He was an All Star, deserve to be. He finished
eighth in the National League MVP voting. I'm not sure
that was entirely deserved, but you saw statistical improvement. He

(01:11:45):
also played one hundred and sixty games, by the way,
playing shortstop. That's another story this offseason. They didn't move
into center field because they think he's a shortstop. Not
everybody in the front office thinks he's a shortstop, I
can assure you with that, but the people who matter
think he's a shortstop. So he's gonna play short stop,
and he played shortstop one hundred and sixty games last season,

(01:12:06):
so great durability. But and here's the butt, the strikeouts
do have to come back to Earth. A little bit
led the planet in strikeouts last year. Now, strikeouts in
this day and age matter less than they used to.
There's a part of me, an old man in me,
doesn't like that, like I wish there was more of
a premium on making contact. But this is the game,

(01:12:28):
how it's played now. So Ellie is going to strike out,
and he's going to strike out closer to one hundred
and fifty times than one hundred. I just don't want
it to be two hundred times, because let's just say,
let's say he cuts those strikeouts down by he cuts
fifty strikeouts off his total, and instead of two hundred
and eighteen, it's one hundred and sixty eight. Those fifty times,

(01:12:50):
if he's putting it in play, obviously sometimes he'll fly out,
but those other fifty times are going to be moments
where he can do stuff with his legs and do
what he does best, which is put pressure on the
opposing defense. So the strikeouts have to get better. The
ability to hit with two strikes has to get better.
Like I'm just talking about these statistical stuff, but the

(01:13:12):
Bobby wit comparison. The Royals were here late last season
and we talked about that, like this guy in another
year would be America League MVP. Unfortunately he plays in
the same half of the league as Aaron Judge in
twenty twenty three, right, Bobby Witt was an ascending star
where you saw moments of brilliance, but defensively he wasn't

(01:13:33):
where you wanted him, and you thought, Okay, now he's
going to take a major step forward. In last year
he did that. Can Ellie do that this season? I'm
intrigued to find out. I'm intrigued to find out if
that happens and then how the team responds to that,
because I feel like, you know, Jonathan India is quoted
in the paper today for you know, talking about his
impressions of Terry Francona and some of the conversations he

(01:13:55):
and Tito had before Jonathan India got traded, and his
thoughts on the team last year and moving far, and
it's a good piece by Gordon Wittenmeyer. The last two years,
the team spokesperson became Jonathan India. Now, I don't know
how much he was the team leader, but we did
wonder last year who's the leader. I don't know that
we know the answer to that right now. Maybe it's
Gavin Lux, maybe it's Tyler Stevenson. But I think more

(01:14:19):
than leading, there are certain players that everybody can feed
off of. This team is fed off of Ellie Dela Cruz. Well,
it's a lot easier to feed off a guy like
that if he is your best player. Now, last year
he was their best player, but if he was their
best player, and he's one of the very very best
in the sport. By the way, I'm betting on this happening.

(01:14:40):
I don't know what that looks like statistically, but I'm
betting on Ellie Dela Cruz putting himself firmly in the
National League MVP discussion. I'm betting on talent, and I've
seen enough of a rise in his game statistically to
believe that at his age, the sky is still the limit.
But the strikeouts do have to come back to earth.

(01:15:00):
The defense has to improve. There were moments last year,
a couple of times where he caught balls running from
the shortstop position down the left field line, and you're like,
what that was was superhuman? Like I grew up idolizing
Barry Larkin. Barry Larkin's not doing that, certainly not at
this age. But he's not doing that. He's capable of

(01:15:23):
doing things with the glove and his arm that are superhuman.
This year, does he take care of the routine this year?
Like we're going to get the viral highlights, but I
don't want the other viral highlights, the ones that make
people grumble and say stupid things about Ellie Daylor Cruz.

(01:15:43):
You know the sort of plays I'm talking about early
in the season, the game in Philadelphia where he's a
little bit too casual with the ball in the infield.
It was a game last year, very late in the
season season, basically over where and I've used this example before,
but he made a play early in the game that
was ridiculous where he goes up the middle, uses his
range to get to a ball, and then makes a

(01:16:04):
hard throw look easy and he gets the guy by
eight feet like a great play. And then two innings
later there's a slow ground or hit right to him
and it hits the heel of his glove and goes
up his arm and you're like, buddy, that's a junior
high kid makes that play. That ball wasn't hit that hard.
It was felt like, to me, like a lapse in concentration.

(01:16:25):
And if you watched Ellie last year, you saw those things.
I want the amazing stuff defensively, but I think, particularly
at that position, we know what it looks like when
a shortstop is capable of doing the near impossible. But
the best ones who do the near impossible also do
the routine. And it's not that he can't make errors.

(01:16:47):
Errors are a part of the sport. Errors are a
part of the position. He's gonna make them. But I
think you know, if you watched him last year, during
some of those moments where it feels like the concentration
is waning a little bit, and at times, as much
as I hate to say, maybe the effort is waning
a little bit, that's got to go away. And then
the base running. Look, I wanted to lead the league
stolen bases, and if you want him to run as

(01:17:09):
often as he does, he's gonna get thrown out. I
can live with it. I can live with it because
the risk is worth it for a team that doesn't
have a lot of guys that you can count on
to hit the ball out of the ballpark. You want
him to put pressure on the catcher. You want him
to put pressure on the pitcher. You want him to
put pressure on the defense. And so yeah, there are
gonna be times he makes outs, stealing bases and taking
the extra base where the other team just makes a play.

(01:17:31):
The other battery just execute executes the pitch and the
throw and they throw him out at second base or
a third base, and you're shrug your shoulders and go,
you know what, it was a risk, it was a gamble,
but it was worth it. But then there are those
moments where he gets picked off, and he gets picked
off and you're like, dude, didn't have his head in
the game. Or he's so aggressive that he gets thrown

(01:17:52):
out by eight feet on a ball. And we saw
a couple of times last year where he's stretching a
hit from a single to a double and it's like
everybody in the ballpark, if there are a home like
gasps as he's making the turn, like, oh boy, as
fast as he is, he is going to get chucked out.
That's got to go away too. But my money is
on that stuff going away. Hey, I think this dude

(01:18:13):
genuinely wants to be the best player in the sport.
I think he's smart enough to understand what comes with
being the best player in the sport. I also think
it's going to be interesting this year to see if
they work in any days off He basically played in
every game last year. And then there is the Tito
Francona factor, which is the thing we have talked about

(01:18:34):
most this offseason. It's accountability. It's taking a young talent
who has arrived on the scene and done a lot
of great things and helping him smooth out the rough edges.
I am betting on a Hall of Fame manager and
a generational talent to come together and create a guy
who is legitimately one of the best players in a sport.

(01:18:56):
I'm betting on that happening. We did the game last
year often of you know, the imaginary stock we always
talk about with players. Remember that game early in the
season in Philly when he booted a ball or made
a bad throw, whatever it was, and clearly there was
a dipp in concentration. Clearly there was a dip in effort,
and there was a time last year he made a
base running mistake, and I remember Lance McAllister after the

(01:19:18):
game on extra innings was talking about, like, dude, you
got to bench him for a game. David Bell's got
to bench him. We repeated the same topic the next
day and David Bell didn't bench him. I'm counting on
the talent, and I'm counting on the Hall of Fame manager,
and I'm counting on the desire of the player who
has gotten to a certain point, who now has down
the road maybe a billion dollars dangling in front of him,

(01:19:43):
to give us this year a guy who is legitimately
one of the very best players in the sport. Yes,
the strikeouts have to be cut down. Yes, the errors
in the field have to be cut down. Yes, the
Cotts stealings need to be cut down. Yes, the base
running mistakes need to be cut down. I'm putting my
honey on Ellie, on Terry Francona, and on Terry Francona's

(01:20:03):
staff for that to happen. Of all the things I
believe in happening this year, I believe in the starting
pitching this year having the chance to be really really good,
really really good. I'm counting on Ellie Dela Cruz being great.
Let's be honest, that's the ceiling, that was the hype,
That's what all of this is based on, right. The
fun of him the last couple of years has been

(01:20:25):
seeing what he's done and imagining what he can be.
I think this year is where he is what he
can be. I'm betting on that happening. What that looks
like in a real life wager, I don't know. Maybe
I'll throw a few bucks on him winning the MVP.
But I am bove and beyond anything this year, and
I think if you're a Reds fan you agree with
me watching him this season has a chance to be

(01:20:47):
an absolute blast, and even more so if the team
is good. What was so fun about two years ago
was Ellie burst on the seed, did cool stuff and
the team was pretty good, at least until the end
of the Yearlast year he was better, the team wasn't
as good, and so what he was able to do
kind of got lost. I have no idea if this

(01:21:08):
team is going to be any good, but I certainly
think ellidely Cruz can be really, really, really good, and
if that happens, I like this team's chances of following him.
It is eight away from five o'clock. That segment started
out shaky. I think we made it better. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:21:28):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

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Speaker 1 (01:22:05):
This report is sponsored by Miami Valley. Job with that.
By the way, we got kJ Jacobs doing the weather
from the morning show over there. It's to a channel nine. Dude,
What have we got now?

Speaker 6 (01:22:24):
Tarn?

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
This isn't Verry White, is it? It is? It is
Barry White. I knew, I knew six o'clock wasn't going
to get here without hearing some Berry White. A good deal,
you know, one can argue we should just spend the
entire next hour playing sexy Valentine's Day songs, and maybe
we'll consider that. But we have to talk more about T. Higginson,
the franchise tag, and we have to play some West
Miller audio and so much more coming up on ESPN

(01:22:47):
fifteen thirty. Hey, Google, what's happening in the NHL streaming
the tournament four Nations tournament? Which is cool. That's cool
for the Goods.

Speaker 11 (01:23:00):
To win one thousand dollars. Enter this nationwide, Keward on
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Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
I said, this is ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Moeger, thank
you for listening. I hope you're having the greatest Friday
afternoon of your life. Hope you are getting ready for
a three day weekend. We are not. We are working.
We are dedicated loyal iHeartMedia employees, and so I will
be here on President's Day and we are going to
spend three hours talking about our favorite presidents. We have

(01:23:37):
really quick here. We've spent the last what thirty five
or so minutes forty minutes, really spent the last hour,
if you come to think about it, because we had
our new bracketologist, Nky bracket Guy on, who has yet
to add to his Twitter feed his Twitter page that
he is the official bracketologist now of The Moegger Show.
But if you were with us for the last hour,

(01:23:58):
first of all, thank you, and we are still with
us after listening to that hour, really thank you. But anyway,
we have spent the last hour not talking about Joe
Burrow or T Higgins, and let's face it, it's kind
of hard to talk about one without talking about the other.

(01:24:18):
And so this is not so much a contractual obligation,
although I wouldn't be surprised if it was, But we
now have a bit of an obligation to rectify that
because I'm not sure you're allowed to go I don't
think you're allowed to go more than thirty minutes on
an outlet like this without discussing Joe Burrow and T Higgins.

(01:24:38):
And so how are we going to do that? We're
gonna do that by playing some Colin Cowherd audio. This
is from The Herd with Colin Cowherd, which I don't
listen to because it airs at the same time as
since he three to sixty. But it's also on FS
one and it's on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. But this
this clip, I I saw it written about in on

(01:25:01):
Cincinnati dot Com, and I thought i'd play it for
you to in part fulfill our obligation to talk about
Joe Burrow and T Higgins every hour, and by the way,
not just every hour we're on the air, but every
hour in my life off air, I talk about T
Higgins and Joe Burrow. But also, I think some are
advancing the dialogue. I think Colin's about to do that here.

(01:25:24):
I think some are advancing the dialogue when it comes
to what Joe Burrow is gonna do if he continues
to not be happy. I use the word continue because
this year he wasn't happy. Like it like continue. I
know that sounds like God, he's disgruntled. Well did you
watch him late last season. That was not a guy
thrilled with how the season was going. So yes, continue

(01:25:47):
to not be happy. Many have thought, God, he's gonna
ask for a trade if he continues to not be happy,
he might it may happen. I think some other things
are gonna happen.

Speaker 9 (01:25:57):
First.

Speaker 1 (01:25:58):
I'll explain in a second. But first here's Colin Cowherd
on the Herd.

Speaker 7 (01:26:03):
I mean, think about this. I was looking this up
this morning, this Joe Burrow story. Think about this. So
they are the poorest franchise in the league. Philadelphia has
a GM, Howie Roseman, and two assistant gms. The Bengals
don't even have a GM. They had the son of
the owner is the VP of personnel, and then Dick

(01:26:24):
Tuman is the director for personnel.

Speaker 1 (01:26:25):
They don't have a real GM.

Speaker 9 (01:26:28):
So I mean, Eagles have like one of the.

Speaker 7 (01:26:31):
Best, if not the best, and two assistant gms. So again,
Eagles have twenty one scouts in their website. We look,
Bengals have four. So Joe Burrow to some degree is trapped.
Think about this. I'll say this. I think I absolutely
think at some point he'll demand to be traded. I
really believe that the Bengals this year had the quarterback.

(01:26:51):
It's very hard to miss the playoffs when you have
a great quarterback. One team that happened this year, Cincinnati,
It's virtually impossible. Forty percent of the league goes to
the playoffs. If you have a great quarterback and a
quarterbackle you go to the playoffs. So the Bengals had
the quarterback that led the NFL in touchdowns, passing touchdowns,
in passing yards. They had the pass rusher that led

(01:27:12):
the NFL in sacks, they had the receiver that led
him catches, yards and touchdowns, and they missed the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:27:20):
It's Colin cow hurt. Now, Okay, some of that stuff,
the exact particulars, you may take issue with, and there
are some embellishments and some inaccuracies. First of all, his
name is Tobin. Second, he's got a fair amount of
sway when it comes to the roster. He was the
Executive of the Year a couple of years ago, and
I think for the most part, deservedly so. But but

(01:27:42):
there's you know, there's there's a small scouting department. It
is a family run operation. They're not poor. Like they
they might not have Jerry Jones resources, they're not poor.
They're not poor. The overarching point there is he thinks

(01:28:04):
Joe Burrow is eventually gonna ask for a trade. Now,
two thoughts on that one is, yeah, yes, I could
see that happening one day. Let's be honest. If this continues,
if you're Joe Burrow, why wouldn't you I'm great the
team is not all these other dudes I'm measured against
during the postseason. I'm not Josh Allen's winning MVPs. I

(01:28:27):
can't because my team stinks. If that continues, Not only
do I think he would demand a trade. I would
demand a trade if I were him, and I fully
expect him to. I do not for a second believe
that if this can And when I say this, missing

(01:28:47):
the playoffs with Joe being excellent, you could say, well,
twenty twenty three was really kind of different because Joe
got hurt. Fine, but if this continues, them not making
the playoffs, which has been a thing for two straight years. Yes,
I fully expect him to ask a trade. I do
not think he's just going to play out his contract
and shake everybody's hand after the last game of the

(01:29:08):
twenty twenty nine season and go okay, well it was
real numb hit free agency. Here I go, like, no,
there's gonna be noise. Everything you've watched or heard from
Joe Burrow over the last couple of months I think
would tell you there's a very good chance that if
this continues, he asked for a trade. But I also

(01:29:30):
think some stuff would have to happen before he'd ask
for a trade. Carson Palmer didn't wake up one day
and go, you know what I want out. He had
the benefit of time and perspective. He had a chance
to watch the team around him. He had a chance
to see them try to recapture what happened in two
thousand and five and to a degree, what happen in
two thousand and nine when they had division winning teams.

(01:29:54):
He saw the team's inability to replace players that he
had success with early. We think of all the play
that left from the five team that they really struggled
to replace, including TJ. Hushman Zada. He saw what was
a really good offensive line turn into one that wasn't
so good like he watched. He watched sort of the
circus act with all the players who got arrested at

(01:30:15):
that time, and fortunately that's not really a thing now.
He gave a chance to the Chad and t O
show like that didn't really work out like he watched.
He gave it time, He got exasperated. He did what
he did. He also asked for changes the Carson Palmer
Football Life on NFL Network. He outlines what he asked
Mike Brown for so what I think is the next
step here. And look, none of us want this right.

(01:30:37):
What we want is for the Bengals to win the
Super Bowl next season. Now, we could argue, we could
have debates about the best way for that to happen.
And that's kind of what makes the t Higgins thing fun.
That's what makes the Trey Hendrickson thing fun. There's no
one way to do it. Everybody's in love with the
Eagles blueprint right now, and so am I. But if
the Bengals win the Super Bowl next year, I don't
care if t Higgins is playing wide receiver. I don't

(01:30:59):
care if if Bertie Higgins is playing wide receiver. How's
that for a modern reference. We're all gonna be happy
if they win. And if they win, Joe is not
only probably not gonna ask for a trade, he may
start to think about playing the rest of his career
in Cincinnati.

Speaker 9 (01:31:14):
Who knows.

Speaker 1 (01:31:15):
So some time is gonna pass. But if time passes,
more time passes. And we are in ten months, ten
and a half months, watching the playoffs unfold, and Joe
Burrow isn't in them. My guess is there's there's gonna
be some stuff if there's stuff now, Why wouldn't there

(01:31:37):
be after another year, especially if he's awesome again and
the team wastes his awesomeness, including maybe them making the
playoffs and wasting his awesomeness. I'd be I'd be cognizant
of this if I were Duke Tobin. Frankly, if I
were Zach Taylor, are you really gonna believe that Joe

(01:32:00):
Burrow would stop short of ever demanding the Bengals make
significant changes to their front office structure? They may say no,
you think Joe Burrow would in't flex his muscle and say,
you know what, I've worked with Zach Taylor now for
a while. Might be time for someone else. I know

(01:32:22):
right now Zach has Joe's full public endorsement, and I
believe that public endorsement is a genuine one. But that's
where things are now. If we get to a year
from now and more of the same, just can't build
the team properly around him, however they try it, and
Joe is having to not win an MVP despite putting

(01:32:44):
up MVP numbers, and he's got to watch other quarterbacks
who he's as good at and in most cases better
than play in the playoffs and he's on the outside
looking in. You don't think he's gonna ask for there
to be changes, not a days necessarily, but changes like,
all right, we've tried it with this Duke Tobin, dude

(01:33:05):
ain't working. What else? Sha got? Or know what, We've
tried it with this Zach Taylor cat. We've had a
lot of success. Guess what not working? What else? Sha goot?
I think this is a maniacally competitive guy. I think
this is a guy who understands where he is in
his career. It's time to start winning championships. If he's

(01:33:28):
still not close, and let's be honest, this year's team
was not close. They had to win their last five
games to finish with one more victory than loss. If
he continues to be not close, we think he's just
gonna shrug his shoulders and go we'll get him next year.
Dude is making as much noise as I've ever heard
a Cincinnati pro athlete make. Legitimately, I don't think you

(01:33:53):
can find in an athlete we've had here in town
who has made as much. He's not doing it in
an obnoxious manner. He's I'm not calling anybody out he's
not calling names, he's not being cryptic on social media.
He's being an adult. He's answering fair questions with good answers,
well thought out answers. He could not be more adult
about this. It's above board. It's public, dude. Is He's

(01:34:17):
not hiding behind an agent. He's telling you what he wants.
And again, man, this may have the result we're all
looking for. And it might have the result we're all
looking for, with t Higgins or without, or with Trey
Hendrickson or without. I think Joe will react to the results,
not how they achieve the results, as long as the
results are good. So you might hear that from Colin

(01:34:41):
Cowherd and go, ah, he's just being a Bengals hater,
all right. You mean to tell me you think if
this continues that at some point he's not going to
go Look, man, get me out of here. I've done
what I can. I got to start winning. It ain't
happening here. It's not about doing the wrong thing, about
being a jerk. It's about prioritizing what you're judged by.

(01:35:08):
I mean, he has to listen to it right now.
There are dufuses like Chris Canty who go on national
outlets who talk about Joe Burrow is a rung beneath
the absolute best because he's on a team that couldn't
win with him. Would you want to hear that any
longer if you were Joe Burrow? The answer is not yes.

(01:35:29):
But before the trade request comes, my guess is in
Joe's crosshairs gonna be a lot of people responsible for
the performance of the team, whether it be in roster
construction or how it was coached. Doing that doesn't make
him a bad guy. Doing what Carson Palmer did not
make Carson a bad guy. You may have disagreed with it,

(01:35:51):
You may not like the approach that he took. You
may still be walking around with a Carson Palmer jersey
with a black piece of tape and silver marker, and
it's quitter. I would say, it's been almost a decade
and a half, Maybe move on. But whatever didn't make
him a bad guy makes him a dude who is exasperated,
makes him a guy who just didn't want to do
what he was doing anymore with the people he was

(01:36:12):
doing it with and doing it for. He used what
he could to get his way out, and he got
his way got traded. Do I think Joe Burrow will
necessarily pull the same exact tactic and decide I'm not
showing up. No, but there's a lot of ways to
express your dissatisfaction. Quarterbacks don't show up for many camps.
Quarterbacks don't show up for workouts. Quarterbacks can do hold ins.

(01:36:33):
I don't know. But that's not a happy quarterback. That's
not a happy quarterback right now, nor should he be,
nor would you be if the lack of happiness continues
over the lack of winning. We don't think he'll demand change.

(01:36:55):
He may get it, and then the results will speak
for themselves. If he doesn't get it, to tell me,
you're completely confident, he'll never do that. He'll never ask
for a trade. He is rattling cages, man, you know,
and look, you can rattle cages and you don't have to.
He's not being controversial. This isn't too with the Philadelphia Eagles.

(01:37:18):
He's not being controversial, he's not being selfish. But he's
rattling cages. He's creating discomfort. He's making it known. I'm
not happy with what we've done. Here's how I think
we could do it better. He's not telling you what
he's gonna do if his way, if he doesn't get
his way. But I think regardless, man, we're sitting here

(01:37:42):
like none of us want to deal with this, deal
with this reality. But let's talk about the possibility here, right,
We're sitting here in the aftermath of the season. All
the other good quarterbacks are playing in the playoffs and
the Bengals are on the outside looking in. Which I
think the Bengals will be a playoff team next year
because they have Joe Burrow, and I find it hard
to believe he's going to be awesome next year and

(01:38:02):
the team is not going to find their way into
the postseason. And I sure as heck hope they rectify
the issue of getting off to slow starts, like we
all want that. But I also said last summer, and
I was dead wrong that I had a hard time
imagining the Bengals getting a full season to Joe Burrow
and not playing in the playoffs. And yet that's exactly
what happened. Okay, maybe it's an outlier. Maybe it's a

(01:38:26):
season that teaches everybody a lot of lessons about how
the team should be built. Maybe they were just unlucky
in a year from now, if we are cleaning up
the streets of Cincinnati in the aftermath of the championship parade,
I think this year, this season will be looked at
with actually some fondness, but shy of that and really

(01:38:49):
shy of that meaning on the outside looking in, you've
watched a quarterback who has expressed his lack of happiness
and his displeasure with the way things have gone, and
his stated reference for how he hopes the offseason goes.
And where do we expect him to just keep quiet
and be a good soldier next year? Uh Uh, it
ain't happening. It might not get to a point where

(01:39:11):
he starts to ask for a trade, but it very
well could get to a point where he starts to
ask for stuff that if it doesn't get changed, doesn't
get fixed, and that if some people don't get replaced. Yeah,
he gets there and he asks for a trade. Nobody
wants Carson Palmer comparisons. I don't want Carson Palmer comparisons.
Joe is a better player than Carson Palmer, not even close.

(01:39:35):
But Hm, Carson got tested again. Carson's individual play was
severely lacking down the stretch. Nobody else wanted to point
that out, but me back then, Uh, but allow more
time to accumulate where Joe is watching the rest of
the league and watching other guys and watching other qbs win. Like,

(01:39:56):
you don't think it's stixon Joe's crawl that Jalen Hurts
taken in the same fifty two picks later got a
parade today. You don't think that's sticks in his crawl.
You don't think it's sticks in his crawl to Josh
Allen won the MVP this year, an award that could
have easily been Joe's had his team been slightly better.
You don't think that's sticks in his crawl. Of course

(01:40:20):
it does. So if that continues, then what I think
we know twenty one after five o'clock, Your phone calls
are coming up. So is Wes Miller's audio and on

Speaker 3 (01:40:33):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:40:39):
hundred years, the experts at you See Health have been
giving heart patients a chance that better outcomes. That's found
this care you can trust expect more at UCHealth dot com.
He's spound Ohio Pike before back Buxton Road. It's an accident.
Traffic right now being directed around that area. Once abound

(01:41:01):
two seventy five. It's an accident off on the right
shoulder that between Turkey Foot Road and Dixie Highway. I'm
at ezelak with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:41:10):
This report is all right, I know this one. Tevin
Campbell mingo, Yes, tell you something. I'm not great with
artist names anymore, but like you're you're almost in my
wheelhouse sexy time on the show today. It's Valentine's Day.
I was thinking about this during the break. I've been

(01:41:34):
out of the game for a while. My wife and
I have been married for seven years. We have been
together for more than twelve. Do people go on dates anymore? Yes?
Like people who are dating do they, Like my wife
and I will do a date night and you know,
get a babysitter and go out and do something and whatever.
But like do people who are in the dating game

(01:41:56):
do they actually go on like do they go out
to eat dinner as a date anymore? Yes? That does happen? Still? Yes? Okay,
I suspected the answer was no. I was talking with
a restaurant owner maybe a month ago and not like
a fancy restaurant, but like a nice restaurant. And okay,
I went in for lunch one day and the guy

(01:42:17):
who owns the place in Covington was explaining, like, you know,
business is down, and you know, food prices and it's
a tough time in the restaurant industry and a lot
of really good places are closing. And you know, we
were discussing, you know, sort of the business and stuff.
And I don't know that much about the restaurant business,
but I said to him, I suspect younger people, like

(01:42:41):
people who are like dating for the first time, they're
not going out for traditional dinner dates like they don't
And he said, I think you're right about that. And
I maybe it's because of the cost of dining out
is so high that you know, younger folks just decide
like that's a luxury I'm not going to spend money on.
But I again, I like most of my friends are

(01:43:02):
married or committed in a relationship. But I've suspected in Tarran,
I'm hard to hear this that I'm wrong that like
folks don't go they don't go in like real traditional
like they kind of get to know each other via
text maybe social media, and they encounter each other on
a dating app and then things just sort of take
off and they don't really they kind of for go like, hey,

(01:43:22):
let's go sit down across from each other and have
a meal and get to know each other. I have
suspected that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore. No, it
still goes on.

Speaker 5 (01:43:30):
But part of that like why this is maybe down
and you'll have to say the name of the restaurants
you were at, but yeah, some of these restaurants, man, like, oh,
it's just not the same.

Speaker 1 (01:43:39):
Yeah, like ever since COVID happened. Like, yes, it's not
saying eating out is I mean, it's it's a lot
to go out and have dinner. My wife, daughter and
I went to a chain restaurant, like a couple fridays ago.
When I say a couple of Fridays ago, it is
probably November and a chain steakhouse and three of us

(01:44:03):
and I think I had two beers. I think she
had two seltzers. So it's not like we're getting loaded.
We each had an entree and it was like one
hundred and forty bucks. So like, I get it, man,
but I I just why that thought came to mind.
But I don't know that. Like when I was dating,

(01:44:26):
like it was eventually like you would like, let's go
eat dinner. That's a date. I don't know that people
do that anymore. Maybe they do. I have no idea.
I'm out of the game. That's enthralling conversation right there.
Pole questions a service of United Heartland Insurance. Go to
uhi ns dot com. See I do stuff like that.
Then I look at my text and I shouldn't do that.

(01:44:46):
First question. Go to you ate and ask dot com
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Should the Bengals apply the franchise tag to t Higgins?
The answer yes or no, there's really no middle ground there.

(01:45:09):
I guess sixty six percent of you say yes. The
answer is obvious if you're prioritizing keeping him. What we
don't know is if the Bengals are going to prioritize
keeping him. I mean, basically, the question should be framed.
Should the Bengals keep t Higgins. If the answer is yes, well,
then yes, tag him because you don't want him to
hit free agency. What we don't know. What I don't

(01:45:31):
understand is like how this is going to be some
and I'm going to talk with this, talk about this
with Paul in two weeks. He's not with us next
week because he's going to Disney. You talk about something expensive,
now there it is, But anyway that it's going to
like disrupt the culture of the team, especially if they
end up getting a deal done, Like there's tagging him

(01:45:52):
and making him play under a one year franchise tag deal,
and then there's tagging him and you know, in good
faith working with him to get the long term deal done. Anyway,
you can still vote. The other one is when do
you buy your significant other? They're Valentine's Day gift? And
I brought this up because I was picking up a
prescription at CVS this morning and it looked like the
largest ever Fantasy football league draft. Just dudes after dudes

(01:46:17):
after dudes, buying Teddy Bears and cards and candy and
chocolate roses, just whatever they could get their hands. On
morning of Valentine's Day, A day of, day before well
in advance, or Valentine's Day is for ninth graders and
I'm an adult right now, that last option has fifty
one point four percent of the vote. Vote. Now, let's

(01:46:39):
say your single name, yeah, I mean your your Your
view of Valentine's Day does tend to get dramatically shaped
by your situation. I guess twenty percent of you say
day of. And again that's the twenty percent I saw
this morning at CVS right here from West Miller next

(01:47:01):

Speaker 3 (01:47:03):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:47:08):
hundred years, the experts at you See Health have been
giving heart patients a chance at better outcomes. That's found
this care you can trust expect more at UCHealth dot com.
Eastbound Ohio Pike blocked off completely due to an accident
between Arcadia Lane and bach Buxton Road and police emergency

(01:47:31):
crews there on the scene, and northbound seventy one after
reading road is a disabled vehicle blocking the right lane.
I'm at Ezleic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:47:40):
Sports Headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of
Lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family.
Yours for life, Kelsey chev dot Com. All right, I

(01:48:05):
know the song. It's gonna take me a second to
Joe Toesy, got it? Man? Am I batting a thousand
to day? I missed the one, didn't I? I think
you missed two? All right? Not bad? Eighting it sexy.

(01:48:26):
Valentine's Day Tunes sports headlines are a service to Kelsey Chevrolet. Hey,
we've got college basketball tonight. Jim kelch Rick brooring in
Green Bay for Valentine's Day NKU taken on green Bay. Uh,
that's why they're there. That's why it would be weird
if Jim and Rick just went to Green Bay for
the weekend pregame at six point thirty on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Also tonight, Indiana battles uc LA the hoops. This weekend,

(01:48:52):
Xavier is hosting DePaul with Chris Holtman, Sean Miller and
the Musketeers beating Providence. Kind of a weird game on
Wednesday night. There's a lot of these games like this
for the Musketeers, games that you're not necessarily going to
get credit for winning, but if they lose, they can
burst your bubble. We'll see if the Musketeers can hold serve?

(01:49:15):
Is that what we're using? Hold serve? Noon tomorrow on
a seven hundred WLW, perhaps with Mowen Crosley in attendance.
I am considering it. UC's on the road against Iowa State.
Bearcats have won three straight games. Their tournament hopes still fleeting.
I think is the right word. They've played very well
offensively in these last three games. It's been an in

(01:49:38):
season makeover. They've done an almost one pint eighty. Obviously,
they have their work cutout to win this game. Iowa
State is great, they're healthier. Defensively, they're terrific. They've been
good at closing out games. They did lose three straight games.
They have played better. The Cyclones are twelve and a
half point favorites. This is a monumental task for the Bearcats.

(01:49:59):
Call it what a especially if the buckets dry up.
I wonder two things about this game tomorrow. One is
U see has been better offensively, There's been some slippage
on the defensive end. So what's going to happen if
the buckets dry up? Can the Bearcats get stops? And
I think more than anything else. Can the improvements we've

(01:50:20):
seen from the Bearcats offensively against teams that aren't great defensively,
can they continue and can their offense be effective against
the best defensive team they have played in quite a while.
Wes Miller was asked this question how to keep his
team's momentum, about how to keep his team's momentum going
against Iowa.

Speaker 10 (01:50:38):
State best teams in the country. Right, it's just a
great opportunity. It's what's great about this league is that
there's like, throughout the course of a conference season, there's
so many awesome opportunities to compete. But you know, I
think what they lost one game in Aims the last

(01:51:00):
two years, so one game in a two year period
in their building, You know that that tells you how
good And I think about all the people that have
come in there, so it tells you how good they are.
But you know, I think it's just a great opportunity
for our team to go play against one of the
best teams in the country and in one of the
best environments in the country.

Speaker 1 (01:51:21):
I'll make a guarantee if the Bearcats are as bad
with the ball as they were in the game last year,
they will get destroyed. If you remember the game last
season against Iowa State, which was in Cincinnati, a good
Iowa State team that at the time was ranked tenth
in the country. Iowa State won that game because u
SEE turned it over twenty five times. They had nineteen

(01:51:42):
made buckets twenty five turnovers. The point guards the primary
culprit this UC's in season turnaround as dramatic as it
has been, and we'll see how long lasting it turns
out to be, but this turnaround has been fueled by
Jisel James and Dade Thomas. Last season, day to eight time,
six turnovers in sixteen minutes. He had zero assists against

(01:52:05):
Iowa State. Jisel James in the game against Iowa State
shot it well six of ten, but five turnovers. If
those two combined for eleven turnovers, the turnover number is
gonna jump toward twenty. Absolutely no, absolutely, no chance of
even keeping it close. So the key the BYU game.

(01:52:25):
Cincinnati shot it well at halftime, they had I think
nine turnovers and BYU was up three at the half.
For the next ten minutes, they stopped turning it over.
They offensively took off. They blew BYU out. That's what
I'm gonna be watching four more than anything tomorrow. And also,
does Josh Reed have another really good game? And if
the answer is no, who fills that role? And could

(01:52:47):
you have imagined a month ago asking in a game
like this about who's gonna fill Josh Reed's role? Four
o'clock tomorrow on seven hundred WLW. Kentucky's at Texas NKY.
Bracket Guy, the official bracketologist of the Moegger Show, still
believes Kentucky's NCAA tournament seed ceiling is a one. They
could take a step toward that with a win in Austin,

(01:53:08):
also tomorrow. Miami's out Western Michigan Dayton battles Dukane. Ohio
State takes on Michigan on Sunday. MKU plays on Sunday
as well. At Milwaukee. Cyclones played tonight on the road
against Fort Wayne and then on the road against Bloomington
tomorrow and home Sunday afternoon for a game against Indy.
There you go, I had one other thing and I

(01:53:30):
lost it because I'm a disorganized mess. Must not have
been that important to begin with. Uh, let's see here,
we got a few minutes for our guy. Mike. You're
on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Mike, How are you well?

Speaker 6 (01:53:42):
How kind of you? Very very very so so? Yeah,
very so so. Karen and I were joking around about
the importance or lack thereof with Valentine's Day, which is,
how can you just alluded to fit depending on ones
personal situation?

Speaker 1 (01:54:01):
Do you have a favorite sexy Valentine's Day? Slow jam Mike.

Speaker 6 (01:54:08):
Probably back in the day was Verry White. It would
have been Verry White.

Speaker 1 (01:54:13):
Can't go wrong with Barry White.

Speaker 6 (01:54:17):
Yeah, I kind of had a man crush on him
just because of his voice, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 (01:54:20):
Who didn't? Especially in my line of work, Mike, I've
often thought to myself, God, what could I have accomplished
had I had Barry White's voice?

Speaker 6 (01:54:30):
Or do you like James Girl Jones? M yep or
something like that? Right now? Let me That brings me
up to a question real quick. Do you think collins
work has a really good voice for broadcasting?

Speaker 8 (01:54:44):
Uh?

Speaker 9 (01:54:44):
Yeah, yes, I think it's kind of unique.

Speaker 6 (01:54:48):
It's kind of a guttural.

Speaker 1 (01:54:50):
Sound, that's the way of putting it. Yes, his his voice,
his voice is unique, and Jack Collinsworth's voices is unique too.
I would, but yeah, I think I think they both
have good broadcasters voice voices.

Speaker 6 (01:55:05):
Jack sounds just like the old man. Initially, when I
closed my eyes, I was shocked. I had never seen
him before, and I thought that guy looks maybe like
Collins Court. And they said, yeah, because kid, you fool. Okay,
two things, if you will, yeah, I say, Higgins bye bye.
Unless he's just adamant about staying. I would probably prefer

(01:55:30):
trying to keep hendrickson. Now, you'd be better if you
could advise me better on the dues and don'ts of that.
But most of these teams that I've noticed most of
my life that are winning Super Bowls, they don't have
to have two number ones at wide receiver. What's they'll
They'll usually have one and then a really good tight end,

(01:55:53):
which is something we're still hoping after the injury that
we can reproduce even this. They're all guys, but I
think that's more important that tight end than two number one.
And then the other ingredient that a lot of these
teams seem to have is a pro Bowl cornerback and

(01:56:14):
or safety. And so those are the things that I'd
be willing to give up. The seet walk.

Speaker 1 (01:56:24):
But I don't know that you have to give those
things up to see. I don't think you have to
give those things up if you keep Tea. I don't
I've said this a number of times. I don't subscribe
to the belief that keeping T Higgins precludes them from
what they're going to need on defense. Look, this is inescapable.

(01:56:44):
They're going to need their cheaper talent to be better.
The NFL is a league that's all about the absolute
highest paid guys and frankly the absolute lowest paid guys.
The middle class player matters, but you really have to
nail it in the draft. And the draft is where
you're gonna get young, cheap talent, right. You need a
lot out of those guys the Bengals have not. Now,

(01:57:06):
are you going to draft a guy who is a
corner as a pro bowler year one? Maybe not, But
you gotta find guys who could play at a high level,
and I think you could do that. You obviously can
do that even if you still signed T Higgins. By
the way, at corner, I think if there's an area
of the team where you go, you know what, I'll
try it with some of the guys who were here
last year. It's at cornerback. They've used early round choices

(01:57:28):
on Cam Taylor Bred on DJ Turner, on Josh Newton,
on Dak's Hill. I think if there's an area of
the team where you go, you know what we've we
we drafted these guys for a reason and we're gonna
see if we can get more out of them with
a different defensive coordinator. It's it's corner, it's undeniable. They
need help all over the team. I think they have
the cap space and I know they have the draft

(01:57:49):
picks to be able to make that happen.

Speaker 6 (01:57:51):
Yeah, I know they got the cap space. Now is
Battle is Battle? Jordan Battle ready to take over a
safety because the year of before last it looks like
he was a thing.

Speaker 1 (01:58:02):
I thought, yeah in the mix, you know, I mean,
they were so high on what he did as a
rookie that they signed Geno Stone and brought back Von Bell. Right. Yes,
So you know the part of it is you wonder
the very first thing that Al Golden has to do,
and I'm sure is doing as we speak, when it
comes to Cincinnati. You start to do evaluations of the

(01:58:24):
guys that he is going to be working with and
so we don't really know, like does does Al Golden go, dude,
I can make Jordan Battle into another version of Jesse
Bates Or does he look at Jordan Battle and go
uh huh at a position? Not a good like not
not good in coverage? Like how does how does Al
feel about a lot of the personnel they have? But
there have been glimpses from each one of those guys.

(01:58:47):
You know, Jordan Battle during his rookie season made me
feel like, you know what, they might have a solution here,
But it's it's put up or shut up time for
a lot of these guys. This is gonna be Cam
Taylor Britt's fourth NFL season, this is going to be
Jordan Battle's third NFL season. It's going to be Dax
hills Forth NFL season. It's kind of put up or
shut up for a lot of these guys. But they've
also put so much into them and they have so

(01:59:08):
many other areas they've got to fix that. I think
if there's a spot on the team that you're willing
to kind of run it back with, at least most
of those dudes, it's.

Speaker 6 (01:59:14):
That corner, Okay, but you're still you'll still admit you're
rolling the dice.

Speaker 1 (01:59:19):
Well, I mean rolling the dice with everything, but I
think yeah again. The overarching point to me is this, Mike,
I think you can have t Higgins be a Bengal
this year and still fix the other areas of your team.

Speaker 6 (01:59:32):
Okay, Okay, I get it. I just hope he can
stay healthy, per change. Okay, one quickie on the Reds
and then I know you got to go. Is there
any news on Loadolo's health and the Claims? Anything definitive
on those two, because I really think if Wadolo can
pitch for the season the way he's pitched when he
has pitched, and if the claim can come back to

(01:59:54):
be close to what he was before, they walk away
with this division, they walk away with it.

Speaker 1 (02:00:01):
Well, I don't know that they walk away with it.
I do think. I do think eighty eight wins can
win it. I like the offseason the Cubs have had.
I like what they've done with their bullpen. I think
the news in relation to the two players you talked about,
the news is good. I think Matt McClain's ready to
go now is he ready to go? On March twenty seventh,

(02:00:23):
we got seven weeks. We had six weeks to figure
that out because when he came up with the injury
last year was late during spring training. So can he
get to the post? And I'm really excited to see
what this season holds for Nick Lodolo. You know, you
talk about it like being put up or shut up time.
He's twenty seven years old, like he's been a part
of the team now for a while. He's had some success.

(02:00:46):
He needs to prove he can stay healthy. If he's healthy,
I love the upside and I think he ends up
having a very good year. But you are being fair
with both those players if you wonder if they can
get through the full season without some sort of injury hiccup.

Speaker 8 (02:01:01):
I agree.

Speaker 6 (02:01:01):
I just loved with Olo when he's on. Boy, that
guy is really outstanding starter. And just one more thing,
if Marte doesn't do something this year, why can't Spencer
Steer just be the third basement? And if Diaz and
Rogers stay healthy, were good on the closure end.

Speaker 1 (02:01:22):
Yeah, you know, I like the moves they've made with
their bullpen. It's gonna be really interesting to see how
much work Noel A. Marte has to do to get
out of the organizational doghouse, because if you were to
list the most disappointing players who actually played last year,
it would be Noel A Marte. The guy was a

(02:01:42):
disaster once he came off the suspended list, and he
missed half the game half the games because he got suspended.
He's got a lot of work to do. Good news
is he's still really young. He's just turned twenty three
years old, so there is time. But yeah, he's he's
got to play himself out of the doghouse. Mike, have
a great week good to talk to you.

Speaker 6 (02:02:01):
Thanks, Thanks Mo. Happy Valentine for you and your wife.

Speaker 1 (02:02:05):
Thank you very much. Are you playing Usher because it's
time to go? Or just because you wanted to hear
what it would sound like if Mike was offering a
soliloquy with usher underneath? No, No, it's time ago. Hey, Hey,
we're here on President's Day Monday, three oh five, so
be here for that. Anything you might have missed, go
get on the iHeartRadio app thanks to long next sports Girl,

(02:02:26):
where you should be watching college basketball this weekend. That's
all I got. Have a great weekend. Thank you for listening.
Don't forget NKU basketball comes your way. In forty minutes.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station.

Speaker 9 (02:02:38):
Already okay.

Speaker 3 (02:02:45):
Minutes Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 4 (02:02:54):
hundred years, the experts that you see health have been
get having heart patients a chance at better outcomes. That's
boundless care you can trust. Expect more at uchelp dot com.
Eastbound Ohio Pike remains blocked from an accident between Arcadia
Lane and bock Buxton Road. The left lane also blocked

(02:03:15):
on the westbound side seventy five The right lane blocked
from an accident before Beechmont Avenue. I'm at Ezelk with traffic.

Speaker 1 (02:03:25):
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