February 25, 2026 • 9 mins
Rick Broering joined us from Cleveland to talk about the Musketeers, Richard Pitino's future, the Norse, and why the Horizon League Tournament format is so janky.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Busy night of college basketball.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Tonight's Xavier's playing a game that was supposed to be
played last night against Providence, and NKU is getting set
to take on Cleveland State. You can hear Norse Hoops
on Fox Sports thirteen sixty tonight at seven o'clock with
Jim Kelch and Rick Brewing. Rick covers Xavior for Musketeer
Report dot com and he calls NKU games, So he's
(00:22):
going to be a very busy man tonight. He tells
us he's sitting in a dark hotel room in Cleveland.
Why why are the Norse staying in a hotel that
has no lights in the rooms?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
So that's what's wrong with you? Well, do you have
to be like this a lot on man?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I mean it's it was.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
That was a conversation about whether or not we were
going to stream this this conversation over the internet in
like a zoom format. So I was like, I don't know,
you know, if there's the proper lighting in this hotel
room for that? Gotcha, Okay, there are there are there
are working lights in the Cleveland Marriott.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Sure it's it's Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Hell, I don't know, man far bing for me, I
just it was brought up to me that you're sitting
in a dark hotel room. Either the lights are off
and that's weird, or there are no lights and that's
weird too.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
It's a gray and dark city. I will give you
that all right.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
By the way, you're not the first guest to answer
my first question by asking what's wrong with me?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Either, So just f y, I should Xavier beat Providence tonight?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I don't know about should.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
In fact, the predictive metrics would tell you Providence is
the favorite to win that game. But I would say
is the first time around, it looked like a pretty
good matchup for Xavier. You know, they were able to
It's the two fastest playing teams in the conference, so
it allowed Zavier to get out in transition and play
fast the way they like to play on the offensive end,
and they were hitting the threes, which Providence gives up.
(01:44):
But they were also able to get the ball inside
more often than they typically do and score in the paint,
and that's an issue Providence has too. They're just not
a very good defensive team and they continue to struggle
in that way since the first meeting between these two teams.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
So it seems like it's a good match.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
But the first game against Butler looked like a really
good notch up for Xavier at the Cinta Center, and
then I think the field House it didn't go their way.
They fell way behind and had to call their way
back and didn't win.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
So we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
They don't have a large margin for air in any
game in Big East play, but I do think it
sets up well for them to be competitive.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Is Richard Patino going to coach Providence next year?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
And I don't think so. No.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Now, I do think it's easy for people to just
push this off and yell at Jeff Goodman because no
one likes Jeff Goodman anymore. And all of that, I
do believe he's hearing something. Some of it may be
based on outdated info, but at the end of the day,
I think what ultimately stands out to me about the
situation is Xavier pretty much controls it. Richard Patino has
(02:48):
a pretty big buyout after only being here for one season,
and I mean, I don't think Providence going to afford
to pay a full buyout for him, also pay Kim
English's buyout to go away and pay your new coach's
salary and Richard Patino and give him nil money.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
I mean, that's.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Just a crazy way to go up about business. And
by the way, you know, like Xavier, Well, I think
Xavier is excited about Richard Patino, and I think we've
talked about on the show how he's done a good job.
Xavior is going to finish under five hundred this year,
and they played the same conference as Providence.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
So I don't know that that's the easiest sell in
the world to.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Say, like, hey, we've got to spend like thirty million
dollars to turn this thing around this year with a
guy who just went under.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Five hundred in the conference.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
I just I think it was always a non starter
because of his biout and.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Xavier understanding Richard Patino's ties to Providence. Is Providence a
step up from Xavier, I.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Don't know that it's a step up, but I will say,
like this past season, they spent more money in Nil
and it is his alma mater, so I think he
would be willing to listen to them potentially if the
circumstances were different, or if Xavier wasn't upping their NIL significantly,
going forward, which everything I've heard that they intend to do,
(04:01):
they intend to take a significant jump that'll be almost
double what they spent last year in this year's upcoming
transfer portal. So those are you know, if those circumstances
were different, maybe he would be more interested in looking
for his first way out of town. But based on
what I've heard to this point, I think both parties, Richard,
Cristino and Xavier are excited about what's ahead this coming
(04:22):
spring and going into next year, and they're excited about
their future together. I just can't imagine under any circumstances
they're looking to move on after one year.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, No, it was. It was eyebrow raising and interesting
to talk about for sure. Rick Bororing Musketeer Report dot
Com has the call tonight NKU against against Cleveland State.
The Norse are nine and nine and in conference play,
and I think everybody was feeling really good after the
three consecutive wins, the victory over Purdue for Wayne, and
then things could not have gone worse offensively for the
(04:52):
Norse against Youngstown State.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
What happened?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yeah, I mean, unfortunately for this group move. We talked
about the inconsistency sometimes and their best players don't always
seem to show up and play the same way as
they're capable of playing. I mean, they have these these
nights where they scored twenty five to thirty points and
then these other nights where you know, they're inconsistent, and
(05:16):
maybe that's why they ended up in the Horizon League
instead of the Big East or a higher level potentially.
But that's what really got to them in the Youngstown
State game. They just started that game and couldn't score
at all, even when they got good looks. They missed layups,
they missed wide open threes. They ended the first half
with just fifteen points. I mean, when you hold the
opposing team to thirty five points in the first half
(05:37):
and you're down by twenty, that's that's I mean, that's
just something went majorly wrong. And you know, they fought
their way back, they made it competitive, They had multiple
chances down the stretch to get back in and tie
that game, and just couldn't get over the hump late,
which is understandable when you have a twenty point.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Deficit at halftime.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
But yeah, I mean, now you're looking at likely going
on the road in the postseason for the first round
and it's really like you're playing for who's going to
be your matchup at this point, and I think, in
my opinion, you'd rather not travel to Green Bay would
be what I'd.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Be rooting against.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
But I'm not sure with this year, the way that
the Horizon League has played out and the way it's
been so competitive and the standings have been so jumbled up,
I'm not sure that there's a huge difference between most
of these teams in the middle of the league.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
The bracket for the Horizon League Tournament looks like the
family tree of somebody who has a lot of illegitimate kids.
When they came up with that format, what substances were
being consumed.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
I've been told to not say as much about the
league office and the Horizon League Tournament and where it's held,
so I'll just tell you I don't know how they
came up with that idea, but I do think it's
going to be interesting to see what happens like the
four to five if that's who ends up in that
playing game on Sunday night for the right to play
the one seed.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
The one seed will have been waiting since the previous Wednesday.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Yeah, so it will be off for almost a week
to play, and that four or five game. Like, again,
I don't think there's a ton of separation for anyone
in the conference this year. So that four or five
team coming off a Sunday night win going into.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
The semi finals there, I think they've got a little
bit of momentum and a little bit of an advantage
on Monday night.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I remember being in the fourth grade and we had
a teacher who showed us what a tournament bracket was,
and it occurred to me many many, many, many, many,
many many years later. This guy was like like running
the schools like NCAA tournament office pool. This would have
been nineteen eighty seven, Key Smart beat Syracuse for Indiana
wins Bob Night his last national championship. If the bracket
(07:41):
for the Horizon League tournament this year would have been
what the teacher showed me, I think I would have
lost total interest in all sports.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
That's fair.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
The funny thing is when you started that story, I
thought you were going to say that your teacher had
a bunch of illegitimate kids.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Uh he may have, you know, for the lack of
I don't know, we never got that deep. But it does.
It I'm still not even sure I understand who plays when,
and we haven't even seen the teams yet, but I'm
sure you'll offer a measure of clarity when we talk
next week.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Thank you as always.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Yeah, tune into the pregame show. Me and Jim Kelt
will try to break it all down for you.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
What you should do is add like a segment to
your postgame show and like just add a segment where
you kind of see the teams based on where they
are in the standings at that moment, and then sort
of unfold some of the scenarios in your postgame show.
Just maybe run that past gym for me.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Okay, we're going to get home at about three am
as it is. I don't think we need to extend
the postgame show any longer than we already have it.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Thank you, all right, Well just an idea, Just throw
it at Jim and see what he says.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Thank you as always.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
All right, Thanks.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Mom, that's uh.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Seriously, go to Horizon League dot org and look at
it's the Barbersol free plug for the shaving cream. The
Barbasol Horizon League Tournament. The ten and eleven seed play
against each other in the play in game, and then
they advanced to the first round, where they would play
the one seed. Then there's all the one, two, three, four,
(09:10):
there's five games on campus sites. The second round only
includes one game. It's the second worst first round winner
against the worst first round winner those two teams. The
winner of that game advances to play the best first
round winner. The other semi final would be the second
best first round winner and the third best first round
It's confusing, Like I get, we have like an odd
(09:34):
number of teams in the league. This shouldn't be that
hard to figure out. Horizon League making things more complex
than they need to. It's like if you put the
Cincinnati Bengals in charge of a conference tournament, this is
what it would look like.
Busy night of college basketball.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Tonight's Xavier's playing a game that was supposed to be
played last night against Providence, and NKU is getting set
to take on Cleveland State. You can hear Norse Hoops
on Fox Sports thirteen sixty tonight at seven o'clock with
Jim Kelch and Rick Brewing. Rick covers Xavior for Musketeer
Report dot com and he calls NKU games, So he's
(00:22):
going to be a very busy man tonight. He tells
us he's sitting in a dark hotel room in Cleveland.
Why why are the Norse staying in a hotel that
has no lights in the rooms?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
So that's what's wrong with you? Well, do you have
to be like this a lot on man?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I mean it's it was.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
That was a conversation about whether or not we were
going to stream this this conversation over the internet in
like a zoom format. So I was like, I don't know,
you know, if there's the proper lighting in this hotel
room for that? Gotcha, Okay, there are there are there
are working lights in the Cleveland Marriott.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Sure it's it's Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Hell, I don't know, man far bing for me, I
just it was brought up to me that you're sitting
in a dark hotel room. Either the lights are off
and that's weird, or there are no lights and that's
weird too.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
It's a gray and dark city. I will give you
that all right.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
By the way, you're not the first guest to answer
my first question by asking what's wrong with me?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Either, So just f y, I should Xavier beat Providence tonight?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I don't know about should.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
In fact, the predictive metrics would tell you Providence is
the favorite to win that game. But I would say
is the first time around, it looked like a pretty
good matchup for Xavier. You know, they were able to
It's the two fastest playing teams in the conference, so
it allowed Zavier to get out in transition and play
fast the way they like to play on the offensive end,
and they were hitting the threes, which Providence gives up.
(01:44):
But they were also able to get the ball inside
more often than they typically do and score in the paint,
and that's an issue Providence has too. They're just not
a very good defensive team and they continue to struggle
in that way since the first meeting between these two teams.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
So it seems like it's a good match.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
But the first game against Butler looked like a really
good notch up for Xavier at the Cinta Center, and
then I think the field House it didn't go their way.
They fell way behind and had to call their way
back and didn't win.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
So we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
They don't have a large margin for air in any
game in Big East play, but I do think it
sets up well for them to be competitive.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Is Richard Patino going to coach Providence next year?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
And I don't think so. No.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Now, I do think it's easy for people to just
push this off and yell at Jeff Goodman because no
one likes Jeff Goodman anymore. And all of that, I
do believe he's hearing something. Some of it may be
based on outdated info, but at the end of the day,
I think what ultimately stands out to me about the
situation is Xavier pretty much controls it. Richard Patino has
(02:48):
a pretty big buyout after only being here for one season,
and I mean, I don't think Providence going to afford
to pay a full buyout for him, also pay Kim
English's buyout to go away and pay your new coach's
salary and Richard Patino and give him nil money.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
I mean, that's.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Just a crazy way to go up about business. And
by the way, you know, like Xavier, Well, I think
Xavier is excited about Richard Patino, and I think we've
talked about on the show how he's done a good job.
Xavior is going to finish under five hundred this year,
and they played the same conference as Providence.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
So I don't know that that's the easiest sell in
the world to.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Say, like, hey, we've got to spend like thirty million
dollars to turn this thing around this year with a
guy who just went under.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Five hundred in the conference.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
I just I think it was always a non starter
because of his biout and.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Xavier understanding Richard Patino's ties to Providence. Is Providence a
step up from Xavier, I.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Don't know that it's a step up, but I will say,
like this past season, they spent more money in Nil
and it is his alma mater, so I think he
would be willing to listen to them potentially if the
circumstances were different, or if Xavier wasn't upping their NIL significantly,
going forward, which everything I've heard that they intend to do,
(04:01):
they intend to take a significant jump that'll be almost
double what they spent last year in this year's upcoming
transfer portal. So those are you know, if those circumstances
were different, maybe he would be more interested in looking
for his first way out of town. But based on
what I've heard to this point, I think both parties, Richard,
Cristino and Xavier are excited about what's ahead this coming
(04:22):
spring and going into next year, and they're excited about
their future together. I just can't imagine under any circumstances
they're looking to move on after one year.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, No, it was. It was eyebrow raising and interesting
to talk about for sure. Rick Bororing Musketeer Report dot
Com has the call tonight NKU against against Cleveland State.
The Norse are nine and nine and in conference play,
and I think everybody was feeling really good after the
three consecutive wins, the victory over Purdue for Wayne, and
then things could not have gone worse offensively for the
(04:52):
Norse against Youngstown State.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
What happened?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Yeah, I mean, unfortunately for this group move. We talked
about the inconsistency sometimes and their best players don't always
seem to show up and play the same way as
they're capable of playing. I mean, they have these these
nights where they scored twenty five to thirty points and
then these other nights where you know, they're inconsistent, and
(05:16):
maybe that's why they ended up in the Horizon League
instead of the Big East or a higher level potentially.
But that's what really got to them in the Youngstown
State game. They just started that game and couldn't score
at all, even when they got good looks. They missed layups,
they missed wide open threes. They ended the first half
with just fifteen points. I mean, when you hold the
opposing team to thirty five points in the first half
(05:37):
and you're down by twenty, that's that's I mean, that's
just something went majorly wrong. And you know, they fought
their way back, they made it competitive, They had multiple
chances down the stretch to get back in and tie
that game, and just couldn't get over the hump late,
which is understandable when you have a twenty point.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Deficit at halftime.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
But yeah, I mean, now you're looking at likely going
on the road in the postseason for the first round
and it's really like you're playing for who's going to
be your matchup at this point, and I think, in
my opinion, you'd rather not travel to Green Bay would
be what I'd.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Be rooting against.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
But I'm not sure with this year, the way that
the Horizon League has played out and the way it's
been so competitive and the standings have been so jumbled up,
I'm not sure that there's a huge difference between most
of these teams in the middle of the league.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
The bracket for the Horizon League Tournament looks like the
family tree of somebody who has a lot of illegitimate kids.
When they came up with that format, what substances were
being consumed.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
I've been told to not say as much about the
league office and the Horizon League Tournament and where it's held,
so I'll just tell you I don't know how they
came up with that idea, but I do think it's
going to be interesting to see what happens like the
four to five if that's who ends up in that
playing game on Sunday night for the right to play
the one seed.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
The one seed will have been waiting since the previous Wednesday.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Yeah, so it will be off for almost a week
to play, and that four or five game. Like, again,
I don't think there's a ton of separation for anyone
in the conference this year. So that four or five
team coming off a Sunday night win going into.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
The semi finals there, I think they've got a little
bit of momentum and a little bit of an advantage
on Monday night.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I remember being in the fourth grade and we had
a teacher who showed us what a tournament bracket was,
and it occurred to me many many, many, many, many,
many many years later. This guy was like like running
the schools like NCAA tournament office pool. This would have
been nineteen eighty seven, Key Smart beat Syracuse for Indiana
wins Bob Night his last national championship. If the bracket
(07:41):
for the Horizon League tournament this year would have been
what the teacher showed me, I think I would have
lost total interest in all sports.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
That's fair.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
The funny thing is when you started that story, I
thought you were going to say that your teacher had
a bunch of illegitimate kids.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Uh he may have, you know, for the lack of
I don't know, we never got that deep. But it does.
It I'm still not even sure I understand who plays when,
and we haven't even seen the teams yet, but I'm
sure you'll offer a measure of clarity when we talk
next week.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Thank you as always.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Yeah, tune into the pregame show. Me and Jim Kelt
will try to break it all down for you.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
What you should do is add like a segment to
your postgame show and like just add a segment where
you kind of see the teams based on where they
are in the standings at that moment, and then sort
of unfold some of the scenarios in your postgame show.
Just maybe run that past gym for me.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Okay, we're going to get home at about three am
as it is. I don't think we need to extend
the postgame show any longer than we already have it.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Thank you, all right, Well just an idea, Just throw
it at Jim and see what he says.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Thank you as always.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
All right, Thanks.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Mom, that's uh.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Seriously, go to Horizon League dot org and look at
it's the Barbersol free plug for the shaving cream. The
Barbasol Horizon League Tournament. The ten and eleven seed play
against each other in the play in game, and then
they advanced to the first round, where they would play
the one seed. Then there's all the one, two, three, four,
(09:10):
there's five games on campus sites. The second round only
includes one game. It's the second worst first round winner
against the worst first round winner those two teams. The
winner of that game advances to play the best first
round winner. The other semi final would be the second
best first round winner and the third best first round
It's confusing, Like I get, we have like an odd
(09:34):
number of teams in the league. This shouldn't be that
hard to figure out. Horizon League making things more complex
than they need to. It's like if you put the
Cincinnati Bengals in charge of a conference tournament, this is
what it would look like.
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