March 13, 2026 • 50 mins
Wes Miller is out as UC Head Coach.
Mo was joined by Chad Brendel and Terry Nelson.
And he shared some thoughts, too.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Away from five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Moweger,
(00:03):
Thank you for listening. We'll hook Your weekend is off
to a great start. Kentucky loses to Florida seventy one
to sixty three. Bounced from the SEC Tournament. Wildcats back
in action next week in the NCAA Tournament. Do you see?
Bearcats will not be playing in the NCAA Tournament and
Wes Miller is no longer Cincinnati's head coach. This broke
(00:25):
earlier this afternoon, confirmed by our guy Chad Brindle at
Bearcat Journal dot com, who is joining us to start
the show. Chad, first of all, I know it's a
busy day for you, so I appreciate the time. By
the way, Bearcat journal dot com has hot Board one
point zero up right now coaching candidates for the vacancy
at UC and we'll tap into that here in just
(00:46):
a second. I want to start with something that you
and I have talked about occasionally over the last couple
of weeks, including yesterday, and that's you know the fact
that Wes Miller bringing him back for year number six
was always going to be a hard sell to a
lot of a lot of rank and file fans, but
that he did have some allies. He had some allies,
maybe some deep pocketed allies on his side. Were they
(01:08):
won over today and is that why this was done?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We don't have that answer yet. What I think is
something that we talked about yesterday that ultimately it's John
Cunningham's job that's on the line here, Like that isn't
a cushy it's not cushy, but it's a well paid position.
And if you bring Wes back and it doesn't work,
(01:34):
and you do lose the fan base in the process,
then that's John Cunningham that's going to be on the carpet,
you know, having to answer questions about decisions that he made.
So I'm sure that you know, eighties are partly responsible
for making sure that the people that fund the program
(01:55):
are on board with the decisions that need to be made.
Guess he was able to sell the people, you know,
at the highest donation level that this is a decision
that ultimately, unfortunately needed to be made and that they
had to go forward. But if we find out they've
got a three million dollar roster for next year, then
maybe we have that Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
And I want to go down that road here in
just a bit. How is this separation between UC and
wes Miller going to work financially?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's a great question. The the the answers I've gotten
on it so far seem to indicate that Cincinnati is,
if need be, willing to wait until April first, when
the buyout drops, to officially let go wes Miller. That's
not how I would do it, but you know, sometimes
you have to, uh, you have the other party has
(02:49):
to be willing to play ball, and if he's not
willing to negotiate down a lower buyout, or maybe they
are working on the lower buyout. That's what we don't
know is they could be working on on a you know,
a buyout number that's somewhere between the ten and the
four point six with the lawyers right now. Remember u
See didn't announce that wes Miller was fired. This has
(03:10):
gotten out in the media and has been confirmed, but
you see has not made this official. So they could
be in negotiations. From what I know, Wes would like
to find a job this cycle. That's going to be
really hard to do if you're you know, under contract
until April first, or be a little bit more difficult
to do if you're under contract until April first. So
(03:31):
maybe we reach a point over these next two and
a half weeks that it's been official for both and
they come to an agreement and both sides move on.
But it does sound like at least Cincinnati waiting this
out until April first is on the table of possibilities.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
All right, if that ends up being the case, how
do you conduct a coaching search at the same time, Well.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Everybody knows you got a coaching over, right, Like the
hard part is if you're trying to like walk the
line and say, well, we have we don't we have decided,
like the athletic director can still talk to agents, can
still proceed as necessary. Now I don't know. And there's
(04:14):
really no rules for coaches, right, Like you can go
meet a coach, Like you know, there's coaches that are
agreeing to new jobs that are still coaching their old job.
So if John Cunningham wants to go have lunch with
somebody and interview them or talk to them or whatever,
that's there's really the wild lest. There's really no like
(04:35):
restrictions on how you can do that. So that would
that would still be a possibility per se. So does
it make it harder than it needs to be. Yeah,
it probably makes it harder than it needs to be,
but it's not completely out of the realm of possibility.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
In early February, wes Miller seemed like he was a
dead man walking. And then the team surges towards bubble,
they get on the bubble, the bubble is burst on Wednesday.
The way they lost the game on Wednesday, I think
for a lot of folks was a poor reflection of
the coach. How much did the specifics of what was
(05:14):
effectively the season ending loss on Wednesday possibly drive this decision?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It's had to be a factor, noough, Like if they
win that game and you know, they they play close
with Arizona, and you know, let's say that they don't
make the NCAA Tournament at that point, but they're you know,
they pop up on the screen Sunday as the second
team out of the first team out, and you know,
(05:44):
you went eight and two down the stretch going into
that Arizona game and you felt just short. There's a
path there. I think that Wes Miller would still be
the head coach at Cincinnati and get that opportunity for
the sixth year, had an eight point lead with two
minutes left. You barely got a shot up. Not only
(06:04):
you know and at the end of regulation regulation, but
also the final couple minutes of overtime you couldn't get
a shot up. You you let the house burn down,
like while you were holding the fire hose. You had
three timeouts and you didn't use any of them. Is
that good?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I just came up.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I like that one shout the house burned down holding
the hose. I think that's pretty good. But your team
is melting down. You have three timeouts and you just
the meltdown happens in front of your face and an
a point lead goes to tide and the blink of
an eye, the optics were just awful for Wes and
(06:43):
for his team. At that point, you're clinging right like
you're clinging to the opportunity to make the NCAA tournament
advancing that goal is right there and it just completely
falls through your hands. That that that had to be
a doctor in John Cunningham's decision.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
On a macro level. Why did the west Miller era
not work? Why did it not work out?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Because he never managed to go from. And then here's
the thing. West isn't a bad coach. Fans get upset.
There's a lot of hyperbole. West Miller's not a bad
basketball coach. He's a top forty, top fifty type basketball coach.
(07:32):
Problem is, in this league, top forty, top fifty is
going to get you right where Wes ended up almost
every year, and that's in purgatory. You're not bad. You
didn't bottom out like Kansas State did this year where
they they're going to have to pay twenty million to
fire your own tang because at one point they were
what two and thirteen in the league, But you weren't
(07:56):
good enough to challenge up into that top six, top
five six group in the league. And so you're fighting
with five six other teams that are right in that
same grouping as you, that are not as good as
the top six, but not as bad as the bottom
three or four. They didn't win enough of those games
(08:18):
against those teams that were peers in the middle of
the pack in the Big twelve, and it happened over
and over. How much different is this conversation if they
don't lose to West Virginia twice this year, or if
they don't lose to a bad Arizona State team on
the road, or Oklahoma State last year, or what that
(08:40):
first year in the Big twelve, they were right there
on the bubble and they lose to an Oklahoma team
that was hurt, guys, missing, dreadful. You know, there were
too many of those things that continued to happen that
kept Cincinnati from being a ten to eleven win Big
twelve team and instead of seven to eight nine win
Dig twelve team, and ultimately that was his downfall. They
(09:03):
were never bad, but they were never good enough. And
five years is I think a fair representation of you
got five years to get your team in the NCAA tournament.
You're well funded, you've got support, mo we talked about
this yesterday. They weren't good this year. At times there
(09:26):
were still ten thousand people in the stands. You've got
great fans support, You've got a tradition rich program. Five
years is a lot of time to make one NCAA
tournament and they didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Bearkatjournal dot com right now has a hot board and
you do this whenever there's a UC coaching search, and
you separate coaching candidates possible coaching candidates into certain tiers.
Should Jared Calhoun have his own tier?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Probably? Yeah, I think we're at that point, especially with
the news and look, coaches have agreed to extensions before
and then gone on and coached somewhere else. So we
have not ruled out Josh Shirts at this point. One
because that came out before the Cincinnati job came open,
(10:17):
So we don't know if he has interests in the
Cincinnati job or not. But if he is going to
stay at Saint Louis, I do think Jared Calhoun has
to be all systems go. I think he wants to
be here. I think he really had his eye on
two jobs, one with Cincinnati, one with Pitt. It's not opening,
(10:39):
Cincinnati's open, so he wants to be here. It seems
like the right fit. We don't know if John Cunningham
wants him to be here or not, but we know that,
you know, there's a connection there. He's a UC alumni.
He's coached with Bob Huggins, so there is some you know,
connection to the history. If you see, it just makes
(11:03):
too much sense and really probably should have his own
designation on the hot board until further notice.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
I guess should we assume that whoever the next head
coach is, he will walk into a situation where on
day one he has no players.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
So the interesting thing is mo and yes, assume that that,
Like in a coaching change in college sports, when it
comes to what does it comes to what does the
roster look like? Just assume it's going to be completely gutted,
because that's how the transfer portal era works. This year,
they have made a change. The transfer portal won't open
(11:46):
until April seventh. It used to be that it opened
the Monday after like this coming Monday, and then I
think they moved it to the Monday after the first
and second round, but still it opened very early in
the process. Now it doesn't open until April seventh. If
you get a coach in here on April second, right,
(12:09):
they're going to have five days to meet with the
team and to you know, work on the situation. Now,
what we don't know. Corey Evans, who was brought in
as the GM last year, has a multi year contract.
If he's staying, and I don't know that he is
(12:29):
or not, I don't have that answer yet, But if
Corey Evans is staying, he's going to be able to,
you know, build that connection that he's already got with
a lot of these guys, in terms of who's interested
in staying, who is willing to listen to what the
new coach has to say, who is already out the door.
So you know, if he is sticking around, then there
(12:53):
is a path to the roster sticking together. But in
terms of like what would I anticipate as it stands,
I always anticipate, Yeah, pretty much everybody's gonna be gone.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Would Corey have any say in who the next head
coach is going to be?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Probably not. That's not people here GM and think of
it more as like a pro sports term, like I
think he would be if if he's if he's going
to stick around, I think he'd be consulted. I think
he would definitely be I don't think he would be
ignored in the process. But ultimately, it's John Cunningham's job
(13:27):
that's on the line, right, That's that's where you got
to go, whose job, whose neck is on the line
with the higher John Cunningham's neck is on the line
with the higher So he's gonna he's gonna lean on
his process and and his you know, decision making to
make the higher.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
With with any head coaching vacancy, the question always comes
up about money, and you talk about well funded. That's
the term you used before, and in discussing this program,
folks always guess at what a roster costs, and there's
always conjecture out there, but relatively speaking, compared to their
big twelve peers, a new coach comes in, does he
(14:07):
have at his disposal what will allow him to win,
win soon, and win at a bigger level beyond simply
eking into the NCAA tournament and playing in Dayton, which
was the bar that everybody said for wes Miller this
particular season.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I would like to think so. I mean they had
a ten million roughly a little bit more, a little
bit less whatever, roughly a ten million dollar roster this year.
That's enough to win like that? Is it the top
number in the conference? No, but it puts you in
the range. And they had two second team All Conference
(14:47):
and an honorable mention All Conference player. And those guys
have more money in their bank accounts than the two
of us and less things, you know, unless they have
put themselves in a terrible position based on firing wes Miller,
and they have to lower that number for a year,
(15:10):
they should be in good position. And I can't imagine
mo like, even if maybe it drops to eight million,
and yeah, you're you're maybe a player or too short,
but you still be able to put a pretty good
roster together. I can't at this point without all the information.
But at this point I have a hard time believing
they would let it get to a point where they
(15:30):
only have five or six million dollars for the roster
to try to compete in the best league in America.
It would make it a very difficult year one starting
point for your new coach.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Do I assume that when or if the Crown or
Nit come calling this weekend, that the school will say thanks,
but no thanks.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Well, the NIT doesn't matter at this point anymore. For Cincinnati.
They are contractually obligated to play in the Crown. It's
apparently seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars to buy out
of that. What I don't know is if there's anything
(16:10):
in there that says, if you know, you get you
get some relief if you make a coaching change. I
can't imagine they play in the Crown this year. I
just have a very hard time seeing them trying to
pull that off. As a coach is on the way out,
a new coach is either just getting involved or or
(16:31):
on the way in. It doesn't make a lot of
sense for Cincinnati to play in that tournament this year.
They are contractually obligated because it sounds like they're going
to take eight Big twelve teams if you include UCF
and TV and Cincinnati's ninth and the top two teams
(16:51):
that don't make the tournament are obligated to go to
the Crown. So so Cincinnati would have that obligation. I
don't know, and I'm hoping to get an answer on
that today or tomorrow, So follow me on social media
for that. But I don't know that they'll have to
pay the money. But there is a seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars price tag for.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Not going Awesome stuff. As always, no you're busy, check
out Bearcat journal dot com get the latest on west
Miller's departure and the coaching search. Thank you as always, man,
we'll talk soon.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Appreciate it. Thanks.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
All's our guy, I Chad Brendel, Bearcat Journal dot com.
Terry Nelson's going to join us at five twenty four
from five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen.
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SOOM thirty. All right, six after five, ESPN fifteen thirty. Moegger,
thank you for listening. Hopefully you are having an awesome
Friday afternoon. Terry Nelson's going to join us in fifteen minutes.
Awesome stuff from Chad Brendle just a few minutes ago.
(18:32):
Tarn is podcasting that as we speak, and we'll have
that for you on the iHeartRadio app. If you missed
any of it, or if you want to relive it
Wes Miller out at the University of Cincinnati very quickly.
Just want to run through a couple of things really quick.
Kentucky lost today to Florida seventy one to sixty three,
(18:52):
so the Wildcats are bounced from the SEC tournament. Ohio
State put up a fight against Michigan. Buckeyes are playing well. Nonetheless,
they fall of the Wolverine. So Ohio States stay in
the Big Ten tournament is over dayton one. Today, the
Flyers beat Saint Bonaventure in Pittsburgh in the eight ten Tournament.
Flyers will take on Saint Louis tomorrow. Reds have two
games tonight, one against the Giants in Goodyear. Brady Singer
(19:15):
will pitch in that one. One against the Giants in Scottsdale.
Chase Burns will pitch in that one. This in the
aftermath of finding out that Caleb Ferguson is going to
miss some time with an oblique injury, So there you go.
Jonathan Allen made public today by the Bengals. I don't
know that anything of any major substance came from that.
We're basically going to be all about Wes Miller, and
(19:37):
you see basketball today and I'm sure you understand, you know,
you just you think about an alternate universe. Go back
just about forty eight hours ago. Uc is playing UCF
and the Bearcats aren't playing well, but neither is UCF.
And right around this time two days ago, the Bearcats
(20:00):
a lead that they had with two minutes to go,
an eight point lead with two minutes to go, and
not only did they lose, they completely melt down. And
you could not help but watch those last two minutes
of regulation and think mainly about the role of coaching,
(20:22):
but just think about the alternate universe. They win that game,
which they should have with everything else happening around them,
all the teams losing, all the teams refusing to grab
bids heck for what it's worth, and the RedHawks are
going to be a tournament team and deserve to be
a tournament team, but Miami loses. It is plausible, and
(20:45):
we're never gonna know for sure, I guess, but it
is plausible that forget about what would have happened against Arizona.
Uc beats UCF. They're a tournament team. And if they're
a tournament team, Wes Miller is coaching the Bearcats in
the tournament next week, and he's probably the coach next year.
Think about the ripple effect, think about the trajectory change
(21:09):
based on two absolutely horrific minutes for Wes Miller and
his program just about forty eight hours ago. I hope
Wes Miller kills it wherever he goes next. It felt
like often during this season, and it certainly felt like
on Wednesday, like either it was time or by the
(21:31):
time we got to Wednesday, it just things had gotten
to a point of no return. Wes Miller did a
lot of things I think really well. He just didn't
win enough basketball games. And when I say he did
a lot of things really well, he's not being fired
for a lot of the reasons why you see other
(21:52):
coaches get fired. There were no off court scandals, no
legal issues, no academic cheating improprieties. You know it. The
NCAA rule book is maybe not as thick as it
used to be, but there's been no off court shame,
no no cheating, no NCAA issues. You know, you're not
hearing rumors of his off court behavior. He's recruited guys
(22:14):
who have you know, walked the straight line for the
most part, like fan support's been there. It just he
just didn't win enough basketball games, and unfortunately, that's the
most important part of the job. I once heard mc
cronin say, if you're gonna get fired, get fired for losing.
Don't get fired for cheating. Don't get fired for you know,
doing something illicit, get fired for losing. Wes Miller gets
(22:35):
fired for losing. Wes Miller's a good guy and I
certainly hope for him.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Man.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Look, he's forty three years old. I certainly hope for him.
There's a a Travis Steel type next step for him
where he can be a head coach. Maybe take the
lessons learned by what did and didn't happen at U
see go kill it elsewhere. Travis Steele left Xavier and
(23:04):
did so with his head held high, handled himself in
a very classy manner. It was let go during Xavier's
n championship run. Took the job at Miami, didn't instantly
turn the RedHawks around. But now Travis Steele's a hot
commodity and it might be the national coach of the year.
I certainly hope for Wes Miller's sake, Like there's something
(23:25):
like that in store for him. And on a personal level,
Wes was always very accommodating to our show and working
on the broadcast, easy to work with. When I've had
the opportunity to fill in for Dan Horde over the
last five years while Wes has been the head coach,
and I've called I don't know, maybe fifteen games. Wes
has always been very easy to work with, approachable, certainly
(23:47):
went out of his way to make me feel like
I was a part of UC basketball and you know,
told me from the outset. I remember the first time
I met Wes Miller was actually at a Reds game
where he threw at the first pitch, and you know,
he made it known like if you have a question,
reach out, and I took advantage of that, and he
was he was really cool, and so I on a
personal level, I like Wes a lot. I hope he
(24:11):
goes and kills it in whatever is next. And look,
it got sideways this year and college basketball coaches postgame shows,
I believe, are given more scrutiny than any coach or
manager in any sport. And there were times this year
where Wes Miller and what he did or what he
said in the postgame show kind of became a bigger
(24:31):
story than the game that he just coached. And usually
those postgame shows came after games where the Bearcats lost.
And I said this at the time that what was
puzzling about Wes and how he handled some of those
situations was I believe Wes has been treated very fairly here,
and I still believe that. In fact, I think when
(24:52):
I and I thought about this driving in, like you
think of the five years, like he had a pretty
long runway, and I think for for the better part
of three and a half years, there was always a willingness,
certainly by me and I think by most Bearcat fans
to kind of I don't want to say give him
a pass, but at least put into context some of
(25:12):
the realities of the job. Like year one, he gets
the job late, he gets the job after the weird
COVID season of twenty twenty. Twenty twenty one, gets the
job late in the cycle, kind of has to assemble
a roster piece together a team. Meanwhile, nil is just
becoming a thing. The transfer portal is becoming a larger
(25:33):
part of college basketball's reality, Like a tough runway. Year two,
like it felt like he steadied the program, and then
right when he did, they bounced to the Big twelve.
And by the way, they were largely competitive that first
year the Big Twelve. But I believe those first three
years they didn't make the tournament. Made the NIT that
first year of the Big twelve, if I'm not mistaken,
(25:57):
and I'm sorry, made the nit the second year West
was here. The year before they go to the Big twelve.
But anyway, regardless of whatever shortcomings there were, there was
always a willingness I think by most of us to
kind of put into context, all Right, it's a period
of transition, or it's hard to get the job later,
it's hard to go from the AAC to the Big twelve.
I don't think until the very end of last year
(26:18):
did anybody really start to talk about West Miller. And
last year, if I recall, it wasn't even so much
about the results. It was about how the Bearcats looked.
I mean, I remember very clearly they're a game against
against Kansas State late last season where Kansas State's team
showed up begging to be beaten. Uced didn't comply, so
Kansas State said, fine, we'll beat you. And I remember
(26:41):
the next day going like, what was that? Not that
they lost the game, but what was that? That team
looked ill prepared. That team didn't necessarily look like it
was mentally ready to go. And I think that's the
first time where it was like, all right, is this
gonna work? But I even believe this that at the
end of last season, most looked at the team and said, Okay,
(27:02):
the pieces didn't fit. Good players a lot of good players,
but the pieces didn't fit. Sometimes it happens, but it
can't happen again. Now this year, toward the end of
the season, the pieces seem to fit pretty well, but
they didn't fit well enough. And so I believe you
had a coach here who had a long runway but
also this season a really low bar to clear, Like
(27:26):
nobody talked to this season about the Bearcats making the
Sweet sixteen. He's got to make this Sweek sixteen, or
he's out of a gig or boy, he's he's got
to contend for a Big twelve title or win a
Big Twelve title, or it's time to move on. It
was be a tournament team. Hell, be team sixty eight
and play in Dayton. That's quite frankly, not that high
(27:51):
of a bar to clear. Look at college basketball, Look
at the bubble. Look at all these teams that we've
spent weeks yelling at each other about maybe making it,
maybe not making it. You had an Auburn team that
this week went to the SEC Tournament with a sixteen
and fifteen record, with a chance to play in the
NCAA Tournament. And so I think with with Wes, you
(28:13):
had a pretty long runway, and I think this year
you had a pretty low bar to clear and they
couldn't clear it. And then you had the way things
looked on Wednesday, and the way things looked on Wednesday,
this wasn't you see losing a game seventy eight to
seventy where the other team just beat him, or other
(28:34):
team had a guy that just offensively went nuts, Like
you had that game not your back pocket, but pretty
damn close. And not only did your team melt down,
but you couldn't help but debate the role of coaching
in the meltdown. And when you are on already thin ice,
and maybe at that point the ice was already broken,
but when you are on already thin ice, that simply
(28:55):
cannot happen and then you add to it fan displeasure
and anger. I've had since Wednesday night more people forward
me emails that they have written to people in power
at uc than I've ever gotten about the Bengals of
the Reds or uc or behavior or anybody else. And
(29:15):
it just got to a point where there's the basketball
part of it, and there's what they haven't been able
to accomplish, and there's the way the team played this year,
but there was also just the fact that Wes Miller
for a lot of people was an impossible sell. And
maybe that wasn't going to matter to some people who
have deep pockets, but it was going to have to
matter to John Cunningham and then people in the athletic
(29:35):
department and the people perhaps at the upper reaches of
the food chain at the school. And so it felt
like on Wednesday things changed. Maybe things weren't fifty to fifty.
Maybe Wes's future had been decided well before tip off
against UCF, but when that game ended the way it did, frankly,
it just felt like it was totally and completely untenable
(30:00):
to bring him back. We'll get to what's next coming
up here in just a bit. On Twitter at Moeger
thanks to a Delta Dental. Delta Dental is building healthy,
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This does feel like it'll be a massive upset if
Jared Calhoun is not the guy. I do think UC
has some really good things going forward that I'll elaborate
(30:22):
on coming up in fifteen minutes, But first we'll talk
to Terry Nelson on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
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Speaker 1 (31:05):
This is ESPN fifteen to thirty mo edguer u See
is moving on from Wes Miller. Terry Nelson Radio and
TV analysts for UC men's basketball kind enough to give
us a few minutes. Team Nol's, it's awesome to have you.
This season, we went into it going okay, they got
to make the tournament or else. For Wes Miller this year,
(31:25):
macro level. Why did it not work.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
The pieces? He didn't put the right cards on the
table at the right times. And that's just been how
his I mean as a player, if I'm a fort
if I'm a player under West Miller, I love playing
for him because if I'm in that starting lineup, he
will play me way to the end, from beginning to
(31:52):
the end, he will be he will be loyal to
me because I've earned it in practice. However, and there's
bad games, for non productive games from your starters. There's
a reason that you have a bench and those people
on the bench get paid to you. Do you use
your bench to win games when you need it the most?
(32:15):
And that, unfortunately, that's sort of been them is that
making the right adjustment at the right times has seemed
to be the reason that he is no longer here.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Was the way they lost on Wednesday? For you, the
straw that broke the Camel's back.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
It was it was because the answers to the tests
were sitting right in front of you. You know, keys
Chantillery is having one of his better games. He's come
along strong over the part of the reasons you won
seven out of ten is because Keyschan Tillery was emerging
off the bench. The stoppa was your focus facing the
(32:54):
basket and shooting jump shots. But it was you know,
you only have one point guard. You have two combo
guards and just Danaean Jizzle and one point got on
the roster, and that was Keshan Tillery. And he's the
only guy that consistently breaks this man down and gets
to the basket and makes them happen. And he's a
human press breaker. And for him not to be in
the game when you couldn't get the ball across at court,
(33:16):
either you take jizzl out because he was having a
hard time getting the ball across, or you take Celestie
out because you don't need points now you need to
spread the floor or get to the free throw line,
get the ball pass alf court. You could have win
three guards and let you know, pass the ball from
Tillery breaking it, or you could have had Baba Miller,
(33:37):
bring the ball up and throw over the top of
the double team to the second wave of guards. Here's
a pluthroop that could have happened, and neither one happened.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
What are the things that are at the top of
your priority list when you think about who the next
head coach should be.
Speaker 5 (33:53):
Does he have in game strategy and does he exude
toughness to the team. I mean, over the last thirty
five years since Huggins took over, there's been an emphasis
suvice and to see that sort of erode away, to
(34:16):
see on a daily base, guys not be held accountable
for the actions that take place on the floor because
the pretty great guys the town's there. I mean, there's
nothing wrong with the roster, it's how you fashion it.
If every if you're in a cooking contest and everybody
(34:37):
has the same ingredients and your kid turns out differently
than the person right next to you, it's not in
the ingredients and how you prepared it. And if you
look at the guys that it has on this roster,
they were more than capable of winning. It was only
every one or two games that they were not in it.
Every game they had a lead every game they were competing.
(34:59):
Every game they got right there, they could not find
a way to close. And unfortunately, because I like Wes
and a lot of people like West and you'll hear
a lot of people say this, and I like him,
but he's my favorite butt Well, I like the way
he did this. There's always an exception at the end
of that, because when it comes down to it, fired
purifies and it reveals what the essence of you already are,
(35:21):
which you really are. And when stuff got close, he
let his emotions get the best of him instead of
thinking clearly and doing the right thing to win the game.
For the supporters and the fan base, the name.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
That is going to be brought up most often, at
least here in the early goings of this is is
Jared Calhoun, who has been here right work for Bob
Huggins towards the end of coach huggins ten year at UC.
Is he somebody you know it all? Are you beyond
just knowing that he's coaching at US tah State? Did
you become familiar with him at all while he was here?
(35:53):
What do you know about him?
Speaker 5 (35:55):
But he was with the James White team. Why posts
a picture on this in Twitter about that, and he
was like, man to take a look at the roster
and see if he was on the roster, Like he
even forgot about it. But no, he was one of
those guys that kept it over with Hugs and Eric
Martin at West Virginia's he's worked. When you're a grand assistant,
(36:18):
you do a lot of stuff that you don't get
paid for. You're a lot of hours, a lot of
film sessions, a lot of scouting reports. You're playing basketball,
you do it, a lot of stuff rest work that's
just not on your job description. You're doing whatever it takes,
so you outwork a lot of people because of the
position that you're in. And to see him have success
(36:40):
everywhere he's been and to see that they were they
won't yesterday. I don't know if they what time they
played today, but well coached structure, toughness to it, and
they have some strategy at the end of games. I
believe that he would be because he was the guy.
Now obviously can they can consider other people as well,
but if he was a guy, I'd be comfortable with that.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
You are as close to this program as anybody coaches players,
people who are connected to it folks who fund the program. Uh,
you've been here for a very long time. Is what's
needed for any head coach in place to be successful
very early during their tenure.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
Well yes, Well, first of all, let's just say if
it was ky Hole, I wouldn't want to snatch it Personally,
I wouldn't want to snatch him away from his team.
I would want him to finish the tournament and then
come over for a couple of reasons. One, I think
it's unfair for the guys that he coach started alone
to pull him away before he gets a chance. I
almost like what we did with football back in the day.
(37:48):
I would like for him to finish because I want
him hardened to NCAA mindset. I want him going and
playing in tough games and using strategy and in game
situations and learning how to win tournament games. I want
his brain stretches to new dimensions with the NCAA mindset.
Whether he wins the tournament, goes in the final fours, three, sixteen,
(38:11):
or whatever, I want him playing. I don't want to
snatch him when this team goes to the tournament and
not give him the experience of coaching in the tournament.
When we're hiring him to take us to the tournament
and be successful in the tournament, well, he could probably
take us there. But if he doesn't have the ability
to coach in the tournament because we pulled them away,
(38:31):
he's not growing to the point where we want him
to come in from day one with that mentality, with
the roster to the honestable because the money is there.
I want him to be able to say, look, all
we need is this player. This player, make a little
tweaks and changes here, and we can make a deep run.
Because he likes the roster, he likes the environment, he
(38:53):
likes everything that takes to be successful at Cincinnati. He
understands the foundation has been better since he's been gone.
And if he returns, whoever returns, I would like them
to have a mentality that, look, NCAA is floor. Is
just the floor. We're not worried about just trying to
get in the NCAA. Guess we haven't been there in
a while, but that's the floor. We have enough resources
(39:16):
to get the talent that we need to make deep
runs every year. Whether we've made the deep runs every
year is not the question. We have the talent and
we should be in the conversation every year.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Oh, I appreciate the time on short notice. Man. By
the way, Jered Calhoun's team plays on Nevada tonight. I'm
rooting for them just because they're playing Nevada in the
Mountain West Tournament. That game tips off at nine thirty
this evening. I know you have a lot going on, man,
I appreciate you jumping on. We'll see you soon.
Speaker 5 (39:45):
Appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Mo.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
That's our guy, Terry Nelson, radio analysts for UC basketball.
By the way, the Chad Brendel Conversation is available right
now on the iHeartRadio app. More thoughts ahead, sports headlines
to ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
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This week we carried UK games at noon. Every day.
Sports headlines are a service a Kelsey Chevrolett home of lifetime,
Howard Rane protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family
to yours for life kelseyshev dot com. Wes Miller out
as the men's basketball head coach at the University of
Cincinnati after five seasons. The news not officially announced yet
(41:00):
by the university. As you heard Chad talk about last hour,
lawyers are lawyering as it relates to the buyout. Meanwhile,
a whole bunch of college basketball games. I love this day.
I love this day when you have conference tournament quarterfinals
and semifinals across the country. Kentucky fans did not love
(41:21):
this day. Florida did not play well, and yet you
never felt like Kentucky was gonna win the game even
when they got close. Ish Gators beat the Wildcats seventy
one to sixty three for the first time this season.
I think Kentucky played one hundred and twenty minutes against
the Gators and never let in any of them. If
I'm not mistaken, which I often am Ohio State, Felda, Michigan.
(41:41):
In the Big Ten Tournament seventy one to sixty seven.
Dayton beat Saint Bonaventure in Pittsburgh in the A ten Tournament.
Flyers will take on Saint Louis tomorrow. Reds play the
Giants twice tonight. Brady Singer on the mound for Cincinnati
in Goodyear at nine oh five on seven hundred WLW.
Another team of Reds players led by Chase Burns on
the Mound takes on the Giants in Scottsdale at seven
(42:04):
oh five. As a spring training veteran, if you had
your choice between the two, you would want to go
to Scottsdale. That's all I got for you. What else
do we have? Bengals made it official. Defensive tackle Jonathan
Allen signs a two year contract. By the way, a
couple of Reds games got moved to nighttime next week
because it is an extreme heat in Phoenix. The Cubs
(42:24):
game on the twentieth, which is next Friday, is now
going to be a night game, and the White Sox
game on the twenty first is now going to be
a night game. It's going to be really hot in
Arizona Cyclones ain't going to be hot at the hockey
rink downtown Clones play. Iow tonight. I think they're giving
away bags. I think strap bags or something. I drove
past the billboard getting on the I seventy five today,
(42:46):
Go Clones. We got about five minutes here. We talked
two segments ago before Terry Nelson about the past five years,
and now now it's about what's next and what's next
for John Cunningham, like it's enormous. Let's be honest. You
can be an athletics director and have a lot of
(43:06):
different things under your umbrella. You've got to raise money,
You've got to negotiate media deals. You've got to oversee
an advertising department. You have to hire and fire coaches
in let's call them lower profile sports. Yeah, you have
to maintain facilities. There's probably facets of that job that
I can't even imagine. But at the end of the day,
you're judged by the success of the coaches you hire
(43:31):
in the school's two most high profile sports. Obviously, not
every school has football. Scott Saderfield. If we're being gentle,
we'll say the jury is still out. Call it what
it is. And I personally like Scott Saderfield a lot.
His record in November right now leads the discussion. He
(43:52):
is certainly not an extraordinarily popular figure. He's been there
for three years. In each of the last two seasons,
what felt like we're going to be good seasons, really
good seasons kind of bottomed out toward the end. John
Cunningham hired Scott Saderfield. He also hired Wes Miller. Now,
I thought when they hired Wes Miller that was a
(44:12):
good hire. I'm not gonna walk back that and say, boy,
it was a terrible hire. Like for the time, I
don't know, it felt like it made sense. It just
didn't work out. But athletic directors only get so many
cracks at it, and so I would find it hard
to believe that if they have to move on from
(44:35):
the next head coach, not the coach is successful and
moves on from them, but they have to move on
from the next head coach, and between that coach being
hired and being let go there are no NCAA tournaments
or not a lot of success or almost unending fan unrest,
then this athletic director is not likely to be hiring
(44:55):
a third men's basketball head coach, or heck, maybe a
second football. So this decision feels like it's really important
for John Cunningham. I think that goes without saying. Many
have talked about like if you see moves on from
West Miller, you have a chance to be maybe the
best job in the cycle and best job or good job, etc.
(45:20):
Those things are subjective and we'll see which jobs come open.
The season's not over for a lot of teams. There
could be a surprise retirement. There could be a basketball
coach that jumps to the NBA. There could be a
school that out of nowhere fires a coach. There could
be schools that use the NCAA tournament as the barometer
for which they measure success, and then you know, if
(45:41):
you don't win in it, you're gone. We will see,
but right now it feels like it's one of the
premier jobs that are open. Maybe you can make an
argument Syracuse. Syracuse is in an easier league to win,
but it's a good job and it's I'll be called
a homer for saying this, Like you don't have to
get fans to come to games. They come to games.
(46:05):
You see games have been tremendously attended. The Bearcats haven't
made a tournament since twenty nineteen. I do believe like
one of the reasons why a lot of folks turned
against Wes and he put himself in the microscope this
year was this was not an inexpensive roster. It's you know,
(46:26):
a second team All League guy and honor Will mentioned
All League guy like this, it's not an inexpensive roster.
They pulled players from other like high major programs. Maybe
it wasn't the most expensive roster, wasn't a cheap roster,
So it feels like there's some financial infrastructure there. Also,
there is a level of steadiness that I don't think
(46:51):
Wes Miller early on ever got to enjoy. That's not
an excuse for Wes. It's just like it's hard to
say that anything is stable or per in college sports
right now, but there's some stability that you see right now.
They're not jumping to another league anytime soon. Now we'll
see what happens, you know, with the next wave of realignment,
(47:11):
super conferences, all that, But they're not making the jump
to the SEC or making the jump to the big.
They're a Big twelve program and by the way they
went five hundred in the Big Twelve this year, God willing,
there's no pandemic nil, which there's obviously ongoing conversations about
nil and what it should look like, or player compensation
(47:33):
and what it should look like. But you know, the
new world of college sports isn't quite as new as
it was a couple of years ago. So you know,
like I feel like there's relatively steady footy is steady
footing for whoever the next head coach is. It ain't
gonna be easy to win in year one, no matter
who it is, because it's hard to walk into a
(47:54):
situation where you don't have any players if that ends
up being the case and you have to cobble together
a new ross. Richard Patino will tell you that it's
also not impossible to win year one. It's not apples
to apples. The leagues aren't as good this year, but
just Jay Lucas Miami won this year and didn't win
last night. But Kevin Willard at Villanova won this year.
No two jobs are the same, but I do feel
(48:17):
like there's a level of steadiness that you see that
provides a nice runway for a new head coach. To
have some success. And again the first bar to clear
is not a very high one. B Team number sixty eight.
And by the way, maybe here soon B Team seventy
two or seventy six or eighty or ninety six or
(48:40):
one hundred and fifty six, whatever, they ultimately end up
expanding the number of teams in the tournament. Two, we're
not for a while going to be talking about making
deep runs into the tournament, into the sweet sixteen, or
competing for Big twelve championship B Team sixty eight. And
I do feel like, and you can tell me if
I'm wrong, we'll come back next week. I do feel
(49:00):
like there's a runway in place and enough steady footing
in place for that to happen with whoever the new
head coach is. And right now at the odds on
favorite feels like it's Jared Calhoun. We are done. I
wish we had more time. We'll put we already put
Chad Brindle on the iHeartRadio app, and my computer is
not cooperating, but I would be willing to guarantee you
(49:23):
that Taran has put to Yes. Terry Nelson's also on
the iHeartRadio app, so you can listen to both those
conversations as well as anything else we did this week.
Did lots of Bengal stuff this week. We're back Monday
at three oh five. So is Tony Pike, Sincy three
sixty at noon. We look forward to both have a
great weekend. Thank you for listening. Thanks to Tarren Bland
(49:43):
for producing. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
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Away from five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Moweger,
(00:03):
Thank you for listening. We'll hook Your weekend is off
to a great start. Kentucky loses to Florida seventy one
to sixty three. Bounced from the SEC Tournament. Wildcats back
in action next week in the NCAA Tournament. Do you see?
Bearcats will not be playing in the NCAA Tournament and
Wes Miller is no longer Cincinnati's head coach. This broke
(00:25):
earlier this afternoon, confirmed by our guy Chad Brindle at
Bearcat Journal dot com, who is joining us to start
the show. Chad, first of all, I know it's a
busy day for you, so I appreciate the time. By
the way, Bearcat journal dot com has hot Board one
point zero up right now coaching candidates for the vacancy
at UC and we'll tap into that here in just
(00:46):
a second. I want to start with something that you
and I have talked about occasionally over the last couple
of weeks, including yesterday, and that's you know the fact
that Wes Miller bringing him back for year number six
was always going to be a hard sell to a
lot of a lot of rank and file fans, but
that he did have some allies. He had some allies,
maybe some deep pocketed allies on his side. Were they
(01:08):
won over today and is that why this was done?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We don't have that answer yet. What I think is
something that we talked about yesterday that ultimately it's John
Cunningham's job that's on the line here, Like that isn't
a cushy it's not cushy, but it's a well paid position.
And if you bring Wes back and it doesn't work,
(01:34):
and you do lose the fan base in the process,
then that's John Cunningham that's going to be on the carpet,
you know, having to answer questions about decisions that he made.
So I'm sure that you know, eighties are partly responsible
for making sure that the people that fund the program
(01:55):
are on board with the decisions that need to be made.
Guess he was able to sell the people, you know,
at the highest donation level that this is a decision
that ultimately, unfortunately needed to be made and that they
had to go forward. But if we find out they've
got a three million dollar roster for next year, then
maybe we have that Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
And I want to go down that road here in
just a bit. How is this separation between UC and
wes Miller going to work financially?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's a great question. The the the answers I've gotten
on it so far seem to indicate that Cincinnati is,
if need be, willing to wait until April first, when
the buyout drops, to officially let go wes Miller. That's
not how I would do it, but you know, sometimes
you have to, uh, you have the other party has
(02:49):
to be willing to play ball, and if he's not
willing to negotiate down a lower buyout, or maybe they
are working on the lower buyout. That's what we don't
know is they could be working on on a you know,
a buyout number that's somewhere between the ten and the
four point six with the lawyers right now. Remember u
See didn't announce that wes Miller was fired. This has
(03:10):
gotten out in the media and has been confirmed, but
you see has not made this official. So they could
be in negotiations. From what I know, Wes would like
to find a job this cycle. That's going to be
really hard to do if you're you know, under contract
until April first, or be a little bit more difficult
to do if you're under contract until April first. So
(03:31):
maybe we reach a point over these next two and
a half weeks that it's been official for both and
they come to an agreement and both sides move on.
But it does sound like at least Cincinnati waiting this
out until April first is on the table of possibilities.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
All right, if that ends up being the case, how
do you conduct a coaching search at the same time, Well.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Everybody knows you got a coaching over, right, Like the
hard part is if you're trying to like walk the
line and say, well, we have we don't we have decided,
like the athletic director can still talk to agents, can
still proceed as necessary. Now I don't know. And there's
(04:14):
really no rules for coaches, right, Like you can go
meet a coach, Like you know, there's coaches that are
agreeing to new jobs that are still coaching their old job.
So if John Cunningham wants to go have lunch with
somebody and interview them or talk to them or whatever,
that's there's really the wild lest. There's really no like
(04:35):
restrictions on how you can do that. So that would
that would still be a possibility per se. So does
it make it harder than it needs to be. Yeah,
it probably makes it harder than it needs to be,
but it's not completely out of the realm of possibility.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
In early February, wes Miller seemed like he was a
dead man walking. And then the team surges towards bubble,
they get on the bubble, the bubble is burst on Wednesday.
The way they lost the game on Wednesday, I think
for a lot of folks was a poor reflection of
the coach. How much did the specifics of what was
(05:14):
effectively the season ending loss on Wednesday possibly drive this decision?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It's had to be a factor, noough, Like if they
win that game and you know, they they play close
with Arizona, and you know, let's say that they don't
make the NCAA Tournament at that point, but they're you know,
they pop up on the screen Sunday as the second
team out of the first team out, and you know,
(05:44):
you went eight and two down the stretch going into
that Arizona game and you felt just short. There's a
path there. I think that Wes Miller would still be
the head coach at Cincinnati and get that opportunity for
the sixth year, had an eight point lead with two
minutes left. You barely got a shot up. Not only
(06:04):
you know and at the end of regulation regulation, but
also the final couple minutes of overtime you couldn't get
a shot up. You you let the house burn down,
like while you were holding the fire hose. You had
three timeouts and you didn't use any of them. Is
that good?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I just came up.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I like that one shout the house burned down holding
the hose. I think that's pretty good. But your team
is melting down. You have three timeouts and you just
the meltdown happens in front of your face and an
a point lead goes to tide and the blink of
an eye, the optics were just awful for Wes and
(06:43):
for his team. At that point, you're clinging right like
you're clinging to the opportunity to make the NCAA tournament
advancing that goal is right there and it just completely
falls through your hands. That that that had to be
a doctor in John Cunningham's decision.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
On a macro level. Why did the west Miller era
not work? Why did it not work out?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Because he never managed to go from. And then here's
the thing. West isn't a bad coach. Fans get upset.
There's a lot of hyperbole. West Miller's not a bad
basketball coach. He's a top forty, top fifty type basketball coach.
(07:32):
Problem is, in this league, top forty, top fifty is
going to get you right where Wes ended up almost
every year, and that's in purgatory. You're not bad. You
didn't bottom out like Kansas State did this year where
they they're going to have to pay twenty million to
fire your own tang because at one point they were
what two and thirteen in the league, But you weren't
(07:56):
good enough to challenge up into that top six, top
five six group in the league. And so you're fighting
with five six other teams that are right in that
same grouping as you, that are not as good as
the top six, but not as bad as the bottom
three or four. They didn't win enough of those games
(08:18):
against those teams that were peers in the middle of
the pack in the Big twelve, and it happened over
and over. How much different is this conversation if they
don't lose to West Virginia twice this year, or if
they don't lose to a bad Arizona State team on
the road, or Oklahoma State last year, or what that
(08:40):
first year in the Big twelve, they were right there
on the bubble and they lose to an Oklahoma team
that was hurt, guys, missing, dreadful. You know, there were
too many of those things that continued to happen that
kept Cincinnati from being a ten to eleven win Big
twelve team and instead of seven to eight nine win
Dig twelve team, and ultimately that was his downfall. They
(09:03):
were never bad, but they were never good enough. And
five years is I think a fair representation of you
got five years to get your team in the NCAA tournament.
You're well funded, you've got support, mo we talked about
this yesterday. They weren't good this year. At times there
(09:26):
were still ten thousand people in the stands. You've got
great fans support, You've got a tradition rich program. Five
years is a lot of time to make one NCAA
tournament and they didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Bearkatjournal dot com right now has a hot board and
you do this whenever there's a UC coaching search, and
you separate coaching candidates possible coaching candidates into certain tiers.
Should Jared Calhoun have his own tier?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Probably? Yeah, I think we're at that point, especially with
the news and look, coaches have agreed to extensions before
and then gone on and coached somewhere else. So we
have not ruled out Josh Shirts at this point. One
because that came out before the Cincinnati job came open,
(10:17):
So we don't know if he has interests in the
Cincinnati job or not. But if he is going to
stay at Saint Louis, I do think Jared Calhoun has
to be all systems go. I think he wants to
be here. I think he really had his eye on
two jobs, one with Cincinnati, one with Pitt. It's not opening,
(10:39):
Cincinnati's open, so he wants to be here. It seems
like the right fit. We don't know if John Cunningham
wants him to be here or not, but we know that,
you know, there's a connection there. He's a UC alumni.
He's coached with Bob Huggins, so there is some you know,
connection to the history. If you see, it just makes
(11:03):
too much sense and really probably should have his own
designation on the hot board until further notice.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
I guess should we assume that whoever the next head
coach is, he will walk into a situation where on
day one he has no players.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
So the interesting thing is mo and yes, assume that that,
Like in a coaching change in college sports, when it
comes to what does it comes to what does the
roster look like? Just assume it's going to be completely gutted,
because that's how the transfer portal era works. This year,
they have made a change. The transfer portal won't open
(11:46):
until April seventh. It used to be that it opened
the Monday after like this coming Monday, and then I
think they moved it to the Monday after the first
and second round, but still it opened very early in
the process. Now it doesn't open until April seventh. If
you get a coach in here on April second, right,
(12:09):
they're going to have five days to meet with the
team and to you know, work on the situation. Now,
what we don't know. Corey Evans, who was brought in
as the GM last year, has a multi year contract.
If he's staying, and I don't know that he is
(12:29):
or not, I don't have that answer yet, But if
Corey Evans is staying, he's going to be able to,
you know, build that connection that he's already got with
a lot of these guys, in terms of who's interested
in staying, who is willing to listen to what the
new coach has to say, who is already out the door.
So you know, if he is sticking around, then there
(12:53):
is a path to the roster sticking together. But in
terms of like what would I anticipate as it stands,
I always anticipate, Yeah, pretty much everybody's gonna be gone.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Would Corey have any say in who the next head
coach is going to be?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Probably not. That's not people here GM and think of
it more as like a pro sports term, like I
think he would be if if he's if he's going
to stick around, I think he'd be consulted. I think
he would definitely be I don't think he would be
ignored in the process. But ultimately, it's John Cunningham's job
(13:27):
that's on the line, right, That's that's where you got
to go, whose job, whose neck is on the line
with the higher John Cunningham's neck is on the line
with the higher So he's gonna he's gonna lean on
his process and and his you know, decision making to
make the higher.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
With with any head coaching vacancy, the question always comes
up about money, and you talk about well funded. That's
the term you used before, and in discussing this program,
folks always guess at what a roster costs, and there's
always conjecture out there, but relatively speaking, compared to their
big twelve peers, a new coach comes in, does he
(14:07):
have at his disposal what will allow him to win,
win soon, and win at a bigger level beyond simply
eking into the NCAA tournament and playing in Dayton, which
was the bar that everybody said for wes Miller this
particular season.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I would like to think so. I mean they had
a ten million roughly a little bit more, a little
bit less whatever, roughly a ten million dollar roster this year.
That's enough to win like that? Is it the top
number in the conference? No, but it puts you in
the range. And they had two second team All Conference
(14:47):
and an honorable mention All Conference player. And those guys
have more money in their bank accounts than the two
of us and less things, you know, unless they have
put themselves in a terrible position based on firing wes Miller,
and they have to lower that number for a year,
(15:10):
they should be in good position. And I can't imagine
mo like, even if maybe it drops to eight million,
and yeah, you're you're maybe a player or too short,
but you still be able to put a pretty good
roster together. I can't at this point without all the information.
But at this point I have a hard time believing
they would let it get to a point where they
(15:30):
only have five or six million dollars for the roster
to try to compete in the best league in America.
It would make it a very difficult year one starting
point for your new coach.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Do I assume that when or if the Crown or
Nit come calling this weekend, that the school will say thanks,
but no thanks.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Well, the NIT doesn't matter at this point anymore. For Cincinnati.
They are contractually obligated to play in the Crown. It's
apparently seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars to buy out
of that. What I don't know is if there's anything
(16:10):
in there that says, if you know, you get you
get some relief if you make a coaching change. I
can't imagine they play in the Crown this year. I
just have a very hard time seeing them trying to
pull that off. As a coach is on the way out,
a new coach is either just getting involved or or
(16:31):
on the way in. It doesn't make a lot of
sense for Cincinnati to play in that tournament this year.
They are contractually obligated because it sounds like they're going
to take eight Big twelve teams if you include UCF
and TV and Cincinnati's ninth and the top two teams
(16:51):
that don't make the tournament are obligated to go to
the Crown. So so Cincinnati would have that obligation. I
don't know, and I'm hoping to get an answer on
that today or tomorrow, So follow me on social media
for that. But I don't know that they'll have to
pay the money. But there is a seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars price tag for.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Not going Awesome stuff. As always, no you're busy, check
out Bearcat journal dot com get the latest on west
Miller's departure and the coaching search. Thank you as always, man,
we'll talk soon.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Appreciate it. Thanks.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
All's our guy, I Chad Brendel, Bearcat Journal dot com.
Terry Nelson's going to join us at five twenty four
from five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
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SOOM thirty. All right, six after five, ESPN fifteen thirty. Moegger,
thank you for listening. Hopefully you are having an awesome
Friday afternoon. Terry Nelson's going to join us in fifteen minutes.
Awesome stuff from Chad Brendle just a few minutes ago.
(18:32):
Tarn is podcasting that as we speak, and we'll have
that for you on the iHeartRadio app. If you missed
any of it, or if you want to relive it
Wes Miller out at the University of Cincinnati very quickly.
Just want to run through a couple of things really quick.
Kentucky lost today to Florida seventy one to sixty three,
(18:52):
so the Wildcats are bounced from the SEC tournament. Ohio
State put up a fight against Michigan. Buckeyes are playing well. Nonetheless,
they fall of the Wolverine. So Ohio States stay in
the Big Ten tournament is over dayton one. Today, the
Flyers beat Saint Bonaventure in Pittsburgh in the eight ten Tournament.
Flyers will take on Saint Louis tomorrow. Reds have two
games tonight, one against the Giants in Goodyear. Brady Singer
(19:15):
will pitch in that one. One against the Giants in Scottsdale.
Chase Burns will pitch in that one. This in the
aftermath of finding out that Caleb Ferguson is going to
miss some time with an oblique injury, So there you go.
Jonathan Allen made public today by the Bengals. I don't
know that anything of any major substance came from that.
We're basically going to be all about Wes Miller, and
(19:37):
you see basketball today and I'm sure you understand, you know,
you just you think about an alternate universe. Go back
just about forty eight hours ago. Uc is playing UCF
and the Bearcats aren't playing well, but neither is UCF.
And right around this time two days ago, the Bearcats
(20:00):
a lead that they had with two minutes to go,
an eight point lead with two minutes to go, and
not only did they lose, they completely melt down. And
you could not help but watch those last two minutes
of regulation and think mainly about the role of coaching,
(20:22):
but just think about the alternate universe. They win that game,
which they should have with everything else happening around them,
all the teams losing, all the teams refusing to grab
bids heck for what it's worth, and the RedHawks are
going to be a tournament team and deserve to be
a tournament team, but Miami loses. It is plausible, and
(20:45):
we're never gonna know for sure, I guess, but it
is plausible that forget about what would have happened against Arizona.
Uc beats UCF. They're a tournament team. And if they're
a tournament team, Wes Miller is coaching the Bearcats in
the tournament next week, and he's probably the coach next year.
Think about the ripple effect, think about the trajectory change
(21:09):
based on two absolutely horrific minutes for Wes Miller and
his program just about forty eight hours ago. I hope
Wes Miller kills it wherever he goes next. It felt
like often during this season, and it certainly felt like
on Wednesday, like either it was time or by the
(21:31):
time we got to Wednesday, it just things had gotten
to a point of no return. Wes Miller did a
lot of things I think really well. He just didn't
win enough basketball games. And when I say he did
a lot of things really well, he's not being fired
for a lot of the reasons why you see other
(21:52):
coaches get fired. There were no off court scandals, no
legal issues, no academic cheating improprieties. You know it. The
NCAA rule book is maybe not as thick as it
used to be, but there's been no off court shame,
no no cheating, no NCAA issues. You know, you're not
hearing rumors of his off court behavior. He's recruited guys
(22:14):
who have you know, walked the straight line for the
most part, like fan support's been there. It just he
just didn't win enough basketball games, and unfortunately, that's the
most important part of the job. I once heard mc
cronin say, if you're gonna get fired, get fired for losing.
Don't get fired for cheating. Don't get fired for you know,
doing something illicit, get fired for losing. Wes Miller gets
(22:35):
fired for losing. Wes Miller's a good guy and I
certainly hope for him.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Man.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Look, he's forty three years old. I certainly hope for him.
There's a a Travis Steel type next step for him
where he can be a head coach. Maybe take the
lessons learned by what did and didn't happen at U
see go kill it elsewhere. Travis Steele left Xavier and
(23:04):
did so with his head held high, handled himself in
a very classy manner. It was let go during Xavier's
n championship run. Took the job at Miami, didn't instantly
turn the RedHawks around. But now Travis Steele's a hot
commodity and it might be the national coach of the year.
I certainly hope for Wes Miller's sake, Like there's something
(23:25):
like that in store for him. And on a personal level,
Wes was always very accommodating to our show and working
on the broadcast, easy to work with. When I've had
the opportunity to fill in for Dan Horde over the
last five years while Wes has been the head coach,
and I've called I don't know, maybe fifteen games. Wes
has always been very easy to work with, approachable, certainly
(23:47):
went out of his way to make me feel like
I was a part of UC basketball and you know,
told me from the outset. I remember the first time
I met Wes Miller was actually at a Reds game
where he threw at the first pitch, and you know,
he made it known like if you have a question,
reach out, and I took advantage of that, and he
was he was really cool, and so I on a
personal level, I like Wes a lot. I hope he
(24:11):
goes and kills it in whatever is next. And look,
it got sideways this year and college basketball coaches postgame shows,
I believe, are given more scrutiny than any coach or
manager in any sport. And there were times this year
where Wes Miller and what he did or what he
said in the postgame show kind of became a bigger
(24:31):
story than the game that he just coached. And usually
those postgame shows came after games where the Bearcats lost.
And I said this at the time that what was
puzzling about Wes and how he handled some of those
situations was I believe Wes has been treated very fairly here,
and I still believe that. In fact, I think when
(24:52):
I and I thought about this driving in, like you
think of the five years, like he had a pretty
long runway, and I think for for the better part
of three and a half years, there was always a willingness,
certainly by me and I think by most Bearcat fans
to kind of I don't want to say give him
a pass, but at least put into context some of
(25:12):
the realities of the job. Like year one, he gets
the job late, he gets the job after the weird
COVID season of twenty twenty. Twenty twenty one, gets the
job late in the cycle, kind of has to assemble
a roster piece together a team. Meanwhile, nil is just
becoming a thing. The transfer portal is becoming a larger
(25:33):
part of college basketball's reality, Like a tough runway. Year two,
like it felt like he steadied the program, and then
right when he did, they bounced to the Big twelve.
And by the way, they were largely competitive that first
year the Big Twelve. But I believe those first three
years they didn't make the tournament. Made the NIT that
first year of the Big twelve, if I'm not mistaken,
(25:57):
and I'm sorry, made the nit the second year West
was here. The year before they go to the Big twelve.
But anyway, regardless of whatever shortcomings there were, there was
always a willingness I think by most of us to
kind of put into context, all Right, it's a period
of transition, or it's hard to get the job later,
it's hard to go from the AAC to the Big twelve.
I don't think until the very end of last year
(26:18):
did anybody really start to talk about West Miller. And
last year, if I recall, it wasn't even so much
about the results. It was about how the Bearcats looked.
I mean, I remember very clearly they're a game against
against Kansas State late last season where Kansas State's team
showed up begging to be beaten. Uced didn't comply, so
Kansas State said, fine, we'll beat you. And I remember
(26:41):
the next day going like, what was that? Not that
they lost the game, but what was that? That team
looked ill prepared. That team didn't necessarily look like it
was mentally ready to go. And I think that's the
first time where it was like, all right, is this
gonna work? But I even believe this that at the
end of last season, most looked at the team and said, Okay,
(27:02):
the pieces didn't fit. Good players a lot of good players,
but the pieces didn't fit. Sometimes it happens, but it
can't happen again. Now this year, toward the end of
the season, the pieces seem to fit pretty well, but
they didn't fit well enough. And so I believe you
had a coach here who had a long runway but
also this season a really low bar to clear, Like
(27:26):
nobody talked to this season about the Bearcats making the
Sweet sixteen. He's got to make this Sweek sixteen, or
he's out of a gig or boy, he's he's got
to contend for a Big twelve title or win a
Big Twelve title, or it's time to move on. It
was be a tournament team. Hell, be team sixty eight
and play in Dayton. That's quite frankly, not that high
(27:51):
of a bar to clear. Look at college basketball, Look
at the bubble. Look at all these teams that we've
spent weeks yelling at each other about maybe making it,
maybe not making it. You had an Auburn team that
this week went to the SEC Tournament with a sixteen
and fifteen record, with a chance to play in the
NCAA Tournament. And so I think with with Wes, you
(28:13):
had a pretty long runway, and I think this year
you had a pretty low bar to clear and they
couldn't clear it. And then you had the way things
looked on Wednesday, and the way things looked on Wednesday,
this wasn't you see losing a game seventy eight to
seventy where the other team just beat him, or other
(28:34):
team had a guy that just offensively went nuts, Like
you had that game not your back pocket, but pretty
damn close. And not only did your team melt down,
but you couldn't help but debate the role of coaching
in the meltdown. And when you are on already thin ice,
and maybe at that point the ice was already broken,
but when you are on already thin ice, that simply
(28:55):
cannot happen and then you add to it fan displeasure
and anger. I've had since Wednesday night more people forward
me emails that they have written to people in power
at uc than I've ever gotten about the Bengals of
the Reds or uc or behavior or anybody else. And
(29:15):
it just got to a point where there's the basketball
part of it, and there's what they haven't been able
to accomplish, and there's the way the team played this year,
but there was also just the fact that Wes Miller
for a lot of people was an impossible sell. And
maybe that wasn't going to matter to some people who
have deep pockets, but it was going to have to
matter to John Cunningham and then people in the athletic
(29:35):
department and the people perhaps at the upper reaches of
the food chain at the school. And so it felt
like on Wednesday things changed. Maybe things weren't fifty to fifty.
Maybe Wes's future had been decided well before tip off
against UCF, but when that game ended the way it did, frankly,
it just felt like it was totally and completely untenable
(30:00):
to bring him back. We'll get to what's next coming
up here in just a bit. On Twitter at Moeger
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This does feel like it'll be a massive upset if
Jared Calhoun is not the guy. I do think UC
has some really good things going forward that I'll elaborate
(30:22):
on coming up in fifteen minutes, But first we'll talk
to Terry Nelson on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
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Speaker 1 (31:05):
This is ESPN fifteen to thirty mo edguer u See
is moving on from Wes Miller. Terry Nelson Radio and
TV analysts for UC men's basketball kind enough to give
us a few minutes. Team Nol's, it's awesome to have you.
This season, we went into it going okay, they got
to make the tournament or else. For Wes Miller this year,
(31:25):
macro level. Why did it not work.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
The pieces? He didn't put the right cards on the
table at the right times. And that's just been how
his I mean as a player, if I'm a fort
if I'm a player under West Miller, I love playing
for him because if I'm in that starting lineup, he
will play me way to the end, from beginning to
(31:52):
the end, he will be he will be loyal to
me because I've earned it in practice. However, and there's
bad games, for non productive games from your starters. There's
a reason that you have a bench and those people
on the bench get paid to you. Do you use
your bench to win games when you need it the most?
(32:15):
And that, unfortunately, that's sort of been them is that
making the right adjustment at the right times has seemed
to be the reason that he is no longer here.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Was the way they lost on Wednesday? For you, the
straw that broke the Camel's back.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
It was it was because the answers to the tests
were sitting right in front of you. You know, keys
Chantillery is having one of his better games. He's come
along strong over the part of the reasons you won
seven out of ten is because Keyschan Tillery was emerging
off the bench. The stoppa was your focus facing the
(32:54):
basket and shooting jump shots. But it was you know,
you only have one point guard. You have two combo
guards and just Danaean Jizzle and one point got on
the roster, and that was Keshan Tillery. And he's the
only guy that consistently breaks this man down and gets
to the basket and makes them happen. And he's a
human press breaker. And for him not to be in
the game when you couldn't get the ball across at court,
(33:16):
either you take jizzl out because he was having a
hard time getting the ball across, or you take Celestie
out because you don't need points now you need to
spread the floor or get to the free throw line,
get the ball pass alf court. You could have win
three guards and let you know, pass the ball from
Tillery breaking it, or you could have had Baba Miller,
(33:37):
bring the ball up and throw over the top of
the double team to the second wave of guards. Here's
a pluthroop that could have happened, and neither one happened.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
What are the things that are at the top of
your priority list when you think about who the next
head coach should be.
Speaker 5 (33:53):
Does he have in game strategy and does he exude
toughness to the team. I mean, over the last thirty
five years since Huggins took over, there's been an emphasis
suvice and to see that sort of erode away, to
(34:16):
see on a daily base, guys not be held accountable
for the actions that take place on the floor because
the pretty great guys the town's there. I mean, there's
nothing wrong with the roster, it's how you fashion it.
If every if you're in a cooking contest and everybody
(34:37):
has the same ingredients and your kid turns out differently
than the person right next to you, it's not in
the ingredients and how you prepared it. And if you
look at the guys that it has on this roster,
they were more than capable of winning. It was only
every one or two games that they were not in it.
Every game they had a lead every game they were competing.
(34:59):
Every game they got right there, they could not find
a way to close. And unfortunately, because I like Wes
and a lot of people like West and you'll hear
a lot of people say this, and I like him,
but he's my favorite butt Well, I like the way
he did this. There's always an exception at the end
of that, because when it comes down to it, fired
purifies and it reveals what the essence of you already are,
(35:21):
which you really are. And when stuff got close, he
let his emotions get the best of him instead of
thinking clearly and doing the right thing to win the game.
For the supporters and the fan base, the name.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
That is going to be brought up most often, at
least here in the early goings of this is is
Jared Calhoun, who has been here right work for Bob
Huggins towards the end of coach huggins ten year at UC.
Is he somebody you know it all? Are you beyond
just knowing that he's coaching at US tah State? Did
you become familiar with him at all while he was here?
(35:53):
What do you know about him?
Speaker 5 (35:55):
But he was with the James White team. Why posts
a picture on this in Twitter about that, and he
was like, man to take a look at the roster
and see if he was on the roster, Like he
even forgot about it. But no, he was one of
those guys that kept it over with Hugs and Eric
Martin at West Virginia's he's worked. When you're a grand assistant,
(36:18):
you do a lot of stuff that you don't get
paid for. You're a lot of hours, a lot of
film sessions, a lot of scouting reports. You're playing basketball,
you do it, a lot of stuff rest work that's
just not on your job description. You're doing whatever it takes,
so you outwork a lot of people because of the
position that you're in. And to see him have success
(36:40):
everywhere he's been and to see that they were they
won't yesterday. I don't know if they what time they
played today, but well coached structure, toughness to it, and
they have some strategy at the end of games. I
believe that he would be because he was the guy.
Now obviously can they can consider other people as well,
but if he was a guy, I'd be comfortable with that.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
You are as close to this program as anybody coaches players,
people who are connected to it folks who fund the program. Uh,
you've been here for a very long time. Is what's
needed for any head coach in place to be successful
very early during their tenure.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
Well yes, Well, first of all, let's just say if
it was ky Hole, I wouldn't want to snatch it Personally,
I wouldn't want to snatch him away from his team.
I would want him to finish the tournament and then
come over for a couple of reasons. One, I think
it's unfair for the guys that he coach started alone
to pull him away before he gets a chance. I
almost like what we did with football back in the day.
(37:48):
I would like for him to finish because I want
him hardened to NCAA mindset. I want him going and
playing in tough games and using strategy and in game
situations and learning how to win tournament games. I want
his brain stretches to new dimensions with the NCAA mindset.
Whether he wins the tournament, goes in the final fours, three, sixteen,
(38:11):
or whatever, I want him playing. I don't want to
snatch him when this team goes to the tournament and
not give him the experience of coaching in the tournament.
When we're hiring him to take us to the tournament
and be successful in the tournament, well, he could probably
take us there. But if he doesn't have the ability
to coach in the tournament because we pulled them away,
(38:31):
he's not growing to the point where we want him
to come in from day one with that mentality, with
the roster to the honestable because the money is there.
I want him to be able to say, look, all
we need is this player. This player, make a little
tweaks and changes here, and we can make a deep run.
Because he likes the roster, he likes the environment, he
(38:53):
likes everything that takes to be successful at Cincinnati. He
understands the foundation has been better since he's been gone.
And if he returns, whoever returns, I would like them
to have a mentality that, look, NCAA is floor. Is
just the floor. We're not worried about just trying to
get in the NCAA. Guess we haven't been there in
a while, but that's the floor. We have enough resources
(39:16):
to get the talent that we need to make deep
runs every year. Whether we've made the deep runs every
year is not the question. We have the talent and
we should be in the conversation every year.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Oh, I appreciate the time on short notice. Man. By
the way, Jered Calhoun's team plays on Nevada tonight. I'm
rooting for them just because they're playing Nevada in the
Mountain West Tournament. That game tips off at nine thirty
this evening. I know you have a lot going on, man,
I appreciate you jumping on. We'll see you soon.
Speaker 5 (39:45):
Appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Mo.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
That's our guy, Terry Nelson, radio analysts for UC basketball.
By the way, the Chad Brendel Conversation is available right
now on the iHeartRadio app. More thoughts ahead, sports headlines
to ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. The new UC
oh Shure Wellness Suite is a home for transformative whole
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visit ucehealth dot com. Southbound four seventy one at Alexandria Pike,
there's an accident off onto the right shoulder, a two
to three minute delay back from Grand Avenue westbound Ronald
(40:29):
Reagan Highway. Also an accident approaching Galbreth and Western Avenue.
One more crash at Liberty Street on at Eazelic with traffic.
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This week we carried UK games at noon. Every day.
Sports headlines are a service a Kelsey Chevrolett home of lifetime,
Howard Rane protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family
to yours for life kelseyshev dot com. Wes Miller out
as the men's basketball head coach at the University of
Cincinnati after five seasons. The news not officially announced yet
(41:00):
by the university. As you heard Chad talk about last hour,
lawyers are lawyering as it relates to the buyout. Meanwhile,
a whole bunch of college basketball games. I love this day.
I love this day when you have conference tournament quarterfinals
and semifinals across the country. Kentucky fans did not love
(41:21):
this day. Florida did not play well, and yet you
never felt like Kentucky was gonna win the game even
when they got close. Ish Gators beat the Wildcats seventy
one to sixty three for the first time this season.
I think Kentucky played one hundred and twenty minutes against
the Gators and never let in any of them. If
I'm not mistaken, which I often am Ohio State, Felda, Michigan.
(41:41):
In the Big Ten Tournament seventy one to sixty seven.
Dayton beat Saint Bonaventure in Pittsburgh in the A ten Tournament.
Flyers will take on Saint Louis tomorrow. Reds play the
Giants twice tonight. Brady Singer on the mound for Cincinnati
in Goodyear at nine oh five on seven hundred WLW.
Another team of Reds players led by Chase Burns on
the Mound takes on the Giants in Scottsdale at seven
(42:04):
oh five. As a spring training veteran, if you had
your choice between the two, you would want to go
to Scottsdale. That's all I got for you. What else
do we have? Bengals made it official. Defensive tackle Jonathan
Allen signs a two year contract. By the way, a
couple of Reds games got moved to nighttime next week
because it is an extreme heat in Phoenix. The Cubs
(42:24):
game on the twentieth, which is next Friday, is now
going to be a night game, and the White Sox
game on the twenty first is now going to be
a night game. It's going to be really hot in
Arizona Cyclones ain't going to be hot at the hockey
rink downtown Clones play. Iow tonight. I think they're giving
away bags. I think strap bags or something. I drove
past the billboard getting on the I seventy five today,
(42:46):
Go Clones. We got about five minutes here. We talked
two segments ago before Terry Nelson about the past five years,
and now now it's about what's next and what's next
for John Cunningham, like it's enormous. Let's be honest. You
can be an athletics director and have a lot of
(43:06):
different things under your umbrella. You've got to raise money,
You've got to negotiate media deals. You've got to oversee
an advertising department. You have to hire and fire coaches
in let's call them lower profile sports. Yeah, you have
to maintain facilities. There's probably facets of that job that
I can't even imagine. But at the end of the day,
you're judged by the success of the coaches you hire
(43:31):
in the school's two most high profile sports. Obviously, not
every school has football. Scott Saderfield. If we're being gentle,
we'll say the jury is still out. Call it what
it is. And I personally like Scott Saderfield a lot.
His record in November right now leads the discussion. He
(43:52):
is certainly not an extraordinarily popular figure. He's been there
for three years. In each of the last two seasons,
what felt like we're going to be good seasons, really
good seasons kind of bottomed out toward the end. John
Cunningham hired Scott Saderfield. He also hired Wes Miller. Now,
I thought when they hired Wes Miller that was a
(44:12):
good hire. I'm not gonna walk back that and say, boy,
it was a terrible hire. Like for the time, I
don't know, it felt like it made sense. It just
didn't work out. But athletic directors only get so many
cracks at it, and so I would find it hard
to believe that if they have to move on from
(44:35):
the next head coach, not the coach is successful and
moves on from them, but they have to move on
from the next head coach, and between that coach being
hired and being let go there are no NCAA tournaments
or not a lot of success or almost unending fan unrest,
then this athletic director is not likely to be hiring
(44:55):
a third men's basketball head coach, or heck, maybe a
second football. So this decision feels like it's really important
for John Cunningham. I think that goes without saying. Many
have talked about like if you see moves on from
West Miller, you have a chance to be maybe the
best job in the cycle and best job or good job, etc.
(45:20):
Those things are subjective and we'll see which jobs come open.
The season's not over for a lot of teams. There
could be a surprise retirement. There could be a basketball
coach that jumps to the NBA. There could be a
school that out of nowhere fires a coach. There could
be schools that use the NCAA tournament as the barometer
for which they measure success, and then you know, if
(45:41):
you don't win in it, you're gone. We will see,
but right now it feels like it's one of the
premier jobs that are open. Maybe you can make an
argument Syracuse. Syracuse is in an easier league to win,
but it's a good job and it's I'll be called
a homer for saying this, Like you don't have to
get fans to come to games. They come to games.
(46:05):
You see games have been tremendously attended. The Bearcats haven't
made a tournament since twenty nineteen. I do believe like
one of the reasons why a lot of folks turned
against Wes and he put himself in the microscope this
year was this was not an inexpensive roster. It's you know,
(46:26):
a second team All League guy and honor Will mentioned
All League guy like this, it's not an inexpensive roster.
They pulled players from other like high major programs. Maybe
it wasn't the most expensive roster, wasn't a cheap roster,
So it feels like there's some financial infrastructure there. Also,
there is a level of steadiness that I don't think
(46:51):
Wes Miller early on ever got to enjoy. That's not
an excuse for Wes. It's just like it's hard to
say that anything is stable or per in college sports
right now, but there's some stability that you see right now.
They're not jumping to another league anytime soon. Now we'll
see what happens, you know, with the next wave of realignment,
(47:11):
super conferences, all that, But they're not making the jump
to the SEC or making the jump to the big.
They're a Big twelve program and by the way they
went five hundred in the Big Twelve this year, God willing,
there's no pandemic nil, which there's obviously ongoing conversations about
nil and what it should look like, or player compensation
(47:33):
and what it should look like. But you know, the
new world of college sports isn't quite as new as
it was a couple of years ago. So you know,
like I feel like there's relatively steady footy is steady
footing for whoever the next head coach is. It ain't
gonna be easy to win in year one, no matter
who it is, because it's hard to walk into a
(47:54):
situation where you don't have any players if that ends
up being the case and you have to cobble together
a new ross. Richard Patino will tell you that it's
also not impossible to win year one. It's not apples
to apples. The leagues aren't as good this year, but
just Jay Lucas Miami won this year and didn't win
last night. But Kevin Willard at Villanova won this year.
No two jobs are the same, but I do feel
(48:17):
like there's a level of steadiness that you see that
provides a nice runway for a new head coach. To
have some success. And again the first bar to clear
is not a very high one. B Team number sixty eight.
And by the way, maybe here soon B Team seventy
two or seventy six or eighty or ninety six or
(48:40):
one hundred and fifty six, whatever, they ultimately end up
expanding the number of teams in the tournament. Two, we're
not for a while going to be talking about making
deep runs into the tournament, into the sweet sixteen, or
competing for Big twelve championship B Team sixty eight. And
I do feel like, and you can tell me if
I'm wrong, we'll come back next week. I do feel
(49:00):
like there's a runway in place and enough steady footing
in place for that to happen with whoever the new
head coach is. And right now at the odds on
favorite feels like it's Jared Calhoun. We are done. I
wish we had more time. We'll put we already put
Chad Brindle on the iHeartRadio app, and my computer is
not cooperating, but I would be willing to guarantee you
(49:23):
that Taran has put to Yes. Terry Nelson's also on
the iHeartRadio app, so you can listen to both those
conversations as well as anything else we did this week.
Did lots of Bengal stuff this week. We're back Monday
at three oh five. So is Tony Pike, Sincy three
sixty at noon. We look forward to both have a
great weekend. Thank you for listening. Thanks to Tarren Bland
(49:43):
for producing. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
Speaker 4 (49:54):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. The new uc oh
Sure Wellness Suite is a home for transformative whole person
well being backed by Science. Register for classes now visit
UCHealth dot com. Eastbound two seventy five after Ronald Reagan
Highway left lane is blocked off from a disabled vehicle.
West found Ronald Reagan Highway an accident approaching Galbreath and
(50:17):
westbound two seventy five. Accident on the right shoulder at
seventy one seventy five. I'm at ezelic with traffic
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