5-29-24 - Mo Egger with Dizzy Peyton

NKU baseball coach Dizzy Peyton discusses going to the NCAA Tournament

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
After eight o'clock. This is ESPNfifteen thirty on Moegor. We have a
George Bentley tickets to give away aswell. I think in the five o'clock
hour. I'm not sure how,but we'll figure it out. By the
way, our phone numbers are five, win, three, seven, four,
nine, fifteen thirty. The NKUbaseball team on Friday night will compete

(00:20):
in the NCAA Tournament against Tennessee inKnoxville. This after the Norse won the
Horizon League tournament up at Wright State. The Nurse found out their opponent on
Monday and they are currently en routeto Knoxville. Well, they'll play in
the NCAA tournament as a Division Iprogram for the first time. Dizzy Payton

(00:41):
is the head coach at NKU,a Northern Kentucky University lifer, and we're
hoping we get good sale service becausethey've been in the mountains of southern Kentucky.
I believe they either have stopped orthey might be there now. They're
stopping off at BUCkies before they maketheir way to Knoxville. Coach Peyton,
are you there, I'm here.Hopefully we can stay connected this time.

(01:04):
Well, you sound great, haveyou made it to BUCkies. We just
left. Everybody's all geared up andgot some snacks pulling, so we're ready
to go. All right, Soyou let an entire busload of baseball players
loose loose at BUCkies? How longdid you give them? Did you worry
about any of them not coming back? What did everybody get? Wow,

(01:27):
there's a lot going on there.We came about fifteen minutes. I think
we got everybody back on the busand we got everything from BUCkies, polos,
the coolers, the canned coolers,gummy bears, you name it.
I think somebody got a brisket sandwich. So well across the map. All
right, Now, there are gonnabe people listening to this who have never
been to a BUCkies. How wouldyou describe it? I would describe it

(01:52):
like a gas station within a fleamarket. That's very well put. All
right, let's talk about your program. You're on your way to Knoxville Friday
night playing in the NCAA tournament.Take me back to Monday. You guys
all convened. You knew you weregoing to make it. You knew Northern
Kentucky University was going to pop upon the screen. Yet even if you

(02:14):
know that, that's still a verycool moment. What was that like for
you and your guys? You've seenthe video at all. They were very
excited, and it's just a greatmoment for our program, great moment for
our university, and a great momentfor our baseball family. But we're just
excited to get to represent and displayour game of baseball, our brand of

(02:35):
baseball, you know, on anational stage and such a big stage.
Yeah, you know, you're youhave a pitching background, and certainly you
have guys who got it done foryou this season on the map, But
when you look at what you guyscan do offensively, it's terrifying. How
do you how do you? Idon't want you to give away any secrets,
but from a pictures perspective, howdo you expect people to work their
way through that batting order? Well? I hope they can't be. Our

(03:00):
guys do a great job being toughin the box and and coach Gentiman and
our offense does an absolutely great jobof and uh, you know, we
we like to think that we cando it for any any different fast,
any different angle, whether it's hittingthe long ball, going bags or playing
some small ball, you know,laying down sack bunts. So uh,

(03:23):
we like to try to be preparedfor any stage, situation or opportunity that
we're you know that we're faced withand we feel that we are this year
and again, just very excited todisplay our brand baseball. You've you've been
a part of this program in thisuniversity for a long time as a head
coach. You got this thing builtand turn around in a relatively short amount

(03:44):
of time. Walk us through howyou did that. You know. The
only thing I feel like I cantake credit for surround myself with good people.
Uh. You know, the firstguy I hired on was coach Steve
Denniman. He's he's seen players tobe college for quite a few years.
He had some back and managing ateam and he's one of my best friends.
So you know, I've known Steedfor twenty year and then surrounded myself

(04:11):
with you know, it's any goodpeople as possible. I mean, we
have a great picking coach, Allof their coaches are great. We have
guys a volunteer like Bob Running whodoes so much for our program. And
you know he's retired school teachers,but he takes care of all the off
the field stuff and lets us reallyfocus on, you know, the game
of baseball. And then you know, you got onto our roster. Were

(04:31):
just a bunch of misfit guys thatyou know, people had passed on,
didn't recruit, whatever it may be. But we just you know, kind
of banged together and came up withour brand of baseball. And you know,
we just play our butts off andreally try to, you know,
make our proud. Does he?Peyton is with us, the the head
baseball coach at Northern Kentucky University,the Norris getting set to play Tennessee Friday

(04:56):
night in the n C Double ATournament. Obviously, first pitch on Friday
is going to be at seven o'clock. Walk us through once you get to
Knoxville. What what the next fortyeight hours before first pitch are going to
be? Like, I mean,the next forty eight hours are going to
be mostly on preparation, rest andrecovery. You know, as soon as
we get into Knoxville, we're gonnacheck into the hotel, We'll head over

(05:17):
the weight room, you know,get our bodies moved a little bit,
and we'll head out to dinner.Then it'll be off to bed Tomorrow afternoon.
You know, we'll do the samething. We'll get some some more
work in, We'll head over Tonoxfieldto practice, kind of get the lay
of the land, the same thing, rest recovered, and then you know,
Friday West and the scouting report meetings, team meetings, coaches meetings,

(05:42):
and then we'll just get ready forFriday night and see what deck we could
do. This might be a stupidquestion. It's not the first time I've
asked a stupid question. But atthe collegiate level, who puts together scouting
reports? Gotcha? I think it'sprobably different with each organization. But our
offensive scouting reports is done by SteveDenneman and UH, our pitching scouting reports

(06:04):
are done by Andrew Elliott and thenHunter Loscamp does a lot of our defensive
positioning and uh stuff like that.So it's it's definitely a team effort.
How do you compile it? Youjust how many Tennessee games do you watch?
Do you talk with coaches of programsthat have played against your opponent?
How does that work? Well,we're in such a you know, it's

(06:28):
kind of an information driven part ofour lives. I guess if you will.
I mean ten years ago when Iwas a pitching coach, I was
scouring through ESPN Plus to try tofind a game or two to watch of
the hitters. But now there's somuch information out there with Synergy. With
Synergy, has any of that orany any pitcher that you want, So
all the informations out there and availabletoo. And yeah, I can't even

(06:51):
tell you how much kind of thetabs or filters that you can go through.
So it's really you know, everybodyhas the same ability to have the
information. It's just like anything else. What you do with that information is
what's the most important part is atthis point, how do you how do
you balance ensuring that your kids areprepared but not overloaded with information when you're

(07:11):
playing an opponent like Tennessee. Ithink it's just knowing your people, you
know, and kind of a goodthing for us in our program is more
and more focused on what we're doingand how we play the game than we
are with any opponent that we everplay. We just use this pieces of
pieces of information, you know,game game of baseball. Although obviously it's

(07:31):
very hard, but it's also prettysimple if you let it be and uh,
you know, we just try togive them as much information and as
we can, like you said,without overloading. But coached him and does
a great job with that, andCoach Elliot does a great job with the
pictures in the balance of you knowwhat you just said by that, So
I think we just try to youknow, know our people as best as
we can from the time we rescrewthem until the time that they know their

(07:56):
career is done with us. Andyou know, maybe a certain guy needs
a lot of information, and there'ssomebody you know that may not need the
information at all. Just try totry to curtail our information to the player.
Awesome stuff. I appreciate the background. I appreciate you joining us from
the bus. Save travels, getto the Knoxville in one piece, enjoy

(08:16):
the experience. Best of luck thisweekend. We're going to be rooting for
you, coach. Thanks so much. All right, thanks for having me
on. Appreciate you got it anytime. Dizzy Payton is the baseball coach at
NKU. They are en route drivingon the bus as we speak. They
just stopped BUCkies. The brisket sandwichis the real deal. They'll play seven
o'clock Friday Night against Tennessee, thenumber one overall seed in the tournament.

(08:41):
The Nurse, the Nurse, theNorse in the Division one NCAA tournament for
the very first time. Congratulations tocoach Peyton and his players. Twenty eight
away from four o'clock. Five pointthree seven, fifteen thirty is our phone
number. Sports headline kinds Autea.The Red's gotta run in the bottom of

(09:03):
the seventh inning. They have justgiven one back. It's a four to
one Saint Louis. Details on what'shappening at GABP and more next ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnati