5/13/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, that's us.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's good afternoon. It's four minutes after three o'clock. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty onfall Agger. Thank you so much
for listening. Happy five to one three day celebrated all
throughout the Queens City and for the second consecutive year.
I love doing this, and you know how much I
love UC Athletics. The folks at U see invite me
to do my show here today. We are inside the

(00:24):
football defensive meeting room. This is Nate Woodies Room, and
so we'll be here throughout the course of the afternoon
celebrating five to one three day with a whole slew
of guests who are being pulled away from their jobs
to spend time with me. Starting with a guy whose
team is NCAA tournament bound in Texas next week, the
head coach of the men's golf program at the University

(00:45):
of Cincinnati, Doug Martin. What's going on, really, Glad to
be on your show.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Just finished up practice here and just trying to finish
our final preparations.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Before we hit the Texas on Friday.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
So what does that look like? What is practice like
on a day like today?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Well, you know, leading into you know, any kind of
week or any regular tournament. You know, we're trying to
especially if I haven't been there before, so I don't
really know what the course looks like. So I've spent
talked to three or four different coaches across the country
who have spent a lot of time at Texas a
and m and trying to get a pulse of what
the golf course plays like, and then really trying to

(01:22):
center our practice. So today we really just spent four
hours really kind of covering all aspects of the game.
So the course at Brian, Texas looks like it's going
to be a lot of driving, irons and three woods
off the tea, really kind of positioning yourself. It doesn't
look like a course where you can be extremely aggressive
off the tea. It looks like, you know, it's most

(01:43):
important to hit get the ball in the fairway off
the tee, then be aggressive into the greens. But you know,
today we spent time really on working on some you know,
some ball striking stuff and you know, irons and three woods,
three woods off the tee and then basically short game
then our normal putting grills. So we we practiced from
ten to two today and you know, I'm really I'm

(02:05):
really pleased with where we're progressing, and at this point
in the year, it's just trying to keep them fresh.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, so could you you put up the course on
the simulator? Can you do something like that?

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Well, we their course Traditions Club is not on any simulator.
So basically, what what I did in my pre tournament
stuff is tried to find anything I could find on
the internet from a flyover to the course breakdown.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
I've already got the yardage books.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
I've spent probably four or five hours in the yardage books,
just kind of trying to help these guys set up
a game plan.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Right. What you could have done is we could have
done some reconnaissance. You could have sent me out there
and I would have shot about a one forty on
the thing and just hey, I would have told you
this is hey, what watch out for? Watch out for
the sixth hole. You know that's the next year. Send
me out there. Absolutely scouting. We can do that advanced
scouting back in the NCAA tournament. Tell me how the
format's going to work.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
Next week.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
So there's going to be six regionals that start next Monday.
Three of the regionals have thirteen teams and ten individuals.
Three of the regionals have fourteen teams.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
And five individuals.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
So everybody will play fifty four holes starting next Monday.
The top five qualifiers from each region advanced to the
NCAA Championship at La Costa at the end of the month.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
And so you talk about teams and individuals, right, Ryan
Ford would obviously be one of them, yes, and then
how's the rest of that field on?

Speaker 3 (03:29):
So Ryan, so we'll have so when you talk about
the teams, each of the thirteen or fourteen teams will
have five players. You will count the four best scores
each day. That will be your team score. The individual
qualifiers are players whose team did not qualify, but their
national rank got them there as an individual. So that's

(03:50):
how you get the five individuals and the ten individuals.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
And every region has seventy five.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Players, okay, and so you'll play fifty four next week
and then do you advance go.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
To La Costa. Very so the top five teams will
go to LaCosta.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Very good. How this has to be so exciting for
you guys? How do they determine the sites?

Speaker 3 (04:09):
So the sites are are you know, you as a
school or an institution. You can put in a bid.
It's usually a three year in advanced bid process. So
you put in a bid, like at some point down
the road, I'd love to put in a bid to.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
Host at Coldstream to where we host.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
So your your host this year are wake Forest, Ohio State,
Oregon State, Texas, A and m Georgia and Arizona are
your six hosts and so they basically have a facility
that can host a championship event.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Wow, very good. You talk about hosting it here at Coldstream?
What has to happen for that.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
To We would just put a bid into the NC
Double A as wanting to host one of the regional
sites for the Golf Championship, and then typically somebody from
the NC DOUBLEA representative would come in and they would
check the logistics at Coldstream as they're parking.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
It's the golf course. Is the golf course up to.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
This standard that the NCAAs want to wanting to host
a regional championship. And you know, obviously wather's a factor
as well.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
When you are overseeing a practice, what walk me through
what that's like? Right? You're you're obviously you're preparing for
a specific course. But are you doing swing breakdowns? I mean,
how what what are you doing during.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
Practice at this point in the year. We're really we're
really not doing swing breakdowns. I'm more looking at, you know,
getting them to not go through the motions, but have
a purposeful practice to work on shot execution. We're going
to play in some wind in Texas, so that's going
to cause you to obviously vary your trajectories. Hit the

(05:42):
ball low, hit the ball high, you know, draw the
ball into the wind, fade the ball into the wind,
and so we're working on all those different things. Fortunately
this spring we've had an unbelievable windy spring here in Cincinnati,
so you know, I feel like we're as prepared as
we possibly could be, you know, to play in the wind.
So to shoot is fifteen to twenty miles an hour

(06:02):
today straight into the wind at the back of the
range at Coldstream. So I mean, again, you know, it's
at this point it's being sure everybody is on top
of what they're doing and they're at their best.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
Being rested is.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
One of those things, but also having the shots that
you need to play at this course to be ready
to take them on the road.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
With you on your schedule when the season's about to begin,
give me the one or two courses where you're like,
you know what, the course might be a little bit much,
especially for let's say a freshman or somebody who's never
played it.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Well, I think you can really start at the Big
Twelve Championship. Our championship venues for the Big Twelve, I
would put them as the best championship venues of any
conference in the country.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
And it's not even close. Prairie Dunes Hill.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Prairie Dunes is where we played a couple of weeks ago,
Southern Hills, We've been at Whispering Pines. We're going to
another new place in Texas next year. So I think
the Big Twelve does an amazing job of hosting events
atchampionship venues where most of the courses that we play
throughout the year. Don't get me wrong, we have a
great schedule, but the course isn't. It's basically how it

(07:10):
would be set up for members other than the Green
Speed where you play championships. It's like they're trying to
get the course set up for a championship. Like I
know A and M has been working for the last
five or six months to get this course ready for
the regional champions.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
You get a practice round.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
Yes, we do. We'll play that on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Okay, and everybody gets one.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Everybody gets one, and you know the practice round is,
you know, really drinking out of a fire hose, especially
if you haven't been there before. Most of the courses
we've play are typically tournaments that are on our schedule.
I know, the golf course, I know how typically plays
with different wins and different things like that, where this
week is a new one for me, just I haven't
been there, and so we're going to have to really

(07:51):
absorb a lot of information and create a strategy for
all five of our players in that one practice round.

Speaker 5 (07:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
What did you like most about this particular team?

Speaker 6 (08:02):
Hmmm?

Speaker 3 (08:02):
I think, you know, I think I wish we would
have been a little more consistent this year. I think
we had moments of brilliance. And that's one of the
things that has me excited going into this week is
I think if we can get all five guys playing
together and playing well at one time. We really did
that one time this year at Coldstream and we beat Arkansas,

(08:27):
which is the sixth ranked team in the country.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
We beat them by seventeen shots.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
So you know, our good golf, we can play with
a lot of really good teams and we're gonna need
we're gonna need that this week. And we're just gonna
need contributions from all five guys. We just can't rely
on Ryan Ford or or Leo Wessel or someone else
to be the key force. We have to have all
five guys and you know, we're able to take a

(08:52):
sub and if we have an opportunity to put our
sub in, he's got to be ready to go and
take you know, take advantage of the opportunity that he's given.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, when when do you start to recruit? When do
you start to look at amateur players thinking that that
young man might be able to play Division one, you know,
for lack of their way of putting a power for golf.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Couple couple of years in advance. So we're already done
with our twenty twenty seven class.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Okay, Wow.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
The recruiting process is changing as the portal is changing,
and it's like, you know, almost on a yearly basis.

Speaker 7 (09:25):
Now.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
When I first started coaching twenty years ago, it was
about building a program. It was about developing four year
relationships with guys and growing with them and helping them mature,
where with everything that's happening now, it's almost building your
roster on a yearly basis, and I don't really care
for that type of formula. I prefer to develop the

(09:46):
relationship with kids. But if you don't stay with the times,
you're just going to get run over in college golf.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Do you get a chance to go see them in person?

Speaker 4 (09:56):
Oh? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
So once we finish up regionals and if we get
to the NCAA Championship, my assistant and I will start
end of May, first part of June. We will be
on the road two or three days every week watching
kids play. So that's when we first start to do
our evaluation of each player that we're we have a
list of We probably have a list of thirty or

(10:19):
forty guys right now that we're looking at in twenty
twenty eight. We will go evaluate them. Then on June
fifteenth is the first day that we can contact them
on the phone to start building a relationship. So you know,
again we're going to watch them play for two and
a half three weeks before we even know if they
have any interest in the University of Cincinnati.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
So that's that's a hard thing.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, that strikes me. What is the toughest adjustment that
a kid makes going from high school golf to college golf?
Is it the courses? Is it the caliber of competition,
which obviously that has to be a component. What's the biggest,
what's the biggest It's.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
A combination of all those things that you just alluded to.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
I mean, to me, the golf courses are more difficult
the players, Like you know, you're coming in as a freshman.
We brought in a freshman this year, Brad Miller, who
was from Indy around South Bend. He was the twentieth
rank player in last year's class, right and this whole
year my purpose has been to grow him and build
him into someone that next year he's going to be

(11:18):
a huge force with our team. So he's roomed with
Ryan Ford on the on the road when we're at home.
I haven't played with Ryan Ford all the time, and
he is such a great coachable young man, and he's
continued to develop, and I mean right now, he's one
of our best players in our program right now.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
So you're very busy recruiting, building the program, coaching your
own guys, do you ever get a chance to go
play around a golf recreationally.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
You know, you know what, when I retired from playing
professionally with a back injury and started coaching, I really
have committed myself to this program in this university and
trying to build this program. I haven't had surgery on
my back. I really, you know, I can't play to
the level of golf that I want it's played, So
I really kind of at this point in my life,

(12:04):
I'm much more concerned about helping develop the guys on
my team. Yeah, and I'm not really concerned about my
personal golf goals or whatever.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
I've always sounds like a good time for you and
I to play.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
I'll tell you what, it would be a hell of
a match right now.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
It'd be like today, Like today, today, I.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Hit twenty five or thirty shots at practice, and you
know that when I watch, guys. A great example would
have been at Prairie Dunes when we had our team
meeting before the first round. I said, you know, very
rarely am I jealous or envious of you guys, because
I've already done this.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:38):
Yeah, but when you're playing at.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
A place like Prairie Dunes, which I played there in
eighty seven in the Big Big Eight Championship when it
was the Big Eight. That was a place that I
wanted to play because I saw the shots. I remembered
the shots that I played, and it's like, man, this
would be great to go back out and reminisce this.
And that's but for the most part, I'm so I'm
so into my team. I'm so into my players, and

(13:03):
you know, I want them to have a great experience
here in our program, and I think we've done a
hell of a job doing that the last twenty years.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah, it certainly seems like I can't thank you it off.
Thank you very much, best of luck in Texas next
week and we'll be we'll be watching.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Well. I appreciate the support.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
I appreciate your love for Cincinnati Cincinnati Athletics, and I
love listening to your show when I'm in the car
driving around.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
I appreciate you saying that we finally found somebody who
enjoys our show driving around that it's taking a while.
Tug Martin, the head coach of the men's golf program
and CNAA tournament bound men's golf program here at the
University of Cincinnati. It's eighteen at for three o'clock. We're
broadcasting from UC. It's five to one three day. We
are loaded between now and six o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty,

(13:48):
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 8 (13:49):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteenth Kayhy Cincinnati and iHeartRadio Station g
Garanteed Human ESPN fifteen My Hard Radio.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
It is three twenty three. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
on Moeger. You are not being pulled over. That is
Bubba Sparks from like twenty years ago. So don't worry.
Don't look in your rear view mirror. You hear that siren. Now,
all's cool, You're good. Don't sweat it. It's gonna be fine.
It's five one three day. We're broadcasting from the University
of Cincinnati this afternoon. Yesterday, we had a ton of

(14:26):
good stuff on the show, including an interview that I
got a kick out of that we put together very quickly,
with Tarn doing all the hard work. And you know,
he did an awesome job yesterday because there was a
lot of chaos unfolding behind the scenes, and the strength
of a good producer is to ensure that the audience
has no idea that there's chaos unfolding behind the scenes.

(14:46):
But among all this stuff we did, we had a
guy named Hazus Jimenez. Haesus lives in Madrid, is a
He's a I was gonna say, lifelong Bengals fan. He
became a Bengals fan in twenty sixteen, but he's a
Bengals fan in Madrid and he is so stoked that
his team is coming to his city. You can hear
that conversation on the iHeartRadio app. Also really good stuff
on the schedule release which is tomorrow night from Paul

(15:09):
Dayner Junior. Our friends being a golf Will Grimmer previewed
the PGA Championship attorney Stewart W. Penrose on a whole
bunch of sports, legal issues and big match tonight on
the West End of Cincinnati FC Cincinnati and Miami in
a playoff rematch. Our friend Sasha Question from Apple TV,
the former MLS star, joined us to talk about that game.

(15:32):
All that and so much more available right now on
the iHeartRadio app, and you can also go to my
page at ESPN fifteen to thirty dot com. Podcast of
this show are a service of long Necks Sports Grow.
We're broadcasting from UC today. Scott Sadafield scheduled jop By
in just about ten minutes. I don't gratuitously beat up

(15:55):
on the manager of the Reds. I don't gratuitously beat
up on Terry Francone. I genuinely do believe, genuinely do
believe that he deserves a little bit more slack than
the person who came before him or the person who
came before him, because of his track record. I'll go
along with that. I hated how he managed the third

(16:16):
inning last night. By the way, Key Brian Hayes is
not in the starting lineup. Neither is Edwin Arroyo. Louisville
had a day off today. Many wondering if Edwin was
going to make his big league debut tonight. I don't
know what the compelling reason is to not have him
on the team right now now tonight, Key Brian Hayes
isn't playing. The Reds have issues that go beyond who

(16:36):
their ninth place batter is. I think we all recognize
that Matt McClain is struggling offensively. TJ. Friedel is struggling
offensively and has been for well over a year now,
or about a year now, I guess I should say
he has been slid down to the eighth spot in
the batting order tonight. They're not getting very good production
from catcher, They're not getting very good production top to

(16:58):
bottom in the outfield, getting very good production from third base.
They're getting bad production from second base two. But the
way they managed Key Brian Hayes in the fourth inning
last night, letting him bat with less than two outs
and the bases loaded and a game that felt like
was going to require a lot of runs, I didn't
understand it. And after the game Terry sort of shot

(17:20):
down the idea that you're gonna pull a starter for
a pinch hit or in the fourth inning, why why
not manage with some urgency. The urgency moved there, and
the fourth would have been to do what he did
in the sixth. Now, look, Nathaniel Low batted for Keey
Brian Hayes with guys on in the sixth and struck out.
That doesn't mean that wasn't the right move. But I think,
for me, more than anything like the way Tito has

(17:43):
managed Key Brian Hayes all season long is he's managed
him like he's a bad offensive player, which I hate
to say, it's statistically he is, and he has been
for a while. Like we knew that when the Reds
got him. He's pinch hit for him in eight of
the thirty two stars that he has made. He's bat
at him ninth in all but one game. The one

(18:03):
game he didn't bat ninth, he hit eighth. Like he
has managed him differently than the better offensive players. Now,
some of those better offensive players have also not performed.
I felt like there was only one reason to not
lift kee Brian Hayes in the fourth inning last night,
and it was if you didn't want to embarrass the guy.

(18:24):
And there are times where I do believe it makes
sense to show confidence in a player. That player in
that situation is not that instance. You got to manage
with urgency. You got to manage I think understanding like
that might be your shot for a big inning, and
this game is gonna require us to have a big
inning if we're going to win it. If you're not

(18:45):
pulling key Brian Hayes, you're not pulling him because you
don't want to embarrass him, I'd be willing to bet
keep Brian Hayes was one of the more surprised people
in the ballpark last night that he was allowed to bat.
And so I don't know. Man Tito's a Hall of
Fame manager. He has positive fingerprints all over this organization.

(19:06):
I am happy he is here, and he knows how
to handle guys, and he's a great communicator, and I
will defer to his resume more often than not. But
in that situation, lat eight, If if it's a choice
between hurting key Brian Hayes's feelings or not, I know
what I'm choosing, and I know what he should have chose.

(19:27):
Scott Saderfield is gonna choose to join us next on ESPN.

Speaker 9 (19:30):
Fifteen thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the White
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Five to one free day here at the University of Cincinnati,
Moeger Broadcasting. I'm inside the football practice facility, the defensive
meeting room here and pleas to be joined by the
head coach of the UC football program, Scott Saderfield. It's
you look relaxed. We did this a year ago, and
I say you look relaxed. You look well rested, like

(20:04):
this is the time of year, you know, you a
little bit different than like mid October.

Speaker 7 (20:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:09):
Absolutely, Now this time right here is probably the most
relax you can be. Uh.

Speaker 10 (20:13):
We just had a I thought a really good spring.
Our guys finished up with semester where we had a
three four GPA for our football teams and did great academically. Uh,
you know, and the guys get a little bit of
a break and then you know they're coming back next week,
so so you know, picked back up next week when
the guys get back in town. All our coaches are
out recruiting right now. Head coaches can't go on the

(20:33):
road right now, but assistants can, and so they're going out.

Speaker 5 (20:36):
Looking at all the players we've identified.

Speaker 10 (20:37):
And the guys were getting ready to start hosting here
in June for our official visits. So it's a little
bit more relaxed right now this time of the year,
which you know, we gotta you gotta have some time
just relax, you know, because we know what's getting ready
to happen as we get to August.

Speaker 8 (20:50):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, it's it's refreshing to hear you talk about high
school recruiting because we don't talk about it anymore.

Speaker 7 (20:54):
No, you're right, you really don't know.

Speaker 5 (20:56):
Everybody talks about the portal, that's all.

Speaker 10 (20:58):
We talk about what additions you made in the poor
and you know, for us, I feel like we've done
a good job of signing at least twenty guys every year.

Speaker 5 (21:06):
You know. We had fourteen high.

Speaker 10 (21:07):
School guys show up in January, and we got twelve
more coming in here in the end of the month,
you know, So that's a good, good addition. I think
it's a good, you know, foundation of your team. Some
of these high school players that hopefully will end up
being players for you. And we've got a handful of
those guys that we've signed over the last two to
three years that are.

Speaker 5 (21:24):
Playing for us, that are in the mix. So we
want to continue to be able to do that.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
Your impressions of what you have coming out of springball, yeah.

Speaker 5 (21:31):
You know, it's a lot of new players.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
We all know.

Speaker 10 (21:34):
Anytime the way it is now, you're you're transferring out
some guys and you put some new guys in. You know,
a lot of positions have changed, some are steady.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
You know.

Speaker 10 (21:43):
I think at our offensive line, I think we have
one of the best offensive lines in the country.

Speaker 5 (21:46):
We have three guys coming back that are.

Speaker 10 (21:49):
Really all potential, all American type players, all big twelve
type players, and I think they're all three will play
in the NFL. I mean, I think they're that talented,
They're big, they they're nasty, you know, and I think
they had a great chance to do that. So that
you want to if you have a good foundation, that's
a good place to start.

Speaker 5 (22:04):
You know. We were one of the top old lines
last year. We will be again this year.

Speaker 10 (22:07):
And it starts there, you know, and tight end wise,
we all four of these guys are homegrown guys that
that are have been here. We've signed out of high
school and you know, four of these guys that will
play for us.

Speaker 5 (22:16):
And then you know, quarterbacks. Everybody always wants to know
about quarterback. You know, we brought in J. C.

Speaker 10 (22:21):
French, a guy who all time leading passion in Georgia
Southern history.

Speaker 5 (22:25):
Probably not saying a whole lot.

Speaker 10 (22:26):
They were an option team, you know, in the past,
but nevertheless he was he did ahead of outstanding career there.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
Man, he's been really really good.

Speaker 10 (22:34):
He had you know, he was a go through the
spring and completed about seventy percent of his passes I
thought was very efficient, took care of the football.

Speaker 5 (22:42):
Better runner than I thought.

Speaker 10 (22:43):
So I think I think, you know, he's he solidified
himself as our number one guy coming out of the spring.
Samaje Jones had a really good springs as well, And
I think a guy who's continued to grow and develop
and wouldn't hesitate to put him in the game. I
think he's, you know, a strong runner, and he's got
a big arm. He's continued to learn, you know. And
Liam came in you know, fro an Ivy League, and
I think he's very smart and a heady player and

(23:05):
can can go in there and play as well. So
I feel good about that position. And then Brooks, he
was a true freshman that came in. Man, I was
excited for him this spring. He had a really good spring,
better than I thought as well. So these guys, I mean,
I said, a really good room man. Running back room
is awesome. I'm particular to death the running back room.
J Payne who came in from Notre Dame. You're thinking, well,
he didn't play a whole lot in Notre Dame. Well

(23:26):
they had two first round draft pick running back. I mean,
this guy turned a lot of heads this spring, from
from the players, the locker room to the coaching staff.
He's a big, physical runner that that has some pretty
good speed. I was really impressed with him, a very
good vision. He's a workhorse man.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
I was.

Speaker 10 (23:42):
I think he's a guy who could could really help
our football team. Of course, Zion's coming back as a
true freshman last year toward the end of the season,
got a lot of good playing time.

Speaker 5 (23:50):
I think he's a dynamic player as well.

Speaker 10 (23:53):
Cole tab we got in from Stafford was a freshman
last year to rushed for I don't know, four hundred
yards or so, and he's a good player that That
room is a really good room also. And then a
bunch of new wide outs that we that we brought
a him along with Elijah Jones and g O Kontosis
who was already here. Both of those guys very solid player.
Geo was one of the more improved players on our team.
I thought he had an outstanding spring.

Speaker 5 (24:15):
Very physical guy. Uh.

Speaker 10 (24:17):
I think top to bottom our wide receiver room is
better than the best that's been since we've been here.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (24:21):
You know, Cyrus Allen had a great year last year,
but I think top to bottom man we have we
have this is a solid deep room, you know.

Speaker 5 (24:28):
That I think could be very good. J J. B.

Speaker 10 (24:30):
Gibson came here from Oklahoma. He's he could be an
all big twelve type receiver. I mean he's that talented.
Uh So, offensively, I feel good about it, you know,
I feel that.

Speaker 5 (24:38):
Man, they're dialed in.

Speaker 10 (24:39):
You know, Coach Cardwell and coach Thomas guys got coordinator titles.
I thought they did an outstanding job while leading the
offense this off season, So that side is really good.

Speaker 5 (24:47):
I think defense, we just.

Speaker 10 (24:48):
Hired coach Woody, who was with me five years at
Appalachia State. I think he's done an outstanding job. They're
still learning, they're still learning what he wants and how
to let the defense fit. We brought into a lot
of new players. They're figuring out what position they're gonna play.
I mean, Pete Antoine Peak's one of our better players
on defense. Like we're putting him in a different position,
and I think he's really gonna.

Speaker 5 (25:07):
Excel at this position.

Speaker 10 (25:08):
We're calling it our cap position, basically a nickel or
outside linebacker, and he's able to rush the pastor more
get involved in a run. Game, more tighter to the ball.
I think it'll really help him. Jonathan Thompson had an
outstanding spring. You know, one of our veteran players is
coming back at a linebacker. You know, learned a lot
last year from Dingle and Goldey, and I think he's
right there in that in that same you know, realm

(25:29):
as far as that kind of player can make a
lot of plays for us.

Speaker 5 (25:33):
He's playing with.

Speaker 10 (25:33):
Great poise and great confidence. He's a guy's homegrown, kind
of been in our program now for a lot of years.
So it really pleased with him. And you know, we've
had some more secondary guys. I think that'll come in
and help. You know, to me, it'll be our best,
the best secondary we've had since we've been here.

Speaker 5 (25:47):
And excited about that.

Speaker 10 (25:48):
So yeah, more aggressive defense and uh man, it's just
gonna be fun to watch.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
I said to you off air, Nate Woodie, I could
I could talk to for days. Not that I can
talk to you, but just getting a chance when you
guys brought him on staff and he met with everybody
and we had a chance to have him on and
I interviewed him in a position group room somewhere and
like I felt like this, this guy wants to teach
me about ball, and so like I just thought, and
I said on the air, like I could see why

(26:12):
that guy is going to be a great teacher.

Speaker 10 (26:13):
Yeah, he's a great teacher, great experience. He's coached football
for a long time. When I first hired him, he
was a defensive coordinator at Wafford College and home where
the Panthers used to go do the their camp there
in Spartanburg, South Carolina. And he took a bunch of
kids there that I thought were maybe not as talented,
maybe not as athletic, and they won a ton of
football games. He cost hav it just having gone against him.

(26:34):
I'm like, man, the year we beat Michigan and oh seven,
we go into Wafford and they beat us. We got
more talent, but they beat us. I mean, he just
did head his way. When I got the head job
as the first guy, I called us today when you
come come up here on the mountain in apup State
and be our defensive coordinator. And he did it and
we had great success, you know, And so now I'm
glad to get him back on the staff here. He's
a great teacher. He understands his defense and what he

(26:56):
wants out of it, and depending on what the talent is,
you know, he can mow the defense around the talent.

Speaker 5 (27:01):
It's not just the defense where this is what we do,
you know, go do it. It's not that way.

Speaker 10 (27:06):
He'll teach the guys what he wants and the what
their abilities are is what he'll ask them to do.

Speaker 5 (27:11):
And we're still learning that.

Speaker 10 (27:12):
And that's why I say this summer is going to
be big for us defensively to continue to figure that out.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
You know, of all the changes in college sports and
in college football, the one that I always felt like
was the least fair was the portal opens up after
spring ball. That is no longer the case, how and look,
you can get guys from it, and you have in
the past, but like this is better, right, doing it
doing it this way is better?

Speaker 10 (27:35):
Correct, It is better because you know, our fiscal year
for football is really January first to December thirty first.
It's pretty much it because just like mine, yeah, yeah, exactly,
you're bringing in new high school players that come in
mid term to come in January. We had fourteen and
then you're bringing we bought in twenty two portal guys
in January. So now you're able to go through your
winter program, your spring practices, all your summer with your

(27:58):
football team. And I think that critical where there's not
going to be a shake up in May, where now
we got a whole who's leaving, who's mad about the spring,
you know? And who who do we need to go
bring in and all that. I'm glad we just have
the one portal there and now this is our football team.
You guys just get more connected, understand each other, and
it's better. And so it'll be interesting to see how

(28:20):
it works for this year at fall with all the
teams now, because everybody's in there basically for the one
full year.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
You mentioned J C. French and another guy that I
had a chance to talk to, and I walked away
from it going, this guy treats this like a job.
This guy understands there's a level of professionalism. And I
know that's weird to say now because college football has
been professionalized, but yes, I walked away from talking with
him thinking like, this guy understands the responsibility that comes

(28:47):
with the job that he's walking into.

Speaker 5 (28:49):
Yeah, he's to your point, he's very mature. I mean,
he's a mature player.

Speaker 10 (28:53):
Been around a long time, experienced a lot of football,
you know, good and bad. You know, he's had with
some of the bad and obviously celebrated that some of
the good. But he came in here with an open
mind of coming in, man, I want to help help Cincinnati,
tried to go win the Big twelve and.

Speaker 5 (29:10):
And came in and he had a great experience in
the spring.

Speaker 10 (29:13):
He loved it what we do with the quarterback here
and how he's able to excel.

Speaker 5 (29:17):
You know, and I think the guys gravitated toward him.
You know.

Speaker 10 (29:20):
It's one thing about to leadership, you know, especially at
the quarterback position.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
You you just.

Speaker 10 (29:26):
Can't come in here and and automatically a leader. You
have to earn that respect. And I think he did
that throughout the spring. He came out of the spring
as a number one quarterback. As he come back this summer. Now,
now his leadership will start to show, and I'm excited
for him and what he'll be able to bring for
our football team.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
It's excited on draft day to see your guys go.
I wasn't excited to see them go where they win
because I don't want to root against Joe Royder. I
don't want to root against Cyrus Allen, but I'm gonna
be stuck. And I wanted the Bengals to take Jake golday.

Speaker 10 (29:52):
I know it would have been awesome, and they were
interested in as well. They brought I don't know nine
or ten people to our pro day here from the Beagles,
including Zach so uh yeah, I'm so happy for those guys, man,
just to be able to see him over a period
of time, continue to work, you know, and and and
really develop over a period of time. I mean, and
you know, Cyrus is here one year from the time

(30:13):
he got here. He worked his butt off so hard
to be able to get to you know, they didn't
even invite him to some of these All Star games
at the end of the season. Well, then he worked
his way into another one, didn't get to go to Combine,
but had an unbelievable pro day here and then gets
himself into conversation to be drafted.

Speaker 5 (30:27):
I mean, you know, you can't help a pull for.

Speaker 10 (30:29):
Those guys, you know, Gold, they'd been here been a
couple of years, you know, and develop into what he
developed into.

Speaker 5 (30:34):
Which was a top draft pick. You know, Gavin getting
drafted that was awesome.

Speaker 10 (30:39):
Yeah, what a great leader and great player. Uh so smart.
I mean I could see him making that because he's
so smart. He's like a coach, gonna be a coach
on the field.

Speaker 5 (30:47):
You know. So yeah, it's it's it's great to see
these guys.

Speaker 10 (30:50):
And now, you know, I asked Zach stipabut, I think
we maybe have twenty eight guys right now in NFL camps,
you know, which is incredible, you know, and you were
us that in recruiting, you know, getting ready to host
all these recruits. You know, we're gonna be mentioned all
these names that we just brought up, you know, including
an Alec Pearce or sALS Goner, you know, obviously to
Kelsey's I mean, you know, so we utilize all those names.
And you know, you come here and as you can

(31:12):
continue your career and go play at the next level.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Can thank you enough for doing this. We'll bother you
when we get closer to fall camp. Enjoy I know
you get some downtime, so.

Speaker 10 (31:20):
Enjoy that we do, and we will enjoy the downtown,
but we enjoy being here too. We got a great
bunch of guys and great guys to work with. Man
and so yeah, what a blessing it is. And hopefully
you go come out here and have a great year.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
Hope. So, coach, thanks so much, you appreciate it. Is
fourteen away from four o'clock. Scott Saderfield joining us five
one three day. You see. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 9 (31:41):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 11 (31:47):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. Get moving with Cincy
Sweats powered by UC Health. One week of free fitness
classes at local studios. Find a class at Sincy Sweats
dot U see Health Dot.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
This is ESPN fifty thirty mo Iger broadcasting on five
to one, three day from the University of Cincinnati. Were
in the football practice facility, joined by a basketball coach,
the head coach of the UC men's basketball program, Jared Calhoun.
You were kind enough to join me the day you
were introduced, and then it was a whirlwind for you.
But I broadcast from Indy before the final four kind

(32:21):
enough to join me maybe nine days after you had
officially taken the job. So a little time has passed.
Are you a little bit more relaxed? Things calmed down
just a little bit.

Speaker 12 (32:30):
Yeah, I think one thing you'll learn about me, mo is,
I've kind of lived my life, never relaxed, you know,
So I no, it's it's good. I feel really good.
As we were talking off air, I feel really good
about our roster, you know, I think, you know, obviously
your players are the most important piece to your program,
but there's a lot of other things that got to

(32:52):
be done.

Speaker 5 (32:52):
Right.

Speaker 12 (32:52):
We've got to finish the roster. We have two spots left,
we've got to finish our schedule, and then we've got
to start really fucking in on the details of how
we're going to teach this particular group.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
You'll be better equipped to answer this in three months,
But what do you believe the strength of your team
will be as things stand today?

Speaker 4 (33:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (33:13):
I think really probably after about a month and a
half mode. When you get kids on campus, you start
to you know, really understand kind of who they are,
what can they process as far as learning on the court.
So yeah, I think right now, you know, we wanted
guys that won a lot of college basketball games. If
you look at what we were able to accomplish compared

(33:34):
to the you know, the rest of the country, we're
pretty old and our kids have won a lot of games.
If you look at all the winning percentages of this
entire roster, it's almost seventy percent of their games they've
won since playing college basketball. So we really study that
look for that because we believe it's not just the game.
You don't win the games on game night, it's you know,

(33:56):
creating those habits and then those wins mount up.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Walk me through the timeline, like when can you get
him on campus? And then once you get him here,
what are you allowed to do?

Speaker 13 (34:06):
Yeah, so it's all changed.

Speaker 12 (34:07):
I mean, you know, we used to be really really
gung ho the first week and really just get right
after it right and talking to Mike Rayfeld, I think
we have the best strength coach in the country. You know,
every former player you talk to, you really get around him.

Speaker 13 (34:22):
You understand. We kind of see it very similar.

Speaker 12 (34:26):
And you know, I was going through the job process
of looking at the University of Cincinnati. One thing that
really stood out to me was Mike's plan. So the
first week it's really just about getting him back acclimated.
We'll do some testing, some different things in the weight room,
no basketball, and then we'll train for the next three weeks.

(34:46):
We always take off around July fourth, for about nine days,
and then we'll come back at it again for another
three weeks, and then we're gonna go to Bahamas for
either four or five days. We're gonna play two games
and really see where we're at against some other competition.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
Correct me if i'm you're now allowed? Are you allowed
to do that every year?

Speaker 13 (35:05):
Oh? I thought you're about the hours? Yeah, yeah, yes,
you're exactly right.

Speaker 12 (35:08):
Yeah, you can take a foreign trip every summer, which
I think in today's world is really good. You know,
you can't abuse it. I think you know, these universities
are really going above and beyond the call of duty.
So I think, you know, a Bahamas trip somewhere, you know,
Europe maybe every four or five years. You know where

(35:29):
you're going to Italy and those sorts of places. So
I think the Bahamas is perfect. But as far as
the hours we get each week, it's eight hours total
and that's basketball and that's also.

Speaker 13 (35:39):
The weight room.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
Eight hours combined with like team activities, how much individual instruction, So.

Speaker 12 (35:45):
You can break it up as much as you want, right,
So we do Monday's our position work. Tuesday is our
combo work. So we'll go point guard winging a big Wednesday,
we're off. Thursday, we'll go back combo and Friday our
team work outs. So if you want to come down,
you know, probably what you'd want to see is maybe
a team workout.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
But I think, you know the I thought for a
second you were going to make me work out.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
You want to.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
I don't know. I don't know if that's going to
do you or me any good.

Speaker 13 (36:15):
Yeah, I don't know. I haven't seen you a place.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
You're you're not You're not missing all that much relative
to like and you and I talked about this. You
go into the portal and you kind of had the
benefit of time where it wasn't you know, you got
the job and the portal opens the next day, you
could sort of map out how you wanted things to go.
How close to maybe best laid plans did things end
up being understanding?

Speaker 7 (36:38):
You have two more sponsiblity?

Speaker 12 (36:40):
Yeah, I would say pretty almost. You know, you never
want to say perfect, but I think we batted a
pretty good percentage, so you know, we uh.

Speaker 13 (36:51):
The thing that I'm really proud.

Speaker 12 (36:52):
Of is we did not waste time recruiting guys that
we couldn't get. We identified we want to do a
couple of things. Wanted a group of young in our
program that we could really build this thing for the
next three years. If you look at the roster dynamic
and you really study it, all of those young guys
have played a lot of basketball, right, That was pretty

(37:13):
cool to see.

Speaker 13 (37:14):
They've won a lot of games.

Speaker 12 (37:15):
And then we got a lot of one year guys, right,
So that's kind of how we've done it over the
last couple of years. And then as you get into
year two, three and four, you're not so reliant on
the portal. Right, So this year, everybody in our program
is a portal guy. That's certainly something that we don't
want to do every year. So we got to do
an unbelievable job developing a relationship, developing the player, having

(37:36):
good relationships with the mom and the dads and whoever's
around that player, and keep them here and build this thing.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
I cannot even imagine what your daily to do list
has looked like since the middle of March. But has
there been something that has popped up in this capacity
that surprised you that you didn't expect? You thought, man,
that's pretty cool.

Speaker 12 (37:57):
Yeah, I mean I think every day just meeting different people, right,
and it's it could be our our people, that our
custodians that you know, clean up our building and are
taking our trash or you know, cleaning our floors. I mean,
I think when you come into a program, you have

(38:18):
to do an unbelievable job of treating people the right way,
and then you have to create an organization that everybody
believes in what we're doing. And if you don't have
one buy in, it's so hard to win games. So yeah,
I think just driving to work every day knowing you're
the head coach at the University of Cincinnati and you
know pretty soon every every game is going to matter

(38:41):
to an entire city. That's a you know, that's a
big responsibility. So you can't just show up, you know,
November and think that's gonna happen, right, So we got
to do a lot of things here over to the
next couple of months.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
You're not sleeping in your office anymore, are you, Yeah, no,
not anymore.

Speaker 12 (39:00):
Now we're still in an airbnb. That's been a you know,
it's been good because you know, we're all together.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (39:07):
So you know, like last night we were up till
I don't know whatever time, but we're watching high school
players now, right, So you went from the portal, now
you're transitioning into high school. And I think one of
the best things about being the coach of the Bearcats
is we have some unbelievable talent right now in this
area and.

Speaker 13 (39:25):
We got to go get it. You know, we got
to keep these kids here.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
You know, as a lifelong college basketball fan, I spent
so many years obsessing over high school recruiting and now
I feel like it takes a back seat because we
focus on the portal. So kind of walk me through.
Has there been a shift in the overall like high
school coaching or high school recruiting philosophy.

Speaker 13 (39:43):
Since Yeah, I think there has.

Speaker 12 (39:45):
I mean, I think people are ignoring the high school players.
You know, we took five last year month we had
you know, two or three kids obviously have come with
us two state at Utah State, we played two, We
red shirted three. Those five kids were really good players,
and we had a plan for them and we're going
to red shirt them and develop them. And now it's
five for five. So I think you have to kind

(40:07):
of reconfigure we think some things, But I do think
you could still take two to three high school players.
Probably every other class maybe three to one class won
the next. But I think when you're in this area
and you have such great high school coaches and good players,
you want to make sure that you're treating the high

(40:28):
school coaches right, that you are active in this area.
And Jim Trussell used to say, we want Youngstown guys,
and I'd say, trust, what the heck does that mean?

Speaker 13 (40:36):
What is a Youngstown guy? Right?

Speaker 12 (40:38):
Is it like blue collar toughness? He said, no, Jared,
it's you put a map six hours around the city
of Youngstown and where our campus is.

Speaker 13 (40:47):
And we want to identify.

Speaker 12 (40:48):
Those guys that really fit our culture and our style,
and we want to make them our players, and we
want to make sure that they're part of this.

Speaker 13 (40:56):
So that's what we got to do. I think, you
know around on the state of Ohio.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Can't thank you enough. Three for three. You've given me
three interviews. He's coret you. We're done already, move quick.

Speaker 13 (41:08):
All right, I'll call you in a couple of weeks
to get you to practice.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
I'm in let's go. Thanks, And you know I can
get up and down the floor once and a half.

Speaker 13 (41:15):
You play with the staff I'll be good.

Speaker 7 (41:17):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Thanks Garrett Calhoun, the men's basketball head coach at the
University of Cincinnati. It's four o'clock, five to one, three day,
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. All right, we have
been busy here at you see it's five to one,
three day Mollegar, this is yes, we had fifteen thirtieth.
We just continued. We have the head coach at do
you see women's basketball program, Katrina Merriweather with US coach.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Good to see you, Good to see you.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Thank for having you have been quite busy, yes, and
it feels like productive.

Speaker 14 (41:47):
I think it's been productive. We will see when everybody
comes together in June. But on on paper, I would
say that it has been a really good spring.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
You in this business, you turn the page very quickly
from one season into the next. So you've you've got
to you've got to replace players. You've got to fill
holes on the roster. Did you sit down and go, Okay,
I got to fill X amount of players at this position.
I've got to we need this type of player at
this position. Well, how does how does the beginning of
that process work? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (42:16):
For us, it had a lot to do with depth.

Speaker 7 (42:18):
Right.

Speaker 14 (42:19):
We knew after last season. I'm one of those people.
I don't like to get burned the same way twice.
And because we just had short numbers in very critical spots.
I think back to our UNLV game where we played
thirty eight minutes zone and started two to five players
and thought that we may have to have tryouts right

(42:39):
before Christmas, and I want to make sure that we
have enough death, enough depth that we can compete in
practice at a high level. I think it really hurts
teams when you have to pull back in practice because
you want to make sure that you have people for games.
So we will have currently have a roster of fourteen,

(43:00):
and we will sign a fifteenth if the right player
comes along, and that'll get us three deep in every position.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
I positioned this the same way to Coach Calhoun. You'll
be better equipped to answer this question in two months.
But what do you believe the strength of your team
will be as the roster sits right now?

Speaker 14 (43:17):
Yeah, it's going to be rebounding, which we all know
is my favorite thing. But I thought that what we
graduated in what we lost, we replaced very well. And
I also think that the class is headlined by Snaya Jai,
who's a player who started at South Carolina. She is

(43:38):
athletic and versatile, and she can bring it off ball screens,
make mid ranges, get to the rim, you name it.
And I think that she plays at a pace that's
going to push.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
Us in practice.

Speaker 14 (43:52):
So I do believe rebounding will be it, but it
will also be defense will be heavily emphasized and anticipated
being much better than a year ago.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
We were talking about this off air, kind of the
timeline of the calendar and the integration of transfers, freshmen
and then returning players. So kind of walk me through
what the summer is like, what you get to do,
how this is going to play out.

Speaker 14 (44:16):
Well, we start with the parent meeting, and I think
that having families in it's really important. It's the one
time we can get everybody together. They get to meet
each other, and then we have an open gym and
we eat that way. Our families are the first people
to see the actual team together. That sets the tone
for what we're going to get started that next week.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Our performance team has the team without me.

Speaker 14 (44:41):
All things are just them getting themselves prepared for the
workouts that will start on June eighth. During that eight weeks,
we'll start with individuals and then we'll go to group work,
and then we'll end with some practices.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
The last three weeks.

Speaker 14 (44:55):
To introduce team drills, we'll have defensive sessions, just basically
introducing the system on both ends. So really excited about
having that opportunity to get them all together. But what
we should see by the end of the summer, it
should be a little telling for me about who's gonna
play were.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
It feels to me. For all of the changes in
college basketball, one that has been in favor of coaches
on the women's and the men's side is you're allowed
to do more in the summer. Because for years I'd
hear coaches say like, we want to work, we want
to do our jobs, and now it feels like, and
this helps everybody, but it feels like you're allowed to
work more in the summer.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Which is gotta be nice, I think so.

Speaker 14 (45:38):
And you have to work in unison with your performance
scene because the eight hours are still the same, but
we're not limited to four hours of basketball, so if
we want to go five or six, then we can
do that, but we want to make sure that we're
not taking away from the time that they spend with
the performance scene that is the foundation, right of their
strength and their mobility and all the things that they're

(45:59):
able to do on the basket ball floor.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
But I do love the option.

Speaker 14 (46:02):
And I think we'll exercise that option in conjunction with
those conversations. But I'm with you, like, we just want
to get in the gym, and we don't want to
wear them out. We don't want to over any overuseless
injuries or anything like that, but we do want to
get to work I think a lot sooner.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
There were a lot of trying stretches during this past season,
and you're going to go through that, but you got
to learn from it. What do you think you learned
about the kids you have that you're going to bring back.
What do you think maybe you learned about yourself as
a coach during what was at times a really difficult season.

Speaker 14 (46:34):
I think those core seven that were committed to coming
back were the ones that understood understood that.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
There's always ways that we can all be better.

Speaker 14 (46:42):
And I'm a very accountable person, a very reflective person.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
There isn't anyone harder on me than me.

Speaker 14 (46:49):
So when I go back and I look at those
games and is this the right lineup? And did we
practice the right things and were we in man at
the right time zone at the right time.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
And it was challenging.

Speaker 14 (47:00):
It was challenging because a lot of the times we
couldn't practice the way they wanted to play, because when
to make sure we have players for the games. But
to me, just the the six games right by a
total of twenty possession, right, you know, those things are
just hard. And what I learned about myself was there,
we cannot slow step this thing. See I've always been

(47:23):
into let's start off slow and let's grow right. Well,
we're gonna have to come in day one on June eighth,
and we're gonna have to hit it hard. And I
think that we'll figure out if there will be any separation,
you know, between maybe ten and then five or eight
and seven. Hopefully it'll be fifteen or fourteen, right, and

(47:43):
everybody's ready to go, and everybody's healthy, and everybody's locked in,
and everybody did what they were supposed to do in May.
But I don't think I can find that out in
week three or four anymore.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
I think I have to know that in the first
week we're in the gym.

Speaker 14 (47:57):
So that's what I learned about me, what I learned
about you know, the team is saying that everybody knows
the best thing about freshmen is they become softballers. You know,
they were incredibly talented. I think they love basketball. Our
culture was phenomenal. It almost blew my mind that we
were losing games.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
The way we were fractured.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Though it did not, and I'm proud of it.

Speaker 14 (48:21):
It still shocks me to this day because when I
think back to me being a student athlete, I would
have been a wreck. I think that my teammates would
have been a wreck, no matter how much our coach
has tried. And it just speaks volumes for the seven
that we have coming back and the way that they
showed their maturity and their toughness.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
So I don't want the numbers to be as thin
as they were last year, but if you need a
body in practice, I just told coach Calhoun, I can
get up and down the floor maybe twice.

Speaker 14 (48:49):
Come on, that's two more times, two more times than
I can.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
I only challenged them in the.

Speaker 14 (48:55):
Half court and some shooting drills because I guess my
pull up is still there.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
A little bit.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
So if I want them a little something, I think.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
It's not my pull up. My pull up's never been there.
But you know, I'll work in the driveway this summer
and if things, you know, just whatever. Hopefully it's like
an illness or something, no debilitating injuries. You need somebody,
I'll come in and I'll try.

Speaker 14 (49:15):
Okay, well, you can come in anytime. I'm sure it'll
be helpful.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
I would for me. I'm not sure for you, but
for me, yeah, it'd be be beneficial. Can't thank you
enough for doing this. Hopefully it gets a downtime and
have a great summer, and I can't wait.

Speaker 4 (49:28):
Till next year.

Speaker 7 (49:28):
Thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
I appreciate it. Thanks for having.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Katrina Merriwether, the women's head coach. Women's basketball head coach
at the University of Cincinnati. It's a quarter after four,
malwegar on five to one to three day. You see.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 9 (49:42):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Traffic from the UC helpers, and we're staying right on time.
It's twenty minutes after four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Mollegar the folks at the University of Cincinnati kind enough
to let us podcast on five to one three day.
We're inside the football practice facility, inside the defensive meeting
room and joined now by the Director of Athletics at

(50:08):
the University of Cincinnati, John Cunningham. How are you good?

Speaker 6 (50:11):
Oh, good to have you guys here.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
It's good to be here.

Speaker 6 (50:14):
Yeah, celebrate five one three day.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
We love it. Yeah. Last time you and I talked
was about two months ago, and you had just wrapped
up a coaching search and I'm sure big sire relief
that day. When you think back to that process, what
sort of things come up?

Speaker 15 (50:29):
Well, I mean, they're all unique in their own way,
and this one was obviously the speed at which we
had to move. We obviously were interested in coach Calhoun
had identified him, but we wanted to allow him to
have his time with his Utah State team that was
going to compete and obviously did a great job in
the tournament, beating a great Villanova team and then going

(50:49):
toe to toe with Arizona and almost getting that one.

Speaker 6 (50:52):
But then we knew that the.

Speaker 15 (50:53):
Transfer portal was right around the corner, so we had
to move extremely fast to get him here. And he
wanted to get started. And so I think what was
unique about this one was just the whirlwind of the
speed at which it all had to happen.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
What what's a part of that process? And this question
isn't necessarily specific to Jared Calhoun, but what are parts
of a coaching search like that that that take place
beyond public view that might surprise a average fan.

Speaker 15 (51:19):
You know, I don't know if it would surprise anybody.
You're certainly doing a lot of background work and background
phone calls about the person. That was something that I
really wanted to spend some time calling the basketball people
that I knew. We have somebody on our staff named
Brad Pike that was that was at Syracuse for fifteen
years with coach Beaheim, and so we use a lot

(51:40):
of those connections, and so maybe that would surprise some
people on the breadth of the people that we called
to talk to them about coach Calhoun and basketball styles
and and how it might be a fit at Cincinnati.

Speaker 6 (51:52):
That might surprise people.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Yeah, and then he, you know, he goes and hits
the portal and it's it's a it's a whole new team.
Right when when kids come in from other Universe cities.
Do you get a chance to sit down with them?
Do you talk with them as a whole? How does
that work?

Speaker 15 (52:03):
It depends some I do. It happens so quick they
call it speed dating. I mean, that's that's the world
that we live in. You really you bring them in
for you know, twenty four to forty eight hours, and
then there's usually a decision that's made at that time.
You know, certainly, if I'm around, I met with several
as they came through. Sometimes I bump them to them
in the hall. Sometimes I meet with them up in
my office if it work. But you know, I'm there

(52:25):
if they need me and and if I can be
of help. But it does happen so fast sometimes that
that's not part of the equation.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
It's it's an interesting time this time of year because
you did a coaching search. The spring sports are kind
of winding down. I know men's golf next week in
the NCAA tournament is going to be AWF theme. So like,
walk me through, like your your calendar, your to do
list during the summertime as we ramp into the fall sports.

Speaker 15 (52:48):
Yeah, certainly still going part with all of our spring sports.
You know, tracks had a tremendous year, so they've got
their outdoor track season winding up, and then like you said,
men's golf down at A and M competing in the
national tournament there, and then obviously what our baseball program
is doing. So we've got a significant focus on some
really great things happening late in the spring, which is
always fun, but you do start to shift and start

(53:10):
to think about next year. You start to set some
goals for your department, some goals for each individual coach,
and you're having meetings with individual coaches and talking about
what they need to do to get better and be
better than they were the year before.

Speaker 6 (53:23):
And then you really start to focus.

Speaker 15 (53:24):
In and Zach stipes in the room here on our staff,
but you start to focus in externally on the game
day experience, and you know, we have six football games
and obviously going right into a basketball season with a
new coach, so a lot of heavy work gets done
thinking about our fans, how we improve our fan experience,
and just trying to get better that way.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
What's the most It's such a you know, everybody says
it a strange time for college athletics. Men's women's whether
it's Olympic sports football, we're expanding the NCAA tournament. NIL
and revenue sharing are such big topics. What's the biggest
challenge as an administrator at this level right now that
that that consumes you day to day.

Speaker 6 (54:05):
It's the lack of clear understanding of the rules. Lack
of clear rules.

Speaker 15 (54:10):
You know, you're you're you know, I think you're you
live kind of in the world of trying to make
sure that you're structuring things so that you're as competitive
as possible, especially within the Big twelve conference, but there's
no clear understanding of where that line is, so you're
you're constantly trying to get benchmarks, You're constantly trying to
understand what everybody else is doing so that you can
stay as competitive as possible in this really you know,

(54:32):
zero sum game that is college athletics. You want to
win every game. You want to you want to beat
other teams for recruits and have the best NIL program
and the best approach to So it's it's just trying
to structure that and then also understanding sort of where
this thing is going or you know, what what's next
around the corner, trying to be ahead of it. A
little bit and just make sure that we we have

(54:53):
a plan going forward. We know we're gonna have to
change it because college athletics continues to adjust and change,
So we've got to be able to pivot. We've got
to build a plan going forward over the next three
five years.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
How do we get to a place where things aren't
quite as chaotic? And I say that as somebody who
loves chaos.

Speaker 6 (55:09):
Yeah, I believe I've come to the conclusion.

Speaker 15 (55:12):
I think there's really one or two paths, one being
something through Congress.

Speaker 6 (55:17):
You know, we we have what we call.

Speaker 15 (55:18):
The Score Act, which I think is going to come
before the House here in a couple of weeks, gets
through the House, and obviously you know it has to
go through the Senate. How a bill becomes a law
the hole, yeah, the cartoon, right, So we've got to
I've had I've had to go back and refresh myself
on that class.

Speaker 7 (55:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (55:33):
Yeah, But we've got to get we've got to try
to get some sort of protection what they call it
anti trust protection, meaning that the NCAA isn't going to
get sued every time it tries to put a rule
on the place, which which is the environment that we've
lived in over the last couple of years post the
Austin case, so we we've really had to work hard
to get that through. We'll see if that gets through
that I think to your point, that's the one thing

(55:57):
that brings some calmness to the situation. And I think
another one, alternatively or in conjunction with it, would be
some sort of you know, working with the student athlete
on a collective bargaining agreement, almost like they have in
Major League Baseball or the NBA.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
Is that realistic?

Speaker 5 (56:13):
I think it is.

Speaker 15 (56:14):
You know, we've had a lot of experts talking about that.
It's complicated, but I think there is some potential that
that could happen down the line. But first and foremost,
we've got to get the protection from congressional protection so
that we don't get sued every time we try to
have a rule in place.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Student athletes have things in front of them that are
unique to this age. Right, student athletes didn't have some
of the same temptations. Sports wagering is one of them. Right,
I can do it. I'm allowed to do it. A
student athlete cannot. I'm not asking this in reference to
any individual specifically, but if you're a student athlete, you're
not allowed to wager on certain things. You're not allowed

(56:51):
to wager on professional sports. That there's a championship event
in college sports, and I'm putting that very inarticulately. You're
not allowed to bet on on on games involving your school,
not allowed to make wagers on games that you may
be involved in. Walk me through what's done to educate
student athletes as to what they are specifically not allowed

(57:12):
to do.

Speaker 15 (57:12):
We do a lot and we've we've got a whole
education program that that you know. Obviously, gambling is at
the very top of the list, and it has been
for a long time as these state laws have opened
up sports gambling. You know, we we bring in speakers,
Our student athletes know the rules. They can recite the rule.
I had one recited to me the other day. They said,

(57:34):
you can't gamble on college sports. You can't gamble on
a pro sport with a corresponding college championship.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
That's the that's the way to put it, by the way.

Speaker 15 (57:40):
Yeah, and you know, so they know the rules, We
teach those rules.

Speaker 6 (57:44):
They understand.

Speaker 15 (57:45):
If they have any questions at all, they need to
talk to compliance you know. But but we also as
a society of really, in my mind, made some strategic
cares here. I mean, we've we've just opened up sports
gambling so quickly. And I just remember as I drove
outside of Nippert Stadium and outside of Clifton, I remember
seeing a billboard for a long time that was one

(58:06):
of the sports gambling sites that had a billboard facing
the university, and it was directed at students, college students,
not just student athletes, but college students. They say seventy percent,
seventy five percent of males in college are on the apps.
They have a casino in their pocket. It is a
lot and just the society, we've got to figure out
how this all operates, because it's going to be a

(58:28):
continuous problem, not just in college athletics, but just just
in general.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
I'm glad, I'm glad I'm not a college student now
for that reason. I mean, I'm glad I'm not forget
student athlete. That was never gonna happen, but I'm glad
I'm not a college student now for that specific reason.

Speaker 6 (58:43):
It's just made it too easy.

Speaker 15 (58:45):
It's so easy, and we know we have a lot
of issues social media and things. But when you put
a casino in every college student pocket, it's you know,
it's we've.

Speaker 6 (58:54):
Got to really work on that.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
What have you come to know about the football team,
the specific football team for twenty two.

Speaker 15 (59:01):
Well, you know, I really like our defensive coordinator, coach Woody.
I love what he's bringing to the table and his
energy level, and you know, kind of watching him early on,
you know, forty four new players, so I had a chance,
like everybody else to pay attention to spring ball and
see how they performed. You know, I think it was

(59:21):
a great mix of some days offense dominated, in some
days defense dominated, and that's exactly what you want to see.
But I think our defensive backfield has had been improved incredibly.
I love our receivers that we brought in, and I
think J. C. French really showed what he's capable of
in the spring, which is throws a great ball, throws
a great deep ball, can really move the ball, and

(59:45):
controls the game really well, can make calls at the
line of scrimmage. And then of course we have one
of the best offensive lines in the twelve and maybe
best offensive lines in the country, and that, as we
all know, is so important to winning. So all those
things kind of fitting together, and the specialties improvements that
we made last year and having that having that same
coach come back, and so just a lot of things
work in our favor. We know Big twelve is a

(01:00:07):
tough league. We're gonna have to be ready to go
come September.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
No question can thank you enough as always always great
to be with you. John Cunningham, the director of Athletics
Here at UC. It's five to one, three day from
the University of Cincinnati, broadcasting from the Defensive Meeting Room
inside the football practice facility. We are here till six o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 9 (01:00:30):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty trafficy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Four minutes away from five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty Mollegger. On Wednesdays, we bring you Wise Money Sports
with our friends from Omegawealth Private Capital. We've had Joe
Wilson on now for weeks. We have not had a chance.
You just heard his voice in that spot a few
minutes ago. Uh to have on our guy Brad Johansson,

(01:00:55):
also from Omegawealth Private Capital. It's his turn for Wise
Money Sports. Brad, It's awesome to have you. Good afternoon.

Speaker 16 (01:01:01):
What's going on, Hey, I'm happy to substitute. Thanks for
tapping me in MO. Nice to be with you, Bud.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Nice to have you as always. I want you to
help me with this. So you know, as a Reds fan,
we all love Sal Stewart. Want to see the Red
sign Sal Stewart long term. Apparently that's not going to
happen if you believe the reporting in the Athletic Ken
Rosenthal reporting that the Reds financially maybe in a different
spot than they were a year ago, six months ago
because their TV situation is so uncertain. And we've all,

(01:01:31):
you know, we're all familiar with what's happened with Regional
Sports Network. So walk me through this because this is
very much a cash flow story, not so much an
indictment against Sal Stewart.

Speaker 6 (01:01:42):
Shoot.

Speaker 16 (01:01:42):
I remember when you and you and Joe were talking
about stuff of the Reds in week one on this
and you're right, it is a cash flowed story. And
they say, okay, well why didn't you sign Schwarber? I
mean he had one hundred and twenty five million dollars
offer to him before the started, you signed Elie, you

(01:02:03):
get Auhanni Ossuarez in on a deal of a fifteen
million dollar deal, and things change by the moment when
you'd say cash flow. This this kind of sits in
that spot of tremendous uncertainty. Yes, they are worth more
on paper than ever before, but they can't spend year

(01:02:25):
to year like you want to. I'm we kind of
equal this equal this thing out with general stories of
somebody who bought I don't know, three hundred thousand dollars
house in two thousand and now your three hundred thousand
dollar house is worth eight hundred thousand dollars in twenty
twenty six. So you're richer. Right on paper, you're richer,

(01:02:51):
you just can't spend because you've got two or three
kids going to college, going to a private school. You
had a problem with the car, You're going to have
to buy a new one, so you don't have flow
that you can work. If you want to sell the house, great,
you're what five hundred thousand dollars up, but you've got

(01:03:13):
to find somewhere else to live. The Reds are kind
of in that spot right now of saying I can't
spend like this right now, and if we don't know
where we're going to air and we don't have a
deal with somebody, we've got issues. Does that make sense?

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Man? Totally no, it it makes complete and total sense.
I think sometimes, and I know Joe and I talked
about this a few weeks ago. There's confusion between what
a franchise is worth and what its current cash flow is.
And you can apply that to pretty much anybody, any hooleowner, really,
anybody else.

Speaker 16 (01:03:45):
Yeah, I think it's plus you're sitting with a potential lockout. Yes,
you don't know what's going to happen immediately after this.
And I think this whole TV thing has changed. It's
certainly changed from the time that i've is on TV,
where in the eighties, television stations were spending like crazy.

(01:04:06):
You could go anywhere for any story. They didn't care
what the money was because you had an influx. Now
local TV is struggling in a real big way and
everybody is working on rights fees and trying to figure
out where you have This is kind of your one
place to go. You're banking on one place to air

(01:04:28):
and get your money back from all of that, and
now you're not exactly sure where you're going to air
and how the money is going to come back into it,
so you can't figure out how to spend.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
I want to ask you about an NCAA tournament expansion,
which is a college basketball fan I dislike, and I
know I'm in the majority here, I'm with you, Yeah,
but look, this is more inventory. These are more units,
and so you have sort of a I don't know,
a split. You have fans, those of us who hate
the idea of watering down the regular season, add more

(01:05:00):
mediocre college basketball teams. But these conferences and these schools,
they want more bids, more exposure, more money. So this
makes a lot of sense from a business perspective, even
though more practical on a fan.

Speaker 16 (01:05:14):
If we don't like it, well, you follow the money.
It's all of us following the money. A TV deal
with what CBS Warner already pays over nine hundred million
a year that goes through twenty thirty two. It doesn't
automatically increase with expansion. So inventory, if I can have

(01:05:36):
more games, I can sell more ads, and then I've
got more slots to be able to put the money in.
When you're dealing with this whole thing. Fans, as you say,
hate the expansion. I'm kind of with you because you
water down the whole thing. Current format is beloved. But

(01:05:57):
if you're adding ads, sponsor ship inventory units to pay out,
they don't really necessarily care what the fans think because
they say, you know what, I'll get people to watch,
and I'll get people to advertise. And if you're going
to get more money, you're going to add more teams.

(01:06:19):
It's just the way the thing is going to work.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Yeah, and I you're exactly right. I just don't like it.
They have met with that's because.

Speaker 16 (01:06:31):
More doesn't More doesn't mean better for the fans.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
Problem, dude, if we're going to do good.

Speaker 16 (01:06:40):
If you're going to add more teams in basketball and
now we're talking what twenty twenty four teams, if you're
talking college football, if you're moving to a twenty four team,
I think the SEC is the only one out on
adding to a twenty fourteen football playoff. And you tell memo,

(01:07:02):
is team twenty four ever going to win a National
football championship?

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
No, I'm twelve will yeah none.

Speaker 16 (01:07:15):
Yeah, I'm I'm not convinced that twelve can do it either. Shoot,
if you were down to eight, then it kind of
gets interesting. But it doesn't matter. If you're moving to
twenty four, you're dealing with nil. You have big shoot
twenty four. A look at the way the playoffs started
this year and what Ohio State did to Tennessee just

(01:07:38):
in round one, and there were people who thought, oh Okay,
Tennessee's going to be fine. It is going to be
watered down because it all comes down to the money.
And I always say that more never equals better just
because of quality. And I mean a lot of people

(01:08:02):
will do this even in investments. Give me something more exotic,
I want to expand my portfolio, Give me a little
something more, and it creates more risk that the product
that you have, that the ending of it all is
going to be a problem for you. You just want to

(01:08:22):
I want to grab at this. And usually we do
all of this by emotion. I mean, in finances, either
by fear or greed. And the NCAA is airing on greed.
We need more money to make this thing gone.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
Yeah, no argument for me on that. Give me I
got about sixty seconds here, give me a minute. On
pro sports franchises. Are we about to see a pro
sports franchise valuation bubble.

Speaker 16 (01:08:54):
Probably. I mean it's a new norm. The valuations have
and beyond what's even reasonable at this point. And it
goes back to what we were just talking about. It
heavily dependent on media rights. You get into this what
do we call it a sticky high argument. Franchises are

(01:09:18):
ultra scarce, it's hard to get them. So they are
global brands. Now you get status symbols, so you're buying
really on the symbol rather than what it's worth, which
the reds are saying, holl that you're valuating us here
and this is what we're able to spend. It doesn't work.
I think we're going to have a bubble that's probably

(01:09:39):
going to burst it sometime because it's all about the
big dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
Yeah, it definitely feels like you, Brad jo Hansson Omegawealth
Private Capital. You can learn more about Omegawealth Private Capital.
But Brad, give me thirty seconds. Tell me about Omega
Wealth Private.

Speaker 16 (01:09:52):
Capital, Olwprivatecapital dot com is where you go. We're going
to base everything on your retur We specialize on getting
you into and out of retirement with money to last
until your last breath. Based on the five Agreements, which
is exactly what we want to do. You want a

(01:10:13):
vital retirement, volatility income. We'll deal with taxes, asset preservation,
and your legacy throughout this whole thing. Give us a shout.
We'd love to sit down with you and make sure
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Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Ohw Private Capital dot Com. Brad, you're the best. We'll
talk to you man. Thanks so much.

Speaker 16 (01:10:32):
Good to talk to you, moe.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
That's Wise Money Sports, bradgill Hanson, Omega Wealth, Private Capital.
It's five one three day. You see, we are going
to sit down with the general manager of the UC
football program next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 9 (01:10:44):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
It's nine away from five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty Moegger broadcasting from the University of Cincinnati on five
to one.

Speaker 4 (01:10:59):
Three day.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
This has been an absolute blast and it continues as
we are joined by the general manager of the UC
football program, Zach Grant. Awesome to have you. Is this
a downtime a year for you? Is this a busy time?

Speaker 7 (01:11:11):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
Where where are we in the calendar?

Speaker 17 (01:11:12):
Yeah, it's great to be here. I appreciate you having
me on. We're at a point that's starting to ramp up,
being a little busier and busier. You know, the downtime
after the portal is really February, and then you know
we have spring practice and a lot of high school
visits associated with that, right, and now this month our
coaches are on the road seeing our prospects and different

(01:11:34):
guys they either need to see work out or go
in home and convince them to come here.

Speaker 7 (01:11:38):
On official visits.

Speaker 17 (01:11:39):
And so as we get closer to June, where we'll
host a lot of official visits for high school players,
the work starts to ramp up in the strategy behind that.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
All right, talking about the work ramping up. As soon
as the season ended, you were going to have to
hit the portal. And if I'm my memory starts me correct.
The calendar was a lot different this year, so you
had more time to prepare. It wasn't like season ends,
and now you got to hit it, which had had
been So give us an idea. I know how hard
you guys worked in that stretch leading up to the
portal opening. I know you had a lot of spots

(01:12:10):
and wanted to fill large to do list, give me
an idea how you feel you're you and your staff did.

Speaker 17 (01:12:14):
Yeah, I think, uh, you know, we we did a
fantastic job filling our needs. You know, it obviously starts
with our head coach, Coach Cyderfield set the vision for
what we needed and we're going through a little transition
period there with a new defensive scheme, and you know,
our coaches you know, worked their butts off to you know,
show the vision of where each of these players would

(01:12:36):
fit in. And then on on the personnel side of
things and the recruiting side, you know, trying to budget
and allocate our our rev share money the best way
we possibly could both, starting right after the season with
retaining our players, which is always step one, and then
right after the season we signed our high school class,
and then we had a month leading into early January

(01:12:58):
where you know, the portal actually opened. There was a
lot of information gathering and discussions with agents leading into
that and what we needed to do and think.

Speaker 5 (01:13:09):
Over an eleven day period in early.

Speaker 17 (01:13:11):
January, we signed twenty two players in the portal. It
was kind of all hands on deck in the entire program,
and it extends beyond just the football program nowadays, you
know our Trevor Wright and our I call it the
contract department, but he deals with a lot of that
and as kinds of a liaison between our General Counsel's
office and you know, the ongoing discussions with John Cunningham

(01:13:35):
and John Daniel as it relates to what our budget
pool is and what we need to do to make
sure we're competitive. And then you know, in a quick
turnaround over the holidays, our academic staff did a tremendous
job making sure all their transcripts they were able to
get in school, and so I'm proud of the work
everybody did. It extends beyond just you know, the football program,

(01:13:59):
and it's a team effort.

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
What do you like most about the team as we
go into summer.

Speaker 17 (01:14:06):
Yeah, what I came away from spring really really proud
of was just the competitive spirit both offensively and defensively.
We're obviously going to look a lot different than last season.
We had a little bit more brand names on last
year's team that you know, everyone knew about year over year,

(01:14:27):
but without those guys that added energy that we have
with players in my opinion that are just as good
and we're a little deeper it just added to a
really really competitive spring. So I think we got better
as a full team, and obviously implementing a new defense,
you know, there's an added energy to the guys in

(01:14:48):
their belief in what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
You are going to go into summer and now, you know,
focus on high school recruiting. And I said this to
coach Saderfield in the first hour. You know, I feel
like we never talked about high school recruit anym I
know you do in your world. So what do these
coming weeks look like?

Speaker 17 (01:15:04):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's funny the portal gets a
lot of publicity because it's the impact is felt like
right now with when those players come in. But high
school recruiting is still the lifeblood of what we have
to do to build a consistent program moving forward where
there's no ebbs and flows year and year out. We're

(01:15:25):
setting the floor of the roster with really good players.
A lot of times out of high school they're more developmental,
but it's we're going to try to sign a full
high school class every year. So what that looks like
in the next month, we have three official visit weekends,
the weekend of the fifth, twelfth, and nineteenth of June

(01:15:46):
and then it goes it's a dead period for a
while until the season. But you know, those three weekends,
you're got ten to fifteen players here in high school
each weekend, and worth showing.

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
Them the entire city.

Speaker 5 (01:16:00):
We're showing them.

Speaker 17 (01:16:01):
Most of them have been here already, but we're able
to go out to dinner with them, and it's kind
of more of a feeling of camaraderie with the entire
staff around these guys. And as always, you know, we're
evaluating them as much as they're evaluating us too, right,
and nowadays in college football, you have to value each
of these players, and we're sticking to our guns though,
like in we want to have the most money to

(01:16:26):
retain our roster, and we're not gonna, you know, blow
it on high school players completely, but we'll be as
competitive as we need to be.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
You have a very fascinating job that I've said that
to you before, and it's it's still like the job
has been normalized, but there's still so many nuts and
bolts to it that I always enjoy your perspective. I
appreciate you doing this.

Speaker 17 (01:16:48):
Yeah, of course, thank you. It's it's a fun job.
It changes every day, but I'm excited going to work
every single day, and my job is a lot easier
when we work with really good people, which I'm fortunate
to do here.

Speaker 7 (01:17:01):
Yeah, no question, Thanks so much.

Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
Thank you, Zach Grand, general manager of the University of
Cincinnati football program. The head coach of the UC volleyball program,
Daniello Tomach, will join us next. Right now, though, it's
time for Redemand and Jones on baseball. All right, it's
six minutes after five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
It's five to one, three day here in the city

(01:17:23):
of Cincinnati, and the folks that you see for the
second and secutive year have invited us to do our
show from campus. We're inside the football facility, inside the
defensive meeting room, and it's been been a really fun afternoon.
We have an hour to go, and please to be
joined right now by the volleyball head coach at the

(01:17:43):
University of Cincinnati, Danielle Tomach. It's awesome to have you.
Thank you, thank you for having me a year ago.
At this time you had just gotten the job, you
were getting ready for year one. So I would imagine
relative to what things were like a year ago, things
have calmed down a little a little bit.

Speaker 18 (01:18:01):
I was actually texting a friend today and I said,
I feel more grounded. Cincinnati feels like home after almost
a year and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:18:10):
A lot of.

Speaker 18 (01:18:12):
Has happened. First of all, going through my first season
in the Big twelve, my coaching staff and I, so
that was definitely an experience coming from a conference where
you know, you get on a bus and every school
is till three hours away, and you enjoy Now every
trip but one is flying. Just at a lot of learning,

(01:18:36):
you know, not only the job, but learning the institution,
learning the community, and it's been it's been awesome. I
feel good about the spring that we had the second spring.
Everybody who stayed with us throughout the spring is coming back,
so we didn't lose anybody to the portal after the spring.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
We did lose some.

Speaker 18 (01:19:00):
The fall, but that's to be expected in this environment
right now, and just excited about the second year. Kind
of I feel last year when we talked, it was
just a lot of unknown. We just finished only our
spring season with the team and uh recruiting and going
through the competitive season, and I feel just grounded, kind

(01:19:21):
of Okay, this is this is what it's going to take.
I have a better idea what we need to do
from the recruiting standpoint, from training, from building the culture
that we're doing here. So it feels good to be
celebrating the second five one three day.

Speaker 2 (01:19:39):
Yeah, No, I mean it's it's gotta be nice to
get the year one stuff behind you, right, and you
look ahead the year too. What excites you most about
the players are going to bring back for your second season?

Speaker 18 (01:19:50):
I think what excites me?

Speaker 2 (01:19:51):
First of all?

Speaker 18 (01:19:51):
We have you know, Sitney all.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
In is back. That would that would that excites me?

Speaker 18 (01:19:58):
I think, yes, yes, Florence Kentucky just a great bearcat too.
And I told her a few times that the best
volleyball is ahead of her. So I look forward. I
know she had a breakthrough season, a first year for
her to play as an outside the whole season, so

(01:20:19):
it's even more impressive. And you think how young she
was in that position.

Speaker 2 (01:20:23):
When you when you first met her. Could you envision
her having the season that she had? Yeah? Actually the
breakout players of the conference, Yes.

Speaker 18 (01:20:31):
Just because going through the spring with her, seeing how
good of a learner she is, great work ethic and
probably most importantly being a really great teammate. When you
have your best player being also a great teammate, you
you know you have something special there. And we just

(01:20:52):
saw again there's never guarantee right when you when you
get players, regardless how talented they are, what's going to happen.
But Sydney is a great competitor too, and this school
means a lot to her. She loves the team, she
loves this community, and when you're playing for something bigger
than yourself, good things happen. So I'm excited about that.

(01:21:14):
I'm excited that the team has a better idea what
it takes to beat some of the best teams in
the Big twelve and to be in the NCAA tournament.
We missed it by by just a little. You were
the first team or the last team out of the
NCAA tournament. So that was a lesson for our players.

(01:21:37):
You know, we had a great upset when here at
home on a senior night against the ranked Colorado team,
but it wasn't enough. We needed just one more of
those ranked twins and we had a few two or
three that we couldn't. It could have went either way,

(01:21:57):
and we didn't take care of business at home. And
it's really really hard in this conference to win on
the road, not just for us, but for everybody. If
you look at the records, it's just hard to win
on the road because of the how close everybody is.
There's no easy match in the Big Twelve. So I
think our team having a better understanding and having the

(01:22:19):
core group of players and maturity who were with us
last year and we're on that journey with us, that
they understand a little bit better what the standard needs
to be every day for us in the gym, how
we train, how we prepare heavy again, what kind of
team we are, and living up our values and all
that stuff. And our job as coaches is to continue

(01:22:42):
recruiting the best talent that we can. And we're excited
about the new players who are coming in. It's a
nice mix of some experience, some transfer athletes, and some
young high school kids really really talented.

Speaker 2 (01:22:59):
I thing.

Speaker 18 (01:23:02):
We'll give us some really bright future.

Speaker 2 (01:23:04):
And you mentioned we were talking before we went on
international players. Yep, right, so they'll they'll get here at
the campus soon. Now, are these players who've played college
volleyball but they're from another part of the world. Are
you bringing them straight from across the globe.

Speaker 18 (01:23:18):
We we have a two who we recruited from a
transfer portal. One joined us in January and Asimovsky from
Utah State.

Speaker 2 (01:23:28):
It seems like Utest State people pretty good.

Speaker 18 (01:23:32):
I don't mind. It's fine, but she's from Serbia originally.
So we had Tatiana Semyono, which was the only international
player we had last year. A freshman our middle Andrea
joined us this semester, and we have two that we
signed less fall one is uh well actually this spring

(01:23:52):
and last fall. One is a liberal from Bulgaria who
was the best Liberal at the twenty three World Championships
last year. I think she will be Victorian Ninova is
her name. I think she'll be one of the best
liberals in the country, not just in our conference. She
is a high level She competed last year with the

(01:24:12):
Bulgarian senior national team at the VNL, which is one
of the highest international competitions in volleyball besides the Olympics.
So she's coming to US in July. Then we have
a Swiss lefty because we lost some kids in the portal,
we had to replace them, and Nina Scruche, that's her name,

(01:24:35):
she was voted the MVP of the U twenty three
Swiss Championships, so we're excited about her. And just last
week we actually yesked Tod the v announced the latest
one a transfer from Miami University of Florida, but she
was first year at Utah State etce that we didn't
think we would need that position this spring, but some

(01:24:58):
changes happen on our rosters. We had to recruit another setter,
and having this second transferportal window helped us in this situation.

Speaker 2 (01:25:08):
Do you go to Switzerland?

Speaker 5 (01:25:10):
I will?

Speaker 7 (01:25:10):
I did not.

Speaker 18 (01:25:11):
I know I.

Speaker 2 (01:25:13):
Have been in Switzerland.

Speaker 18 (01:25:15):
I did not see this kid uh in person. It
was we recruited her offer video and now with all
the matches, we have all the matches online that we
can watch and she was highly recommended also by her coaches.

Speaker 2 (01:25:30):
So I planned to go.

Speaker 18 (01:25:33):
I like to visit the countries of my players, to
meet the family, meet them in their environment. Unfortunately didn't
work out this spring.

Speaker 2 (01:25:41):
But because I'm Swiss and that that's where I want
to go. That's my lineage is mainly Swiss, that's where
I want to go.

Speaker 18 (01:25:49):
Now now and when Nina comes, I need to introduce
you and and have you. She's actually Italian, which is interesting.
So she's a dual citizen Italy and Swiss. But she
speaks also French. I believe her parents came from Italy.

Speaker 2 (01:26:03):
I speak no Swiss, I speak no French.

Speaker 18 (01:26:06):
Just English.

Speaker 6 (01:26:08):
She speaks really good.

Speaker 2 (01:26:09):
I don't. We're lucky if I can, if I can
somehow put four sentences together without screwing up in the
language I've been speaking my entire life.

Speaker 18 (01:26:16):
But yes, so I think you're doing well for somebody
who you know being on the radio.

Speaker 2 (01:26:21):
I thank you, you're good, we have you and and
everybody else fool. But but I was going to say,
if you need help recruiting internationally.

Speaker 18 (01:26:28):
You want to be my recruiting just international.

Speaker 2 (01:26:31):
Bulgaria, I'll go to Switzerland. We can name a few
other places that a Serbia, Brazil sounds nice.

Speaker 5 (01:26:39):
Nice.

Speaker 18 (01:26:39):
Yeah, I'll check with our compliance. I just need to confirm.

Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
I don't think it will be permissible, but I understand.

Speaker 18 (01:26:46):
I would also recommend just go there. I have a vacation.

Speaker 7 (01:26:50):
Yeah, it's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:26:50):
I'd like to do that. I can't get any when
I tell people, like, hey, let's go to Switzerland this summer.
Not a lot of takers. But you know it's beautiful.

Speaker 18 (01:26:58):
The city Ernina is coming from. I already told her,
I said, I'm coming.

Speaker 7 (01:27:01):
To visit you.

Speaker 2 (01:27:03):
So it's it's beautiful.

Speaker 18 (01:27:04):
It's on the lake.

Speaker 2 (01:27:05):
I think it's called New Chatel.

Speaker 18 (01:27:08):
It's it just looks stunning on the pictures.

Speaker 4 (01:27:10):
So yeah.

Speaker 18 (01:27:11):
And then Bulgaria, Sophia. I've never been in that country,
so that's another place I want to go and visit.
And then my country, my part of the world, you know,
Serbia and Croatia. I'm pretty familiar with that.

Speaker 2 (01:27:24):
Sure. Yeah. I have a friend who just vacation in
Croatia and I was very jealous of her photos. I
am it's kind of the secret. Is beautiful out Yeah
it does.

Speaker 18 (01:27:34):
Yeah, I'm going to be there in July. Actually, that's
that's my vacation spot.

Speaker 2 (01:27:39):
You go home.

Speaker 18 (01:27:40):
I am going home. My mom still lives there and
my sister, so that's my summer vacation.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
Very good.

Speaker 18 (01:27:47):
I will be on the Adriatic Sea.

Speaker 2 (01:27:48):
I'm going to Tennessee. So sorry, I can't thank you
enough for doing this.

Speaker 5 (01:27:55):
Thank you mo.

Speaker 18 (01:27:55):
Yeah, if I can use this opportunity, whoever is listening,
please please come and sport our team this fall. I
really believe that we have a great product on the floor.
It's exciting, it's athletic, it's fast paced, it's entertaining, and
it's it's loud. We want it loud because when we
go to these gyms in the Big twelve, Believe me,

(01:28:18):
that's why it's hard to win on the on the road.
It's it's a really big home court advantage. So you
want the fifth third to be crazy loud. And if
you don't love it, find me and I'm gonna reimburse
everybody's ticket who says I don't I didn't love it,
because I haven't met one person who didn't come and

(01:28:38):
say that was awesome. And I will be back. You
just said thank you, and by season tickets is the
best deal in the and yes it really is. We have,
so thank you, and uh, let's keep celebrating our great city.

Speaker 2 (01:28:55):
Five one three, all right, Daniel Atomas Robert Katz, the
volleyball head coach here at the University of Cincinnati. The
great Mark west Parker will join us next here at
you see, it's five point three day. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 9 (01:29:08):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:29:14):
Fifteen thirty Moegger broadcasting from You See on five to
one three day. We thank the staff here at the
University of Cincinnati for being so accommodating and I thank
you guys. Got a busy night tonight. Mark west Parker,
the pride of West Memphis defensive lineman at the University
of Cincinnati, twenty twenty six first Team All Big twelve
performer Mark west Parker is here speaking into existence.

Speaker 19 (01:29:38):
You know what I'm saying, gotta get to the chicken,
as Logan Wilson.

Speaker 7 (01:29:42):
Let's say gotta get to the chicken.

Speaker 2 (01:29:43):
Man, Hey, you gotta get to the chicken. Is that
what he says?

Speaker 7 (01:29:46):
That's what he's saying.

Speaker 19 (01:29:46):
Okay, I'm gonna say gotta get to the chedda you
know the same thing, gotcha?

Speaker 2 (01:29:50):
Ye, keep very good. Now you're gonna get done talking
to me, and then you're gonna go to the FC
Cincinnati game, right.

Speaker 7 (01:29:55):
Yes, sir?

Speaker 2 (01:29:55):
What are you gonna be doing there? Oh?

Speaker 7 (01:29:57):
I'm gonna be there. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 19 (01:29:59):
Really watching this messy because you know, he the greatest
in the world. Yeah, yeah, he know how to do
a whole bunch of stuff though, Like he don't just
be playing soccer. He like, you know how to do
Karate's Like when he be out there, you know how
to backflip and everything.

Speaker 7 (01:30:11):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 19 (01:30:12):
But now I'm be out there, you know what I'm saying,
showing love to the fans. Man, Okay, that's what I
love to do. Very good.

Speaker 2 (01:30:18):
You're you're kind of one of the faces of this
program right now. Yes, if you think of you know,
last year at this time we were talking about you know,
Dante Corleone and Joe Royer and Jake Goldey and Jack
dan A great players, terrific players. You're kind of in
that that role. Now with all those guys.

Speaker 19 (01:30:35):
Leaving, I don't know, man, you know that's first team,
all Big twelve and all American. I hope I'd be
half as good as them.

Speaker 7 (01:30:43):
Man. You guys, they they for show left the legacy here.

Speaker 19 (01:30:47):
So you know it's gonna be my goal to fill
those shoes and just to make sure the program's still
on the right track.

Speaker 2 (01:30:53):
You're a holdover from the past couple of years. What
is it like And I asked this of guys who stay,
what is it like walk? I mean so many new
teammates from other programs.

Speaker 19 (01:31:03):
Or really just a lifelong connection because because every you're
not gonna be as close to every teammate, but some
teammates you was gonna bond with. So for the rest
of your life, you're gonna be able to call on him.
You're gonna better call on you. And I think it's
a cool thing, you know, because y'all build a brotherhood
for a season essentially, and then it lasts a lifetime.
So you know, in a real world, you're not gonna

(01:31:24):
get that. So it's it's it's a blessing that for
real to be able to play football.

Speaker 7 (01:31:29):
He's blessed.

Speaker 2 (01:31:29):
Yeah you are, and you get you get a new
defensive coordinator and they what do you What do you
like about him? Uh?

Speaker 7 (01:31:35):
He just I like his personality. Man. People don't know
he got a good personality.

Speaker 19 (01:31:39):
Man, So I mess with coach Woodie and then I
like the scheme he brought for sure.

Speaker 7 (01:31:43):
Like you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 19 (01:31:44):
It plays to everybody's strengt Like I haven't heard like
not one complaint everybody getting moved around to the position
you want to play, or that the position they making
the most players, and so you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:31:56):
How does it play to yours? I get the past rush.

Speaker 19 (01:32:00):
You know right, it's it's essentially a four down for real.

Speaker 7 (01:32:06):
So you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 19 (01:32:07):
So I'm on the edge most of the time, or
I might go over the guard, or like ten percent
of the time, I might go out there a dog.
Whatever they need me to do. So whatever they need
me to do, you know, I'm gonna do it. You
know what I'm saying, I'm all for the team.

Speaker 2 (01:32:20):
Yeah, do you I mean, do you like playing on
the edge? I mean you're gonna preference?

Speaker 19 (01:32:24):
I mean, yes, sir, I prefer to be on the
edge at all times. But also I like I like
going in there three takes sometimes you know, when the
guards be slow. And you know what I'm saying, whoever
the matchup bill is put me over that.

Speaker 7 (01:32:36):

Speaker 2 (01:32:37):
You're good either way?

Speaker 7 (01:32:38):
Yeah, I'm good either way.

Speaker 2 (01:32:39):
What is what has the off season been like for you?

Speaker 19 (01:32:42):
I lost a little weight, I had got trumbled, you
know what I'm saying. So the off season has been
really consistency. If I had to say what the off
season be like, consistency I just been staying consistent with
my routines and my body weight, and that's gonna allow
me to perform at a higher level when it comes
on when we you're ready to play both Boston College,

(01:33:04):
whatever date that is, Yeah, that's gonna be able to.

Speaker 7 (01:33:06):
That's gonna help me prevail.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
Then, Yeah, lost ten pounds since the end of last season.
That's all Nico Palazetti.

Speaker 7 (01:33:12):
Right, Yes, sir, shout out to coach Nico.

Speaker 20 (01:33:14):
Man.

Speaker 7 (01:33:14):
Now, I could take my shirt off beside the pool, now, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:33:17):
I can't do that. Nobody. When I take my shirt off,
people they pack up their stuff quickly as possible and
get out of here. For folks who don't know, because
I know Nico, we have Nico on our pregame show
that we do on radio every year. I cannot imagine
there are many better than him and what he does
in all of college football. Describe the offseason.

Speaker 19 (01:33:35):
Workout program like obviously the best in the country, but
obviously like that's his workout, gonna be the hardest workout
you ever do in your life.

Speaker 7 (01:33:43):
Yeah, I truly believe that.

Speaker 2 (01:33:44):
Do you think I could get through one of them
right now? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:33:49):
You could say the warm up I got you for
the warm up.

Speaker 2 (01:33:52):
I think I get through the warm up after that,
Where do you think I would struggle?

Speaker 19 (01:33:56):
Like right after the warm up. I'm just gonna keep
it a butt with you, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:34:02):
Up do you see like freshmen that come in and
they go through it and they're like, you know what,
I'm big tough. I'm playing in the big twelve when
they go through his workout program and they're like this
maybe this isn't for me.

Speaker 7 (01:34:12):
Hey it was me. Yeah I came in.

Speaker 19 (01:34:14):
Oh yeah, you know what I'm saying, I'm a bit
big tough. But you know I ain't cop out. Like
I never like once quitted a cop out. I always
kept going like they don't tell her about you. So
you know, but everybody, you know, some people are going
you know what I'm saying, fold, But you know, everybody
get to a point. When you get to your breaking
points gonna tell whether you can go further. So with

(01:34:34):
what young guys went with younger guys having teammates, older teammates,
they just helped them keep going, you know, because we
all went through the same stuff. So we encourage them
every day.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
You you were on a team, last year, you're seven
and one, and then you know, things don't go the
right way, and so I've got to imagine there's for
those of you who are here in twenty twenty five,
there's there's some motivation there. What do you guys talk
about with each other when you talk about trying to
be better than you were and last season.

Speaker 19 (01:35:01):
Well, obviously we all got to play better as a team,
you know, and then it just we we want to
win a championship, so our standard is high. So seventy
five obviously that won't what we wanted to be at.
So we just kept going. We're trying to get to
the Cheddar. Like I said earlier, man, So the Cheddar
is the championship. Just take the Big twelve trophy. Imagine

(01:35:23):
it being some cheese. We like rats. Man, We're trying
to get to the chell.

Speaker 2 (01:35:26):
So do you think it would be cool if the
trophy was actually.

Speaker 7 (01:35:29):
Made out of che No? Absolutely not. You know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 16 (01:35:32):
No, I.

Speaker 2 (01:35:34):
Very good as you keep your mind on the Cheddar.
And because you got you got a little down time
here in the off season. What do you like to do?

Speaker 7 (01:35:42):
What I like to do?

Speaker 19 (01:35:44):
I went back to the crib like I was at
the crib like two weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (01:35:48):
Okay, is that back home?

Speaker 19 (01:35:50):
Yeah, that's back that's back of the apartments, right, so
you know I was back of the apartments, but I was.
Uh we me and my stepdad we went fishing. I
caught like seventy fishing one day. I know, you ain't
never done that.

Speaker 2 (01:36:01):
Seventy fish in one in one second.

Speaker 7 (01:36:04):
One said, we was out there for like eight hours.

Speaker 2 (01:36:06):
Were you on a boat somewhere?

Speaker 7 (01:36:07):
It was just on a boat. I was in the lake. Yeah,
you know how I get.

Speaker 19 (01:36:12):
But then, like you know, I was playing basketball some
of my old high school teammates. You know that's the
part of your right now, right, you know I was
up doing push upstay.

Speaker 7 (01:36:22):
Hey, I'm decent.

Speaker 2 (01:36:23):
Nobody says they're bad.

Speaker 7 (01:36:25):
Yeah I could.

Speaker 19 (01:36:26):
I could beat like a random person, you know what
I'm saying. But like, if you actually train and stuff,
I'm gonna let you have it. I'm gonna put on
my helm until you come out there and see me
out there.

Speaker 7 (01:36:33):
Yeah you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:36:34):
You know, I've never been fishing in my life. For real,
I've never been fishing.

Speaker 7 (01:36:38):
In my life. I'm disappointed well.

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
Trust me, the more you get to know me that
the disappointments will just keep coming. So you go, how
do you catch seventy fish? On one count?

Speaker 7 (01:36:47):
You might be funnier than me.

Speaker 2 (01:36:49):
I don't know about that seventy fish? And what do
you do with you throwing back? You know, we said,
just cheddar. That's the chet I've been talking about to Cheddar.
I gotta think with the current price of beef that
you could make top dollar on fish because people don't
want to pay as much for steak, so they'll buy fish.
What kind of fish were talking about?

Speaker 7 (01:37:09):
See? You lost me. What I don't know all that.

Speaker 19 (01:37:11):
All I know is went out there, we caught the fish,
We got to the Cheddar, and.

Speaker 7 (01:37:15):
We sold them. You know, they all asked all the questions.

Speaker 2 (01:37:19):
I was just I'm thinking, like selling fish that you've
caught could be lucrative. You can make a lot of money.

Speaker 7 (01:37:25):
What's that? What's lucrative?

Speaker 2 (01:37:26):
I'm well paid?

Speaker 19 (01:37:28):
Okay, I'm asking my professor that next year was you know,
I'm gonna telling them, get me to run down on
addiction and everything.

Speaker 7 (01:37:35):
You got the fish, none of that. I just catch them.

Speaker 19 (01:37:39):
Like I go out there and get sacks. They don't
tell me to go coach or do all the ashes stuff.
I just go out there. You know, tackle, okay, is
it fly fishing?

Speaker 2 (01:37:47):
Worm? Like what's your baby? Oh?

Speaker 7 (01:37:48):
Debait?

Speaker 19 (01:37:49):
We use we use some crickets, you know what I'm Sayingets. Yeah,
the giants that are jump in the you know what
I'm saying. So we use the crickets. We used about
a hundred crickets called like seventy fish cause you know
you gotta put two on on one hook.

Speaker 7 (01:38:02):
One ain't gonna do it. How long does it take
to catch seventy fish? About eight hours? Eight hours? And
that was a good day. So it's a bad day.

Speaker 2 (01:38:11):
That's a bad day.

Speaker 19 (01:38:11):
Like if it's a bad day, you're gonna be out
there for like three days, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (01:38:15):
But it took like eight hours.

Speaker 5 (01:38:16):
You know.

Speaker 19 (01:38:16):
We if you like to go fishing here in the Cincinnati,
it ain't no fish I hear for real, ill not
that I know of. Last time I won fishing, I
called a baby fish. I threw my pole in the water.

Speaker 2 (01:38:27):
Well, that strikes me as something you don't want to
how much is a fishing pole cost?

Speaker 7 (01:38:32):
I don't know, probably like a hundred something.

Speaker 19 (01:38:33):
Okay, I ain't a fishing man, I am, but you're
not a fishing I'm a fisherman.

Speaker 2 (01:38:40):
I threw my nine iron into a lake once and
didn't get it back, and that it was.

Speaker 19 (01:38:45):
So that's that's that's like adult club. Yeah, I ain't
never been golfing. I want to try golfing though this summer.

Speaker 2 (01:38:51):
I'll take you golfing. You take me fishing?

Speaker 19 (01:38:55):
Oh like, I can't take you down here though? Yeah,
what goes with that trip? You get your stepdad? We'll
go go down to Arkansas. Okay, yes, sir, we'll go
down to West Memphis. You're gonna take me golf and.

Speaker 2 (01:39:07):
I'll take you with. There's lots of golf courses.

Speaker 19 (01:39:09):
Here, so like with the golfer stuff, like you golf, Like,
so who win the game.

Speaker 2 (01:39:15):
And dad, whoever it's the lowest scorer, So whoever whoever
swings the club less than the other guy wins?

Speaker 7 (01:39:21):
Oh so I just got to keith wing.

Speaker 2 (01:39:23):
Well, yeah, whoever whoever the lowest score? So every you
get a stroke, every time you hit the ball. The
idea is to get the ball in the hole in
as few strokes as possible. Yes, sir, it's whoeverever's the
lowest scorer wins. Okay, and I never win, So the
chances are you never played, they'll still beat me.

Speaker 7 (01:39:38):
I don't know about it, all right, do all right.

Speaker 2 (01:39:40):
So we'll put it on the calendar. You got a
lot going on. We'll play golf, we'll go fishing, and
it's gonna be a great summer for both of us. Absolutely,
all right, first team, all Big twelve, and you're gonna
go get the cheddar this season. I can't win, Yes, sir,
will you? Will you make sure you joined me on
at least one pregame.

Speaker 7 (01:39:55):
Show this year.

Speaker 19 (01:39:57):
I don't know what the coach is gonna let me
on my own? No, man, we interview a player every week. Yes, hey,
y'all to interview me. Man, is that's crazy? I had
enough rink around him?

Speaker 2 (01:40:07):
Man, Well see, yeah, that's I just go. Hey, give
me the best h they you know, you.

Speaker 7 (01:40:13):
Know Steipe, you've been looking Pats, but that's my guy. Man.
He finally brought me up to the lot.

Speaker 2 (01:40:17):
You know, we'll bring him fishing too.

Speaker 7 (01:40:20):
Ah he might Yeah, Okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:40:22):
Very good, thanks so much. It is twenty seven away
from six o'clock. Johnny Hill, part of Jera calhounstaff here
at UC, is going to join us next on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 9 (01:40:34):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the UC Health
Traffics and fifteen thirty, twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:40:44):
Minutes away from six o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Moegger broadcasting from the University of Cincinnati on five to
one free day. Sitting down next to Johnny Hill, who
is part of Jered Calhoun's staff with the men's basketball
program here at UC, I feel I mean I feel
old most days. I feel really old when I'm sitting

(01:41:05):
next to assistant coaches who not only do I remember playing,
but it feels like you just got done playing it. Purdue.

Speaker 21 (01:41:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, man, I wish I could say
the same. My knees feel like I'm about forty five
years old. And so Coach Calhoun, he have us every
once in a while hopping these reads rells. So I
gotta I gotta stretch and make sure that I'm in
shape for that.

Speaker 2 (01:41:24):
So yeah, well, welcome to Cincinnati. Thank you, what made
you want to come here.

Speaker 21 (01:41:31):
You know what, just obviously our time at Utah State
with coach Calhoun again familiar with him. That's just somebody
for me, that and my profession I really look up to.
He's a guy that I think is very confident in himself.
And you can just kind of tell with you know,
having some success and bringing this entire staff with him,

(01:41:52):
he got some stuff that I definitely want to continue
to get better at and just really excited about it.
And then you know, when this job kind of became
a possibility, looking at the rich history of Cincinnati and
obviously playing Arizona in the Big Twelve, you see the competition,
uh that this that this league breeds year in the

(01:42:13):
year out. So it's just a very exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:42:15):
And you have a chance to see Arizona up close
tournament yep, up close in person.

Speaker 7 (01:42:21):
Yeah, yeah, I know it's gonna be fun.

Speaker 5 (01:42:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:42:24):
Hell, you correct me if I'm wrong. You had been
in Logan with coach Calhoun for a year, So what
what drew you to want to go work for him
in the first place?

Speaker 7 (01:42:32):
Yeah, so great question.

Speaker 2 (01:42:33):
I was.

Speaker 21 (01:42:34):
I was actually there before with Danny Sprinkle in twenty
twenty three, twenty four.

Speaker 7 (01:42:39):
We had a lot of success.

Speaker 21 (01:42:40):
We won the league, and then after that we kind
of went our separate way.

Speaker 7 (01:42:43):
So I did a year at the.

Speaker 21 (01:42:46):
University of Illinois, Chicago back home, and then opening came
up on coach Calhoun's staff. And during his interview process
with that job, and you talk state me and him
and got familiar with each other. Funny enough, I played,
Actually I did an FCA tour. I went to China
and Mongolia with his best player from Fairmont State.

Speaker 2 (01:43:07):
Oh wow.

Speaker 21 (01:43:08):
And so me and Coach Calhoun kind of had a connection.
He actually, Joe Mizzoula came to a training camp and
Coach Calhoun came to a training camp. And I remember
this kid, Thomas Wimbush. He was at a school that
none of us had kind of heard of. It was myself,
some teammates from Baylor, and just different schools from across
the country. By the time we left, every single one
of us trying to recruit his player to come to

(01:43:28):
our school.

Speaker 2 (01:43:29):
So what's interesting, And I'll say this to you. So
Jared Calhoun was here and who did you know, five
six minutes with me, And when he was done, he says, well,
who else do you have and I said, we have
Johnny Hill and he goes man. Everything Matt Painter says
about him is right now. So like you played for
Matt Painter and you joined that program the year after
we beat Purdue in the tournament. You weren't there for that,

(01:43:49):
so I can't taunt you too bad, But like what
did Matt Painter is a terrific coach obviously apparently speaks
very highly of you. Would you like about playing for him?

Speaker 21 (01:43:57):
Just a great human, you know, to start with, very
He's a hard guy not to like. You know, it's
funny me and Coach Calhoun is actually talking about him
this morning. He's just a guy when you get to
know him, just very real, very authentic, and just the
basketball savants. So he actually has a lot of qualities
that kind of remind the Calhoun kind of remind me
of him in certain ways, just his relationship with players.

Speaker 2 (01:44:20):
You'll get all these players on campus here in a
few weeks, and then when you do, you'll be.

Speaker 7 (01:44:24):
Better equipped to answer this.

Speaker 2 (01:44:25):
But I'll ask you, now, what do you think the
strengths of your team, which you're still putting together, is
going to.

Speaker 7 (01:44:31):
Be this coming season? Yeah, another good question.

Speaker 21 (01:44:33):
I think we were very intentional this time around in
a transfer portal, especially, I think we had a kind
of an advantage playing against Arizona, who was the champions
of this league, and seeing kind.

Speaker 7 (01:44:46):
Of some of the threats that they pose to us.

Speaker 21 (01:44:48):
And so the one thing that we were very conscious
about was getting positional size, and so I think that's
one thing on paper that doesn't really change. Guys don't
shrink in of course of a couple months. So I
think for us, we love our size, we love our
versatility at the wing position. Got a really good point
guard in Tyler Riley. Got another good point guard Elijah

(01:45:11):
Perryman that we brought over from Utah State with us.
So I'm just really excited about all the pieces and
how they're gonna fit together.

Speaker 2 (01:45:17):
What have you become? What have you gotten to know
about the school, the city? And it's still just been
a few weeks. What have you gotten to know about
your your new home?

Speaker 21 (01:45:26):
Yeah, just like I said before, the history of it
and the excitement around the program, Like is you go
anywhere on campus with coach Calhoun and their students stopping
him to get pictures, you can tell that this school
is very excited about the direction that we're going in
and and outside of that, I haven't had too much time.
I got a wife and a daughter. We haven't spent

(01:45:47):
too much time. But I did take her to a
nice food spot, and so I really enjoyed a food.

Speaker 7 (01:45:54):
A lot of those, a lot of those.

Speaker 5 (01:45:56):
Man.

Speaker 7 (01:45:57):
So it's been it's been great for us so far.

Speaker 2 (01:45:59):
Well, welcome, best of luck. I told you off air
you'll talk to no bigger Bearcat fan than me. You know,
when you guys get this back on track, it's gonna
be awesome.

Speaker 7 (01:46:10):
I can't wait. Yep, We're going to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:46:11):
Coach, thanks so much.

Speaker 7 (01:46:12):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:46:12):
Thanks Johnny Hill part of Jared Calhoun's staff. Here at
the University of Cincinnati the men's basketball program. It's fourteen
away from six o'clock at UC for five to one
three day on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 9 (01:46:25):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC clock.

Speaker 2 (01:46:32):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Molegger. We are broadcasting
from UC today for five to one three day. This
has been awesome. Tomorrow will also be awesome because we're
broadcasting from Mcinteewah Country Club for the twenty twenty six
Kroger Queen City Championship, which is going to start tomorrow.
Awesome to have the LPGA Tour back in Cincinnati and

(01:46:53):
handling play by play duties this weekend from the Golf Channel.
Joined us last year, he's joining us today. Boone is
with us. Grant, Welcome back to Cincinnati. Good afternoon. How
are you mo.

Speaker 20 (01:47:05):
It's great to be back. I've already had a cup
of Greaters ice cream and so the week has begun.

Speaker 2 (01:47:14):
All right, we'll get some Skyline chili and yan you'll
be you'll be all set. Give give us an idea
of one of the two or one or two of
the major storylines heading into this weekend.

Speaker 20 (01:47:24):
Big thing is, you've got the top players in the
world here. You've got Nellie corda world number one, the
uh daughter of tennis stars. Born to be an athlete,
you know, it seemed like. And she's twenty seven years old,
grew up in Bradenton, Florida, and you know, ten years

(01:47:47):
on tour now she's won eighteen times, three times and
six starts this year she's here. Gino Titikun, the brilliant
prodigy from from Thailand, who's just twenty three. She was
number one until Nelly knocked her from that perch.

Speaker 22 (01:48:04):
A couple of weeks ago. Gino just won last.

Speaker 20 (01:48:07):
Week on another course designed by Donald Ross one hundred
years ago.

Speaker 22 (01:48:12):
Just like Donald Ross did it.

Speaker 20 (01:48:15):
Mcatila and then Lydia Co is gonna play with him.
The three of them were going to play together, is
you know, It's like basically an all star team is
being assembled tomorrow for the you know, and Thursday afternoon
and then Friday morning, those three playing together. You've got
Charlie Hull, the defending champ, who's the Instagram star as

(01:48:38):
well as one of the best players in the world.
She's here to defend her title. And then you've got
some local flavor as well, some some Ohioan's here and.

Speaker 22 (01:48:47):
Then from a neighboring Kentucky.

Speaker 20 (01:48:51):
So it's a brand new venue. MCTELA, you know is
a is an historic course, but first time hosting this event.

Speaker 22 (01:48:58):
So I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 13 (01:49:00):
Great to be out there today.

Speaker 2 (01:49:01):
Yeah, no, I was. I was going to ask you
that next mcatewah venue change. It's obviously a course that
a lot of folks around here are very familiar with.

Speaker 20 (01:49:09):
What are your impressions of it spectacular and it's I
hope that, and I trust our folks who are the
best in the business to bring you and to bring
viewers unlike you and others around here who know about.

Speaker 13 (01:49:27):
The elevation changes there.

Speaker 20 (01:49:30):
It's it's it's amazing to see so many of the
holes like a roller coaster up and down, and our
drone coverage will will show some of that, but it's
it's a spectacular property. We've done about four years ago
three I guess it reopened three years ago, and it's

(01:49:53):
it's beautiful to see. Today was really windy. I mean
we're talking gusts of twenty five and higher. Not supposed
to be as blust reed tomorrow. In fact, tomorrow it
would be a little cooler, I think. But you're not
gonna see as much win I think you'll see. I mean,
this is a very strong feel.

Speaker 7 (01:50:16):
I'll put it this way.

Speaker 20 (01:50:17):
This is this is close to a major championship caliber
of field this week, and you don't get that every week.
It means Nelly didn't play last week, you know, and
so you just you don't get that every single week.
I think it's a testament to the hospitality they get here.

Speaker 4 (01:50:33):
I think they.

Speaker 20 (01:50:33):
I think the golf course is intriguing them, and I
think it's you know, where it fits on the calendar.
You've got a major championship coming up in three weeks
in La.

Speaker 2 (01:50:43):
Yeah, I think that was my first takeaway when they
move the venue, as they also moved the date, and
I think moving it to when they have is absolutely perfect.

Speaker 7 (01:50:53):
I agree.

Speaker 20 (01:50:54):
We are right in the middle of Obviously, you've got
a min's major championship this week, the PGA Championship, and yeah,
we just had a major last month in Houston and
Nellie Kora won that one in dominating fashion. And you've
got Rivi Eera Country Club in LA hosting the US
Women's Open in three weeks, and I think, you know,
next week is a week off for the LPGA, and

(01:51:16):
then there.

Speaker 22 (01:51:16):
Is a three day tournament up in Atlantic City.

Speaker 13 (01:51:19):
New Jersey.

Speaker 20 (01:51:20):
Most of the best players are taking that week off,
and so everybody wants to come here, like this is
the primost spot on the LPGA calendar, because everybody wants
to get a little tune up for Rivi Eera Country
Club in LA for the US Open, And you know.

Speaker 22 (01:51:39):
They think, hey, let's come here. Then I'll have a
couple of.

Speaker 20 (01:51:41):
Weeks off and be rested and ready.

Speaker 2 (01:51:44):
Can't wait to be there. To Mark rant I appreciate
the time, enjoy your time in Cincinnati, and hopefully I
get a chance to say hello in person. Thanks so much,
Please do most definitely Bran Boone Golf Channel Tomorrow, Friday,
Saturday and Sunday Kroger Queen City Chamchampionship presented by PMNG McAtee.
While we're broadcasting from there tomorrow between three and six.

(01:52:07):
I want to thank the folks here at u See
for being so helpful and accommodating. Thanks to Mike Mills
for producing on site, and thanks to Tarren Bland, who
I tried not to drive too crazy today with a
guest every single segment. We're back tomorrow at three oh five.
Don't forget tonight it's FC Cincinnati Soccer. Maybe tonight the
guys in the Orange and Blue will realize they're allowed
to go near Messi, unlike the playoff game last year

(01:52:29):
when they just sat there and watched him. Anyway, that
game is tonight at seven thirty at the Soccer venue
in the West End. Pregame at seven o'clock. We're back
tomorrow at three oh five. Have an awesome night. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station

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5/13/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

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