March 20, 2025 • 20 mins
The Hall of Fame Voice of the Bearcats and Bengals joined us to talk about UC' season, what's next for Bearcats basketball, and the NCAA Tournament.
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Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Twenty three away from twelve o'clock.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This is the SBN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
We are broadcasting this morning from the Holy Grant getting
set for Round one of the NCAA Tournaments.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It pains me that he is here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Because I wish he was calling a game tonight or
getting ready to call one tomorrow. But it's still awesome
to have the Hall of Fame voice of the Bearcats
and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Dan Hord is here.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
What is up, mom? It's great to be here.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I'm sure I am here to give you my Crown
Final Four. Yes, that's my purpose for being here today, exactly.
I've got Boise State, Nebraska, Cincinnati, and Villanova in the
Crown Final Four coming up two weeks from Saturday.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Oh right, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You've made a lot of iconic calls.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
This will be number one.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
This might be at the top of the list.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
All right, I'm excited. We get you to engineer in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Okay, I would love to.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I don't know if I could do round one, but
if you keep it going, I want to go because
my mom lives out there. You gotta go, so maybe you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Can pull some strings.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
All right, I'll work it. I work at Vegas. Engineers
are charging too much.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
We need mo you know, I work cheap.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I listened to the West Miller Show the other night.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, what did you What did you take away from
talking to him about the composition of the team in Vegas?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
That most of the players are still going to be
on the roster. And that was the big question, right,
I mean, will they have seven scholarship guys to even
be able to go? Clearly they will, and Wes made
it sound like they're gonna have just about everybody. So
will they lose a guy or two when the portal
opens on Monday?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Probably?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
But are they going to have a shell of the
team so that guys that barely play are suddenly getting
thirty five minutes?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
It didn't sound like it to me.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
This question is being asked around the country involving many
of the other fifteen teams. Have you seen anything to
suggest that any one of these other squads will have
a hard time putting a team on the floor.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
No, And unfortunately, I think if you look at the
teams that made the bracket, that might be why. Because
five of the sixteen teams that are in the Crown
finished in the bottom six of the Big Twelve. You've
got four teams from the Big East, and a couple
of them.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Weren't very good. So clearly there were some.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Teams that the Crown wanted to have in this sixteen
team field that would not be able to feel the
semblance of the real team. They backed out, and that's
how some of these other teams got in.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Cincinnati beats Dayton the Saturday before Christmas to round out
the non conference schedule. If you would have told me
that night that you See would be playing in the Crown,
I would have made that bet.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I would have lostely.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Why did this not work out this year?
Speaker 4 (02:47):
You know what I've come to the following theory and
or realization.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
You tell me if this makes sense.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
So when Cincinnati beat Ohio State in the preseason exhibition,
We're like, all right, they're going to the final. You see,
look great, And they were really good in the non conference,
sixteenth in the country. At the end of the non
conference portion of the schedule, it beat Xavier, they beat Dayton. Obviously,
Xavier turned out to be a really good team going
(03:14):
into this season. One of the reasons why we thought
Cincinnati was going to be really good was continuity. They
were able to retain the four guys they wanted to
keep the most. My theory now, after watching this entire
season play out, is that continuity is good in November
and December, and talent matters more in January, February, and March.
(03:38):
So if you keep guys together, chances are you're going
to hit the ground running. But at the end of
the day, the best players win. So that helps explain
why Cincinnati destroyed Ohio State in the preseason.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
They had guys back Ohio State didn't.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
It helps explain why they were ten to one in
November and December.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
They had guys that had played together.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
But these other teams that went out and got really
good players. As those players gelled, got used to the
coaching staff, learn the system, et cetera, then those teams
ascend and the teams that are basically bringing most of
the same guys back from teams that were good but
not great don't get that much better. So we looked
at Cincinnati last year. A team that was good but
(04:23):
not great went to the nit won a couple of games,
and we thought, well, they've got most of the same
guys back, they're going to get better, therefore the team
will get a lot better.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Well, I don't think that that's how it works anymore, yea.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
I think you got to just say, you know, yeah,
we like this guy, but if we can get somebody
that's a lot better, let's go get it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I remember leaving Tera Hote last year and saying to
you and Terry, if Dan Skillings is back, if Dada
Thomas is back, if Chisel James is.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Back, and and ease those were the four.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Let's go and Seamos is going to come back, Let's go. Yeah, Like,
there was such optimism, and we could talk about the
players they brought in, but based on that core unit,
Like I spent all summer thinking that the NCAA tournament
was all but an inevitability.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Right, and I did too.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
But then you look at that core and look at
the guys they brought in. Throw out Connor Hickman because
he was hurt. Didn't play great before he got hurt,
but he would have contributed if he was healthy all year.
Dylan Mitchell had his moments, but he's not a good
offensive player. He didn't get much offense when hiss E's
and Dylan were on the floor at.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
The same time.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
So I think Dylan Mitchell can be a very valuable piece,
but he's a valuable piece if you've got another big
guy that can score, and if he's on the floor
with a big guy who can't, then you are really
compromised offensively. So you know, I think Wes has learned
all these lessons, and when he build his roster for
next year, I think it's safe to assume it's not
(05:54):
going to feature a lot of lineups that have two
big guys that can't score.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
How much could McKinley have helped him.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
He would have definitely helped in terms of rebounding, but
he's not a guy at least at this stage of
his career that was going to catch it on the
block and get you a bunch of buckets. He would
have been able to get more than a zas and
more in that type of game than Dylan Mitchell, but
I still don't think he's that guy yet. He would
have been one of their best rebounders and that would
have helped, and a good defender as well, but at
(06:23):
this stage, I don't think he would have been a
great low po score.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Fans get frustrated and want to see the coach or
the GM, which we'll talk about clean house. That's not
necessarily gonna happen. But based on what the coach and
the new GM want, how much turnover do you expect
a lot, A lot, a lot based on what they want,
not necessarily players foulting on the run.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Yeah, I mean my suspicion is guys that leave it
may not be portrayed as being mutual, sure, but I
get the sense that it probably will be.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
So.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I mean, there may be somebody that they would really
like to keep that leaves, but I think most of
the guys that leave, assuming several do, will be guys
that Wes is willing to say, you know, good luck
somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
How how does the role of GM work in college basketball?
Speaker 4 (07:15):
You know, I think it's similar to what we've gotten
used to seeing with the football program, where they've got
a GM and assistant GM and a director of player personnel.
It sounds like an NFL front office. You can't have
a coaching staff spend all of their time scouting guys
year round for the moment they enter the portal. You
need somebody else doing that, somebody that's ready at a
(07:37):
moment's notice. This guy entered, we want this guy as
opposed to ooh, this guy entered. Let's learn all we
can about this guy. I think you need to know
that before the portal opens. That to me, is the
biggest thing that GM can do.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I you know, it's commonplace in college football. I've
got to think most high major programs having in college football.
It's a little bit less widespread in college hoops. But
that's gonna happen here.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It's already started happening.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
There are several teams in the tournament right now that
when I was watching their conference championship games, they would
show the GM in the stands it with Duke Duke. Yes,
it has a woman serving in that role. So I
think many of the best teams already have that, and
I'm guessing by this time next year, all of the
best teams will have that.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
All right, I've tried to pin all of our guests
down on the sort of like the bracket player, they
are right. So like with Rick Brooring, no gimmicks, he's
just picking who he thinks is gonna win. Skinny has
this page of hieroglyphics that I didn't understand. I think
he probably submits like twelve at a time. You I'm
not sure. I've known you a long time, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah. Yeah, I'm a try to win racket guy.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Only one. I will only do one. Yeah, It's like
my pride is on the line. I never win, but
I go into it trying to be the smartest guy
in the room, thinking that I know more than everybody else.
And then I finish. You know, three from the bottom,
and you learn how much I do know.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
But see, if you win, people are gonna think it's
unfair because of your job.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Well good, because I never do.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
They never feel that way, but someday I will, and
I look forward to them feeling that way.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
All right, let me ask about Houston.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I'm rooting for Houston, and you've heard this refrain from
Bearcat fans. That's what we used to be, correct, right.
I love watching them play. There's toughness, they play hard.
They have from an overall talent perspective, over the year's
gotten better and better. Offensively, I hesitate because they don't
get to the free throw on nearly enough.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
That's nitpicky. Should I be nitpicking Houston?
Speaker 4 (09:41):
I don't think they get to the final four. I
like Houston, and I've gone from hating Kelvin Samson to
really respecting him, I mean off.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
The charts respect for what he's done.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
There no depth, They've got three point shooting, which they
haven't had in the past. I don't love their bracket.
I don't think they get to the final four. It's
kind of a interesting because another thing that happens to me,
or it has happened to me in the past when
trying to pick these things, is that I have a
bias for the teams I've seen in person.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
So back when you see was still in the Big.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
East, I would always, you know, kind of tend to
overrate the other Big East teams and then get burned.
Done the same thing since, you know, whatever league they've
been at the time, the American, the Big Twelve. Now
it's kind of the opposite. This year, I don't really
like the rest of the Big Twelve. I think Kansas
is bad, Houston is good, but I don't think they're
(10:33):
one of the best four teams in the country, even
though they're number one.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Arizona.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
I think Arizona is the most talented team in the
Big Twelve. Why they're so wildly inconsistent. I don't know
they've got great wins. I didn't see them in person
because you did that game. I was doing the Bengals.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I forgot about that.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
But you know I've obviously watched them a million times
on TV. I love their talent. I think Love shoots
them out of end of game situations with his horrible
shot selection that will probably happen at some point in
the NCAA tournament. And as the four seed in that region,
I don't think they're better than the three above them.
(11:10):
Sometimes you look at the four seed and you're like,
that's the best team in this bracket. I don't think
that's true of Arizona, but I do like their talent.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I think the team that I was most impressed by
seeing up close with Texas Tech.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Texas Tech is really good. Final four good No, No,
really good.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Don't love Iowa State, especially with Gilbert being out BYU
is a total wild card.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
They're such a great shooting team.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
You saw them at their best and arguably.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
I saw them beat UC by twenty eight and lose
to UC by eighteen. It's like two different teams, and
so much of it is predicated on their three point shooting.
When they're hot, they will beat anybodys.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Guy.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
I'm a big jaegor Devin guy who can give you
a triple double with the third category being turnovers.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Right, all right, So do you have any upsets?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
You know, I brought my bracket.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
So what qualifies like a double digit seed winning in
round one? Really like Colorado State over Memphis. But they're favored, right, favorites? Yeah, yeah,
I really do. I have them as a double digit
seed winning.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Like Vandy. Vandy's at ten. I like Vandy. Uh.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
I guess those are the only two double dig I've
got Arkansas winning because I hate Kansas Kansas, and Kansas
is terrible. Kansas didn't score sixty against.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Uc Yeah, fifty four.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Now you see, only scored forty forty. Pit'll eight three
to get to forty. But I think they lose to Arkansas.
So those would be the double digit seeds that I
have winning.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Fanny, Kansas was better last year, and nobody like Kansas
last year. Cincinnati whacked him in the Big twelve tournament
and they ended up I thought, at least being worse
this season.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
As the number one team in the Entry in the
preseason poll, number one in the country. Now there's the
danger of thinking that, you know, you can build a
great team strictly through the portal, because they had the
best portal class according to anybody. And aj Store turned
out to be a bust. I mean, of the guys
that they brought in, all of them got a ton
of money. Zeke Mayo was the only guy that really
(13:20):
played as well as they would hope. So there are
dangers and following the portal rankings and thinking suddenly you've
got the best team in a land.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, you know, it's all got to come together and God,
And I was thinking about this this morning. I called
Cincinnati versus Georgia Tech because you had a football govenment
and I Georgia Tech was not very good, but I
they played together offensively, they were like anything I had
seen in years from UC and I'd like flew back
(13:49):
from Atlanta thinking, Holy hell, these.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Guys are going to be really, really good.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
And for me, the moment where I started to feel sober,
I guess it'd be the right word was the first Kansas.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
State game, opening Big Twelve Conference game.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Because they hadn't been good offensively against Xavier, but they won.
They hadn't been good at offensively against Dayton's.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Second half, but they won horrible yes.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
And then the Kansas State game came and went where
I thought like, all right, a little bit of a
reboot some time away, start Big Twelve play, and I
just remember thinking like this looks and feels broken. I
had a bad feeling the first of twenty Big twelve.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Games, partly because we didn't think Kansas State was any good.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
And then they turned out to be pretty good.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
I mean they had a stretch of like three weeks
where they were as good as anybody in the country.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Came and went pretty quickly.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
My day that I felt that way was really the
Kansas game, because those are the games that good teams win.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
You beat really good teams on your home court.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Cincinnati has not been able to get to that point
in several years. I think that really is the next step.
If they take care of business at home against really
good teams, including some teams that are probably better than
they are, that to me is an NCAA tournament team.
That's what Xavier has consistently done. They beat good teams
(15:09):
at home. You've got to do that to be an
NCAA tournament team.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, it's it's it's a fair comparison.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I think for a lot of us that the West
Virginia game was where you walked out of there or
turned it off and thought, what is that? There haven't
been many Bearcat games over the last however, many decades
where I've like I've driven home going what what was that?
Speaker 4 (15:33):
And no doubt West said after that game, I am
disgusted with my team, But.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
There were multiple occasions that was the thing that was
that was the thing that wasn't It wasn't a one off.
It wasn't the norm, but it wasn't a one off either,
and that's deeply.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Frustrated, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
I mean to lose twice to that team, say do
they deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. Although I
was not all that bothered by the fact they didn't
get in because they've got the six squad one wins,
but three of them came when they still had their
best player. They weren't very good at the end of
the year, and they lost to Colorado in the conference tournament.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I watched the Colorado game where they were up eight
eight minutes to go, like, it's not an insurmountable lead,
but you win that game if you're an NCAA tournament
team against the Colorado team that is now in the Crown.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yes, Crown call my Sun is very exciting.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yes, yes, well he'd be in Vegas.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Sam is coming home tomorrow for his spring break, so
looking forward to seeing him, but he is not planning
to attend the Crown of all.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
However, he is.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Taking credit for the fact that West Virginia lost its
coach to Indiana. Because Colorado beat West Virginia, Sam feels
that accelerated the process. Now we've since learned that apparently
they were negotiating for months and that Indiana is going
to take Darreen degrees anyway.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
But the Light Sun likes to take credit for this.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
So the highlight of the Colorado season was beating a
coach in the game that he shouldn't have lost.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
The coach then gets plucked by Indiana.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Okay. Interesting.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
In his freshman year, a football player at his team
won the Heisman, So that was good.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Give me one minute here because the show's almost over.
You've been to like a billion press conferences in your life. Yes,
Jamar and t the best one you've ever been to.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Oh really good, really really good.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Junior when the Reds brought him home.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
That's probably number one, not necessarily because of what was said,
unlike the Jamar and t, which was just tremendous content
from both guys. But I swear to God that junior
press conference was that was exciting, as exciting as any
sporting event I think I've ever attended. I mean, we
were the epicenter of the sports world that night, and
(17:44):
anything and everything seemed possible. Unfortunately, injuries and some bad
personnel moves robbed us of what might have been.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
But when that night was tremendous. When he put the
jersey on and put the hattle and said I'm home,
like I.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Remember I'm home, I get chills it.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
And you know, Jim Bowden may be oversold it a
little bit, but you know tonight the Michael Jordan, Yeah, baseball,
but nobody don't.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Agree with because it was true. True, Yes, it was true.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
And if Junior didn't have horrible injury luck and spend
ten years playing on rock hard Astro turf in Seattle,
all the things that we dreamed of happening might have happened.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
You were not the radio voice of the Bearcats at
the time. And so you didn't call my favorite all
time Bearcat victory, which came against the Paul, the Kenyan
Martin game in two thousand.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
But you'll get an opportunity to.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Call if you see the Paul game in Vegas that
I think will be of equal stature by the time
it's over.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Well, I didn't do the game you're talking about, but
I did do the game Kenyan sophomore year, he had
his first of his two triple doubles. Yeah, and it
was with twenty three points, twenty two boards, and ten
block shots, which is probably the best individual performance I've ever.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Seen in any sport. First sophomore year, twenty three, twenty
two and ten. Yeah, incredible.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And that was before he was Martin.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
At that point, he had no offensive game gun, so
that was the first glimpse of what he was going
to become.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
All right, speaking of no offensive game, we gotta make
way for Austin Elmore.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Thank you for doing this, my pleasure, Thanks for having
me on.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
We are the absolute best. Dan Horde Voice of the Bearcats,
Voice of the Bengals. We are done. We want to
thank our friends at Coors Light Hot Bracket cold refreshment,
Cors Lights. Stay refreshed with Coors Light round after a round.
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(19:38):
the Offspring Riverbend dot org. Sincy three sixty is next.
Thank you for listening. Enjoy the madness. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station Wise Cincinnati.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Make us the number one pre set on your car
radio and on the free knew it Improved, iHeartRadio app
Free never sounded so good.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
ESPN fifteen thirty. Financial Group is not a law firm.
Are you a victim of the time,
Twenty three away from twelve o'clock.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This is the SBN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
We are broadcasting this morning from the Holy Grant getting
set for Round one of the NCAA Tournaments.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It pains me that he is here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Because I wish he was calling a game tonight or
getting ready to call one tomorrow. But it's still awesome
to have the Hall of Fame voice of the Bearcats
and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Dan Hord is here.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
What is up, mom? It's great to be here.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I'm sure I am here to give you my Crown
Final Four. Yes, that's my purpose for being here today, exactly.
I've got Boise State, Nebraska, Cincinnati, and Villanova in the
Crown Final Four coming up two weeks from Saturday.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Oh right, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You've made a lot of iconic calls.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
This will be number one.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
This might be at the top of the list.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
All right, I'm excited. We get you to engineer in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Okay, I would love to.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I don't know if I could do round one, but
if you keep it going, I want to go because
my mom lives out there. You gotta go, so maybe you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Can pull some strings.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
All right, I'll work it. I work at Vegas. Engineers
are charging too much.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
We need mo you know, I work cheap.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I listened to the West Miller Show the other night.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, what did you What did you take away from
talking to him about the composition of the team in Vegas?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
That most of the players are still going to be
on the roster. And that was the big question, right,
I mean, will they have seven scholarship guys to even
be able to go? Clearly they will, and Wes made
it sound like they're gonna have just about everybody. So
will they lose a guy or two when the portal
opens on Monday?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Probably?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
But are they going to have a shell of the
team so that guys that barely play are suddenly getting
thirty five minutes?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
It didn't sound like it to me.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
This question is being asked around the country involving many
of the other fifteen teams. Have you seen anything to
suggest that any one of these other squads will have
a hard time putting a team on the floor.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
No, And unfortunately, I think if you look at the
teams that made the bracket, that might be why. Because
five of the sixteen teams that are in the Crown
finished in the bottom six of the Big Twelve. You've
got four teams from the Big East, and a couple
of them.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Weren't very good. So clearly there were some.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Teams that the Crown wanted to have in this sixteen
team field that would not be able to feel the
semblance of the real team. They backed out, and that's
how some of these other teams got in.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Cincinnati beats Dayton the Saturday before Christmas to round out
the non conference schedule. If you would have told me
that night that you See would be playing in the Crown,
I would have made that bet.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I would have lostely.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Why did this not work out this year?
Speaker 4 (02:47):
You know what I've come to the following theory and
or realization.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
You tell me if this makes sense.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
So when Cincinnati beat Ohio State in the preseason exhibition,
We're like, all right, they're going to the final. You see,
look great, And they were really good in the non conference,
sixteenth in the country. At the end of the non
conference portion of the schedule, it beat Xavier, they beat Dayton. Obviously,
Xavier turned out to be a really good team going
(03:14):
into this season. One of the reasons why we thought
Cincinnati was going to be really good was continuity. They
were able to retain the four guys they wanted to
keep the most. My theory now, after watching this entire
season play out, is that continuity is good in November
and December, and talent matters more in January, February, and March.
(03:38):
So if you keep guys together, chances are you're going
to hit the ground running. But at the end of
the day, the best players win. So that helps explain
why Cincinnati destroyed Ohio State in the preseason.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
They had guys back Ohio State didn't.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
It helps explain why they were ten to one in
November and December.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
They had guys that had played together.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
But these other teams that went out and got really
good players. As those players gelled, got used to the
coaching staff, learn the system, et cetera, then those teams
ascend and the teams that are basically bringing most of
the same guys back from teams that were good but
not great don't get that much better. So we looked
at Cincinnati last year. A team that was good but
(04:23):
not great went to the nit won a couple of games,
and we thought, well, they've got most of the same
guys back, they're going to get better, therefore the team
will get a lot better.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Well, I don't think that that's how it works anymore, yea.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
I think you got to just say, you know, yeah,
we like this guy, but if we can get somebody
that's a lot better, let's go get it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I remember leaving Tera Hote last year and saying to
you and Terry, if Dan Skillings is back, if Dada
Thomas is back, if Chisel James is.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Back, and and ease those were the four.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Let's go and Seamos is going to come back, Let's go. Yeah, Like,
there was such optimism, and we could talk about the
players they brought in, but based on that core unit,
Like I spent all summer thinking that the NCAA tournament
was all but an inevitability.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Right, and I did too.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
But then you look at that core and look at
the guys they brought in. Throw out Connor Hickman because
he was hurt. Didn't play great before he got hurt,
but he would have contributed if he was healthy all year.
Dylan Mitchell had his moments, but he's not a good
offensive player. He didn't get much offense when hiss E's
and Dylan were on the floor at.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
The same time.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
So I think Dylan Mitchell can be a very valuable piece,
but he's a valuable piece if you've got another big
guy that can score, and if he's on the floor
with a big guy who can't, then you are really
compromised offensively. So you know, I think Wes has learned
all these lessons, and when he build his roster for
next year, I think it's safe to assume it's not
(05:54):
going to feature a lot of lineups that have two
big guys that can't score.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
How much could McKinley have helped him.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
He would have definitely helped in terms of rebounding, but
he's not a guy at least at this stage of
his career that was going to catch it on the
block and get you a bunch of buckets. He would
have been able to get more than a zas and
more in that type of game than Dylan Mitchell, but
I still don't think he's that guy yet. He would
have been one of their best rebounders and that would
have helped, and a good defender as well, but at
(06:23):
this stage, I don't think he would have been a
great low po score.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Fans get frustrated and want to see the coach or
the GM, which we'll talk about clean house. That's not
necessarily gonna happen. But based on what the coach and
the new GM want, how much turnover do you expect
a lot, A lot, a lot based on what they want,
not necessarily players foulting on the run.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Yeah, I mean my suspicion is guys that leave it
may not be portrayed as being mutual, sure, but I
get the sense that it probably will be.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
So.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I mean, there may be somebody that they would really
like to keep that leaves, but I think most of
the guys that leave, assuming several do, will be guys
that Wes is willing to say, you know, good luck
somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
How how does the role of GM work in college basketball?
Speaker 4 (07:15):
You know, I think it's similar to what we've gotten
used to seeing with the football program, where they've got
a GM and assistant GM and a director of player personnel.
It sounds like an NFL front office. You can't have
a coaching staff spend all of their time scouting guys
year round for the moment they enter the portal. You
need somebody else doing that, somebody that's ready at a
(07:37):
moment's notice. This guy entered, we want this guy as
opposed to ooh, this guy entered. Let's learn all we
can about this guy. I think you need to know
that before the portal opens. That to me, is the
biggest thing that GM can do.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I you know, it's commonplace in college football. I've
got to think most high major programs having in college football.
It's a little bit less widespread in college hoops. But
that's gonna happen here.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It's already started happening.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
There are several teams in the tournament right now that
when I was watching their conference championship games, they would
show the GM in the stands it with Duke Duke. Yes,
it has a woman serving in that role. So I
think many of the best teams already have that, and
I'm guessing by this time next year, all of the
best teams will have that.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
All right, I've tried to pin all of our guests
down on the sort of like the bracket player, they
are right. So like with Rick Brooring, no gimmicks, he's
just picking who he thinks is gonna win. Skinny has
this page of hieroglyphics that I didn't understand. I think
he probably submits like twelve at a time. You I'm
not sure. I've known you a long time, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah. Yeah, I'm a try to win racket guy.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Only one. I will only do one. Yeah, It's like
my pride is on the line. I never win, but
I go into it trying to be the smartest guy
in the room, thinking that I know more than everybody else.
And then I finish. You know, three from the bottom,
and you learn how much I do know.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
But see, if you win, people are gonna think it's
unfair because of your job.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Well good, because I never do.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
They never feel that way, but someday I will, and
I look forward to them feeling that way.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
All right, let me ask about Houston.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I'm rooting for Houston, and you've heard this refrain from
Bearcat fans. That's what we used to be, correct, right.
I love watching them play. There's toughness, they play hard.
They have from an overall talent perspective, over the year's
gotten better and better. Offensively, I hesitate because they don't
get to the free throw on nearly enough.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
That's nitpicky. Should I be nitpicking Houston?
Speaker 4 (09:41):
I don't think they get to the final four. I
like Houston, and I've gone from hating Kelvin Samson to
really respecting him, I mean off.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
The charts respect for what he's done.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
There no depth, They've got three point shooting, which they
haven't had in the past. I don't love their bracket.
I don't think they get to the final four. It's
kind of a interesting because another thing that happens to me,
or it has happened to me in the past when
trying to pick these things, is that I have a
bias for the teams I've seen in person.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
So back when you see was still in the Big.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
East, I would always, you know, kind of tend to
overrate the other Big East teams and then get burned.
Done the same thing since, you know, whatever league they've
been at the time, the American, the Big Twelve. Now
it's kind of the opposite. This year, I don't really
like the rest of the Big Twelve. I think Kansas
is bad, Houston is good, but I don't think they're
(10:33):
one of the best four teams in the country, even
though they're number one.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Arizona.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
I think Arizona is the most talented team in the
Big Twelve. Why they're so wildly inconsistent. I don't know
they've got great wins. I didn't see them in person
because you did that game. I was doing the Bengals.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I forgot about that.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
But you know I've obviously watched them a million times
on TV. I love their talent. I think Love shoots
them out of end of game situations with his horrible
shot selection that will probably happen at some point in
the NCAA tournament. And as the four seed in that region,
I don't think they're better than the three above them.
(11:10):
Sometimes you look at the four seed and you're like,
that's the best team in this bracket. I don't think
that's true of Arizona, but I do like their talent.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I think the team that I was most impressed by
seeing up close with Texas Tech.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Texas Tech is really good. Final four good No, No,
really good.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Don't love Iowa State, especially with Gilbert being out BYU
is a total wild card.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
They're such a great shooting team.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
You saw them at their best and arguably.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
I saw them beat UC by twenty eight and lose
to UC by eighteen. It's like two different teams, and
so much of it is predicated on their three point shooting.
When they're hot, they will beat anybodys.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Guy.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
I'm a big jaegor Devin guy who can give you
a triple double with the third category being turnovers.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Right, all right, So do you have any upsets?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
You know, I brought my bracket.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
So what qualifies like a double digit seed winning in
round one? Really like Colorado State over Memphis. But they're favored, right, favorites? Yeah, yeah,
I really do. I have them as a double digit
seed winning.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Like Vandy. Vandy's at ten. I like Vandy. Uh.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
I guess those are the only two double dig I've
got Arkansas winning because I hate Kansas Kansas, and Kansas
is terrible. Kansas didn't score sixty against.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Uc Yeah, fifty four.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Now you see, only scored forty forty. Pit'll eight three
to get to forty. But I think they lose to Arkansas.
So those would be the double digit seeds that I
have winning.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Fanny, Kansas was better last year, and nobody like Kansas
last year. Cincinnati whacked him in the Big twelve tournament
and they ended up I thought, at least being worse
this season.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
As the number one team in the Entry in the
preseason poll, number one in the country. Now there's the
danger of thinking that, you know, you can build a
great team strictly through the portal, because they had the
best portal class according to anybody. And aj Store turned
out to be a bust. I mean, of the guys
that they brought in, all of them got a ton
of money. Zeke Mayo was the only guy that really
(13:20):
played as well as they would hope. So there are
dangers and following the portal rankings and thinking suddenly you've
got the best team in a land.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, you know, it's all got to come together and God,
And I was thinking about this this morning. I called
Cincinnati versus Georgia Tech because you had a football govenment
and I Georgia Tech was not very good, but I
they played together offensively, they were like anything I had
seen in years from UC and I'd like flew back
(13:49):
from Atlanta thinking, Holy hell, these.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Guys are going to be really, really good.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
And for me, the moment where I started to feel sober,
I guess it'd be the right word was the first Kansas.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
State game, opening Big Twelve Conference game.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Because they hadn't been good offensively against Xavier, but they won.
They hadn't been good at offensively against Dayton's.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Second half, but they won horrible yes.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
And then the Kansas State game came and went where
I thought like, all right, a little bit of a
reboot some time away, start Big Twelve play, and I
just remember thinking like this looks and feels broken. I
had a bad feeling the first of twenty Big twelve.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Games, partly because we didn't think Kansas State was any good.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
And then they turned out to be pretty good.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
I mean they had a stretch of like three weeks
where they were as good as anybody in the country.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Came and went pretty quickly.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
My day that I felt that way was really the
Kansas game, because those are the games that good teams win.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
You beat really good teams on your home court.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Cincinnati has not been able to get to that point
in several years. I think that really is the next step.
If they take care of business at home against really
good teams, including some teams that are probably better than
they are, that to me is an NCAA tournament team.
That's what Xavier has consistently done. They beat good teams
(15:09):
at home. You've got to do that to be an
NCAA tournament team.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, it's it's it's a fair comparison.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I think for a lot of us that the West
Virginia game was where you walked out of there or
turned it off and thought, what is that? There haven't
been many Bearcat games over the last however, many decades
where I've like I've driven home going what what was that?
Speaker 4 (15:33):
And no doubt West said after that game, I am
disgusted with my team, But.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
There were multiple occasions that was the thing that was
that was the thing that wasn't It wasn't a one off.
It wasn't the norm, but it wasn't a one off either,
and that's deeply.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Frustrated, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
I mean to lose twice to that team, say do
they deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. Although I
was not all that bothered by the fact they didn't
get in because they've got the six squad one wins,
but three of them came when they still had their
best player. They weren't very good at the end of
the year, and they lost to Colorado in the conference tournament.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I watched the Colorado game where they were up eight
eight minutes to go, like, it's not an insurmountable lead,
but you win that game if you're an NCAA tournament
team against the Colorado team that is now in the Crown.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yes, Crown call my Sun is very exciting.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yes, yes, well he'd be in Vegas.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Sam is coming home tomorrow for his spring break, so
looking forward to seeing him, but he is not planning
to attend the Crown of all.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
However, he is.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Taking credit for the fact that West Virginia lost its
coach to Indiana. Because Colorado beat West Virginia, Sam feels
that accelerated the process. Now we've since learned that apparently
they were negotiating for months and that Indiana is going
to take Darreen degrees anyway.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
But the Light Sun likes to take credit for this.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
So the highlight of the Colorado season was beating a
coach in the game that he shouldn't have lost.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
The coach then gets plucked by Indiana.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Okay. Interesting.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
In his freshman year, a football player at his team
won the Heisman, So that was good.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Give me one minute here because the show's almost over.
You've been to like a billion press conferences in your life. Yes,
Jamar and t the best one you've ever been to.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Oh really good, really really good.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Junior when the Reds brought him home.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
That's probably number one, not necessarily because of what was said,
unlike the Jamar and t, which was just tremendous content
from both guys. But I swear to God that junior
press conference was that was exciting, as exciting as any
sporting event I think I've ever attended. I mean, we
were the epicenter of the sports world that night, and
(17:44):
anything and everything seemed possible. Unfortunately, injuries and some bad
personnel moves robbed us of what might have been.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
But when that night was tremendous. When he put the
jersey on and put the hattle and said I'm home,
like I.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Remember I'm home, I get chills it.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
And you know, Jim Bowden may be oversold it a
little bit, but you know tonight the Michael Jordan, Yeah, baseball,
but nobody don't.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Agree with because it was true. True, Yes, it was true.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
And if Junior didn't have horrible injury luck and spend
ten years playing on rock hard Astro turf in Seattle,
all the things that we dreamed of happening might have happened.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
You were not the radio voice of the Bearcats at
the time. And so you didn't call my favorite all
time Bearcat victory, which came against the Paul, the Kenyan
Martin game in two thousand.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
But you'll get an opportunity to.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Call if you see the Paul game in Vegas that
I think will be of equal stature by the time
it's over.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Well, I didn't do the game you're talking about, but
I did do the game Kenyan sophomore year, he had
his first of his two triple doubles. Yeah, and it
was with twenty three points, twenty two boards, and ten
block shots, which is probably the best individual performance I've ever.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Seen in any sport. First sophomore year, twenty three, twenty
two and ten. Yeah, incredible.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And that was before he was Martin.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
At that point, he had no offensive game gun, so
that was the first glimpse of what he was going
to become.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
All right, speaking of no offensive game, we gotta make
way for Austin Elmore.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Thank you for doing this, my pleasure, Thanks for having
me on.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
We are the absolute best. Dan Horde Voice of the Bearcats,
Voice of the Bengals. We are done. We want to
thank our friends at Coors Light Hot Bracket cold refreshment,
Cors Lights. Stay refreshed with Coors Light round after a round.
Bertram Golf for giving us our Golf Weekend giveaway. Our
friends at Sports Investments. Check out sports Investments dot com
and Riverbenmusic Center. Full calendar out including Dave Matthews and
(19:38):
the Offspring Riverbend dot org. Sincy three sixty is next.
Thank you for listening. Enjoy the madness. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station Wise Cincinnati.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Make us the number one pre set on your car
radio and on the free knew it Improved, iHeartRadio app
Free never sounded so good.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
ESPN fifteen thirty. Financial Group is not a law firm.
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