Mo Egger with Chad Brendel -- 11/13/25

Chad Brendel from BearcatJournal.com joined us to talk UC football and basketball 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He wants to see handed out at an award show.
That's what's happening in baseball. It's happening with the Bearcats.
You got football taken on Arizona on Saturday, you got
men's basketball hosting Mount Saint Mary's on Sunday, and and
maybe maybe they.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Could limit the turnovers to fewer than twenty.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
We will see all of this and so much more
covered at Bearcat journal dot com, which is the domain
of Chad Brendall.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Who's with us now?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Hi, Chad, I'm how are you.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
I'm doing well, although I'm doing better than I was
watching much of that game on on Tuesday night. With
the the seven thousand turnovers committed by the Bearcats, is
that going to be a recurring.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Theme all season?

Speaker 4 (00:44):
At times?

Speaker 3 (00:44):
I think it's it's probably gonna rear its ugly head.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
I mean, the one thing.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
That I, you know, you feel pretty comfortable about is
this has not been a trend for West Miller teams,
so you would think it's reasonable to expected they'll get
it under control. We've had these conversations after you know,
a couple of games each of the you know, every
year we do it undermik as well. Oh, my god,

(01:11):
they turned it over a ton today. If he had
a history of his teams being sloppy with the ball,
I'd be a little bit more concerned. They are trying
to play at a much faster pace, but some of
those the concern for me was some of those were
just unnecessary. Try going from the left wing to the

(01:32):
right corner with the defense set. It was like they
were trying to like skip steps. Yeah, in the offense right,
like the ball's supposed to go here than there, and
they're trying to like cut out the middleman. We haven't
moved the defense and there's a guy standing there waiting
for the ball before it gets to your guy. So
some of that stuff I think they'll be able to

(01:52):
iron out. And they don't have that history of being
a turnover prone team over the last four years, so
I think it'll get better.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
If that's not your biggest concern through three games, what is.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
That's definitely way up the list. I haven't been that
upset with much so far. I think they've got a
much better perimeter shooting team. I think they're they're doing
one of the main things we've had a big problem
with with West Miller teams it's not getting to the
free throw line. They've gotten to the free throw line
at a much higher clip. I think the defense has

(02:30):
been okay. I had a little chuckle seeing them ranked
number two in the country and ken palm because the
defense is not playing that well now.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
I think they had the potential to do that.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
But really the turnover stuff has been the biggest issue.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
For me so far.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Fouling. I think they've they're still fouling too much, even
though I thought, as is usually the case, Kip Kissing
during his crew had a terrible game the other night.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
It feels like every time his crew is.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
On the game and you're right there for it, there's
so many like they huddle and there's been used that
aren't really that necessary, and like there's so much weight.
That game took two and a half hours.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
What are we doing?

Speaker 3 (03:19):
But you know, I think there are plenty of things
they need to clean up. But for the most part,
I've been pretty happy with the pace of play, getting
to the foul line, the defense being competent.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Like, I think there's quite a bit to build on.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
I think the thing that I've liked the most is,
with some exceptions in the second game, I think the
offense for the most part has worked.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
I think they've taken good shots.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
I think some have been hurried, which I think is
going to be a byproduct of playing fast. I wish
they would shoot it more because that would mean they're
turning it over and turning it over less. But I
think I look at them offensively and I go, if
they can just keep it from throwing it to the
other guy going to get looks and there they'll be fine.
Like I've the non turnover possessions, as weird as it

(04:07):
sounds because there's been way too many, but the non
turnover possessions for the most part, I've been pretty happy with.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
I mean, think about it, they turned it over twenty
four times and we're still just under a point of possession. Right,
Like the potential there offensively, they have a chance to
be pretty good. And I know it's not saying a
whole lot, they've got the potential to be the best
offense that Wes Miller has had. I don't know that

(04:34):
that's necessarily a referendum on his coaching offense more than
it's they've got a lot more guys that can put
the ball in the basket. You know, you've got four
or five guys.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
I think you can rely on his three point shooters.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
You've got guys that can get downhill, get to the rim,
get to the pre throw line. You've got a guy
that if he puts it all together, and bobon Miller
that I think can be the best fore man we've
seen here in quite a while.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
And certainly one.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
That I don't know that we've seen that type of
four man here, a six to eleven guy that that
can handle the ball like he can, that can provide
the versatility that he provides.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
I like the puzzle pieces so far.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Now it's on the coaching staff to make it all
fit together.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Can they make them fit together against Louisville?

Speaker 4 (05:24):
Probably not.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
I mean that team is really talented. You got a
bunch of guys that are you know, that have some
experience together that Pat Kelsey brought back. He added really
good pieces around them. I think they've got an NBA
point guard, They've got good complimentary pieces, they've got some
toughness inside. Cincinnati would have to play incredibly well to

(05:53):
win that game.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
I hopefully they keep it close, but you know.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
I don't know that, And maybe this is the advantage
of playing Michigan in Arkansas is that Louisville's athleticism isn't
going to surprise them maybe the way Arkansas did. Maybe
you know, they're a little bit more ready for it.
So hopefully there's two exhibition games. If they pay off,
this would be the one to see it pay often.

(06:21):
But they're really good. I mean, I think they are
one of the best teams in the country. Legitimately a
top ten team that would be. That would be a
Butch Jones level, great challenge.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
Well, wow, I was not expecting to hear the name
Butch Jones. Chad brindle is with a s Bearcat Journal
dot com. Are folks overlooking the difficulty of the Arizona
game on Saturday?

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Probably the concern with Arizona is the things that they
do well are the things that we have talked about
Cincinnati not doing well. Right. They play man defense. They
played sticky man defense on the outside that has given
Brendan Sorosby some trouble. On the other side of the football,

(07:07):
nolh Flafida is a very skilled veteran quarterback. He does
two things well though. He does well from a clean pocket.
Since that he's gotten the least pressure. The pressure rate
is the lowest in the Big twelve, and he plays
really well against zone since that he runs more zone
defense than anyone in the Big Twelve. So there are

(07:28):
some things that if you look at this game, you say, look,
it's gonna have to be Brendan Sorosby from the seven wins.
It can't be Brendan Soarsby from the two losses because
he's been.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
Great in the seven wins.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
He's been pretty bad in the two losses, so there
really hasn't been any in between on that scale. So
he's gonna have to play well. The running backs are
going to have to play well, and the defense is
gonna have to get a couple stops against the quarterback
that is perfectly content completing a very high perc and
methodically moving the ball down the field.

Speaker 4 (08:03):
And they've got.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
A sneaky good running game. They maybe don't use it
as much as they maybe should, but you know, they're
a balanced offense, they've got a betteran quarterback. They're talented.
Now if you look, I think the one thing that
might make you feel a little better the better teams

(08:26):
that they've played. As good as their defensive numbers are
the better teams that they played have all scored thirty plus.
So is Cincinnati going to step up to that level
and say, hey, we're one of the better teams they played.
If they do, and they play well, I think they
win the game. If the offense struggles and we see
a bunch of three and outs, it's going to be

(08:47):
a rock fight in the Bridge Stadium Saturday.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, you know that the Utah game. Utah did what
we thought they were going to do. They ran the ball,
ran it very effectively. But Cincinnati did a lot of
things that up until a week ago Saturday, they hadn't
done all season long. And but I'm interested in how
much of those how much of that game proves to
be an outlier, versus how much of that game proves
to be I don't know the beginning of the end.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
As dramatic as that may.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
Sound, I think that, you know, the thing like I've
seen it compared a little bit to last year. But
even when they were five and two last year, there
was still stuff that was sloppy, there was still stuff
that it you know, they were they were winning a
couple of games, But I don't think UCF was good
last year. I don't think Houston was good last year,

(09:33):
Like they were just the better of two not so
great teams most of the time on the way to
those five wins. I don't think that's been the case
this year. I mean, if you've looked they you know,
they dominated a lot of those teams. And if they
can get out quick and kind of dictate the terms

(09:53):
of engagement, which they weren't able to do in Arizona,
they weren't able to do in Nebraska, those are the
two games they started and it costs them. I think
that's important for this team is to jump out fast
and you can't have miss field goal turnover in the
first quarter on back to back drives, and that just

(10:15):
took them out of the game. The special teams was shaky.
I've seen enough to not think that's going to become,
you know, a recurring problem for this team. But I
get when you look back to when things kind of
went off the tracks last year, that's the stuff that
really took over and they played a sloppy brand of football.

(10:37):
We have not seen that until the Utah game. Hopefully
they can get back to playing clean.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
I agree, we'll see us Saturday. Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Sounds good. Thanks about that's our.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Man, Chad Brendel Bearkat Journal dot com. It's coming up
on four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports
station