TFTS E25 : How many Elder grads work(ed) for the Enquirer?

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Okay, boys, welcome back.I think this is episode twenty something.
I don't know twenty four, twentyfive, who's counting. But we had
a great episode last week, andwe'll tell our listeners right now if you
haven't gone back and listened to theepisode twenty four. We had Hall of
Fame basketball coach Mary Joe Huesman onand it was just a phenomenal episode.

(00:22):
We had some of our former formerathletes come in and joined us and got
to reminisce with their old coach.And speaking of basketball, boys today,
I got to thinking, you know, conference tournaments are starting up this week
and then the old March command thisgets fired up a week from now.
And I don't know about you.And we've kind of talked about that.
I've talked about this before, andI've mentioned that I have this weird role

(00:45):
of decks and I can go backand remember teams from back in the day.
But yeah, I don't know aboutyou. Like for a guy that
doesn't have a photographic memory the wayright freaking like stats from weird games twenty
years ago. I have no ideaI know, But my point is this,
you know, we're all in ourearly fifties, and I think in
our formative years in the eighties.You know, college basketball was a big

(01:08):
thing back then. And I don'tknow about you guys, but I can.
I can name every throughout the eightiesand nineties. I can name every
NCAA champion, and I go backand I just have fond memories from memories
teams. Oh yeah, give megive me a year right nowwork what year
was year? What year was eightynine? Glenn Rice, Ramel Robinson,

(01:32):
Jesus Crime, PJ. Carlssamo coachingthem up. Give me another one,
right now, let's go. Uhwhat year was Keith Smart and Syracuse?
Well, that's what I was justgetting ready to say. I mean,
that was a team, my teamin eighth grade. I was an eighth
grade in nineteen eighty seven. Itwas eighty seven. Okay, Keith Smart
hits the baseline jumper to take downSyracuse seventy four to seventy three. And

(01:53):
that was the point I wanted tomake because that team, right there,
I knew I had I had readby the time I had eighth grade,
I had read a season on theBrink two different times. I knew everything
about that team. I knew allthe backups, the Joe Hillman's of the
World of the World. Yes,it's one of the greatest. John Feinstein,

(02:14):
it was his first big book,national bestseller. But I'm asking you,
guys, what are the teams thatyou guys remember that were that were
Maybe maybe it was a team thatdidn't win anything, because there's there's been
plenty of great teams out there thathave not won things. But the team
that I mean, I'm just tellingyou the IU Hoosers Indiana Hoosiers of nineteen

(02:36):
eighty seven. That was my squadwhen when I was coming of age,
right, and I would say,like in the eighties, we were both
we were all coming of age insports, and uh, you know,
when you're maybe in second grade,third grade, you might have some idea
who the big players are, likethe the Pete Roses, the Johnny Benches.
But like in college, that wasdifferent, right, And I can
remember my dad getting season tix it'sfor his xavior. Like in when I

(03:01):
was like in seventh grade and Ihad no idea who these people were,
but I grabbed a notebook, didlines, and I started to do stats.
I mean, you're talking about anabsolute like Zitler. I had so
many zits Like I would just sitthere and just take stats like rebound and
stuff, and I just wanted todo it just again. I remember my

(03:23):
dad was going, I was like, you make sure you watch the MCC
tournament. I'm like, I gotit, Dad, And I took notes
and I took like stats and itwas really cool. So when you talk
about teams like that, was itlike probably eighty six eighty seven like that,
that basketball team and I think itwas Byron Larkin and and who was

(03:44):
who was some other guys Byron Larkin, Stan Kimbro, Tyrone Hill, like
those people were like amazing to me. Dear Strong was a little bit later,
yeah, but little later he wasninety. He was ninety. I
saw him, know him in Tyrone. But but Pat, I remember Friday
nights when when this week it wouldit would have been this upcoming Friday night

(04:06):
when they had the conference tournaments.And do you remember the old Metro Conference.
They'd be playing like Loola on aFriday night, or they'd be playing
Detroit or whoever. What was famousabout Evansville? What was famous about Evansville?
Evansville, they their their jerseys.It was like it was like a
T shirt they had on their jerseys. It was the match you graduated from

(04:27):
Chris Matt held oh Man from Evansville. Yeah, who was head coach?
Jimmy Cruz, Yes, jim Cruz. There you go. But but those
are those are the things that Iremember about being at that age and watching
those games and and those teams,and then it goes all the way into
you know, you see the thethe progression of the Cincinnati Bearcats and when

(04:51):
when when Huggs came in and allof a sudden, man, he he
was only in I think his thirdyear. I think it was his third
year. He takes to the finalfour. Who hit the three and in
the in the opening of the shoe? I don't think it was Herb Jones
from the corner. Yeah, hestarted with an A. No that that

(05:15):
was that HeLa. Yeah, Ithink it started with an a. Did
it start with an a? Ithink it was Steve. It was a
football it was a football player.Was football player, Yes it was,
And I think it was Steve Sanders, Yes, I think it was.
You are correct. Who did theybeat in that opening game? I might
I'm I'm completely guessing Michigan State.That was my thought, I'm either going

(05:39):
Michigan State or Minnesota one of theother. I was there, I was.
I was there for who who wasthe big played for the heat?
Who played for the Michigan State SteveSmith, Steve Smith, Steve Smith three
against State against against uc Rose,up hit it. I remember looking at
Tran and I'm like, that justhappened. He was the things Let's go

(06:00):
big, Ken's out of here.So we freaking spread it out of that,
spread it out of the jew.I'll never forget that I had older
siblings, So my earliest NCAA tournamentmemories are a little bit earlier than you
guys. It was my first memoryof having that on the radar was eighty
three Jim Valvano NC State Championship.That's when I realized that that that's my

(06:23):
first memory of a real college basketballmoment, understanding what a Cinderella was,
and you know, just that wholestory I think kind of took over for
a little bit. Hey, here'sthe crazy thing about that game, Martin,
and it show you how much collegebasketball and on the big stage has
changed. I specifically remembered, well, we can go back a little bit

(06:45):
even a few years earlier than that. But going back to that game in
eighty three, do you remember wherethey played the Final four? Damn was
it? I can picture it,but now I can't it. It was
that New Mexico to the court.I can picture the court, Yeah,
yeah, it was New Mexico.Was that the pit where the New Mexico
Lobos played? And I mean youthink about playing like on campuses. They
used to play the Final Four oncampuses. Now they play them in stadiums

(07:08):
like Lucas Oil Stadium, you know, in Houston wherever. But like the
seventy nine I mean we had theyou know, one of the most famous
games ever played with Larry Bird MagicJohnson. That was played in Salt Lake
at Utah. That was that wasSalt Lake City. And then eighty five
now it's a huge arena, buteighty five with the miracle team from Villanova

(07:30):
Nova, Villanova Georgetown, that wasat ropp Arena. Now Roperina seats twenty
three twenty four thousand people, Butthat was still an on campus. You
know that a team used that homecoort what's a bigger Cinderella? Who was
the biggest upset? Would it havebeen Villanova or NC State because what in
Villanova was like at eight or nineseed, I don't know what en Yeah,

(07:50):
I think Villanova was that was yeah, they were like I don't know.
But here's the thing that people forgetabout that the advance and I guess
you could say it's an advantage thatthey had that year in the final four,
there were three teams from the BigEast. So you had Georgetown,
you had Villanova, and you hadSaint John's. So those guys all knew

(08:11):
each other. So the familiarity withit that I think that helped a little
bit. But they were shoot,they were nineteen and ten and then to
make a run through it. Andyou know, the other thing that I
was thinking is who were the greatteams that never won anything? Because I

(08:31):
bet you if you did the oldjay Leno jaywalking and you went out on
the street and you asked, Idon't know, three out of ten people,
four out of ten people, theywould tell you that the Fab five
from Michigan actually won a national title. Right. I was going to say,
Fab five, it's the best teamnever win, right, yes?
Yeah? In two thousand, Yeah, I mean those are a couple of

(08:52):
teams right there, that, andthen the other one is it was nineteen
when Duke No. Nineteen ninety one. I take that back. Nineteen ninety
one Duke beat U n l Vin the in the semi finals, and
that might that ninety one team ofU n l V with Stacey Augman and

(09:13):
Larry Johnson and all those guys,that might have been better than the team
that won it the year before.That year, that year we had gotten
a new dog, like a puppy. Okay, it probably first round had
started. We were probably in betweenthe first weekend second weekend, and as
a family, we decided that wewere going to name the dog after whoever
won March Mandats, whoever won thetournament. And it was Duke and U

(09:35):
n OV in the finals. Doyou remember that. So it was either
it was either gonna be like,we're gonna name him Rebel or unl I
don't know what Vega Duke. Wegot stuck with Duke. I second backup
together a few years ago. Afew years ago, was traveling, I
was in Atlanta and I was drivingit. I'd look over, I see

(09:56):
Bobby Hurley and yeah, and sohe's we both were like a red light
or something no, we're we're onthe tram coming back from the rental car
in Atlanta. So you jump onthe tram and you take it to uh
uh the airport, and so itwas kind of like dead out was just
it was just being him in thiscar, Like I gotta say something to

(10:16):
Bobby Hurley. And you think,like you meet Bobby Hurley, you're thinking
he's like five to seven. Nowhe's like six to one. He's a
good size like guy. You youknow, you watch him as a point
guard and you think he's gonna bereally really small, but he's like six
six one. And so head coachat Arizona State and I walked. I

(10:37):
was like, hey, coach,just want to let you know I'm big
fan. He was the nicest guy. He was the nicest guy. He's
like, oh really, yeah,man, where are you from. I'm
like ill from Cincinnati, you know, played basketball with Mick Cronin for this,
Like, oh my god, yeah. And I was like, man,
I'm gonna tell you this last year, you beat this ship out of
my Musketeers. And he just said, he goes, he goes, well,
was you d have it? Bud? He's patting his pat We could

(10:58):
have beat anybody that night and theyjust kill us. Man, I really
like your guard. He's like,yeah, he's a really good guy.
And we had probably like a threeor four minute conversation, and like it
was one of those times when you'retalking to one of those famous people.
You're like, quit wire ahead,douchebag, quit war your head. And
I had that terrible like thought inmy head, like quit wear your head.
And I'm like and so he stoppedtalking. I I was like,

(11:20):
well, man, save trails.And I just kind of walked over and
got on my phone and tried toact busy and uh. But no,
it was just a really really niceguy speaking of Bobby, really good good
dude. Man. For you everCincinnati, give me your number, give
me too far, We'll meet upa crossroads. Grab a beer. I'll
buy you. I'll buy a tallBoy for crossroads. But you know,

(11:41):
that's another example though of I don'twant to say the best it never was,
but his NBA career was derailed byI think it was a motorcycle accident,
wasn't it? Was it an injuryin an either car accident or it
was a yeah, and so hebecause you know, it took him like
so much to come back and tobe able to play for the Sacramento Kings
again. But he was your quintessentialpoint guard. I mean he was.

(12:05):
He was the glue that made thatDuke team go. Now, Latner obviously
was was the best player on thecourt every night, but Hurley, man,
he was phenomenal. And I canremember remember that Dream Team came out,
and this was obviously before social mediaeverything like that. But then there
started to be like news leagues andnews reports and like some some uh sports

(12:26):
articles written that the best college playerbecause they played against the Dream Team the
would scrimmage, it was Bobby Hurleyand all the pros like he's he's unbelievable,
He's unbelievable, He's gonna be Youwatch the did you watch the Dream
Team? That the special that theydid in the greatest game that I guess.
It was early in training camp whenChuck Daily when he rigged it so

(12:50):
that basically he had his worst matchupson the court for the for the Olympians
in the in the the college allStars came in and just beat the ever
living piss out of them, andthey said nobody could guard. Nobody could
guard. Early and he was thatgood, and they knew that he was
going to be a you know,a stud in the NBA. But then
he had that injury and he justcouldn't recover from it. Welcome to Tales

(13:11):
from the Script, a bad appCincinnati high school sports podcast that features local
coaches and athletes. Here are yourhosts, Brett Schneeber, Pat O'Connor,
and Martin Eisley. Okay, boys, time for another episode here of Tails

(13:41):
from the Script, and my guestthis week, I've kept hidden from you
guys for a I've had this onein the can here for maybe two three
weeks. Yea, in the can. I've held this one close to the
vest. I don't know why,but uh, I decided to go a

(14:05):
little bit different route this week.We We've had some we've had you know,
coaches and athletes on, but Idecided to go with somebody who is
obviously in the in the sports world. He was you know it, but
uh he's he's seen sports from adifferent view from what most of the people

(14:26):
that we've had on. He startedout, you know, right out of
high school, got into college andand started working for the Cincinnati choir and
he basically was doing jobs like sittingthere answering phones at night and taking down
box scores, and and from therehe parlayed that into becoming a full time
high school sports reporter for the Choir, and then he got caught up to

(14:46):
the big leagues, where he wasNo, he's retired, he's too good
for us anymore. But uh,five years ago he got elevated to be
the beat writer for Patrick O'Connor's YourMusketeers. Let's be introduced to you the
one and only Adam Adam. Howare we doing? Let's go? What's

(15:09):
up? Yes, my side?Right, that's right, Elder Panthers,
two thousand and six. All right, we won't do that. We're good.
That's okay. Well take that.Did you have my brother? Was?
My brother tea? He was teachingthere. Did you have Matt?
Oh? Yeah he was. Hebecame really conservative, He became really conservative.

(15:35):
Coach. Yeah, I was.I played offense. That was a
fullback, he was, alright,he was one of our d line coaches.
Oh man, that's a position thatthe last of the fullbacks. There's
a Twitter page called the Last ofthe Fullbacks. It's freaking awesome. I
know it's it's it's too sad.Although I'll come back. I think it'll
come back. I'm telling you everythingthumbs and cycles. Yeah, somebody is

(15:56):
gonna light up with the fullback andthe defense is not going to know how
to react, and it's gonna begreat. I can't wait to see it.
So in Doug's offense, were youbasically just like an extra offensive lineman?
So is that what the full Iwas in? I was an offensive
lineman with a different number than therest of the line. Actually, if
you want to know, I stillhold a crazy stat for my older football

(16:18):
days, love you here. Mysenior year, I became the only player
in older football history to finish aseason with negative rushing yards, negative receiving
yards and score a touchdown. Andif you want the details, I can
tell you I got. They gaveme the ball against Lakewood Saint Edwards on

(16:45):
a drawl play that we put inthat week that Doug Ramsey thought was going
to work, and they tackled mefor a four yard loss. Well,
in the final week of the regularseason against West High I got a one
yard touchdown run, so negative netnegative three yards rushing carries, two carries.
And then against Indianapolis Bishop Chattard.I caught a pass in the flat

(17:10):
and they never threw me the ball, obviously, but I ran this route.
I was supposed to run like athree yard arrow route into the flat.
I ran like one yard and Icurled back behind the line of scrimmage
and caught it for negative two yardsnegative two yard cats. So that's why
I claim the thing. And fromthere Doug totally changed the offense and he

(17:33):
went to a five white scheme thenext year. There you go. It's
almost like an anchorman where he's like, you ate a whole wheel of cheese.
I'm actually impressed. That's actually impressive. Yeah, that's very good.
Oh well, Adam. You know, we we we like to consider ourselves
journalists doing what we do here.We've all done some broadcasting and everything over

(17:57):
the years. But it's fun tohave you on. I mean, you
are obviously a real journalist who's madea career out of this. I know
the story of how you got intothis whole journalism thing, but I think
our listeners need to hear it ofthe decision you made in high school to
take a journalism class, and whydid you take it, what did it

(18:18):
lead into Yeah. I mean,if you didn't get a sense of kind
of my abilities in high school fromthat football story, you'll get a good
sense of it after I tell youthis. But you know, when I
was in high school at elder,when you were a junior and a senior,
you got a little more freedom withselecting your classes and planning out your
schedule. I think when you're afreshman and a sophomore, it's a little

(18:41):
more choreographed. You're kind of theseare your classes, these are when you're
going to take them. But mysenior year, I had no idea what
I wanted to do with the restof my life. I had my entire
schedule planned out except for my lastperiod of the day, seventh period,
and I was between journalism and onme. I think, if I if
I remember correctly well, I foundout that the journalism class was taught.

(19:07):
I found out where the journalism classwas taught, and it just so happened
that the classroom that that that classwas taught in was right next to where
I parked my car. So mybrain made this important connection. I realized
that if I took journalism. Whenthe final bell rang at the end of
the day, every day. Icould hop out of that classroom, get

(19:30):
right in my car, and Iwould never have to wait in traffic on
I don't know, if you parkedon the other side of campus, you
could be in a prologer right now. You know this, I know,
I know that's so true. Yeah, so that's so true. I mean

(19:51):
that's literally why I signed up andI took it. And you know,
I know it's it's a little bitcheesy, and it's it's a cliche,
but like I truly fell in lovewith that class. I you know,
I'd never I had never really writtenanything that anyone would want to read or
had any business reading prior to thatclass. And I found out, you

(20:11):
know, you have an idea,you have to execute all these little things
along the way to make it intoa finished product. And it was a
super rewarding thing. And you know, as stupid as that story is,
I actually went back to elder thisyear before this, at the very beginning
of the school year, and misterPrincipal Roughing asked me to talk to the
entire student body and I told themthis story. And the point that I

(20:36):
had in telling them this was sometimesthe things that you aren't expecting become really
important things in your life. Andyou know, I was purely I signed
up for journalism out of pure laziness, and as it turned out, it
became this monumental thing in my lifethat dictated really how the last seventeen years

(20:57):
have gone. So it's pretty cool. That's a great story. Yeah,
where'd you go to college? Iwent to UC. Yeah, so I
went to the University of Cincinnati.I started out in journalism and then I
actually got a job, as Brettmentioned in the intro at the end choir

(21:18):
my freshman year, and I Ikind of felt like, hey, I'm
getting a journalism education every night atwork. So I actually changed my major
to English because I like to read, and I thought it would be again
laziness. I thought it would bean easier path through college. So with
with with all these you know journalistscoming out of the West Side. Right

(21:38):
is his Elder High School, theSyracuse of high schools in Cincinnati. That's
a great point. You know,I could go down the list there and
I'd probably leave some off. Butyou know, you got you got Bill
Hammer, you got John Fay Restin peace. There's more than Denny Jansen.
Yeah, there's a ton was chickblood Wood is chick blood wig?

(22:03):
He is he an undergrad? Hemight be. I think I think the
chickster is. I'm not sure,but I think he is. But Eric
Wood now is the what is hethe podcaster? Yeah? Doesn't he do?
Does he do color? Doesn't hedo? Not color? But?
Uh, I think he does colorfor the bills? Yeah, you're right.

(22:27):
So yeah, so you take thatjob and you're sitting there and you
know, it's I guess it's differentit was. What was it different back
then because of the way you know, digital media has kind of changed over
the years. But you know,I'm just trying to think and get a
picture of what it was like ona Friday night. I'm sure it wasn't

(22:49):
just you with a with a cupof coffee sitting there waiting to answer the
phone for to take every single uhbox score that came in. But like,
what was the setting like did theyhave a bunch of people like you
guys there or what did it looklike? Did you have one of those
hats? Yeah, like like youknow, one of the weird paper boy
hats, the press hat box scorea box score? I know, No,

(23:12):
it's it's crazy that you mentioned that, because it is pretty much exactly
how you teed it up. Therewas probably five or six of us and
we'd sit in this little bullpen andyou know, the phone would ring and
you'd answer it. You'd take downall the information and yep, high school
sports, you'd take down all theinformation. And the cool thing was like

(23:34):
if you got a good game orsomething interesting happened, or if there was
a big upset, they would giveyou the freedom to write about it.
So, you know, you whoeverwould call in the box score, you
know, you'd hear something remarkable happenand you'd ask them, hey, can
you go give the phone to thehead coach and you talk to them,

(23:56):
and that was kind of how youcut your teeth early on. But the
thing you mentioned about the digital transformationof media is it's crazy because I started
there in two thousand and seven,and when I started at the enquire the
newsroom was full. It was filledwith people. I mean, you had
a Cincinnati high school beat writer,you had a Northern Kentucky high school beat

(24:21):
writer. You had so many peoplewho had just detailed jobs responsible for putting
out the paper the next day andthe wildest thing was if there was a
game that went into triple overtime orwhatever and it didn't get done until eleven
thirty or midnight, you had untilone am to get that score that result

(24:45):
in the next day's paper. Soone am, same day, six seven
hour five six seven hours later,that's on someone's doorstep. Now in twenty
twenty four, if I want toget something, we're recording this on a
Monday. If I want to getsomething in Tuesday's paper, I have to
have that finished by eleven thirty amor noon, so that you cut off

(25:10):
like thirteen hours of coverage time inthe daily newspaper. Mar And I know
that's a fact because whenever I talkedto my dad or I talked to my
father in law, it's like there'sno damn scores in the paper anymore.
You can't find out who played landwho won last night. Now they don't
even have people answering phones, Likeif you have results, you email them
into a number and someone pulls theminto the system. So if I was

(25:36):
coming up now you know, mygateway, my door into this career,
it wouldn't really be available. I'dhave to get lucky in some other regard.
I guess yeah, I can rememberback in that era, after a
Friday night game, somebody on thestaff would be in charge of calling the
enquire and giving the score and youknow, sending that. Would you ever

(25:57):
get like in this era, I'mjust picturing, how would you verify you
ever get pranked? Did people everlike call up? I wish I could
go back and just sit there andsay he was on the seat of to
get yeah, we keep winning field. Here's the thing if some if someone

(26:17):
wanted to do that and go tothat level, they would have to be
educated or know the process, becauselike for taking a football box score for
example, like if you have noidea what I'm looking for, how like
that would be obvious to me.So like when you go through it,
you know score by quarter and thenit's scoring plays, and how you give

(26:41):
me the score tells me everything.So it's like, I know that maybe
doesn't answer your question, But likeif you called me to try to prank
me and give me a score resultthat wasn't real unless you had called in
a game before and given a boxscore, I'd probably be on to you
because I'd be like, this dudedoesn't know what he's doing like there's a
rhyme and a rhythm to it,you know, But that is a cool

(27:03):
idea. I could definitely mess withsome newspapers how to do. So.
So you take that experience and thenyou eventually parlay it into I guess your
first full time job job right,covered high school sports for the enquir Yeah,
and so how long did you dothat then? So I was part

(27:26):
time at the enquir for like sixyears. And what I did was I
had another part time job where Iactually worked with my mom. She worked
at a place called Pey Corps andI worked in the tax seasonal office,
so I basically put I put clientreports in numerical order all day. And
then I had another part time jobwhere I was a sports information director for

(27:49):
the Southwest Ohio Conference. So Ibasically worked three part time jobs for the
simple fact that I knew I wantedto be a full time sports writer and
I wasn't ready to give up onit, and I was kind of just
waiting for someone to retire or moveto another newspaper. And as it happened,
that was in That was in twentyfourteen when that eventually happened. So

(28:14):
I got a chance, and coveringhigh school sports was one of the more
rewarding things I've ever done because itwas one of the more hectic things I've
ever done. I think when Ifirst got full time, I had like
twenty five or thirty local high schoolsthat I was responsible for covering. And
it's not just at the time.It's become a little different with the way

(28:34):
that news has kind of transformed andevolved over the years. But when I
first started, it was like ifyou covered Roger Bacon, you covered football,
baseball, basketball, softball, swimming, wrestling, men's sports, women's
sports. You covered everything. Thatmeans you had a relationship with every head

(28:55):
coach, varsity head coach at thatschool, and you had twenty five or
thirty school that you had to keeptrack of. So it was like your
head was spinning. But it wasalso a lot of fun because it was
never a job where you're in theoffice from nine to five every day.
It was a job where, man, I got a game on Tuesday night,
I'm going to this practice on Wednesdayto do a feature. Then I

(29:15):
got another game on Thursday night.So it's like you're bouncing around, You're
moving around you're talking to different peopleand it was fun. Is that the
say, And that's your hometown too, so you're probably familiar with a lot
of the you know, the conferencesof the teams. How hard would it
be get that gig in a ina different city the people, you know?
Is that something that would be outof the out of the question.

(29:37):
It wouldn't be out of the realmof possibility, but the learning curve,
Yeah, the learning curve would beso because you know, I because I
went to Elder, like I had. You know, Saint X was one
of the teams that I covered.Lassal is one of the teams that I
covered. Believe it or not,they actually let me cover Elder, And
you know, I could tell youa bunch of funny stories about covering older

(30:02):
playoff games where Cole Rain beats themby fifty points and I have to sit
there and watch that game and getquotes after it and write a whole story
about it. And it's like,you know, so I think my knowledge
of the local high school sports sceneit set me up for success in a
lot of ways. But yeah,I couldn't imagine going to a place that
I was completely unfamiliar with and havingto develop relationships and figure out the rivalries

(30:26):
and the local landscape. That wouldjust make that job a lot harder.
Speaking of relationships and the accessibility thatyou have, give us a few names,
give us a few stories on guysthat you thought you had just a
great relationship and they always gave youaccess, and then other guys were man,
it was like it was like pullingteeth to be able to get you

(30:48):
know, to get anything out ofthem and maybe get a story and get
access to the program. Yeah,believe it or not. Like I mentioned
Cole Raine for whatever reason, Igot along great with Tom Bolden when when
he was at Cole Raine and hesort of it was like an open door
policy. Uh you know, Icould text him, I could call him
if I if I wanted to writesomething or I had a question. He

(31:11):
was just super I think like partof that is he you know, he
knew how to play the game.And but yeah, yeah, the flip
side of that is may you're you'rea podcast competitor on your landscape. Steve

(31:33):
Speck. I have a tremendous amountof respect for Steve. I've actually appeared
on his podcast. But Steve wassomeone that there. There would be times
where I felt like I had agreat relationship with him, and then there
would be times where he would yellat me after a game or be upset
with me, and I think thatwas all part of you know, he's

(31:55):
such his expectations and the way thathe's built that football program at st X.
It's just he's very no nonsense abouta lot of things, so that
you know, I could probably godown the list and run through my memory
banks of other people that I've hadsome interactions with. But for the most
part, I think like the oneof the really rewarding things about covering high

(32:20):
school sports was the genuine like appreciationthat people had that you were there watching
their game, or you were therewriting a feature, or you're there interviewing
them after the game. It's oneof these things now where I've gone on
to cover Reds Bengals, you know, pro tennis at the Western and Southern

(32:40):
Open and Xavier high level college basketball, and it's like, that's the one
thing I really miss, is thatyou're talking to people and you're covering teams
and programs and players that really havea genuine appreciation for the fact that you're
interested in them. When you getup to these higher levels, people are

(33:00):
sort of stick of talking to themedia in a lot of ways, so
they lose that a little bit.Well, I just I just know from
coaching the like like let's just saywe're out in the field, you know,
going through warm ups and all ofa sudden, you know, you
show up, Mike Dyer shows up, whoever it is, you know,
local media that people know. Andwhen the when the head coach calls one

(33:21):
of the seniors over and says,hey, uh, guy from the enquir
Adam Bowen wants to talk to you. Like the look that they get on
their face. Sometimes it's out offear, their eyes light up out of
fear, and other times it's outof excitement because like man like guy from
the newspaper wants to talk to me. This is really cool. And then
what it does for the program thatyou know, they missed that part of
warm ups or they miss walk throughwhatever, they come back and then all

(33:43):
their teammates and their coaches are asothem. That's that's legitimately really cool stuff.
But like you said, like youknow, you get a SoundBite from
a you know, from a guyfrom Xavier or like you said, the
reds of the Bengals. You knowthat that's just part of their job.
And it's like, Okay, I'mgonna I'm gonna just go talk to him.
It's really neat. Yeah, it'sso important, so important. I
mean to have some of those highschool guys, and I mean, I

(34:06):
mean, it's so awesome that becauseyou're passion for the high school level,
that high school arena is just it'sevident, right, And like Brett was
just talking about, it means somuch of the program, it means so
much to the individual. And youknow what, you're kind of making me
feel a little bit better about likeI was yelling. I used to yell
at my dad all the time becausewhy was there always Elder on the front

(34:27):
page of the Inquirer. And I'mlike, Dad, there's a lot of
people who work for Elder at theEnquirer. And so I won. I
just won a thirty year old twentydollars bet so, and so he would
be so upset it was what's goingon. I'm like, it's bombs about.
He's doing it. He's doing it. So and with that, we'll

(34:49):
take a pause to hear from oursponsors. Hey, business owner, this
is your opportunity to be the officialsponsor for Tales from the Script. You
have the absolute amazing opportunity to advertisewith us. Think about all the opportunity
that we have. We've got kids, we've got grand laws, we've got

(35:10):
communities. They're just dial it inlistening, dialing up that podcast to hear
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(35:37):
For inquiries, reach out to uson any of our social media on
Twitter, on Instagram, tf tS Underscore podcast. That's Tales from the
Script Underscore podcast. Find us onsocial media hit us up. Speaking of
learning curves, so you know,you cut your teeth at you enquired through
college, you finally get the job, You work it there for a while,

(36:00):
and then all of a sudden,the job opens up and they approach
you to be the beat rider forthe Xavier Musketeers in the Big East.
You talk about learning curves that hadthere had to be a little bit of
adjustment period, right, Yeah,it was. It was kind of terrifying.
Initially. I remember being super excited, and I believe it or not,

(36:24):
the thing that I was most excitedabout at the time was I could
not wait to cover the NCAA tournament. Like anyone who liked sports, the
NCAA Tournament is It's the pinnacle inmy opinion, It's the best of the
best. And the first four yearsthat I covered Xavier, they missed the
NCAA tournaments. Oh my goodness.I finally got my first taste of the

(36:47):
NCAA tournament last year and they madeit to the sweet sixteen, so that
was super cool. But yeah,Xavier was so different in that I was
coming from this world, this highschool sports world where I had twenty five
to thirty teams that I have tocover. I'm bouncing around from football to

(37:07):
soccer to golf, like and thenin the in the winter, it was
crazy. It was even crazier.It was like wrestling, basketball, you
know, just you name it.And now I've got this this thing with
Xavier where I can focus. Ihave one team, I have one head
coach, I have three assistant coachesthat I have to develop relationships with So

(37:30):
my philosophy early on when I startedcovering Xavier was like, look, I'm
new around here, I don't knowanyone. I have to gain trust.
Like if people around this program connectto this program, if they don't trust
me enough to talk to me andyou know, in a certain sense,
give me information, then I'm nevergoing to be successful. So I made

(37:52):
the decision very early on. Isaid, I'm never going into the enquir
Like. I can tell you theenquire offices. They were at three twelve
Elm Street downtown. I could probablycount on one hand the number of times
that I was in that office overlike a two year period. I never
went in there. I just said, I'm gonna go to Xavier every single

(38:13):
day. I'm gonna sit in themedia room. I'm gonna work there.
The media room at Xavier there arethese big glass windows in front, and
the players walked by, the coacheswalked by. Everyone who's important walks by
that room. And I was thereall day, every day, and I
just wanted them to see me.I wanted them to know how much I
cared about this. And I wentto every practice. You know, Travis

(38:36):
Steele was the head coach at thetime. He was very kind. He
let me come to every practice thatI wanted to, and I never missed
him. It was just like,I'm gonna I'm gonna like, I'm gonna
be here, Like you're never gonnabe like that dude is not invested in
this. And that was really myapproach to how I was going to cover

(38:57):
this and get people to trust meand be able to tell really cool stories.
Because when you have to interview aguy after he has a terrible game,
if he doesn't know who you are, that's not going to go great.
If he sees you at practice everyday and he knows that you're around,
and man, this dude, he'she's always here. Like if that
guy asked you a question after atough game after you fail, you're you're

(39:22):
not gonna shy away from that.You're probably gonna give him a better answer
than you would a guy who askedyou about it when he just shows up
for your games, you know.And I think that's why that's why I
was able to make that transition aswell as I did. So you brought
up a good point. We kindof just talked about this and so I
think it's like, it makes sensewhen you're in high school, you're you're

(39:45):
so like everyone's excited, you're buildingup programs, you're asking questions, everybody's
out of the pub. How hardwas it for you to ask that tough,
critical question because you weren't interviewing thelosers in high school? Right?
Typically you weren't. Hey, coach, you're zero and eight, how do
you feel about this season? Youknow you weren't doing that in high school,
So was it hard for you tomake that switch to I mean,

(40:05):
obviously you're a professional journalist, buttalk to me a little bit about those
those feelings of asking that tough question. Yeah, it's funny that you bring
that up, and it's it's inastute observation, honestly, because that simple
thing right there is the most difficultthing. It's the most difficult area of
this job that I've ever had tosort of venture into. My feelings on

(40:30):
it were always this, and itwas always a situation in my mind where
it was like, Man, Ifail every day. I fail all the
time, I make mistakes, Ido things wrong, and no one's asking
me about it, no one's writingstories about it, And so I was
very conflicted on that when it waslike things did not go the way they

(40:52):
wanted them to go, and notonly do I have to ask you questions
about it, but then I haveto turn around and I have to write
a story about it for people toread. I was super conflicted about it,
and honestly, I think one ofthe things that helped me in that
was I always came from a placeof, man, I'm going to get
to know these people on a humanlevel, like I'm not going to treat

(41:15):
them like they're anyone different than me. I'm going to treat them as humanly
as possible, and so that whenthey fail and when I have to write
about that failure and ask about thatfailure, that maybe there's some sort of
a mutual respect there where I'm comingfrom a place of like, hey,
man, I'm here every day.I see how hard you're working at this,

(41:37):
I know how much you care aboutthis, and it doesn't make it
didn't necessarily make my job any easier. But that was the single, the
single most difficult thing that I struggledwith. And part of that is because
you know, for the first fouryears that I covered Xavier, like,
yeah, they won some big games, and they had some success, but
ultimately those first four years were definedby end of season failures, were defined

(42:01):
by them missing out on the NCAATournament. I mean, the year before
I started covering Xavier, they werea one seed in the NCAA Tournament.
They won the Big East for thefirst time. Like expectations were through the
roof at an all time high atthis place, and then it was like,
Okay, new coach, first season, they go under the nd And

(42:25):
then really there were three years ina row where it was like Xavier was
an NCAA tournament team all year andover the last two or three weeks of
the season they just they fell apartand crumbled and actually played their way out
of the NCAA tournament. And thosewere those were like almost stickening moments for

(42:46):
me because I was like, man, I have to write about this,
I have to ask about this.Yeah, it was hard, honestly it
Adam is it is? It sickeningfrom a professional standpoint and also a personal
standpoint, because I'm sure at somepoint you become a fan of the team,
right and I would think, Imean, if like you say,

(43:07):
you devote so much of your timeevery day. You're not going to three
twelve them, you're going to sentas. There has to be an emotional attachment
to the program also, right,Yeah, And you know I wouldn't say
that I was ever like I wasnever going to games like, man,
I hope Xavier wins this game,and you know, you're certainly not watching

(43:29):
it hoping that it's going to goone way or another. But I think
the thing where you are on themark is like you get to know these
people in a way that's bigger thanjust wins and losses. And so a
prime example is Travis Steele was thehead coach here and he was an assistant

(43:50):
here for a really long time,and you know, I got to know
him. I got to know hisfamily. I wrote stories about his life
and how he came to be inthis position. I knew day in and
day out that this guy would doanything to win, do anything to make
the NCAA tournament. And there's acertain part of you that's like, man,

(44:10):
I want that guy to succeed.I want his teams to play well.
Then you know, you go ondown the line and you learn about
the players, and you learn abouttheir families, and you interview their moms
and their dads, and their brothersand their sisters, and you hear you
start to tell those stories, andit's like a small part of you,

(44:30):
even though you're supposed to be thisthis journalist and you know, I don't
have a dog in this fight.There is this kind of gray area where
it's like, man, I knowthat they could win this game, they
could lose this game, but Ifind myself like caring about them as human
beings. And it's this gray areathat comes with being a journalist, at

(44:52):
least a sports journalist in my opinion, because you know, sports are serious
to the people that follow the teamand to the people that play them.
But you know, like if you'recovering politics or you're a courthouse reporter,
like it's probably way easier to distanceyourself from those topics and you know,
remove yourself from the equation. Soyeah, I guess on the flip side

(45:13):
of that, I don't know.It could be the opposite where say you're
covering a team and the head coachhas a really poor character, doesn't do
things the right way, doesn't giveyou the time of day right, and
you don't have a whole lot ofgood feelings about the way that they're running
the program personally or professionally, butyou still have to be a professional cover
the team, right, that wouldbe a tough situation as well. I

(45:36):
hope you've never get to that point. Yeah, so I've never experienced that,
but that that's a good way tolook at it. And I think
you could probably pinpoint examples from aroundthe country of maybe coaches or programs that
don't treat the media as well,and you could probably go look at that
media coverage and see that it's thatit's maybe not not what they would like

(45:58):
it to be. Yeah. Right, when I was out, I was
bringing you on that one question.One of the I could ask questions all
night because I love this stuff,But the one of the main questions I
wanted to ask you was, haveyou ever had a situation where a coach
has just been a prick to you? Not necessarily one of one of Xavier's
coaches, but an opposing coach ina in a press conference, you ask

(46:19):
a question, they either don't likeit, they misconstrue it, They basically
go Bobby Knight on you, haveyou ever have you ever had that?
I mean, these are the storieswe're here for Yeah, I've I think
I've been pretty fortunate in that.Maybe I'm not going to sit here and
say I never asked a dumb question, because I know that I have asked
dumb questions, but no one's evergone like nuclear on me in a postgame

(46:43):
press conference. Now there is stilltime we could get there. Someday.
I would say the toughest situation I'veever been in where a coach got a
little bit testy with me and thiswas a sensitive subject. This is this
is where another thing that it's alittle bit unique about Xavier, where it's
like, Brad, I know you'rea UK guy. You know you go

(47:06):
watch a John cal Perry postgame pressconference after a Kentucky game. How many
media members would you say, orin one of his press conferences? Thirty
forty probably Yeah, something like that. Okay, Here at Xavier, there
was a period of time where Iwas the only beat writer. There was
no one else really, and therewas a lot of times where like the

(47:30):
TV stations weren't here asking questions.So you could go back through the years,
the last five six years, andthere might be a whole press conference
where I'm the only one in theroom asking questions. Well, in Travis
Steele's final season at Xavier before hewas let go, Xavier had a home

(47:50):
game against Steaton Hall. It's abad game. Team did not play well.
They got blown out on their homefloor, and I think everyone in
a lot of people in the arenacould see that, like, oh man,
this season is unraveling right before oureyes again, and it was all
too familiar to the last two yearsprior to that. Well, at one

(48:13):
point in the game, late inthe game, the student section started channing
for Travis Steele to be fired,and other people in the arena sort of
picked it up. And when you'rethe beat writer and the responsibility is on
you to ask questions, and there'snot twenty other people in the room who

(48:35):
are going to pass the microphone around. I had people during that game who
were not in the arena who werewatching it on TV and they could hear
it, and I was like,man, I'm going to have to ask
about this after the game. SoI asked Travis Steele, and to his
credit, he answered the question,but it was like a very fiery response

(48:59):
and I felt some daggers coming outof his eyes. And here's a guy
that I had a great relationship with, And this is one of those situations
where it's like, man, Ithis is the last thing I want to
be asking you. But if Idon't ask you this, then like my
boss, I might hear from myboss, someone might come knocking on my

(49:21):
door, calling my phone being likehey, yeah, you've got a job
to do to Yeah. So thatwas that was probably the most tense personal
moment that I've ever had in apost game press conference, Adam, is
there a reporter out there, journalist, reporter out there that you admire or

(49:43):
you're coming up You're like, Iwant to be like them? Oh?
There, for sure there are.There's a gentleman who's actually he might even
be younger, younger than me,or we might be roughly the same age.
He writes for the Athletic. Fora long time, he was the
UC guy. His name is JustinWilliams. I respect him immensely. I

(50:05):
think he's like it. At somepoint, I'm going to start writing stories
again. I'm sure we're going totalk eventually about what I'm doing now,
but I'm currently not writing stories.When I do start writing stories, like
Justin Williams is someone that I lookup to a great deal. I think
Paul Dayer Junior at the Bengals is, you know, one of the best
local reporters that we have. AndI could go on and on, but

(50:30):
yeah, I think like those twoare the two that come up first when
you ask me that question. Theypop right into my head. Okay,
go ahead, buddy. When youwere growing up that you liked like Rick
Riley or anybody like that. Ohyeah, yeah. I loved Peter King
when I was growing up, anda former inquir guy. I believe he

(50:50):
even covers Xavier for a little bit. I know. Yeah, I loved
like I would read Paulcrity growing uptoo. I thought Paul was such a
unique writer, and he was actuallysomeone that was very helpful to me when
I was starting out. He gaveme a lot of advice at the enquire

(51:12):
Another guy that I really looked upto, who's unfortunately no longer with us,
was Tom Gresham, who was along time high school sports writer in
Cincinnati. Eventually went on to coverthe Bearcats and passed away not too long
ago. But John fay Elder guy, of course. Yeah, So I

(51:35):
think when I was younger, Iwas like I loved sports and I love
to read, so there was thisnatural transition for me where I liked to
read about sports. I can distinctlyremember being a young kid reading the newspaper
and and you know, I don'teven I think I may have even started
reading the newspaper and not even beencognizant of like whose words I was reading.

(51:59):
I think there came a point intime where that sort of change.
But yeah, I think if Ihad to go back down the memory lane,
I would say Peter King, someguys like that. Yeah, I
had. I had a really coolmoment when I was around fifth or sixth
or seventh grade and there was abook called Showtime and it was a glossy
book and I bought that book fromlike our school book fair only because there

(52:20):
was like five or six pages dedicatedto the Laker girls. Okay, outside
of that, I didn't even atall. That was the closest I ever
got experiencing sort of what you described. And that's why you're a banker and
not a journalist. So so,Adam, I've always had a question out

(52:42):
of curiosity. You've had the opportunityto travel being the Beat writer and everything.
How does travel work for for reporterslike you guys, like when when
you're covering Xavier and and they're ona you know they're they're going to play
you know, Providence of Saint John'sin a two game trip or something or
wherever they're going. How does howdoes travel arrangements work? And how does
that all? Uh, what's alltable that? Yeah, so that's all

(53:06):
on me, that's all on theindividual reporter. Basically, there was a
program at the end choir that madeit super easy, sort of an app
that you could go into and youcould book your flight on there. You
could book your hotel room on there. If you had to rent a car,
you could book it on there.So they made it seamless. But
honestly one of the more stressful aspectsof the job. Everyone would always be

(53:28):
like, oh, you get togo to all these school cities and go
watch these cool college basketball venues.But essentially the way it works was like
you would book your travel weeks inadvance because you wanted to make sure,
you know, I've got a flight, I've got a hotel room, I'm
gonna be where I need to bein order to do my job successfully.
But let's say that they play ona Wednesday night at Yukon. Well,

(53:52):
on Tuesday, that's your travel day. So you're gonna fly and you're going
to get into Yukon. And Ihave some absolute horror stories from traveling to
some of these places. One ofthem was Yukon and that you know,
flight gets delayed, delayed, connectingflight gets delayed, delayed, delayed,
finally canceled, and you know,you spend twelve hours sitting in Ronald Reagan

(54:15):
Airport in DC and finally you getthe Yukon right before the game starts the
next day. But so you alwaystravel the day before the game because you're
assuming that something could go wrong.If nothing does go wrong, you get
a night in a cool city thenight before the game to go out and
do something, have fun, bookyour hotel room, go to the game

(54:39):
the next day. Now, theinteresting thing is, like Xavier, if
they play at Yukon on a Wednesdaynight, all r right, they're going
to play that game. The gameis gonna end, they're gonna get showered,
they're gonna do their media obligations,they're gonna get on the bus,
and they're gonna go get on theircharter plane and come home that night.
Well, for me, that cameends. I have to write a story

(55:02):
and I can't get a plane outbecause I'm flying commercial at that time,
so you have to stay in thehotel another night. You don't come home
until the following day. So Iwouldn't get home from a Wednesday night game
at Yukon until Thursday. So forevery one road game you're on the road,

(55:22):
you leave the day before the game, the day of the game,
you've got the game, and youdon't get home, best case scenario,
until the day after the game.So it's like it's draining. And if
they have back to backs on theroad that there's literally been sometimes where I'm
in Providence, I come home,I'm home for like twelve hours, and

(55:45):
then I'm back at the airport andI'm on the road again, and it's
like it's such a grind, butit's also super fun at the same time.
So did the Quire were you onthe quires down the entire time?
Do you have a per diem?Yeah, you got a per diem.
I could tell you it wasn't great. At the time I was there,
it was like fifty bucks a day, which you know, when Xavier's in

(56:07):
New York. Yeah, fifty guys. Yeah, that's bunch, that's brush.
Yeah, yeah, staying with likeChicago. Actually, my very first
road trip ever, I did getto go cover Red Red Spring training when
I was still a high school guy, so that was really cool. But
my first Xavier road trip ever wasthe Maui Invitational. That was my very

(56:32):
first road trip was I got toget you nowhere. It gets you,
it gets you breakfast basically, it'sa six pack of codea big wave right
there. Yeah. So that's orthat's just obviously on meals, right beverage.
Yeah yeah. And so were youmarried out, Mary, Yeah,

(56:55):
that's the beauty of it is thatyou did get the link your loyalty point.
Ye. So I was like,I'm still platinum. I think I'm
platinum lifetime status. So that wasone great ward to come out of it.
Yeah. Yeah. And and sureDelta everywhere right getting points for them
too. Yeah. Oh yeah,they've changed their loyalty program. That's kind.

(57:20):
Yeah, it's so many damns,so many people with high feer status.
It's funny. So, Martin pathere's here's the real reason I brought
Adam on. Okay, I wantto know what he's up to now,
because I don't want to call myselfa stoker, but I've been trying to
look it up, and I've beentrying. He's kept us very very close

(57:40):
to the best, like hush,like what are you doing now? Because
once you got off the beat andI know, obviously you're doing the the
Sean Miller pot and you'll talk aboutthat, but like, what does what
does the day in the life ofof Adam Baum look like? These days?
Yeah, so I mentioned I'm notwriting any that's that was a half
truth. I'm not writing about sportsanymore. So basically the way it went

(58:07):
down, I loved my time atthe enquire There are some challenges that come
with legacy media networks. I'm sureyou guys are smart enough to figure out
what some of those are. Butit became that's done. It became a
situation where it was like I wasno longer sure how long I could do

(58:30):
this thing that I love. Andyou know, there's a lot of different
things that go into that. ButI had made a connection through Xavier,
and I became friends with a gentlemanand he was he owns a marketing company.
It's called Synergistic and they're basically,you know, an all purpose marketing

(58:52):
and paid media company. So hewas hiring a copywriter and I was like,
man, I don't you know Iknow how to write stories. I
don't. I don't know what acopywriter is. I don't really know much
about marketing either, to be honestwith you, But you know, he
gave me an opportunity. I wentin, I interviewed for it, and
you know, luckily, I'm surroundedby some people there who have done this

(59:15):
for a super long time and reallyknow what they're doing. But so that's
really my day job. And asit turns out, I said, I
met this gentleman through Xavier. He'sa huge Xavior fan. Well, he
had this idea to start the ShawnMiller podcast. So he I basically have
two full time jobs now and forboth for this gentleman. So you know,

(59:38):
I would say six seven hours aday, I'm doing copywriting stuff and
the rest of the day I'm backup here at Xavier watching practice, scheduling
podcasts, you know, being aroundthe team. And yeah, so it's
been it's been fun. I'm comingup on a year in less than a

(59:58):
month. It'll be a year sinceI f the Enquire and a year doing
marketing work, and it's been prettycool because for a long time I really
felt like a one trick bony.I felt like, oh, I can
tell stories, like I can interviewpeople. I know how to I know
how to frame something in a waythat people are going to like to read.
And a lot of times I havefive hundred, one thousand and fifteen

(01:00:20):
hundred words to work with. Well, now, some stuff I write,
it's five words. You know,you have to get a point across with
a message when you have this manycharacters that you have to get a point
across in. So it's it's anew challenge. It's a different challenge.
I'm I'm learning every single day.But it's one of those things where it's

(01:00:43):
like I was scared to take thatleap, and now I'm I'm really happy
that I did because it's given mea new skill set, a new tool
in my toolbox. That's awesome.That's so cool. Now stuff good stuff,
And you being behind the scenes rightwith Xavier and then like you obviously
they run the podcast and you're invitingpeople on like behind the scenes, Like

(01:01:05):
what would the average fan not knowabout this? Obviously this has been a
tough year for Xavior. What wouldbe something like behind the scenes that nobody
would know about this team. Ithink that I wouldn't call it turmoil.
I would say, like everyone knowsthat this team has had severe injury issues.

(01:01:30):
I don't think many people fully understandlike the true revolving door that the
player, like the coaching staff hasgone through with rotations and play. Like
I can literally walk through the seasonand I can say, man, this
guy, this guy, and thisguy, they were outside looking in back

(01:01:52):
in November. They were so bad, they were never gonna play. They
had no business. Well, thenthose three guys started to figure it out
and they took the place of theseother three guys, and those other three
guys got sequestered to the back ofthe line. And it's kind of been
like like, you're if you followthis team at all, you're gonna you
can look at how many different startinglineups they've had. Yeah, you can

(01:02:14):
look at guys who just straight updid not play in certain games, or
maybe they played one minute. Imean, I'm pretty sure they're gonna they're
gonna go to play. Butler atMadison Square Garden on Wednesday and they're probably
gonna have a new starting lineup.And I don't know how many times that's
happened this year, but it's happenedquite a bit, and it's kind of
been like it. I don't thinkpeople fully understand or appreciate, like how

(01:02:37):
many different options they've run through thisyear to try to figure it out and
make it work. And just lookingat the game just on Saturday, what
an amazing effort by Xavier. Andthen like to your point, Adam,
like Djokovic got so much run somuch wrong, and I don't know if
he's been hurt or whatever, butI look up there and he's he's got

(01:02:59):
a lot of minutes he played,he played hard and did a lot of
great things, and you know,the future is bright just with all of
you know, these young freshmen playingand playing well and doing everything that they're
doing. Obviously they'll lose al Varyand so coming in my question the portal

(01:03:19):
nil, how much is this affectingXavier? I think this year in particular,
I think the the carbon copy answeris it's now gonna affect everyone,
right, like this is gonna bein every single year thing. I think
this year in particular it affected Xavierin a big way because when Jerome Hunter

(01:03:45):
and Zach Fremantle got hurt. Andmaybe people don't fully understand this or fully
appreciate it, but the transfer portalit opens on March eighteenth, and I'm
pretty sure it's open for fifty days. So from starting on March eighteenth,
fast forward fifty days, if you'rea player who wants to transfer, you

(01:04:06):
have to enter into the portal inthat window of time. If you don't
go in in that window, youcan't transfer. Well, when Jerome had
his heart attack and Zach Fremantle brokehis foot and they both lost them for
the entire season, those two thingshappened after the transfer portal closed, so

(01:04:28):
there were no new players that couldhop in the portal. And on the
same token, Xavier had gone intothe portal and gotten guys, recruited guys,
gotten them to come to Xavier signletters of intent with the anticipation that
they were going to be supporting membersto Zach and Jerome and some of these

(01:04:49):
other guys. So when Zach andJerome they lose them for the season,
their hands are so tied like there'sno one left in the portal. Really
the guys they already went and gotin the portal were guys that they were
expecting to be a backup for ZachFremantle, a backup for Jerome Hunter,
and then they surrounded They filled outthe rest of their roster with incoming freshmen.

(01:05:13):
So then they had to go theinternational route because it was like what
else are we going to do,Like, we need bodies, we need
to fill up our rotation. Sothey had to take a chance on three
international guys. But yeah, likeright now, it's March eleventh, a
week from today, the transfer portalis going to officially open. Now you
already have guys. And when Isay the transfer portal opens, that essentially

(01:05:39):
means that that's when coaches can starttalking to these guys right now. It's
probably happening behind closed doors right nowon March eleventh, But like, guys
can already enter into the portal today, but the open recruiting period of the
portal doesn't start for a week,So when that happens, it's essentially NFL

(01:06:00):
free agency, it's MLB free agency. That I'm gladts, I'm glad you
said that because today was the firstday that NFL teams were able to talk
to potential free agents and within threeminutes, Oh, he's got a four
year contract, He's got a threeI'm like, man, you must have
been some fast talkers. If youcould just start talking at noon and all

(01:06:21):
of a sudden, Adam Schefter's tweetingat twelve oh four that you know,
this guy's going here and this guy'sgoing there. But yeah, it's definitely
happening. I mean, they're theygot to take care of their their roster,
and that's why they have player ofpersonnel guys on staff. That's their
job is to monitor guys who eitherare going to the portal or portal or

(01:06:41):
probably you know, there's a greatpossibility because of whatever their situation is at
the current school that they're at rightnow, and so the portal would be
exciting. And if I'm if I'ma perspective like athlete and I'm and I
need you to correct me at them, is that if I'm looking at Tavy,
You've got a couple of different thingsthat are working for you, right
the tradition and then facilities. Sohow I mean compare. I mean,

(01:07:02):
you're in the Big East, You'reyou're running around all these facilities. How
does Xavier rank as far as facilities? Yeah, I think that they're right
up near the top. Like,there are some things that I know Xavier
would want to improve upon, Butin terms of, you know, having
an on campus arena that is fullfor every single game, sold out for
every game like that, that's abig deal for a lot of these guys.

(01:07:26):
Center real quick. Hell, yes, yeah, good. Then you
go down the line and you talkabout, Okay, what's what does the
weight room look like? What doesthe training room look like? Do you
have a film room? How's inthe locker room? All the like?
Xavier sort of checks all of thoseboxes in my opinion. But now we
talked about nil earlier, So let'sjust paint a picture of Xavier reaches out

(01:07:53):
to a kid in the transfer portaland you know we you know, I'd
love for you to come here andplay. Well, part of the way
that conversation is going to go isthe kid is going to wonder, Okay,
what does the opportunity look like?Okay, well, oh, I'm
a point guard and you have DavionMcKnight, who looks really good. He's

(01:08:13):
coming back next year. So thebest you can offer me is backup minutes.
Okay, So that, yeah,I don't want to be a backup.
I want to come in and Iwant to play right away. So
that's like you're going to run intothat quite a bit. Okay. A
lot of these guys in the portalwhat they want most is they want an
opportunity. So if you have anopportunity and you have these great facilities that

(01:08:36):
you can throw at them on topof it, well, those are all
positive things that allow you to landreally good guys. But now you have
this nil piece, right, Sothis is the elephant in the room,
okay. And the way Xavier triesto approach it is they want to find
guys where ninety percent of that conversationon that recruiting visit is about the opportunity,

(01:09:00):
the facilities, the coaching staff,how we're going to develop you,
the fact that you're going to playin one of the best college basketball conferences
in the country. You're going toget to go play at Yukon at the
end of the year, everyone getsto go play at Madison Square Garden.
That's ninety percent of what they wantto talk about. The ten percent at
the end is what they want totalk about NIL. So then, and

(01:09:23):
this is something that I trust themon. But you know, if they
go recruit a kid and the firstquestion that he asks is how much money
I'm are I going to get?Like that's the end of the conversation for
Xavior. Now there are other schoolswhere they have these giant NIL budgets and
these these wars, right yeah,yeah, that conversation is right up their

(01:09:46):
alley. That's the way they wantedto go. Xavier is a little different,
Like Xavier is not hurting in termsof NIL, but they're not in
a position where they can they canlead with Oh, you're gonna you know
you want five hundred grand next year? Yeah, we can come on over.
We got that taken care of.Like, that's not the way it's
gonna go. We we know theprograms that have that sort of capacity.

(01:10:06):
We don't have to say I'm outloud, but we we know they are
right yeah, yeah, yeah,And I'm such a Xavier junkie, so
I apologize. So, like you'vebeen covering this team, who would who's
your who is your favorite players?Maybe low key like favorite players that you
really just like, God, thisguy's just good dude, So you are

(01:10:30):
I'm assuming that you. Meanwhile Iwas covering the team. Yeah, yeah,
something that you got to know thatyou were like, hey, you
know what, this guy didn't playa lot, but just a really good
kid. Well, the the easyanswer to that is the walk Ons,
Like, yeah, the walk Onsend up because those are guys that are
always around. The walk Ons arealways the three walk Ons that Xavier has

(01:10:58):
on this year's team. I havea great relationship with all of them.
They're you know, Michael Wolf,his uncle is Steve Wolf. I'm sure
you guys know the Wolf family herein Cincinnati. Then you got a kid
from Moler, a kid from Baden, and they're just they're the best.
But maybe you kind of go downthe line, Like I bonded a lot
with Jack Nungeye when he was here. A big reason for that is because

(01:11:24):
I lost my dad unexpectedly, JackJack lost his dad on a national stage
unexpectedly, and we kind of bondedover that. But Jack remains to this
day one of my favorite people thatthat I've covered a Xavier that I've gotten
to know it Xavier. So yeah, that's where i'd go without one.
Yeah, are you going to getBob Nunje on the pod. I'm glad

(01:11:47):
you asked we have an idea.We have an idea, Brett, but
I think people people have no idea. So my job is to schedule these
podcasts, and it's it's slowly killingme. It's the easily one of the
hardest things I've ever had to do. I'm juggling my schedule. I'm juggling

(01:12:09):
like Paul, my co host schedule. Now we have a video editor and
then Sean who's trying to coach acollege basketball season, and there are sometimes
where he just wants nothing to dowith with me or with the podcast.
His focus is so singular and tryingto get a win or trying to get
the team back on the right trackthat it's like he doesn't want to do

(01:12:29):
a podcast. You can't tell.You can't tell. That's that's a privilege
to you. I mean, that'syou can't He sounds genuinely a jacked excited
and like when I'm listening, here'sanother thing. He's so damn articulate.
There is never an um or thelike. He just rattles off ten minutes
talking about spits really well. He'svery good at that. No, and

(01:12:53):
I I agree with that sentiment completelyand that watching the show, listening to
the show, you would have heis genuinely excited to be there. He's
having a blast, he loves doingit. I'm more referring to like,
Oh, you just lost by fortythree points at Yukon, and there's this
bald idiot sitting over there who's goingto come up to you and talk to

(01:13:15):
you about trying to record a podcastthis week. And it's like that part
of the equation, I think iswhere we're at with this. Like if
we would have started this last yearwhen they were second in the East and
they went to the Sweet sixteen,I bet you it would have been a
lot easier to make some of theseepisodes work. But this is where we're
at, and I'll give him somuch credit, Like we just recorded our

(01:13:36):
twenty second episode of the podcast,and he's appeared on twenty of them while
trying to balance everything that goes intobeing a head basketball coach. It's a
Division one level. Well, youguys are doing a phenomenal job. I
will say that it's every time Iget my truck to go to school on
Tuesday morning and I see a freshepisode on there. It's like, you

(01:13:58):
know, it's definitely a muscle listenmaterial. And then sometimes I'll get to
school with fired up on the oldiPad. Watch watch YouTube version of it.
But uh, it's the insight,the insight that you guys have given
you and Paul, you know,from coming from all the different angles that
you do, and like you say, you know, it's it's basically a
full time job of yours, whichI didn't realize. I thought you're like

(01:14:18):
the three of us slaps. Youknow, you just kind of sit down
and you you know, hey,we'll show up at Sentas at four o'clock
to will record a pod. Soyou're you're putting it in there, and
and the work that you guys do, you can really tell. I mean,
it's it's the first Well, thebest part about it is, you
know, I'm I'm the guest onyour show right now. So the expectation

(01:14:40):
is that I'm going to have totalk a lot, and I'm fine with
that. Doing a podcast with SeanMiller. The man can talk for days
and he has this crazy memory.There are some episodes where I barely have
to say anything, and I'm like, this is perfect because everyone's clicking on
this and listening to it because theywant to hear what he has to say,
and he's aware of that and hecan just steer the conversation and go

(01:15:03):
on and on and on. Soit makes it tooper easy. Well,
and your time has been so supervaluable tonight and for you to come on
here and we're not done. Wegot probably the toughest part of the the
pod for you at the end ofthe night. At the end, we
always ask these nine questions that usuallylast ninety seconds, but typically the last

(01:15:25):
closer to ninety minutes. And MartinMartin has been known to ask some real
bangers here, so what a seatbelton? You have no idea where he's
going to go. You know hisbrother, so it might go into politics,
who knows, so Martin the floorsiers. All right, So Adam,
just to preface the first three outof the gate, we had been joking

(01:15:47):
the last couple podcasts about playing fMary kill right. And what I'm gonna
do is I'm going to throw outthree things of the same genre, and
you have to pick which one youcan get, which one you're getting rid
of, which one you get alittle nibble of a little you know,
little side, and which one you'regonna marry? Okay, so f Mary
kill grunge music, rap or country. I'm gonna I'm gonna kill grunge music,

(01:16:17):
all right, I'm gonna yeah,I'm sorry, I'm gonna it was
rapped and country? Yeah, rungerap country f m K. Definitely,
Martin is a good question. Ithink. I think I'm gonna f rap
music and merry country music because ifyou if you looked at like my my

(01:16:44):
music taste, it's like I sprinklein rap music here and there. I
think, like countries, country isway more of a consistent part typical guy
anyway, Okay, all right,beer beer, but I have been experimenting
more with bourbon recently. I'm sucha newbie though that I can't I can't

(01:17:10):
put it ahead of beer yet.So you're marrying yeah, sorry, and
you're killing wine beer wine. That'sactually that's actually tough because every once in
a while, I like a littlebit of wine. But we're gonna go
marry beer. Yeah, f bourbonand I'll kill wine. But you can

(01:17:33):
do the same thing. I thinkI would do the same thing. This
is probably in two years, andI may have a different answer, and
you will for me. This isthe most controversial and hardest one for me.
All right, SpongeBob, South Parkor the Simpsons. Oh that's okay,

(01:17:54):
Yeah, I'm gonna I think I'mgonna marry south Park because that that
was like I came up with that. Me and my buddy, we loved
south Park. I'll probably I'll askthe Simpsons and I'll kill SpongeBob. I'm
sorry, all right, I can'targue with any of those. I can't

(01:18:15):
argue with any of those. Sogood that one I could put and make
an argument for any of the threethere the greatest. Oh yeah, all
right, So name whatever your favoriteteam is. Say it's whatever, what
Paris would you go to? Likewhat grade school? Our lady of visitation,
say it's Visitation or Elder or Zavi. Al right, whatever that team

(01:18:36):
is. You got a ten yearperiod. Would you rather have them just
be consistently good, like eight hundredwinning percentage but never win a championship,
or be like two hundred winning percentageover that ten year period but they win
a championship. Yeah, give methe championship. I'm a I'm like a

(01:19:00):
and Bengals guy and I'm yeah,I'm so distraught. I just need one.
Yeah, yeah, give me abottle, give me the ship.
I'd rather be, you know,the Cowboys are good every year, but
they never can freaking win it,right, That would drive me nuts.
I'd rather be the Bengals and theyhave like mediocrity and then every ten years
be really good and have a chanceto win it all. Right, Well,

(01:19:23):
that's such an interesting question because I'mup here at Xavier right now,
and what's the knock against Xavier?Right They've never been to title four?
Yeah, never won a title.And it's like, think the NCAA Tournament
expanded to sixty four teams in nineteeneighty five. There are only ten Division
one college basketball programs that have wonmore games than Xavier since nineteen eighty five.

(01:19:48):
Xavier has the eleventh most wins incollege basketball since nineteen eighty five.
But you can't tell that to anyonebecause all they're going to say is,
all you've never been a Final four. You I ever won a national championship?
Yeah, exactly, So visitation anyfavorite teachers you want to give a
shout out to? Who's your favoriteteacher? Grade school, high school,

(01:20:09):
college? Yes? Well, ifyou include if you include high school,
it's different. But I did havethis this teacher at visitation in the fifth
grade. His name was mister Starns, and I remember him because he was
so jacked, Like I'm talking hecould have been he could have been a

(01:20:29):
strength coach at Elder or you knowhere at Xavier, and I was just
so mesmeriz like he was such acool influence on my life. And then
you know, all of my Englishteachers at Elder, from you know,
Ken Leistt to Matt James, andI could go on and on. Mister
Acido, like all those people hada profound impact on me, but they

(01:20:54):
probably had, you know, youcould tell him like mister rearing was my
journalism teach. And I've I've actuallyhad some beers with mister Rearings since I've
become an adult. And I don'tthink he saw be becoming anything resembling what
I became when at the time hehad his hands on me in high school.

(01:21:14):
So it's cool. That's cool watchingkids grow and seeing what they've because
that's part of the reason I'm stillyou know, volunteer coaching ninth grade.
Just it's cool building those relationships andthen seeing them all these years later and
the men that grow into the seatthing. Okay, two quick bangers,
what's the reds over under? Theywere eighty two and eighty last year.
Give me a number. What's theover under? I think let's go eighty

(01:21:40):
six. I think they have tobe better this year. Okay, we're
gonna hold you do that. Didthey make the playoffs? Yeah? At
eighty six? Got no because Ithink that I think that the central is
going to be better this year.Yeah. And then Bengals go eighteenth pick.

(01:22:02):
Overall, where do you think theygo? What position they go with?
Best player available or position wise?If you're the GM. If I'm
the GM, I'm I'm gonna giveJoe Burrow more protection. I'm gonna just
best available offensive lineman probably. Now. The interesting thing is if I were

(01:22:26):
the Bengals GM, like T Higginscame out today and said he wants to
be traded, I would see ifmaybe I could do a first round swap
with a team and like maybe getup into the top ten or the top
five and then have him throw onlike a third round pick behind it and
just try to get earlier up andsee who's there at that point, because

(01:22:49):
you know, I think the possibilitiesthere, you know, you could get
you could get a lot if youjumped up. So but I'd go a
line if Jonah Williams, Jodah Williams, I did the same thing too,
right, Joona Williams kind of whenthey said, he you're gonna do the
right tackles, trade me, trademe, get me out of here,
exactly. It's all part of it, I think. So I hope my

(01:23:10):
only concern with t is that,yeah, he'll help you this year if
he's there, but if you donothing, you know he's gonna walk after
the season and you're not going toget anything for him, right unless you
can find a way to sign himcome to terms on a long term deal.
Yeah, yeah, all right.Last question, this is a little

(01:23:32):
bit of a homage. My fatherin law just recently passed away. He's
a Xavier grad, last football teamundefeated since nineteen seventy three, and he
had joked that when when my wifewas pregnant with our firstborn, you know,
our son, he wanted to namehim after Xavier's mascot. Can you
name Xavier's mascot? What is hisname? d'Artagnan. That was almost gonna

(01:23:58):
be my son's name. And I'mkidding, he really did. You wanted
to want to d'Artagnan as a joke, was like, you got a name,
d'Artagnan, d'Artagnan, you could hecould have pulled off like Dart right,
you know youname? But can youname the other two three musketeers by
any chance? Anybody I had?I looked it up tight in front.

(01:24:18):
I didn't know how to spell d'Artagnan, so I looked it up. There
was a time where I knew them, and that time has passed. Aramis
and Athos. Okay, that's whatthe Internet's tell me, Adam, you
are a true storyteller. We thankyou so much for your time in coming
on the podcast. Uh, I'mgonna check out pod more often and and

(01:24:44):
follow what you're doing. And bestof luck and and you know the rest
of your career because you're super talenteddude, and whatever you know, wherever
wherever your career takes you, man, you're going to be successful because a
you put in the work right.You've obviously shown a track record of putting
in the work and uh, ifyou mix if you mix talent and hard
work, you're going to go alot of places man too. So best

(01:25:08):
of luck to you, and weappreciate coming on. Thank you, Mari.
Appreciate that you're catching a flight tomorrowto the Big Apple. I am.
I am going up to the NewYork City hopefully I'm going to be
there for an extended period of time. Where are you staying. I'm staying
right near Madison Square Garden. Ilike to stay close because you know,

(01:25:30):
it's easier to walk in New Yorkthan it is. I don't really I'm
not a big subway guy, andI'm not gonna hail a taxi. So
I think it's called the Hotel Hendrix. It's on like thirty fourth Street,
and MSG's on thirty third, thirtysecond. I don't care. How I've
been to New York City like threeor four times. It doesn't It's still
so damn cool. I just loveNew York's very It's awesome. Yeah,

(01:25:53):
same, yes it is, Yesit is. Well, Adam, thank
you very much. You had offeredgreat, great perspective tonight, just a
lot of behind the scenes information thatpeople think they know but they really don't.
And you're able to bring a lotof that to light. We really
appreciate having you able to join ustonight. No, I was happy to
get the invitation from me, Brad. It's been too long. We used

(01:26:14):
to We used to hang out andcross paths in the Lassal's press box.
Yes we did. Hey, holdon, but before you get out of
here, I here's the other questionI need to ask you and your your
citrus obsession in search of in searchof citrus For people who don't know,
Adam always would eat Clementine's at atPress Road down at Sentas. Where did

(01:26:38):
that all start? How did thatjust take off? And it was it
just like a like a cult classic, like like what happened with that?
Yeah? So when I was incollege, I developed some bad habits and
uh I put on some way.So there was a period there in my
life where I got pretty big.And one of the things that helped me

(01:27:02):
get the train back on the trackswas instead of leaving the house in the
morning and just saying, oh,you know what, I'm going to go
through a drive through and get fastfood somewhere, I started to just I
would throw like three, four orfive Clementins in my bag and it was
like I'd get hungry, and previouslyI'd go run out and I'd eat fast

(01:27:24):
food or something, and that washow I got to be big. Well,
what got me back on the rightpath was I would just I'd get
hungry, I'd eat a Clementine andI would just I did that for a
while, and you know, Iwould eat other meals too, But that
was like a huge turning point inmy life where it was like, okay,
like this is going to get youwhere you need to go, Like

(01:27:47):
you don't need to go get Wendy's, you don't need to go get the
skyline, Like this Clementine will getyou over that. You know, that
hunger that you're dealing with. Soit's just sort of now it's become I'm
a running joke online that I alwayshave clement Tines with me at all times.
As crazy as it sounds, Iusually and it's not because of you,
but I think of you almost everyday because I take two clement Times

(01:28:12):
with me to school and my planbell starts at nine thirty every morning and
I reach in the bag and Ieat my yogurt and I eat two clement
Times, and almost every single dayI think Adam Baum would be proud of
me right now if you knew Iwas eating I am two cleven times.
That's awesome. Well, hey,good luck to the Muskies. By the
time a lot of people listen tothis will probably know what they did against

(01:28:32):
Butler Bulldogs, and hopefully, likeyou said, they make a nice long
run this weekend and who knows,crazier things have happened play themselves in the
tournament and maybe you'll see them onselection Sunday. Who knows. Yeah,
man, it's March, you neverknow. We are on Twitter, TikTok,
Insta, and YouTube. Find uson Twitter at tf t S Underscore

(01:28:55):
podcast that stands for Tales from theScript Underscore Podcast. Same with TikTok,
TFTs Underscore Podcast, same with InstaTFTs Underscore podcast, and on YouTube Tales
from the Script seven at gmail dotcom. While we're at it, we
want to take this opportunity to thankour executive producer, Joe Strecker with Joe

(01:29:16):
Strecker Productions for pushing buttons, recording, editing, and making us three idiots
sound like we know what we aredoing. No doubt, he's the best
in the business. Also want tothank our awesome Marketing department edit up by
Vice President of Marketing Liz McMahon.She does a great job of make sure

(01:29:38):
that everything looks great for us.

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