00:00:00
Speaker 1: Normally, this time on Thursdays, we chat with Chad Brendel, BearcatJournal.com, and we talk this time of year, a lot of UC football. Bearcat football has a bye this week. UC basketball played last night. But because of the CareSource Invitational and the nature of the event, I wanted to bring on Rick Boring as well, but we're loaded today. And so we asked Chad and Rick in a preview of our annual in-studio visit with those guys, where we preview the college football season, to both join me right now. And look, there they are. Hi, gentlemen. How we doing?
00:00:34
Speaker 2: What's up, Mo?
00:00:35
Speaker 3: Hi, Rick.
00:00:36
Speaker 1: Hi, Chad.
00:00:37
Speaker 3: This is the preview of the preview.
00:00:39
Speaker 1: This is the preview of the preview, yes. As an event, we'll talk about the basketball itself. And Chad, I'll go to you first. As an event, what did you make of what went down yesterday in Mason?
00:00:54
Speaker 3: Loved it. Thought it was really cool. Great for fans. We need more of that in college sports. Events that are really good for the fans. The weather, you couldn't have scripted a better day weather wise. And that's my first time up there. That is an awesome facility. Awesome. Rick.
00:01:16
Speaker 2: It's hard to believe that's in Mason, Ohio. I mean, really, you see that place and you're like, what could be better than this in terms of an outdoor event space? It's incredible. Uh, it's rivals anything I've ever been to. If you just open that up to the public for like a Friday night drinking spot, it'd be packed every night. I mean, it's, It's beautiful.
00:01:37
Speaker 1: It's a good idea. I thought it helped that the weather was as good as it was. But I thought I sat in the stands for the second game. And when the sun started to go down, that was gorgeous. That was just that was just that was a beautiful setting to watch a sporting event.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: I know people are always able to find things to complain about, but I don't see how anyone was at the event last night and didn't have the feeling at some point of this is pretty awesome.
00:02:03
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny you say that because I often think Twitter is not real life on Twitter. People can complain about anything. But like I was, I was walking around between games and I must've been stopped or ran into five or six people that just out of the blue commented like, this is awesome. There were no complaints. I would have some minor tweaks from a working perspective that nobody listening to this cares about, but the fan experience seemed awesome.
00:02:32
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, everybody, same thing. We were walking kind of in that same area. We ran into each other actually. I got stopped a couple of times too. And everybody was like, this is really cool. Like really, really cool. So yeah, it was, it was two thumbs up for me.
00:02:47
Speaker 1: The, the basketball part, early October basketball should leave a lot to, to the imagination, a lot to be desired. We had unlimited fouls in both games, which was, which was pretty interesting. Rick, I'll start this one with you. What was your big takeaway from the Musketeers victory over the Flyers?
00:03:05
Speaker 2: A gentleman's nine fouls from Mike Noiko was incredible stuff. Like I wanted a triple double with 10 fouls so bad last night. That's exhibition basketball at its peak right there. But, I thought it's exactly what you'd expect from an early exhibition that's played outdoors under weird circumstances. It was sloppy, but I thought both teams shot the ball well enough and they played up and down enough and had some highlight reel dunk type plays that made it entertaining to watch. I think if you were looking to feel really good about your team and the way they played, probably wasn't the event for you. Probably not going to feel great about the way either team looked in that game, but it was fun to watch.
00:03:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say the same about the first game. I think from a Bearcat perspective, you know, maybe the sun was going to have an impact on the shooting. There was a lot of slop to it. But I love the fact that in the second half of the game, you had players who were capable of kind of taking over.
00:04:03
Speaker 3: For me, that was, you know, we saw a lot in the Bahamas. What we did not see was Tylan Riley, who was out with an injured hand. We got to see Tylan Riley yesterday. And if you go look at the final, like six minutes, it was unequivocally the Tylan Riley show continuous drives to the rim finishes gets fouled. Apparently, apparently you are allowed to go towards the basket, draw contact and go to the free throw line, which was kind of fun to see after a couple of years of not realizing that guards were allowed to shoot free throws.
00:04:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. Let's take the teams as they are currently constructed and understanding that both teams had players who didn't play for non-eligibility reasons. As currently constructed, and whoever wants to go first can, because you guys have been at practices and are familiar more than most with each team's personnel. I'll just say, is making the NCAA tournament a realistic expectation?
00:05:08
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Rick.
00:05:10
Speaker 2: I think, look, in the era we're in, fans are going to look at it very simply. They heard Richard Pitino under oath say that they spent more than $ 14 million this year. So from a fan's perspective, they're going to say, we spent over $ 14 million. We better make the NCAA tournament. And I think at Xavier, that's a realistic expectation. That's what they're shooting for. Now, the problem is in the Big East, there's seven, eight teams that spent that or more. And all of them are saying the same thing right now. I don't know that the Big East is going to get seven or eight teams in even with the expanded format this year of 76 teams. So I, I think there is room for someone to be very disappointed or maybe a few teams be very disappointed in the big East. Xavier's hoping that they're not one of them. I think as long as they're in the tournament, fans will be mostly okay with that.
00:05:58
Speaker 3: I would agree with that. I think it's a fairly similar situation, except Xavier's being talked about like fourth to seventh in the big East where, uh, if you finish fourth, you're getting in. Like I think that, you know, fourth or fifth, you're going to be in the tournament. I think most prognostications are six to like 10th for Cincinnati. And that makes the tight rope a little bit tighter to walk. I feel pretty good about their chances to make the tournament. If MJ Collins is eligible without MJ Collins, there's a scoring gap that, you feel like Jared Calhoun's offense should be able to eliminate, alleviate some of that. But I mean, we've talked about this in the past. When you're walking that tightrope, they'll probably be, I would guess, eight big 12 teams make the tournament. If you're predicted sixth, there's not a lot of margin for error.
00:06:57
Speaker 1: What is right now each team's biggest deficiency? Chad, I'll start with you.
00:07:05
Speaker 3: I thought it was going to be rebounding. And then they out-rebounded a much bigger Ohio State team by 10 last night. So I still worry about Jared Cowan's teams have never been really good defensive rebounding teams. It's a lot of Bob Huggins, Mick Cronin philosophy where offensive rebounding is placed on a little bit higher level of importance. But you better defensive rebound in this conference because if not, Houston and Iowa state, there are teams that are just going to hammer you on the defensive glass. So I'm still going to have my eye on rebounding, especially next Saturday when they play an Illinois team that is tall. And actually those tall guys are pretty good. It turned out the tall guys from Ohio state weren't maybe there yet. Yes. Rick.
00:07:57
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:08:01
Speaker 2: I think, sorry, I just saw Austin Elmore's comment pop up there on the screen and threw me off for a second as you asked that question. But I think for Xavier, the biggest question coming out of that game, at least, is going to be the point guard play. Chance Westry really struggled, and Dayton was pressuring all game, so it made it kind of funky. And you had Kalec House get hurt as soon as he got into the game. He played the rest of the game and actually played more minutes than your starting point guard, Chance Westry, despite Being hobbled had some type of leg ailment over there on the sideline that they were dealing with. So I think that opens a lot of questions up about that point guard position. Who is your guy right now? I mean, Chance Westry is the starter for now, but if he's only going to play 20 minutes in that game when your freshman Kelly house gets hurt and you're struggling against pressure. That's going to open up some question marks and certainly put the point guard position under a microscope over the next few weeks.
00:08:54
Speaker 1: Have you guys enjoyed talking about that event last night without anybody asking why it wasn't televised?
00:09:02
Speaker 3: No.
00:09:04
Speaker 1: You haven't enjoyed it? You wanted me to ask why it wasn't televised?
00:09:09
Speaker 3: I always enjoy talking to the fans, Mo. It's one of my favorite things.
00:09:16
Speaker 1: I'll leave it at that. We've got to get the season preview on the books. We'll do that behind the scenes. I look forward to it. Thanks, Mel. All right. Chad Brendel, BearcatJournal.com, Rick Boring, MusketeerReport.com, and part of the Skinny Podcast on the Growler Podcast Network.
Speaker 1: Normally, this time on Thursdays, we chat with Chad Brendel, BearcatJournal.com, and we talk this time of year, a lot of UC football. Bearcat football has a bye this week. UC basketball played last night. But because of the CareSource Invitational and the nature of the event, I wanted to bring on Rick Boring as well, but we're loaded today. And so we asked Chad and Rick in a preview of our annual in-studio visit with those guys, where we preview the college football season, to both join me right now. And look, there they are. Hi, gentlemen. How we doing?
00:00:34
Speaker 2: What's up, Mo?
00:00:35
Speaker 3: Hi, Rick.
00:00:36
Speaker 1: Hi, Chad.
00:00:37
Speaker 3: This is the preview of the preview.
00:00:39
Speaker 1: This is the preview of the preview, yes. As an event, we'll talk about the basketball itself. And Chad, I'll go to you first. As an event, what did you make of what went down yesterday in Mason?
00:00:54
Speaker 3: Loved it. Thought it was really cool. Great for fans. We need more of that in college sports. Events that are really good for the fans. The weather, you couldn't have scripted a better day weather wise. And that's my first time up there. That is an awesome facility. Awesome. Rick.
00:01:16
Speaker 2: It's hard to believe that's in Mason, Ohio. I mean, really, you see that place and you're like, what could be better than this in terms of an outdoor event space? It's incredible. Uh, it's rivals anything I've ever been to. If you just open that up to the public for like a Friday night drinking spot, it'd be packed every night. I mean, it's, It's beautiful.
00:01:37
Speaker 1: It's a good idea. I thought it helped that the weather was as good as it was. But I thought I sat in the stands for the second game. And when the sun started to go down, that was gorgeous. That was just that was just that was a beautiful setting to watch a sporting event.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: I know people are always able to find things to complain about, but I don't see how anyone was at the event last night and didn't have the feeling at some point of this is pretty awesome.
00:02:03
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny you say that because I often think Twitter is not real life on Twitter. People can complain about anything. But like I was, I was walking around between games and I must've been stopped or ran into five or six people that just out of the blue commented like, this is awesome. There were no complaints. I would have some minor tweaks from a working perspective that nobody listening to this cares about, but the fan experience seemed awesome.
00:02:32
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, everybody, same thing. We were walking kind of in that same area. We ran into each other actually. I got stopped a couple of times too. And everybody was like, this is really cool. Like really, really cool. So yeah, it was, it was two thumbs up for me.
00:02:47
Speaker 1: The, the basketball part, early October basketball should leave a lot to, to the imagination, a lot to be desired. We had unlimited fouls in both games, which was, which was pretty interesting. Rick, I'll start this one with you. What was your big takeaway from the Musketeers victory over the Flyers?
00:03:05
Speaker 2: A gentleman's nine fouls from Mike Noiko was incredible stuff. Like I wanted a triple double with 10 fouls so bad last night. That's exhibition basketball at its peak right there. But, I thought it's exactly what you'd expect from an early exhibition that's played outdoors under weird circumstances. It was sloppy, but I thought both teams shot the ball well enough and they played up and down enough and had some highlight reel dunk type plays that made it entertaining to watch. I think if you were looking to feel really good about your team and the way they played, probably wasn't the event for you. Probably not going to feel great about the way either team looked in that game, but it was fun to watch.
00:03:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say the same about the first game. I think from a Bearcat perspective, you know, maybe the sun was going to have an impact on the shooting. There was a lot of slop to it. But I love the fact that in the second half of the game, you had players who were capable of kind of taking over.
00:04:03
Speaker 3: For me, that was, you know, we saw a lot in the Bahamas. What we did not see was Tylan Riley, who was out with an injured hand. We got to see Tylan Riley yesterday. And if you go look at the final, like six minutes, it was unequivocally the Tylan Riley show continuous drives to the rim finishes gets fouled. Apparently, apparently you are allowed to go towards the basket, draw contact and go to the free throw line, which was kind of fun to see after a couple of years of not realizing that guards were allowed to shoot free throws.
00:04:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. Let's take the teams as they are currently constructed and understanding that both teams had players who didn't play for non-eligibility reasons. As currently constructed, and whoever wants to go first can, because you guys have been at practices and are familiar more than most with each team's personnel. I'll just say, is making the NCAA tournament a realistic expectation?
00:05:08
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Rick.
00:05:10
Speaker 2: I think, look, in the era we're in, fans are going to look at it very simply. They heard Richard Pitino under oath say that they spent more than $ 14 million this year. So from a fan's perspective, they're going to say, we spent over $ 14 million. We better make the NCAA tournament. And I think at Xavier, that's a realistic expectation. That's what they're shooting for. Now, the problem is in the Big East, there's seven, eight teams that spent that or more. And all of them are saying the same thing right now. I don't know that the Big East is going to get seven or eight teams in even with the expanded format this year of 76 teams. So I, I think there is room for someone to be very disappointed or maybe a few teams be very disappointed in the big East. Xavier's hoping that they're not one of them. I think as long as they're in the tournament, fans will be mostly okay with that.
00:05:58
Speaker 3: I would agree with that. I think it's a fairly similar situation, except Xavier's being talked about like fourth to seventh in the big East where, uh, if you finish fourth, you're getting in. Like I think that, you know, fourth or fifth, you're going to be in the tournament. I think most prognostications are six to like 10th for Cincinnati. And that makes the tight rope a little bit tighter to walk. I feel pretty good about their chances to make the tournament. If MJ Collins is eligible without MJ Collins, there's a scoring gap that, you feel like Jared Calhoun's offense should be able to eliminate, alleviate some of that. But I mean, we've talked about this in the past. When you're walking that tightrope, they'll probably be, I would guess, eight big 12 teams make the tournament. If you're predicted sixth, there's not a lot of margin for error.
00:06:57
Speaker 1: What is right now each team's biggest deficiency? Chad, I'll start with you.
00:07:05
Speaker 3: I thought it was going to be rebounding. And then they out-rebounded a much bigger Ohio State team by 10 last night. So I still worry about Jared Cowan's teams have never been really good defensive rebounding teams. It's a lot of Bob Huggins, Mick Cronin philosophy where offensive rebounding is placed on a little bit higher level of importance. But you better defensive rebound in this conference because if not, Houston and Iowa state, there are teams that are just going to hammer you on the defensive glass. So I'm still going to have my eye on rebounding, especially next Saturday when they play an Illinois team that is tall. And actually those tall guys are pretty good. It turned out the tall guys from Ohio state weren't maybe there yet. Yes. Rick.
00:07:57
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:08:01
Speaker 2: I think, sorry, I just saw Austin Elmore's comment pop up there on the screen and threw me off for a second as you asked that question. But I think for Xavier, the biggest question coming out of that game, at least, is going to be the point guard play. Chance Westry really struggled, and Dayton was pressuring all game, so it made it kind of funky. And you had Kalec House get hurt as soon as he got into the game. He played the rest of the game and actually played more minutes than your starting point guard, Chance Westry, despite Being hobbled had some type of leg ailment over there on the sideline that they were dealing with. So I think that opens a lot of questions up about that point guard position. Who is your guy right now? I mean, Chance Westry is the starter for now, but if he's only going to play 20 minutes in that game when your freshman Kelly house gets hurt and you're struggling against pressure. That's going to open up some question marks and certainly put the point guard position under a microscope over the next few weeks.
00:08:54
Speaker 1: Have you guys enjoyed talking about that event last night without anybody asking why it wasn't televised?
00:09:02
Speaker 3: No.
00:09:04
Speaker 1: You haven't enjoyed it? You wanted me to ask why it wasn't televised?
00:09:09
Speaker 3: I always enjoy talking to the fans, Mo. It's one of my favorite things.
00:09:16
Speaker 1: I'll leave it at that. We've got to get the season preview on the books. We'll do that behind the scenes. I look forward to it. Thanks, Mel. All right. Chad Brendel, BearcatJournal.com, Rick Boring, MusketeerReport.com, and part of the Skinny Podcast on the Growler Podcast Network.
