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00:00:00
Speaker 1: This is Dan Hoard.
00:00:01
Speaker 2: Join Wayne Boxmiller and me for Bengals game plan tonight starting at 6 on the official home of the Bengals, Cincinnati's ESPN 1530.
00:00:09
Speaker 3: I'm just going to tell you, that show tonight is going to be good. It's at the Holy Grail, which obviously you can't beat that. Also, Joe Flacco is supposed to be there, so that's cool. And Dan Horton, Wayne Box. Dan and Box, that in itself should be worth you saying, hey, let's go down and hang out at the Grail. Watch a radio show. But Joe Flacco, come on. Who doesn't love Joe Flacco? Good afternoon. My name's Mo Egger. This is ESPN 1530. If you're watching right now on Twitter or on YouTube, which you could do that now. We put the show. It feels like since I had to take a few days off for not feeling well and stuff, like some folks forgot, we... We put video, you, you just, you just watched me sort of set up the studio and now we're good to go. Now the three hour sports talk radio presentation can begin. And we have, we've got a lot of stuff we got to get to today. Now here's a quick note about today's show. Joe Burrow typically talks about, in the three o'clock hour scheduled for three 15, usually shows up about three 30. And, uh, that is not happening this afternoon. Instead, he is going to talk at six o'clock. And so they'll have that covered tonight on the Bengals game plan show. Zach Taylor did talk today, by the way, show preview is available also on Twitter. Thanks to share facts, credit union, single greatest financial institution in the United States of America, share facts, Credit Union. Bengals at the trade deadline did nothing. Now they tried to do something, but it didn't work out. And Duke Tobin. It looked like he had a deal done, was going to be good to go. They were going to add an edge and not make one of the deals that was going to generate the most amount of buzz or headlines around the country, but one that was going to fortify perhaps their defensive line room, their edge rush room to be more specific, maybe give them a little bit of a pass rush boost. In the absence of Cassius Howe, especially with Shamar Stewart not being somebody that it feels like anybody can count on right now. Miles Murphy is not having a great season. So Arnold Ebikedi was going to be the guy. They had this deal agreed to with the Philadelphia Eagles. It falls through because the Bengals found out, thanks to a guy on the internet, that, well, we'll lose a compensatory third-round pick if we make this trade. And it's a mistake. It's oversight. In the grand scheme of things, is it something forgivable?
00:02:37
Speaker 4: Yeah! Yes.
00:02:39
Speaker 3: Like if if we're talking about Duke Tobin's job performance in the last 11 months, this doesn't start at the top of the page. This isn't the first thing we talk about. The first thing we talk about is Dexter Lawrence and then all the acquisitions they made in free agency that have paid off. But it's a mistake. It's one that the team can move on from. It's one that Duke Tobin can move on from. I was just hoping, as an adult, which is what I am, though I sometimes don't act like it, as an adult, I was expecting Duke Tobin, an adult, to step up today. Media's going to be there anyway, either in the locker room or for Zach Taylor's press conference, and just... Give us an idea as to what happened. Be honest with me, okay? You're a Bengals fan. Be honest with me. You're not kind of curious as to not only why the trade didn't happen, not only the mechanics of finding out or not knowing about the compensatory third round pick, but also like... Why didn't they do anything at the deadline? Why didn't they do anything at the deadline when in-season trades have never been more of a thing? Why didn't they do anything at the deadline when a whole bunch of teams that are like direct competitors of the Bengals did something at the deadline? I don't know, maybe I was being unrealistic, but I was kind of hoping that Duke Tobin, big boy Duke with a job that he's had for a long time, he's highly compensated, he's in the big boy world of NFL football, I kind of held out hope that he would show up and, I don't know, spend five, ten minutes just sort of answering questions about what happened, about what didn't happen, about what they didn't do, and about perhaps his faith in what the Bengals have moving forward. That did not happen today. Instead, the head coach, Zach Taylor, who has a lot on his plate, he's got to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. He's got to figure out a way to get his guys to tackle dudes like Jalen Warren and Darnell Washington and Pat Friermuth. Zach Taylor talked today and had to speak on Duke Tobin's behalf regarding something that Zach Taylor has nothing to do with. Taren, play the audio.
00:04:56
Speaker 5: Obviously we tried something yesterday and Duke was very explicit with me when he came and spoke to me of how he wanted this portrayed and I'm not comfortable doing it but I'm going to do what he asked you know and we did make an effort to kind of put some depth in there in place of Cassius. As we got into it obviously it was going to be a little more costly than we initially anticipated so he's really apologetic about it and wants to make clear Philly was a great trade partner it was on our end and that's just the way things go but certainly have a ton of confidence in our front office and how they do things, and they've given us the players that have allowed us to be 6-2 right now.
00:05:32
Speaker 1: And playing at such a high level.
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Speaker 5: So we'll put that behind us and move forward and just get excited for this game on Sunday, and our locker room is in a great place right now. Did you disclose how well you can wear? No, I didn't even ask the question. It doesn't really matter to me. It probably took three minutes of my day yesterday away from watching tape. So I've got a lot of faith in how those guys
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operate, and we'll just move forward with it.
00:05:54
Speaker 3: And Zach Taylor explaining what happened on behalf of Duke Tobin, who says he's apologetic.
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Speaker 6: Huh?
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Speaker 3: I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. I will make a lot of mistakes between now and six o'clock. I'm a human being. Duke Tobin's a human being. Like, is it good? No. Does it highlight some degree of unpreparedness or ineptitude?
00:06:17
Speaker 7: Sure.
00:06:17
Speaker 3: But like, okay, made a mistake. Made a mistake as a human being. It happens. But you don't own a mistake by having somebody else explain it for you. That's not how you own a mistake. If we make a mistake on this show, Taryn and I as a team, and I'm involved, I don't have Taryn go to our boss. I don't have Taryn go to advertisers. Don't have Taryn go to the audience, go to you and say, well, Mo's really sorry. No, you don't own a mistake by having somebody else explain it to you. I know how you are with your kids, but when my daughter makes mistakes, kiddo, you got to own it. I support you. I'll have your back, but you got to own it. You don't own it by having me offer the explanation for you. How about this Sunday? If Zach Taylor makes a coaching decision that backfires. If he makes a coaching decision that just helps result in the team losing the football game, Zach Taylor is going to have to go in the media room after the game, and he's going to have to answer questions. It's part of his job. And then he's going to have to come back the next day and answer more questions. Why is it so hard for Duke Tobin to, I don't know, go downstairs, walk into the interview room, or he'll walk into the locker room and say, hey, look, I know this is sort of a weird set of circumstances. If you guys have questions, and I'm sure our fans do, here I am. What do you want to know? And you fall on your sword. You have some egg on your face. You own the mistake. And then everybody's going to sort of move on. In the grand scheme of things, maybe this doesn't matter to you. Perhaps it doesn't. If the Bengals win on Sunday, that's all we're going to be talking about. I don't know, man. I just, I think on a human level, like Zach Taylor's job is already hard enough. Now I have to explain why the guy in charge of making trades doesn't know how to make trades. You kidding me? And I think what we're getting as fans, like, we want to know stuff. And I get it, man. There's a segment of folks for whom the Bengals can do no wrong. Trust me, I've heard from you today. I heard from you yesterday. And the hows and whys don't matter if the hows and whys are about something bad. But for most of us, we follow this team. We care about this team. We emotionally invest in this team. It's interesting, at least, to kind of find out why things happen or why things don't happen. Nobody is demanding that Duke Tobin be fired. Nobody is demanding that Duke Tobin be punished. But, hey, something didn't happen. It could have helped the team. It could have negatively impacted the team. Also, the trade deadline came and went. You didn't get any better. Your team's got a chance to win the whole thing this year. Oh, no, man. Wouldn't it be kind of cool to hear from Duke Tobin? Instead, he has his head coach sit there, and acknowledge that this is something that doesn't make him comfortable? Has his head coach go out there and do the explaining for him? That is the opposite of accountability. That is the opposite of owning up to something. And it's weak. Duke Tobin has made himself available and certainly did this all season. We had the big mega press conference back in February, March, whenever that was. And it was illuminating and it was that we got some answers to some stuff and maybe we didn't like all the answers. And I remember at the end of it going, see, like, that's that's not so bad, Duke. By the way, if you do that on a more frequent basis, the press conferences aren't going to go over an hour. It wasn't that hard like this. those reporters aren't mean. They're going to ask fair questions, and you can answer them however you want. Duke Tobin appeared with me and Tony on one of our training camp shows, and I thought we asked good, fair questions, and it wasn't that bad. My guy can't take 10 minutes out of his day and talk about what happened at the trade deadline, even if there was no failed trade, even if there was no abandoned trade. Do you kind of want to know from Duke Tobin a little bit about the process that ended up with them adding no players? Instead, you get the head coach who just told you like yesterday, he wasn't working phones. He was watching tape. He was getting his team ready. That is weak. That is not taking ownership. That is not being held accountable. At the end of the day, it may not matter because perhaps on Sunday, Joe Jamar and T are going to do a bunch of cool stuff. I feel the way many of you do, which is just go win the game on Sunday. A, I think they will be. I think the Bengals are going to win the division regardless of what happens on Sunday. They have a good team. But isn't, hey, it's going to be fine because Joe, Jamar, and T are going to bail us out. Isn't that sort of the Bengals brand? Hey, our front office has egg on its face. Duke Tobin is being just mocked all around the country. The Bengals front office is the subject of ridicule. What's going to make it go away is Joe, Jamar, and T, and Dexter. On Sunday night are going to make everybody else forget about it. That's very on brand because for years, that's what the Bengals have been all about. Joe Jamar and T are going to bail us out. And so yet again, number nine, number five, and number one on Sunday night are in charge of changing the conversation. 18 minutes after three o'clock. Your thoughts, questions, comments are always welcome at 513-749-1530. I don't want to hear from people like Duke Tobin because I want them to squirm or because I want them to be made to
feel uncomfortable or because I want them to embarrass themselves. That's never what this is all about. It's, hey, I'm a fan. Tell me why things happen, right? I want to know stuff. It's a thirst for knowledge. We want to know about why certain players grade higher than others. We want to know about schematics. We want to know about what analytics say about a position or a decision in the game. We want to know stuff. You're not at least somewhat interested in, well, why a trade didn't happen and why no other trades did happen. Zach Taylor's not the person to give you and I those explanations. Duke Tobin is. Instead, he chose to hide behind his head coach. I don't know about you, but I think that's incredibly weak. 19 minutes after five o'clock. 513-749-1530 is our number. 866-702-3776 works as well. You can send me a tweet at Mo Egger. Thanks to Delta Dental. Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all. Go to deltadentaloh.com. You and I are human beings. Human beings are capable of having multiple thoughts, even if those thoughts are not necessarily in line with the rest of your thoughts. I will explain what I'm talking about. It's Bengals related. We'll get to that next. ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:13:50
Speaker 8: This week, Sunday Night Football in America arrives in Cincinnati as the Bengals renew their AFC North feud with the Pittsburgh Steelers. A rivalry so bitter, it makes black coffee taste like a milkshake. It's four quarters of hard hits, high drama, and plenty of divisional disdain.
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Speaker 7: Catch every snap. every collision and every moment of afc north chaos the game kicks off at 8 20 p.m with coverage starting at 4 p.m sunday stream for free on the new and improved iheart radio app or on espn 1530 The official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.
00:14:28
Speaker 3: A 41-second promo for a football game. Good God. Bengals-Steelers on Sunday. Yes, pregame at 3. Me, Tony, Austin. Four big hours. It's going to be awesome. We'll see you at the Holy Grail. Still no mention of Tony. Don't call him again. They still don't put Tony in the promo. We have 41 seconds. We couldn't squeeze the guy's name in. If we start mentioning Tony, then the promo is going to be like a minute long. This is ESPN 1530. I'm Mo Egger. By the way, Paul Daner Jr. was awesome on the whole Bengals trade debacle thing yesterday. If you missed it, go find that conversation on the iHeartRadio app. I went a little bit long that segment, so my apologies. We have folks waiting. I'm not the Red, so I don't make you wait forever without a payoff. Get to them in order as we get them. David, you're on ESPN 1530. David, good afternoon. How are you? Hi, Mom.
00:15:22
Speaker 4: Love your show.
00:15:23
Speaker 7: Thank you.
00:15:24
Speaker 4: I want to offer up a different interpretation of what Zach Taylor said. And I'm not at all suggesting that this is absolutely what he meant. But if you listen to that audio and you think back to two days ago when he said, we're good. Mm-hmm. it's conceivable to me that he's talking about Duke Tobin telling him what to say two days ago and kind of sheepishly acknowledging that what he was saying was false. We did, in fact, go out and try to get someone, and I didn't feel comfortable. Duke had me do that. Is that making sense?
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Speaker 3: Well, I mean, the exact quote from Zach was, Duke was very explicit when he came and spoke to me about how he wanted this portrayed. I'm not comfortable doing it, but I'm going to do what he asked. And so Zach talking about not being, go ahead.
00:16:33
Speaker 4: He could be talking about how I want this to be portrayed, meaning how I presented it two days ago when I said the team was good.
00:16:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. I think this is simply about, hey, we tried to make a trade. We couldn't. Here's why it didn't happen. We're not going to try to spin it. We're not going to try to blame some outside entity. We're not going to blame the Philadelphia Eagles. The blame rests here at Paycore Stadium. And I can appreciate that. I just, I don't understand. I don't understand why the person who made the mistake can't make himself available and answer a few questions about how the Bengals do things.
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Speaker 4: I totally agree with that. But if it, you know, either Zach Taylor really threw Tobin under the bus or he was casually talking about what happened two days ago and, and doing it without, Yeah, I think he should be ashamed if I mean, to just come and have Duke Cove and say, you're going to go out there and apologize for me and say Duke wanted me to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't know. It's just that would be bad also.
00:17:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just the way the whole thing, the way the whole thing avoids any interpretation or you and I wondering publicly what happened is for Duke to just come downstairs and be a big boy. And for 10 minutes, just, you know, and so you may be right. And my version of of events may end up being accurate. The problem is we're not going to know because the person who could clear all this up and basically make it go away refused to make himself available today.
00:18:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, totally agree. I just think if you listen again, you could say if you change your thought pattern before listening, it could be either.
00:18:37
Speaker 3: Might be. David, I appreciate the phone call, man. Thank you. I just, to me, it's like, I don't want, I say this as somebody, I don't have as public a job, I guess, as Duke Tobin, although I speak a lot more frequently publicly than he does. So maybe, I don't know. One of the most frustrating things I deal with or can deal with is like, your words get twisted and people will accuse you of saying things that you didn't say or that you didn't mean. And sometimes it's, I will find myself in the process of not clearly articulating a thought. And I feel like it gets misinterpreted and that's very
frustrating. And when you do this for a living, you know, you, you do 15 hours a week, invariably people are going to hear things that they thought they heard, or they're going to hear things that they were told you said that you didn't say. And that's the most it's this job is very few frustrations, but that's one of them, right? The thing that I think any one of us wants least is for our words to be misinterpreted, to be misconstrued, to be attributed to somebody else. Uh, I get emails all the time and I'm sure the other hosts do as well from, from people who think they heard me say something like on Bill Cunningham show. And I'll go, that wasn't me.
00:19:58
Speaker 4: Sorry.
00:19:58
Speaker 3: I don't know what you're talking about. Uh, if I'm Duke Tobin, uh, I want what happened. Like, again, this is not fireable. This isn't finable. There isn't anybody who's being realistic who believes Duke Tobin should be blown out because this got screwed up. But I do think like you have to appreciate the fact that your fans, your public, your customers want to know stuff about how things operate. And so the only way for there to be no misinterpretation is to make yourself available. 27% From 4 o'clock sports headlines, our guy Rick Broering in 12 minutes on Xavier and NKU basketball. ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station.
00:20:41
Speaker 6: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic. You found Cincinnati's ESPN 1530.
00:20:47
Speaker 3: I want to be an AI voiceover guy. Sports headlines are a service. of kelsey chevrolet home of lifetime powertrain protection and a guaranteed credit approval from their family the yours for life kelseychev.com zach taylor on top of having to speak on behalf of duke tobin says uh that's uh dylan fairchild i almost said stewart fairchild not him Dylan Fairchild, day-to-day with a chest injury, said he suffered it on the last play of the game on Sunday in Madrid. Cassius Howell, they went out of their way. Zach Taylor went out of his way to say that Cassius Howell's season not necessarily over, but he is being called week-to-week. Bengals back at work today, getting set for the Steelers on Sunday. That game at 8.20 Sunday evening live. on ESPN 1530 and get a full dose of Bengals football tonight on Bengals game plan. That shows from six to eight this evening from the grail on ESPN 1530. I believe, I believe that's like all I got for local sports headlines. Miami was penalized in that game last night against Ohio university for showing uprights on the video board. Patriots tried that. Was that during the preseason? Miami tried it last night. It was funny. Red Hawks, 34 unanswered to beat OU last night. The college hoops from last night, not good for Kentucky. I love that event and I've attended it twice and there's a bigness to it that I think it at least compels me to call that college basketball's opening night. Those are four monster programs. Michigan State, uber, uber impressive last night. uh in beating duke michigan state and duke feel like michigan state and duke uh kansas i'm not entirely sure how good kansas is going to be but they and specifically trey white and tyron stokes were awesome last night kentucky doesn't feel like kentucky right now destroyed i'll be honest with you i think they cut it to eight maybe midway through the second half last night Just outmanned, overmatched. UK falls by 20. Dayton gets beaten by Siena. They lose as 14.5-point favorites against Northern Illinois. 19.5-point favorites, I should say, against Siena last night, giving up 99 points. As a Bearcat fan, scares me to go to UD Arena when they've lost consecutive games. As a Dayton fan, I understand and feel every bit of exasperation with where the program is right now. that everybody else who cares about Dayton basketball feels. NKU at St. Louis last night.
00:23:30
Speaker 4: St.
00:23:31
Speaker 3: Louis is going to be good. Race out to a 21-zip lead, 30 assists, new arena record for the Billikens. They blow out the Norse. And Xavier last night against Detroit Mercy, 100-55 winners. You take everything with a grain of salt based on who teams are playing, but specifically on the defensive end, the Musketeers have looked awesome so far. Rick Boring, whose wife gave birth to a baby daughter within the last couple of days, is going to join us. Talk about the Muskies and the Norse next on ESPN 1530.
00:24:03
Speaker 6: Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. traffic.
00:24:11
Speaker 3: 1530, Mo Egger, thank you for listening today. We will get back into the Bengals and we also have to have a conversation about a conversation in the 4 o'clock hour. Kelsey Conway in the 5 o'clock hour on the Bengals and what they did and didn't do at the trade deadline and obviously Sunday's game. against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Our guy Rick Boring is with us as he is every single Wednesday to talk Xavier and NKU basketball. And I'm thrilled that he is doing this because quite frankly, I wasn't sure. Rick is the proud father of a brand new baby girl, Mackenzie Louise. He posted a photo on social media. She is gorgeous. And so forget the basketball for a second. Congratulations. Is everybody good? Thanks, Mo.
00:24:54
Speaker 1: Everything went really well.
00:24:56
Speaker 2: The biggest concern was last week I was in the midst of Sioux Falls and College Station, Texas, and it was leading right up until the due date. So we were a little worried about me trying to make emergency travel plans back to Cincinnati. But fortunately, that didn't have to happen. Everything went according to plan and baby and mom are doing well.
00:25:14
Speaker 4: Awesome.
00:25:15
Speaker 3: Glad to hear it. There had to be a part of you when it was 21 to nothing last night that thought, you know what, if I had to miss a game, maybe this was the one to miss.
00:25:24
Speaker 1: Uh, no comment.
00:25:25
Speaker 2: There may have been something of that, that uttered in my house.
00:25:31
Speaker 4: Yes. Yeah.
00:25:32
Speaker 3: I can't blame
you. Let me, let me start with that.
00:25:34
Speaker 4: St.
00:25:34
Speaker 3: Louis was, was really good last year. They set an arena record for assists in the game last night. Was that just NKU running into a buzzsaw?
00:25:42
Speaker 2: I think it's a little bit of that. I think a couple things are going on. One is that NKU's a new team, and when they face some pressure from higher-level teams, it's clearly giving them issues, whether that be offensive pressures, teams kind of running it down their throat at their defense, or against Texas A & M, them getting pressured in the backcourt and their offense turning the ball over. But also, I think the biggest thing that I look at with last night's game and the way it started is, Just the travel schedule that they had last week. I mean, three games in a matter of five days. The crazy schedule. They basically had a day and a half at home before they headed right back on the road to St.
00:26:18
Speaker 3: Louis.
00:26:19
Speaker 1: It just didn't look like they had any legs to start that game.
00:26:21
Speaker 3: They will play four consecutive home games. So during that stretch, what do you hope to learn about the Norse?
00:26:28
Speaker 2: Well, I think the big thing, especially in this first game against Central Michigan, where it should be a decent test, is what they look like against light competition, which I think we got a taste of in the UTEP games and the South Dakota games. Can they continue that level of play, especially on the offensive end, and sustain that after seeing a dip against two really good teams in Texas A & M and St. Louis, and particularly the frontcourt play? I mean, Noah Pagotto had that unbelievable game at South Dakota with 30 points, and He was so good on the glass in both of those two games to see the way it's dipped here the last two games against higher-level big men. Will you want to see that pick right back up when they go into playing mid-major big men that are similar to what they're going to see in Horizon League play?
00:27:12
Speaker 3: I know any team that hasn't played better competition in their first three or four games, we take the results with a grain of salt. Fine. That's all well and good. But what we've seen from the Xavier Musketeers, especially on the defensive end of the floor, is worth noting when we talk about when they start playing better teams, correct?
00:27:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's worth noting, but I'm definitely in a wait-and-see mode with that. Because there's also... You can look at that in two very different ways. One is that, hey, maybe this Xavier team is going to be much better defensively than any of us thought. They're being led by their defense right now, and they've been super impressive on that end. The other side of the coin is... If you're being led by your defense, maybe your offense isn't as good as we thought it was going to be. And if your offense isn't as good as we thought it was going to be, are you going to be good enough to beat higher level teams? Because we know you have some shortcomings on the defensive end. Some of your guys aren't physically equipped to be great defenders against high major teams. They look good against Eastern Michigan or against Detroit or against Mount St. Mary's, but they probably aren't going to look quite that good when you're facing Big East teams. So I think there's reason for optimism because of the way the defense is played, but there's also reason to be a little bit of like, okay, let's see what this actually looks like against a Mississippi State on Friday night.
00:28:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, for the next five or against, quote, high majors, Mississippi State, neutral site, Iowa's going to be here. So I guess similar question against more representative competition, what are you looking forward to learning about XU?
00:28:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think just that the defense, you know, what does the defense look like when you're facing teams that can actually give you some trouble in one-on-one matchups and potentially expose some of your shortcomings? Can Mike Nwoku stay out of foul trouble and make a big impact in those games when you're playing legit front courts and not playing much smaller teams that can't match you physically or from an athleticism perspective?
00:29:10
Speaker 1: Those are the two big things.
00:29:11
Speaker 2: And then we're also seeing this interesting situation at point guard play out where you and I had talked a lot about that leading up to the season where Chance Westry was the expected point guard coming in. didn't play very well during the preseason exhibitions. They take him out of the starting lineup. They take him out of that starting point guard spot. And since then, they started the season and he was their leading scorer in the first two games. And he's played pretty well coming off the bench in a shooting guard role. Do you start to think about moving him back to that starting point guard spot? Does the freshman, Caleb House, who has looked good coming off the bench, eventually get a shot at that starting point guard spot? Or do you continue to play True Washington, who is more of a wing, at that point guard spot and just let him continue out of position?
00:29:51
Speaker 1: I think that question is going to be answered over the next few weeks.
00:29:55
Speaker 3: How many guys will Richard Pitino play when they play hard games?
00:30:00
Speaker 2: That's a really good question because right now he's being very liberal with his substitutions. He was doing some hockey line changes with five guys in, five guys.
00:30:07
Speaker 1: Out last night.
00:30:08
Speaker 2: And when you're winning the game by 40 plus points, that can be a challenge. Just trying to figure out how many guys do we want to get minutes for? Do we need to play our starters more to make sure they're sharp? All of that stuff. So I think That was definitely a challenge for them last night. I'm guessing you're going to
continue to see them go at least eight or nine deep in real games. And one of the reasons is because I'm not sure that they've figured out who the go-to backup option is in the front court yet. Like Nikos Itakoudis and Rollins Aligbe have both played pretty well in spurts off of the bench for them in that front court. So I think you're going to continue to see both of them play a lot. Kalik House is clearly going to be a player for them off of the bench that sees a lot of minutes. And then Gabe Pizzotto is definitely a big piece for them off the bench. That's nine right there that you know are going to be a part of your game plan in real games against legit competition. And then from there, do you see a freshman like Asher Elson step in and start to get minutes off the bench and work his way into that rotation? Now that he's back from injury, there are a few other names that you might look at as well.
00:31:12
Speaker 3: Are you getting any sleep? So far, yes.
00:31:16
Speaker 2: It's a little bit different this time because the first time around, you know, you're at the hospital. It's an overnight situation and you don't have any reason to go home. You're just staying in the hospital. Now we have a three-year-old son. So at night, I was coming back home to take him to bed and I got to sleep in my own bed.
00:31:29
Speaker 1: So, so far, so good.
00:31:30
Speaker 2: We just arrived back home from the hospital.
00:31:32
Speaker 1: So we'll see how the next few nights go.
00:31:34
Speaker 3: Is your three-year-old excited? It seems like it.
00:31:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's been telling people about his sister. He said he's going to teach her to yell and sing.
00:31:43
Speaker 1: And play basketball. So we'll see how that goes.
00:31:45
Speaker 3: She probably won't need many yelling lessons at the outset, but that other stuff, he's going to have to come in handy. All right, man. I appreciate you doing this. Congratulations.
00:31:56
Speaker 1: Appreciate you, man.
00:31:56
Speaker 3: Thank you. That's our man, Rick Boring. Subscribe if you're a Xavier fan. MusketeerReport.com. And of course, you can hear Rick. on NKU radio broadcast and part of the skinny podcast as well. Awesome stuff from Rick. We appreciate him doing that. I know. on the day that we brought our daughter home from the hospital nine and a half years ago, I would imagine had I said to my other half, Hey, I'm going to jump on, on someone's talk show right now. She would have said, yeah, that's, that's not happening. So I appreciate Rick and his wife for letting him carve out some time to talk some, some college basketball with us. I think that's, I think there's two things there. Richard Patino's playing a ton of guys right now. I always get a kick out of when people talk about like, Oh, they can go 10 deep. That sounds awesome in November. And then you get to January and nobody's playing 10. Even Jared Kohuna at UC has talked about like, well, we'd like to play 13. It's like, yeah, I don't know, man. I don't know against hard teams. Playing 13 is going to happen. We will see. And then the other thing is, how does what they're doing on defense, you know, translate to games against Mississippi State and Iowa and Virginia? And obviously a little bit later down the road, the Skyline Chili Crosstown shootout, we will see. But the early returns, they play hard. And they have certainly looked locked in on the defensive end. 513-749-1530 is our phone number. I never got to, I meant to do this earlier this hour. I think the proper way to frame what the Bengals did and didn't do at the trade deadline, because we could pound away at Duke Tobin, and we will, for why a deal didn't go through. But at the end of the day, is this team going to be okay with its deficiencies going unaddressed? We're going to spend some time on that. We also have to have a conversation about a conversation about Eli De La Cruz. Coming up on 4 o'clock, ESPN 1530.