Speaker 1: The following takes place between six pm and seven pm.
Speaker 2: Do you want answers?
Speaker 1: I think I'm entitled.
Speaker 3: You want answer the truth?
Speaker 4: You can't handle the truth?
Speaker 3: Truth, the truth.
Speaker 2: Happy Holidays, everybody. My name is Mike Petralia. You know
Speaker 2: me better on social media and maybe if you're a
Speaker 2: close personal friend by the name Trags. I am in
Speaker 2: tonight for the one and only Lance McAllister. And this
Speaker 2: is the RNL Carrier's sports talk program presented by Kelsey
Speaker 2: Chevrolet here on news radio seven hundred WLW. As I
Speaker 2: tweeted out this afternoon, it's been a week. It's been
Speaker 2: a week of ups and downs, psychoanalysis, back and forth,
Speaker 2: trying to read the personalities not only of a famous
Speaker 2: franchise quarterback, but the coaching staff, the very quiet front
Speaker 2: office and ownership group of one Cincinnati Bengals franchise. And
Speaker 2: we've actually probably been doing I say, one week, it's
Speaker 2: probably been the last two to three weeks. Trying to
Speaker 2: read body language is a dangerous business to begin with.
Speaker 2: Trying to do it in the NFL in this particular
Speaker 2: town is another challenge altogether. And we're gonna talk a
Speaker 2: lot about the Cincinnati Bengals. Of course, they have been
Speaker 2: eliminated at four and ten on the season. They have
Speaker 2: to finish out the string, and that string begins in
Speaker 2: the heat this Sunday at one o'clock here on seven
Speaker 2: hundred WLW, Dan Horde and Dave Lapham on the call,
Speaker 2: of course, Bengals four and ten taking on the six
Speaker 2: and eight Miami Dolphins, another team that is playing out
Speaker 2: the string. They were eliminated with their loss in the
Speaker 2: Frozen Conditions in Pittsburgh on Monday night. We'll also talk
Speaker 2: the Cincinnati Reds. What moves should they be making going
Speaker 2: forward this winter? Of course, they miss out on Kyle Schwarber,
Speaker 2: the hometown kid, of course from Middletown, and their biggest
Speaker 2: move so far is to sign a lefty reliever by
Speaker 2: the name of Caleb Ferguson. We'll be talking with Pat
Speaker 2: Brennan of the Cincinnati Inquirer in the seven o'clock hour
Speaker 2: about that. The college football playoffs begin tonight. I'm excited
Speaker 2: for this game because actually someone covering the Bengals this morning,
Speaker 2: I was inside the practice structure this morning and somebody
Speaker 2: asked me, who do you got tonight? Alabama or Oklahoma?
Speaker 2: My instinct was to start off Alabama, just because I
Speaker 2: haven't taken Oklahoma seriously. But how can you take Alabama
Speaker 2: seriously coming off that hideous shutout loss to Georgia in
Speaker 2: the SEC Championship. Certainly I reconsidered on the spot and
Speaker 2: then said, well, the game's at Oklahoma. I think Oklahoma's
Speaker 2: just a more consistent team. So I went with Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: But the DFP begins tonight in Oklahoma with Alabama visiting
Speaker 2: the Sooners. Tomorrow, there are three games the other quarterfinals.
Speaker 2: Number ten Miami at number seven Texas A and M.
Speaker 2: That's at noon. Number eleven Tulane visits number six Ole Miss.
Speaker 2: That's a fascinating backyard rivalry down south. I'm looking forward
Speaker 2: to that. That's at three point thirty PM. And then
Speaker 2: the nightcap at seven thirty Eastern time. Number twelve James
Speaker 2: Madison at number five Oregon. Three or four years ago,
Speaker 2: James Madison was in the College Championship Series. They weren't
Speaker 2: even in the Division one Bowl Championship Bowl playoff series.
Speaker 2: They were in what was otherwise known as Division one
Speaker 2: Double A back in the day. But James Madison, they
Speaker 2: put their big boy pants on and they are now
Speaker 2: playing in the college football playoffs, So those are the
Speaker 2: four games between tonight and tomorrow. It is time he
Speaker 2: is held online long enough. It is time to get
Speaker 2: to our first guest. And you know this guest from
Speaker 2: my work on the Jungle War Bengals postgame podcast because
Speaker 2: he's my co host on the Jungle War Bengals postgame
Speaker 2: podcast after each and every Bengals game. His name is
Speaker 2: Richard Skinner of Local twelve and Local twelve dot com Skinny.
Speaker 2: I guess we can call this an extension of our podcast.
Speaker 2: Why not. I'm in charge of this. Sure, let's talk Bengals.
Speaker 2: That's why I brought you on. I guess we're going
Speaker 2: to start with all of the psychoanalysis that's been going on.
Speaker 2: A lot of people are a lot of fans are
Speaker 2: tired of it. They're tired of us in the media
Speaker 2: trying to read and interpret what Joe Burrow is saying,
Speaker 2: with Jamar Chase is saying, Zach Taylor is saying, not
Speaker 2: only for Zach Taylor but the organization. What is your
Speaker 2: initial read of the last two weeks of talk down
Speaker 2: at Paycorp.
Speaker 5: We I think the Bill's loss broke Joe Burrow. Doesn't
Speaker 5: mean he can't be rebuilt, doesn't mean he can't be
Speaker 5: built back up. But I think that loss broke him.
Speaker 5: Like he worked so hard to come back. They had
Speaker 5: he had his moment in Baltimore and it was like, Okay,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna lift this whole organization up,
Speaker 5: and I'm gonna get this script to the playoffs. And
Speaker 5: he was culpable in Buffalo, but he wasn't entirely culpable.
Speaker 5: The defense was awful when it needed to not be awful.
Speaker 5: And I think at that point he just it just
Speaker 5: broke him, like I busted my butt to come back
Speaker 5: and I still put up thirty points. Yeah he threw
Speaker 5: a pick six, no doubt, but he still he still
Speaker 5: got your thirty four points and loss. And I think
Speaker 5: at that point it was like I'm broken, and that's
Speaker 5: understandable to some degree. I think the whole surgery, rehab, recovery,
Speaker 5: all that can wear on you. I don't think anybody
Speaker 5: really understands, and I know I don't even understand. I
Speaker 5: think the most major other had happened to me is
Speaker 5: I broke a couple of ebows. I haven't handed gut.
Speaker 5: I didn't need surgery for you, the one to have
Speaker 5: me risked. You know, all the things he's gone through now,
Speaker 5: turf toe, that's major stuff that he's trying to come
Speaker 5: back from. Aixn it, yeah, an appendix, Yeah, sorry, but
Speaker 5: yeah that one too. I mean that's major self to
Speaker 5: come back from him, and as a human being, that's
Speaker 5: a lot. And he's tried to come back quickly every
Speaker 5: time and he has and so to me, he's broken
Speaker 5: and he talked it into fruition last Wednesday. He sure
Speaker 5: played like it this past Sunday. Still don't think he's
Speaker 5: in a great place, and so I'm super fascinated to
Speaker 5: watch what happens on this Sunday in Miami. Is it
Speaker 5: a chance for him to take the first step towards
Speaker 5: kind of taking a deep breast getting himself back together,
Speaker 5: kind of feeling like, all right, let's just finish this
Speaker 5: thing strong and carry it over. Or is he still broke?
Speaker 2: You know, Skinny, I think he uh the former. I
Speaker 2: think he is going to try and go out and
Speaker 2: finish the season with good vibrations. To quote the Beach
Speaker 2: Boys Brian Wilson, I do I think he just wants
Speaker 2: some momentum going into not only next year, he wants
Speaker 2: some momentum going into the off season, because you and
Speaker 2: I both know, and I think every fan that has
Speaker 2: listened to him talk over the last two weeks he
Speaker 2: thinks a lot. There's a lot of thoughts going on internally,
Speaker 2: many of which don't reach the surface, and when they do,
Speaker 2: they kind of sometimes come out muddled, which I think
Speaker 2: is part of the issue with Burrow, Like when he
Speaker 2: says these things, what is he really thinking deep deep
Speaker 2: down about his future with the Bengals. And I thought
Speaker 2: Paul Danner Junior did a fabulous job, not only on
Speaker 2: his reporting on Tuesday, but asking Burrow on Wednesday if
Speaker 2: he thought about the possibility of not being the quarterback
Speaker 2: next year. No, he pretty much answered that out of hand,
Speaker 2: kind of wiped that off the possibility list. But then
Speaker 2: when he was asked if he's thought about whether or
Speaker 2: not he could be playing for some other team in
Speaker 2: the future, he was much more vague, And I think
Speaker 2: that was a smart answer of his. But he also
Speaker 2: a lot of people are reading in that he was
Speaker 2: sending a message. I don't think he was sending a message.
Speaker 2: I think, honestly, he thinks, well, if it doesn't work
Speaker 2: out here, if they don't make the right moves, sure
Speaker 2: anything could possibly happen. Look at Micah Parsons. He brought
Speaker 2: that example up on his own pretty much, you know,
Speaker 2: un prompted. He brought that example up about what happened
Speaker 2: at the beginning of the year. He's very well aware
Speaker 2: of Peyton Manning starting with the Colts, ending his career
Speaker 2: with the Broncos, Tom Brady obviously his career with the
Speaker 2: Patriots before he finished with Tampa Bay. He's aware of
Speaker 2: all of that, right, skinny.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and yeah. I don't think this was him talking
Speaker 5: short term, even last Wednesday. I think this was him saying, guys,
Speaker 5: we gotta you gotta fix this, you gotta help me
Speaker 5: fix this. I think he was one of those people
Speaker 5: that thought I can lift everybody up. I'm the guy
Speaker 5: that's gonna carry the burden for all of that, and
Speaker 5: you can only do so much, and at some point
Speaker 5: you reached the breaking point of you know what, I've
Speaker 5: tried my darnness, and I just can't do it. I
Speaker 5: can do my part, I can't do everybody's part. I
Speaker 5: think that was the message of last week of Hey,
Speaker 5: front office, get me some help. I need some help
Speaker 5: on on the other side of the football.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 5: And you know, I think this week was more of yeah,
Speaker 5: I want to I want I want this to work here.
Speaker 5: But if it's gonna keep spinning its wheels and not work, well,
Speaker 5: then I'll let it work somewhere else and we'll see
Speaker 5: where that goes. I mean, he's under contracted twenty twenty nine.
Speaker 5: They can franchise tag him multiple times. After that. You know,
Speaker 5: there's there's a way that that keeps him in Cincinnati,
Speaker 5: that there's a keep him happy in Cincinnati. I would
Speaker 5: say probably for that stage where you're franchise tagging him
Speaker 5: just because you can. It's probably not going to be
Speaker 5: a good thing, but he can be tied to this
Speaker 5: franchise for a long time to come. Just go fix it.
Speaker 5: And I think that's that's the crux of this mic
Speaker 5: is just go fix it, or at least show me
Speaker 5: you care and do something different to try to fix it.
Speaker 5: As the post too status quo, well, and that's where
Speaker 5: we're relative. I feel like they just don't care to
Speaker 5: fix it.
Speaker 2: Well, I think they think they know how to fix it.
Speaker 2: The status quo part of this skinny is the modus
Speaker 2: operandi of the Blackburn and Brown family. They are not
Speaker 2: going to give up any control. They may run into
Speaker 2: a c like they did in twenty twenty and twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one in free agency where they brought in I
Speaker 2: think I wrote for sil insinsi dot com there's you
Speaker 2: know those six free agents that really redefine the defense.
Speaker 2: Well they're going to try and do that again this year.
Speaker 2: And they're going to try. There are places, and you know,
Speaker 2: Zach Taylor spoke this morning about with us down at
Speaker 2: Pays about how the defense can be remade. There are
Speaker 2: definitely pieces in place, and I agree with them in
Speaker 2: that regard, but they're gonna have to go out and
Speaker 2: bring in veteran pieces. The people who are bringing in
Speaker 2: those pieces aren't gonna change. But I think the Bengals
Speaker 2: front office and ownership thinks that those pieces will be
Speaker 2: the change that the Bengals need, not who's bringing them in.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but I go back to this and that's and
Speaker 5: that's fine, and I believe that's gonna happen too, because
Speaker 5: it's gonna be enough cap space to do some of
Speaker 5: those things. And they did do a fine job the
Speaker 5: last time. Around in free agency, but then you're gonna
Speaker 5: be back in the cycle again of having to pay
Speaker 5: a bunch of guys order back to receivers, Orlando Brown,
Speaker 5: whoever you bring on the defense, all of those things,
Speaker 5: and you still better keep hitting on draft picks. And
Speaker 5: they haven't done that.
Speaker 2: That's the problem.
Speaker 5: So why can't you do something to change that? And
Speaker 5: they don't seem to be willing. Do I need more stouts,
Speaker 5: Douktoba's I don't need more eyes? Okay, well, sure you've
Speaker 5: done great so far, guy. And that's the part I
Speaker 5: think that's the most frustrating is in this league, when
Speaker 5: you're paying for the stars, you have got to have
Speaker 5: the rest of your roster hit on rookie contracts, not
Speaker 5: as rookies per se, but on those first rookie contracts,
Speaker 5: which are four year deals. You got to have a
Speaker 5: bunch of those guys. That's what the Eagles did. The
Speaker 5: Eagles paid all their dudes and then had a bunch
Speaker 5: of guys hit on rookie contracts. And I don't trust
Speaker 5: Duke Tobin and those making the draft selections to do that.
Speaker 5: Do I trusted to do it? Off of proven NFL tape? Yeah? Probably.
Speaker 5: I think, you know, most people have proven NFL tape
Speaker 5: are pretty good at that kind of stuff because it's
Speaker 5: proven NFL tape. The college guys are always a crapshoot,
Speaker 5: no matter how highly you draft them. They're always you
Speaker 5: don't fully know until you see. And so do I
Speaker 5: trust him to get those guys right? I'm sorry, I don't.
Speaker 5: I just I don't know why anybody should. I don't
Speaker 5: know why any fans should trust them to do that.
Speaker 2: What is the biggest positive thing you've seen from the
Speaker 2: Bengals this year?
Speaker 5: Woo one the fact there's only three games left. That
Speaker 5: might guess that. I guess the play and the people
Speaker 5: are not gonna like it. I guess the play of
Speaker 5: the offensive line. I think the offensive line has has
Speaker 5: had a pretty decent year overall, to be honest with you,
Speaker 5: and that means Dylan Fairchild's played okay. You know, dol
Speaker 5: Riser's played okay. Now he's probably gonna be back after
Speaker 5: this year. Maybe he is on a on a year deal.
Speaker 5: Dalen Rivers when he was in played okay. So that
Speaker 5: to me is one. The only only thing else is
Speaker 5: the defense has played better since the bye week, and
Speaker 5: you have a chance to finish strong. My fear is this,
Speaker 5: you kids have finished strong against Quinn viewers making his
Speaker 5: first start, nine thousand year old Jakobe prisseat and struggling
Speaker 5: to door Sanders. Is that really gonna show you anything?
Speaker 5: That and that that my fear would be, Well, you know,
Speaker 5: we got hopped down the stretch. Guys started to figure
Speaker 5: it out? Did they? Did they?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 5: That's the part that scares me a little bit.
Speaker 2: That's what Zach Taylor I can tell you right now,
Speaker 2: and he kind of suggested that this morning and meeting
Speaker 2: with us, that's what he's going to suggest is that
Speaker 2: you've seen the defense now in his view, okay, playing
Speaker 2: much better for several weeks. I tend to agree that, yes,
Speaker 2: there have been flickers of hope that you've definitely seen
Speaker 2: from a young defense. My takeaway on defense has been
Speaker 2: DJ Turner and Dax Hill continues to be a really
Speaker 2: solid player. Miles Murphy has come on and I think
Speaker 2: he's going to earn that fifth year. I think they
Speaker 2: believe that he is a piece to build around on
Speaker 2: the edge. You would never have said that after last year,
Speaker 2: not in a million years, but based on what he's
Speaker 2: shown this year. I feel like they don't have any
Speaker 2: choice but to believe in him going forward. And yeah,
Speaker 2: so that's where I think they are with that, and
Speaker 2: I think, you know, the Bengal fans have to be
Speaker 2: hopeful that this defense is going to complement the offense
Speaker 2: next year and they'll be back where they were before
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty one season. We're gonna have to let
Speaker 2: you go here, Skinny. Anything you're working on real quick
Speaker 2: for Local twelve dot com or you're just gonna sit
Speaker 2: back and watch the Bowl games.
Speaker 5: Just gonna sit back and watch the Bowl games and
Speaker 5: cover the game from my couch on Sunday, Mike, and
Speaker 5: then talk to you via the zoom.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we will both be working remotely, Skinny. I look
Speaker 2: forward to it. That is Richard Skinner of Local twelve
Speaker 2: and Local twelve dot com. He does a great job
Speaker 2: covering all things Cincinnati Bengals, Skinny. Thank you so much
Speaker 2: for joining us. All right, that is Richard Skinner. My
Speaker 2: name is Mike Petrolia. When we come back on the
Speaker 2: other side of news at the bottom of the hour,
Speaker 2: we will talk to Alex Frank. We'll talk some Cincinnati
Speaker 2: Bearcats football, basketball and the University of Kentucky basketball program.
Speaker 2: This is the RNL Carriers sports talk program presented by
Speaker 2: Kelsey Chevrolet on news radio seven hundred WLW. That is
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about. That's the way I like it.
Speaker 2: Ac and the Sunshine Van circa nineteen seventy five, fifty
Speaker 2: years ago, we had a World Series champion in the
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Reds, coming off the greatest World Series still in history.
Speaker 2: We had a Paul Brown's last year coaching an NFL team,
Speaker 2: a playoff team, and eleven and three Cincinnati Bengals team
Speaker 2: that lost thirty one twenty eight to the Oakland Raiders
Speaker 2: in a fabulous game out at the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum.
Speaker 2: And then we moved on to nineteen seventy six, another
Speaker 2: World Series title. We have had just one World championship
Speaker 2: in this town since nineteen seventy six, and we all
Speaker 2: know it was the shocking four game sweep of the
Speaker 2: Oakland A's in nineteen ninety the Nasty Boys. And a
Speaker 2: week like this, a year like this kind of dredges
Speaker 2: up those memories all over again that it's been a long, long,
Speaker 2: long long wait. Yes, the Reds made the playoffs, lost
Speaker 2: to the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in
Speaker 2: the postseason, that's great, they finished eighty three and seventy nine.
Speaker 2: But the Bengals, it's just you know, as a beat reporter,
Speaker 2: as a columnist covering the team, you like to see
Speaker 2: them do well. I think it's I think anybody you
Speaker 2: speak to in journalism that is on the beat, we'd
Speaker 2: admit to you that when the team is doing well,
Speaker 2: it's a better story to cover. There are many more
Speaker 2: storylines that people want to read, and you, as a journalist,
Speaker 2: want people to want to read your material. And when
Speaker 2: they win, like in twenty one and twenty two, people
Speaker 2: are much more engaged. You don't want everybody just paying
Speaker 2: attention to you when you're writing something critical. You want
Speaker 2: to write good stories and there's still good stories to
Speaker 2: be written. Have a DJ Turner column that I'll have
Speaker 2: over the weekend. He's a great story. And I went
Speaker 2: over this with Richard Skinner of localswelve dot com. The
Speaker 2: storyline still are there, but just not as voluminous. In
Speaker 2: a four and ten season against Cincinnati, Bengals will play
Speaker 2: the Miami Dolphins on Sunday afternoon in Miami. The final
Speaker 2: road game of the year. Of course, they come back
Speaker 2: and play a pair of Sunday afternoon one o'clock games
Speaker 2: against Arizona on the twenty eighth, and then the following
Speaker 2: Sunday they wrap up the season against the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 2: My name is Mike Petralia Trags. You can follow me
Speaker 2: at colns since with a y dot com. You can
Speaker 2: also follow me of course on the X at Trags
Speaker 2: t r ags and as I mentioned with Skinny, our
Speaker 2: Jungle Roar Bengals postgame podcast after each and every Bengals
Speaker 2: game is at YouTube dot com slash at Jungle Roar Pod.
Speaker 2: This is the RNL Carrier sports talk program presented by
Speaker 2: Kelsey Chevrolet on news radio seven hundred w WHA. Next up,
Speaker 2: we're gonna switch gears a little bit. We've talked enough
Speaker 2: about the Cincinnati Bengals to open the program. Let's move
Speaker 2: on to the college scene and someone who, by the way,
Speaker 2: is down in Miami to watch the Bengals and the
Speaker 2: Dolphins on Sunday afternoon. But I want to talk college
Speaker 2: basketball college football a little bit as well with Alex Frank.
Speaker 2: He does great work for Sealing asincey dot com as
Speaker 2: well as a Sea of Blue since e jungle Land,
Speaker 2: Grant holy Land, all of those at SB Nation. And
Speaker 2: he has a brand new podcast that you absolutely should
Speaker 2: give a listen to. It's a Lockdown Network podcast entitled
Speaker 2: Bengals Squad. He is Alex Frank. How about that for
Speaker 2: an intro?
Speaker 6: Alex, Well, Mike, thank you. It's great to be with
Speaker 6: you on this Friday night. And the weather's fantastic down
Speaker 6: here in Miami. I was just talking with your producer
Speaker 6: Sean about it. I haven't seen a lot of Bengals
Speaker 6: fans just yet, but that may change on Sunday. But
Speaker 6: it's great to here. Is great to be off with
Speaker 6: you tonight. And I got a tough fact following Richard Skinner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm sure you can live up to it.
Speaker 2: I don't worry about that at all, Alex. I guess
Speaker 2: let's start with the Cincinnati Bearcats. They had a much
Speaker 2: needed win over Alabama State on Wednesday night. What were
Speaker 2: your takeaways from, obviously the return of Gisel James. What
Speaker 2: kind of dynamic he brings to the lineup. I think
Speaker 2: he brings much needed energy on the offensive side of
Speaker 2: the ball. I'm not saying that he's an All American
Speaker 2: scoring guard or a you know, a multiple guard that
Speaker 2: can do a lot of things. But he does bring
Speaker 2: energy and he takes some of the burden I think
Speaker 2: off of Dada A Thomas.
Speaker 6: Well that's the thing, Mike Gigsel. James brings a spark
Speaker 6: that this team needed. I mean, they had lost four
Speaker 6: of their last six games prior to his return, and
Speaker 6: I'll be honest, I was shocked when I woke up
Speaker 6: to the news earlier this week that he was returning.
Speaker 6: But you think about the fact that he came out
Speaker 6: Wednesday night and in twenty minutes he scored sixteen points,
Speaker 6: hit multiple three pointers. I think that's why Bearcats fans
Speaker 6: have something at least something to be excited about. And
Speaker 6: then you had that too.
Speaker 4: You mentioned Jayda Thomas.
Speaker 6: You can also add Baba Miller, who had a great
Speaker 6: game Wednesday night.
Speaker 4: This team has some life.
Speaker 6: And if they can go to Clemson and they can
Speaker 6: go to Greenville, South Carolina on Sunday afternoon to get
Speaker 6: a win, you have some momentum going into conference play
Speaker 6: in the Bigswold, where you're gonna have to find a
Speaker 6: way to win some games to get some really good
Speaker 6: teams but you know, definitely, the hope is a lot
Speaker 6: greater than it was after last Saturday against Georgia.
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on Wes Miller and the job
Speaker 2: he's done so far with the Bearcats. He's come obviously,
Speaker 2: he's come under a ton of scrutiny and there are
Speaker 2: a lot of people calling for his job. Seems to
Speaker 2: be the mo of a lot of Cincinnati sports fans
Speaker 2: right about now throughout the town. But what are your
Speaker 2: thoughts on Wes Miller? How can he improve the way
Speaker 2: his teams handle adversity.
Speaker 6: That's exactly what they need to do. They need to
Speaker 6: handle adversity like you have been You've washed Beircats basketball
Speaker 6: long enough to know Mike that Bob Huggins coach teams
Speaker 6: and Mike Cronin coach teams.
Speaker 4: They could get punched in.
Speaker 6: The mouth early, but yeah, you always knew they were
Speaker 6: going to respond. It was so rare that they would
Speaker 6: get blown out the way I've seen this Bearcats team
Speaker 6: get blown out over the years with Wes Miller as
Speaker 6: their head coach. So that's the one thing this team
Speaker 6: needs to do a lot better at is get better
Speaker 6: at overcoming adversity. They play well in Spurs. But the
Speaker 6: problem is when they have something not go their way,
Speaker 6: they let it snowball into a cavalcade of things that
Speaker 6: if that's the right word, excuse me, that don't go
Speaker 6: their way. So they need to, you know, respond to
Speaker 6: adversity better. And then the other thing is, look like
Speaker 6: you know how to play offensive basketball. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 6: Cronin coach Sheams and Huggin's coach teams work great offensively
Speaker 6: by any means, but they could at least run offensive sets.
Speaker 6: They could get the ball to their best scores when
Speaker 6: they needed to.
Speaker 4: This team can't even do that.
Speaker 6: So that's Those are two things aside from of course
Speaker 6: making the NCAA tournament where this program should be perennially
Speaker 6: come selection Sunday.
Speaker 4: So those are.
Speaker 6: Three things that I think this team and this program
Speaker 6: has to be better at with Wes Miller. There's the
Speaker 6: other thing, too, Mike, is there's not really any game
Speaker 6: that I can like hang my hat on with this
Speaker 6: program that says this can work.
Speaker 4: And that's unfortunate.
Speaker 6: Five years in.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing. I just don't recall a moment
Speaker 2: a pinnacle for Wes Miller in the program where you
Speaker 2: were like, okay, they have arrived, whether it was at
Speaker 2: home or on the road. You know, a home game
Speaker 2: against Arizona, they were in the game, but Arizona kind
Speaker 2: of pulled away late. There are a couple of games
Speaker 2: where they had leads in the second half, couldn't hold
Speaker 2: on Houston. They were in the game with Houston, I
Speaker 2: believe it was last season, and Houston just pulled away
Speaker 2: at the end. They just didn't have the horses. And
Speaker 2: that's the kind of game that Wes Miller needs. Forget
Speaker 2: for now him making the NCAA tournament, which is what
Speaker 2: a lot of fans uc Alum and whatnot feel is
Speaker 2: the only way he's going to save his job is
Speaker 2: if he somehow manages to get this team through the
Speaker 2: Big twelve schedule and get through with not even an
Speaker 2: eleven and seven mark. Try you know, a ten and
Speaker 2: eight mark. If he goes ten and eight and gets
Speaker 2: the team to the tournament, I think that'll save his.
Speaker 6: Job, no question about it, because that's that's at least
Speaker 6: going to give the fans some sign of tangible progress
Speaker 6: being made.
Speaker 4: But you mentioned the fact.
Speaker 6: That this program doesn't have a lot of signature wins.
Speaker 6: Here's a program that two years ago, first ever Big
Speaker 6: twelve game, they go on the road and beat a
Speaker 6: very good BYU team, and I'm like, Okay, maybe this
Speaker 6: program is about to take off. They never won consecutive
Speaker 6: Big twelve games in the regular season, and then obviously
Speaker 6: last year played out the way it did, so there's
Speaker 6: still time.
Speaker 4: I believe that.
Speaker 6: But you're right, because you go back and I was
Speaker 6: talking about this with somebody earlier this week. You know,
Speaker 6: there was a game in two thousand and This game
Speaker 6: is very very famous in Bearcast basketball history. Bearcats are
Speaker 6: playing at the ball and Bob Huggins says to his
Speaker 6: entire team, if any of you touch the ball before
Speaker 6: or take a shot before Kenny Martin touched the ball,
Speaker 6: I'm taking your scholarship. I don't know if there's a
Speaker 6: player on this team. Maybe it's Chisel James, maybe it's
Speaker 6: Baba Miller, maybe it's Sanda Thomas. As you mentioned, is
Speaker 6: there a player on this team that can get the
Speaker 6: ball and say get out of my way.
Speaker 5: I'm going to go.
Speaker 6: Score some buckets and put the team on my back
Speaker 6: and deliver us a much near victory. Jaron Cumberland was
Speaker 6: that Gary Clark was that. Sean Kilpatrick was that I'm
Speaker 6: not sure if this program has had that since maybe
Speaker 6: it's on this team.
Speaker 5: I don't know, but you.
Speaker 6: Better find out who that is quickly because the big
Speaker 6: twelve gunlot is coming.
Speaker 2: All right, let's move on to the University of Kentucky.
Speaker 2: They have a pretty massive game, I would say tomorrow.
Speaker 2: It is the debut of the CBS Sports Classic. It
Speaker 2: features number twenty two Kentucky taking on Saint John's and
Speaker 2: your thoughts on the Wildcats heading into that. Obviously, they
Speaker 2: have had several bumps in the road before that massive
Speaker 2: win over Indiana, which was desperately needed at home last week.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So the big news is Jaden Quayton. It looks
Speaker 6: like he's going to make his Kentucky Wildcats debut tomorrow
Speaker 6: afternoon in Atlanta. And Quainton's is a transfer from Arizona State.
Speaker 6: He's a five former five star recruit. He's actually originally
Speaker 6: from Cleveland, Ohio, and he's projected NBA lottery pick. He's
Speaker 6: been Alison's last February for the torn ACL. The rehab
Speaker 6: process was long.
Speaker 4: It was lengthy.
Speaker 6: At times, it felt like he didn't know if he
Speaker 6: was gonna even play this season, but he could up
Speaker 6: play tomorrow, which look, that's the expectation, so long as
Speaker 6: everything goes well in warm ups, and that is massive
Speaker 6: for this team. But I'll tell you, Mike would really
Speaker 6: impress me against Indiana about the Wildcats. They still aren't
Speaker 6: a great shooting team, but they gave incredible effort, incredible intensity,
Speaker 6: incredible grit on the defensive end. Their offensive rebounding was tremendous.
Speaker 6: It paved the way from coming back from down seven
Speaker 6: at half time to winning the game by twelve against
Speaker 6: the good Indiana team that you very well may see
Speaker 6: in the NCAA tournament. If this team plays like that,
Speaker 6: with that intensity and with that versatility that they have.
Speaker 6: I thought Jalen Lowe played the best team of his
Speaker 6: Wildcats career against Indiana. He was scrappy, he was a distributor,
Speaker 6: he was attacking the rim. That's what you want to see.
Speaker 6: This Wildcats team is fine. I know they had some
Speaker 6: huge bumps in the road early and I covered a
Speaker 6: lot of them. But you find a way to beat
Speaker 6: Rick Bettino and his Saint John's team tomorrow. You're going
Speaker 6: to generate some momentum going into SEC play and That's
Speaker 6: where I think this team can take off.
Speaker 4: The SEC is.
Speaker 6: Not nearly as good as strong as it was last year.
Speaker 6: Is still a very strong conference, there's no question about it.
Speaker 5: But you have the.
Speaker 6: Opportunity in front of you to get a really good
Speaker 6: win against a ranked Saint John's team and build some
Speaker 6: momentum going into SEC play tomorrow afternoon.
Speaker 2: That doubleheader, by the way, is at State Farm Arena
Speaker 2: in Atlanta. The other half of that CBS Sports Classic
Speaker 2: is Ohio State and North Carolina. Quick thoughts on that
Speaker 2: we have about thirty.
Speaker 6: Seconds Ohio say, better be ready to rebound and defend
Speaker 6: because North Carolina is long, they're big. If you can
Speaker 6: force North Carolina to take some more shots from the
Speaker 6: perimeter than they would like, you've got a chance. And
Speaker 6: like I talked about with Americas, give the ball to
Speaker 6: Bruce Thorton if you're the Buckeyes and get the heck
Speaker 6: out of the way. The buck guys can win tomorrow,
Speaker 6: and if they do, they're gonna have some momentum going
Speaker 6: to the Big Ten play.
Speaker 2: Are doing your podcast, by the way from Miami, correct,
Speaker 2: because you will be down in Miami for the game,
Speaker 2: or are you waiting to record when you come back.
Speaker 6: No, we are going live after the game on Sunday
Speaker 6: time to be determined. Gotta make sure we know how
Speaker 6: well it's gonna tak usk get back from the stadium
Speaker 6: to the hotel. So sometime Sunday night we will be
Speaker 6: live on the Lockdown Mangos YouTube channel with the Bengal
Speaker 6: Squad Show, So feel free to tune in and hopefully
Speaker 6: after a Bengals win down here in the Magic.
Speaker 2: City, the well traveled and incredibly hard working Alex Frank
Speaker 2: of a Sea of Blue, Sinci, jungle Land, Grant holy Land,
Speaker 2: all of those SB Nation podcast should say websites, and
Speaker 2: of course a Bengals squad that is on the lockedwn network,
Speaker 2: so be sure to tune that in. He also does
Speaker 2: some great work for us at celns Sincy dot com.
Speaker 2: So that is Alex Frank. We're gonna have to let
Speaker 2: him go. We've got news that the top of the hour,
Speaker 2: and then on the other side of news, we will
Speaker 2: have Pat Brennan of the Cincinnati Inquirer talking all things
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Reds. You are listening to RNL Carriers Sports Talk
Speaker 2: presented by Kelsey Chevrolet on News Radio seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1: The following takes place between seven pm and eight pm.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to our number two of RNL carriers, Sports Talk,
Speaker 2: presented by Kelsey Chevrolet on News Radio seven hundred wl W.
Speaker 2: My name is Mike Petralia Trags. I am filling in
Speaker 2: for the one and only Lance McAllister for the next
Speaker 2: two hours leading up to nine o'clock and certainly a
Speaker 2: lot to get to in the next two hours. We've
Speaker 2: already talked to a little Cincinnati Bengals. We've talked about
Speaker 2: you see Bearcats at least on the basketball side, and
Speaker 2: University of Kentucky. This is a s mortgage board. I
Speaker 2: hate that word. I just tried to use it and
Speaker 2: I butchered it. But sorry, everybody. It's really a plethora.
Speaker 2: There's a better word and easier word to pronounce for me,
Speaker 2: A plethora of sports topics. Tonight, locally, we are going
Speaker 2: to move on to the baseball team in town right
Speaker 2: now and talk about the Cincinnati Red Legs. They have
Speaker 2: a pretty important offseason still ahead of them, a lot
Speaker 2: of moves left to be made, at least a lot
Speaker 2: of people think so. After missing out on Kyle Schwarber
Speaker 2: and this week signing lefty reliever Caleb Ferguson on here
Speaker 2: right Now on the Carrier RNL Carrier Sports Talk program
Speaker 2: presented by Kelsey Chevrolet to talk about it all as
Speaker 2: Pat Brennan. He does a great job on the Bengals beat,
Speaker 2: but also covers the Cincinnati Reds. Hey, Pat, thanks for
Speaker 2: joining me. How you doing tonight?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 4: Tracks, I'm doing okay. Pronounced board.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to try it because I'm not going
Speaker 2: to dull the listeners with my inability to pronounce that word.
Speaker 2: I just I don't like.
Speaker 4: I'm just trying to help here.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that, and I appreciate the uh dictation alliteration
Speaker 2: lesson here live on w W. I appreciate that, pack,
Speaker 2: But I guess we have to start with your thoughts
Speaker 2: on the Reds missing out on Kyle Schwarber. There are
Speaker 2: a lot of people who criticize the Reds for making
Speaker 2: the offer to Kyle Schwarber and then saying, well, We're
Speaker 2: just going to bank that money and save it to
Speaker 2: spend somewhere else, instead of going out and making a
Speaker 2: push for let's say, Pete Alonso or someone else that
Speaker 2: could provide a power bat in the lineup. What are
Speaker 2: your thoughts on that? What's your biggest takeaway?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, obviously there's some calculus done there about
Speaker 4: Schwarber versus the rest of the eligible field for kind
Speaker 4: of that power hitting likely DH type role that the
Speaker 4: Reds were trying to fill via Schber. And I think
Speaker 4: the calculation was probably and there's been some reporting of
Speaker 4: this effect tracks. The calculation there was that this is
Speaker 4: a local guy. He can drive some revenue because he's local.
Speaker 4: He can also drive revenue because he's such an enormous
Speaker 4: name in the game today and over the last certainly
Speaker 4: over the last few years when he's really elevated his power,
Speaker 4: the strength of his power hitting to the top of
Speaker 4: the game or near the top. And I guess there
Speaker 4: was a calculus that that popularity could offset some of
Speaker 4: the costs right up front just by bringing him in.
Speaker 4: His name offsets some of what it would cost to
Speaker 4: retain him. And I think it's probably true that other
Speaker 4: power hitters in that conversation, like PETERLNDO, might not have
Speaker 4: the same effect at the box office. So yeah, look,
Speaker 4: I'll say this much regardless of whether we agree or disagree,
Speaker 4: or fans agreed disagree with that. With that math that
Speaker 4: I think was done there, I can understand why it
Speaker 4: would be deemed disheartening to see that money then come
Speaker 4: off the table and then oh, the Reds are back
Speaker 4: to working, working within this the very tight parameters of
Speaker 4: the initial budget that we thought they had.
Speaker 2: Here's my problem with that. Let me jump in here.
Speaker 2: Here's my problem with that. Are you trying to become
Speaker 2: a significantly better baseball team on the field in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six addressing an obvious need, which was the lack
Speaker 2: of a power bat in the middle of the lineup
Speaker 2: to help protect La Dala Cruz, Or are you trying
Speaker 2: to sell seats? My thinking is, if you're trying to
Speaker 2: become the best baseball team, go to the second best
Speaker 2: bat in the lineup, make a play. And if you
Speaker 2: miss on Pete Alonso, well you missed on two. You
Speaker 2: went over two, which power hitters normally do. See that
Speaker 2: putt that I just made there, But anyway you made
Speaker 2: the attempt, you were at least in the batter's box
Speaker 2: taking your hacks. The problem a lot of Reds fans
Speaker 2: have and I was at a party last night and
Speaker 2: talking with a couple of long standing season ticket holders,
Speaker 2: and they're like, well, we made one we made one move,
Speaker 2: and I don't want to label it as half hearted,
Speaker 2: but they made one attempt, and they're like, oh, well
Speaker 2: it wasn't meant to be. We're going to move on
Speaker 2: to something else. That's that's a loser's attitude, and it
Speaker 2: frustrates so many fans in this town. And before it
Speaker 2: was a Bengal town and a football town, it was
Speaker 2: obviously a very rick baseball town, and it infuriates fans
Speaker 2: that the Reds don't go out and try to improve
Speaker 2: the product on the field address an obvious need.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree, I get it, And you know, the money.
Speaker 4: The Reds have tied up a lot of their available
Speaker 4: budget dollars to now three free agent pitchers, one of
Speaker 4: which is that we're obviously all very familiar with an
Speaker 4: Emilio Pagan. But I think the cumulative sum of the
Speaker 4: cost of those players and their entirety is less than
Speaker 4: the Phillies spend. Well, okay, the Phillies will spend on
Speaker 4: one reliever, Brad Keller, who they signed to a two
Speaker 4: year to twenty two million dollar deal. So look, it's
Speaker 4: not this isn't new from the Reds. They're adding around
Speaker 4: the edges. They're adding where they feel like they can, and.
Speaker 2: They're hoping their primo prosps becks fill in the void
Speaker 2: in the meat of the order. And it's a strategy.
Speaker 2: And I guess you're that's why I'm having you on.
Speaker 2: You're doing a fabulous job of articulating that that is
Speaker 2: their strategy, that the bats that cost primo dollars are
Speaker 2: going to have to be filled in by players the
Speaker 2: Reds already have under team control so that they can
Speaker 2: fill on the edges. I don't know. When I hear that,
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, they're they're trying to do it in
Speaker 2: the cheapest way possible, and I just think in the
Speaker 2: long run, your odds diminish greatly when you take that tact.
Speaker 4: Oh sure, well, listen, I'll go back to the end
Speaker 4: of year. I don't want to call it a news
Speaker 4: conference because it's a little more intimate than that, but right,
Speaker 4: Nick cal and uh Brad Metter meet with the.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, Hey, I know you were cowboy, and
Speaker 4: you know the way I interpreted Nick's comments were that,
Speaker 4: I mean, I guess I just it wasn't a specific comment,
Speaker 4: but I walked out of there feeling like if I'm
Speaker 4: reading the room and interpreting these things as I do
Speaker 4: and as I heard him talk, I think the Reds
Speaker 4: believe they will have a very challenging task in front
Speaker 4: of them this offseason getting back to eighty four wins,
Speaker 4: and I think that's where that's been born out to be.
Speaker 4: It certainly looks like a good reaf on the situation today,
Speaker 4: and I do think they will be hard pressed to
Speaker 4: be a better team than they were last year. You
Speaker 4: mentioned the word you're hoping for prospects to fill in
Speaker 4: and this and that hope is a big part of
Speaker 4: the equation here. There's no question you are hoping that
Speaker 4: Matt McClain turns it around. You're hoping for a full
Speaker 4: season of healthy Spencer Steer. You're hoping that Dela Cruz
Speaker 4: finally produces not just plays for one sixty two, but
Speaker 4: delivers well. I think what has to be MVP caliber
Speaker 4: play for one sixty two.
Speaker 2: Have you heard anything more on the reporting and some
Speaker 2: of the rumors that I've read in the last couple
Speaker 2: of weeks about Ellie d La Cruz and the Reds
Speaker 2: giving or not giving him permission to play in the
Speaker 2: World Baseball Classic.
Speaker 4: I had seen the rumors. My impression remains that he
Speaker 4: will participate in the World Baseball Classic, and I understand that.
Speaker 4: You know, I think if if I'm not mistaken, I'll
Speaker 4: just let's say this was a rumor too. I think
Speaker 4: MLB had a social media post that was later taken down,
Speaker 4: if I'm not mistaken, and I am willing to be
Speaker 4: corrected on that. But yeah, there were some ripples about
Speaker 4: him maybe not being allowed to go. But I will
Speaker 4: tell you that what the Inquirer reported and what my
Speaker 4: colleague and good friend Gordon Wittenmeyer reported from the winter
Speaker 4: meetings in Orlando was that I think Albert Pooholes is
Speaker 4: managing the team, the national team, and he seemed very
Speaker 4: convinced that Ellie would be in the Whoever the manager
Speaker 4: is of that national team very convinced that Ellie would
Speaker 4: be a part of it. And from that I really
Speaker 4: had no I didn't feel a strong inkling to lean
Speaker 4: too much into the rumor mill after what I saw
Speaker 4: coming out of Orlando.
Speaker 2: God, so what about NOELV. Martegs Because to me, of
Speaker 2: the names that you just mentioned, the one you did
Speaker 2: not Mention is probably the biggest name. They are going
Speaker 2: to depend on him and south Stewart in the middle
Speaker 2: of that order to really provide the Reds what they're
Speaker 2: not going to get out of Kyle Schwarber because they
Speaker 2: missed on him in free agency. I think their plan
Speaker 2: B was, Okay, we don't get a big bat, We're
Speaker 2: just going to have to step on salth Stewart and
Speaker 2: nouelve Marte. And I think there was enough evidence in
Speaker 2: the play that we saw in the last six to
Speaker 2: eight weeks of the twenty twenty five season to suggest
Speaker 2: that they could be ready to take that next significant
Speaker 2: leap in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, just starting with south Stewart. You hope
Speaker 4: that's the case, except that the National ball I mean
Speaker 4: all of baseball, not just the National League, is going
Speaker 4: to have a whole offseason to pick his approach at
Speaker 4: the play depart and you know, pitchers will adjust to
Speaker 4: him after not mostly not having seen him until late
Speaker 4: in the MLB regular season last year and for a
Speaker 4: hot second in the playoffs. So how does he adjust
Speaker 4: to that adjustment? And then that kind of back and
Speaker 4: forth game begins and continues on for his whole career,
Speaker 4: but I think the first two rounds of that can
Speaker 4: be really challenging for a young player like him. So
Speaker 4: we'll we'll see about South Stewart. Uh, Noel Marte, I
Speaker 4: feel much more confident about He's beyond that phase in
Speaker 4: his career. He became very reliable in the field, which
Speaker 4: was you know, left field was sorry. Right field was
Speaker 4: a black hole for the Reds defensively at times last year.
Speaker 4: But so so that's a good thing. But you know,
Speaker 4: noelva is yet too show to offer to give the
Speaker 4: Reds what they need to protect Ellie and do all
Speaker 4: the things that Kyle Schwarver would have provided. We haven't
Speaker 4: seen that yet from Noelvie over.
Speaker 5: Thing.
Speaker 2: Let me jump in here. That's the thing, please they
Speaker 2: had the Reds haven't seen it consistently from Noelve, but
Speaker 2: I think they're in the second half of last year
Speaker 2: they started to get the sense that this kid is
Speaker 2: ready to play one hundred and fifty games a year
Speaker 2: and be a massive force for us. I mean the
Speaker 2: play he made the final home game, leaping above the
Speaker 2: wall making that catch that was the iconic moment of
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty five Red season. The feel good moment
Speaker 2: of the year. I don't think there's any question about that.
Speaker 2: And it's appropriate that it was Marte making that play,
Speaker 2: because that's really if you want to look at what
Speaker 2: the reds Field twenty twenty six can be, it's that
Speaker 2: final play of the year at home. Anyway, of course
Speaker 2: they had the three year Milwaukee, but the final play
Speaker 2: of the year at home. That's what I think the
Speaker 2: reds Field the ceiling is for next year.
Speaker 4: Yep, I agree, And again I think a lot of
Speaker 4: that once again, even with Noelvie, predicated on hope and
Speaker 4: projections and things we're yet to see with our own
Speaker 4: two eyes. I think, you know, but these are I
Speaker 4: want to give credit to Nick Crawl and Brad Matter.
Speaker 4: These are these sharp guys. Everything they calculated about last season,
Speaker 4: most things, I should say, uh, that was good enough
Speaker 4: to get them to the playoffs, and let's just see,
Speaker 4: let's just see what they can do with the rest
Speaker 4: of this offseason. I think they made some significant additions
Speaker 4: to last year's team, guys that ended up being significant
Speaker 4: later on after in the new year. So I'm not
Speaker 4: I'm not ready to say that this offseason was a failure.
Speaker 4: And I don't think anyone else should, just based on
Speaker 4: the fact that they didn't land Kyle's for that was
Speaker 4: always kind of a long shot.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's move on real quick. We've got a couple
Speaker 2: of minutes here. They did make a move this week
Speaker 2: four point five million for one year for lefty reliever
Speaker 2: Caleb Ferguson. A lot of fans are going to say who,
Speaker 2: But this is a guy that Terry Francona joked with
Speaker 2: Caleb Ferguson, and Ferguson acknowledged this on a zoom call
Speaker 2: from Thursday. He's glad he doesn't have to game plan
Speaker 2: for going forward and just tell us a little bit
Speaker 2: about Caleb Ferguson. He can of kind of, I think,
Speaker 2: take the role of Brent Suter in that bullpen. But
Speaker 2: he's a lefty reliever who can get a lot of
Speaker 2: lefties and righties out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think he feels an area of need
Speaker 4: as a lefty reliever in the bullpen. He alluded last
Speaker 4: night on that zoom call you mentioned to the varying
Speaker 4: nature of his role and that he expects to be
Speaker 4: called upon to do a variety of different jobs for
Speaker 4: the Reds out of the bullpen, and I think equating
Speaker 4: that to the Brent Suter role is probably a fair
Speaker 4: assessment by you drags. But I mean this is this
Speaker 4: is another guy who you know. Now, the Reds have
Speaker 4: everyone returning from last year, you know, bringing in guys
Speaker 4: with postseason experience to clubhouse last year that had none
Speaker 4: was a big deal for the Reds. Now most of
Speaker 4: the guys returning experienced the postseason on a relatively high level.
Speaker 4: You faced the eventual champion Dodgers in a series that
Speaker 4: was you know, they got swept out of it. So
Speaker 4: everyone has playoff experience. Caleb Ferguson has big time playoff
Speaker 4: experience with multiple franchises. Last year it was with the
Speaker 4: Seattle Mariners, and he did get knocked around a fair amount,
Speaker 4: but that was the first time in his career, over
Speaker 4: several postseason runs, that he had really faced any kind
Speaker 4: of adversity. He was a phenomenal postseason pitcher prior to
Speaker 4: that with the Dodgers, and I believe the Astros. So
Speaker 4: this is a guy with postseason pedigree. You love that
Speaker 4: he is a veteran guy. You like that too, and
Speaker 4: he's not too old, So I think it was a
Speaker 4: great pickup by the Reds kind of a sneaky under
Speaker 4: the radar one. This is a guy that started the
Speaker 4: year with the Pittsburgh Pirates last season tracks, so some
Speaker 4: Reds fans might actually be familiar with his work, and
Speaker 4: good work tends to get overshadowed in Pittsburgh these days.
Speaker 4: And obviously the Mariners thought highly enough of him to
Speaker 4: bring him on for their stretch run and playoff run.
Speaker 4: Like I said, he got roughed up. Well, he pitched
Speaker 4: beginnings for them in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: We've got forty five seconds here, Pat, I want to
Speaker 2: get your opinion on Catel Marte of Arizona. He is
Speaker 2: the one name I hear that could be a blockbuster trade.
Speaker 2: He's gonna require a lot. But what are your thoughts
Speaker 2: on the Reds possibly making a bid at him at
Speaker 2: the age of thirty two.
Speaker 4: I'd love to see it happen. Talk about postseason pedigree.
Speaker 4: This guy tore up the National League side of the
Speaker 4: bracket in twenty twenty three, as the Diamondbacks went on
Speaker 4: to win the NL that year. You know, there are
Speaker 4: some red flags that don't necessarily translate to a Terry
Speaker 4: francona managed team. I think This is a guy that
Speaker 4: probably needs to have a veteran leadership to check him
Speaker 4: at times. But I think it would be a great addition,
Speaker 4: a big name and someone who could do a significant
Speaker 4: amount of a you know, not a bad backup option.
Speaker 4: And if you couldn't get Kyles forber right, all right,
Speaker 4: he is.
Speaker 2: Pat Brennan does a fabulous job covering the Reds for
Speaker 2: the Cincinnati Inquirer, and of course he's with me on
Speaker 2: the Cincinnati Bengals beat for the arrest of this season.
Speaker 2: Three more games remaining, he will be traveling to Miami
Speaker 2: to cover the Bengals along with Kelsey Conway of the
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Inquirer. Be sure to cover his great coverage there. Pat,
Speaker 2: thanks so much. We got to let you go. We
Speaker 2: got news at the bottom of the hour. Then another
Speaker 2: inquire a great terrific reporters, Shell Dermert will be joining
Speaker 2: me on the other side to talk about how in
Speaker 2: the world Musketeers can forget about that blowout loss to
Speaker 2: Creighton on Wednesday and move on to Georgetown tomorrow. On
Speaker 2: the road, you're listening to the RNL Carrier Sports talk
Speaker 2: program presented by Kelsey Chevrolet on News Radio seven hundred WLW,
Speaker 2: just past the halfway point of this three hour extravaganza
Speaker 2: known as the RNL Carrier's Sports Talk Program presented by
Speaker 2: Kelsey Chevrolet on news Radio seven hundred w WELW. My
Speaker 2: name is Mike Crowyef, filling in for the Great Lance
Speaker 2: McAllister until nine o'clock when Sterling takes over here in
Speaker 2: the high chair in the Big One studio here in
Speaker 2: ken Woods. So looking forward to entertaining for the next
Speaker 2: let's say hour and twenty five minutes.
Speaker 4: UH.
Speaker 2: To do that, We're going to take your calls five one, three, seven, nine, seven,
Speaker 2: thousan one eight hundred the Big One. We want to
Speaker 2: get to a couple of calls before we get to
Speaker 2: Shelby Dehmer, who is patiently waiting online. Dick in Dayton.
Speaker 2: You've been waiting very patiently. How you doing, Dick? What
Speaker 2: is on your mind? We've got about one minute right here.
Speaker 7: Hey, Mike, good to talk to you.
Speaker 5: I just was a little concerned this year.
Speaker 7: I was hoping the Bengals, but Joe Burrow came back
Speaker 7: and then all this collapse at once, and I just
Speaker 7: can't understand what's going on.
Speaker 5: Mike.
Speaker 7: They're a better team than this, but the defense needs
Speaker 7: help and everything, and if they keep losing, I'm scared
Speaker 7: they're gonna lose Taylor and they might have to get
Speaker 7: a defensive coordinator.
Speaker 4: Well your opinion about that, so good question, Dick.
Speaker 2: I appreciate the call. They hired Al Golden from Notre
Speaker 2: Dame last year to replace lou Ana Arumo, who's done
Speaker 2: pretty good things this year in Indianapolis in a similar role.
Speaker 2: I think second year under our Golden will make a difference.
Speaker 2: I think the maturation of guys like DJ Turner, Dax Hill,
Speaker 2: and Miles Murphy entering his third year is gonna matter.
Speaker 2: Chris Jenkins on the ir but he as of today
Speaker 2: with an ankle injury, but he will be entering his
Speaker 2: third year next season. Zach Taylor said this morning he
Speaker 2: is going to make a big leap. They're very confident
Speaker 2: of that. They have to. This is non negotiable. The
Speaker 2: Bengals have to go out spend the money on defense
Speaker 2: and hit in the draft. They have to replicate what
Speaker 2: they did after the twenty twenty season and before I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: what they did in twenty twenty free agency and twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one free agency to set the table for the
Speaker 2: runs in twenty one and twenty two. That is non negotiable.
Speaker 2: The Bengals absolutely positively have to reconstruct their defense. I
Speaker 2: think everybody in the building knows it. The big question
Speaker 2: is whether or not you trust the people picking the
Speaker 2: groceries to use an old bill ourselves line. Do you
Speaker 2: trust the people buying the groceries to cook the meal?
Speaker 2: That is what it's going to come down to. We
Speaker 2: got time for one more Mark. I've got thirty seconds.
Speaker 2: You want to talk about the Reds. What's on your mind?
Speaker 8: Well, I just want to say everybody's upset about the
Speaker 8: Schwarmer thing and you and while the Reds didn't sign them,
Speaker 8: and could we all agree? I think the Reds could
Speaker 8: spend a little more money than they do. But let's
Speaker 8: keep in mind the Philadelphia Phillies are in the eighth
Speaker 8: largest market in the United States. They just signed a
Speaker 8: new television deal. I think that guarantees them about two
Speaker 8: and a half billion dollars over the next twenty years.
Speaker 8: And you know, the Reds are not going to compete
Speaker 8: with that. Though maybe if you've got a new ownership
Speaker 8: in here, maybe they get more aggressive with television.
Speaker 4: Could do something, but.
Speaker 8: The numbers are what they are, and that's just the
Speaker 8: reality of what we have.
Speaker 2: That is a great, great point mark, And you know,
Speaker 2: I think certainly what Reds fans have to understand is
Speaker 2: you've got to hit. Just like the Bengals have to
Speaker 2: hit with their draft picks, the Reds have to hit
Speaker 2: with their prospects. That's non negotiable. That is the business
Speaker 2: model set by the Minnesota Twins back in the early
Speaker 2: two thousands, set by the Houston Astros in the last
Speaker 2: ten to fifteen years. They did a great job with that.
Speaker 2: Then they came in and spent a little bit more money.
Speaker 2: It is doable. Even with the Milwaukee Brewers. Now you
Speaker 2: see what they've done with Pat Murphy, a terrific field manager.
Speaker 2: They've done a great job of developing their young players.
Speaker 2: The Reds have to follow that model. They just have
Speaker 2: to be more successful in doing that. I do think
Speaker 2: there's hope for next year. I am not of the
Speaker 2: belief that just because they didn't get Kyle Schwarber, all
Speaker 2: hope is lost for twenty twenty six. I'm not of
Speaker 2: that belief. I think there is enough talent stockpiled in
Speaker 2: the organization. Maybe not deep down in the farm system anymore,
Speaker 2: but it is ready to contribute at the major league level.
Speaker 2: We talked about Noel ve Marte, we talked about Sal Stewart,
Speaker 2: guys like that, Chase Burns of the See on the
Speaker 2: pitching side, I think the Reds going to be okay
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty six. They need maybe to make one
Speaker 2: or two more moves to provide some depth. All right,
Speaker 2: it is time to move on to the guest that
Speaker 2: we have slated for this segment, and he is here
Speaker 2: to clean up what was a mess at Centas or
Speaker 2: at least talk about cleaning up the mess that was
Speaker 2: Centas Center on Wednesday night, the worst home loss in
Speaker 2: Xavier history. That's certainly the worst loss in the history
Speaker 2: of Cintas Center, a forty one point blowout ninety eight
Speaker 2: to fifty seven to Creighton. Shelby Dermer of the Cincinnati Inquirer. Shelby,
Speaker 2: you are otherwise known as no Strodermis, please.
Speaker 4: Explain that's correct.
Speaker 9: So before the season, I went game by games through
Speaker 9: davor schedule. Obviously a lot of intrigue with a new,
Speaker 9: completely new roster, only one returning player, no returning minutes,
Speaker 9: and just tried to pick game by game and right
Speaker 9: now now after I didn't expect what happened on Wednesday
Speaker 9: to happened, but I did expect the laws, maybe not
Speaker 9: by forty one points. But so far I'm twelve or twelve, Mike,
Speaker 9: and I have them at eight and four. Since I
Speaker 9: can pick twelve games in a row, you think i'd
Speaker 9: have the wherewithal of like you know, pick the trash
Speaker 9: cans down every Sunday or other things like that, but
Speaker 9: that sneaks up on me. But so far perfect on
Speaker 9: the Zavier season, have them at eight and four.
Speaker 2: So we are going to do what is called in
Speaker 2: the business tease. The segment tees the outcome and the
Speaker 2: finale of this segment. So we will hold off on
Speaker 2: what you are predicting for tomorrow in Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: The Georgetown Hoya is with I think a bit of
Speaker 2: a surprise. Even though Marquette is having a down year,
Speaker 2: they won their big East opener on the road on
Speaker 2: Wednesday night at Marquette. Your thoughts on what Xavier has
Speaker 2: to do, first of all to correct the mistakes that
Speaker 2: happened on Wednesday night, Right, it has.
Speaker 9: To start on defense and if any time you give up.
Speaker 9: You know, that was the largest loss in Davier history
Speaker 9: at home.
Speaker 4: It's also the.
Speaker 9: Most points they've allowed at home. Mike's ninety eight points.
Speaker 4: Creaton almost cracking triple digits.
Speaker 9: Creighton came in, they weren't shooting the three ball, well,
Speaker 9: they shot a lot of them. They came in and
Speaker 9: got whatever they wanted. They were sixteen to thirty three
Speaker 9: from three, the most three Xavier had allowed since seventeen
Speaker 9: to Evansville a few years back. Storing Travis Steele era.
Speaker 9: Creighton shot over sixty percent from the field. And so
Speaker 9: it all starts defensively, and for this matchup, you know,
Speaker 9: Georgetown's gonna pick on some of the week. This says
Speaker 9: Xavier had. Xavier went to this small ball lineup, so
Speaker 9: they have their bigger guys like Anthony Robinson and pop
Speaker 9: Enji are on the bench.
Speaker 4: For the majority of the game.
Speaker 9: Small ball lineup that helps you a lot on offense
Speaker 9: with things like taking care of the ball and passing.
Speaker 9: Xavier's excelled at that, but it really hurts in rim
Speaker 9: protection and Xavier's been just really punished by the remp
Speaker 9: or in the paint so far this season. And that's
Speaker 9: what you're going to get against Georgetown. They don't shoot
Speaker 9: the three well, but they know that they only shoot
Speaker 9: about thirty five percent of their field goal attempt for
Speaker 9: beyond the arc, so they want to get inside the behavior.
Speaker 9: I mean, it's a physicality issue right now. They have
Speaker 9: to buck up on defense and find a way to
Speaker 9: keep Georgetown away from the basket. Easier said than done.
Speaker 2: Trey Carroll came down to earth a little bit. He
Speaker 2: was held in single digits, as you wrote for your
Speaker 2: story on Cincinnati dot Com. Held in single digits seven
Speaker 2: points for the first time this season. In Jovonne Milisevich,
Speaker 2: he was scoreless, going zero for eight. And Roddy Anderson,
Speaker 2: the only player on the roster last year, and of
Speaker 2: course he was injured he did not play last year,
Speaker 2: but he was the only returning player. He scored all
Speaker 2: twelve of his points in the second half. They're just
Speaker 2: going to have to get more. I think those three
Speaker 2: players that I just mentioned Milisavich, Carol and Anderson they
Speaker 2: have to be big players tomorrow if the Muskies are
Speaker 2: going to come away with a win on the road.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yovan is a big guess.
Speaker 9: Catlysts I think, for you know, xavior's turnaround in non
Speaker 9: conference play, that five game winning streak, that sixth and
Speaker 9: one stretch kind of he entered really the fold. At Iowa,
Speaker 9: Zavier lost that game, gave up fifty plus points of
Speaker 9: the paint, but Jovonne stepped in hit a couple of threes,
Speaker 9: and he's been that guy that stretches defenses out. We
Speaker 9: talked about that in the shootout Davier. With five guys
Speaker 9: on the perimeter who are a threat to shoot three,
Speaker 9: it allowed Treke Carroll to have some one on one opportunities.
Speaker 9: Then in Charleston, Yovann hit ten threes. He had twelve
Speaker 9: or fourteen excuse me, over a three game stretch. So yeah,
Speaker 9: a bit of an outlier performance if you if you
Speaker 9: look at his game log throughout the year, to just
Speaker 9: play eighteen minutes going over eight and then Trake Carroll,
Speaker 9: like you mentioned, first game in single digits. So you know,
Speaker 9: you hope he turns it around, but I guess you know,
Speaker 9: Richard Bettino wasn't wasn't ready to say it was a
Speaker 9: bright spot, but really it kind of was with Malik
Speaker 9: Messina more. Yeah, if you look back at their first
Speaker 9: two games, they were they were clunky wins. Xavier was
Speaker 9: twenty point twenty plus point five over Marrits and Lemoyne.
Speaker 9: They won both of those games by five point or
Speaker 9: four points against marits five points against Lamoines, and both
Speaker 9: times the offense just the lid was on the basket
Speaker 9: until Malik the sina Moore took over. And he's been
Speaker 9: you know, really quiet, only like four to three pointers
Speaker 9: over the last nine games, and then he got going.
Speaker 9: Against Creighton, Xavier led at the first media time out.
Speaker 9: You wouldn't think that from a box score full of
Speaker 9: you know, concerning numbers, but they led early ten to nine.
Speaker 9: Cina Moore ended up with fourteen points, his first time
Speaker 9: in double digits since the second game of the season.
Speaker 9: So his aggressiveness, his assertiveness on the offensive end, along
Speaker 9: with doing good things like rebounding and assisting, which he
Speaker 9: was already doing when he wasn't scoring. So trying to
Speaker 9: get you know, all these guys on the same page.
Speaker 9: Not a lot of room for error for Xavier's offense.
Speaker 9: But you know, Milie getting on track was a step
Speaker 9: in the right direction.
Speaker 2: If you want hope and you're a Xavier fan, you
Speaker 2: go back to the way Richard Patino handled the Santa
Speaker 2: Clara loss, how he reacted, how the team responded to that.
Speaker 2: And yes they lost to I believe it was Iowa,
Speaker 2: but in a much more competitive game. And yes they
Speaker 2: lost by one at Georgia. We know George's pretty legitimate team,
Speaker 2: especially down there on the road. But you see the
Speaker 2: way they responded. That's why I think there's hope for
Speaker 2: this Xavier team. I yes, it was a terrible, horrific
Speaker 2: loss on your home court, but the way Patinos troops
Speaker 2: handled the Santa Clara loss, which was eye opening, it
Speaker 2: gives me hope that I think they're going to respond
Speaker 2: the right way going forward.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you brought up the perfect pair of examples there,
Speaker 9: Mike Is. You know, you had that Santa Clara loss
Speaker 9: where you know the whole crowd, You've been in that
Speaker 9: bunker at Sindtop Center, and you know all those fans
Speaker 9: are saying, you know everything, you know, all the negative
Speaker 9: things about you as they're walking out with ten minutes
Speaker 9: to go and Santa Clara is pulling away.
Speaker 4: And then you go to Iowa, like you said, competitive.
Speaker 9: Nineteen point loss again, you rebound four days later, you
Speaker 9: win thirty. Then you know the Georgia is just a
Speaker 9: backbreaking law. Come back from down sixteen to the second half,
Speaker 9: lose on a last second shot, But then what do
Speaker 9: you do two days later?
Speaker 4: You take care of West Virginia by ten. That really
Speaker 4: start jump starts to run.
Speaker 9: So the way this team is responded to adversity this
Speaker 9: season is, you know what you hang your hat on
Speaker 9: moving forward and just hope that they take this Creighton
Speaker 9: game as you know, a big wake up call. You
Speaker 9: know you're riding high after five straight wins, including one
Speaker 9: in the cross down shootout. You finished an on conference
Speaker 9: at eight and three. Kind of reading the headlines maybe
Speaker 9: a little bit, but Creighton certainly brings you back down
Speaker 9: to earth. A coach McDermott led team can do that
Speaker 9: to you with the way they can shoot. So you
Speaker 9: hope it's they can respond to adversity like they have
Speaker 9: all year and that you know they got a wake
Speaker 9: up call that you know it's it's go time in
Speaker 9: the Big East and there's no nights off and and
Speaker 9: it's a it's a grind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought you had a terrific quote from Richard
Speaker 2: Patino in your story. They didn't show up to watch
Speaker 2: that Patino said of the fan sentas that was about
Speaker 2: as humbling and I'm not an arrogant person by any means,
Speaker 2: but fourteen years as a coach, I don't know if
Speaker 2: I've ever had one of those in a league game
Speaker 2: on opening night like that. He is Shelby Dermer. He
Speaker 2: does a fabulous job covering the Xavier Musketeers for the
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com boots on the ground.
Speaker 2: He will be in our nation's capital tomorrow covering Xavier
Speaker 2: and the Georgetown Hoyas in game number two of the
Speaker 2: Big East schedule. You can also follow him at give
Speaker 2: me your Twitter handle, I don't want to get.
Speaker 4: It wrong at Inquire Shelby.
Speaker 2: There you go, and you can also call him Noster
Speaker 2: Dermis the next time you see him out in public,
Speaker 2: because that's what he is known for. Best around Shelby,
Speaker 2: You're the best. Thanks for taking some time out on
Speaker 2: a Friday night. Enjoy the game tomorrow.
Speaker 4: Absolutely all right.
Speaker 2: He's Shelby Dermom. My name is Mike Petralia. And on
Speaker 2: the other side of news at the top of the hour,
Speaker 2: we will talk some UC basketball and Wes Miller and
Speaker 2: John Cunningham with Russ Heltman of SI dot Com. My
Speaker 2: name is Mike Petralia, and you are listening to RNL
Speaker 2: Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet on News Radio
Speaker 2: seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1: The following takes place between eight pm and nine pm.
Speaker 2: And Welcome to the third and final hour of RNL
Speaker 2: Carriers Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet on News Radio
Speaker 2: seven hundred WLW. I have had the great privilege and
Speaker 2: honor of filling in for Lance McAllister for the previous
Speaker 2: two hours. We're going to try to finish on a
Speaker 2: very strong note here in the final sixty minutes of
Speaker 2: this program. It'll be Russ Heltman joining me in a
Speaker 2: few moments of SI dot com talking all things Cincinnati Bearcats.
Speaker 2: Then we'll have Gabby Sorrentino of Fox nineteen. She will
Speaker 2: be down in Miami covering the Bengals and Dolphins, and
Speaker 2: we'll talk about the Bengals and some other fun stuff,
Speaker 2: maybe some cultural topics on the docket. We'll see. We'll
Speaker 2: wait and see what Gabby has in store for us,
Speaker 2: but that will be the way we finish out the program.
Speaker 2: Then Sterling takes over. The show takes over the studio,
Speaker 2: I should say at nine o'clock he's with you, and
Speaker 2: from nine o'clock until midnight, just about getting underway out
Speaker 2: in Norman, Oklahoma, the CFP, the College Football Playoff, officially
Speaker 2: begins with first round games. Tonight. It is number nine
Speaker 2: Alabama taking on number eight Oklahoma. I find that to
Speaker 2: be a fascinating matchup because in years past you would
Speaker 2: just say Alabama is the blue blood college football program
Speaker 2: that go in and take on any opponent anytime, and
Speaker 2: take on Oklahoma and beat Oklahoma. I'm not so sure
Speaker 2: this time. I think Oklahoma probably beats them in a
Speaker 2: close one. Tomorrow. The three other first round games number
Speaker 2: ten Miami at number seven Texas A and M Number
Speaker 2: eleven Tulane takes on number six Ole Miss. That's at
Speaker 2: three point thirty the Miami, Texas A and M game
Speaker 2: at noon, and then the afternoon or the evening of
Speaker 2: college football winds up with number twelve James Madison at
Speaker 2: number five Oregon that is at seven thirty PM. But
Speaker 2: as I mentioned, I want to bring on my next guest.
Speaker 2: He is a good friend of mine. At all things
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Bearcats. We always manage to have interesting conversations during
Speaker 2: play and during the timeouts. He is the one and
Speaker 2: only Russ Helpman again covers the Bearcats for SI dot Com.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Russ on this Friday night.
Speaker 10: Mike, awesome man? How you doing on this Friday night?
Speaker 2: I am doing well. I guess I'm going to start
Speaker 2: with college basketball and start with the Bearcats and what
Speaker 2: they were able to do against Alabama State. Wes Miller
Speaker 2: needed a blowout win and you got a couple of good,
Speaker 2: feel good storylines out of Wednesday. If you're Wes Miller,
Speaker 2: you got the big win and you got Gisel James
Speaker 2: coming back to the Bearcats and scoring in double figures.
Speaker 2: It seemed like that's the kind of at least one
Speaker 2: game boost that Wes Miller needed.
Speaker 10: Gisel looked awesome, Mike and his return, and just at
Speaker 10: the maybe not the right time, obviously a third of
Speaker 10: the way into the season already being six and four,
Speaker 10: you're back against the wall having to win definitely on Sunday,
Speaker 10: or you're in a position in conference play where there's
Speaker 10: just going to have to be a complete flip of
Speaker 10: the script compared to the record and conference over the
Speaker 10: last two seasons. Coming into the Big Twelve, but Jigsel
Speaker 10: looked really really good. Bob Bob Miller looked good. They
Speaker 10: were able to get some more things go in the
Speaker 10: half court, get some more good looks at the rim
Speaker 10: than they had been in most of these games coming
Speaker 10: in in the this action against Avaca State. But it's
Speaker 10: a Hornets team that they took on. Mike was three
Speaker 10: hundred and ninth on kem Palm coming into a game
Speaker 10: in total defensive efficiency, so it's not a huge thing
Speaker 10: to hang your hat on. There were some good tendencies
Speaker 10: that they could build on, and you always love to
Speaker 10: see a guy like Boba Miller put up a what
Speaker 10: twenty six and fourteen on eleven of twelve shooting and
Speaker 10: a forty one efficiency score on the staff broadcast feed
Speaker 10: that I don't think I've seen a player put up
Speaker 10: an efficiency line like that in my time covering the
Speaker 10: team over the last few years. So that was really
Speaker 10: good to see what he can do when he gets rolling.
Speaker 10: I think eight dunks from him overall, So the offense
Speaker 10: looked a lot better. But obviously do it again this
Speaker 10: Sunday against Clemson.
Speaker 2: So what will the Bearcats have to do Sunday going
Speaker 2: on the road. I mean, they had a chance against
Speaker 2: Georgia and they came out strong, and I don't know,
Speaker 2: watching the first ten minutes of that game and watching
Speaker 2: the final thirty minutes of the game, where I think
Speaker 2: they were outscored by thirty points, it was like watching
Speaker 2: two different teams.
Speaker 10: Russ it was Mike, and they have to find a
Speaker 10: way to stain the pace that they want to play
Speaker 10: with and maybe having Gisel James in the fold is
Speaker 10: going to allow them to do that and allow them
Speaker 10: to break through against the Clinton team that is a
Speaker 10: complete opposite style three hundred and twenty ninth I think
Speaker 10: in adjusted tempo on kimpom compared to Cincinnati, who's in
Speaker 10: the top seventy nationally in that stat So a contrasting
Speaker 10: way to play from these two teams. And can Cincinnati
Speaker 10: find a way to break through un the glass against
Speaker 10: one of the best rebounding teams in the country and
Speaker 10: find a way to force some live ball turnovers against
Speaker 10: an elite team and taking care of the basketball and
Speaker 10: finding efficient shots all around the half court. So it's
Speaker 10: going to be a really really tough test once again
Speaker 10: for the defense and how long it can it can
Speaker 10: hold up in a game that's going to going to
Speaker 10: grind them down in a kind of opposite way from
Speaker 10: how fast Georgia played last weekend, and once again you
Speaker 10: got to start hitting some jump shots. It's just amazing, Mike,
Speaker 10: how how far below the average? A lot of these
Speaker 10: guys who were really good shooters coming in and a
Speaker 10: lot of new players obviously that hadn't played for UC
Speaker 10: on this roster this season, and just something about fifth
Speaker 10: third arena or I don't know, it's just they they
Speaker 10: find a way to shoot a lot worse, and now
Speaker 10: you're going into a new arena where you have no
Speaker 10: experience shooting the ball. But they got to find a
Speaker 10: way to break through what is also a strong three
Speaker 10: point defense against Clemson and a Clemson team that's going
Speaker 10: to be happy to see them shoot the amount of
Speaker 10: threes that they've been accustomed to shooting the season, and
Speaker 10: also obviously shooting a lot of threes and getting a
Speaker 10: lot of open looks, but they just haven't been going
Speaker 10: down for the bear cuts shotting up.
Speaker 2: Russ Helpman of SI dot com covering all things Sincinnata
Speaker 2: Bearcats Shawn A. Bayev he is to me a puzzle.
Speaker 2: He is someone that is very hard to figure out
Speaker 2: for West Miller and you know, in defensive West, I
Speaker 2: think when they when he added Shawn Abayev to the roster,
Speaker 2: I think he thought that maybe this was the kind
Speaker 2: of three point shooter that could loosen up the offense
Speaker 2: a little bit and allow them to do more things
Speaker 2: outside inside however you want to put it. But I
Speaker 2: think they thought that a Byev would be kind of
Speaker 2: an X factor for loosening up the offense. And I consistently,
Speaker 2: consistency wise, that just hasn't panned out yet anyway.
Speaker 10: Mike, and there was a month again good signs of
Speaker 10: maybe something brewing there for a freshman who it doesn't
Speaker 10: happen right away for off freshmen. We're seeing happen right
Speaker 10: away for a lot of a leaf freshmen in the
Speaker 10: country right now. But that's just never been the case
Speaker 10: historically where you're seeing a ton of guy really pop
Speaker 10: right away. And obviously, the way that Shannabayev works, you'd
Speaker 10: expect them to continue growing throughout the season. He puts
Speaker 10: in as much time as anybody on the roster. But
Speaker 10: from obviously what fans saw in that game, if you
Speaker 10: watched a really good job of penetrating into the deep paint,
Speaker 10: getting some like good looping passes over the shoulder, some
Speaker 10: good no look passes for assists. I believe had a
Speaker 10: stat line of thirteen six and five was the first
Speaker 10: time since twenty ten that if you see Bearcats freshman
Speaker 10: put up that line, first time since Sean Kirkpatrick's I
Speaker 10: believe or something like that. Yeah, that's too, that too,
Speaker 10: it was. So it's good to see that and good
Speaker 10: to see him growing a little bit there and once again,
Speaker 10: like you said, the three point shot, the looks are there,
Speaker 10: the shots that he wants to get are there, and
Speaker 10: you got to think they'll eventually go down. But like
Speaker 10: we've been discussing sometimes, you and me on press Row,
Speaker 10: it's it gets late early once you start the season
Speaker 10: six and four or possibly seven, seven and five, and
Speaker 10: you're facing a top twenty five, top thirty schedule the
Speaker 10: rest of the way in what has been arguably the
Speaker 10: best conference in the country so far.
Speaker 2: How is Wes Miller handling all this? I mean, we
Speaker 2: see him where I see him after games, but you're
Speaker 2: there at practice, you see him, you know, on conference calls,
Speaker 2: what have? You see him a lot more than I do.
Speaker 2: And I'm just a full disclosure. You know that I
Speaker 2: cover the games obviously, but I don't see him as
Speaker 2: often as you do. And I'm just wondering if there's
Speaker 2: another side of Wes that fans don't get to see
Speaker 2: as often that maybe can help people understand how Wes
Speaker 2: Miller is wired, and if maybe maybe not softer side,
Speaker 2: but a more relaxed side, because I think a lot
Speaker 2: of U see fans for us, think that his teams
Speaker 2: play the way he coaches tense and uptight.
Speaker 10: I think, well, I don't know, I would kind of
Speaker 10: disagree with about the way he coaches the tense and uptights.
Speaker 10: For the most part, he's been pretty I would say,
Speaker 10: more reserved in recent years than he was. Maybe a
Speaker 10: little bit more fiery, uh in the in the beginning
Speaker 10: here you see, But overall, I would just say on
Speaker 10: the demeanor of West Miller, it's it's been difficult. It's
Speaker 10: been a difficult run. It's been a difficult up and down.
Speaker 10: It feels like there's been some moments where obviously his
Speaker 10: lack of execution as a coach has has heard his
Speaker 10: teams and also just things out of his control of
Speaker 10: our teams and possibly the return of Gisel James may
Speaker 10: maybe getting back Jalen Haynes Uh It's it's a possibility.
Speaker 10: We don't know for sure if it will happen this season,
Speaker 10: but it's it's always looming out there that they could
Speaker 10: have their full team for the first time in a
Speaker 10: long time at a deep point in the season of
Speaker 10: the West Miller era. It just there's been a lot
Speaker 10: of injury that have knocked out some of their momentum
Speaker 10: throughout different parts of his seasons. But overall, I think
Speaker 10: what I've what I saw from him, especially on Thursday
Speaker 10: on Thursday after the game, was just a little bit
Speaker 10: more relaxed and maybe a little bit more of a
Speaker 10: direction thinking and knowing that there's the gigittal James Saga
Speaker 10: is maybe getting a full bow, hopefully getting a full
Speaker 10: bow wrapped on it. With him back on back on
Speaker 10: the team, you have another rotation player to work with.
Speaker 10: And there was definitely I would say a more chipper
Speaker 10: attitude from West in Uh in that showing than than
Speaker 10: what we've seen in some recent press conferences from him.
Speaker 10: So overall, when you can get a lot of your
Speaker 10: team together, it can it can really change you're you're
Speaker 10: not your attitude, but how you're feeling overall.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and your outlook, I mean, certainly. And in west
Speaker 2: Wes's defense, okay, he mentioned early on in the season
Speaker 2: he did not have the full team, the full compliment
Speaker 2: that he was hoping for, and he would say he
Speaker 2: would start off a lot of news conferences in the
Speaker 2: non con part to the schedule, non conference schedule, saying,
Speaker 2: you know, this isn't our full complement of players yet,
Speaker 2: and we've just got to play through it and get
Speaker 2: better as a team without our full compliment. And perhaps
Speaker 2: with him seeing more players joining the roster and as
Speaker 2: in Gigsel James or more players getting healthy, I think
Speaker 2: that's going to help his disposition. And I do think
Speaker 2: if there's one team that could benefit from a hot
Speaker 2: start in conference play, it's the Bearcats. I don't think
Speaker 2: there's I mean, you know, I'm not breaking any huge
Speaker 2: news here by saying that or solving, you know, a
Speaker 2: nuclear physics problem, but they certainly could benefit from a
Speaker 2: good start in conference play, and they certainly have a
Speaker 2: huge game January. I think it's third right RUSS against
Speaker 2: Houston here in Cincinnati.
Speaker 10: Yes, I think it's either it's one of the first
Speaker 10: days of January or the last day of December. But
Speaker 10: right said, it would be great to start fast, but
Speaker 10: I don't believe. I believe West Moro is to nine
Speaker 10: or to ten all time against Houston. It's been a brutal,
Speaker 10: brutal run overall and twenty right around twenty percent hit
Speaker 10: rate in Quad one games, which Cincinnati has plenty of.
Speaker 10: This is the final Quad four game that they just
Speaker 10: had against Alabama State. A Q one game this weekend
Speaker 10: at a quasi neutral site against Clemson. It's very close
Speaker 10: to Clemson. It's great I can get Greenville, so plenty
Speaker 10: of Clemson evans will be there in attendance. But overall
Speaker 10: it's gonna be very difficult, Mike. Like as I mentioned
Speaker 10: a bove on ESPN's Basketball Power Index top it was
Speaker 10: top thirty before the Alabama State game and most difficult schedules.
Speaker 10: I would guess it's top twenty five now, most difficult
Speaker 10: schedules left in the country for a team that has
Speaker 10: clearly not played like a top twenty five outfit so far,
Speaker 10: but does have a great collection of talent on paper
Speaker 10: coming into the season, and a collection of talent that
Speaker 10: they kind of melded together in the offseason, thinking that
Speaker 10: they would have the collection of players that they are
Speaker 10: so close to having, but right now sitting with four
Speaker 10: losses in non conference play, a number that Wes Miller
Speaker 10: is not used to seeing for his teams that so
Speaker 10: often might we see struggle at the point where you
Speaker 10: say they need to start fast and the doldrums of
Speaker 10: January the adults of of February cannot hit here. Maybe
Speaker 10: it'll be some shining light January while it's still gray
Speaker 10: outside in the Tri State area, and some shining life
Speaker 10: February because they get some more chemistry together with Gisel James,
Speaker 10: who most importantly reconciled with his teammates, which was the
Speaker 10: best thing to hear I think of all of it,
Speaker 10: and just the way that he responded to everything that
Speaker 10: can galvanize a team that can be enough, especially on
Speaker 10: a sport in a locker room that is that tight
Speaker 10: and that small, and a player of his caliber that maybe,
Speaker 10: having his head straight as it is right now, can
Speaker 10: let him play the most efficient best basketball possible and
Speaker 10: list them up in those moments when they just collapsed
Speaker 10: in tight, tight games down the stretch of January February
Speaker 10: over the first two years in the Big Twelve. It
Speaker 10: can't happen in those dog days of those months once again,
Speaker 10: because you've already got four losses and you're looking at
Speaker 10: needing at least a positive record in the Big Twelve
Speaker 10: right now, and probably a lot lot more if you
Speaker 10: don't beat Clemson, and even if you do beat them,
Speaker 10: probably a lot lot more.
Speaker 2: And I want to switch gears here to football real quick.
Speaker 2: We've got a couple of minutes Russ speaking with Russ
Speaker 2: Helman covering the Bearcats for SI dot Com about Brendan
Speaker 2: Soresby leaving for the Portal. Where does that leave the
Speaker 2: football program for Scott Saderfield.
Speaker 10: It's going to be very difficult next year, Mike, especially
Speaker 10: if you look at that roster, A lot of Big
Speaker 10: Twelve contenders on that schedule and a lot of great
Speaker 10: talent expected to leave. We've only seen Brendan Soresby, obviously,
Speaker 10: in donte corleone above, major major starters exit exit the program. Obviously,
Speaker 10: dont de corleon out of elgiebuilding and go into take
Speaker 10: his talent to the NFL. And then Brendan soors be
Speaker 10: either the NFL or a different school in the transfer
Speaker 10: portal and were already struggling there. Along the defensive front,
Speaker 10: they have to, I believe, really focus in there and
Speaker 10: figure out a way to cosmore havoc, cosmore disruption up
Speaker 10: the line of scrimmage that can lead to more interceptions,
Speaker 10: more fumbles for the second and third levels of the defense.
Speaker 10: And then on the other side, you have your offensive
Speaker 10: line core coming back, which is huge. You should be
Speaker 10: able to piece together maybe only having to get one
Speaker 10: other offensive line position filled and fill the other one
Speaker 10: with some development coming up, and then you replenish the
Speaker 10: receiver weapons with whoever is not going to end up
Speaker 10: staying outside of Cyrus Allen, who spended his eligibility, I believe,
Speaker 10: and I don't believe the court case the other day
Speaker 10: that was maybe going to give him an extra one
Speaker 10: went through all the way, but I have not followed
Speaker 10: up on that one yet. Did not see any headminds
Speaker 10: that so I don't think it ended up passing. But
Speaker 10: it puts them in a really tough spot, Mike not
Speaker 10: having a player of Brendan Sorosby's caliber being as healthy
Speaker 10: as they were this season, and just fumbling issues and
Speaker 10: fumbling opportunities down the stretch in this four game losing
Speaker 10: streak and the strength of schedule difficulty next season, with
Speaker 10: the amount of talent that they lost, maybe they can
Speaker 10: replenish it. It's possible. They've done a really good job
Speaker 10: in the Transfer portal so far with Scott cuderfield staff,
Speaker 10: but it's not going to be easy and it's hard
Speaker 10: to strike lightning twice like they did with Brendan Sorosby
Speaker 10: to go seven and five with top fifteen quarterback plays.
Speaker 10: It's going to be impressive if they can get the
Speaker 10: Bowl eligibility next season with that schedule and having to
Speaker 10: go find hopefully top fifteen and you hope, most realistically
Speaker 10: top thirty, top forty quarterback play at the quarterback position
Speaker 10: out of whoever you pick in the Transfer portal coming
Speaker 10: up when it opens on January second, same day as
Speaker 10: the Liberty Bowl.
Speaker 2: Indeed against Navy and Russ. I'm sure you'll have that
Speaker 2: game covered very well for SI dot Com. Be sure
Speaker 2: to cover Russ or follow Russ Helpman for all of
Speaker 2: his coverage of the UC basketball Bearcats as they enter
Speaker 2: Big Twelve play. It's going to be a critical season,
Speaker 2: no doubt about it for Wes Miller and the Bearcats. Russ,
Speaker 2: I can't tell you thank you enough for taking time
Speaker 2: out on your Friday night. You got a winner. By
Speaker 2: the way. A prediction for tonight. Oklahoma Alabama, real.
Speaker 10: Quick, Alabama, give me the Crimson side. I think Calen
Speaker 10: Debor gets the job done in this big game, and
Speaker 10: his Big twelve coach Big not Big twelve is colas
Speaker 10: football playoff coaching experience, and it's difficult to take out
Speaker 10: a team Mike Alabama twice in one season. So I
Speaker 10: think they're able to overcome the Oklahoma defense tonight and
Speaker 10: get that there.
Speaker 2: He is Russ Heltman of si dot Com covering the
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Bearcats. On the other side of news, at the
Speaker 2: bottom of the hour, we will have Gabby Sorrentino talking
Speaker 2: all things Cincinnati Bengals on the ground in Miami. It'll
Speaker 2: be a fun conversation, so be sure to tune in
Speaker 2: for that. For now, you're listening to the RNL Carrier
Speaker 2: Sports Talk program presented by Kelsey Chevrolet on News Radio
Speaker 2: seven hundred WLW Little Joe Perry, Little Steven Tyler, Little Arrowsmith.
Speaker 2: Heading into the final twenty three minutes of RNL Carriers
Speaker 2: Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet here on News Radio
Speaker 2: seven hundred WLW. It's been my privilegue Jan pleasure to
Speaker 2: fill in for the last two hour, two and a
Speaker 2: half hours here on the Big One for Lance McAllister.
Speaker 2: I appreciate Lance giving me the opportunity to fill in.
Speaker 2: I also want to give a huge shout out to
Speaker 2: the one and only Sean McMahon doing a flawless job
Speaker 2: getting all of our callers lined up on the air
Speaker 2: ready to go when I go to them for our
Speaker 2: interviews tonight. It's been a great night of guests here
Speaker 2: on seven hundred WLW. Richard Skinner of Local twelve talking
Speaker 2: Bengals in the six o'clock hour. Alex Frank talking Bearcats
Speaker 2: and University of Kentucky which has a big game tomorrow afternoon.
Speaker 2: Pat Brennan they have that game, by the way against
Speaker 2: Saint John's in Atlanta. Pat Brennan talking all things Cincinnati
Speaker 2: Reds in the seven o'clock hour. Shelby Dermer no stradermis
Speaker 2: as we call them, covering the Xavier Musketeers there on
Speaker 2: the road in DC tomorrow taking on the Georgetown Hoyas.
Speaker 2: Russ Helpman just spoke with us at eight oh eight
Speaker 2: talking all things Cincinnati Bearcats. That's football and basketball, and
Speaker 2: just a few moments we will be talking with Gabby Sorrentino.
Speaker 2: She is on the ground in Miami. She will be
Speaker 2: covering the Cincinnati Bengals Miami Dolphins contest at hard Rocks
Speaker 2: Stadium Sunday afternoon for Fox nineteen. Right now, I want
Speaker 2: to give you an update from the first CFP game.
Speaker 2: The College Football Playoffs are officially underway. Number eight Oklahoma
Speaker 2: the host team in Norman, Oklahoma, with an early seven
Speaker 2: to nothing lead on number nine seed Alabama. So we'll
Speaker 2: try to maybe give you an update before the end
Speaker 2: of the program. But now it is time to move
Speaker 2: on to our sixth and final guest here on Sports
Speaker 2: Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet, and that would be Gabby Sorrentino. Gabby,
Speaker 2: thanks for taking time out. Have you made your way
Speaker 2: to Miami yet? I made an assumption that you're already
Speaker 2: on the ground. Are you there yet?
Speaker 4: Hi?
Speaker 3: Tracks Well, thanks for having me. No, I'm at Highland
Speaker 3: High School right now. Okay high school basketball. I am
Speaker 3: headed there at five in the morning, so I think
Speaker 3: I'll be pulling it all night or tonight. My Uber
Speaker 3: picks me up at three this and tomorrow morning, so
Speaker 3: I'm going to be in Miami around nine tomorrow, so
Speaker 3: I'm so excited looking forward to it. It's gonna be
Speaker 3: nice and sunny and warm, so I'm happy about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, please take time out, especially with the Bengals out
Speaker 2: of the playoff picture. You want to cover the game
Speaker 2: appropriately thoroughly, which I'm sure you will do. For the
Speaker 2: great people at Fox nineteen, Joe Danim and Jeremy Row,
Speaker 2: I'm sure you will do a fabulous bang up job
Speaker 2: on Sunday, But please do me a favor and soak
Speaker 2: up some of the rays tomorrow as you get yourself relaxed,
Speaker 2: You'll do that, you promise.
Speaker 3: Oh, if you know me, you know I love sunshine.
Speaker 3: I love warm weather. So when Fox nineteen told me
Speaker 3: that they were sending me in this game, I said,
Speaker 3: well it was moved to one. It's not sunny night
Speaker 3: football anymore, so can I get there a little earlier
Speaker 3: on Saturday? And They're like, of course, going to a
Speaker 3: eighty degree so I will definitely be getting some vitamin
Speaker 3: D protract don't worry about.
Speaker 2: That, all right, You and me are around the Bengals
Speaker 2: all the time. And the last two weeks have been unusual,
Speaker 2: to say the very least. This is your second year
Speaker 2: on the beat covering the Bengals for Fox nineteen, and
Speaker 2: it's been a stressful, strenuous period, not only for Zach Taylor,
Speaker 2: but Joe Burrow and a lot of the players in
Speaker 2: that locker room. But Joe Burrow, everybody's got an opinion
Speaker 2: on what his comments have meant over the last couple
Speaker 2: of weeks about how he thinks about his future in
Speaker 2: Cincinnati next year going forward. What were your takeaways the
Speaker 2: last ten days from Joe Burrow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say just being here for my second
Speaker 3: season now. I think that everything that Joe Burrow says
Speaker 3: publicly is very strategic, and I learned that a lot
Speaker 3: last off season during super Bowl Week when he was
Speaker 3: saying all these things about he and Jamar and Trey,
Speaker 3: and I think that he says things really purposefully. You know, obviously,
Speaker 3: no one in the NFL really can say where they're
Speaker 3: gonna be long term past their contract links, right, Like,
Speaker 3: I understand why he would say that he doesn't know,
Speaker 3: and he's gonna have to think about some things. Of
Speaker 3: course he is, because he has to do what's right
Speaker 3: for him in the long run. He's I don't know.
Speaker 3: Like last week's press conference, I was sitting there and
Speaker 3: I was like, I've never been in a Joe Burrow
Speaker 3: press conference like this, and it was just really strange.
Speaker 3: And you know, this week it felt like a little
Speaker 3: more normal. I got there on the back ends. I
Speaker 3: wasn't there for the whole thing. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't know, it's been it's been really interesting. I
Speaker 3: think you can tell that he's upset with how this
Speaker 3: season has gone. Of course, of course he wants to
Speaker 3: be out there whinning. They want to be playing meaningful
Speaker 3: games and they're not. And it's really been showing in
Speaker 3: his demeanor of the past two weeks.
Speaker 2: I agree, And you know, obviously he's disappointed. And I
Speaker 2: think where maybe we read too much into it is
Speaker 2: where we think that he was told something by the
Speaker 2: front office. And he very well may have been told
Speaker 2: something by the front office, but to jump from Joe
Speaker 2: Burrow is depressed, confused, short with the media, and very
Speaker 2: you know, it's the word I'm looking for, mysterious with
Speaker 2: the reporters at these press conferences to the team obviously
Speaker 2: told him they're not going to do anything in the
Speaker 2: off season. I just think that's a bridge too far
Speaker 2: to cross it at this stage in the game, especially
Speaker 2: when we haven't even gotten to the off season yet, right.
Speaker 3: No, Yeah, I completely agree. Mysterious is definitely like the
Speaker 3: perfect word. Like it has just seemed weird. There's been
Speaker 3: a weird vibe and a weird energy on Wednesdays when
Speaker 3: Joe's at the podium the last two weeks, and it's
Speaker 3: you know, like I said, I've only been here this
Speaker 3: my second season, but there was nothing like that last
Speaker 3: season that I can remember. So it's been really interesting
Speaker 3: these last two weeks. And I mean, you know, what
Speaker 3: are the next two weeks going to hold on Joe
Speaker 3: Burrow's crest commonses. I'm not sure. It seems like we
Speaker 3: were blindsided in a national headline that comes out every Wednesday.
Speaker 10: Now.
Speaker 2: Obviously, Fox nineteen is the official television station in terms
Speaker 2: of coverage of the Cincinnati Bengals. And I'm not going
Speaker 2: to put you in an uncomfortable position here, That's not
Speaker 2: why I'm asking this question, but I'm curious in that position,
Speaker 2: have you heard anything from the front office, anybody in
Speaker 2: the organization about a change in their approach how they're feel.
Speaker 2: Do you get a vibe of that, because you know,
Speaker 2: Fox nineteen does have a higher position in their working
Speaker 2: professional relationship with the franchise than a lot of other
Speaker 2: media here in town.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll be one hundred percent honest. I don't think
Speaker 3: that we get anything that other stations, other reporters are
Speaker 3: getting in terms of that. Obviously, we have the live
Speaker 3: show that we do, and we have other partnership things
Speaker 3: that we get, but in terms of getting news and
Speaker 3: stouth from the front office, we're not getting anything special
Speaker 3: from that. So we haven't gotten anything in that sense
Speaker 3: of being the TV partner and getting any special treatment.
Speaker 2: What have you enjoyed the most about watching Jamar Chase
Speaker 2: hold press conferences, play football? Anything about Jamar Because I
Speaker 2: think he is a unicorn and Zach Taylor has used
Speaker 2: this term to describe him and Kyle Hamilton and others
Speaker 2: in the NFL. But Jamar Chase is a unicorn and
Speaker 2: he is one of the one of one. What do
Speaker 2: you enjoy the most about watching him, covering him and
Speaker 2: just getting a chance to talk to him?
Speaker 3: Okay, well talking to him. His laugh literally brings through
Speaker 3: a to my Thursdays when he's sitting at the podium
Speaker 3: and he does the Jamar laugh, which I cannot imitate.
Speaker 3: Jeremy Rowd does a great job that just like makes
Speaker 3: my day. I love that he has this balance of
Speaker 3: being serious talking football. He has so much football knowledge
Speaker 3: that he brings to the podium on Thursdays, so then
Speaker 3: we can have so much fun with Jamar Chase. And
Speaker 3: I think that that's what I love the most is
Speaker 3: you get that really balance with him of Okay, let's
Speaker 3: talk football, let's talk the game, and then we're talking
Speaker 3: about lucky terms and we're talking about all these random
Speaker 3: things and Thursday night football with him, and he has
Speaker 3: fun with the reporters and he has fun with everybody
Speaker 3: in the room. So I think when it comes to
Speaker 3: covering him, I love that balance that we have with him.
Speaker 3: Watching our case, I mean it's incredible. Obviously you said it,
Speaker 3: he's a unicorn. Every time he touches the ball, you
Speaker 3: think that something. You think something can happen, even if
Speaker 3: there are three guys on him, even if it looks
Speaker 3: like he's gonna get tackle, he slips out of it
Speaker 3: and he makes a big play with all of the dyak.
Speaker 3: You know I did, like I think someone in his
Speaker 3: press conference ass you know, it's been a long time
Speaker 3: since he's scored a touchdown. I was thinking about that
Speaker 3: the other day because I was like, man, it seems
Speaker 3: like it's been a minute since we've seen a gritty
Speaker 3: in the end zone. Maybe that'll come in Miami. But
Speaker 3: I think that he is such a fun player to watch,
Speaker 3: to cover. To get to see in person what he
Speaker 3: can do on the football field has been really amazing
Speaker 3: for me. Of course, I remember watching him when he
Speaker 3: was playing at LSU, so now to get to see
Speaker 3: him in person and be around him all the time
Speaker 3: is really cool. And even getting to see all of
Speaker 3: his shoe collection in the locker room is always something
Speaker 3: he's never looks forward to, because seems like it's growing
Speaker 3: every single time that we're in their tracks.
Speaker 2: Do you know how long it's been since he scored
Speaker 2: his last touchdown? And we asked him and he was
Speaker 2: not even aware of this.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. I remember what someone said in the
Speaker 3: press conference.
Speaker 2: It's incredible. I was shocked by this. Yes, very good.
Speaker 2: Back on October sixteenth and the thirty three thirty one
Speaker 2: win over the Steelers, that's the last time Jamar Chase
Speaker 2: scored a touchdown. He is leading the NFL in receptions
Speaker 2: with one hundred and one. He is leading the NFL
Speaker 2: in yards at eleven forty seven, but he will not
Speaker 2: win the triple crown this year. He has only five touchdowns.
Speaker 2: Part of that is because of the way teams have
Speaker 2: covered him this year, double clouds with t Higgins and whatnot.
Speaker 2: The other part of it is Joe Burrow missed ten weeks,
Speaker 2: So I mean, let's be fair, and that's not a
Speaker 2: slide on Jake Browning per se, nor is it a
Speaker 2: slight on Joe Flacco. It's just let's be honest and
Speaker 2: let's say what it is. The Bengals have struggled this year.
Speaker 2: That's one factor, and the fact that Joe Burrow has
Speaker 2: missed so much time is the other. But I just
Speaker 2: one thing about Jamar, and I don't think people really
Speaker 2: appreciate this. When he goes into these press conferences, he
Speaker 2: usually jokes with Emily Parker, the public relations director, Emily,
Speaker 2: let's keep it to like ten eleven minutes this time, please,
Speaker 2: And he just keeps going and going and going, and
Speaker 2: he sits up on the dais on the podium very patiently,
Speaker 2: and you look down and he's been up there eighteen
Speaker 2: nineteen minutes. And to me, that's kind of the charm
Speaker 2: of Jamar Chase is that he'll just keep talking and
Speaker 2: he won't be unpleasant about it. And I think that's
Speaker 2: we understand what happened in Pittsburgh. That was an outlier
Speaker 2: of beyond all outliers. It was terrible. It was a
Speaker 2: moment he regrets. He wished he could go back in
Speaker 2: the time machine and not do that, Jalen Ramsey, but
Speaker 2: it happened. But that aside, he's shown great leadership quality
Speaker 2: this year. He was the one when Joe Burrow was
Speaker 2: out with that injury, with the turf toe injury and
Speaker 2: the corresponding surgery, he had to answer for all of
Speaker 2: those bad losses to the Jets, to the Bears. Certainly
Speaker 2: they lost to Detroit without Joe Burrow, they lost at
Speaker 2: Green Bay without Joe Burrow, and Joe Flacco's first game.
Speaker 2: He was the one standing up taking all the answers,
Speaker 2: taking all the questions.
Speaker 3: I should say, yep, yep, yeah. And I have seen,
Speaker 3: you know this year with his captain and everything that
Speaker 3: when we go in there in the locker room and
Speaker 3: ask him. You've seen obviously that he has been upset
Speaker 3: with the outcome, right, but he still stands there. He
Speaker 3: answers every question. Professionally. He is a leader on this team.
Speaker 3: It's really been cool to watch the difference between you know,
Speaker 3: last season him. I really feel like he stepped up
Speaker 3: really into that leadership all and like you said, with
Speaker 3: Joe Burrow going down, he even had to do that
Speaker 3: even more. But it has felt like a lifetime since
Speaker 3: that pick. For so, I think that Jamar is due
Speaker 3: to fying the end zone on Sunday. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I feel like it's going to happen.
Speaker 2: I'm with you. I think that. I think Joe Burrow
Speaker 2: and Zach Taylor even joked about it this morning with
Speaker 2: us in a meeting with the Beat reporters that Joe
Speaker 2: Burrow was only I think forty yards away from twenty
Speaker 2: twenty thousand would be the fifth fastest quarterback to that
Speaker 2: plateau in NFL history. So I think that's going to
Speaker 2: happen obviously, one way or another. And I think Jamar
Speaker 2: Chase getting a touchdown, getting him off the schneid is
Speaker 2: certainly something that's got to be on the priority list
Speaker 2: one thing, and we only have a couple of minutes
Speaker 2: left here. Gabby speaking with Gabby Sorrentino of Fox nineteen
Speaker 2: covering the Bengals. When you do your interviews in midweek,
Speaker 2: what do you enjoy the most when you have a
Speaker 2: player off campus, as they say, at a restaurant or
Speaker 2: wherever you are. What do you enjoy the most about
Speaker 2: interviewing those players?
Speaker 3: You're talking like at our Bengals Now show.
Speaker 2: Your Bengals Now Show, Yes, which I think you guys
Speaker 2: do a great job. That's why I want to ask
Speaker 2: you about that program because I believe there's a hero
Speaker 2: image on your ex page of you sitting down with
Speaker 2: Mike Gasicki and I'm trying to think on the other side,
Speaker 2: I don't know, but anyway, yes, there we go. What
Speaker 2: do you enjoy the most about that.
Speaker 3: Man? It has been so fun because of course we
Speaker 3: talk football with the guys, but we get to know
Speaker 3: their personality so much. We have seen Higgins singing up
Speaker 3: on the stage, and let me tell you, he has
Speaker 3: an incredible voice. We have heard so many amazing rookie
Speaker 3: talent show stories, fun frank story. I mean, we have
Speaker 3: gotten so many fun stories out of these guys, so
Speaker 3: many fun moments. Tanner Hudson that day. I play a
Speaker 3: trivia game with the guys up on the stage every week,
Speaker 3: and that was what that picture was from, and it
Speaker 3: was all about Cincinnati. So I was quizzing Tanner and
Speaker 3: Mike about questions on Cincinnni and I asked them what's
Speaker 3: the name of the famous hippo at the Cincinnati Do
Speaker 3: And Tanner Hudson looks at me with all the confidence
Speaker 3: in the world and goes Big South and everybody in
Speaker 3: the crowd is dying because he thought that the hippo's
Speaker 3: name was Big Sally. It's Fiona. And just moments like
Speaker 3: that have been so fun. We've did it a little
Speaker 3: different this season where we try to have two new
Speaker 3: guests on every week instead of having one guy that
Speaker 3: comes on every week and they bring a guest. So
Speaker 3: we have had so many players and we still have
Speaker 3: more coming on in the next two weeks. But it's
Speaker 3: been really cool getting to hear some stories, getting to
Speaker 3: learn about these guys families, their upbringing. Yeah, it's amazing
Speaker 3: and definitely if you have the chance to watch, watch
Speaker 3: because you learn so much more about them. Off the
Speaker 3: football field than you probably would ever learn if you
Speaker 3: weren't at the show or watching it on.
Speaker 4: Our streaming platforms.
Speaker 2: All right, what do you have in store leading up
Speaker 2: to the game on Sunday on Fox nineteen, we.
Speaker 3: Will have It's not on our channel, so we won't
Speaker 3: have our pregame show, but Bengals Weekly will be on
Speaker 3: Fox nineteen as it is every week. And then of
Speaker 3: course I'll be in Miami. Really, all of our stuff
Speaker 3: happens after the game, so we'll have forty five minutes
Speaker 3: of Bengals coverage starting at eleven fifteen and going to midnight,
Speaker 3: we have Bengals Breakdown. That's thirty minutes of all Bengals,
Speaker 3: the guys breaking down in studio.
Speaker 4: I will be.
Speaker 3: At Miami doing my report, So yeah, we'll have a
Speaker 3: lot of Bengals coverage from the game. And of course,
Speaker 3: you know, I know, I understand that the game doesn't matter,
Speaker 3: but we'll don't give it all to you. We'll break
Speaker 3: it down lock over. I'm really excited to.
Speaker 4: Get to do this game.
Speaker 2: Safe travels to Miami. She is Gabby Sorrentino. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much for joining me. Please sleep fast, sleep well,
Speaker 2: get ready for that trip to Miami Beach. Gabby, thanks
Speaker 2: so much for taking time out. You got it, Gabby.
Speaker 2: We'll talk to you next week. All right. This has
Speaker 2: been the RNL Carrier sports talk program, presented by Kelsey
Speaker 2: Chevrolet on news radio seven hundred w l W