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Speaker 1: For five o'clock. I've been in broadcasting for almost thirty

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Speaker 1: years and occasionally I will start to talk before I

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Speaker 1: turned the microphone on. That literally just happened twenty minutes

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Speaker 1: after five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm mo Eger,

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Speaker 1: the official bracketologist of the Tri State, not just this

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Speaker 1: show of the Try State. It's our friend Hunter Sandsum

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Speaker 1: Sandsum sportsmedia dot com. He is the Nky bracket guy

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Speaker 1: on Twitter at bracket Nky. He's becoming a media mogul.

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Speaker 1: He's developing a media empire, he's developing a merch empire,

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Speaker 1: and this time of year he is extraordinarily useful. I

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Speaker 1: wanted to get him on to get his thoughts on

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Speaker 1: the bracket and so it's good to have Hunter. How

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Speaker 1: you doing, sir, No, I'm doing great.

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Speaker 2: How are you?

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Speaker 1: I'm wonderful. How in your opinion did the committee do?

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Speaker 2: This is the first time in the four or five

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Speaker 2: years that I've been doing this that I have not

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Speaker 2: had a complaint that was worth honestly airing with the committee.

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Speaker 2: I thought this was the best committee I've ever seen,

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Speaker 2: and I thought they did really well at selecting the

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Speaker 2: shoes field.

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Speaker 1: Your thoughts on how Miami was placed.

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Speaker 2: So I think they were replaced correctly. I mean I

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Speaker 2: had them projected to go to Dayton. They were selected

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Speaker 2: as the fourth to last team in they got scrubbed

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Speaker 2: down a little bit, which just means that they looked

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Speaker 2: at all the metrics and stuff and moved them down

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Speaker 2: a bit that I thought that Dayton was appropriate. You

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Speaker 2: have to give them respect for thirty one and one,

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Speaker 2: but you've also got to acknowledge their schedule was not

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Speaker 2: the best.

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Speaker 1: Watching the selection show, I heard a word you just

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Speaker 1: used often, scrubbing. What does that mean?

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Speaker 2: Yes, So scrubbing is where you take teams and you

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Speaker 2: compare them side by side. So like Duke Michigan or

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Speaker 2: Arizona Michigan. You take them side by side, you look

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Speaker 2: at them, you break it down, and you go all

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Speaker 2: the way through the seat list. The committee does that

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Speaker 2: every time that they go through the brackets. They pull

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Speaker 2: these teams up side by side, look at them, compare

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Speaker 2: the entire team sheet, not just one aspect of it,

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Speaker 2: and go down through it like that. That's what scrubbing is.

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Speaker 1: I think if there were two to me that stood

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Speaker 1: out is not necessarily incorrect replacement just Ibra raising. I

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Speaker 1: think when you look at the when you look at

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Speaker 1: the region of death where you have Saint John's as

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Speaker 1: a five seed, that stood out, what would you say

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Speaker 1: to those who go, look, Rick Patino's team deserve to

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Speaker 1: be seated higher.

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Speaker 2: I mean, looking at this bracket, the Big East was

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Speaker 2: absolutely disrespected. And I'm not saying that it wasn't warranted.

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Speaker 2: The Big East was down this year, but I mean

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Speaker 2: having Saint John's as a five when they clearly honored

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Speaker 2: teams like Purdue who won their conference championship. They didn't

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Speaker 2: do the same as they did with Purdue or Arkansas

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Speaker 2: and the SEC and Big Ten, but they didn't with

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Speaker 2: Saint John's for whatever reason, they just left them there.

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Speaker 2: So I can understand that complaints. I was not surprised

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Speaker 2: they were a five.

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Speaker 1: Has there ever been a to a one or a

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Speaker 1: two seed that had five home losses like Purdue?

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Speaker 2: Off the top of my head, I don't believe so,

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Speaker 2: but at least not in recent memory. But I would

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Speaker 2: not be shocked if there has been one way back when,

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Speaker 2: but at least in the more modern selection era.

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Speaker 1: I know not that I know of, So the prevailing

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Speaker 1: sentiment among a lot of fans has been that the

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Speaker 1: conference tournaments don't matter all that much. And I think

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Speaker 1: that's a takeaway that a lot of people, you know,

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Speaker 1: use this the Saint John's seeding to confirm. What does

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Speaker 1: what Purdue did were they they won it and they

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Speaker 1: beat a great Michigan team in the final to win

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Speaker 1: the Big Ten tournament. But does what the committee did

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Speaker 1: with Purdue tell us that actually these conference tournaments might

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Speaker 1: matter a little bit more than many might imagine.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it did. We're looking at this year.

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Speaker 2: You had Virginia get bumped up, You had Michigan fall

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Speaker 2: behind Arizona, which was directly related, as Keith Gill said

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Speaker 2: on the Selection show to what the Sunday results. You

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Speaker 2: had Purdue jump Michigan State, you had Arkansas jump up

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Speaker 2: to the four line. All of those things happened on Sunday.

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Speaker 2: So this year, for probably the first time that I've

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Speaker 2: ever seen it, the committee actually took into account all

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Speaker 2: of the results this year, as opposed to normally when

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Speaker 2: they would shut down about Friday or so.

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Speaker 1: What were your thoughts on Kentucky's placement?

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Speaker 2: So a little biased here, but I'm going to Chicago

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Speaker 2: for the sweet sixteen of Eaitie eight. So I love

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Speaker 2: that Kentucky got placed there. The teams in that bracket

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Speaker 2: are just really fun to watch and it would be

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Speaker 2: a great environment, so I was okay with it. I mean,

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Speaker 2: Santa Clair is not a tough not an easy team

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Speaker 2: to beat. We watched them beat Zavier this year in November.

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Speaker 2: I definitely think that's a tough matchup, but they did

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Speaker 2: get placed in a little bit of the tough region.

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Speaker 1: Can palm give Santa Clair a forty five percent chance

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Speaker 1: and win in that game?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Is there an overarching takeaway from this year that we

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Speaker 1: could use when we start to talk about how the

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Speaker 1: bracket's going to be formed next year that might have

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Speaker 1: stood out relative to previous years you've done this.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think a conference like strength of schedule

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Speaker 2: in the conference matters. You look at an Auburn team

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Speaker 2: who played the craziest schedule I've seen, and they were

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Speaker 2: the second team out of the field at seventeen and sixteen.

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Speaker 2: We shouldn't have a team that's that got that many

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Speaker 2: losses even close to the field, but they really honored

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Speaker 2: that strength of schedule, especially outside of your conferences. And

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Speaker 2: then also I mean, the conference tournaments matter. Usually you

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Speaker 2: can say, oh, mail it on Friday or Saturday, but

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Speaker 2: you can't do that this year or so. I think

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Speaker 2: that kind of going forward needs to be the gold standard.

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Speaker 2: The committee applies every year.

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Speaker 1: Should The fact that you see was nowhere close to

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Speaker 1: the first four out tell me that I don't have

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Speaker 1: to agonize over whether they would have gotten in simply

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Speaker 1: by beating UCF last Wednesday. Yes.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, as I told you, I think last Monday or

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Speaker 2: Tuesday when we spoke, they would have needed to have

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Speaker 2: won two games there, So not just UCF but also Arizona.

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Speaker 2: So you do not need to aagonize.

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Speaker 1: All right? Where will you be throughout the course of

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Speaker 1: the tournament.

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Speaker 2: So I'm going to be in Dayton the next two nights,

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Speaker 2: So Tuesday Wednesday night i'll be at the first four.

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Speaker 2: I'm actually taking this weekend off. I'll be at home

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Speaker 2: on my couch like most Americans, watching the games. Nice.

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Speaker 2: And then next for the Sweet sixteen e EAD eight,

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Speaker 2: I'll be up in Chicago covering the Sweet sixteen elidate

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Speaker 2: games up there.

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Speaker 1: All right, And you're how much more mercher you selling? Now?

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Speaker 1: You got more T shirts? You got polos. I think

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Speaker 1: you have wineglasses. I believe you have truck decals, M kouzzies.

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Speaker 1: What merch do you have that you're selling right now?

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Speaker 2: I think you hit it on the head there. I

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Speaker 2: have stickers. I have a couple of t shirts, a

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Speaker 2: couple of different hoodies, a polo option. There's all sorts

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Speaker 2: of merch there. You all asked for it. I've tried

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Speaker 2: to be inclusive as possible. So check it out there.

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Speaker 2: You can find it. I'll tweet it out here in

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Speaker 2: a minute and you can find it at bracket inky

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Speaker 2: there or it's on my Sansom sportsmedia dot com. It's

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Speaker 2: on the homepage there about two thirds of the way down.

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Speaker 1: Next year at this time, will you be too big

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Speaker 1: to come on with us?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely not. I'll never forget you.

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Speaker 1: Know well, you're the one awesome stuff man. Enjoyed having

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Speaker 1: you throughout the course of the season and enjoy covering

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Speaker 1: the tournament. Thanks so much, sir, thank you. That's our guy,

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Speaker 1: Hunter Sands Sandsum Sports Media, the NKY Bracket Guy twenty

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Speaker 1: seven after five o'clock. I think the good news though,

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Speaker 1: is like we we ended last week by talking about

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Speaker 1: UC and you know, Friday, the West Miller news came

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Speaker 1: down and all signs are pointing toward Jared Calhoun being

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Speaker 1: the next head coach at u See, and frankly, he

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Speaker 1: is felt like a front runner since well before you

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Speaker 1: had a vacancy. I keep using the term bar to

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Speaker 1: clear the bar, to clear the first bar, like eventually, eventually,

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Speaker 1: it'd be awesome to talk about UC basketball in terms

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Speaker 1: that involved things like competing for a Big twelve championship

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Speaker 1: and making a run to the second week end of

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Speaker 1: the tournament and consistently playing deep into the tournament. But

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Speaker 1: the first one you got to do is just get

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Speaker 1: to the field. Like it's so it's striking to me.

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Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, Mick Cronin coaches UC in the NCAA Tournament.

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Speaker 1: They lose to Iowa, and there was fair exasperation. They

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Speaker 1: had blown the game against Nevada the year before that

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Speaker 1: Iowa game in Columbus, they had a big lead early

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Speaker 1: lost it. For all the success in the regular season,

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Speaker 1: as cool as it was to make nine straight tournaments,

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Speaker 1: they had advanced to the Sweet sixteen just once, and

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Speaker 1: so there was exasperation with constantly not getting past the

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Speaker 1: first weekend and then, so when Mick Lee's for UCLA

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Speaker 1: ultimately obviously became John Brandon, all anybody talked about was

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Speaker 1: got to get somebody who can get him this week sixteen.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, college basketball then versus now feels

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Speaker 1: like forever ago. We weren't talking about the Big twelve.

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Speaker 1: We were talking about you know, the AAC and NIL

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Speaker 1: wasn't a thing yet, and the portal was not a

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Speaker 1: thing yet, and it was just a different world entirely.

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Speaker 1: But all anybody wanted to focus on was get to

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Speaker 1: the second weekend. And I remember going, that's cool, I'm

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Speaker 1: with you, but understand how hard it is to get

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Speaker 1: to the tournament every single year. At that point, nobody

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Speaker 1: wanted to hear it, and understandably. So now now that's

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Speaker 1: all we want, so the expectations are a little bit lower.

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Speaker 1: Could be honest about it, man, like beat playing Dayton.

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Speaker 1: Can that happen soon? That'd be the question for the

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Speaker 1: new head coach, And again all signs are pointing to

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Speaker 1: that person being Jared Calhoun. Twenty nine's after five o'clock five, one, three, seven, four, nine,

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Speaker 1: fifteen thirty. We'll try to squaze one or two in

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Speaker 1: after Sports headlines on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 3: Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. The University of

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Speaker 3: Call five one three five eighty five. UCCC Bine Street

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Speaker 3: Park Avenue and on eastbound two seventy five after Coal

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Speaker 3: Raine accident on the left shoulder. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

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