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Speaker 1: On Wednesdays. At this time, we talk with Rick growing Rick,

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Speaker 1: the owner and proprietor of Musketeer Report dot com. Xavier

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Speaker 1: opening up Big East Play tonight with a home tilt

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Speaker 1: against Creighton. Rick is also the color analyst on NKU

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Speaker 1: radio broadcast the Norris seven games tonight against Oakland. That

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Speaker 1: game Tim's off at seven o'clock. It's Teddy Bear a

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Speaker 1: toss night. So bring a Teddy Bear, throw it on

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Speaker 1: the floor, and if you throw it on the floor

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Speaker 1: and hit Rick while he's sitting courtside, you'll win tickets

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Speaker 1: to another upcoming NKU game. That'd be kind of cool.

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Speaker 1: Cool promotion. Hi, Rick, No, I'm.

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Speaker 2: Not sure if that's exactly how the promotion works, but yeah,

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Speaker 2: thank you.

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Speaker 1: It's nice to have you. Nonetheless, I'll double check. I

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Speaker 1: thought that was in the press release, but I might

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Speaker 1: have read it incorrectly. Xavier starts Big East Play tonight.

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Speaker 1: They play twenty conference games. If I set the over

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Speaker 1: under for conference wins at seven and a half, will

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Speaker 1: you go over or under?

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Speaker 2: I'll be honest, I have no idea. I said, you

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Speaker 2: keep cutting out.

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Speaker 1: Oh well, let's try it again. Xavier plays twenty Big

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Speaker 1: East games. As you know, starting tonight a home game

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Speaker 1: against Creighton, If I set the the over under for

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Speaker 1: conference wins for the Musketeers at seven and a half,

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Speaker 1: will you go over or under?

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Speaker 2: I was definitely under when the season started. I was

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Speaker 2: definitely under when we got to, you know, the the

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Speaker 2: first four or five games out of the way. Sitting here, now,

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Speaker 2: that's a really good line. I think they'll stay it under.

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Speaker 2: I think six or seven is where I would probably

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Speaker 2: put them, all.

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Speaker 1: Right, how many of those games? You know, Connecticut's awesome.

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Speaker 1: I think San John's is still really good. I haven't

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Speaker 1: really watched Seaton Hall. How many of those games in

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Speaker 1: the Big East are fifty to fifty and is tonight

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Speaker 1: one of them?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I think that's a kind of a good way

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Speaker 2: to look at the conference though. I mean, when you

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Speaker 2: look at what Zigger's been able to do in the.

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Speaker 3: Non cop and slate, they don't have a water Quad

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Speaker 3: two win yet, but you do have the Cincinnati and

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Speaker 3: West Virginia games that are top seventy five ish in

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Speaker 3: the country. Both of those teams are somewhere between seventy

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Speaker 3: and eighty in terms of their ken Pom ranking, and

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Speaker 3: when you look at the Big East, the big teams

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Speaker 3: that are kind of around that same range or farther back,

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Speaker 3: and so in factor those five teams, you play ten

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Speaker 3: games against them, I think it's reasonable to expect Xavier

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Speaker 3: to do five hundred or maybe even slightly better against

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Speaker 3: those teams. So that's where I get to the first

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Speaker 3: five or six wins. And then you know, if you

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Speaker 3: can scratch out one or two wins.

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Speaker 2: Against the top teams in the conference. And there's top

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Speaker 2: teams you know, that would also include like a Villanova,

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Speaker 2: can you beat Villanova at home? I think that's possible.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, I think that there's definitely a path for

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Speaker 2: Xavier to get to six, seven, eight, maybe even more

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Speaker 2: wins than that, which is definitely much different than where

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Speaker 2: we started to see.

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Speaker 1: Usually Creighton's really good, now they're not.

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Speaker 2: Why well, I think one thing is that everyone in

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Speaker 2: the Big Easts had the same problem that Zavier did

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Speaker 2: this year for the most part, aside from Yukon and

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Speaker 2: Saint John's which is being bankrolled by you know, the

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Speaker 2: coach's billionaire friend, all of these teams really struggled to

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Speaker 2: compete in the nil era this year with the transfer portal,

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Speaker 2: and so I think this year was very unique for

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Speaker 2: the reason that we've talked about many times on this show.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it will be that way all the

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Speaker 2: time going forward, necessarily, but I think you've seen that

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Speaker 2: with the lack of talent across the board in the

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Speaker 2: Big East, and Creighton is one of those teams that

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Speaker 2: was hit with that. If you missed on one or

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Speaker 2: two of your top guys they didn't turn out to

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Speaker 2: be the types of players that you thought they'd be,

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Speaker 2: then you're going to struggle a little bit. I think

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Speaker 2: that's something we've talked about with Zager, and it's definitely

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Speaker 2: something that Creighton's dealing with. The other thing is, you know,

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Speaker 2: they had a pretty darn good team the last few seasons,

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Speaker 2: and it was anchored by Ryan Kalkbrenner, who was there

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Speaker 2: for seventeen years and he's not there anymore. So they're

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Speaker 2: having to still try to play that same style but

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Speaker 2: tweak it a little bit because you don't have a

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Speaker 2: unique seven foot shot blocker anchoring your defense and anchoring

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Speaker 2: your offense inside. So it's definitely been an adjustment period

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Speaker 2: from that perspective as well.

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Speaker 3: NK.

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Speaker 1: You goes into tonight having won eight out of nine

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Speaker 1: and the one loss, you know, they lose by two

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Speaker 1: on the road to Purdue Fort Wayne. You and I

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Speaker 1: talked about that they were playing great for the first

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Speaker 1: half and then kind of melted down in the second half.

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Speaker 1: They have the best combined record through two games of

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Speaker 1: league play along with all the non conference games, at

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Speaker 1: nine and three in the Horizon League. Would you consider

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Speaker 1: them favorites to win the conference regular season title?

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Speaker 2: No, I don't think that that'd be fair to say.

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Speaker 2: I mean, when you look at the conference this year,

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Speaker 2: you have really four or five teams that are all

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Speaker 2: ranked at least at where NKU is or better in

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Speaker 2: the current ken Pom rankings. Their overall records may not

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Speaker 2: reflect that, but everyone plays such a different non conference schedule.

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Speaker 2: If you look at Oakland, for instance, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 2: three or four of their games were against teams that

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Speaker 2: are ranked nationally and were games they were never going

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Speaker 2: to be competitive for the most part, So it's not

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Speaker 2: a surprise to see their record where it is. This

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Speaker 2: is one of those teams Oakland that has a chance

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Speaker 2: to compete for the Horizon League title this year, along

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Speaker 2: with NKU. They were picked second in the preseason polls.

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Speaker 2: I think Youngstown State, Robert Morris, Wright State, all of

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Speaker 2: those teams are going to be buying for a conference

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Speaker 2: title this year. And the really interesting part about the

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Speaker 2: league is going in there doesn't appear to be a

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Speaker 2: clear cut favorite by any stretch of the imagination. I mean,

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Speaker 2: any of those teams that I just named, if you

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Speaker 2: told me that they were going to emerge midway through

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Speaker 2: the conference season is the best. It would not surprise

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Speaker 2: me one bit.

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Speaker 1: And Kay you and Oakland Tonight at seven o'clock, it's

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Speaker 1: a Teddy Bear Toss night. The Norris are playing really well.

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Speaker 1: They're fun to watch and you can help out kids

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Speaker 1: in the process. Tonight it's a toy drive as well.

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Speaker 1: If you can't be there in person, you can listen

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Speaker 1: to Rick and Jim on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. It's

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Speaker 1: always a pleasure. I don't have a show next Wednesday

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Speaker 1: or the Wednesday after that. So thanks for everything this year,

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Speaker 1: and I'll bother you often in twenty twenty six, Geat

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Speaker 1: wait for it, mo, thank you