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Speaker 1: Yes, sir, ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

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Speaker 2: Welcome back.

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Speaker 3: It's our number three, ESBN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

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Speaker 3: You know what the drill is by Now we go

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Speaker 3: to our friend covering the Cincinnati Bearcats for Bearcat Journal

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Speaker 3: dot Com. Keegan Nicholson joining us. Now, Hello, Kegan.

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Speaker 4: Nothing much.

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Speaker 2: How are you, Kegan? I'm great, Keigan.

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Speaker 3: Before we dive into the meat of this conversation, how

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Speaker 3: would you describe your eating habits as a young adult?

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Speaker 4: Interesting my reading habits, eating, eating, eating?

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Speaker 2: Are you a are you a healthy eater? A good eater?

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Speaker 4: I'm high, I'm high protein lo cow, okay, kindergram to

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Speaker 4: protein today, that's what I shoot for.

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Speaker 2: Okay, that makes sense. I think that track.

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Speaker 1: What do you think is like the easiest hack to

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Speaker 1: getting two hundred grams of proteina day?

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Speaker 4: A big can of tuna.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's gosh. That is disgusting. This is gonna be

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Speaker 1: Keegan's last appearance on Egan.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us. We appreciate the time today. That's awful, unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: Remind me never to get close to you if I'm

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Speaker 1: ever talking to you.

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Speaker 3: Imagine having the phones goy imagine sitting next to him

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Speaker 3: in a presspots.

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Speaker 1: Imagine him and Brindle sharing a hotel room.

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Speaker 2: Oh gosh, unbelievable.

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Speaker 4: A completely different conversations.

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Speaker 2: Uh, Keigan, the Bearcats won last night. It uh.

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Speaker 3: I thought it was their most complete half of basketball

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Speaker 3: the first twenty minutes, and then in the second half

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Speaker 3: those problems started creeping back in. You could sense in

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Speaker 3: the arena when that league got under ten how uneasy

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Speaker 3: a lot of people are, I think the team in general.

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Speaker 3: But what was your biggest takeaway from win number one

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Speaker 3: in the Big twelve for the Bearcats?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I have to admit in the second half, I

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Speaker 4: was kind of like watching that game with a conniving

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Speaker 4: look on my face, like like with my hands classed,

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Speaker 4: like like evil stuff going on, Like if they lose

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Speaker 4: this game, the reaction from the sand base, the press conference,

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Speaker 4: the postgame radio, everything is going to be so wild.

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Speaker 4: So part of me was like interested to see what

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Speaker 4: would happen if they had lost. But they ultimately pulled

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Speaker 4: it out from the second half and from the entire game.

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Speaker 4: And it's kind of a consistent track is someone else

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Speaker 4: needs to step up and rebounding outside of just Sava

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Speaker 4: Miller and I think the number one person that you

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Speaker 4: look at is Usava chom He only had two rebounds

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Speaker 4: last night, and it's kind of struggled the entire season.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean, there's some stuff that's trending in

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Speaker 4: the right direction. Chom on offense is doing great, Baba

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Speaker 4: had a dominant game. Gizl James struggled again. Dade Thomas

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Speaker 4: isn't being as aggressive offensively as some people would like

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Speaker 4: him to be, especially from three since he's shooting over

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Speaker 4: forty percent. But it was a decent game, and they've

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Speaker 4: played well enough in the first half to prevent that

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Speaker 4: comeback effort leading to a fourth consecutive Big twelve loss.

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Speaker 4: And that's basically what Colorado's head coach Ted Boyle said

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Speaker 4: that they hadn't played that bad to start a game

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Speaker 4: all season, and they basically lost the game in the

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Speaker 4: first half.

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Speaker 3: It feels like if they can consistently get Baba and

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Speaker 3: Mustapha Cham going at the same time for the front court,

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Speaker 3: at least, it gives them a great chance to win.

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Speaker 3: But how can they find the balance? You know, Baba

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Speaker 3: and Mustapha Cham have a great game, but you really

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Speaker 3: don't get much from Jiggsel and day Day until you

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Speaker 3: really needed it from day day at the end. How

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Speaker 3: can they find that balance of what they need out

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Speaker 3: of the front court but sprinkling in the guard play

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Speaker 3: that's needed for them to consistently try to win games.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I asked Wes.

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Speaker 4: A kind of a version of that question last night

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Speaker 4: centered around Day Day, because part of me wonders like,

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Speaker 4: why is he not being more aggressive? Why is Gizil

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Speaker 4: shooting more than him? Why is he's shooting the same

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Speaker 4: amount of field goals as like since your Harris. But

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Speaker 4: then you also have to think, well, he's there primarily

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Speaker 4: to play defense in the lockdown a leading scorer. The

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Speaker 4: offense has just been a really, really pleasant I don't

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Speaker 4: want to say surprise, but development from his game since

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Speaker 4: he got to Cincinnati. And I don't know if it's

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Speaker 4: an identity thing, like they don't want to take him

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Speaker 4: out of his identity of being that defense first player.

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Speaker 4: But Wes basically said he doesn't have conversations with Data

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Speaker 4: about how he plays or what the plan is for

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Speaker 4: the game. Like Data knows what he's supposed to do.

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Speaker 4: He knows what shots he's supposed to take, what shots

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Speaker 4: he's not supposed to take and they're kind of a

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Speaker 4: the position where they just have to cross their fingers

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Speaker 4: and hope Jigsel makes four or five shots, because that

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Speaker 4: in some of the big twelve losses has been the difference,

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Speaker 4: and you're not really seeing that. Kerk Riesa told Dan

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Speaker 4: before the game last night that he expects to play

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Speaker 4: at Arizona next week, which will be a very very

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Speaker 4: interesting storyline because I had Arizona fans blowing up my

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Speaker 4: mentions about how excited they are to see him back

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Speaker 4: in Tucson. But outside of that, like you're not going

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Speaker 4: to get much from Keisha on Tillery sincer. Harris is

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Speaker 4: not going to make jump shots. He'll go coast to

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Speaker 4: coast and like he'll lay it in and then hit

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Speaker 4: the ground really really hard, like as hard as any

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Speaker 4: player I've ever watched, But like it centers around Gigsel

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Speaker 4: James just being more efficient and not going one for nine,

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Speaker 4: one from ten for the four.

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Speaker 3: You know, I thought it was a little concerning last

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Speaker 3: night Wes Miller and talking to Dan and Terry reference

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Speaker 3: day day just being tired and how much they've had

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Speaker 3: to use him as of late. So if you're looking

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Speaker 3: to find rest for him. Is there anything from a

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Speaker 3: role point of view, Keagan that they can get more

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Speaker 3: out of Seannabibe right now?

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Speaker 4: I really don't know, and I feel like I'm it's

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Speaker 4: the same broken record of he just has to start

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Speaker 4: making shots. And I saw it a little bit last night,

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Speaker 4: like he had the three, he had to found the

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Speaker 4: three point shot, but then I think there was one

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Speaker 4: where he I think he might have gotten found on

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Speaker 4: the three point shot again, and then they made one

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Speaker 4: of the three free froze or something like that. So

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Speaker 4: like you're just not seeing a game that he can

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Speaker 4: really build confidence out of, Like he has to make

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Speaker 4: more than one free and have that fifteen point game,

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Speaker 4: be aggressive going to the rack and get those assists

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Speaker 4: up so he can actually kind of proof for himself

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Speaker 4: that he can compete at the big twelve level and

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Speaker 4: be a key piece. Right now, you're seeing like a

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Speaker 4: six maybe seven man rotation and actual close games for Cincinnati.

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Speaker 4: Tyler mckemy's still not playing a ton and that just

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Speaker 4: doesn't put them in a good situation. So you know,

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Speaker 4: it's it's West is not in a good spot right

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Speaker 4: now injury wise, and seanabiav would be one of the

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Speaker 4: guys outside of that six seven man rotation when you're

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Speaker 4: looking at Keshantillery, Halving Zella, Jordie Rodriguez out of those guys,

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Speaker 4: and I can't believe I'm putting a Bio in that

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Speaker 4: group of names, especially when we're thinking about what he

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Speaker 4: was supposed to be preseason. But he's that guy that

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Speaker 4: needs to step up and just playing the better or

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Speaker 4: like the winning six even six to seven big twelve

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Speaker 4: games is going to be a tough stretch.

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Speaker 3: I think this conversation is interesting because of where they

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Speaker 3: are record wise, but you mentioned rebounding in those struggles.

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Speaker 3: Jalen Haynes was a guy that was supposed to help

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Speaker 3: with a lot of that. Is he any closer from

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Speaker 3: your understanding to being able to be back And at

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Speaker 3: this point, with what the record is, do you risk

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Speaker 3: bringing him back or do you just try to read

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Speaker 3: shot him and bring him back next year.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not even completely sure if he can get

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Speaker 4: a red shirt and come back next season. I think

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Speaker 4: I might have heard before the year that like this

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Speaker 4: is it regardless, it's brutal, But that's just the case

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Speaker 4: of college athletics at the moment. I can't confirm that

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Speaker 4: there might be some weird waiver that they can create

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Speaker 4: or they can just sue the NCAA and when I'm

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Speaker 4: not totally clear, but yeah, everything I've heard from him

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Speaker 4: and like on that topic is when early February comes around,

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Speaker 4: or in February one comes around, that's when now kind

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Speaker 4: of be monitoring whether he'll return soon or not. Cary's

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Speaker 4: kind of mentioned it on the radio shows. Wes has

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Speaker 4: constantly said that Jalen's doing better than he's expected and

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Speaker 4: he's on track, but he's never really set a firm

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Speaker 4: date or how many more weeks he has. But when

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Speaker 4: February one hits, that's when I'll kind of be expecting

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Speaker 4: him to, you know, get more involved, pregame warm ups,

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Speaker 4: and start taking some shots.

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Speaker 3: I'm curious because last night I thought when they built

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Speaker 3: their early lead, they did a great job of going

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Speaker 3: and transition and getting to the basket. Mustapha Chom hit

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Speaker 3: some mid range jump shots. I feel like there are

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Speaker 3: times this team gets in trouble taking too many outside shots.

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Speaker 3: Last night they shot just three for sixteen beyond the arc.

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Speaker 3: That's been a problem for much of the year. Do

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Speaker 3: you believe this team is a better shooting team outside

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Speaker 3: than what they've shown to this point, or do they

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Speaker 3: need to make more of an effort to get to

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Speaker 3: the basket more.

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Speaker 4: I think they need to make more of an effort

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Speaker 4: to get to the basket more. And I think you're

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Speaker 4: starting to see that kind of idea or message get

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Speaker 4: to the players, because in the last two games they've

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Speaker 4: combined to shoot less threes than what they shot against

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Speaker 4: West Virginia. They took thirty five to three against West Virginia,

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Speaker 4: and then I think it was the next game they

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Speaker 4: took eighteen against CCF and then sixteen, which I think

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Speaker 4: is like one of they're all three of those with

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Speaker 4: a game in the non con is like the lowest

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Speaker 4: amount of threes that they've taken all year. So I

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Speaker 4: think that that message is getting through. You have guys

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Speaker 4: who like when they touch the ball, they either can't

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Speaker 4: make threes or are really really struggling, Baba Miller being

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Speaker 4: one of them. There's Stafa Chim is not a pre

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Speaker 4: point shooter. Since here Harris not a three point shooter,

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Speaker 4: and Harris is going to drive him to the lane.

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Speaker 4: So you just don't have enough guys that are real

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Speaker 4: threats from free Like right now, I'm looking at Dave

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Speaker 4: Thomas and Jalen Celesting as the only two guys that

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Speaker 4: I can think of to if they shoot and open three,

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Speaker 4: I'm confident that they would probably make it, or that

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Speaker 4: they'd have a forty percent chance to make it. Everyone

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Speaker 4: else is struggling pretty mightily right now. So I don't

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Speaker 4: think that they need to be a high volume three

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Speaker 4: point shooting team. I think you need to kind of

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Speaker 4: ride the wave of the game. And last night they

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Speaker 4: were finishing at the at the rim. So yeah, I'm

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Speaker 4: looking for teams to take that away and force them

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Speaker 4: to beat them from beyond the arc.

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Speaker 3: Tall task coming up, but huge opportunities from a team standpoint,

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Speaker 3: with the number two team in the country, Iowa State,

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Speaker 3: coming in Saturday and then a trip to Arizona, the

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Speaker 3: number one team in the country on Wednesday. If there

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Speaker 3: is a path to beating Iowa State at Fifth Third

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Speaker 3: Arena Saturday, what does that consist of?

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Speaker 4: Oh? I mean, I don't want to say there isn't

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Speaker 4: a path, because like they were close to beating Houston.

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Speaker 4: I just feel like you have to, like we just

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Speaker 4: talked about, you have to make shots from beyond the arc.

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Speaker 4: I think it was last year when Gisel really really

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Speaker 4: got going and he was kind of just getting to

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Speaker 4: his spot around the free throw line and making those

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Speaker 4: mid range jumpers. Iowa State took that away and he

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Speaker 4: I don't think he struggled in that game. I think

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Speaker 4: he had a pretty good game. But I'm pretty sure

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Speaker 4: that they just forced them to make shots from beyond

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Speaker 4: the arc, and then when they played them at fifth third,

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Speaker 4: they turned them over. It's fun. So I don't know

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Speaker 4: if this is a team that can kind of handle

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Speaker 4: that adversity. Like you saw last night when they had

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Speaker 4: a twenty one point lead and he gets cut the five.

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Speaker 4: They responded pretty well, and to day they stepped up.

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Speaker 4: I just don't know if I was State's going to

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Speaker 4: give them the lanes or the opportunities to go on

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Speaker 4: any runs when they need it the most. So I

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Speaker 4: don't really see a path. But I didn't see a

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Speaker 4: path for Houston. Maybe they make fifty percent of their

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Speaker 4: threes and it's a completely different outcome. Maybe jig Will

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Speaker 4: gets hot, but you know, I think it's going to

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Speaker 4: be tough.

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Speaker 3: On the football side of things. There's been a lot

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Speaker 3: happening in the last few weeks, we have an understanding

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Speaker 3: of kind of how the portal season has went for

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Speaker 3: the Bearcats. We also welcomed in a new defensive coordinator,

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Speaker 3: and as we've learned today, the Bearcats are not renewing

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Speaker 3: the contract of Brad Glenn. That's going to turn to

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Speaker 3: now quarterback coach Pete Thomas o line coach Nick Cardwell

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Speaker 3: are going to be the co offensive coordinators. From a

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Speaker 3: staff perspective, and again this is early on in your opinion,

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Speaker 3: have they upgraded the staff at this point?

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Speaker 4: I think that they have upgraded the staff. I like

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Speaker 4: the Nate Woody Higher Armies defensive coordinator. He's going to

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Speaker 4: bring in an interesting scheme and as I've said before,

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Speaker 4: I wasn't the biggest hater of the three three five.

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Speaker 4: I think it gave UC chances to win games. But

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Speaker 4: like I also understand where fans come from that they

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Speaker 4: want to be able to get more pressure on the

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Speaker 4: quarterback and the three three five is not conducive to

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Speaker 4: doing that. So Woody brings in kind of a three

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Speaker 4: to four with two middle linebackers, two outside linebackers that

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Speaker 4: are often be coming off the edge and pass rush.

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Speaker 4: They have to be able to guard wide receivers and

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Speaker 4: tight ends and pass coverage, so it's interesting. I think

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Speaker 4: he's very experienced. In twenty twenty four, Army was like

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Speaker 4: a top twenty defense in the country and they had

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Speaker 4: eighteen interceptions, which Cincinnati fans would be happy with like

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Speaker 4: six interceptions, So that standard isn't really very high.

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Speaker 2: But for the.

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Speaker 4: Offensive side of the ball, like in all honesty, this

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Speaker 4: kind of feels like a nothing burger because Brad Glenn

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Speaker 4: did not run the offense. It's Scott Stadderfield. Brad Glenn

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Speaker 4: was the wide receivers coach, and you know VJ. Stingley

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Speaker 4: is going to take over that job, which he's very

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Speaker 4: highly thought up with the entire staff. I think maybe

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Speaker 4: one of the bigger things that you need to look

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Speaker 4: at from this is this kind of I don't want

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Speaker 4: to say locks up because you never know what can happen,

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Speaker 4: but it locks up Nick Cardwell, it's her return because

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Speaker 4: I'm sure he's had coaches from other staffs trying to

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Speaker 4: recruit him and come join because he's had three straight

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Speaker 4: really really good years as the offensive line coach at

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Speaker 4: you see, and I think keeping him is absolutely massive,

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Speaker 4: So you know, I don't think it changes much, but

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Speaker 4: you know it's a reward for Pete Thomas and Nick

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Speaker 4: Cardwell for kind of what they've been able to produce

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Speaker 4: from their position groups over the last two and three years.

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Speaker 3: Lastly, I know it's super early because until these guys

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Speaker 3: get on the field to together, you really don't know

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Speaker 3: what you have. But it feels like the University of

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Speaker 3: the football program was active in the portal and it

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Speaker 3: felt like when they got guys on campus, they closed

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Speaker 3: them at a very good rate. And it feels like

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Speaker 3: they didn't leave many stones unturned. They went to the

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Speaker 3: Colorado School of Minds, of all places to find a

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Speaker 3: wide receiver. What do you make, Kegan of the personnel

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Speaker 3: from a player standpoint they've added, I just want to.

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Speaker 4: Take a second applaud to you for that time about

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Speaker 4: no stone unturned in Colorado School of Mines. That was

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Speaker 4: pretty great. But I think this could be one of

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Speaker 4: the better portal classes and totality that you see has

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Speaker 4: brought in just from a top to bottom talent perspective,

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Speaker 4: I understand if people aren't really sold on the not

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Speaker 4: really sexy quarterback pickup that they got in JC French,

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Speaker 4: I understand but guys like Ty Goodwill from South Alabama,

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Speaker 4: Like what I've heard is that he could be the

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Speaker 4: best portal player. They've gotten some Jake Goldey, the Kent

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Speaker 4: States wide receiver Kvee Walford who had five hundred and

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Speaker 4: nine yards on nineteen catches, which is like borderline unheard of.

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Speaker 4: The rens of Fenner, Malachi Henry, and Jeovanni Gibson from

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Speaker 4: Oklahoma is really interesting. And then you Philip mcowski, the

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Speaker 4: linebacker from NIU clock twenty two point four miles per

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Speaker 4: hour in game last season. So they've got a lot

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Speaker 4: of really interesting guys, and I think one of the

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Speaker 4: best parts is they've got a lot of depth everywhere

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Speaker 4: and there will be a lot of competition comes it

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Speaker 4: comes spring in fall camp. So I think that they

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Speaker 4: did a good job. But ultimately this revolves around whether

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Speaker 4: the quarterback position is going to have success, because if

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Speaker 4: everyone else is really really good that you don't get

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Speaker 4: a ton from the quarterback position, you can kind of

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Speaker 4: just write and you can kind of right it into

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Speaker 4: a five and seven, six and six year.

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Speaker 3: Let me bring this full circle to finish up our conversation.

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Speaker 3: You'll you'll be at the game pretty early on Saturday,

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Speaker 3: you take in warm ups, you get yourself sick to work.

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Speaker 3: What does the pregame meal look like for you? Do

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Speaker 3: you bring tuna with you? Do you eat what there's provided?

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Speaker 3: Do you bring a brown paper bag? What do you

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Speaker 3: eat during a game day like a Saturday here coming up.

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Speaker 4: I'm not of the tax bracket to turn down free food,

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Speaker 4: so I'm kind of at the winds and at the

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Speaker 4: hands and the media food that he provides for us.

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Speaker 4: So some days it's some days it's pretty good. Some

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Speaker 4: days I'm thinking about going to the tuc and getting

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Speaker 4: Chick fil A right before a game, which is what

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Speaker 4: I did yesterday. But yeah, the meals there are great.

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Speaker 4: It's often it's often pretty high in proteins, so I

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Speaker 4: kind of select what I need to do.

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Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, very good. I just know a lot of

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Speaker 3: people are wondering. Keegan nickoson Barcat Journal dot com. Your

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Speaker 3: continued coverage of the Bearcats is easiest to follow along

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Speaker 3: with where.

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Speaker 4: At k nickoson forty two on X and subscribe to

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Speaker 4: Barricott Journal. Got a ton of great content coming for

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Speaker 4: the rest of basketball season.

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Speaker 2: Keigan, thanks so much, man, We'll see it Saturday.

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Speaker 4: Appreciate it?

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Speaker 2: See it?

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Speaker 3: Yes, sir, my second favorite Nicholson right there, that's Keegan.

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Speaker 2: Austin.

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Speaker 3: You hit that nail on the head. If Keegan's ripping

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Speaker 3: out tuna and Brenda might be ripping a heater. Can

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Speaker 3: you imagine that hotel?

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Speaker 2: I can't.

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Speaker 1: It makes me physically ill to think about that. Like

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Speaker 1: we've made fun of giving.

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Speaker 3: Me like twenty guesses. I wouldn't have thought tuna was

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Speaker 3: gonna be said.

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Speaker 1: We've made fun of you a lot today and you

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Speaker 1: deserve every single bit of it.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: But let me tell you something. Tuna is rancid, awful, terrible.

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Speaker 3: That I can't that. You can't pay me to eat bad.

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Speaker 3: You can't pay me to eat that. Hell No, let's uh,

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Speaker 3: let's dive a little deeper. I probably have a price

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Speaker 3: into the winds for u Se and Xavier last night.

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Speaker 3: You'll hear some postgame comments from Richard Patino and West

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Speaker 3: Miller next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station