It is showtime. Very pleasant, good evening, everybody. Greetings from the original Montgomery In home of the world's greatest ribs, and welcome to the first edition for this season of the West Miller Radio Show. I'm Dan Hord with former Bearcats stand out Terry Nelson and the star of the show, the head coach of your you see Bearcats. Let's hear it for Wes Miller co It's good to see it. You've had a busy day.
Been a good day, and it's good to see everybody excited to get this thing going.
Yeah. Likewise, tell us a little bit about Big twelve media days.
Well, we traveled in style, so like it was about somebody said this, They said, was it a long day? I said no, I mean we travel on a privately, you could it had been a longer day to drive the Columbus and back. I think somebody said that in the crowd already. But the Big twelve does it first class. It was a very efficient day. We arrived at seven
forty this morning. They had a spread of food ready for breakfast for all the players and coaches, and from eight o'clock on it felt like we went from station to station. Interview to camera session from just eight to one, with the exception of maybe a twenty minute break to get the lunch spread. I mean, and it was so it was professional. I've noticed how much the league has
made an effort to expand with different networks. I mean, you know, ESPN, of course is there is the primary TV partner, but Fox was there this year, CBS was there, Turner was there. You know, I'm probably forgetting people, but you can see the effort that the Commission of the League's making to get the league out there. There was more media this year than ever. It was very well done.
Yeah, with adoption of linear sports, multiple networks are now going to tap into this big twelve. You got there Fashion and Dan Horton getting here from the West side.
The good news is we both made it. I was preparing noteson to the open. I was getting my it is showtime. I was getting that whole thing ready, and Dan took over, came over here. You know, he had two people following him. One was the cops.
Heather was a reporter. Yeah, I read them all. Coach. During that press conference, I heard something I heard Kirk Chris talked about the possibility of getting a seventh year, and he told guys, don't laugh. If it happens, I will gladly do it because college basketball. I love college basketball.
Oh listen, I've i said it publicly for the first time today, So it's my own fault right for now. All the questions that'll come behind it. But uh, if Kirkriesa can play for ten years, you know, Shoot, I'll try to figure it out. He he's the kind of guy that makes uh makes makes basketball fun for the other four players on the court, and certainly in this short time I've enjoyed coaching him today. So you know,
there's been so many crazy things that have happened. But there may be an opportunity for him and some others to get an extra year, and we'll certainly look into that. Is anybody in our position would.
What are the circumstances that could potentially get him a seventh year?
I don't I don't want to dive too far, but some of the changing and sitting, I mean there's been a if you go look at his his track record there that he had to sit out his first year at Arizona because of something about where he'd played in Europe. Shoot, they got guys that played in the G League. Now playing I mean it's like, so there's there's and there's a number of things like that, but without getting into too many detail, there actually may be something there and we're looking into it.
He played an exhibition game on Friday night in ann Arbor beat Michigan. That's fine, you know, that's great. But I was just impressed watching the tape by the experience high level basketball fans and attendance on the road. I would just think as far as a preseason exhibition game goes, that's about as good of an experience as you can have for your team.
It was by design. I mean, we we looked at and we got you know, scotsh answer questions all day so you can hear I'm gonna say the same thing I've probably said all day. But you know, after two years of experience in the league, you just have such a different perspective when you're preparing, you know, going into
this year because you've been through it. And one thing we thought a lot about was we need to get tested early, and it failure early could be really good for us in January and February, because you don't want the first time you go through a tough stretch to be in league play, right, and that happened a year ago,
and that was very difficult for our group. So we kind of scheduled two road exhibition games against teams that are both picked to be in the top Michigan maybe top five or six or seven or whatever they have them and then Arkansas top fifteen in every poll, and We're look honestly, as a coach, I'm looking for some adversity. I mean, you know, I want to see us get
challenge tested. The games don't counter matter, so can we get their attention and then get back into the practice court before we play in real games when you really have time to deal with things. And then We're up eighteen and a half and I'm going, this is what the hell? I mean that it never works like it's supposed to. But all that said, there was some really good things I think from that Michigan exhibition, some of
the stuff we've worked on. I think the guys having success doing those things, you know, builds confidence in what we're doing, builds confidence in how they play together. So there were some really good aspects there. You know, we had a team a year ago that struggled to score I mean, score one hundred might have taken us three games.
So like, you know, to get to one hundred, even though it's an exhibition and Michigan still working through their things and we are too, it's one hundred still something that you're proud of because you know, you got multiple guys that scored to get there, and I think that's something we can build on. But I say all that to say ninety percent of what I say all was was stuff we need to work on. And you know, tried to spend a lot of energy getting their attention
this week that that that didn't count. So don't don't get comfortable. And there's a ton of things we have to correct.
Well, of those ton of things that you want to correct, what are some of those things? Because when I was up in the media section in the ann arbor, when I drove down to watch the game, and at one point I saw you just drop your head as you were sitting down because you guys kept filing like they didn't they didn't score on you guys for a long period of time. They were just at the free throw line over and over again, and you guys would come down to make a great play, come down and file
before they even got into their offense. And at one point you just dropped your head and I'm like, it's got I can sort of feel the frustration that you that you're going through.
Because there were a couple out front where it's like, you know, come on, guys, because we talked about it at halftime. We certainly talked about it and every time out and then we had a couple of silly ones out front and you know, this is an edgy group. You guys are gonna get to know them well. They're very very competitive, they're they have personality, and so you know, like I want one of them and I won't name his name, Keishan Tillery.
Sounds like like.
Wh who's just gonna be a terrific player here.
But he, you know, he's like, it's not a foul, and I was like, it doesn't like it, Like let me just tell you something, young fellas.
It doesn't matter. It's whatever they call because that's what's gonna happen on the scoreboard, like you know, and like, can we can we make the adjustment, you know? And then I did think late in the game we made the adjustment a little bit, uh, but we did we then we lost some of our aggressiveness. So again, there's a ton of stuff to iron out this time of year. But you get more out of games like that than
you do out of seven practices. And so I actually ran into somebody at the instead of a later day at media day, and I b lined for them, and I said, hey, we got to be able to play four or five of these to lead up to the season. The product in college basketball would be so much better. The product would be so much better in November and
December if we got to play more preseason games. Every professional league in the world, and I'm going to say this is professional, okay, so like in a semi pro anymore, this is pro basketball. We're your only pro basketball league in the world that doesn't play multiple preseason games before the regular season. But yet we have language, we have you know, summer practice. And now I'm complaining a little bit, but I would love to be able to do more
what we did last week. And I'm looking forward to Friday night to kind of learn and grow a little bit more.
There were a lot of fouls called in the game. Did you feel like it was officiated a little bit differently since it was an exhibition game. Sometimes they try to you know, set the tone and then they dial it back a little when the games count.
Well, it was completely officiated, different than the way that our gas officiate. They are the worst officials, but thank god they're not professional officials. We made a rule with this. You know, I have the greatest group of Gas right now. It's the it's a I mean that those guys are all going to be elite coach and we're going to look up in a decade and they're all going to be an associate head coaches.
And trying to save face. Now they're not good officials, just say it.
But Terry, Hell, they're the worst officials I've ever dealt with. And so we made a rule with the team that every time they call a call, we're just trying to build your discipline not to react.
That's kind of that, all right, We're going to take a time out. We are live at the Original Montgomery In, home of the world's greatest Ribs. It's the West Miller Radio Show on News Radio seven hundred wl W. Back at the Original Montgomery In, home of the world's Greatest Ribs and the West Miller Radio Show Here on News Radio seven hundred wl W had football here last night, talking Bearcat football, and now delighted to get our basketball
shows underway. We appreciate the Bearcat fans who are with us tonight here at the original Montgomery In. Let's talk a little bit about some of the individual performances in Friday's exhibition win over Michigan. I find it really fun to watch Buck Harris on the defensive end of the court. He is a Tasmanian devil. He's got great wingspan, gets in passing lanes, takes the ball away from people. He is a weapon on defense.
He really is.
We had a I hope I'm not like saying something out a lot here. We had an assistant coach in film a couple of weeks ago. We had an intersquatch scrimmage, and you know, he's just like picking a steal off here and picking up full court and then picking another one off. And he stopped the film. He said, man, he's like a street coyote out there hunting for food.
It's like.
Out we all just started dying laughing. As a staff actually made kind of some sense. But he's he's just out there just like and you can he has these moments he kind of like you can catch him looking at the ball in a slow moment, like I'm about to go get the ball, you know, he's he's just out there in a back alley looking to go steal somebody's basketball, you know. But uh, uh, he's he's uh, he's such an important piece to our team, and he's
he's a fearless, fearless player. I thought in the mission exhibition, I was really pleased with some of the things he did attack in the basket, you know, and put putting some putting some pressure on the rim, you know, not just off the bounce, but with the cut. I think that's an area that that we need. We need guys to emerge. You know, our shooting's much improved. I think, you know, we can play through Mustafa uh if we can get him the deep catches in the post, so
we have a post presence. I hate that Jalen's not available Haynes, because he was going to be a big time post presence. But we need to find some different ways to get to the rim here early in the year, all the dribbler off the cut and and Buck is one of the guys that I think could do that consistently.
You recruited the first McDonald's all Americans since Land Stevenson in Shaannabiev and everybody wanted to see his his debut, and you know, he missed the first two or three shots, but he when he got going, he makes some of the most incredible shots. He's like James Harden with his bouncy side step, step backs, side step. I mean, it's just crazy how he does it. Guys in his face, he's falling, but he is a lethal shooter at six foot eight.
Don't give him James Hard.
I mean, who else does that in the NBA. I'm trying to give him a comparable now.
He he has a a unique ability to create his own shot and separate to get his shot off. He has a high shot pocket. You know, I think it'll be it'll it'll be fun because of his ability his gravity as an offensive player obviously, but there's there's some shots that he's gonna take that would be difficult shots for others and correct and we talked about this a
little bit as a as a staff already. The timing of those shots is important, right, you can't take a really difficult shot with you know, no advantage from the defense early in the shot clock or you know that kind of situation. But there's gonna be times when the chips are down late in the clock that you know, we recruited them to take those shots, you know that. Let's be real about that. We he's a tough shot maker and we recruited him to come do that, but
just trying to figure out when to do it. But he's he's got a lot of ability. Other than that, Terry, he has a great feel with the basketball. I think he's a guy will be able to put in pick and roll. I think he could be terrific in transition. But they're not running even half the way I want to yet. But if they'll commit to that, he could be really good there.
So this one one hundred, they're not even running the way you want him to run.
Our running, our running game wasn't as good as I think it should should be. I like to hear that it's you know, and listen. I hope it at its best in February in March. I mean, that's the idea, right, But we don't have five guys yet consistently running on possessions. Whether it was in that game or in practice situations we'll get two or three, but if we get five doing it, I think with our passing and decision making could be good. I think Kurr's ability to advance the
ball at the court has been infectious. So now guys like Keishaan Tillery and Day they are doing that at a better rate, and I think we could be very effective in the open court. I think this could be the fastest team I've coached in fifteen years. But if you're going to play fast, you have to work fast every day correct. And it's easy to say, and all players say, I want to play, but we have to triple down on what it's going to take to do that consistent.
You run fast break drills every day in practice, even if it's for a little bit, but you make sure you stick that in there and one of those fast break drills, but you work on every day. Where there's three guys running, you make a pass to the left, he gets back to the middle, and there's a trail guy who who has the speed up and getting to the action. You're passing the ball for the dunk. That's how Shinabayov made that dunk in transition against Michigan that same sequence.
Fast pray drill number one. I've done it every day I've ever coached. So yeah, and I get frustrated they don't do it long, but they should do it to build a great winning habit. It's the way that they do it that we're looking for. But yeah, we're gonna work on our running game every day, and I don't think we're there yet, but I think this team could be very effective there.
I thought it was interesting how many times you really got up the court quickly after made baskets that seemed different to me. How much you're looking to attack and try to beat the other team down the floor after the other team scores.
I tell you what, guys, I think Mustapha Chom. You guys are gonna come to really appreciate it when you watch him play. I want you to think about this. Three years ago, he's playing on an outdoor court in Senegal, and I went there and saw it and I couldn't believe it. And when I saw that and then think about where he is now, I like change my absolute perspective. And I say that to say, each week he gets better, so you'll be impressed with what you see when you
get to see him here early in the year. But I can't wait for you to see him a month from now. Too much from now. He's just gonna keep getting better and better. But get back to our running game. He can really run. I mean he can really run. He doesn't do it every possession like I want yet.
Soccer being his first sport.
You know, they all they playing soccer first. But he can really run the floor for seven too. It's incredible, I think. And he can catch and finish, but he can also post early in possession. We got a couple of dunks on reversals in early transition situations in our exhibition game. But I think there's gonna be great opportunity for him to score early in possessions or to score off the threat of him early in possessions if we can get our running game going. So he's one of
the reasons too. I mean, he's so good running the floor.
If there's ever a guy that says I'm a bearcat because he can do multiple things, I thought Baba Miller, and you know he filed out of the game, but my goodness, what he brings to the table. He had eleven six and you know four assists in that Michigan exhibition. But the fact that he can face the basket, shoot threes, put them between his legs, make a play for other teammates. But when he caught the ball in the polls, he
did what Kenyon Martin used to do. Chuck mayshok Uh used to teach this to our bigs.
Hold on a second, James hard and Kenyon, Damn, you're gonna have a hell of dropping references today. He was pretty good with the headset.
But what I'm saying, Chuck used to teach Corey and the other guys back out and face the guy. If you're a big guy and you're quick like Corey and Kenyon and all those guys, use your quickness because when your back us to the basket, any stiff can put a farm in your back and keep you from going to the basket. But when you face them, now, they got to get in the defensive stands. They gotta move their feet, and Baba just put pressure on their bigs
by continue to attack. He drew files on them, he made baskets, and he got weak side rebounds.
He's he's fascinating. Uh. He's been the most difficult player to figure out. And I mean that in a in a complimentary way. He can do everything. He's six eleven longer than he is tall, and there's nothing he can't do. So trying to figure out the things to focus on have been That's been a difficult process for me as a coach, but a really fun one, you know. Obviously this summer we tried him in a bunch of different areas, talked with him, where do you feel the most comfortable
and confident. I went over and watched him play with the Spanish national team in August, which helped me as much as anything, because he just had a great experience playing there. They wanted them to stay and play for THEE in the euro Basket. I didn't. I didn't like that idea, just get back here and get to work. But he did a terrific job with the national team
there in a couple of games. But figuring out the right ways to use him has been a prime It'll continue to be a process, and I mean that because you can there isn't anything he can't do. But where's he going to be the most effective? I think posting smaller players is something we've seen early, like Michigan was switching five ways a lot of times, and he was able to post those switches and then they were trying to bring a double and he was dropping off. I mean,
like that's something we couldn't do last year, Right. We played a couple of games in the league where they were switching, and it was like a miserable offensive experience, right, because we just couldn't attack switching. Where Michigan switched five ways, I think they're terrific at it, by the way, and we were able to attack it multiple One of the ways was through Baba. And Bob's going to be a
connector of our roster. He's gonna make lineups work. I mean, you could play three guards out there together, you know, which we're going to try to do, and then you can play Baba at what would be the four spot on paper, you know, with a moustap for example, and you're still big and physical enough, right, you know, if you could play We played Bob at the three to
start the second half. We didn't have a lot of success with that lineup per se in the game, but you can slide him down and be massive on the perimeter, right and massive in the front court. So he gives you the ability to do lots of different things, and I'm excited about the way he started out. His talent has always been talked about since he was playing for Real Madrid as a young player and throughout the time he's already been in college. What we've seen the last
month is he's becoming a more productive player. It's not just wow, this guy makes two or three plays. He's playing harder, He's playing with more intention and that's something we have to continue to build on as we start the season.
You mentioned Jalen Haynes earlier. I should follow up because I'm sure there are people listening on the radio that don't really know who that is. He was one of your transfers this year, came from George Mason, where he averaged about fifteen points a game, really crafty in the paint type score and the suffered a lower leg injury. It hasn't completely been ruled out for coming back this season, but you're obviously not going to have him for the bulk of the year.
Yeah, that's a big blow I got. The preseason has been great, and when I say great, we've had our share of you know, tough competitive the kind of days in the gym that you love as a coach, but weren't fun as a player, you know, and it was.
So we've had this great preseason that hasn't been just roses every day, but it's been about the right stuff and that that's just been the one the one blemish I'd say to this point is we lost, you know, one of our better, better players and one of our older, tougher, more physical players that I think oozes bear cat basket.
And You've been stronger, more vocal with this group than you have been in your previous four years. You've been more demanding.
Yeah, I think I'm having a lot of fun coaching this group today. I just I'm enjoying coaching. And you know, sometimes I got the greatest job at the greatest but the part that is the most enjoyable is getting out on the floor and developing your team. I mean, that's what I got into it to do. I've had more fun to date with this with this group than I've had in a long long time coaching, and it's because i haven't felt like I needed to hold back at all,
like they can handle it. In fact, you know, they like it and in a really fun way they like to be pushed and coached.
All right, we're gonna take a time out when we come back. Questions from the audience here at the original Montgomery In. This is the West Miller Radio Show on seven hundred WLB. Welcome back to the West Miller Radio Show live from the original Montgomery In, home of the world's greatest threads. We appreciate the bear Cat fans are with us here tonight as we begin talking bear Cat basketball. It should be a really fun season. Time for questions
from the audience. Our friend Elliott is here tonight, plan her. He's got a muscle tear in his left arm. So what he's here tonight to fire off the first question of the season. And it's great to see Elliott.
All right, So the their Cats are doing really well in football. So do you feel like extra pressure to do well in basketball, especially if you're having a strong roster that plays with pacing. You said you like that.
Before you answer that question. Elliott's voice has gotten deeper since last year.
He got taller and the voice got deeper. But the haircut makes him look younger. So there you go. I like the bus cut, but no, I think number one, how great is it to see our football team having some success in the big twelve year over the last what is it six six in a row.
Six in a row, that's correct, number twenty one in the country, six game winning streak. Taylor coming to town Saturday at four.
Yeah.
I've I've always felt that the rising tides float all boats and football doing well is great for our entire university. It's great for the athletic department, and it just energizes us, like I think the players get the good vibes on campus and get the vibes of the fan base through the football team and gets them ready.
To compete in time of year. Wise, you're often bringing recruits to home football games, correct, we.
Are, and we've had a lot of recruits at games so far. And one things that's been great for recruiting at Cincinnati is the support Bearcat fans give it Nipper just like they do fifth third. It's a great environment for us to bring recruits to and that that's been consistent in the time that I've been here.
A lease, I think Elliott also looks a bit like eminem and I don't know if you guys notice the way he was holding the mic I was waiting for him to drop a beat and give us a rap. So every season I ask you the same question to begin it.
I kind of.
Asked you this a bit when I you and the athletic Complex. So we're gonna be standing here on March seventeenth, and you're gonna be signing my famed you see basketball coach ball. That means you went to the NCAA tournament.
What went right?
Besides winning.
Just the right approach every day? I mean that, you know, I think there's there's a number of things that you can control. You can control your professionalism as a player, as a coach, and we define what that is in our program. You can control the approach every day to try to improve. And that sounds trivial, but I mean that, like this is really about an everyday approach to try to get better, and within that like really win the details of the things that win. And then you can
control how you contribute to the team. Like every player, every coach, every player on the team, they're either contributing positively or negative of the team. We got to have a group that does it positively every single day. We actually rank the guys each week in those three categories. If we can really really live that, not just talk about it, put it on a wall, put it, put it on the board once a week. But like, if we can really live that, then then we'll hear a
name called on selection Sunday. And that's I'm pretty adamant about that.
Dave Hey coach, welcome back.
Likewise, my first radio show question, what did you do over the summer outside of basketball? Any good vacations, any golf courses, you played anything fun.
I'm looking for my girlfriend Lauren there, because she's gonna answer nothing. She's gonna say we didn't do anything other than basketball. You know, I think I think in most off seasons, disconnecting is important, and Dave and I've really looked for that. I did less of that this year than any time in my professional career coaching basketball. My golf game is I don't the handful of times I played golf, which was less for fun and more for something revolving around work, I was so bad I had
no desire to play anymore. I mean, I I used to think I was a pretty damn good golfer deep down, like I had some irrational confidence in my golf game. I'm terrible, guys, I've lost that. But no, we didn't take any vacations. I took three trips internationally that were tied into to recruiting, and I was able to bring my girlfriend along on those trips and we would do like, you know, like I went to Switzerland for the Unite
teen World Championships recruiting, which was which was great. And so we did two days at the World Championships and I watched the games and Lauren would go shopping or wherever. I didn't see her. She come to one game and then disappear.
But Lauren went to Switzerland and you went to a gym, that's right.
But then on the third day there was which was an off day of the games. Instead of coming right home, you know, we spent a day in Geneva. Like that was the kind of thing. Maybe a day here or day there. But it was a very focused off season, a very intentional offseason. But at the same time I feel very refreshed and recharged to get into this year.
We got about five holes of golf in before a month soon.
That was fun, that's right. Oh, that was disappointed. That was really good. Broke my heart, Yeah, broke my heart.
Because we were playing an awesome course.
Brian, all right, coach, enough about the off season.
Let's get to it, big fella.
So you were talking about you were looking for adversity and obviously in the exhibition games, and I'm just curious, are there specific things when you're picking who you're playing that you're looking for there are certain certain types of adversity or is it just I want I want the Gotlin third of the team and see how we react everything, you.
Know, I asked. I got to ask some scheduling questions today at media day, and I want to make this clear, like, yes, we have a hand in the schedule, like we have to make an agreement with another team. But it's not like we go out and say I want to play this team and they go, okay, sure, great, let's play whenever you want to play. Like it is it is, scheduling is incredibly difficult because everybody's angling on all sides.
So like getting a quality home game is become this almost impossible feat because you have to have an agreement with another team, they have to be willing to start on the road, you have to find a date that works. There's just all these dynamics that are going on. So the answer to your question is yes, I mean you like, I loved the Michigan scrimmage because they're going to be a great team. Dusty are friends, and when you do something like that, it's better to do it with friends.
So you know, their head coach, Dusty May and I are very friendly. We had dinner the night before the game. We shared what we were doing so we didn't have to spend time on a scout and report, you know. I mean, those reasons were factors, but I love that they switch everything. You know, we don't switch a lot. We're more of an emergency switch type of program, so we'll late switch if somebody gets held up. But our whole thing is you should never have we fight do
everything like you should never have to switch. Where they switch everything and they're really good at it. We played some games in league last year, like Baylor. We played them the third game of league and we saw like five ways switching for the first time with a one day prep and we hadn't seen it, and we really really struggled with it. So that was a positive. But it's not so simple because they're just hard to find
good games. So there's probably that was probably more once we go, hey, we can do this with Michigan and Dust they want to do it. And then oh, by the way, this is going to be good because we're going to play against this type of scheme. It doesn't start that way. I wish you could do it that way. Schedule is just too difficult, if that makes sense. And
then going on the road to play at Arkansas this week. Again, Cal and I are very friendly and have been very friendly for a long time, so somebody that you want to work with in this type of situation. And then I just I love the difference of the two styles. You know, Michigan style and Arkansas style are polar opposites, and so that'll be really good for us. And they're both a little different than how we play in practice
every day. So there is some of that, but it probably doesn't it's probably not as clean as as you'd like to think.
Wait, hi, coach, I'm curious with the additions of Kerr and Keishaan, will day Day be more of a two guard this year or will will he still be running point.
At some point? Score? That's what dayDay is gonna go do. Go score and let him let him now he's gonna play some point guard like he It's been fun to watch those guys play together that there, and you know, Sincere Harris or Buck Harris is a combo guard too, so we have four legit big twelve guards and it's been fun to watch them play together. And we've given them quite a bit of freedom of who brings it up, and they play multiple positions in our sets and actions.
But having Key and Kerr has allowed day day to spend less time focusing on getting us into a set or getting us into offense, and more time on just going to do what I think he's built to do. He's healthy again, to guys like he's healthy. He had he he had a sequence in practice a couple of days ago. He went baseline in the half court and jammed it and kind of like looked up, like I've seen him miss a lot of dunks like that last year, but I see him make many, you know, But he
was doing that when he first got here. And then the next possession he cut out of the corner, caught the back of a head and they think Sean threw a lob and he dunked it with two hands in a lob and I've never seen him do that. And so he's physically he's not just healthy mentally like he's in.
He had a great offseason. He's physically in a really elite place, and I think he's primed to have a big year score in the basketball for so the answer short answer, yes, but he'll still have some point guard responsibility.
Reminds me of Ramel Robinson from the eighty nine Michigan team when they won it all. He was a big, strong guard that can score with the best of him and Fisher let him go.
Hey, Terry, when you coach a team, I can't wait. I'm gonna come up, come to your group. I'm will say, Man, Terry, you got Shaq and Kobe and Michael Jordan. Hell, I hope you can coach him.
Dada has gone from a point guard to a points guard.
He'll still have that role, and we know we can play that role well. But I've really wanted to free him up to just go score the ball and create offense for our team. And he's running the floor so much harder because and he knows he's gonna get it.
All right, We'll take a break, we'll come back with a few more questions from the audience when we continue. This is the West Miller Radio Show, Live from the original Montgomery In, Home of the World's Greatest Ribs. On seven hundred WLW, meg Man laughed on The West Miller Radio Show Live from the Original Montgomery In Home of the World's Greatest Ribs. Thanks to our engineer Joe Strecker
for setting everything up tonight. We appreciate the Bearcat fans who are here, and if you have never come out to attend the show in person, come out, have a beer, get something to eat, great time. But we've also got some good stuff to give away. You've got to be here to be a winner. Our prizes tonight include two court side tickets and two sets of Champion Club tickets in addition to some sincey Rains gear. So we've got some really good stuff to come away. Come out and
join us at future shows. You could wind up sitting court side at a Bearcat basketball game. More questions from the audience. Pop is up next, Hey, coach, I get.
The idea from here in the description of this team that there are just so many ways that this team can score and can push them all up the floor that we're gonna put substantial pressure on our opposing defenses, whether it's with lineup combinations or shot selection or execution. And I wonder what a difference that makes in how you put your game plan together.
Yeah, we have more firepower than we've had recently, for sure, and we're not perfect right, Like I still see some air. Is like, we got to make sure we're getting fouled, and we've got to make sure we're putting pressure on the rim. Jalen Haynes was a big part of that attack. And so we're gonna have to pivot here, which is that this is basketball, Like, we'll do it, but to make sure that we're we're putting that press, Like that's going to be a hole here early and we can't
let it be over a long period of time. But I do think we're gonna be able to put pressure on the other team with our offense at times. And you talk about game planning, Yeah, there's different ways, right, whether it's through pick and roll once you get in transition, I want to be a part of our attack every night, but whether it's through pick and roll, we've actually had a little bit of success screening away from the ball at times, in the preseason. We're going to do more
of that the more we move through it. I think we have a number of guys that can really shoot the ball, so finding ways to free them up to shoot it is going to be important. And then I really do think we have something with Mustafa uh in the box. Like I knew he was a talent, but his ability to score in the box is significantly better than I anticipated. And I think it's going to be important to get him those deep catches that that's going to be a strength of our team.
All right, next question, So, so coach, with what you just said, I got two questions. The first one is what do you what do you consider your team's identity? And the second one is do you feel the pressure of ni L to win now? Like with the n i L players are leaving that the one year and whatever, So do you feel the pressure to win now?
And what is the team's identity? Yeah, the team's identity to me is is pace connected and aggressive. I think in everything we're doing, like and I don't mean just style of play, like when we That's a great question and that would come from a great player. That makes sense, But like you can have you can separate yourself as an outlier in college basketball with a ton of continuity because it's so rare. So if you have a group, a team that's played together for three or four years,
how much different is that than the masses. Our goal when we got together in the summer was to take a team that hasn't been together for three or four years, and if we'll be very intentional about how we come together and connect, we could play like a team that's been together for three or four years in February, in March.
That's that's like been our goal. It's been intentional. Like we've said to our team, like it's very important you guys learn each other and get to know each other whether you really want to or not socially because it's gonna help us win. Like do do it for the reason that it's going to be important to our success. And we have some older guys that get that in the ballon. That's just one example. But I think our pace are connect action and then our aggressiveness like have
to be our identity as a club. That's number one. The pressure if I'm guilty of anything, it's the internal pressure to win all the time and anything I've done in my entire life. Like, so there's never been any kind of external pressure that equals that. I mean, I mean that like I'm an angry person on the eighteenth
hole when I'm in a bed. Like to me, it's like it be like playing in the Ryder Cup and guy, I'd done a hell of a better job okay than we did in fright or cups about that, but like, but so no, I don't I think that in college athletics, there's the landscape is shift and you see some of these things that are happening in football and the buyouts, I mean incredible, But I think, for at least I can only speak for myself, the internal pressure has always
been there, so it doesn't affect me, if that makes sense.
I did not expect he can Bradley to catch us stray. Tonight on the Come On West Miller Radio show, the question.
Was asked from Ady Jackson, starting point guard, starting combo guard from the Bearcats ninety two final fourteen to ninety three le eight team. So that was Aby Jackson, A.
Great, great question from a great player.
Fellas.
I have to ask as someone who wasn't able to watch the game, But what was the difference in the first half with the foul calling and the second half with the foul calling on the Bearcats. What changed either in Michigan's approach or in our play. Perhaps that may have stepped it up for this. Let me say something to the.
Rest, Well, this was a couple of days ago, but I think we we shot thirty six free throws, right, thirty.
Four they made forty one, right.
They shot forty eight or fifty they shot forty eight. We shot. They were calling it tight both ways. We had some silly ones out front in the second half, and it was actually interesting because both coaches were doing the same thing. We got into the bonus in the end of the first half and I'm yelling at our guys, drive it, like we're in the bonus, drive it. And then we take a three and you're like, that's probably why come on? But uh, and Dusty was doing the
same thing. You know, they put us in the bonus and he's yelling drive it. So I think both teams made a concerted effort that once the game was called tight, to put more pressure on the other team, and I think both of us did that. We had some silly ones way out front, but they called it pretty tight, and it was very aggressive and physical in the first fourteen to fifteen minutes of the games. It looks like
the referees were trying to tighten it up. But I tell the referees this all the time, and like these exhibitions are when they come to practice, like we have days, they'll come and referee our innersquad scrimmages. Please call it tight, you know, like, please come that nothing bothers me more than we have an intersquad scrimmage or a closed door scrimmage or an exhibition. They call no fouls in the
first game of the year. They call every foul. It's like, we want the guys to learn how to adjust to you. And so if you could do that when it doesn't count, it's a heck of a lot better for all of us. So Dusty and I talked one time in the middle of the game, and we both said, if both of us could stop fouling, might get better tonight. You know, that type of thing. But it is a little bit of both. There was some silly stuff both sides with fowls.
They called it a little tight, which was okay, But hopefully we won't have as much of that on Friday. We've worked at that this week.
Running out of time. Two guys, I want you to briefly talk about Tyler McKinley, who seemed to have a great entry into his first game as a barcout after the knee injury last year. And a guy who didn't play, Jayalen Celestine, who was a three point just marksman who didn't get a chance to play. You set him out for that game.
The one thing I do want to say about the fouls, aggressive is an okay mistake early like I will take the aggressive ones. So like our defense as we built it, we are not as disciplined defensively at this stage as I usually always had a team, and that's by design. Like we are in times all over the place on defense, and that's okay. But we are playing aggressively. We are playing aggressive in our pick and roll coverage. We're playing
aggressive trap of the post. We're probably pressuring too much, and that's okay because you can reel the in fouling too much, you can reel that in. But at the same time or early on, it's gonna have to get reeled in. Like it's a little too much. But I'm okay with that. That's by design. Jalen Celestine has not practiced. He did not practice the month of July all the way up until about the last three or four weeks,
and it's been a progression to bring him back. It was a mild back type thing, but serious enough to hold him out for a couple of months. He's been working his way back in. He'll get some minutes here against Arkansas, but and he's gonna have a great year and he's a very important player to our team. Yeah, he's just a he's really old, smart, versatile player, but he won't be himself and he's not in season for me. It's gonna take him another month, I think, to really
look like the Jalen Celestine that we recruited. But it'll be good to get him some action Friday night. And then Tyler McKinley, Man, he's good, right, I mean, he's.
Great to see him out there running and jumping and looking healthy.
He's a good player, guys, and he's a Cincinnati kid. And I've been recruiting Tyler McKinley since the day I got the Cincinnati job, So it's been been a long road to get him in a uniform and that's that felt really good. He he is going to be an extremely important player to this year's team. That's all. That's what I'll tell you. I won't blow him up too much tonight, Terry.
Kevin willis a lot of Hawks.
He got longer arms than Kevin.
Short shouldiers, you know, he got a little arms over here like he's you know, but he's quick in the polls. He can handle the ball. He could he does. He plays hard every possession. You don't have to worry about his effort.
He's great and he may be one of the best three or four passers on our team. And that that's pretty fun. With somebody in the front court, you can run offense through them. And we were doing a lot of that with Jalen Haynes and Tyler. So some of that stuff we were doing with Hanes, we're gonna be able to do with Tyler.
All right, we are out of time. Thank you to the Bearcat fans who came out to the show tonight. We're gonna give away some stuff momentarily. For those listening on the radio, thanks for tuning in. You've been listening to the West Miller Radio Show Live from the original Montgomery in home of the world's greatest ribs, on seven hundred WLW