Mo Egger

Mo Egger

Mo Egger delivers his unique take on sports on Cincinnati's ESPN 1530!Full Bio

 

Three Things: 87 Points From Guys Not Named "Trevon Bluiett"

Every day there are three things, here are those three things.

I'm agonizingly short on time this morning, so this will be short, sweet, and less than insightful.

1) Xavier's depth. When the Musketeers play really, really good teams in the NCAA Tournament, they're probably not going to be be able to get away with Trevon Bluiett scoring two points.  Against a team like Georgetown - which plays with plenty of energy but just doesn't yet have enough quality players - they can get away with it because of their depth.

The wealth of XU's weapons was on display last night in DC. Naji Marshall slashed to the rim and finished in transition. JP Macura made outside shots.  Sean O'Mara continues to be efficient in the post. Quentin Goodin was a little careless with the ball, but played an otherwise outstanding game.  The Musketeers got next to nothing from one of the most prolific scorers in program history and still put up 89.

Impressive.

2) The Bearcats.  Can UC get re-energized and re-focused tonight for their home tilt against UConn? If so, the Cats should win the first of three consecutive games they'll be favored in.  If they win all three of those before going to Wichita State for the regular season finale, they'll have avoided anything resembling a bad loss, and given how it seems like no one wants to grab a top four seed, they're going to be in pretty decent position when the selection committee gets to work for real.

Far more important to me though is the way UC plays, starting tonight.  Cincinnati seemed to lose its way against both Houston and Wichita State. The energy they'd played with against lesser opponents waned and their best players started playing tentatively.  Maybe we won't feel much better about the Bearcats just by seeing them beat UConn, but if they play well tonight, we at least won't feel worse.

That in itself feels like a win.

3) Bryan or Barry. The whole "should/will Barry Larkin take over for Bryan Price" thing came up again this week after Barry's latest comments about potentially managing the Reds. We've spent nearly three years talking about Larkin one day moving into the manager's office, so much so that it now feels almost inevitable.

But who the manager is doesn't matter right now.  Until the things that need to get sorted out on this team get sorted out, the identity of the manger is irrelevant.  As long as this team doesn't have enough good players, specifically enough reliable tarting pitchers, we're wasting our breath talking about Bryan, Barry, or any other potential Reds skipper.

The next successful Reds manager is going to be the beneficiary of good front office work, solid player development, quality drafting, and having enough in-their-prime players at his disposal.  It will matter one day who that manager is, but we're still so far from Bryan Price or Barry Larkin being able to benefit from all of those things that talking about one replacing the other is a waste of time.

Radio Show:  Chad Brendel on the Bearcats at 3:42. MLB Network's Cliff Floyd at 4:05. ESPN college basketball writer Myron Medcalf at 4:20.  You and I before and after. Today. 3:05. ESPN1530. 

Recommended Link Of The Day: Two of them today....

'Santa' Berding has bag full of goodies. West End shouldn't turn down FC Cincy stadium

The lighter side of Chris Mack

And....

Follow me on Twitter @MoEgger1530.

Email me: mo@espn1530.com

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