OhVarsity! Mail Truck: Volume 3

OhVarsity! Mail Truck seeks to answer all of life’s questions. Since I’m the only smart person around here, I feel that it’s my responsibility to shoulder that burden. To join in on the fun, send questions with your name and city to OhVarsity@gmail.com. Note: This week's questions were submitted anonymously via our Curious Cat page.

Favorite Olympic sport?

Baseball. I watched a lot of Bearcats baseball when I was a student because I was an intern with Bearcats TV. That was back in the Ian Happ days and that team was a lot of fun. They were young but could beat anyone on any given night. They'd get killed by Wright State on Tuesday and turn around and beat the #6 team in the country on Wednesday. It made things fun. Excited to see what Googins can do.

Besides baseball, probably women's soccer or volleyball.

Who's getting the next triple-double for the Bearcats?

That's so hard to predict in college. Not only does the style of play tend to change drastically from game to game, but there are only 40 minutes. Given the Bearcats' pace, it's going to take a perfect storm to make that happen. Jacob Evans and Gary Clark seem like the obvious candidates, but Gary is running up on the end of his career and there's a chance Jacob is, too.

Not sure I feel confident about predicting a triple-double for anyone on the current roster. Looking down the line, I think Keith Williams is a candidate and Logan Johnson might be as well. Basically, any multi-talented guard or wing on the right night.

Would you rather have Caupain or Van Exel on this year's team right now?

Van Exel.

I went on a Caupain nostalgia trip last night. I miss watching that kid in red and black. He could do everything, despite the fact that his game was not built to work on this team. And that's the key here. I'd love to have Troy back, but Van Exel is cut from the same cloth as the 2017-18 Bearcats--probably even more than Cane Broome is.

What high schools do you wish UC football would recruit the hardest?

The ones that have the best players and the ones that typically send their recruits elsewhere. I guess that's places like Moeller and St. X.

I don't think UC needs to focus on building pipelines to specific schools. They just need to keep doing what they're doing by being active in the area. Things will continue to work out on the recruiting trail.

Do you think Coach Gino’s switch to QB coach is the start of his ascension into being UC’s next head coach?

Do I think Guidugli is nipping at Fickell's heels, ready to take over at the first sign of trouble? No.

Do I think UC would love to keep Gino around as long as possible, grooming him to be the next head coach down the road? Sure.

I don't think there's a conspiracy or anything, but Gino wants to be here and is probably the former UC player with the most current coaching success not named Urban Meyer. I'd love to have him running the program, but I don't think that's something we can expect in the next few years, barring something unusual.

If one player on this year's team was gonna be a superhero, who would it be?

Okay, now we're into the meat of things. This is a deep question, and I'll do my best to approach it with grace. Let's run down the entire roster and evaluate each player based on their superhero potential:

Jacob Evans: Jacob's game feels a little too sexy for superhero life, unless he'd be Superman (an objectively bad superhero). A well-rounded player with a high ceiling doesn't have enough rough edges to make something compelling.

Keith Williams: At this stage of his career, Keith is more of a sidekick. There isn't enough tape to establish a superhero narrative, but there's certainly enough to make him a sidekick. He's young, talented, and fearless. That's great sidekick material while he builds his superhero persona.

Justin Jenifer: We might be onto something here, given Jenifer's speed and stature. That being said, his #1 trait is his ability to make others successful on the court. Maybe Jenifer could succeed in an Avengers-type situation, but I'm not sure he's selfish enough to make a go of it on his own.

Trevor Moore: Similar to Williams, there isn't enough tape here to establish a personality. There's potential down the road, but I'm not ready to say that he can or cannot be a superhero.

Gary Clark: Similar to Jenifer, Gary might have a personality that's too reserved for superhero life, although there's potential to lean into that. Gary would help an old lady cross the road and then punt the bad guy into the sun. He's the reluctant superhero, saving the world because he can and therefore must, not because he wants to. I think there's something here.

Trevon Scott: Tre's new hair creates a compelling superhero look, and his do-it-all role would work great on a superhero team as a MacGyver type.

Cane Broome: Cane is like Dash from The Incredibles. Small, super fast, aggressive, fearless, yet kind of reckless.

Mamoudou Diarra: This kid's ceiling is so high that he'd make a compelling superhero. Diarra is like Peter Parker right after he got bit by the spider. He's got powers, but he hasn't figure out how to handle them yet. That's a good superhero story, although it's one we've heard.

Eliel Nsoseme: These freshmen are too hard to pinpoint. I'll revisit them next year. I still feel like I don't know much about Nsoseme.

Kyle Washington: Kyle might be the smartest kid on the team, and he's certainly got the best memory. The kid memorized every D1 basketball mascot. I'm imagining the superhero version of Kyle running around as a lanky scientist in a lab coat on some Doc Brown stuff.

Nysier Brooks: He's the tallest kid on the team by a good two inches, and the heaviest by a good 20 pounds. After Googling "Fantastic Four rock guy," I have decided that Nysier Brooks would be The Thing.

Jarron Cumberland: Cumberland is the closest thing the Bearcats have had to a villain in years. He was stellar at times during his freshman year, but has struggled a bit thus far as a sophomore. He's kinda mysterious but isn't afraid to run right through you on the court and then talk some trash. He seems to float between being loved by the fan base to being the target of frustration. He's Clifton's Batman. Talented, strong, and seemingly tortured, Jarron Cumberland has the most superhero potential on the 2017-18 Bearcats.