GOOD TUESDAY MORNING!

I'm on Facebook.com now with lots of neat pictures and postings. We're battling the elements to bring home some qualilty entertainment, as we ty to be an entertainment desitnation, Want in on the fun? Here's the link!

OK, if you missed it on News 5 Monday night at 11p, sources close to the process tell us that Xavier Athletic Director, Mike Bobinski will reccomend to the school's athletic council and school president, Father Michael Graham, that current assistant coach, Chris Mack should be hired as the school's next basketball coach. We're told the news conference announcing this could happen as early as Tuesday afternoon. However, with the annual basketball banquet scheduled for Wednesday night, there might be a thought of holding off the announcement until then, in front of the most faithful of Xavier supporters. Stay tuned on this one.

Reds win, 7-6. More offensive tonight, but almost all from two swings of the bat: Jay Bruce's solo home run and Edwin Encarnacion's grand slam. I thought this was supposed to be pitching, speed and defense? Anyway, the first leg of the longest road trip of the season gets off to a good start in Milwaukee. Edinson Volquez was hit hard, again. It's Bronson Arroyo's turn Tuesday night.

A great voice silenced Monday. Harry Kalas, the voice of the Philadelphia Phillies and some would say the voice of the city of Philadelphia. He died in the broadcast booth at the National stadium, getting ready to call an afternoon ball game. Harry was so electic, he was the voice of NFL Films, succeding John Facenda upon his death, while also do the annual Doggie Bowl on Super Bowl Sunday on the Animal Planet channel. Kalas was only 73.

And Mark "The Bird" Fidrych died Monday as well. It was an apparent farm accident. Fidrych was one of the more bizzare players in the mid 70's, talking to the basebal and patting down and smoothing the mound before pitching . The Bird was only 54. Deaths come in threes right? Well let's not forget that innocent porn star of he 70's Marylin Chambers. No cause of death filed yet for the eager to please Miss Chambers.

Now check out my latest podcast all about the Cincinnati The Broo View episode202

All due respect the The Clash (Should I stay or should I go) , you gotta have somewhere to go first. And as of this hour, Charlie Weis is still the head football coach at Notre Dame. And Brian Kelly is in his UC office, breaking down game film for the Bearcats next opponent: Hawaii.

The tossed oranges hadn’t been picked up, the last student hadn’t left the field, the last UC player hadn’t showered Saturday before collegefootballtalk.com and national radio talk shows began floating this scenario: if Notre Dame loses big at Southern Cal, Weis is out. Enough big check writers with Notre Dame connections were willing to pony up millions just to get a moving van to back up to old Charlie’s house. Oh and by the way, Notre Dame has already begun courting the Messiah In Clifton, Lord Kelly, or so these reports would have you believe.

If you’re a UC fan, you’d have to be in complete denial today if you didn’t accept the fact that Brian Kelly is now the ‘hot’ coach. The “It coach” in college football. And there is a ton of internet buzz that has Notre Dame ready to hire Kelly. All it has to do first is fire Weis and write a check to him for $12 million. Maybe they could see Nancy Pelosi for a bailout.

If you’re the Notre Dame athletic director, do you really want to pull the plug on another head coach? Remember, this is the school that would never fire a coach, ever. But then along came Gerry Faust, later Bob Davie, later Ty Willingham. Notre Dame, Touchdown Jesus, where principal had always trumped dollars had become just another Division One football factory trying to appease alumni and boosters.

If you’re a Notre Dame alum or booster, don’t you have to ask yourself this question this morning: if my school is so good, if my football team is so fabled, how come my school can’t get it right when hiring a football coach?
And if you’re Brian Kelly, who’s got it $1.5 million dollars a year ‘good’ in Clifton, don’t you have to ask yourself: exactly when did Ty Willingham or Bob Davie get stupid?

Because they were pretty smart, successful coaches before they landed in South Bend, ‘flavors of the month’ like Kelly might wind up being.

Look, I don’t know if Notre Dame is going to launch Charlie Weis. He’s apparently ticked off some alums and boosters with his brashness. And he’s lost a lot of games for a guy who’s supposedly delivering all of these great recruiting classes.

But if I’m the Reverend John Jenkins, the Notre Dame school President, how do I justify in this economy, accepting a check for $12 million dollars from a group of my big shot donors to pay a coach to go away?

How do I sell that to my faculty of 780 professors, who wouldn’t get 12-cents from a booster to go away? Where’s this guy’s conscience in all of this?

And don’t give me ‘this is big time college football and it happens all of the time”. No, this is Notre Dame, not Oklahoma, Miami, Florida or some other factory. And correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it the Reverend John Jenkins who signed off on the big contract extension that Weis got last season? If Jenkins OK’s a $12 million dollar deal that will run his coach out of South Bend, what does that say about Jenkins and his decision making ability?

I have no idea if Notre Dame is going to fire Weis or if Kelly would be interested in replacing him. My gut tells me Kelly is staying put. But if he is interested in Notre Dame, here’s the first thing I’d do in the negotiating process. I’d tell my lawyer to get the same kind of buyout that Weis is allegedly going to get. Because the way things are going in South Bend lately, Kelly’s going to need it.

I'm just back from the US Bank Arena here in Cincinnati. I saw a lot of purple in the stands for tonight's game between Xavier and Kansas State. But I think most of that purple was on Cincinnatians and not K-State alums.

Bob Huggins was back in town with his Wildcats. That was the reason for all the purple and the over 12,000 that showed up to watch Xavier pound Huggins' new team.

But it was good to see Bob again. We forget what it was like around here, back in the late 80's an early 90's. Sam Wyche with the Bengals, Lou Piniella with the Reds and Huggins at UC. Those days were a reporter's dream. The quotes just kept on coming, from all over.

Huggins has his hands full at Kansas State. But he also has Bill Walker. And Walker's special guest tonight with courtside seats was his former running back at North College Hill High School: OJ Mayo. Mayo has verbally commited to Southern Cal. But seeing him there tonight makes you go "hmmmmmm". Did Huggins get a chance to talk with Mayo? You think?

If you live in the greater Cincinnati area, you can catch me tomorrow morning and Friday morning subbing for Richard Skinner on 1530 Homer WCKY.

My guests tomorrow between 7am-10pm will be Chick Ludwig, the Bengals beat writer from the Dayton Daily News, Frank Solich, the head coach of the Ohio Bobcats and soon to be ex-Reds beat writer from the Cincinnati Post, Marc Lancaster.

Friday, my guests include UC head football coach Brian Kelly, CBS sportsline.com national writer, Gregg Doyel and my boy, George Vogel.

The University of Cincinnati made their call today. It was a good one. They've hired Brian Kelly to be their next head football coach. Kelly is fresh from Central Michigan University, where he just coached his team to the MAC Championship. He runs a high tech offense and has an enthusiasm about him that should be infectuous.

UC football has fallen on hard times, from an attendance standpoint. Not enough fringe fans attend games and there hard core base isn't as big as it used to be. It's a shame. Nippert Stadium is one of the great places to watch a college game. There've been some terrific coaches in the last 20 years and a lot of terrific players. But UC has never been able to capture enough 'buzz' in the city to make going to its football games 'the thing to do. Kelly's wide open approach to offense may change that. Good hire.

The latest Bengals Report is up and running on my web site: www.kenbroo.com. If you're in a hurry, just click here and it'll take you right to our latest podcast.

The latest Broo View podcast will be up and running no later than mid day Tuesday.

More coming later tonight!

Ken