THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

Good Morning....

At least it is where I call home. How much basketball are you watching this week. And are you pacing yourself, so you don't get entirely burned out (is that even possible?) before the NCAA Tournament begins next week?

How many games does UK coach, Billy Gillispie have to win to save his job. Answer, zero. The win over Ole Miss kept the wolves at bay for 24 hours. Beating LSU is another thing, even though Xavier beat the Tigers on the LSU home floor this season. Gillispie has eight years remaining on his contract. I'm guessing he's finally signed the thing. It was still unsigned before this season. Eight years of salary to pay off, just to have a basketball coach go away, is something that just about every school and it's eager alumni will find hard to do in this economy. If Gillispie can avoid losing to bottom feeding teams next season and keep the Rupp Arena losses to a minimum (he's lost ten at Rupp in just two seasons), the heat will be off.

But I'm thinking a perfect first round NIT match-up will be UK against the University of Cincinnati at US Bank Arena, on the banks of the Ohio River. Rupp is unavailable, because of the Kentucky high school playoffs. Memorial Coliseum would work. But why not play in Cincinnati, where UK would still have the home court advantage? Just askin'....

If Xavier is a #4 seed, which I believe is best case scenario and gets shipped out (which I believe is a real scenario), the Muskies will have a tough time getting past the first weekend. 4-13 matchups are dicey. And if you win that game, you're up against the winner of the 5-12 game.

Mick Cronin says if his Bearcats can't get an NIT bid, that's it, season over. Cronin, who took his team to the inaugural CBI classic last year, says he and his AD, Mike Thomas, agree that anything but the NIT is a waste of time. Good. The CBI and another post season tournament are around this season, meaning more than 100 Division I schools will get to play in a post season. To what end? The Bearcats went to the CBI last year with a 13-18 record. Who wants to see that?

I think is 40-60 UC winds up with an NIT bid. Winning record? Yes. Losing six of its last seven? Not good for UC.

Got to admit it, I'm beginning to believe the Reds are building a very strong franchise. And that's not just at the major league level. mlb.com has this story on the top ten prospects in the the Reds minor league system. Gives you hope.

I'm talking sports again, as usual, on Sunday morning. I'm on from 9am-12:30p on 700 WLW in Cincinnati. Listen online at 700wlw.com. Among my guests, Mike Florio from profootballtalk.com and Damon Durante from betus.com. Mike's got the inside scoop from the NFL. Damon has the lowdown on who'll bet how much on the NCAA Tournament next week.

And if you're in the greater Cincinnati area, Sunday night at 11:35p on WLWT Channel 5, our guests on Sports Rock will be former UC player, Alex Mecham, former Xavier player and current radio broadcaster, Byron Larkin and former triple crown winning jockey, Steve Cauthen.

Lot of 'formers'. But then again, aren't we all at something or other?

Have a great weekend and sign up for my 'tweets' at twitter.com