Nadine Muzerall Joins the Show and Interesting Developments at Spring Practice

A national championship-winning coach joins us on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays.Just over one week after she led Ohio State women’s hockey to its first national title in program history, Nadine Muzerall joins us on RPW to talk about the Buckeyes’ journey to making history.In a 20-minute interview with the Buckeyes’ head coach, Muzerall tells us what makes winning a national championship so special, what former Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella told her after the win and how she was able to transform a “flawed” program into the top team in the country.She also tells us how her program has benefitted from the success of Ohio State football, says she is “very confident” that Ohio State women’s hockey will get a new facility in the near future and explains why she was upset that Sophie Jaques did not win the Patty Kazmaier Award.Following our conversation with Muzerall, we shift our attention to the latest developments at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center (starting at 22:45), where there was a lot to learn during a 90-minute press conference with Ryan Day, Jim Knowles and Kevin Wilson on Tuesday. We discuss what we could see out of the “Jack” position in Knowles’ defense, why Cade Stover is moving back to tight end yet again, why it’s likely Tommy Eichenberg will continue to play a major role at linebacker this season and how Ronnie Hickman appears to be emerging as the frontrunner to start at free safety.Since we recorded last week’s episode before pro day, we also share our takeaways from watching and talking to C.J. Stroud, Master Teague, Cardale Jones and the rest of Ohio State’s pro day participants at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center last Wednesday (beginning at 50:10).For the final 20 minutes (beginning at 58:49) of this week’s episode, we spend some time talking about the latest developments surrounding Ohio State basketball. We discuss whether Villanova’s run to the Final Four softens the blow of the Buckeyes’ second-round loss, make our picks for who will win it all this weekend and look back on the career of E.J. Liddell after he officially declared for the NBA draft. In response to some heated comments following last week’s episode, we also seek to clarify our stance on Chris Holtmann – no, we do not believe he should or will be fired – and discuss the question of what expectations for Ohio State basketball actually should be.