Is a Coach of the Year Candidate going to get any Pub?

[newtsac]

Now, I understand all of the local Huggs coverage in the Enquirer and such... A lot of history and a lot drama.

HOWEVER, it's enough that I have to put up with it in the local media; but now I turn on SportsCenter and they have a whole segment devoted to Huggy Bear.

Would it kill them to have a segment about a 39 year old A10 COY and a National COY candidate leading a team that he has built in 4 years to a sweet 16?

I am just being a homer on a rant, but I am overloaded with Huggs' re-ascension to Sainthood from the entire media.

[Mr. Neutral]

I've pointed out that you can barely tell X is in the tourney, given how little coverage either the team or coach has gotten so far.

I think every other coach (pretty much) has been interviewed multiple times, and you would think a non-Big Six team in the Sweet 16 would get some interest.

But as we're not a high-profile Big Six team OR an underdog "darling", i.e., Davidson or W.Ky., we've been relegated to basketball's no-man's land.

[brownlavender]

Sadly once again X is getting no pub at all. Everyday i look through every possible sports site to see if anything comes up about us and it very rarely has. It is even sadder to me that our own city isn't even behind us. To see huggs get more print space in the enquirer was very disturbing to me. There was a post on here last week that said if we get purdue it will be a great next week for us because of all the pub. At that point I thought that was a very accurate and valid post and would help the school in recruiting students as well as athletes. Looks like i was wrong the only pub we can get is during our games through our play. I may be wrong but if we get to the elite 8 and even the final four we may get more attention especially if we make our first final four. Then we can be Davidson for a day, which i picked to get this far.

[newtsac]

Mr. N,

I agree about your observation and the "no man's land" sentiment.

I was talking to my wife about it the other day saying - our novelty has worn off but we are certainly not expected to be as dominant as Duke has been over the last 10 years. We are in media purgatory.

Unbiased fans aren't pulling for us as the underdog, we are almost expected to be there but not win (a la Syracuse - haha). I guess if we start be much more successful more the next 4 years that will change, and if we are not... I assume we will go back to underdog status.

Such is the life of a Muskie...

[Il Saggio]

I disagree: I think that Xavier has gotten more than its fair share of coverage and praise. Examples: A huge, entirely complimentary piece in Monday's LA Times; a Mike Terico interview of Sean Miller on ESPN Radio yesterday; any number of national "experts" picking Xavier over WVU, with some predicting they will make the Final Four.

[muskieman]

Hugs needs to get the pub now because after tomorrow his team will be gone to the land of the lost.

I think Sean doesn't wory like most coaches about pub he rather show the recruit the ring.

[Mr. Neutral]

Saggio, I see your point, but I've been listening to ESPN Radio, Sporting News Radio, XM Radio, etc., religiously for the last two weeks, and with the hours and hours of NCAA tourney talk, we almost NEVER come up.

And this week, if our game with WVU is brought up, it's to discuss WVU.

So, I'm not trying to be one of our uber-defensive fans who expects ESPN to turn into All-Xavier, All the Time, but I'm surprised at how much we're NOT being mentioned. I would think we'd be a good enough story that we'd get more air time.

[KTRB]

To be honest I don't really care if X gets any publicity. All I care about is a W.

[xavierj]

Just like coach miller tells the players. Don't worry about the publicity because if you win and win big it will eventually come. Just win and eventually they will have nothing else to talk about. Hell even in Cincinnati they refuse to talk about them. I finally turned the local radio off after 2 straight days of Chad Johnson, Reds and the elite 8 of babes talk. I found more Xavier talk on the Joe B and Denny show out of Louisville this morning then I think I heard on the Cincinnati airwaves all week. I also found ESPN radio in Cincinnati yesterday and I heard a fair amount of Xavier talk including an interview with Sean. In Cincinnati I think they think if they do not talk about Xavier then maybe Xavier will go away. Then they wonder why they consistenly have horrible ratings.

[xuhuh!]

the only thing X can do is win..the only way to earn respect..maybe X will sneak up on everybody..