Marquette NOT on Par With Xavier

[MuskieCinci]

This according to Dustin Dow's blog and the conversation he had with Bobinski last night.

"I just talked with Bobinski about all this Marquette/Indiana/Cal stuff. He said he and Miller were in Bobinski's office last night around 6:45 when a reporter from Milwaukee called. The reporter told Bobinski that word was that Miller was going to be in town (Milwaukee) that night and meeting with Marquette that night or Thursday morning. Bobinski and Miller, sitting three feet from each other on XU's campus, got a good laugh out of that. Miller doesn't appear to be going anywhere, and Bobinski said with "no disrespect to Marquette" but as far as Miller's concerned, the Marquette job isn't on par with the Xavier one. As I said in the comments of this post, he believes that big things can be achieved at Xavier and is committed to that goal. Xavier is probably in a more secure position now than it was five years ago in committing itself to making XU a destination type job for someone like Miller.

Anyway, Bobinski said Miller and the XU administration had a "first phase" discussion about Miller's new deal. They'll sit down again after the Final Four."

I guess we can all put an end to that rumor.

[muskieman]

Wouldn't it be nice to be sitting in your boss's office and having reporters on the phone with other ADs inquiring about gaining your services. A great situation to be in at any time.

[MADXSTER]

If either team was "more" deserving of being called Mid-Major within the last ten years, I'd have to go with Marquette.

[DrJay24]

Hey guys - Marquette fan here. I'm not here to flame or argue as I generally root for XU (jesuit school and the better of the Cinci schools by far), but some of what's being said here is pretty off-base. I offer the following evidence:

NCAA Tournament Appearances
Xavier 19
Marquette 26

NCAA Tournament Record
Xavier 15-19
Marquette 33-27

Sweet 16 Appearances
Xavier 3
Marquette 8

Elite 8 Appearances
Xavier 2
Marquette 6

Final Four Appearances
Xavier 0
Marquette 3

NCAA Runner-ups
Xavier 0
Marquette 1

NCAA Championships
Xavier 0
Marquette 1

2007 Average Attendance
Xavier 9,910 (50th in division 1)
Marquette 15,345 (14th in division 1)
http://www.ncaa.org/stats/m_basketball/ ... attend.pdf

Notable former Coaches
Xavier: Skip Prosser, Thad Matta
Marquette: Al McGuire, Rick Majerus, Kevin O'Neill, Tan Tom Crean

Former players that are Head Coaches in NBA
Xavier: Honestly I don't know but didn't come across any
Marquette: Doc Rivers, Boston Celtics, Jim Boylan, Chicago Bulls (yeah he'll probably get canned at the end of the year)

Notable current NBA players
Xavier: David West, James Posey
Marquette: Dwyane Wade, Travis Diener, Steve Novak

US News & World Report 2008 Top National Universities
Xavier Unranked
Marquette 82

Endowment
Xavier $108,089,075
Marquette $301,186,000

Enrollment (undergraduate)
Xavier 3,910
Marquette 8,048

I'm sure you could put together some figures or numbers in which XU would come out on top, and that's fine, as I said, I'm not here to argue about which school or head coaching opportunity is better. Also, I put these figures together quickly and some could be inaccurate so please don't go off on me if I screwed a couple of them up as it was not intentional. All that matters, at least in this instance, is where Miller would prefer to be, and I'm confident that is XU. All I'm saying is don't run down other schools (unless they're cinci or dayton) as all it does is make you look insecure and paranoid. Best of luck next year as it looks like you have a great class coming in! I'm back to scouring the Internet for gossip regarding MU's next head coach...

[Gorilla '69]

DrJay-
Not flaming either. Good luck with the munchkin, Brian Gregory. I haven't looked up any figures, but I'm guessing that in the last 10-15 years, X looks better. And looking at attendance, figure out the percentage of available seats. Cintas has been at 97% of capacity and it is on campus. I don't believe Marquette plays on campus. I'm sure there are other facts in Xavier's favor. And I'm not sure what enrollment has to do with anything except to say as a smaller school, Xavier's achievements are more impressive.

[Millertime08]

Hey DrJay,

You're comments are duely noted! No arguing here either as Marquette has more overall tradition than Xavier. It is also a bigger school and in a better conference. That being said, Xavier is a small school and creating it's own tradition. Check out the last 5 years. Only one year out of the last five did X fail to make the big dance. Two elite eights, 3 points away from knocking off power Duke and a first-ever final four appearance, 3 points away from knocking off low seeded Gonzaga, and finally just an overtime away from knocking off number 1 Ohio State. Very impressive for a small school in a lesser conference! I would say that enough groundwork has been layed to keep this emerging program from losing coach Miller. The school is already talking about raising his salary to keep him on par with the big schools. Sean can now take this small school to unbelieveable heights, and I would think that would be more rewarding to a coach than bolting to a bigger school that has been there before. We have an impressive recruiting class coming in to mix with some seasoned veterans returning. I can count on one hand the number of schools that will have a better front court than X next year. The recruiting is only going to get better after this year's success. I look for X to join a better league down the road and we may be in the same conference as Marquette. Xavier can be the next DUKE if we can keep Miller for another 10 years. Xavier does everything right ala Duke and it's graduation rate is second to none! Good luck on finding your new coach!

[DrJay24]

Agreed on all counts - you guys have been on a great run recently and I'm sure it's doubly satisfying with all the turmoil at UC the past few years. Fact is, MU and XU are pretty similar - very successful D1 jesuit hoops schools in major cities with urban campus' that both compete with a lot of other things in town for attention - in Milwaukee, MU competes with the Bucks, Brewers, Packers (green bay but same market really), etc for attention and in Cinci, XU competes with the Reds, Bengals, that other D1 school and so on. Like you say, wouldn't be shocking to see MU and XU in the same conference 5 years down the road.

How do you guys feel about John Groce? Rumor has it he's one of the coaches under consideration by MU right now.

[xcellent]

This is an interesting debate for me, being that I have a lot of connections to Milwaukee. Marquette plays in the Bradley Center, which is not on campus, but Marquette is also more of a downtown college, unlike Xavier, which is seperated from the rest of the city. Marquette definitly has a better tradition then Xavier, with the ledgendary Al Maquire. I would say that right now Xavier has more of an upside. It is definitly a team on the rise. I also wouldn't be surprised if in the next decade Marquette and Xavier are in the same conference, something is going to happen with the Big East. I don't think that Marquette is that much better of a job that Miller would leave for it, although I do believe it is the best available job.

[Wisexuowl]

Hire Groce and forget about having basketball success.

[Mr. Neutral]

<<Hire Groce and forget about having basketball success.>>

Pray tell, why do you feel that way?