Kenny Frease - line at Oh-Ky all star game

[olsingledigit]

Sorry, Gary, have to agree with Muskie Fever on baseball - with apologies also to my friends Magnate and Big Six.

Face it, the main problem for us all is this painful waiting period between X's last game in the tournament and its first game of the following season.

[xcellent]

We will see how they do in the games. Love earned his starting spot last year, but we do need him to be more aggresive on the offensive end. If Frease shows he is a better starting option then Love, then he will be in. We have alot of options next year, we could go with a big line up (kind of like Stanford), or a very small line up (similar to Villanova). That is an intriguing concept that could cause matchup problems for other teams.

[muskieman]

I'd love to see Jason and Kenny attend a big man's camp over the summer.

[madness31]

Love is very similar to Myles and is a big asset to the team. Whether he starts or comes in off the bench is irrelevant as he will share minutes with Frease. Assuming the freshman are able to make an impact and some of the other underclassmen up their game from last season this years team will be as deep as any. With the potential depth we can all hope someone from each position stands out, especially point. Raymond may start but unless his game changes from last year, he is a better 6th man. The instant offense that either he or Duncan provided was extremely important. Chemistry will eventually play a role in who starts but I expect contributors from last year to get the nod in the early going.

The comment about us being no UCLA is ignorant. We lost by a similar margin to Temple and to Arizona St and I doubt you'd say that about those teams (at least not with the same meaning). If you meant history of the program, fine, but if you are referring to XU not being able to play at the same level then you discount all the major competition we beat last year. We shot terribly that game. We had open looks but couldn't connect, just like the Temple and AZ st games. Sometimes that happens. I see no reason why we couldn't win 3 or 4 of 7 against them. Love didn't do much damage until the second half when XU began to get discouraged because nothing would fall. Memphis and Kansas are the only 2 teams last year that were truly a step above. I might be biased but I'm not unrealistic as I said several times this team could win or lose against anyone.

It was a great year and if next year's team can gel and a point steps up we should have another great couple of years ahead. If Brown continues to improve his shot and ball handling he will be dominant as there are very few who will be able to guard his length and speed. I'm sure he sees NBA possibillities and will not disappoint with his work in the off-season.

[Mr. Neutral]

<The comment about us being no UCLA is ignorant.>

I have to disagree with you, 31. Several of my X classmates said afterwards that UCLA clearly outclassed us in terms of athleticism, certainly more so than in the losses to Temple and ASU, for example, where we just didn't play (or shoot) well.

Can you recall a game this year in which X threw up so many wild/desperation shots? It wasn't like we were missing easy layups or wide-open 15-footers. We were constantly throwing up playground shots over taller, longer defenders to avoid getting the shot blocked. It was possibly the only game this year (that I saw) in which we didn't look like we really belonged on the floor with our opponent.

This is not a knock on the team, which had a great season, but just an acknowledgement that our guys, as well as they played this year, just ran into a better, more athletic team. The only way we beat this year's UCLA team is if we shot 60% while they shot 40%.

[muskieman]

<<Ball one. ball two. ball three. Strike one. strike two. Infield fly ball. Three outs. No wonder they sell a lot of beer at baseball games.>>

You watched ND football last year and its last two bowl games and you think BASEBALL is boring???

How about "Incomplete pass-2 yard run-incomplete pass-punt"? Man, now THAT'S exciting!

Hey, where did you get the Bengal's playbook, that stuff is suppose to be a secret!

[madness31]

We had plenty of wide open shots that we missed during the UCLA game. The reason some of our shots looked out of sorts is because the game was very physical. I'm not saying we were being fouled but I would say we were not allowed to play as physical on the other end. You may want to watch the game again sober and see if you think the loss was really us being outclassed.

I'm sure you are right that a few of their players are more athletic but Love didn't have an athletic advantage. How much more athletic can you be then Brown? I made good money off college basketball this past year so excuse me if I don't take the word of your classmates over my own analysis. Watch the game again and you will see the team fold in the second half after missing several straight open shots and getting pushed around under the bucket. You could say they were physically more imposing but I think that is more the difference in the calling on one end vs the other. I'm not blaming the refs as they were not bad calls just they got the benefit of the doubt and we didn't. It also wouldn't have mattered if we made a shot.

Who on UCLA can't we guard? Love is a smart player but very guardable as he uses his knowledge of the game and patience to get open and not athleticism or quickness. They are a very good team but in no way out of our league. You may want to consider the teams we beat and our RPI when evaluating whether it was a bad game or somewhere we didn't belong. Count the chances in the first half for us to build a big lead and you will realize how poorly we executed and that it has nothing to do with UCLA dominating.

[Mr. Neutral]

<<You may want to watch the game again sober and see if you think the loss was really us being outclassed.>>>

Sadly, I was sober at the time, and what I saw was X continually throwing up wild, "no chance in hell" shots because a taller, stronger, more athletic team totally took us out of our game.

<<so excuse me if I don't take the word of your classmates over my own analysis. >>

And excuse me if I don't take your word over the word of my buddies and I, who have been watching X basketball for 40 years, watch a ton of other HS/college/pro basketball, and are fairly connected in terms of knowing coaches/AD's, not only at X but at other local and Big Six programs.

It's not an insult to X or this year's team to say they couldn't hang with one team on one day. We played great ball most of the year, but we were not a particularly athletic or "long" team overall, and it hurt us against a UCLA team that finally woke up from its tourney slumber.