Random Thoughts

[Kevin Reilly]

First of all I hate that were not playing today. Not playing Saturday sucks. I know most of this is off topic but how has Creighton lost 8 games? If we had Kalkbrenner I think we are a top 8 team in the country. Freemantle and Kalkbrenner and Miller would be fun to watch and hard to beat. I do realize they lost Pop Issacs their second best player but feeding Kalkbrenner sounds like a easy plan .I wonder if we are still interested in DeShawn Harris who ended up at Maryland but is now coming off the bench . He is only playing 15 minutes a game and averaging less than three points a game. I know we recruited him hard coming out of high school and he was a top 50 player. Why has XAVIER never had College Game Day? That's not right. Hell Duke has had College Game Day 29 times. Who is in charge of Xavier's N.I.L. money? How much do we have? It would great if we land the 7 foot German guy. ( I think ) Heck Cincinnati has a lot of Germans and I'm guessing a lot of good German restaurants. What's not to like? LOL. We need to get back to being Power Forward U. Tee Bag Hill, Strong , Grant, Reynolds, Jones. West , Williams all of them were Tough hard nosed players. My pick for the National Championship besides Xavier is Florida . The whole team can rebound . I think they beat Houston in the final . Looks like we might sneak into the tournament which would be a great season with our limited front court . Go X

[muskieman]

I believe X was also looking at a couple of high school seven-footers earlier in the season. Then there is the 6'9" with a 7'3" wingspan" guy who is close to 300 lbs. He had X on his final 3 but committed to Miami and then decommitted.

The German is an older guy with 4 years of eligibility, but he might be a project player. Iowa board has been talking about him, but with what is going on at Iowa(the fire Fran crowd is full-throated), Iowa might not be in the mix. Michigan is said to be the actual competition, and Butler has offered and never count out Thadd.

[Anti-Homer]

First of all I hate that were not playing today. Not playing Saturday sucks. I know most of this is off topic but how has Creighton lost 8 games? If we had Kalkbrenner I think we are a top 8 team in the country. Freemantle and Kalkbrenner and Miller would be fun to watch and hard to beat. I do realize they lost Pop Issacs their second best player but feeding Kalkbrenner sounds like a easy plan .I wonder if we are still interested in DeShawn Harris who ended up at Maryland but is now coming off the bench . He is only playing 15 minutes a game and averaging less than three points a game. I know we recruited him hard coming out of high school and he was a top 50 player. Why has XAVIER never had College Game Day? That's not right. Hell Duke has had College Game Day 29 times. Who is in charge of Xavier's N.I.L. money? How much do we have? It would great if we land the 7 foot German guy. ( I think ) Heck Cincinnati has a lot of Germans and I'm guessing a lot of good German restaurants. What's not to like? LOL. We need to get back to being Power Forward U. Tee Bag Hill, Strong , Grant, Reynolds, Jones. West , Williams all of them were Tough hard nosed players. My pick for the National Championship besides Xavier is Florida . The whole team can rebound . I think they beat Houston in the final . Looks like we might sneak into the tournament which would be a great season with our limited front court . Go X

First of all I hate that were not playing today. Not playing Saturday sucks. I know most of this is off topic but how has Creighton lost 8 games? If we had Kalkbrenner I think we are a top 8 team in the country.

Agree about how good Kalk is. I think he is the MVP in CBB. Not the best player, but most valuable to his team. Substitute Kalb for any other center in the BE, and I don’t think Creighton is a top-half BE team.

Freemantle and Kalkbrenner and Miller would be fun to watch and hard to beat. I do realize they lost Pop Issacs their second best player but feeding Kalkbrenner sounds like a easy plan .I wonder if we are still interested in DeShawn Harris who ended up at Maryland but is now coming off the bench . He is only playing 15 minutes a game and averaging less than three points a game. I know we recruited him hard coming out of high school and he was a top 50 player. Why has XAVIER never had College Game Day?

BE plays on Fox, not ESPN.

That's not right. Hell Duke has had College Game Day 29 times.

Who is in charge of Xavier's N.I.L. money? How much do we have?

I’m no insider, but several credible sources have put it in the $3.5M range. I know Foster, Maddox, & Conwell had a lot of suitors by schools with healthy NIL funds (MI, TX, OSU), and X landed them. They’ve obviously lost a lot more than they have offered (lost Shadwick to TX, beat TX for Olivari) - every school obviously does, but I think it indicates the budget is healthy. They also are paying Roddie Anderson 6 figures to sit this year and paid Free and Hunter to sit last year. IMO, X needs a stretch 4/5 (I’d love Murray Boyles from S Carolina), an athletic 2-3 who can score off the dribble (i.e. Poplar), a shooting specialist, and back up big. The wild card is Anderson. I’ve heard glowing reports about him, but his numbers were very underwhelming at Boise St. Insiders say his shot needs work (not good since we already have Swain), but he runs a very good point, can get to the rim, and gets up and down the court at breakneck speed.

It would great if we land the 7 foot German guy. ( I think ) Heck Cincinnati has a lot of Germans and I'm guessing a lot of good German restaurants. What's not to like? LOL. We need to get back to being Power Forward U.

X was very close to a Hugley-like big, but he signed with the Hurricanes. I’m sure there are others being pursued.

Tee Bag Hill, Strong , Grant, Reynolds, Jones. West , Williams all of them were Tough hard nosed players. My pick for the National Championship besides Xavier is Florida . The whole team can rebound . I think they beat Houston in the final . Looks like we might sneak into the tournament which would be a great season with our limited front court . Go X

[Kevin Reilly]

Thanks Muskieman and Anti-homer. I know we are on Fox but U Conn, Marquette, Villanova, Butler and Georgetown have hosted College Game Day and so have Dayton and St. Mary's. Don't have any idea if the German guy can play but I'm worried about Traore's recovery. Most big guys take longer than a year to fully recover ( Fletche , Hugley ) and few Big Guys ever come back the same. I think we need three Big guys who can play. Right now we three Big guys with major injury history and a lot of questions on how durable they are. Fletcher and Hugley spent last year recovering more than anything else. It's rare that a guy with major injury comes back like Freemantle did.

[skyhops]

Abu Ousmane had 25 and 6 last night. Abu and Lazar would be a big upgrade from Hughley and Hunter.

[muskieman]

Abu Ousmane had 25 and 6 last night. Abu and Lazar would be a big upgrade from Hughley and Hunter.

He did have a nice game against ISU, which is a decent team. Did you also mention that he fouled out of two of the last five games and rebounded 2 or less in three of the last five?

[skyhops]

I also didn't mention that he would be our third leading scorer and second leading this year and provide the presence at the 5 to make us a solid tourney team. During the Butler game on two straight possesions neither Hughley or Hunter realized that Butler was playing a zone. Miller overvalued both Hughley and Hunter, who both have provided little or nothing this year. MM, Abu is only averaging 2.7 fouls a game in a tougher conference this year. Lazar actually played the best defense of all our bigs last year on Kalkbrenner. We have to spend wisely next year on NIL, which means getting a couple legit bigs and a starting SF that isn't 6'4".

[muskieman]

From CBB analytics THE TOP LINEUPS BY PLUS/MINUS

[Kevin Reilly]

Muskieman I wonder if our lack of bench points and the amount of time the starters play has anything to do with the ranking?

[Kevin Reilly]

Claude had 1 point in 25 minutes vs Oregon. I wonder if he is hurt? He is averaging 15 points and 3.5 rebounds and 4 assists a game. USC is having a very tough year in the Big 10 with all that travelling. They are 14-15 and going nowhere. I wonder if he regrets the West coast move?