Plain Dealer Article

[mookycxu]

i understand your point and acknowledge that it is much longer than his actual comment. As are most responses to writers via email in regards to their articles.

The reason for that, in my own opinion, is that i wanted to elaborate a bit more into a generalization that me made. That in turn would lead to comments i made about Matta's brief stint with us (such as David West) and his track record as a coach. Just me making a point on a poorly made one in a newspaper.

I believe Butler fans would also agree with me.

[Mr. Neutral]

You're certainly entitled to make whatever points you feel are appropriate in your letter to the editor. However, in all fairness, you're taking issue with points not made or even hinted at in the article.

And in your initial post, you threw out the "David West/so-so career" bomb, and then we see that the short piece makes no mention of West whatsoever, and certainly doesn't comment on his career.

It just reminds me of so many reactions these days when one person says something like "Kobe Bryant's obviously a great player, but I'm just not sure if he's as good as Jordan was at his peak", and the response is "Why do you hate Bryant? Why don't you think he's any good? Can't you give any of the younger players any credit?", which is a total overstatement of what was actually said by the first speaker.

You can't respond to what you say is an inaccurate statement with another inaccurate statement.

[supernintendo]

Mooky:

I'm with you. The PD is a hack newspaper. You should have mentioned that Tressel's championship was with all of Cooper's recruits.

[X Factor]

Matta has had absolutely ZERO impact on this team's success. None whatsoever.

[Xman95]

Not to defend the guy, but he is the OSU beat writer for The Plain Dealer. That's probably the reason he had to use the XU-Matta connection for a Big Dance story. I mean, who wants to write about the NIT?

Now, the PD itself is actually a joke of a paper when it comes to sports. Any sports fan who lives in Cleveland and doesn't take the "everything Cleveland is great" approach will probably tell you that. It seems they have some decent writers who might be a little off base with their views/knowledge (Bud Shaw), others who seem to know their stuff but it comes across in a bitter and negative way (Tony Grossi), others who don't add much and seem to be there for diversity purposes (Mary Kay Cabot), and some who are just plain lazy and bad and should have retired years ago (yes, Bill Livingston, that means you!). The best things about that paper are probably Terry Pluto (stolen from the Akron Beacon Journal) and Paul Hoynes (although he often seems to be behind on things and his weekly MLB column still seems to focus on the Indians - all the stuff we get on a daily basis anyway).

OK, that's it for that rant.

[mookycxu]

I am not being inaccurate. it was a sarcastic comment about David West's career at XU and how the 4 year career had coincided with Matta's successful fun with us. Calm down on me looking too much into something. It was a sarcastic dig as part of my larger point about Matta. I realize the guy never actually mentioned half of what i said. That is part of making a point. Mentioning things that may not have been taken into account.

[Mr. Neutral]

<<I am not being inaccurate. it was a sarcastic comment about David West's career at XU>.
<<"West had a ‘so-so career’ at Xavier with three A-10 Player of the Year awards and a National Player of the Year Award his Senior Season.">>

The short piece neither mentioned West in any way, nor commented on his career at X. Bringing up West and then making it look like the writer had called West's time at X "so-so" seems inaccurate to me.

We clearly disagree. You've clearly got a long-standing grudge with the P-D's coverage that I don't have, and that's fine, but the one-paragraph piece in no way, shape or form contains all the pro-OSU, anti-Xavier implications that you give it.

[Xman95]

I agree with Gary that the response did make it seem like the writer made reference to West and his "so-so career" at X.

But I also understand the point you were making, that Matta also had the benefit of coaching players he didn't recruit during his great seasons with us, even more than Sean and this X team. I also know what a hack paper the PD is so I appreciate the boot in the arse. I'm amazed when Xavier is ranked and often times they won't get a game recap in the national section for college hoops and nothing can be found in the section for Ohio schools. In fact, they are often absent from the Ohio section, ranked or not. It's almost like the PD doesn't realize where Xavier is located or that it is one of the best basketball programs in the country (well, they definitely don't understand that second part).

[Xpectations]

I read the response prior to the article and that isn't how I took the David West segment. I took it that Matta received a lot more help from the players he inherited than the players he left behind. And I think that's a fair point.

There is no question that on a quality-of-players scale, Matta inherited a 10 (West, Chalmers, Sato, Young, Frey) and bolted leaving Miiller with something significantly less than a 10.

That is a fact and I'm on the side saying Matta was/is a great coach.

[mookycxu]

Neutral. we don't clearly agree and you clearly don't know what the heck i'm talking about when i mention the 'so-so' comment was both sarcastic and also not in reference to anything the guy wrote. If i have to spell it out to you in a letter 6 times longer than your response than i will.

If we want to get technical on what i said to the guy then i can start harping on the fact you don't know what it means when i repeatedly acknowledge some of my points as both sarcastic and part of a larger point.

I will now allow you to further digress.