What teams are you going to miss playing?

[chicosbailbonds]

Welcome Chico,
1. I dig your name. All time classic movie!
2. Please don't let Madness give you an impression on this whole board..
3. Did you see Xs lineup this year? Are you saying Jay, Thompson, or Buzz could of done better?
Xavier can't wait to play Gtown, Nova, and Marquette!

Greetings from a Marquette and Indiana grad. X is having a down year. Happens to all of us...look at IU the past few! I was responding to the insults from Madness. Let's rock the Big East!

[kyzrex]

Chico...

First off welcome, I think that all of the Muskie nation is cautiously excited about joining the BE and competing against such teams as Marquette on a regular basis.

Cautious because it IS a step up in class to be going against the schools in the new league 2x a year, plus a tourney. Excited because X has shown itself as being able to compete successfully with each step up they have taken in the past.
Based on past history ( which, as they say, is no guarantee of future success LOL ) it may take a year or two, but it will happen.

This past year was almost the perfect storm....

Lost 90% of its scoring and experience from the year before
Lack of quality backups on the bench
Inconsistency on all levels

And....an upgrading of the conference with 2 very good schools ( Butler and VCU ) coming into the league, 2 schools showing big improvement from past years ( St. Louis and LaSalle ), and other schools remaining consistent ( Temple and St. Joe ). The A10 was a much better league this past year then it has been for several years IMO, and even though X had a down year, they still finished above .500 for the year.

Time will tell, but I am very optimistic that X will be able to compete successfully in the league. I do think that with the schools involved being able to concentrate on improving and stop worrying about the conference falling apart, the future of the BE in the basketball world, and for all other sports as well, is very bright.

Good win for the Golden Eagles today.....now they can settle down and just play ball. Next game may well be a preview of what the BE will be like all of next year.....Butler isn't going to back down.....but it will be fun to watch!

[madness31]

I will let the success of the A-10 in the tourney speak for itself. Feel free to compare the success of the BE. If the BE does better on a % basis I will concede I was/am wrong. Not going to happen but you can all hope. The BE is solid but is living by reputation only. It is basically Apple where branding is the only advantage it has. Look closer and you realize the competition is as good or better (phone market only - not sure about PC).

I generally like Marquette, Nova and GT but Butler and VCU are better. Marquette has their chance to prove me wrong. I would assume game 1 will be a wake-up that other leagues play at a very high level - even those at conferences many don't even know about. My issue is what are we suppose to do with the rest of the conference? What do they add? They are better than the bottom of the A-10 but worse than the middle.

X is going through a rebuilding year but I would guess that the deep runs for X are over until new leadership is found. Mack will get the recruits and they will get us to the tourney and we might win a game or two but that is where it will end. That is the status of the X program until Mack proves otherwise. He had everything a coach could want last year and did nothing with it. His lack of control over the team likely lead to the most talented player leaving (speculation). Lyons was a disaster last year but it doesn't change that he was the most talented player on the team. Just needed a coach, Miller, to guide him.

[bluegrass]

It seems to like moving the Big East is like moving from High School to College

It may be a step up to the Big East but that is an grossly unfair statement to make of the A-10

Would agree.5 teams from the A10 made the tournament so I think thats pretty impressive.The big difference between the A10 and Big East is the bottom feeders in the A10 brought down the rest of the league.I think if you kept the A10 as it existed this year,it's a very good league.Now it's going to fall way back in the pack.It's been a great league for X and I'm a little bittersweet about the move.

[mumuskie87]

.5 teams from the A10 made the tournament

And 4-0 so far in the tournament.