Butler??

[Go Go Golston]

I honestly believe Brad Stevens created the Butler Way and the system now outranks everything else. First and foremost they recruit basketball players. Roosevelt Jones was not a great athlete, but a very good basketball player. Just one example. Same with Alex Barlow. Not a great athlete but a high basketball IQ. He was a walk on!
There is no Xavier way. Just talk talk and more talk about which guys are going to leave early. I'm very frustrated in the direction Xavier basketball is going.
Ever notice that Butler as a team shoots free throws great-especially their guards and they don't turn it over. It's fundamental Indiana style basketball.

[Thor in 204]

Well...X use to recruit keepers for 4 years and players that were hungry to win and make the Dance. Now, X seems to recruit/get players who want to leave asap, are some how trouble and get kicked off the team or suspended from the team, more transfer outs, etc etc....stability of players from year to year is weaker. Recruited players are the responsibility of the coaching staff as a whole. Team chemistry is important and is built over time(3 to 4 years). Too many players coming and going????

I agree with you. The one-and-done mentality is killing college basketball. Attendance is down all over the country, ratings on TV way down. When players stayed for years fans had a chance to develop a following and look forward to seeing a team form. We gave up our season tickets in 2011 because it was becoming glorified AAU basketball. We still follow Xavier, but it's hard to watch college basketball with the lack of team play. I think Mack does a good job coaching and is good for Xavier.

I feel the same way as noted in the two posts above. I think part of recruiting should be getting a sense of how much a player likes being part of a team.
I never would have imagined that I would be losing the intense interest in XUBB that I have enjoyed for many years. But I'm also tired of the lessening of sense of team forming, etc..

[muskienick]

Wow! We lose our point guard (who was on his way to being named as an All-Big East Team member) and lose Myles Davis who might have been able to round into 2015-2016 shape given a few more games, and posters here are ready to throw in the towel. Not just for this season but as a program!!!

How quickly we forget how good this team could have been this year without the Sumner-Davis losses and the Blueitt injury. All that being said, I agree that our FT shooting and turnovers are problematic. But some of that can be attributed to having to use Freshmen and Malcom (a one-year Muskie) for more minutes than we may have. I was hoping that Gates would have gotten some of those Bernard minutes as a stretch forward who also plays good defense.

[hoosiermuskie]

Wow! We lose our point guard (who was on his way to being named as an All-Big East Team member) and lose Myles Davis who might have been able to round into 2015-2016 shape given a few more games, and posters here are ready to throw in the towel. Not just for this season but as a program!!!

How quickly we forget how good this team could have been this year without the Sumner-Davis losses and the Blueitt injury. All that being said, I agree that our FT shooting and turnovers are problematic. But some of that can be attributed to having to use Freshmen and Malcom (a one-year Muskie) for more minutes than we may have. I was hoping that Gates would have gotten some of those Bernard minutes as a stretch forward who also plays good defense.

Part of the point is that perhaps MYLES DAVIS wouldn't have fit into the Butler Way

[Go Go Golston]

Wow! We lose our point guard (who was on his way to being named as an All-Big East Team member) and lose Myles Davis who might have been able to round into 2015-2016 shape given a few more games, and posters here are ready to throw in the towel. Not just for this season but as a program!!!

How quickly we forget how good this team could have been this year without the Sumner-Davis losses and the Blueitt injury. All that being said, I agree that our FT shooting and turnovers are problematic. But some of that can be attributed to having to use Freshmen and Malcom (a one-year Muskie) for more minutes than we may have. I was hoping that Gates would have gotten some of those Bernard minutes as a stretch forward who also plays good defense.

Part of the point is that perhaps MYLES DAVIS wouldn't have fit into the Butler Way

I've felt this way for a while. Even with the success of the program under Mack I keep wondering when the whole thing is going to implode.
I believe I have a pretty good idea of how consistent successful team basketball is played and each year I see less and less under this regime. Lately Xavier teams have been relying on one guy to be the constant go to guy. I get back to Butler. Martin became a sub, I presume because of his inconsistency and mediocre defense. He was their leading point producer and now comes off the bench. Bluiett plays suspect defense but he would never be benched. But I digress to the Butler Way, which appears to be bigger than any one part. THAT is why I think they have success year after year.
And they have guys that stay!!!!

[joeabe]

The Butler did it!!! We are gonna kick some Butler butt today!!!!

[X4LIFE]

I think what we are seeing is a key piece of the team missing and now the team is suffering because there is no system for team basketball in place. Players are trying to fill holes themselves rather than as a team. It's a chance for Mack and assistants to learn and run a team offense and defense. But, that hasn't happened. I think great coaches know how to adapt, good coaches play with what they have and hope for the best. At this point Mack has disappointed me more than the team. I'm just critiquing . I love Coach Mack. But, he is falling short right now.
As for recruiting, I think X is progressing. Right now they are getting 3 and low 4 star recruits. But we are getting the recruits that are athletes who need development. And that's where X seems to be falling short as well. I remember players like Posey, Hill, Strong, and others coming in and being developed into NBA caliber players. What happened to that type of development?

[thecoach]

You can speculate until the cows come home, but injuries are part of all sports and you have to build a team to not fall apart when you have them. ES was injured his first year here as well so assuming he comes back hopefully the coaching staff works to use the full scholly's to avoid the issues. That said, i went back to the 2010 season and it's kind of amazing if my quick and dirty stats are correct. Thru this season, we've had only 6 players who played a full 4 seasons with X(Farr, DDavis, Freese, Jackson, Holloway, Redford). On the other hand, 22 who were less than 4 year players due to leaving, banishment, or just came from somewhere else(m davis, gaston, bernard,reynold, london, austin, bernard, stainbrook, randolph, martin, criston, philmore,stenger, taylor,robinson,lyon, wells,mckenzie, latham, canty,mcclean,abell). You can use transfers, but at some point experience in the program pay dividends in terms of depth and experience over the course of a long season. For me, that's a very telling roster. I remember when Huggins was skewed for recruiting a few juco's. Times have changed, but it's still a team game, and experience playing with and for each other is important.

[xu koop scoop]

Always fond of butler. Mcc partners along with marquette for 2 yrs in mcc & dayton. Depaul was gonna be in mcc but wanted mcc tourney in chicago for 3 yrs. X & others balked & great midwest was formed with dayton, marquette, depaul. Any fond memories of mcc days with loyola, detroit, evansville, etc... Used to go to mcc tourney in indy. A good league at its apex. Easy to travel to away games