ESPN: Muskies looking for consistency

[Masterofreality]

So, now, with 9 minutes to go, Marquette is engaging in a hackfest and losing to UConn by TWENTY NINE on the heels of losing at Louisville (who then lost to Seton Hall) by 20.

Hey, Heather. Who needs consistency? Maybe the alleged #13th ranked team.

Write THAT in an article.

[MuskiePimp23]

Beautiful...I sent her an e-mail as well.

[Masterofreality]

I just posted this comment on ESPN.com

"Ms. Dinich.

"Amazing how you decide to pick Xavier out of any school to jump on, especially since the coach of your alma mater, Kelvin Sampson of Indiana, has called Xavier the best team he's seen all year. That after Xavier put a 15 point neutral court beatdown on your Hoosiers. At least Xavier WON on the road last night.

How about jumping on Texas A&M after their two straight 15 point plus blowouts-one of which to a KState team that Xavier beat by 26 on a neutral court? How about jumping on a Marquette team who lost by 20 at Louisville (then Louisville loses at Seton Hall) and is blown out again at UConn- a school with the same RPI as Temple? How about jumping on Michigan State after its deplorable 36 point performance against 190 RPI Iowa? etc, etc. Could it be that you just can't accept the fact that a school outside of your revered Big Six Conferences can actually be very good-good enough to come within an in-and-out free throw and a desperation 27 foot jacked 3 pointer from knocking off Ohio St last year?

The points are A). The A-10 is very good, again. B) Conference road games in any league are tough games. C) No team plays at a consistent hi level through an entire 4 month schedule and will have occasional bad games.

Xavier won in a tough sold out environment last night against a psyched up team that played very well. It was a win with resiliance. How about sending your criticsim toward another direction to a school that is more deserving of your venom?"

[muskieman]

Here are the questions.

Did she write the same article about KState after they got rolled by Notre Dame?

Will she write the same kind of article about Texas A&M who got rolled by over 20 at the same Kansas State who is 48 in RPI (just 9 spots ahead of Temple)?

Did she write the same article about Marquette after that 20 point loss to Louisville with an RPI at 45?

Did she write that same article about Michigan State after they scored 36 points and lost to a terrible Iowa team with an RPI of about 190?

Will she write the same article about Marquette this week if they get blown out at UConn (RPI 56) today? ( They're losing by 11 after about 13 minutes today).

Or is this just more of the anti A-10 and pro Big East bias? That A-10 teams can't really be that good?

Methinks it might be the latter. ESPN is not the preferred contractual TV provider of the A-10. It is for the Big East.

Someone ask her if her next article is on Marq. #13 beat down by UL and now Uconn #58 rpi

[GoMuskies]

Relax. I'm sure she was assigned to write a story about Xavier by her editor, and this was probably her first encounter with Xavier this year. I wouldn't have been impressed if this was my first look at Xavier either.

[Pajama Joe]

Relax. I'm sure she was assigned to write a story about Xavier by her editor, and this was probably her first encounter with Xavier this year. I wouldn't have been impressed if this was my first look at Xavier either.

...and that should just give her an OK to bash Xavier and the A10? I don't think so, do some research chick.

[GoMuskies]

Looked to me like she had done her research. She knew who we had beaten. After watching us play in person, she probably couldn't believe that team was capable of winning all those games. And it's true, the team that played this week wouldn't have buzzsawed Indiana, K-State, Creighton and UVA.

[Mr. Neutral]

News flash----not everyone from coast-to-coast, or working at every media outlet, has exactly the same "everything about Xavier is fabulous" attitude that some of us do. We wish everyone would spin every game result or piece of news in a way that makes X looks good, but not everyone has that same attitude, or that job. They're supposed to be just as critical of X as they are of every other school.

Tommy Amaker had multiple 20+ win seasons at Michigan, and got fired. Same with Lavin at UCLA, and he had Elite Eights in there as well. Bruce Weber was being criticized even before this season for consistently losing big-name Illinois recruits to other schools. Bill Self is coming under scrutiny for seemingly having better talent than results every year.

This kind of criticism comes with the territory. We're never going to get ONLY good press, no school does. And, to be honest, our play in the 4 conf. games hasn't been up to the level of our 3 big non-conf. wins that preceeded the conf. schedule. If we've noticed it (as has Coach Miller), then surely an ESPN writer can see the same things.

If we play well, people will notice. If we don't play as well, people will notice. Nothing too complicated there.

[The Artist]

News flash----not everyone from coast-to-coast, or working at every media outlet, has exactly the same "everything about Xavier is fabulous" attitude that some of us do. We wish everyone would spin every game result or piece of news in a way that makes X looks good, but not everyone has that same attitude, or that job. They're supposed to be just as critical of X as they are of every other school.

Tommy Amaker had multiple 20+ win seasons at Michigan, and got fired. Same with Lavin at UCLA, and he had Elite Eights in there as well. Bruce Weber was being criticized even before this season for consistently losing big-name Illinois recruits to other schools. Bill Self is coming under scrutiny for seemingly having better talent than results every year.

This kind of criticism comes with the territory. We're never going to get ONLY good press, no school does. And, to be honest, our play in the 4 conf. games hasn't been up to the level of our 3 big non-conf. wins that preceeded the conf. schedule. If we've noticed it (as has Coach Miller), then surely an ESPN writer can see the same things.

If we play well, people will notice. If we don't play as well, people will notice. Nothing too complicated there.

agreed.

[LA Muskie]

I seriously don't understand what was wrong with her article and I'm frankly embarassed that people are emailing her and posting comments taking issue with the article. As I recall, she pointed out the difficulty of our OOC schedule, including noting the IU win which many on this board have complained that others have left out of their analyses. She quotes our players and coach who universally agree that in the last 4 games the team hasn't been hitting on all pistons. And then she concludes that while we had an outstanding OOC schedule we have sputtered out of the gates in the A-10.

I read the article to say that XU played a stellar OOC schedule, but that if it continues to play inconsistently through the A-10 schedule it may well waste the early season mojo. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's exactly the point Miller was making after the St. Bonnie's game (a 15-pt win), and exactly the point that the majority of posters on this board have made.

Look, we brought the attention on ourselves. We asked out of ESPN's Mid-Major Top 10 and rejected Lavender's Mid-Major of the Week award. If we want to be in the kitchen, we have to learn how to handle the heat. I know conference schedules are harsh, especially on the road. But if we want to be considered a premiere program, we need to make A-10 foes like SBU, Fordham, Temple and GW look like they have no business being on the same court as us.

Is that a different standard than UNC, UCLA, and Texas A&M? You bet your ass it is. The difference, though, is that we are trying to transcend our otherwise mid-major conference. They're just playing in theirs...