Ok, Confess and Be Honest....

[Mr. Neutral]

<<How could I have been sooooo wrong!>>

By now, you should be used to it. I'm guessing you picked X to beat Gonzaga, OSU and/or Tennessee. Looks kind of dumb now.

[Murph85]

I will go back further, to the golf outing at Kenwood Country Club. At this time after hearing Sean speak I though we would win the A-10 with minimal difficulty but it did happen a little different than I thought.

First, who would have expected Stanley to shut down the offensive players as he did. That was impressive to say the least. His attitude is off the charts. In all my years of watching X Basketball I have never seen such an unselfish player nor one that played that intense on D.

Second, I did not think Jason Love would be the player he is. This is nothing short of amazing. We hammered Kansas State and that could not be done without superior play inside. I though this would be our weak spot that we would overcome with tremendous play by D. Brown. The top player in the country ( or at least top freshman) was left to look at a scoreboard showing his team down by 30 at times. The game was a sleeper. Almost a shame in that it was not competitive.

B.J Raymond. I always read how his shot was so great at practice. It finally came to be during games or at least home games. Quick release. Money.

I always had Drew Lavender as injury protected. I guess because he is short and I rarely see fast guards of his height get injured. This along with the losses seem to have taken the team to a new level. They learned from all the adversity and I think we are a position never seen before at X.

If Lavender comes back at 100% and we continue to defend we have the chance to set a new standard for success in March.

[Mr. Neutral]

Player by player:

BURRELL-offensively, he's regressed, but defensively, he's made HUGE strides to the point where the team wouldn't be where they are without being able to rely on his being the designated "stopper";

LAVENDER-still a little streaky, but more solid than last year. An absolute key to X making any kind of an NCAA run. He's got to be more Chalmers-like if X is to make a run in the tourney.

RAYMOND-much improved over last year. Saturday's game was his first "big" game in quite a while, which hopefully bodes well for the postseason.

ANDERSON-struggled a little more than I thought he would, but he can be a really valuable player when he's scoring inside (and not turning the ball over). Better rebounder than I thought he'd be.

BROWN-also much improved, though he seems to have levelled off from earlier in the season. I'd love to see him re-establish himself as an inside presence in the postseason.

LOVE-much, much improved in every way, especially his scoring ability and FT shooting. Bodes well for next year, no matter what Frease contributes as a frosh.

DUNCAN-certainly an up-and-down year, but showed more toughness and inside scoring than in previous years, and will be much needed from here on in.

JACKSON-improving daily as confidence grows

GRAVES-running slightly behind Jackson, but you can see what he can offer next year.