Musketeer Madness

Does Gonzaga winning a National Championship/getting to the Final provide Mack another reason not to leave Xavier?

Gonzaga and X have essentially been dopplgangers of one another over the last 15-20yrs. Until their Final Four X, overall, was a more successful program, but never received the recognition on the national landscape that Gonzaga did, for whatever reason.

I digress. My point is the "Mark Few Model". He's been one of the top 10 coaches for years, was hounded for years like Chris and Archie M. are (not Archie anymore obviously) for some of the top, blue blood, IU type positions. For the last 5-8 yrs though he's not even mentioned as a candidate for the top jobs. Why? The entire basketball community knows that he, WITHOUT QUESTION, is a lifer at Gonzaga, and that it's an absolute practice in futility to even "make the call". Spokane has become a place for him that

Even though they are in the WCC, they are able to attain high enough seeds to advance consistently in the tourney, and they recruit top 10 classes EVERY year.

Mack was contacted by IU and shut them down. Gtown sent out feelers at 4 Mil a year and Mack immediately quashed that. Crean won two Big 10 championships in his last four years at IU along with a Sweet 16 (while beating Kentucky) just last year, and gets axed the next year. Granted he's a grade A Doucher...

College coaching is such a fluid and volatile profession, I really think "the grass is not always greener on the other side" is now coach verbiage that holds some water and sincerity.

We all know Macks connections to this town. I've ALWAYS been of the belief that he would leave for Louisville, IU, OSU, or a "super power" blue blood...the likes of a Duke, UK, UNC etc. This offseason has given me some pause. Mack sees Few doing it......and, for you guys that don't follow recruiting all that closely, we have some absolute BEASTS coming in...on paper, the BEST class ever. Again, Mack realizes that 1) HE has the ability to attract this type of talent now after the the program has been building itself up for 30 years. 2) If he can consistently bring in this type of talent, Final Fours will follow.

Apologies for my long windedness, but ONE last thing. Gentlemen, as of right now, the optics point to us having avoided cataclysmic like pitfalls that would have made for one of the

-Beating Creigthon on the road and Butler in the Conf tour to just barely limp onto the Big Dance FLOOR.
-The improptu run. I was content just getting in after such a tumultuous regular season. And then to beat two blue blood esque teams with NC banners and then absolutely dismantle an enormous FSU team that was an absolutely disastrous Xs and Os matchup for us....
-Mack turning down 2 HUGE offers
-The 17"class.The effect of keeping Mack. He leaves, our 17' class is decimated. I think many had not yet explored that particular scenario . It's a "Core Class" (like the 14' class), in that these players will determine the success or failure of this team for the next 3-5 years/It's big. 6 and still looking for another big/Four 4* recruits, 2 of which are top 50/ hence this would have been the absolute worst possible year for Mack to leave.

I think we are going to have an absolute ball watching these new kids play, and I'm praying that Kentrevious Jones aka "Big K" somewhow qualifies. he's a 6'11, 290 lb space eater with great feet and hands, AND a smooth jumper out to the arc. But he's been to 4 high schools? and transferred to another high school the second semester his senior year in hopes of being cleared. I'll leave you with a video that shows this young mans very raw talent. Keep in mind though, how refined his footwork/hands and his stroke are for his age (show only two of his jumpers). Big men are always the slowest to develop, but if we continue witht the present roster as the staus quo, we can afford to red shirt him........and a year with Pegues, working out, losing weight, gaining muscle, refining his offensive arsenal...this kid could be turn out to be a freak.

Enjoy,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edtZcaw9ibg

Hopefully Pegues is still at X. G-Town will most likely throw some $ his way.

I personally plan to celebrate the NC win by applying to one of their bogus academic programs (wait, I know, it's not the current kids who were caught cheating).

I certainly wanted Gonzaga to win last night as I would have won $140, but I still won $20. I WOULD LOVE TO SEE US SCHEDULE THEM HOME & AWAY FOR A 2 YEAR SERIES.

I did

gym from delhi wrote:I personally plan to celebrate the NC win by applying to one of their bogus academic programs (wait, I know, it's not the current kids who were caught cheating).

There was systemic cheating going on at NC, and they should have been severely punished. However, we ain't free of warts ourselves as a program. Five (or so) years ago, we recruited a kid very hard who attended 4 high schools in 4 years, in Chris Thomas. We have an incoming recruit who has been to 5 different high schools in four years. That's only 2 short of Muskieman's record of 7. Miraculously, his grades have improved significantly since transferring.

I'm not suggesting a kid like that doesn't deserve a chance to play cbb, b/c I don't know his circumstances, and it will also give him greater incentive to pay closer attention to his academics, knowing that it affects his eligibility. I also think X has a very good track record of ensuring all student athletes get a good education. But let's not kid ourselves as to why he is coming to X. Mman got so peeved thinking about it tonight at Old Country Buffet, that he couldn't finish his 4th slice of cheesecake.

Wild, wild stuff.

Anti-Homer wrote:

gym from delhi wrote:I personally plan to celebrate the NC win by applying to one of their bogus academic programs (wait, I know, it's not the current kids who were caught cheating).

There was systemic cheating going on at NC, and they should have been severely punished. However, we ain't free of warts ourselves as a program. Five (or so) years ago, we recruited a kid very hard who attended 4 high schools in 4 years, in Chris Thomas. We have an incoming recruit who has been to 5 different high schools in four years. That's only 2 short of Muskieman's record of 7. Miraculously, his grades have improved significantly since transferring.

I'm not suggesting a kid like that doesn't deserve a chance to play cbb, b/c I don't know his circumstances, and it will also give him greater incentive to pay closer attention to his academics, knowing that it affects his eligibility. I also think X has a very good track record of ensuring all student athletes get a good education. But let's not kid ourselves as to why he is coming to X. Mman got so peeved thinking about it tonight at Old Country Buffet, that he couldn't finish his 4th slice of cheesecake.

Wild, wild stuff.

the record is nine by you, my dear friend, but I understand that your problem was you never did pass the math part of the curriculums. I do applaud Xavier for admitting you, I guess they never found out who took the test for you to get your GED (yes Sky we are looking in your direction) and Daddy's money greased your pathway through all those "community colleges" before X had pity on you. As for your run through the Xavier history book, I recall a person named Thomas but he never did play for X in "our world", unless you mean Steve. Funny that you saw me at Country Buffet, where is it. maybe you confuse me with your better looking brother, I hate cheesecake.

As for comparing NC with X, is like comparing your golf game to Jack Nicklaus' game. You report your score as the same but use that math you (didn't) learn at the Nathan Bedford Forrest prep school.

Okay, I'm going to call you out. All these smiley faces and disguised and coded insults crashing and flaming at each other. You are cutting off my right to know what the heck you are talking about, my fundamental need to feel insulted, and left out of the inside jokes being flung over my head, behind my back, under my feet, and somewhere in there I have an under appreciated hunch that you might be, possibly insulting my race, my religion, and my gender and/or my favorite beer, on draft or in bottles.
There is only one word that must cover the angst of my complaint. And that is: POLITICAL. Do you hear me? POLITICAL!. I'm not sure what party, what slant or correctness or left or rightness or even down the middle, or whatever. But I am calling POLITICALNESS on you people, all "you people," everybody on this site. And that includes YOU Sister Rose. Shadow, do your duty! Shadow, are you there?

Edgecliff.
You know how scenario of a horror film plays out. don't you?

I think the past few posts are so removed from the topic of "Did we want Gonzaga to win" and seem to be nothing more than people hurling
insane insults at each other. I am still bedridden hoping to avoid surgery that will leave part of my face numb permanently. I hope to find
a different kind of surgery that won't leave my face numb. But myself and others are already numb to these totally off the subject cheesecake
tirades, et al... Back to Did we want Gonzaga to win? I beg to ask did we mean vs Xavier - which they did. Against S Carolina - which they did.
Or against that other Carolina - which they won if you play a 38 minute game. Did we really expect them to beat 2 Carolina's in 3 days.
They beat the South, then lost to the North. Now let's work on the Zags and Xavier to schedule each other during the regular/normal season. Better still, how about the Championship Chickens from North Carolina schedule the Zags or Xavier at a neutral site during the regular season.