Best of Both Worlds

[X-lucidity]

My oh my, what a difference two little weeks can make. Just two Monday’s ago Xavier Nation was about as low as we had been in decades. The prevailing thought was no way X could afford to eat the remaining terms on Coach Steeles contract. That we were facing significant turmoil in the offseason and at least another year of probable program descent until a turnaround could even begin. The prospects of even putting together a modest run in the NIT seemed a bridge too far. Fast-forward to today. We are NIT Champs!! One of only two D-1 teams to win their final game of the season. Possibly the last Madison Sq. Garden NIT Champs ever. Beating a few solid teams along the way and one helluva team in the finals, a TX A&M team that easily should have made the dance and IMHO been a 9 or 10 seed by the way. Oh, and the cherry on top- We have Sean Miller back. A proven tough coach who excels at every facet of big-time college b-ball stewardship… We shall see but we have some certainty now in place early enough to give it our best shot to keep as many of the current team in place as is possible, make a run at keeping the key recruits, and then supplement with the vast array of transfer portal opportunities. And to boot, Coach Steele, (whom AH rightfully reminded is a good man), has landed on his feet with a real nice opportunity just up the road and we wish him VERY well indeed. How did this happen?? It all boiled down to a .3% chance. Yes, that is a 3 in a 1000 chance. In hindsight, something that all of us had been hanging on the edge of our seats to have had the 99.7% chance thing happen. But what did we know? I am referencing those final 5 free throws in regulation versus Butler in Rd 1 of the BE tourney. One never knows but let’s assume the pundits correct in that X only needed to beat Butler then play solidly vs Prov and our NET would have been too high to leave out. No way X let’s Travis go if we had slipped into the dance, even if it were a Dayton play-in game that we would have likely lost. So grab your calculator. Colby & Paul were a combined approx. 70% FT shooting pair. In final 70 seconds, they took our last 5 FT attempts for the team and missed them all. Had just one gone in X wins. So instead of squeaking into the tourney and a potentially embarrassing First-Four exit in front of many gleeful UD fans with Coach Steele in place another long year, we finish on a super-natural high, playing our best ball, winning an exciting NIT Championship on nat TV in a thrilling game and with a damn good new coach in place – the best of both words.! All on a .3%, let that sink in….
Sammy would be so proud of us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TldVj-GHWiw