Musketeer Madness

...for what it is worth!

Having moved out of town, I no longer get to the home games like I did for 30 years but I have seen both of the first two games on TV.

Without going into a lot of specifics I can say I like what I have seen. The reason is the talent there in both veterans and newcomers. Talent is not something you can make happen. But some of the early season weaknesses and lapses are highly correctable. Foul shooting, turnovers, and the like can be fixed. The veterans will get more into the flow and the newcomers learn more of the college game every day. They have players who can be leaders.

If and when they get the PG situation sorted out and more of the guards back to concentrate on the shooting guard position I think their game will take a huge leap. Think of the inside-outside game if they can get if going with Love/Frease inside and Jackson/Redford outside and the likes of Brown/McLean/Anderson/Raymond shooting and cutting! But hey you guys know a lot more of this than me.

On thing that I like is that you can see the defense is there early and I think the veterans are helping the newbies get it faster. Yes some lapses, but it looks like they are getting a good grasp of it already. On the offense I will be looking for the first time a team throws a lot of zone at us, which I think has to happen. Seems like we have always stuggled in that regard and hope we will have figured it out.

At any rate I look forward to the next game on Thursday.

With all the new players, especially at the guard spots, and with our frontcourt players having to play much bigger roles than they did last year, X should play well-and poorly-in spurts for much of the non-conf. season, at the very least. I'm sure we'll see progress, but it will be of the "two steps up, one step back" variety.

Toledo is a cut and drive team and X handled the help defense very well yesterday. You could see that the pack line D is about two weeks ahead of last year at his time,probably due to the experience of CJ, BJ, Love, Brown and Jackson.....which so happens to be the starters. I like this line up at times because they are bigger and stronger.

One thing for such the knowledge of the Xavier fans means somebody will always have an opinion.

muskieman wrote: One thing for such the knowledge of the Xavier fans means somebody will always have an opinion.

Yes you can be assured somebody always has an opinion even if he does not often express it.

Your thoughts on the defense are exactly what I thought but probably did not espress as well. My thought was the pack line is not easy to learn but they are ahead of the curve this year because the veterans have clearly bought in to it and are helping to bring the newbies along faster.

Are you going to PR? You know well that I would love to be there but unfortunately it just doesn't work out this time. But I well remember the last time and a nice dinner we all had together and that great gettogether with the alumni group.

somebody wrote:

muskieman wrote: One thing for such the knowledge of the Xavier fans means somebody will always have an opinion.

Yes you can be assured somebody always has an opinion even if he does not often express it.

Your thoughts on the defense are exactly what I thought but probably did not espress as well. My thought was the pack line is not easy to learn but they are ahead of the curve this year because the veterans have clearly bought in to it and are helping to bring the newbies along faster.

Are you going to PR? You know well that I would love to be there but unfortunately it just doesn't work out this time. But I well remember the last time and a nice dinner we all had together and that great gettogether with the alumni group.

Not this time....the bank is seeking a bailout!

muskieman wrote:Not this time....the bank is seeking a bailout!

I understand.

That is part of my problem but not the main part!