Is Pete Gillen....

[THill42]

coaching Rhode Island or color commentating this game?

[yellow20xd]

No, just doing color... Dan

[Pizza Delivery]

Chalk it up to his humility not particularly gushing about Xavier.

[THill42]

Did you all not notice Gillen's obvious bias towards Rhode Island? I know that he is from that area of that country, but being that he coached at Xavier for many years I never would have thought he would have been pulling for the Rams. To me, it seemed very obvious that he was, was this apparent to you all as well?

[Mr. Neutral]

I didn't think Gillen had a pro-URI bias whatsoever. If he said any more complimentary things about the Xavier program, coach and players, we woud have had to send him a check!

Yes, he complimented URI as well, but that's understandable when you've got the home 'dog giving the #10 team all they wanted and more.

And his comments about how URI's zone baffled X, and what X needed to do to beat it, were right on target. I was watching the game hoping that Gillen's comments would somehow reach OUR coaching staff so we could make the adjustments. We looked like we'd never seen a zone defense before.

[Wisexuowl]

I thought Pete was excellent ... both ways, and gave the viewer great insight. An analyst is supposed to be "both ways" and Pete lived up to what was expected.

Outside of using the word "warrior" far too often, Pete was super. But then usually we get about "dribble penetration" a few thousand times a game with Steve.

He still comes up with some gems .. I loved the "nobody wants to be rich and in the cemetery."

As far as "we looked like we'd never seen a zone offense before," Sean's coaching in that segment of the game was brilliant. He was playing with a small line-up as a result of Josh on the bench and Justin not being a good player to flash inside-out like Xavier's zone offense is designed to do.

So, Sean did not want to get into any kind of a transition game with RIU who is very, very good at it.

Therefore he got into a clock game with them, burning 25-30 seconds off the clock each trip, and making their defense move with hopes of wearing them down.

As a result, they did tire at the end against continued freshness off our bench. I don't think they got more than 3-5 points ahead at any time against Sean's decision.

BTW, Xavier had no, nada, zip problem against RIU's zone in the first half when they had Josh in there.

It was a matter of coaching guys.

Also, that guy Baron can coach too.

[Frank D.]

He still comes up with some gems .. I loved the "nobody wants to be rich and in the cemetery."

This quote was in reference to Miller's bringing Duncan back in with over 10 minutes left and 4 fouls. It was excellent analysis - Sean took a chance when he sensed the game slipping away a bit and Gillen stated he agreed with the decision to bring Duncan back in. It would have been easy as a commentator to question the move with so much time left, but Miller and Gillen were right.

By the way, has their ever been a fan in the history of sports who thought that the "neutral" announcer was favoring their team? Just asking . . .

[LA Muskie]

Did you all not notice Gillen's obvious bias towards Rhode Island? I know that he is from that area of that country, but being that he coached at Xavier for many years I never would have thought he would have been pulling for the Rams. To me, it seemed very obvious that he was, was this apparent to you all as well?

Not at all. Methinks you are hearing what you want (or don't want) to hear.

[Wisexuowl]

BTW, I forgot ... back when we played ud, Pete did the color and the next day reading udpride (now there is a funny name for a site) their posters were screaming bloody murder about him doing the color.

[kzoox]

Keep in mind that Pete and Jim Baron are more than likely old friends, as I believe they were @ Notre Dame together under Digger. Also, if that is the case, Pete has probably watched Jimmy Baron (the scorer of two pts) grow up.

Yes, he has ties to X, but also to them. He did a good job of riding the fence, and the "richest man in the cemetery" was classic Pete.