Blue Dog

In Sean Miller's second season, the sting of a 10th place finish (8-8, 21-11) was ameliorated by three factors - another 20 win season, parlaying a home city advantage into an A10 Championship, and finishing 2 full games ahead of the Flyers.

The lineup that accomplished this was far different from the lineup that started the season, with Brian Thornton lost to injury and Dedrick Finn dismissed from the team. Frosh Johnny Wolf stepped in to handle the point, Josh Duncan and Brandon Cole came on to fill in for BT, and the team seemed to play more freely. The season came to an end losing a tough game to the Zags and Adam Morrison in the first round of the NCAA tournament. That game was reminiscent of several during the season, notably against Illinois and GW, when X came out on fire but couldn't hang on to seal the deal.

There's no way to hide it, expectations are very high in Muskie land and fans were calling for Miller's head prior to winning the A10 tourney. There was a lot of talent on the roster but the results weren't there. However, a closer look at the roster revealed some big problems - with the exception of Stanley Burrell there was very little team quickness, and Dedrick Finn was not getting the job done at the point. Until he went down, the offense consisted of feeding Thornton in the post. If that was denied and jumpers weren't falling, this team was in a world of hurt to score. This problem has been addressed, there is some serious athleticism coming in this season with the additions of Drew Lavender, Derrick Brown and Adrian Graves, the emergence of BJ Raymond, and for a big man Josh Duncan is pretty athletic too.

For many of us long time Xavier fans, it's been a great 20+ year ride. When I went there in the mid 70's the team was a pretty sad independent, playing in tiny on-campus Schmidt Fieldhouse.. They were winning 10-15 games a year, and most of the teams they beat you never even heard of. Then they hired Bob Staak, moved to the old MCC (now Horizon) conference, started playing games off campus at Cincy Gardens and it's been a steady rise ever since. We've not only survived but thrived during the coaching changes - Staak to Gillen to Prosser to Matta to Miller. It's a testament to the powers that be at the school to make so many good choices over such a long time.

I'll post more later, but for now I just want to note that once again, X should be loaded. The starting 5 will be Lavender, Burrell, Cage, Doellman and probably Duncan. Wolf will back up the point. Raymond, Graves and Brown will give depth at the wings, and Brandon Cole, Charles Bronson and Jason Love will help out in the post. Cole may start. The schedule is challenging and us fans are hoping for big things.

bball2223

BJ Raymond should start IMO.

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TM setting the standard for Duke Basketball in '08-'09.

A10fan

Over whom? He isn't gonna take Burrell's place and he definitely isn't gonna take Cage's. In fact, he is going to have a real dogfight with Graves and Brown just for minutes/

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XU #20 Most Valuable Program,#17 Most prestigious program,FIRST to be put on ignore by posting legend MuddyWaters

#1 Envied program by the UD triumvirate of idiocy

Blue Dog

BJ gave us some great minutes down the stretch last year. He's got a nice open court game, can knock down the 3 even if his form isn't classic, and most important of all his quickness and long arms were a big help defensively. One of Miller's biggest challenges this year is going to be finding the right combinations of guys to get the most out of this team, because there are a lot of guys who can play. I see him spelling both Burrell and Cage, but as A10fan said, no way he'll be starting unless there's an injury.

Frambo

Love B.J.'s game, but I'll be surprised if he starts. Saw the summer league and Duncan is going to be a force this year. BJ, Cole, Wolf , Graves, Brown will contribute, but the starting group should be pretty solid.

FlyingElvis

Xavier has an interesting situation this year. The starting line-up is expereinced and effective, but not as athletic as the younger group coming in. I don't think you play BJ or any of the new guys extensively until they earn the minutes. I am never sure what to expect from X. Last year, they were blowing out lesser teams at the beginning of the season, went through a cold streak in the middle, and finished the year with a bang. I really thought they were ready to crumble with the loss of Thornton, but it actually seemed to open up the offense (After a small set-back at UD Arena).

I am most interested in watching Lavendar this year. Having not seen him play, I want to see how he operates.

As far as the match-up with the Flyers, I thought that UD matched up very well with X after Thornton was gone. UD has struggled with a powerful post presence for the last few years, and I don't see a Thornton caliber threat for X at this point, at least. If Duncan or Cole step up to be that type of post threat, X will be very, very tough, because they will be balanced.

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"US Bank Arena can't be that bad" "Top Flyght"

"A school is a school. The name on the jersey doesn't make the player because on draft day you don't go up and take your jersey up there when you get drafted. They don't say this jersey did this for you, you do the work yourself. You make the jersey."

Chetburger

Xaviers upside this year is extremely high. The question marks are, will Duncan still play soft and do 90% of the damage from the outside, can someone create an inside post presence besides Cage, and can Burrell learn to show restraint when shooting the basketball at times so he doesnt shoot his team out of it.

Lavender will be an upgrade, Graves will see a lot of minutes, Raymond still needs work. Hes too streaky a shooter to be a deadly 2 and he doesnt have the greatest handle. I think he would be a much better three.

Id put the Muskies up there with Charlotte as favorites. SLU may be up there, GW will take a slide. Dont count out SJU. Im telling you, do NOT count out SJU.

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Almighty Chetburger

"Thinking you are right and being right are two different animals."

PVP

Shhhh. Keep it down. We are trying to fly under the radar.

rusty X

It looks to me like Xavier is in a great position to adjust their line-up based on the team they are playing. If their opponent is large and slow inside, they can go with the projected line-up and do well. If they play a team with four guards and a big man that runs the court (like Villanova last year) they can adjust to play effectively there too.

Overall, without serious injuries, they could have a terrific season. Chalk up yet another 20+ win season.

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If you want to run with the big dogs, you've got to get off the porch.

LRhino

I keep looking at this team, and I just can not find any major flaws. The have shooters (Burrell, when not taking non-sensical shots that kill them, and Graves, I feel, is going to be a superstar someday, plus Doellman and Duncan often go deep), good ball handlers (Lavender is very quick, Wolf lacks quickness but showed very good court vision), toughness (I think every team in the A10 would love to have Cage), and depth (Graves and Wolf again, and Raymond). The ones I didn't comment on I simply haven't seen enough to comment.

But there are no real weaknesses. This team will score...a lot. Cage is a lockdown defender, and the team is normally fundamentally sound on defense (have seen some breakdowns, but they seem to get correctly in a timely manner). The only qualms may be the lack of the traditional Xavier stud in the middle, and a potential lack of toughness from certain players (some call Duncan soft.. But the fact is, the monster in the center is not a necessity (see Villanova, last season). They have enough different combinations to put on the floor that they should be able to match up with anyone, even finding ways of handling teams with a dominate center. And with Cage on the floor, there is plenty of toughness in this one player, and it often rubs off on teammates in the crunch, so I do not think it is an issue.

Basically, with the talent level and depth, this season will actually be a good test of Miller's worthiness to lead. I believe the Muskies should win the A10 this season. Anything lower than 3rd place should be placed squarely on Miller's shoulders, since the only way to keep this talent level from winning a boatload of games are injuries and/or bad coaching. And X has had enough injuries lately that fate should let them have a mostly injury free season, they're due for that.

As far as I'm concerned, the target should be squarely on X's back this season.

I hope we can say that about Dayton in the near future.

A10fan

LRHINO, I was and am thinking the same thing coming into this season. Miller will definitely have the pressure on him to win big this year and next. If Cole can finally get back to his pre-injury form, I think the perceived weakness in the middle goes away. Even without Cole I think they have enough bodies in Duncan,Brown,Doellman and either Bronson or Love, to play the kind of up and down tempo that Miller wants to run as opposed to the slower pace that Matta favored when he was recruiting kids.

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XU #20 Most Valuable Program,#17 Most prestigious program,FIRST to be put on ignore by posting legend MuddyWaters

#1 Envied program by the UD triumvirate of idiocy

Blue Dog

Xavier guys who've made NBA rosters:

Tyrone Hill
David West
James Posey
Brian Grant
Derrick Strong
Aaron Williams
Michael Hawkins
Romaine Sato
Lionel Chalmers

I'm probably forgetting someone(s).

My favorite all time Xavier players, no particular order, not currently playing:

Top 5:

Byron Larkin
Jamal Walker
James Posey
Darnel Williams - better than Posey before he blew out his knee
Brian Grant

The rest:

Richie Harris
Walt McBride
David West
Tyrone Hill
Michael Davenport
Lenny Brown
Lionel Chalmers
Stan Kimborough
Jamie Gladden
Torraye Braggs
Derrick Strong
Romain Sato
Anthony Myles

That's a tough list, we've had so many guys I really liked.

My all time favorite games I've seen in person:

XU beating Louisville in the pre-season NIT at US Bank - crowd was split 50/50, game went back and forth, Jamal Walker won it at the buzzer, unbelievable atmosphere.

XU beating Loyola Marymount at the Cincy Gardens. I was about 5 minutes late getting there, the score was already something like 24-19. This was before Hank Gathers had his awful collapse, he and Bo Kimball were incredible. X won, score was like 119-112.

XU losing to #1 UMass in OT at the Gardens.

My all-time favorite games I watched on TV:

X crushing the undefeated #1 Hawks. At the last minute we all wimped out and decided to watch it at Hooters instead of driving to Dayton. They opened up a room for us and we proceeded to go crazy for 2 hours. Great way to have