Been reading around lately, and there seems to be a consensus among several BE fan bases that they want some changes to their coaching situation. I would say that it's not a stretch to see new coaches at Depaul, Seton Hall, and St. John's after this season, and Xavier might even lose Mack. Depaul- Would assume now is the time Purnell is fired, but with more time left on his contract I don't know if Depaul is ready to dump him. Seton Hall- Williard is surely gone unless they win the BE tourney. He has allowed his team to become a bunch of out of control punks, Gibbs' elbow against Nova tonight solidifies that. Along with the loss of Sina and constant locker room turmoil, I think its safe to assume SH will find a new coach. St. John's- I can see them keeping Lavin, but wouldn't be surprised if he is gone. He has had some personnel issues with players like Jordan and Obekpa this year, but a top 40 recruiting class could save him. Making the tournament will be big in this one. Xavier- I think the way the Xavier fans talk about Mack over on their board sums it up. He surely wouldn't be fired, but I could see him taking another job for sure.
I would say Purnell, Williard, and Lavin all deserve to be fired - all three have perennially underachieved given their talent. I wouldn't be surprised if only Williard actually is though. Mack is nothing special, but I can't imagine him being under any job pressure at this time - and I don't know what school would want to hire him away either. He's good enough to keep his job, but not good enough to be desired by other schools.
If Mack was to leave Xavier for another job/fired. Any chance Butler makes a play to get Travis Steele on their bench. He is a Butler Alum, from Central Indiana and a very good recruiter. He has obviously done well getting kids Butler wanted to go down to X.
The fanbase is rather at odds with Mack. Most everyone points to Butler when people say we don't have the athletes/talent to compete yet in the BE. I'd say talent wise X and Butler are pretty even, but Holtman just gets so much more out of his guys. Mack's been a tremendous recruiter but this year has been a disappointment so far. Most fans would be fine if he went elsewhere I'd say. I kinda want to see how this freshman class plays out under him but at the same time I'm pretty tired of losing. Travis Steele is my pick for our coach in waiting. I think he'd be interested in the Job as well, his wife is married to a huge Xavier Booster. Looking forward to playing y'all this weekend. I expect Cintas to be rocking. The teams mood after tomorrows game (win or lose) should certainly be interesting.
So does that mean Travis is a big Xavier booster, or does Mrs. Steele have more than one horse in her barn? (my guess is you meant something else entirely) I don't think even with his Butler ties that he would come over here for any less than the head coaching job. You're tired of losing? Mack's made the tournament 4 of his 5 seasons and has 2 Sweet 16's. They could still make the tourney this year, with a young team to boot. I don't think any difficulty that X has had this year has as much to do with athletes or talent as much as it does chemistry and experience. Maybe you guys expect to do better in this league similar to the way you dominated the A-10 most years, but this is just a better league. With as much money as Xavier's program generates, I have no doubt that you guys could get a good coach in place if he did leave, but I think some perspective is in order. Not many teams can do what Xavier's done as consistently as they've done it over the past 15 years. Do I think Mack is one of the top 10 coaches in college basketball? No. But I think he is a good coach and is probably more of a victim of Xavier's success than anything else. I fully expect the Cintas to be rocking on Saturday, and IMO, it would take a small miracle for Butler to win there with Andrew Chrabascz, let alone without him. Hopefully you guys kick the Bearcats into next week tomorrow.
If Stain plays to his ability we will have a very difficult time stopping him. AC had his way with X because he could take Stain or Reynolds off the dribble. Unless Wideman grows a lot this week on both ends its not going to be pretty.
oh no I understand. We've been spoiled. Like I said I'm not totally for Mack leaving. Saw someone else bring this up: X has now had 4 straight seasons with 10+ losses. The previous 5 seasons were all in the single digits. I think as a fanbase we really need to adjust to the difficulty in this league too. We're truly not used to being 4th or 5th in a league...Heck if youre 5th in the A10 you're probably barely a bubble team. I think it's a combination of a lot of things. It's also the amount of Turnover of key players we've had. Heck in the last 3 years alone we've seen Mark Lyons go to Arizona (Perhaps he was forced or whatever but he still averaged 15 ppg his JR year), Dez Wells to Maryland - this was the school botching things obviously. But you see how he is doing there and it still hurts, Justin Martin to SMU - again maybe that was for the best but it was still 12 ppg and he knew our system, Semaj to the NBA D League - 17 ppg and consensus first teamer...would've been in contention for POY this year. He can get the Talent there is no question about that...it's more of can he keep them around? We've got some great Freshmen & Sophomores right now. If we can translate that to JRs and SRs in 2 years I'll be Ecstatic. I think you guys can win without Chrab. It's a rivalry game and there will always be some unlikely heroes.
He's been playing better recently too. He had a huge slump for 3 games. The Stat Lines I'm interested our how Blueitt, Myles, & JP do this game. Blueitt looked like a deer in the headlines in his return to Indy he had like 9 points on his 12 shots or something very inefficient. Myles had emerged as perhaps the most improved player on our roster (more so than Jalen) and he had 0 points against Butler. JP also had a donut and as you know he was almost a Bulldog as well. Who will you guys play at the 4 with AC out? Jones doesn't play any 4 right?
Agree on Myles being your most improved player and a key one at that. Bluiett is getting the points but medium to long term I really like Macura. He has the potential to be special. So smooth, smart and athletic. To me he is Kelen Dunham but smoother and more athletic. I see X winning this one.
Jones can play 4...he played it as a soph at times, but hadn't done it all year. Wideman will start probably since he started against Creighton.
I think Macura could be special. He's definitely more athletic and more versitle than Dunham but I don't see him EVER being that pure of a shooter. He'll likely be a streaky shooter his whole career where as Dunham seems to be pretty damn consistent. I'd be interested in seeing how Jones matches up at the 4 with Blueitt. I think they could go small when we don't have 2 bigs in.
Crean's oversigning.........Syracuse fails to avoid the hammer http://www.indystar.com/story/recru...nd-mcdonalds-all-american-tom-crean/24499061/ Crean is also currently facing questions about his own job performance. Indiana has lost four of its last six games, and fans vocalized their frustration in the form of boos at the end of Tuesday's 14-point home loss to Iowa. Indiana is currently oversigned by two spots in the 2015 class, with Juwan Morgan and OG Anunoby set to join the program this summer. The Hoosiers do not have any seniors currently on their roster. Syracuse, one of Bryant's other finalists, was hit with sweeping NCAA sanctions on Friday, according to a report from Syracuse.com. The report states that the men's basketball program must forfeit three scholarships per season over the next four seasons, and that coach Jim Boeheim is suspended for nine ACC games.
I thought Syracuse didn't get sufficient penalties- particularly Boeheim. He should have been suspended for an entire year without pay.
Any time you "self impose" your own penalties it means your transgressions were far worse. Too bad 'Cuse!
Vitale defends Boeheim..... http://deadspin.com/dick-vitale-del...source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
