Sean Miller: Man of His Word

Sean Miller said the exact same type of reassuring things that the guy who coached the Musketeers before him did when asked about jumping ship to a higher-paying school in a higher-profile conference. Only difference? Sean Miller isn’t a lying scumbag.

This is for everyone who thought they knew what they were talking about when discussing XU and it’s coaching situation. From the annoying blog commentators to Dicky V himself. Right after UMass’s head coach matta’d right out of town, Saint Miller and Xavier agreed to a 10-year extension. Although a decade sounds great and all, the length of the extension really doesn’t mean a whole lot, as coaches can be bought out of contracts like woah. BUT, there is no way Miller did this just to leave in another year or two. He is about to get a handsome pay-raise, and he has orchestrated the best recruit list in XU history. I like to think that it would pain him to leave the beautifully promising program that he has built up after what’s-his-name took off and giving it to someone else to run… like writing a totally awesome song and then letting some no-talent hack take credit for it.

I have not seen any $$$ figures yet, but I’m sure he will be making enough to feed his family and then some. Also, I’ll bet that buyout is still pretty hefty as well. But whatever, Sean Miller signed a contract with XU. He is our coach. He is going to be our coach for some time now. This is the best news story I’ve read in a long time.

So suck one BCS schools. Sean Miller is a Musketeer.

David West > Dirk Nowitzki

As you probably have surmised, the posts will not be coming thick and fast here at the MB now that the off-season is in full swing. Although this year’s incoming class is our best on paper we don’t really pay much attention to recruiting. I dont know, I just dont feel like putting too much of my time and energy into the minds of high school kids. So bear with us as the off-season months continue to bludgeon us in the head.

With that being said, the NBA playoffs are upon us and that will do a lot to help get over the end of the finest Musketeer basketball season to date. If you love college ball, but are indifferent/hate the NBA I don’t know what to tell ya. That just makes no sense to me. I thoroughly enjoy the NBA even though I don’t have a horse in the race. These are the best players in the world. If you like basketball, then you should like the NBA.

Unless you already have a favorite NBA team, then David West and the New Orleans Hornets should be your adopted team for the playoffs. Not only was West an all-star this season, he also makes lesser players like Dirk Nowitzki his personal beeyatch.

However, watching the Hornets takes on a somewhat bitter tone for me because they very well could have been the Louisville Hornets. One of the local sports columnists at the Courier-Journal wrote a sarcastic column today about how awful it would be to have the Hornets in town this year with Chris Paul and David West lighting it up. I know I would be completely into this team if they were here. And to have D West on the team would make it that much better. Oh well, New Orleans probably needs the team more than Louisville anyways.

A Great Tribute to the ‘07-’08 Musketeers

A good friend of ours here at MB and fellow ‘07 XU Grad, Scott Kyser, put this amazing video together.  It will be played at the basketball team banquet, but he put it up on YouTube for all of us fans to enjoy.  Thanks a lot, Scott.  I’m sure ESPN will be callin’ any day now.

Say It Ain’t So, Drew…

I’m sure you all heard by now that XU’s former star point guard Drew Lavender got arrested last night for “being drunk and having marijuana.“  Ugh.

This isn’t the first time Mr. Lavender has gotten in trouble for his love of booze.  I can remember a quote from him after getting in trouble with Miller for alcohol-related shenanigans that read something like “I learned that nothing good ever happens after midnight.”  Apparently not, as he stood in the street being “drunk and disorderly” and refusing to adhere to police officers’ requests to stop at 2:15 a.m.  Not too smart if your carrying a nice big bag o’ pot, too.  There’s this, and his incident last July where he walked into an Over-the Rhine club screaming “F*** this white club” or something.

The racially-charged incident really disappointed me,  as I personally experienced a very integrated social life at Xavier and know that those words don’t reflect the attitudes and personalities of most of the XU student body.  But unfortunately, as in any other place, there are exceptions.  I just hope the mind-altering substances had more to do with Drew’s choice of words than his personal beliefs…

As far as his latest issues go, it shows that Drew obviously has something of a problem.  Coach Miller has taken time with Drew’s family to try and help him get over this in the past, as he has a history of getting into this kind of touble.  Hopefully this is a wake-up call for him and he learns the ever-important lesson that when you get totally wasted, you do it indoors and outside the view of police.

Our Elite Eight run, with help from Youtube

Coming into the start of the 07-08 season I didn’t think we were going to be as a good as the 06-07 team. That is what made this season even more special for me. I mean 30 wins! That’s just phenomenal. So here is a youtube montage of the past season.

I was amped up to play Indiana early in the year. I’m from Indiana so I know all about how delusional IU fans are. So beating them was especially gratifying for me. This game produced the highlight of the year in my opinion with Derrick Brown dunking over some lame Hoosier. It was also the first time we saw that this team could be on the brink of something special this season in beating IU convincingly.

I wore the exact same clothing ensemble to every Xavier game I attended this season except for one. And of course we lost that game to Tennessee. Our only loss at home or while wearing our white jerseys all year. Also, this happened at said game versus Tennessee.

Thanks for coming out Hoos.

Another funk-a-dunk from Derrick Brown. And to think I was worried Dayton would beat us at the beautiful Cintas Center this year.

I don’t think I could have been looking more forward to the Tournament this year. We got kind of an unlucky draw with Georgia, but it made no matter in the end.

I made a slight seat upgrade to 15 rows behind the basket for this game. It was awesome high-fiving the entire team as they ran off the court. Sweet 16 here we come!

ONIONS!!!!

I really thought we had a great shot at beating UCLA. As mentioned in the post below, this will be UCLA’s 18th final four and this was our 18th tournament appearance ever. They don’t hang final four banners. I would imagine we will have a small ceremony to commemorate our elite eight success. That is somewhat disconcerting to say the least. But I have chosen my path. And that is the path of Xavier.

It was still a great season. I am incredibly grateful for what this team gave me this year. Hell, they inspired us to start blogging about them for crying out loud! Plus, this is undoubtedly Xavier’s best team ever.

To take us home, I’ll end this with a somewhat corny, yet very somber video added to youtube just two days ago.

So until next season…..

Let’s go X!

Let Me Get This Out of the Way

OK. We lost to the Bruins. Bad.

In XU’s 18th Tounrnament game ever, the UCLA Bruins beat our beloved Muskies to advance to their 18th Final Four Appearence. Good God. They don’t even hang Final Four banners. Talk about your high expectations.

We just didn’t play our game Saturday. I can’t remember ever seeing Josh Duncan toss up an airball whilst being WIDE open before this contest. In fact, no one on our team had more than one 3ball (only 4-19 total). We got out-rebounded 34-26, Kev Love was everything everyone says he is, and we only shot 36.2% from the field. Eek. But I really don’t need to get into the stats to prove how bad this loss was.

UCLA must not think much of us, as they didn’t see the competetive Musketeers we know and love (maybe a little too much). It was just too easy for them. I don’t want to say our boys were intimidated, but something was going on there. I think of it like this:

Back when I was playing a big game of Beer Pong at school, sometimes I would see my opponents’ last cup and get all antsy and excited to sink it and taste victory. But the angsty excitement made my throwing arm go numb and I wouldn’t be even near the cup.

I think this “angsty excitement” may have been running through our boys causing us to lose focus on open shots and other situations, which repressed us from really getting into our offense. Because the Xavier Musketeers don’t get intimidated. They’re above that. Call me pompous or whatever, but I’m stickin’ to it.

This is not to take anything away from the Bruins, though. They are a deserving #1 seed. They did what they were supposed to do, and they did it well. We had our shot, but that dog just warn’t huntin’.

Anyways, chins up, fellow Musketeers. It was a great season. The best ever. 30 wins. We beat Dayton for like the 20th straight time or something. We made it to the Elite Eight for the second time ever and in five years. More great memories thanks to the student-athletes of the Xavier Musketeers Basketball Team.

And no, Dayton, we don’t wear pleather jackets (I still don’t get that). We wear Elite Eight tee shirts. And we do so proudly.

We are XU.

There will be more coming very soon.