Richard Pitino Jr is the next head coach.

[X-band '01]

And if down the road Steel coaches his way to National Championship, then would that make him the best Coach Xavier ever had?

Would the CBI count? Even with multiple teams turning the NIT down, they didn't have enough room to sneak Miami into their field (even over a Kent State team they beat three times, mind you).

[MHettel]

On cue -- I had a few things wrong (as per usual):

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-bas...130005097.html

This is a good read about the future of the sport. I expect a ton of legal challenges to this new framework under both anti-trust and title-ix -- but the status quo isn't going to be the status quo for much longer imo.

Much of that report is just old ideas being repackaged. Nearly all of that has been discussed here before.

What I did t see, but what I fully expect, is that we will see schools dropping non-revenue sports. They will keep the men’s & women’s basketball and then enough other women’s teams to equal the number of football players. I could see a lot of men’s and women’s sports just straight up cut.

The article said something like 5% percent of the money going to the “other sports”. That’s a million bucks. I’m sure they will have to give every player something so less players to give something to means needing less and less of that 1M.

And cutting sports means less staff and coaches to. Direct savings to the university. Oh, and less scholarships. I know it’s not like those exact dollars can get earmarked to pay the football team…but it kinda will mean exactly that.

Other ideas I’ve heard of is that football roster will get trimmed. I hear that the scholarship limit is 85, but many teams carry up to 115 players or something. 30 walk ons just living the dream. Wake up! Dream over! I can’t see any dollars being paid to a guy that literally will never play. And you probably have to give them SOMETHING.

Did I hear right that XU was paying the walking like 50K this year? We don’t have to give them anything of the NIL pool I think. Why would we do that?

[boozehound]

From what Norlander reported- the messiness of the rehire in miller impacted Greg and his decision for Mack. You literally just went thru the process of selling everyone on “I know he left but he had promised he is staying this time” and the hundreds of other lies out of miller. It’s hard to trust Mack. I did, I wanted Mack first. But I can understand the hesitation and X hasn’t been Xavier in 7 years.

Maybe it needs a breath of fresh air. It’s bold, it’s not the first time Greg took the easy way out. I think it can work out despite thinking Mack was an easy choice

I agree that going back to back on rehires is a tough look, and almost suggests that you have no other options than to recycle coaches that failed elsewhere. Couple that with the fact that Louisville was a hall of fame level disaster, and I'm OK with passing on Mack even though he was a good coach is first time here.

[GoMuskies]

And if down the road Steel coaches his way to National Championship, then would that make him the best Coach Xavier ever had?

It's really a combination of what Matta did at Xavier (won 77% of his game and won 5 NCAA Tournament games in 3 years after Xavier has won 1 in about 7 years before his arrival) PLUS what he did after he left Xavier (compared to the guys he'd be compared to). Getting to the Final Four at Ohio State is a bit of a tie-breaker for me when you're comparing him to Mack or Miller (or Gillen, I guess).

[bleedXblue]

After sleeping on it, I think Pitino was the right choice. I still don't think we have the right AD and leadership at Xavier. There should be no confusion over what is #1 for the school.

[Caveat]

Did I hear right that XU was paying the walking like 50K this year? We don’t have to give them anything of the NIL pool I think. Why would we do that?

Because they're members of the team and putting in the work and effort every day in the weight room, on the practice floor, etc. Giving them a few bucks is the right thing to do.

[JTG]

Are you kidding? Tay Baker was a breath of fresh air after Dick Campbell. Campbell coached 1971 to 1973. His record was 15 and 37. In 1972-73 we finished 3 and 23. He was a complete fraud and lied to our AD about his resume to get the job. Baker could not recruit but at least he knew something about the game!

What!!!! Is he a relative of yours? He was an absolutely worthless coach. Was McCaffery the idiot who t hought hiring a UC cast off was a good idea? Plus having Mulligan as Pres it was the worst years ever of X sports and school leadership

[MHettel]

It's really a combination of what Matta did at Xavier (won 77% of his game and won 5 NCAA Tournament games in 3 years after Xavier has won 1 in about 7 years before his arrival) PLUS what he did after he left Xavier (compared to the guys he'd be compared to). Getting to the Final Four at Ohio State is a bit of a tie-breaker for me when you're comparing him to Mack or Miller (or Gillen, I guess).

Matta was here for 3 years. He inherited a roster including Kevin Frey as a Sr, David West as a JR, and Sato and Chalmers as Sophs. There were some other pieces as well, but that’s a nice start. That team finished 26-6 won the A-10 West and the A10 tourney. West was A10 POY and DPOY. And Matta had nothing to do with Wests success. He had won A10 POY the prior year as well.

Matta took that loaded roster and lost 3 of 4 of the difficult non-conference games. We mopped up (14-2) a weak A10, beat Hawaii in the first round of the dance, and then got trounced by Oklahoma in round 2. Let down performance by any measure.

Next year, more of the same but added Myles, Finn, and Caudle….meh. Similar story during the season. Preseason ranked 10 in the AP poll. By Jan 13th….not ranked. Won 2 of 5 challenging OOC games. Went 15-1 in the A10, then lost in the A10 tourney. Beat Troy in the NCAA and then got drubbed by 6 seed Maryland. Another missed opportunity, but this time it was the end of DWests career which he cappped off with 1st team AA honors and AP POY (goes without saying he was A10 POY). TOTAL letdown year. (Finished 12 in the AP by virtue of the 15-1 A10 performance)

In year 3 we added Doellman and Cage. 2 of 5 vs difficult non-con opponents and even lost a game to Ball state. 10-6 in the A10 (3rd in the West). And most importantly on the wrong side of the bubble until March 11th. Then We turned it on and beat #1 SJU, romped to an A10 tourney title and the auto bid (shockingly a #7) and then of course won 3 NCAA games. It ended on March 28th at the hands of Duke.

So by my count, there was 17 days of “magic” in a 3 year period. We were below .500 vs quality noncon opponents, drubbed a fairly weak A10, and went 5-3 overall in the NCAAs. All while having several “legends” on the team.

Sorry, but if that’s the best coaching job we’ve seen then I would never imagine we had a run of like 5 straight sweet 16s, 2 more elite 8s and several protected seeds including a #1 and #2. Mostly against tougher competition. And a couple guys that while not quite as good as West did achieve AA status and were also recruited by the sitting coach and not just inherited.

I’d say Mack is #1. Then Miller. Maybe Gillen after that. Matta is 4 in my world. Prosser couldn’t break through to the S16….but he did beat #1 UC twice. He comes in 5th regardless.

[MHettel]

Because they're members of the team and putting in the work and effort every day in the weight room, on the practice floor, etc. Giving them a few bucks is the right thing to do.

Since when exactly did anyone win anything by doing the “right thing”? We literally just got F’d by our coach and you defend his actions by saying he did the right thing? Give them ZERO. And take whatever we have to Hugley and bring in an actual big guy that wasn’t a total disaster every time he was on the floor. Hugley somehow was a Reggie Butler/will Caudle/ Dionte Miles hybrid.

Bottom line is that the walk on would do it for free. In fact they would PAY us to get the chance. And if not them, then some other guys would have.

Fucking dumb

[GoMuskies]

Paying the walk ons is really dumb. Almost as dumb as downplaying the job Matta did at Xavier. :)