wkrq59
04-14-2009, 01:37 PM
The latest installment from one of Xavierhoops.com's feature writers:
A Welcome, A Caveat, and a Goodbye
by WKRQ59
“To everything there is a season, Turn, Turn,..A time for every purpose...A time to laugh...a time to build up...a time to heal” --With apologies to The Birds, Pete Seeger and Ecclesiastes.
It's time to turn the page on Xavier basketball, circa 2008-09 and begin a new chapter. The Chris Mack era.
It is past time to turn the page on the Sean Miller era and move on to the Xavier future, which would appear to be a bright.
The new era, begins, hopefully, with a talented mixture of veterans: a crop of two seniors, Derrick Brown and Jason Love, of six juniors Jordan Crawford, Dante Jackson and Jamel McLean, Steven Duckett, Andrew Taylor and Joe Hughes, five sophomores, Kenny Frease, Terrell Holloway, Mark Lyons, Brad Redford and Brian Walsh and freshman Kevin Parrom.
Since this is a time for celebration, for laughter and good feeling, it's also a time to write an open letter to Chris Mack:
Dear Chris,
Since I've probably seen as much basketball as you have played and coached and have been associated with and I feel a part of Xavier for more than a half century, let me be among the first to congratulate you on your first collegiate head coaching job.
During the next few weeks, you will enjoy all the perks and privileges as well as all of the responsibility and pressure the job of Xavier's head basketball coach entails.
You don't need me to tell you of the challenges from this day on. Since you have obviously been part of the recruiting team, you know how important these next few days are. There'll be players to interview and hopefully persuade to stay with what could be the most storied team in Xavier history. There will be concerns to allay, nerves to calm, assurances to be made, commitments to be reaffirmed which may be one of your biggest and most challenging early tasks.
There will be a staff to assemble, a formidable schedule to be fleshed out and merged with the A10 games and at times the challenge will seem enormous. One thing is for certain, if your zeal as a player, organizational skills and sales ability as a coach and recruiter and the tenacity with which you learned as you moved up through the ranks are any indication, you'll never be heard to wonder, “What have I got myself into?”
One thing to remember as you work through these early hectic days. You aren't alone. You have a family that loves and stands behind, parents who have watched you grow and make them proud. You have a great support system here at Xavier headed by Father Michael Graham and Mike Bobinski and the entire athletic department. Turn to them. Seek their advice. Listen to their counsel. But above all be your own man.
You also have an extremely talented and dedicated team of players who, like you, love Xavier and share in the desire to be the best on and off the court, in and out of the classroom. Guide them and coach them as you would your daughters, with discipline and adherence to the teamwork principle of all for one, one for all, but tempered with understanding and the wisdom to know when to snarl and when to stroke emotionally. Remember, they want to win as badly as you do.
Oh, and you also have another resource that will be at times a source of pride and support and at times as exasperating and irritating as an enraged porcupine.
We alumni and fans are citizens of the Xavier nation, and many of us truly believe we know more basketball than James Naismith, Phog Allen, John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams combined. And of course Chris Mack. Our expectations are often unrealistic, our blogs sometimes posted without thought, foresight or apparent logic or reason.
In most cases follow the motto “Illegitimi Non-Carborundum” roughly translated: Don't let the bastards get you down. Failing that, avoid the internet chat rooms, they can be dangerous to your psyche.
Get a copy of Rudyard Kipling's “If” and reread it often in your spare time. And for your sake keep the ability to laugh and smile. Deal with the media with a smile even in your most exasperating moment, when every question you're asked is perhaps the most inane you've ever heard.
Oh, and remember, every member of the Xavier nation wants you to succeed. Also, Muskieman is official arbiter of all disputes with referees. He has questioned the eyesight and competence of the best and certainly the worst. Trust him. He won't fail you.
And one last thing, Chris. This is your home, stay as long as you like but turn out the lights when you leave.
Best wishes, WKRQ59
Now, since this is also a time for healing, and for perhaps balancing the scales, a brief note to Sean Miller, who guided Xavier to some solid and wonderful achievements in his eight years here, five as head coach.
Dear Sean,
Thank you for those A10 tournament and regular season championships, for the NCAA tournament participation, for the Sweet 16s and the Elite 8 and for the outstanding young men you brought into the Xavier nation.
Thank you for helping Father Graham and Mike Bobinski elevate Xavier's basketball program to national respect, even if it's often overlooked or undervalued in its home town.
Thank you for insisting things be done the right way, for instilling discipline, for maintaining the emphasis on the team aspect of the game and the genuine purpose of a university, education and obtaining a degree.
Thank you for showing your players how to handle pre-game and post-game interviews and showing them that their performance off the court as well as on it has a monumental reflection on Xavier.
Thank you for helping make Xavier a destination job even though you obviously thought otherwise and left for greener pastures in an often barren desert.
And thank you for understanding the often seemingly unreasonable behavior of we internet bloggers, who at times are a little too unrealistic in our expectations and our ways of showing that zeal. But we make no apologies.
Sadly, we can not thank you for taking your players to the brink of the highest possible achievement and then leaving them before they could achieve it and letting them find out about your departure through the media.
We also can't thank you for the apparent false hope you gave us. We can't thank you for hauling some of our assistants to Tucson or for raiding recruits and making half-truth statements about those final days here.
We can however wish you good fortune unless your team happens to meet our Musketeers in the NCAA . Then all bets are off.
Good luck, WKRQ59 :D
wkrq59 is a 1959 Xavier graduate and former Cincinnati Post sportswriter.
A Welcome, A Caveat, and a Goodbye
by WKRQ59
“To everything there is a season, Turn, Turn,..A time for every purpose...A time to laugh...a time to build up...a time to heal” --With apologies to The Birds, Pete Seeger and Ecclesiastes.
It's time to turn the page on Xavier basketball, circa 2008-09 and begin a new chapter. The Chris Mack era.
It is past time to turn the page on the Sean Miller era and move on to the Xavier future, which would appear to be a bright.
The new era, begins, hopefully, with a talented mixture of veterans: a crop of two seniors, Derrick Brown and Jason Love, of six juniors Jordan Crawford, Dante Jackson and Jamel McLean, Steven Duckett, Andrew Taylor and Joe Hughes, five sophomores, Kenny Frease, Terrell Holloway, Mark Lyons, Brad Redford and Brian Walsh and freshman Kevin Parrom.
Since this is a time for celebration, for laughter and good feeling, it's also a time to write an open letter to Chris Mack:
Dear Chris,
Since I've probably seen as much basketball as you have played and coached and have been associated with and I feel a part of Xavier for more than a half century, let me be among the first to congratulate you on your first collegiate head coaching job.
During the next few weeks, you will enjoy all the perks and privileges as well as all of the responsibility and pressure the job of Xavier's head basketball coach entails.
You don't need me to tell you of the challenges from this day on. Since you have obviously been part of the recruiting team, you know how important these next few days are. There'll be players to interview and hopefully persuade to stay with what could be the most storied team in Xavier history. There will be concerns to allay, nerves to calm, assurances to be made, commitments to be reaffirmed which may be one of your biggest and most challenging early tasks.
There will be a staff to assemble, a formidable schedule to be fleshed out and merged with the A10 games and at times the challenge will seem enormous. One thing is for certain, if your zeal as a player, organizational skills and sales ability as a coach and recruiter and the tenacity with which you learned as you moved up through the ranks are any indication, you'll never be heard to wonder, “What have I got myself into?”
One thing to remember as you work through these early hectic days. You aren't alone. You have a family that loves and stands behind, parents who have watched you grow and make them proud. You have a great support system here at Xavier headed by Father Michael Graham and Mike Bobinski and the entire athletic department. Turn to them. Seek their advice. Listen to their counsel. But above all be your own man.
You also have an extremely talented and dedicated team of players who, like you, love Xavier and share in the desire to be the best on and off the court, in and out of the classroom. Guide them and coach them as you would your daughters, with discipline and adherence to the teamwork principle of all for one, one for all, but tempered with understanding and the wisdom to know when to snarl and when to stroke emotionally. Remember, they want to win as badly as you do.
Oh, and you also have another resource that will be at times a source of pride and support and at times as exasperating and irritating as an enraged porcupine.
We alumni and fans are citizens of the Xavier nation, and many of us truly believe we know more basketball than James Naismith, Phog Allen, John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams combined. And of course Chris Mack. Our expectations are often unrealistic, our blogs sometimes posted without thought, foresight or apparent logic or reason.
In most cases follow the motto “Illegitimi Non-Carborundum” roughly translated: Don't let the bastards get you down. Failing that, avoid the internet chat rooms, they can be dangerous to your psyche.
Get a copy of Rudyard Kipling's “If” and reread it often in your spare time. And for your sake keep the ability to laugh and smile. Deal with the media with a smile even in your most exasperating moment, when every question you're asked is perhaps the most inane you've ever heard.
Oh, and remember, every member of the Xavier nation wants you to succeed. Also, Muskieman is official arbiter of all disputes with referees. He has questioned the eyesight and competence of the best and certainly the worst. Trust him. He won't fail you.
And one last thing, Chris. This is your home, stay as long as you like but turn out the lights when you leave.
Best wishes, WKRQ59
Now, since this is also a time for healing, and for perhaps balancing the scales, a brief note to Sean Miller, who guided Xavier to some solid and wonderful achievements in his eight years here, five as head coach.
Dear Sean,
Thank you for those A10 tournament and regular season championships, for the NCAA tournament participation, for the Sweet 16s and the Elite 8 and for the outstanding young men you brought into the Xavier nation.
Thank you for helping Father Graham and Mike Bobinski elevate Xavier's basketball program to national respect, even if it's often overlooked or undervalued in its home town.
Thank you for insisting things be done the right way, for instilling discipline, for maintaining the emphasis on the team aspect of the game and the genuine purpose of a university, education and obtaining a degree.
Thank you for showing your players how to handle pre-game and post-game interviews and showing them that their performance off the court as well as on it has a monumental reflection on Xavier.
Thank you for helping make Xavier a destination job even though you obviously thought otherwise and left for greener pastures in an often barren desert.
And thank you for understanding the often seemingly unreasonable behavior of we internet bloggers, who at times are a little too unrealistic in our expectations and our ways of showing that zeal. But we make no apologies.
Sadly, we can not thank you for taking your players to the brink of the highest possible achievement and then leaving them before they could achieve it and letting them find out about your departure through the media.
We also can't thank you for the apparent false hope you gave us. We can't thank you for hauling some of our assistants to Tucson or for raiding recruits and making half-truth statements about those final days here.
We can however wish you good fortune unless your team happens to meet our Musketeers in the NCAA . Then all bets are off.
Good luck, WKRQ59 :D
wkrq59 is a 1959 Xavier graduate and former Cincinnati Post sportswriter.