Lebanese wing Youssef Khayat

[GoMuskies]

I'm so sad our program is in such ruins that we couldn't get this recruit I'd never heard of until last week to pick us over Michigan.

[xuphan]

He has quite a bit to do with it. He’s the reason why x’s brand today is where it is. He took a program that always makes the tourney, and second weekends to a program that hasn’t seen the tournament in 4 years. Steele temporarily destroyed the program.

So why was Steele able to get Top 100 recruits if he left our program in ruins? His last class here he had 3 top 100 recruits. Steele didn’t ruin this program. He ruined his value as a coach.

[XU_Lou]

So why was Steele able to get Top 100 recruits if he left our program in ruins? His last class here he had 3 top 100 recruits. Steele didn’t ruin this program [with his recruits]. He ruined his value [it] as a coach.

Exactly.... [fixed it for you]

[xudash]

So why was Steele able to get Top 100 recruits if he left our program in ruins? His last class here he had 3 top 100 recruits. Steele didn’t ruin this program. He ruined his value as a coach.

If you truly and literally wanted to "ruin" Xavier's basketball program, you probably could achieve that by doing two things:

[1] Higher Fordham's administration to lead the university (i.e. higher people who do not recognize the value of the program); and

[2] Literally demolish the Cintas Center and return whatever is left of Xavier Basketball to Schmidt Memorial Fieldhouse.

IMHO, that is what it would mean and take to RUIN Xavier's basketball program.

The irony here is that we're building a multi-million dollar practice facility on the back of the Cintas Center now and, though it isn't worth what it used to be worth, hanging an NIT Championship banner at the start of the upcoming season.

The stature of Xavier's basketball program is more than fine.

[Xville]

So why was Steele able to get Top 100 recruits if he left our program in ruins? His last class here he had 3 top 100 recruits. Steele didn’t ruin this program. He ruined his value as a coach.

My point is that recruits see a school that has not made a tourney in 4 years vs one that has done quite well in the tourney the last few years.

[xudash]

My point is that recruits see a school that has not made a tourney in 4 years vs one that has done quite well in the tourney the last few years.

That's a valid point, ville, but, while you see that as having a more draconian effect on Xavier's program, some of us are looking at it as a bump in the road. In fact, every program goes through cycles at some point. I believe we just hit our bad cycle. And it was a "bad cycle" made up of NCAAT near misses and one COVID miss.

Not making the tournament for a sustained period of time would make it hard for any program to bounce back, but, at least in my opinion, 4 years is not a real problem. Xavier is too well known nationally now anyway, and its exposure from its Big East membership is, frankly, strategic.

The program is well managed and it does things the right way. I see us managing NIL effectively enough moving forward, and I see us getting fully back on track with Sean.

Would have loved to have out recruited Michigan for this kid, but there are other fishies in the sea, and we'll catch our share of good ones moving forward.

[paulxu]

[1] Higher Fordham's administration to lead the university.

Dash...spell check is not your friend :)

Meanwhile, these conversations remind me of Brad Redford whippings.

[Xville]

That's a valid point, ville, but, while you see that as having a more draconian effect on Xavier's program, some of us are looking at it as a bump in the road. In fact, every program goes through cycles at some point. I believe we just hit our bad cycle. And it was a "bad cycle" made up of NCAAT near misses and one COVID miss.

Not making the tournament for a sustained period of time would make it hard for any program to bounce back, but, at least in my opinion, 4 years is not a real problem. Xavier is too well known nationally now anyway, and its exposure from its Big East membership is, frankly, strategic.

The program is well managed and it does things the right way. I see us managing NIL effectively enough moving forward, and I see us getting fully back on track with Sean.

Would have loved to have out recruited Michigan for this kid, but there are other fishies in the sea, and we'll catch our share of good ones moving forward.

Agree with all of this, and why I said “temporarily.” I think it will take one season or maybe two to get the swagger back, and fully believe Sean will do it.

[xuphan]

My point is that recruits see a school that has not made a tourney in 4 years vs one that has done quite well in the tourney the last few years.

We never would have made this kids Top 4 if Steele had “ruined the program” like you said. We made his Top 4 because of Sean Miller. Not because of the state of Xavier Basketball and Travis Steele. Almost all of these recruits come either for the coach or NIL deals. Not because of the state of the program.

[xu82]

Agree with all of this, and why I said “temporarily.” I think it will take one season or maybe two to get the swagger back, and fully believe Sean will do it.

I think the pushback surrounds the use of the word “ruin” which connotes something permanent. “Temporarily” is not quite adequate to overcome that gut reaction. But now we are splitting hairs.

Our recruiting was not the problem, as that was/is Travis’ strength. Developing players and getting results is where he fell short. Our program was not permanently harmed, but we were in a valley. A change was needed and hopefully we reach a nice peak coming up ahead. I won’t get too upset about missing a late find. In fact, I’m encouraged that we found this guy and came in top 4 (probably #2) and I look forward to winning some of these recruiting battles in the near future.