Xavier WBB 2023-24

[HomerCecil]

That press release was actually put out a couple of days ago. Yesterday Georgetown head coach Tasha Butts passed away due to breast cancer. Sadly she never even made it to her first game as head coach on the Hilltop.

Butts was a freshman for Tennessee when Xavier beat the Lady Vols in Birmingham in the Sweet 16 in 2001.

Yep, I live in DC and it's terrible. I was (pleasantly) surprised when Butts got the Georgetown job in April; she'd been diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer a couple years back while still an assistant at Georgia Tech, and I'd hoped her getting the head job at Georgetown meant she'd turned a corner health wise. The release really was put out yesterday, I think they just forgot to make that pretty important edit.

[Xville]

Noticed that the women lost by 14 to Youngstown state tonight. Scored 41. Not great bob

[cinskyline]

Noticed that the women lost by 14 to Youngstown state tonight. Scored 41. Not great bob

While Youngstown State isn’t a pushover (they won 19 games last year and are picked to finish 3rd in the Horizon this year), this to me just shows that the talent level is not up to par. Only time will tell if Coach Chambers is able to change this.

There’s a reason they went 0-20 in the BE last year.


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[GoMuskies]

The fact that Xavier opened at Youngstown State is disturbing in its own right.

[HomerCecil]

They started four players from last year along with a transfer from a Houston team with a losing record last season who averaged 1.7 ppg on 25% shooting from the field, so I guess this isn't terribly surprising. I am guessing we shouldn't expect to see any improvement until at least next season. The post player who transferred in from San Francisco didn't play last night, but she only averaged 5 ppg for USF, so I don't really see any of the newcomers as high-impact players.

The Enquirer actually wrote about the team ahead of the season, which is an improvement over past years. I found this quote from Christopher to be a bit bewildering:

In her first four seasons at Iona, Chambers led the Gaels to an 82-46 record and an NCAA Tournament berth. There was no time to rest on that success, though. Iona went 2-28 in 2018, starting off a five-year stretch of losing seasons. Chambers and company rebuilt again, resulting in a 26-7 campaign last year and another trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Chambers' two turnarounds at Iona was a key selling point in the hiring process at Xavier.

"I think that's an important ingredient for success in coaches: understanding who they are and what they bring to the table," Xavier Director of Athletics Greg Christopher said. "She was self-aware to realize that after some initial success, they plateaued and started scuffling a little bit. She essentially rebuilt it a second time. That really impressed me."

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/spo...d/71410873007/

--

So I guess it's impressive to Christopher that she followed up a string of four successful seasons (with players from the previous coach, who excelled at Iona and landed the job at Seton Hall, so she didn't "rebuild" when she took over in the first place...) by nosediving the program from solid footing into one that went 2-28. Personally, I would rather see a coach who inherits a good program and keeps it at a high level rather than one that is inconsistent at best, but then again I'm not an AD. I don't think a coach who spends a decade in the MAAC and has an overall record that is below .500 would be my first choice to lead a rebuild in the Big East, but there are a lot of things about the way this program has been managed over the past decade that I don't understand. I've made my thoughts clear on that a number of times though so I'll stop beating a dead horse.

[Masterofreality]

We could have hired Special Jennings. Now a college coach at Jacksonville.
Bewildering to say the least.

[muskiefan82]

It's going to be an even longer year than last year. Wow. The women's programs fall makes the DePaul men's program look good

[STL_XUfan]

We could have hired Special Jennings. Now a college coach at Jacksonville.
Bewildering to say the least.

Bradbury apparently wanted the job but we couldn’t match his salary at New Mexico.

Tonight was just embarrassing. Going to be a long season

[HomerCecil]

Bradbury apparently wanted the job but we couldn’t match his salary at New Mexico.

Tonight was just embarrassing. Going to be a long season

If we can’t match the salary of a Mountain West school, Xavier is going to continue being arguably the worst power conference program in the country.

[HomerCecil]

Xavier is in Norfolk to take on Old Dominion tonight. We'll see if they can get their first victory in 340 days. Coming up on a year.