College Basketball Season 23-24

[D-West & PO-Z]

What Shaka has built in a short amount of time is very impressive indeed! Not sure why Xavier cannot get to this point or the last time we were ranked in the top 5. Either way, we should be consistently good and not a Big East sleeper. You cannot tell me that Xavier cannot get the same type of talent the teams like Marquette and Creighton get. UCONN and Villanova have the name recognition and the history. Why we do not continue to reload every year as a basketball first school is beyond me.

See Steele, Travis.

Shaka did it quickly, no doubt. Miller year 3 and beyond will have us consistently competing for the BE crown, imo.

[D-West & PO-Z]

We need a good coach to actually stay and see things through. Smart is just now capitalizing on being there in his 3rd year and is ahead of schedule IMHO.

See Miller, Sean.

[bleedXblue]

See Miller, Sean.

Yeah, we shall see. I want to believe that he will be here for 10+ years but he bolted before for a better opp.

[D-West & PO-Z]

Yeah, we shall see. I want to believe that he will be here for 10+ years but he bolted before for a better opp.

Yeah, I will never say never and I have not been shocked when other coaches have left but there is something comfortable about Miller having already taken that route and come back. He's made a lot of money, and while more money is always enticing, I feel more secure than I have with him as coach (in terms of not leaving) than I have before.

[drudy23]

Steele set us back years with his coaching. He ruined players. He had teams that good/great coaches would have made runs with. Imagine Paul Scruggs with a good coach. Imagine Naji Marshall with a good coach. Players got worse under his style, and it killed the momentum of this program coming off of a number 1 seed. Completely deflated it.

A coach with Miller's pedigree was hired to get us back to that level sooner than would be expected under normal circumstances. If I'm being honest, I am concerned about our recruiting profile. The perennial Big East contenders (UConn, Marquette, Creighton, Villanova) are getting the difference makers and we seem to be getting the tier below.

Tough to judge Miller on that so far. We've needed beef for 5+ years and we still don't have it.

Travis Steele made us have to climb the mountain again. We're back where we were when Mack took over. He raised the profile in his tenure. Steele punctured that balloon.

[GoMuskies]

I'm not sure I'm understanding the "woe is us" coming from this thread. Sure, Steele sucked, but we were in the Sweet 16, swept the national champs and were in the Big East Tournament finals last season. We've won twice as many NCAA Tournament games in the last 9 months than "perennial contender" Marquette has won in a decade. Creighton has been to the Sweet Sixteen like twice in its history. If you want to look up at Villanova and UConn and see that we have quite a hill to climb, sure. But Marquette and Creighton? I don't see it.

[drudy23]

I'm not sure I'm understanding the "woe is us" coming from this thread. Sure, Steele sucked, but we were in the Sweet 16, swept the national champs and were in the Big East Tournament finals last season. We've won twice as many NCAA Tournament games in the last 9 months as "perennial contender" Marquette has won in a decade. Creighton has been to the Sweet Sixteen like twice in its history. If you want to look up at Villanova and UConn and see that we have quite a hill to climb, sure. But Marquette and Creighton? I don't see it.

This shows we had a good enough team to be relevant, and Steele took us to irrelevance. Hell, Jonas Hayes got more out of these guys.

It's not a leap to say these 4 teams have better players. To me, that's pretty obvious just by watching the games. But I also agree that teams like Creighton and Marquette have vastly under-performed in the tournament.

[GoMuskies]

They definitely have better teams this year. No doubt about that. I don't see how their programs are in any way superior to ours, though. I can live with a bad year here and there as long as the program is solid. And we're in fine shape (no thanks to that one guy).

[drudy23]

UConn and Nova have superior programs. Creighton and Marquette, eh, they need to win in March.

[Xville]

You could argue that UConn is the most successful program in the modern game and nova is probably top 5. No real shame in being behind those. We are not behind creighton and Marquette as programs. This year? Yeah program? Nope