Regular Season Review

[kayako]

I thought it'd be 1 top, huge middle, and DePaul & Georgetown bottom. The mistake was underestimating Xavier.

[XUFan09]

The mistake was underestimating Xavier.

Yup!

But seriously, I didn't expect Xavier to go 15-3 in the conference slate. At the same time, I didn't understand how they didn't get more respect after last season. After overcoming the Sumner injury and after Bluiett returned from his own injury, they proceeded to go on a big run and showed what kind of team they would be the following year. The only guys they lost were Malcolm Bernard (one of my favorite all-time seniors but a limited player) and Rashid Gaston (great rebounder and good fundamental defender but had fallen behind Sean O'Mara and Tyrique Jones on the depth chart near the end of the year). In my mind, the guys returning were heads and shoulders above the rest of the Big East except Villanova, and I think that if Phil Booth had been there for the whole conference slate, at worst they would have tied with Xavier for the conference championship.

[mel ott]

The mistake was underestimating Xavier.

Yup!

But seriously, I didn't expect Xavier to go 15-3 in the conference slate. At the same time, I didn't understand how they didn't get more respect after last season. After overcoming the Sumner injury and after Bluiett returned from his own injury, they proceeded to go on a big run and showed what kind of team they would be the following year. The only guys they lost were Malcolm Bernard (one of my favorite all-time seniors but a limited player) and Rashid Gaston (great rebounder and good fundamental defender but had fallen behind Sean O'Mara and Tyrique Jones on the depth chart near the end of the year). In my mind, the guys returning were heads and shoulders above the rest of the Big East except Villanova, and I think that if Phil Booth had been there for the whole conference slate, at worst they would have tied with Xavier for the conference championship.

First of all - congrats on the title. You have a great team. However, a little bit of an overstatement- " head and shoulders above the rest"- I don't think so. You should thank Creighton partially for your conference title. Without the almost universally acclaimed bad call at the end of the CU game, you lose that game. Those are just the calls that make a difference in a game I get, but the very last play? Also, if we didn't lose Martin K. we most certainly would have been there at the end of the race. Lastly, we were lucky enough to beat Vill a week later in OT ( a game which could have gone either way). You lose, they win, you could still be #2. Head and shoulders above everyone else, I don't think so. Just take your title with a bit of humility. Hope you and all the Big East teams advance.

Bias; have always liked Nova better.

[kayako]

Bias; have always liked Nova better.

Creighton is my 2nd favorite team

As for Xavier being head and shoulders above the rest, they certainly didn't look like it to Nova.
I hope they keep that chip on their shoulders and make a final four run.

[ecasadoSBU]

He said head and shoulder above the rest, except for Villanova. That's fairly accurate. The Elite8 run difinitely showed it was going to be a beast this year. Glad it panned out just as expected for them. Now go win it all for the Big East!!!

[mel ott]

He said head and shoulder above the rest, except for Villanova. That's fairly accurate. The Elite8 run difinitely showed it was going to be a beast this year. Glad it panned out just as expected for them. Now go win it all for the Big East!!!

We understood what he meant. Head and shoulders- did you beat Nova?

[XUFan09]

The mistake was underestimating Xavier.

Yup!

But seriously, I didn't expect Xavier to go 15-3 in the conference slate. At the same time, I didn't understand how they didn't get more respect after last season. After overcoming the Sumner injury and after Bluiett returned from his own injury, they proceeded to go on a big run and showed what kind of team they would be the following year. The only guys they lost were Malcolm Bernard (one of my favorite all-time seniors but a limited player) and Rashid Gaston (great rebounder and good fundamental defender but had fallen behind Sean O'Mara and Tyrique Jones on the depth chart near the end of the year). In my mind, the guys returning were heads and shoulders above the rest of the Big East except Villanova, and I think that if Phil Booth had been there for the whole conference slate, at worst they would have tied with Xavier for the conference championship.

First of all - congrats on the title. You have a great team. However, a little bit of an overstatement- " head and shoulders above the rest"- I don't think so. You should thank Creighton partially for your conference title. Without the almost universally acclaimed bad call at the end of the CU game, you lose that game. Those are just the calls that make a difference in a game I get, but the very last play? Also, if we didn't lose Martin K. we most certainly would have been there at the end of the race. Lastly, we were lucky enough to beat Vill a week later in OT ( a game which could have gone either way). You lose, they win, you could still be #2. Head and shoulders above everyone else, I don't think so. Just take your title with a bit of humility. Hope you and all the Big East teams advance.

Bias; have always liked Nova better.

All other non-Villanova teams are five games back of Xavier. That's a lot of ifs that need to work out for Xavier not to be one of the top 2 teams. Remember that I said "except Villanova." I expected a top 2 finish but knew that a championship would be much tougher and already acknowledged some favorable circumstances concerning Booth.

But you are right that I forgot about Creighton before Krampelj's injury. That's the one "if" that has significant mileage. I've operated in the post-injury world for too long and forgot how I viewed Creighton before that happened. Before that, I considered Creighton the intermediary team between Nova/X and the rest of the Big East. So pre-injury you're right that Creighton wouldn't have been "head and shoulders" below Xavier and in fact could have challenged them. I think Xavier would have won that battle still, but it would have been much closer than a five-game margin for sure. However, the rest of the conference was and is head and shoulders below Xavier and Villanova. Next year, I don't expect this to be the case, so I'm going to go ahead and enjoy how good Xavier is this year.

[XUFan09]

He said head and shoulder above the rest, except for Villanova. That's fairly accurate. The Elite8 run difinitely showed it was going to be a beast this year. Glad it panned out just as expected for them. Now go win it all for the Big East!!!

We understood what he meant. Head and shoulders- did you beat Nova?

Nope, we are definitely their bitch. But, Xavier also beat St. John's at home, Butler on the road, and Creighton on the road (however, contentious that was). And again, my main claim concerned Xavier versus the non-Villanova portion of Big East. If they had finished second or tied for first while falling to the 2 seed, I would still hold this position. They got their asses kicked twice by one team and went 15-1 against the other eight (Congratulations, Providence, for being the only team to beat both Xavier and Villanova. Seriously, that's cool.). I acknowledged that I forgot about pre-injury Creighton, but is there really any debate about the separation other than that?

[XUFan09]

I realize some communication issues, my bad. When I say that at worst, Nova with a healthy Booth would have tied for the conference, I mean that's the worst outcome for Nova in that situation, not the worst outcome for Xavier.

[kayako]

but is there really any debate about the separation other than that?

In retrospect, no. You were right.