2015-16 Preview #5: Xavier

[DudeAnon]

I see a very rough start to the season for X. With unproven bigs in the post and unproven PGs in Austin and Sumner - that exempt tourney will be a killer.

X loses @ Michigan, loses 2 in Orlando, and the Cincy rivalry game.
Things go south from there. If they can maintain cohesion and team chemistry, they could finish as high as 4th in the BE.
Since there is so much youth on the squad I see X battling with Butler, Marquette, and Prov for 4th - 7th.
Xavier finishes 5th over butler/prov - dances again.

Your credibility took a hit after you picked Creighton to finish 3rd.

[Doge McDermott]

I see a very rough start to the season for X. With unproven bigs in the post and unproven PGs in Austin and Sumner - that exempt tourney will be a killer.

X loses @ Michigan, loses 2 in Orlando, and the Cincy rivalry game.
Things go south from there. If they can maintain cohesion and team chemistry, they could finish as high as 4th in the BE.
Since there is so much youth on the squad I see X battling with Butler, Marquette, and Prov for 4th - 7th.
Xavier finishes 5th over butler/prov - dances again.

Your credibility took a hit after you picked Creighton to finish 3rd.

There's kool-aid and then there's gtmo Kool-aid. It's very blue and tastes like Creighton winning a NC every year. In other words, he's our lovable optimist. He even got a shout-out in the local paper for his brand of crazy.

Take his predictions with a grain of salt. They will always be the upper bound of Creighton fan's expectations. This fact should be stickied somewhere.

[gtmoBlue]

Don't get me wrong here. I like X - one of my favs to follow during hoops season, along with Lehigh, Quinnipiac, and Siena.
They will make the dance, but from the 4th or 5th (my take) spot.

Credibility? That...from someone called "DudeAnon"? Please. I love this conference, but some of youse guys take the sh_t too seriously.

As for my Creighton pick...I got a tip from someone who knows this lady in Philly, whose nephew works for the tailor,
at the Vatican...on good authority, no less. The Holy Father's book said it was a good bet.

I am one of a few highly optimistic Creighton homers. I tend to err on the side of 25 or so W's, winning a conf or conf tourney championship, and 2+ W's in the NCAAs. When you see such lofty goals/aims associated with CU - it can only be from 3 or 4 folks in Creightondom. I am shocked that I didn't predict the Jays winning the conf. I guess my more "realistic" and pragmatic brethren are wearing down my optimism a bit.

Credibility is a big word...I can care less about credibility. I am nearly Soc Security eligible and Ipost on this and other boards for fun and to rile and anger the conservative, pessimistic, dogmatic, elitist attitude bunch over on the CU boards (Hi LJay, TBJ, and the rest). As for the folks from the opposition - ho hum, another satisfied Walmart Shopper.

[marquette]

Don't get me wrong here. I like X - one of my favs to follow during hoops season, along with Lehigh, Quinnipiac, and Siena.
They will make the dance, but from the 4th or 5th (my take) spot.

Credibility? That...from someone called "DudeAnon"? Please.
As for my Creighton pick...I got a tip from someone who knows this lady in Philly, whose nephew works for the tailor,
at the Vatican...on good authority, no less. The Holy Father's book said it was a good bet.

I'm going to need confirmation from Frank the barber.

[Frambo]

I really don't think anyone can replace Stainbrook this year however we are so much improved at all other positions (perhaps less so at point) that we should finish only behind nova and G-town. Butler will be improved as well.

I think Barlow's grit might be tough to replace and Butler's defense might feel his loss.

[Irishdawg]

I really don't think anyone can replace Stainbrook this year however we are so much improved at all other positions (perhaps less so at point) that we should finish only behind nova and G-town. Butler will be improved as well.

I think Barlow's grit might be tough to replace and Butler's defense might feel his loss.

Butler's defense will be worse than it was last year, perhaps even significantly, but they had the 7th best defense (by efficiency) in the nation last year. The hope is that Lewis' offensive capabilities will help the team make up for their lack of defense (Kameron Woods' defensive rebounding numbers were a major, major piece of the equation as well). They should be better offensively, if only because Jones will no longer be the team's defacto point guard full-time and they should have more depth this season with Martin and Wideman as Sophomores and Jordan Gathers coming into the fold, but they still won't be a "deep" team, IMO. Whether or not that translates to more wins or a deeper tourney run, only time will tell.

[XUFan09]

With unproven bigs in the post

Losing Stainbrook hurts, but Reynolds and Farr are miles away from "unproven" and O'Mara showed that he should at least be reliable backing them up. Heck, Reynolds could very well be first-team all-BE.

[XUFan09]

Some observations. People are underrating Larry Austin Jr. He will be the de facto point guard imo. If Sumner is as good as people say I guess he will take over and Austin will probably transfer out. But if Sumner is not then Austin is a very solid replacement.

Yeah, I like that at the very least, whoever wants to play point guard has to beat out Austin, because he's going to come to play. This ensures a decent minimum production at that position, while leaving open the opportunity for Davis to play at his natural position of shooting guard and Sumner to play off the ball more as a playmaker.

[Irishdawg]

With unproven bigs in the post

Losing Stainbrook hurts, but Reynolds and Farr are miles away from "unproven" and O'Mara showed that he should at least be reliable backing them up. Heck, Reynolds could very well be first-team all-BE.

Reynolds certainly has the talent to be an All Big East player if he can stay mentally engaged, but that's been his issue for him so far. O'Mara and Farr should be solid as well, so while I expect the wings to really run things for Xavier this year, they definitely won't be deficient (IMO) with the guys that will be in the paint.