Just one thing here: Xavier Basketball

I've heard about this through other Xavier alumni and thought I'd spread the word. A young man in Philadelphia is trying to raise money to attend his dream college, Xavier. He's been accepted but is in the foster care system and does not have the money to pay the balance due ($17,000) after financial aid. Last week this was mentioned on the Musketeer Madness and Xavier Hoops chatboards and since then the money raised has shot up from a just over a thousand to over $7,000 as of the morning of April 25th. I think and hope a lot of Xavier alumni are supporting this dream.

Read more about it and consider contributing here:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/a-dollar-and-a-dream?c=home

Good luck Marquise! Hope your dream comes true.

There's lots of time and practices before the season starts in November but here's a very, very early prediction for the starting 5 when the season starts.

Guard - JR, Dee Davis
Guard - SO, Semaj Christon
Forward - JR, Justin Martin
Forward - SR, Isaiah Philmore
Center - JR, Matt Stainbrook

Christon, Philmore, and Stainbrook were named team captains for this coming season which makes sense. I think all 3 will be big-time contributors on the floor this season. The reigning Atlantic 10 Freshman of the Year, Christon, will have a year of experience under his belt and another summer of workouts and practice with his teammates. Hopefully knocking on the door to compete for a starting guard position will be Freshman Brandon Randolph. I say hopefully as I never expect a Freshman to start at Xavier. But, as we saw with Semaj last year, we know it's a possibility. Myles Davis, a red-shirt Freshman who was not eligible to play this past year, is a shooting guard who will have the tall task of trying to edge Dee, Semaj, and Brandon for playing time.

As far as the forwards and center go, a lot of XU fans are looking forward to getting redshirt Freshman Jalen Reynolds to play this season. Reynolds played on the same team as Michigan Freshman Mitch McGary last year and occasionally started ahead of McGary, an impressive feat. Reynolds has a huge wingspan and is very athletic. Transfer Chris Cantino will be eligible this year and, along with Freshman Kamall Richards, will likely be behind Justin Martin on the depth chart at the 3 spot. James Farr will hopefully see more of the court his Sophomore year but will certainly need to improve on the defensive end.

Walk-on Landen Amos and walk-on-turned-scholarship player Erik Stenger return for their Senior seasons. Both guys go all out on the court, making them tough to keep off the floor. But with Davis, Randolph, Reynolds, and Richards, Chris Mack will have many talented young options at his dispense this year so Amos and Stenger will have an uphill battle for PT.

Even if Stenger is awarded a scholarship this year, the Muskies still have one spot open for their 2013-2014 roster. There are lots of Division I players in the process of transferring right now so there are endless possibilities as to who could fill that spot, if anyone. We'll keep you posted.
 
Is it November yet??? GO MUSKIES!

The man responsible for bringing a myriad of new athletic facilities to Bowling Green is now Xavier's new Athletic Director. Greg Christopher spent his last 7 years as Bowling Green's AD and was an Associate AD at Purdue prior to that.

To those asking "who is this guy?", let me remind you that many asked that when Mike Bobinski was named Xavier's AD in 1998 and that worked out pretty darn well.

We have a new conference and a new AD. It's time to get back to our winning ways! GO MUSKIES!

You already know this by now! I'm ready for November to kick off the season as the Muskies join the Big East Conference!

As expected, Butler and Creighton will also join X to form a 10 team conference for the 2013-2014 season.
 
Go Muskies!

You would think that since the A10 got 5 teams in the NCAA tourney and X beat 4 of those 5 that X would have easily made the NIT. Nope, the NIT invited 3 A10 teams but not the Muskies.

What the heck??? I really feel for the Seniors who worked so hard this year and I'm sure wanted to finish their careers on a brighter note than being knocked out of the A10 tourney.

Xavier was offered to play in the CBI tourney but declined. This tourney requires the teams that are invited to actually pay an entrance fee and doesn't get a lot of national coverage. So X declining this makes sense. But this also means that the Muskies season is over and that sucks. Even though it's a rough year, I wanted to see our guys, especially Brad Redford and Travis Taylor, for a few more games.

In happier news, tomorrow Xavier is expected to announce that they will be joining the new 10 team Big East conference with Butler and Creighton. November can't get here soon enough!