Just one thing here: Xavier Basketball

November 13th, 4:00pm at Cintas Center (and on ESPN), Butler will play Xavier to kick off the season for the Muskies.

We have to make it 4 more months people!  Can we do it?  A few weeks before that we will have Musketeer Madness and probably 2 exhibition games to whet our appetite.

Go Muskies!

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Guards: Dee Davis, Brad Redford, Myles Davis, and Semaj Christon

Forwards: Dez Wells, Justin Martin, Jeff Robinson, Travis Taylor, Isaiah Philmore, Jalen Reynolds, James Farr, and walk-on Erik Stenger

With 4 of last year's starting 5 gone, the Muskies have lots of holes to fill.  This will be a very young team so there will be a lot of uncertainty.  But these young guys were highly recruited so their potential is through the roof.  One thing is for sure, Dez Wells will be starting on day 1. The rest is up for debate.  

Guards - Dee Davis has a year of experience under his belt so common sense would say he gets the start at point guard.  However, Semaj Christon is extremely talented and plays PG as well.  Although Mack doesn't normally teach freshmen 2 positions, I could see Davis starting at point and Christon at SG.  Redford's knee will soon be at 2 years since the ACL injury and Mack has mentioned he's happy with his progression on defense.  Freshman Myles Davis is a great shooter and will be fighting for minutes from the bench.

Forwards - Wells will start every game, the only question will be whether he starts learning more SG in addition to playing at SF. Depending on whether Wells is playing shooting guard or small forward, the final 2 (or 3) starting spots for big men will likely be a battle among Jeff Robinson, Justin Martin, Travis Taylor, and Isaiah Philmore.  Philmore sat out last year after transferring and is getting hyped.  Robinson and Taylor enter their senior seasons, when Xavier big men typically shine their brightest.  Martin could be the wildcard here.  He didn't garner many minute in the regular season as a freshmen but gave us a peek at his potential during the tourney.  Reynolds and Farr, incoming freshmen, and Stenger, a solid transfer in from NKU, will be in an uphill battle to try to break into the rotation of big men.

It should be very exciting to see the competition for the starting 5 and who contributes off the bench.  Musketeer Madness is roughly 4 months away.  It can't get here soon enough.  

There's a lot that can change in those 4 months.  Here's our June guess of the starting 5 for the November opener:
G - Dee Davis
G - Semaj Christon
F - Dez Wells
F - Isaiah Philmore
F - Jeff Robinson 

Go Muskies!
 
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A press conference at the National Underground Freedom Center downtown just occurred and it's been announced that the Crosstown Shootout will be played at the US Bank Arena the next 2 years.  It's not the Crosstown Shootout anymore though.  It's now called the "Skyline Chili Crosstown Classic".  Yes, really.  A portion of the ticket sales will be shared with the Freedom Center.

The change of name certainly wipes away the past, doesn't it?  What a joke.  Now people will always see this new name and say, "hey, I thought it was called the Crosstown Shootout"....and then they'll be reminded that the clowns in charge changed the name of it after the fight.  The fight that will NEVER EVER be forgotten.  Horribly handled by both administrations.  Why not just play the games on the college campuses (reminder - this is a college rivalry) and have both schools do some charity work together for the weeks leading up to the game?  

Completely changing the setup, venue, name, etc. is just a reminder to everyone of the unfortunate incident that happened last year.  We need to move past it, not keep it directly in our minds.

Update - most upsetting than anything else, this game is scheduled over Xavier's WINTER BREAK!  C'mon man!  So not only do the students not get to enjoy this rivalry game on campus colleges, those that don't live in Cincinnati aren't even going to get the chance to go to the game!  That is a real shame for the students.  What a joke.
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Gerard Coleman will be transferring to Gonzaga.  He had the Zags and Xavier at the top of his list but it appears a concern for earning playing time at his position could have been the reason he ultimately didn't choose X.  With Dez Wells here and assuming that Chris Thomas will be here next year (when Coleman would be eligible to play), Coleman would've been at odds to getting a starting spot.

This leaves the Muskies with one scholarship spot this fall.  There are very few 2012 high school players that have yet to commit and most of them have eligibility issues.  So, barring a transfer, this would leave only two options: pick up a Junior College player who's eligible to join a Division I college this fall or hold onto the scholarship and use it for the 2013 class of players.

Go Muskies!
 
 
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Gerard Coleman, a slashing guard who's played 2 years at Providence, just had a visit to Xavier's campus.  It's said that he is going to pick either Xavier or Gonzaga in the near future.  That's quite a ways from his hometown of Boston!

He played over 1900 minutes in his two years in the Big East, averaging 10.3 pts/gm as a Freshman and 13.2 pts/game as a Sophomore.  His turnover rate and 3-point percentage are far from great but his ability to score makes him a solid pickup, should Chris Mack and the staff land him.  He would sit this upcoming season per transfer rules and would have 2 years of eligibility remaining.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/51554/gerard-coleman 

We'll keep you updated as more news comes out on this.

Go Muskies!