Taj79

And ......................... the kiss of death comes through!!!!!!

CBS CS announcers said it was on Mack and then said it was on the Xavier bench. Mack was caught on camera yelling after the technical and he was using some choice words. I can't read lips but that word was easy. The ref that teed it up was the same one under the basket that called the foul for Evans.There also seemed to be a disturbance around our bench at the same time. Cameras didn't catch it but I saw some of our players pulling McCall back towards the bench and the announcers made mention of Lyons. I originally thought the technical was on him. I thought the game was getting out of hand, that X was starting to resort to thuggie tactics. Mitchell got hammered on his drive with no call. Then he got lit up by Robinson on the pick. X made a basket and Robinson body-slammed Ellis out of bounds jockeying for rebounding position. Conklin got nailed on just about every shot. Holloway's charge into Conklin was violent in that he threw his arms in a punching manner into Conklin as he made contact. Jett got nailed and was limping off the court. Lyons appeared to offer a karate kick into Ellis on the drive McCall got a foul and then came up jawing as usual. Seemed like X collectively said you might be beating us on the socreboard but we're not leaving until we get a pound of flesh too. I am very happy for the win, and happier that we survived intact.

All you have to do is compare what X did vis-a-vis what Cincinnati did. For X, you had two emotional, immature street thugs doing all the talking. For UC, you had Mick Cronin. I have yet to see Chris Mack talk about anything in the matter and that is wrong. Hindsight is 20/20. I would tend to believe that both share blame in the matter. But Mack gets more blame as the season spirals out of control. He can fix the team if its fixable. Apparently, he never had the control to do so. Lyons doesn't stand coachable to me. He's going to do what he knows --- be a punk.

Oh yeah, he did. Very rarely and I think that's the rub. Hey -- the job McCall did on defense last night on Tutu and Markie-Mark has been drastically overlooked.

He is basing his rivalries on geography ---- like Boise State against South Florida. I'm all for it --- as in like-minded schools with like-minded philosophies still. I don't need a conference full of directional/state schools offering degrees in phys ed and welding.

@brian ---- GREAT POINT!! And here I thought I'd be missing the patsy in Ohio. Nope, while one did head to the deep south, the other is just 45 miles south. I just want to say it again ---- Mack has lost complete control (if he ever had it in the first place). I don't care what he has coming in, outside of Wells, there isn't a playter on that team I'd want starting for me next year. If, as someone has hinted in another thread, Lyons up and bolts because of all the crap this year, he loses 4/5 of his starting lineup and there isn't a kid on that bench "moving uptown." How about a back court of Davis and Redford? A front line of Robinson, Taylor and Wells? Xavier fans better hope the press clippings of the incoming are true. Lyons stays, he becomes a cancer because that leopard can't change his spots.

Gordon's an Antler. Gordon is yearning for us with UMKC, UWM and Loyola. Increases the irrelevance in his mind. The bones of the article we all know about; the bunting he puts on those bones shows a small-mindness that I'd prefer we ignore.

I know I was banking on some halftime adjustments by RM. Came through, didn't they?

Not surprisingly, the key to any zone is making shots. Making shots busts a zone and force the defense to something else. I thought we were a little tight in the first half or maybe that basket is smaller. I'm going with smaller --- with further proof demonstarted by X in the second half. They missed a DUNK!!!! What changed last night is they had to come out further in the zone to cover our gunners, opening up the middle for Conklin. Conk stopped and popped a few 14-footers, making his arsenal all the more deadly. Once those seams are exposed and exploited, the other dominoes start to fall in place. You knew we were going to be better than 2-of-12 from three point land in the second half. We coulnd't be much worse. The issue to me is one has to support the other ---- drawing the bigs out to open it up for Conk and Conk knowing when to feed it out when the bigs collapse back in. As I said earlier inthe year, we have enough options on the perimeter that finding two per night who are "on" shoudl be no problem. And even justthe threat of that opens it up for Conklin unless things are so bad they dare you to keep shooting the three. I like changing defenses every now and then just to shake it up.

larry72 ----- us oldtimers have some very bad habits to break. I would admit to doing the same as you did but last night I did not. I had thegame on CBS CS and thought the first half rather odd. Xavier was getting production from Walker, Wells and Frease and having seen Xavier at least a dozen times this year, I knew that would not hold. Plus, for as bad as we played in that first half, we were not that far down. We make fun of my buddy, the Dayton season ticket holder many times over but especially when he uses his old cliches. But the one he uses a lot is "it's a game of runs." And I have come to understand and accept that and understand you have to weather a run when you're in the lead because the team that is down will make that run sooner or later. We did ours and I saw the air go out of the Xavier balloon. No more prayers from Wells. No more garbage from Walker. And Frease was on the bench with the expected foul trouble. For the second X game in a row, our guards --- McCall, Mitchell and Jett --- shut down their guards when it counted. Sure, Lyons go this points but he's a punk playing schoolyard ball. Two things stuck out -- when Ellis blocked Lyons after a foul call late on McCall and Tutu's out-of-control drive into Conklin where he threw his arms wildly into Conklin and got hit with the offensive foul. Ellis didn't back down from the A10's favorite punk and someone finally didn't give Tutu the call for his acadmey award performances. I thought Mack was also classless and demonstarted how out of control he is with that team as well on the technical call. At that point, you could see the thugs coming out and I didn';t want someone in white paying the price for their immaturity. But I never gave that one up last night and was rewarded for such faith. I'd like to see us romp in Pittsburgh and head out onto the Boards on a roll.

Let me double check my numbers moy when I get back to the desk tomorrow. Could very easily be my math.

The Taj Kiss of Death ................................. I'm taking X and the points. That should pretty much sink the Mouseketeers right there.

Ever notice how much easier it is to shoot against a zone at home?

The power of positive thinking. More power to you.

What's your point? If a team does NOT blow a lead it will likely win? Maybe Yogi Berra said that. Or was it Yogi the Bear? We blew a doubledigit lead at Xavier and won that one as I recall. Great teams annihilate teams like Rhode Island anywhere. This is not a great team. It has holes. Mizzou blew it on the road. Ohio State blew it at home today. Syracuse blew it at Uconn but came back to win. Xavier shut out Richmond for 11+ minutes to start last night and still was in a nailbiter. Temple chunked one. The sad thing is thta we have lost four games we could have/should have won --- Loyola, Rhode Island, Dayton and Umass. I blame on the foibles of youth ---- we still have some learning to do.

Adding in the Rhode Island game, JJ missed four layups and three jumpers. He is now 11 of 33 from jumper land or 33%. Meaning he makes one of three shots but only takes about 2 jumpers a game. Lots of drought time inthere. Of the 85 shots in ESPN play=by=play, he has now taken 52 lay ups and 33 jumpers. Last night's 0-for-7 effort was his worst; he did have an 0-for-6 earlier. Still of th eopinion he is going to need huge improvements going forward.

Two things ........................ 1) Gary hates Majerus, bank it. 2) Having said that he is right about us having no athletic bigs. And it gets worse next year if we're all banking on the enigmatic Remekun to finally "get it." I did not have any viewing of the game and had to rely on Game Tracker untilfinally getting the URI feed with four minutes to go. But why not Remekun? Outerbridge seems a Delroy James clone and we allknow what he did to us last year. Holton was also 6'9". Yet Cory got 13 minutes and even so had no fouls. Seems an appropriate match up from here.

All yesterday proved is that the end of the A10 season is always chaos. Us. La Salle. Temple. Umass got detroyed at Dayton by over 30. THIRTY!!! The idiot poster comingon here and ripping us in 7 posts is just as Billikan says. A troll. Gary has always been the first to lay claimto the sky is always falling. No way the second place team inthe A10 is going to the CBI. Not yet anyway. What trend I am not liking here is falling as we come down the stretch. Stumble at Rode Island now a match with Xavier two days later. That's a swing game ---- I do not care that we beat them already, it's a new day and the Xavier team coming in is in a different place --- fighting for their Dance lives. Loasew that one, then we are back on the road trying tobeat a team a little betteroff than the onewe just lost to. Which sends us into AC with our heads down and likely up our arse. Better play well and play a full game against Xavier or we'll be doing this all again come Wednesday. I still think we are in but must win Tuesday to lock out any other talk. We shoudl win out on the road to AC. Of couse, I said that Friday night too.

With destiny in our own hands, we chunked it. If we win, as we should have,we'd have a tie for first and a locked first round bye to Atlantic City. We'd be giddy and oxygen=deprived. Instead, we are all wondering if we are bubble meat. And if we are, we don't look too prime. As I said, the A10 is predictable in its end-of-season unpredictability. Take a night or day off, and you are La Salle, Saint Louis, Umass or Temple. Baron played intoour strength ---- our outside shooting --- and gambled and won. It was a desperate measure he had to take. Fouls? You don't foul jump shooters. And another 6'9" atheltic big man proves we have no answer for them. And if you are going to force us to shoot, Jett and Cassity are your prime suspects. How can we have no answer for a zone? We are jump shooters first and foremost. What couldhave been a breeze week now is not. I too am fearful of the Xavier game. What I fear even more is then going onthe road to plasy a weak, crappy Duquesne team desperately needing a win. Richmond made Frease look like a star last night. He'll be coming in on a positive. Nothing is ever easy in this program, is it?

Way to disappoint. Even the jokersd on URI radio said the Bills had no offense. We worked it for the NBA three. Its a horse race again. Jim Baron OUTCOACHES a hall of famer? How does that happen?

JJ/KC combined 0-for-10

If you leave people around long enough..... anyone get radio feed back?

Mine's dead.

La Salle does lose at Fordham, 67 to 62. GeeDub up six half at home over Duquesne 31 to 25..

37 yo 31 SLU halftime.