Taj79

UMass just went into "launch city" mode ...... this can either get close or go to hell for them shortly.

Audio doesn't stop at time out and the announcers just said that with 11 minutes to go, they've not scored less than 65 points a game. Long way to go in 11 minutes but I saw what the Minutemen did at St. Joes.

Just joined in via the streaming free video thread .... Bills go up by 16 withLisch down on the bench for his third foul. Now cut to 52 to 38 at the under 12 timeout.

A very good game. A nice and much needed win. But everyone please remember one thing ---- it's La Salle. Danny has been doing very well as of late. Should have thrown down the dunk on that last breakaway. Do we get all those cuts with Xavier's Love, or Rhodey's Seawright, or St. Joe's Nivens in there? It's La Salle. We also need to win at Richmond as the season progresses. Dayton is doable and hopefully they've seen the Xavier defensive tapes on Roberts. But Dayton is at home so you have to figure Huelsman and Johnson and even dead weight Binnie do more than they did at the Cintas Center. Not only is it not La Salle, its also not the Tom Gola Center. Dayton is a tough place to win in even when the team ain't that good.

81 to 74 final.

35 seconds up seven Luke with two at the line. Do I say Book it.

Under a minute. Polk made one and one but La Salle scored. Our ball ....

1:29 up five withthe ball. Bills now shooting 63%

3:33 to go Bills 72 to 66. Meyer just got another bucket but they waived it off with a charge. Bad call. Luke has four. Polk with four. Husak gone.

Fove minutes to go .. Bills shooting 60% from field.

Husak gone. Played nine minutes to get his five fouls.

Just took the under 8 TV timeout with 7:58 to go. Bills 64 to 60 with La Salle to the line for two.

Some La Salle freshman walks on the court and makes back to back treys. A career high six. Parton or something like that. Bills down by three.

11:50 to go and we have put La Salle in the double bonus from here on out. Good thing La Salle seems to shoot free throws somewhat poorly.

Husak -- forearm shiver to th African guy ... Bryce now has four. They finally called one on La Salle, then made it up by calling even what the announcers thought was a phantom on Bryce for his third. Now four.

12:22 to go and we have seven team fouls, La Salle none. Up 3 as Lisch now has 18.

Steve .. Channel Surfing, scroll down to the LaSalle St. Louis link. You can't stream through FireFox. Liddell did a back door and got wide open for the slam. Nice and nice pass from Brown.

Tommie just scored four straight. Polk has his fourth foul. Is that a good thing?

Two minutes into the second half and Tommie is scoreless. Just doesn't look comfortable either. So much for the Polk over/under.

Good first half. Thanks for pointing out the free feed. It's not bad. They don't go off the air and I got a kick out of the color guy saying "is it just me or has Majerus lost like no weight?" Keep it up for the second half.

I don't disagree with the bear's overall statement. There always seems to be a lot of movement and jostling in spots 30 to 15. Once you get up into the top 15, I believe, you are there to pretty much stay. The next 15 are all bopping up and down based on what they did that week. Those above them never drop out it seems no matter what. I think the A10 is much more solid than in the past two years. I think even if the Bills don't make it AC, going to AC won't be that bad because the quality of play will actually be higher and more competitive. Who's ranked in the MoValley? Drake. Drake! DRAKE! Wow, how the mighty have fallen. But its all cyclical, bear's group will be back. I like X because of the depth. I like St. joe's because of Nivens, Calthes and the other guy Ferguson (I thnk). I'm telling you, if they have or develo a guard or two, look out. Temple is a dark horse because college ball is a guard's game and Christmas and Tyndale are good. So is Goldmire down at Charlotte. But he would need help. Ihave decided against traveling to La Salle today. Maybe I'm the bad penny.

Anybody see the game? I did --- I got it on CSTV here in Baltimore. I will say it again --- Dayton is one Brian Roberts' ACL tear away from oblivion. Dayton has eighteen points at half, eight from Marshall Johnson. Roberts was held to two. But the defense Xavier exhibited on Roberts was the key and is exactly what every team should do to him the rest of the year. Dayton does not have a point guard. Sandoval is not it and Warren is not it. So by default, much like Lisch and Liddell, it falls to Roberts. Xavier hasseled him the whole length of the court. When useless turds like Jimmie Binne or the Searcy kid would set picks, the defender playing the picker would jump out on Roberts and followed him for at least three, maybe four and even five dribbles away from the pick until the defender, either Lavendar or Burrell, would catch back up. Binnie ended up going 0 for 4 on the night and I think I witnessed all four of those misses in the first half. The only advantage he has over Polk is that he's bigger and can set a useful pick (at times). Searcy scored a bucket but he's an interior player and if he's going to set a high screen and then have the pass come in from a double teamed roberts, well, I'll pick that poison over Roberts anyday. Roberts only points in the first half was a disputed trey that was turned into a two after review. Huelsman is relatively useless in the middle so the loss of Little and Wright will see this team drop precipitously int he national standings. yes, they will win in the Dayton Decibel Dungeon because they always do but Daytons' arrow is definitely pointed down. In the grand scheme that is the A10 right now, Xavier is the top, and I'd rank St. Joe's in at #2. I watched St. Joe's obliterate Penn on its home floor in the Palestra last week and they ahndled UMass pretty well the other night at Alumni Hall. I still like what Calathes and Nivens bring to the court and if they only had some guards, if Jalloh ahd not transfered, they'd be the cream of the crop easily. UMass and Rhode Island go at the three and four spots right now. Charlotte might be next but I haven't seen much of the 49ers so far. Then might come Dayton but how the heck the #16 ranked team in the country is the sixth best team in the A10 has got to be a real puzzle. Temple hs two players in Christmas and Tyndale --- the Owls might even be better than the Fryers right now. I can see Dayton, at 14 - 3, putting up 22 or even 23 wins given their home court advantage. Little and Wirght will be back but if all the other A10 teams didn't see how you beat Dayton as exhibited last night, shame on them. Xavier was impressive, however i don't know what their strength is. Certainly it revolves aroudn the fact that they can throw nine guys at you. Having Graves adn Duncan off your bench is downright criminal. Stand eitehr one of those up against Eckerle, Husak and Brown and one can easily see the dilemma we face. I guess I jsut haven't seen the right game with this team yet but Lavendar just doesn't do for me what he does for the rest of the viewing world. The pass he threw to Brown and Brown's subsequent dunk from somewhere up near the rafters in the first half was the quintessential definition of what a point guard should be doing. He had six assists but only three points on 1 of 4 shooting. So I don't know. Xavier depth is what one needs to win post season tournaments like the one in AC. Plus, if they get a guy hurt, nine deep certainly takes the sting out of that. Gregory was extremely hamstrung with Little and Wright in black warm ups on the end of the bench. CSTV went with Pete Gillen as the color guy. They should always ban former coaches or guys with former program connections from doing games like that. I mean, having the winningest coach in Xavier history doing the game --- if I were a Dayton fan, I'd have shut the sound down for sure. The halftime show was on the "Dayton Flight Team" or "Dayton Fly Boys." What a bunch of crap. Vee would have loved it. Catchy little nicknames Wright, Little and Johnson have given themselves as they demonstrate their "high flying" dunk act and multi-hand slapping congratulatory routines. They will make the And1 team proud some day. Of course, all this will be reversed when X goes into Dayton late February and gets creamed. Such is life.

Unfortunately, there is no Rick Majerus, the private person. Rick Majerus is defined by him being Saint Louis University's basketball coach. All utterances, whether official or not, get interpreted that way. making statement while wearing invisible hats just doesn't work. Best to avoid such things at all costs.

... to see where we were headed but with two games coming up to end this month, with both on the road, things are not looking good. A mediocre or even a so-so season is one that says win at home, lose on the road. We have just dropped two home conference games. Granted, both were in overtime but that doesn't bode well for the trend. The trend is decidedly down right now. Making Atlantic City might be a real problem as I see it giving this trend at this time of year. One and three with two conference losses at home. Twelve games remaining. We could not win on the road, that trend is intact. Now we cannot defend the home court either right now. Road games at La Salle, Dayton, Richmond, Umass, Charlotte, St. Joe's and Duquesne. Anybody see a win in there right now? I would have thought La Salle and Richmond back in November but now, I don't know -- yes I do, I sincerely doubt it.. Lose those two, and Atlantic City is out of the question. It will take a relative miracle to win at any of the other four places. With all losses, the conference record goes to 1 and 10. At home, we have Umass, Fordham, St. Bonaventure, Xavier and GeeDub. Umass and Xavier will be better than us. Three and two at home says the trend. For a final record of 4 and 12. Worst case scenario. Steal one of the two on the road and go up to 5 and 11. Steal another and 6 and 10 should get you there. Maybe we get lucky and beat Umass at home. I can't see getting past Xavier but Xavier has had a hard time in St. Louis lately. I guess I'll be there Saturday. See how the sumo match goes this time. In a nothing gym with a nothing opponent.

You realize that means probably two sites ---- Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. US Bank Arena and the Civic Center. Neither X nor Duquesne play their home games there so that's at least a little better than YouDee Arena. I'm trying to ask that A10 group that came on here and pushed their web site but didn't see an area for discussion. Anybody else?