Quote from: Elonsmusk on Today at 09:37:25 AMYou've been a big Chase Ross fan over the years.  Any thoughts around his fall off defensively, and offensively this season?  His 91 O-Rating in Big East play, including his dud yesterday sure doesn't help a squad win. 

Shaka has had 1 year in the last 14, prior to this year where his teams weren't ranked Top 50 in Defense, and that was Year 1 at MU.  I look at this year as an outlier.

Being a chase ross fan, means you like defense.

Because no one on this entire roster is a "big east" level defender except him.

Quote from: panda on Today at 10:00:06 AM2 portal additions means that only 1 player from the current roster leaves. Sorry I'm not buying that is a tournament team, unless we find two massive portal additions.

Ok.

Quote from: GoldenEagles03 on Today at 09:52:27 AMA lot of our issues came from 1 position.

Adding 2 or 3 strong players from the portal easily gives this team a chance at being a tournament team.

Having abysmal team defense is not a "one position" issue. 2018-2019 Markus Howard would be the second best defender on this team.

And if we arn't a tournament team next year, we are looking for a new coach.

Quote from: GoldenEagles03 on Today at 09:52:27 AMIt's not that crazy. A lot of our issues came from 1 position. Our Freshman and Sophomores will become Sophomores and Juniors. Then we add another strong Freshman class.

Adding 2 or 3 strong players from the portal easily gives this team a chance at being a tournament team.

2 portal additions means that only 1 player from the current roster leaves. Sorry I'm not buying that is a tournament team, unless we find two massive portal additions.

Quote from: Vander Blue Man Group on Today at 09:34:01 AMAnnouncing it yesterday vs. NMD is not going to make any difference in regard to it reaching the right audience (donors, prospective transfers, etc.).

Right, that's my point. I think this is a message tailored directly to a specific target audience, likely some whales whose unhappiness has been growing as the season has gone on. My curiosity is a function of wondering what's occurred of late to make MU decide they need to go public with this. Shaka could have jumped into the portal a month from now without announcing his intent this weekend. Why broadcast it now? I suspect there's a behind-the-scenes reason.

And I don't imagine many prospective transfers are watching Shaka postgame press conferences or paying attention to the inner workings of MU basketball in mid-February, so it's probably not that.

Nigel, Royce and Stevens are not going anywhere.  Zero concern about that.

Quote from: panda on Today at 09:47:44 AMI legitimately cannot believe people have watched this team all year and think we can turn into a tournament team with just two portal additions and freshmen contributions.

It's not that crazy. A lot of our issues came from 1 position. Our Freshman and Sophomores will become Sophomores and Juniors. Then we add another strong Freshman class.

Adding 2 or 3 strong players from the portal easily gives this team a chance at being a tournament team.

Quote from: Mu8891 on Today at 07:55:15 AMAnd... another game, another loss.

James is a stud and Parham is close to being a stud.  Both had fantastic games today, and have been playing great for weeks.

And our fearless leader had them sitting behind Hamilton and Jones. Think about that for a minute...

There was no combination of starting lineups or rotations that was making this team a tournament team. It seems like Shaka is admitting his mistakes and coming around to the idea of the portal so no sense in worrying about this season and everything negative that happened.

We got a young core to perform as one of the better trios in the league. If the staff takes advantage of that and swings big in the portal, all can be forgotten.

Quote from: jfp61 on Today at 09:24:07 AMWe just watched a bad Xavier team put up 1.331 PPP againist Marquette.

And people are being positive.

Gross

I legitimately cannot believe people have watched this team all year and think we can turn into a tournament team with just two portal additions and freshmen contributions.

Quote from: jfp61 on Today at 09:24:07 AMWe just watched a bad Xavier team put up 1.331 PPP againist Marquette.

And people are being positive.

Gross

100%.  How dare we be positive when it looks like we have multiple young stars to build around, some nice incoming redshirt & freshman talent, and the news that Marquette will use the portal going forward. 

It definitely makes more sense to focus entirely on this awful season and wallow in the disappointment.

Thanks for setting us straight!