Corey over at Summit Madness covers the Summit League primarily for himself and his readers, but has also been published Basketball Prospectus and in the Basketball Prospectus 2011-12 Season Preview book. He ran an Oakland Golden Grizzlies blog last year, but is starting fresh this season covering the entire Summit League. His hustle for his blog last year was pretty impressive, and Summit League fans should bookmark his new site this season.
More pertinently for our readership here, he got together with Brad for a little Q&A session on the upcoming Xavier v. IPFW matchup. They exchanged, in part:
IPFW played at Xavier in an overtime loss around this time last year. Holloway was a beast, as always, and the XU frontcourt dominated IPFW. That said, the Mastodons were able to keep it close with steady guard play and lots of three-pointers. We know about Holloway's defensive prowess, but how have the other backcourt members progressed on the defensive end?
Mark Lyons is vicious when he is on the ball. He is, if anything, even quicker than Holloway and is much more likely to try to force a turnover. Off the ball Lyons can get lost though; teams that shoot well from deep will try to run him off screens and try to catch him gambling. Dezmine Wells is a physical freak, and the only thing that could keep him from being an elite defender would be his lack of experience, but I don't see that happening. He's strong and committed to working on both. Dee Davis and Brad Redford, the other two guards, both have their defensive drawbacks. Davis is very generously listed at 6-foot-0, so he allows shooting space. Redford wasn't great defensively before his knee surgery, and his lateral quickness is even more limited now.
Catch the rest of the interview here. Working with Corey was great; we look forward to getting back together with him when Xavier takes on Summit League opponent Oral Roberts in December. In the meantime, catch all your Summit League news at Summit Madness and all your X info right here with us.