After Game Seven's monsoon finish, baseball now has only the World Series to play before it finally moves over to allow college basketball to start sharing time with college football and the NFL. Things on the Xavier front haven't gotten any better since the suspension of Isiah Philmore but, for the moment, they haven gotten worse. As a matter of fact, the Shootaround today starts with a bit of a bright note.
CBSSports.com Top 50 point guards: Scroll down past Isaiah Canaan at number one (where Phil Pressey should be), Mark Lyons at #11, and Kevin Dillard of Dayton at #28, and you'll find Semaj Christon at #42. Christon is nothing close to what Xavier fans are used to seeing at the point, preferring to drive and score for himself, but he has the potential to be a star right away.
Atlantic 10 Preview: New additions + returning talent = Luh-Oh-Ded: Unfortunately, that isn't enough to budge Xavier from 10th in this preseason look at the Atlantic 10. It's hard to argue with any of the conclusions drawn here, except that Jeff Robinson is someone you want to get the ball to.
XU, UC collaborating on Crosstown Classic events: The neutering of the Crosstown Shootout continues but not all that comes from that is bad. Getting more people into the Freedom Center is never a bad thing, and surely no one can argue against a 5k. Still, it's hard to get used to this newer, friendlier rivalry.
A case study of a historic LSU-LMU matchup: One game, one overtime, 289 points. This article is an excellent read on the free-scoring early 90s and the comparative crawl at which games are played now. Possesions and points are both down despite changes made specifically to open up the game. Last season, as exciting as it was at times, was the slowest and lowest scoring of the modern era.
Minnesota Gophers assistant Saul Smith on leave after DUI arrest: Not content to ride his father's coattails to both a college career he didn't deserve, and a coaching job he apparently can't handle, Saul Smith decided to make a name for himself. His method, a DUI arrest, certainly garnered attention, but it probably wasn't the kind he wanted.