What Banners is all about

Xavier has a bit of time between games here and, frankly, thinking about them isn't all that enjoyable right now. I'm going to take this time to, instead, re-introduce you to the staff here at Banners and let you know what to expect from us throughout the season. For starters, we're on Twitter constantly. If you are one of the 1,059 followers we have as of this very moment, we're glad to have you, if not, follow us at @BannersParkway. You'll get game updates, a constant flow of Xavier news, and the occasional musing on Cleveland. If you are more of a Facebook person, you can like our page right here. The same articles go there, just not all the things that make Twitter what it is.

Who we are:

There are three of us on staff at Banners now. The term "staff" is here used to mean people submitting articles. If you are interested in becoming a member of that staff, email us at bannersonparkway at gmail.com and we'll be in touch. For now though, the three of us all share a last name.

I'm Brad, and I handle half of the previews and the recaps that you'll find after every game. When I was born my Dad placed a basketball in my crib and I've been following that road ever since. My illustrious career playing the game was mostly due to the charity of coaches that apparently loved having a 5'9" shooting guard that couldn't shoot and ended after my senior year of college, but I've stayed involved with coaching and refereeing at the college and high school levels and, of course, watching all the time.

Following in my footsteps is Joel, who handles the other half of the previews and the Boxscore Breakdown just 40 minutes after each game. Joel's skills took him to baseball in college but he kept the book for our basketball team and joined on as a special assistant when I began coaching. Joel's proclivity for numbers shapes a lot of the content on the site.

Bryan is the newest member on staff and will be contributing in ways that only he is certain of. Bryan has watched more basketball than anyone else on the staff by virtue of attending every game of both his older and younger siblings. I'm sure being born in the middle has it's advantages, but watching fourth grade basketball and pretending to care is probably not one of them.

All three of us come by both our Xavier fandom and our love of the game from our Dad. He appears with his uniquely old school take in every Boxscore Breakdown and loudly insists at any family gathering that the only reason anyone reads this site is because they are hoping that we turn more control over to him.

What we do:

Joel and I started the Xavier Examiner in 2010 with the goal of being the Xavier basketball blog that we would want to read. At that time we frequently went days at a time without a single hit. (How that happens on the internet, I can't even comprehend). While we, thankfully, have more of an audience now, our goal remains the same. We strive to provide the most comprehensive and detailed coverage of Xavier basketball that you will find anywhere on the internet, in the papers, or even the dark recesses of your own mind. That is our goal and we take it, as much as we take anything, seriously.

To that end, we're going to saturate your mind on game days. Each game gets its own preview with a full look at the opponent. We rely very heavily on weighted efficiency numbers and advanced metrics, but we also watch a good deal of basketball in order to make sure that when you sit down on the couch, you know what Xavier's competition is about to do.

During games you can find a live chat as well as all the raw numbers in a game thread that generally goes up about 15 minutes before tip off. If that's not your speed, we absolutely will take over your Twitter feed despite Joel's continued insistence that he'll back off. To paraphrase Sgt. Lincon Osiris in Tropic Thunder, we just get excited about our basketball.

Between 40 minutes and one hour after the conclusion of each game the Boxscore Breakdown will come out. That first look back at the game gets heavily into the box score (get it!) to see what the numbers say about the action. Depending on tip time, a narrative recap comes out either later that evening or early the next morning and will attempt to tell the story of the game in a linear fashion. Inside that recap are found the Tweet of the Game and embedded highlights.

In addition to game coverage, we'll also try to roll out articles that tell the story of the team. That means both news and analysis. Whether that is Dee Davis rediscovering his mojo, Jalen Reynolds being suspended, or a look at the unwritten rules of the game, we won't let a day go by where we don't get you some information on your, and our, favorite team.

And ultimately, that's what Banners on the Parkway is about. We aren't some guys who some corporate conglomerate assigned to your team. We're fans. We grew up with Gary Lumpkin and Lenny Brown, spent time in our driveway pretending to be Kevin Frey, and have listened to Byron and Joe through all amounts of static from whatever part of the country we happened to be in. This isn't supposed to a soulless site full of generic articles. We want this to be the place you come to feel the pulse of the Xavier community and the team. So, call us out if you think we're wrong, vent or celebrate on the recaps, and never stop telling us what you think. This is our team, and we want this to be your site.