(12-07-2017 01:31 PM)levydl Wrote: (12-07-2017 12:22 PM)bearcatmill Wrote: Making fun of a cancer victim is a little higher on the pecking order than some good natured ribbing. This is the same fanbase who wished death upon Huggs, when he had the heart attack.
You think the XU students knew that she'd died a decade ago? If so, the joke, such as it was, wouldn't even make sense. Is Chris Mack's mother alive? I certainly have no clue.
It was a dumb joke about Cronin and his mother. No better or worse than your good-natured ribbing. Girls at that school are ugly, LOL hilarious bro high five! All in good fun, we're so much better than they are . . .
I actually found the most insulting/offending part of that...banner?...to be the stupid "hashtag" thing. "Zip'em'up"??? Really??? They're still stuck on the whole Tu Holloway "gansta" talk?
The part of Mick's mother is unfortunate and inadvertent. I agree that they (the frat boys involved here) didn't know or care that Mick's mother died. It is a stupid and lame taunt in any case. And yeah, the University has no control over that...though it does paint Xavier in an unflattering light.
Back to the "Chris Mack Style" of playing basketball... It is clear that for a couple of coaches now, Xavier has recruited players who have more raw "talent" than "high character." It is infuriating that people still look (and talk about) UC as the "urban" school that cares more about winning than academics, and Xavier as the "Catholic" school that is "above" such things when the situation is actually EXACTLY opposite. UC has shown a much greater commitment...ACROSS SPORTS...about "character" and academics and sportsmanship than most schools and certainly more than Xavier has. Mack, Miller, and Matta all recruited guys who had...ah...character issues. But they won. Even in the "THuggins" era, UC didn't have "more than average" issues with players...and even after UC, those guys didn't have more than the "average" number of issues. But in the rebuilding years, Mick recruited players who by-and-large kept their "noses clean" and conducted themselves well. And when problems did arise...like the infamous "Xavier Brawl"... Mick dealt with those problems decisively and with GREATER discipline than Xavier.
The one problem I do have in this discussion between Mack and Cronin is that Mack (and Miller...and Matta...) have a commitment to winning that trumps other concerns. Now, I don't want Mick to go to the extreme of wanting to win so badly he puts up with the antics of a Macura, Halloway, or Freaze with no problems, but I would like to see Mick display some importance on winning. If there is a high-talent kid out there with some sort of issues...but issues Mick could work with...I'd like to see us take some chances. Part of coaching is bringing these kids along and growing them. I'd like to see Mick growing some of these kids who Mack (and Miller, and Matta) just let be.
Of course the rub is this: is a kid like Tu Holloway or JP Macura really able to "be coached"? (Not just on the court but also in their personal lives?) I suspect one of the reasons kids like these end up at a Xavier, playing for Chris Mack, is BECAUSE Mack is willing to let the off-the-court stuff slide so long as the kid is winning on the court. This is nothing new...we saw that at Louisville (with Chane Behannan among others) and Syracuse and other places. Kids who don't want to be challenged will usually follow the course of least resistance.