cooperstown

Baseball, moreso than any other professional sport, has always placed a tremendous degree of importance on statistics. It helps define and retell the history of the game. The accomplishments of many of the greatest players of the game become lessened when their stats are overshadowed by guys whose artificially-inflated stats were created through chemical enhancement.

Sure there is. There is nothing wrong with trying to ensure the record is set factually straight. I don't see anything improper with letting people know that Mbodj's attempted stomp, while repugnant, did not actually strike Frease and add to/cause his injuries. If that's accurate, let it be known. More importantly, Cronin was made it a point to say that it was "irrelevent" to him, which I assume he means from a punishment perspective. As far as Yancy being charged, he said there's no excuse whether or not he was actually being charged (I certainly don't see that in the video personally), so I don't see this as him repudiating his prior statements. Let's see what action he actually takes before there is a claim he is attempting to justify lesser suspensions.

While I have grown to like Cronin personally, I would agree that he's not cut out to be a big time Big East coach. That being said, the Big East will become a much-watered down version of itself over the next few years and not the BE we have all known and loved and that he could find more success at that point. Again, though, just not sure that would considered valid justification for keeping him around. Ultimately, I think Cronin is more of a MAC-level coach.

Coming back from ground zero in the toughest basketball conference in the country would be a tough task for John Wooden. I think there has been some progress, though not as much as may have been expected at this point. Once the conference is weakened due to realignments, I think UC will fare much better, though I'm not sure that's much of a selling point for keeping Cronin in his position.

If the incident was alleged to have occurred somewhere around the time he jumped on the table, then I doubt there was such an incident. There were still alot of people around the area at that time and the incident would easily have been witnessed by many people. I just think that you'd be hearing a ton more about this if legitimate eyewitnesses truly did observe such an assault. Yes, Frease was acting "punkish" at that point, but I guess if I give anyone a semi-free pass at that point to do so, it would be him, given what had just happened to him. I don't, however, give XU officials any type of pass for letting their players hang on the court after such an ugly episode. It'll be interesting to see how XU ultimately resolves the situation on their side, as they would receive a failing grade for their handling of the matter to this point.

Not sure. Certainly seems to happen with some frequency to professional athletes. Oddly enough, oftentimes seems to happen to athletes who are some of the better performers in their sport. Probably coincidence.....

UC is very average. XU is very, very good. And deep. UC is going to get thrashed once they hit conference play.

Still think this way? No question it's a "consideration" at this point. How serious a consideration is debateable, but pretty clear it's being discussed by the programs. Upon further reflection, I am going to guess that we will see a one-year hiatus of this game.

If Frease did, in fact, strike the lady - which certainly doesn't appear in the video - it's a very big deal. Every bit as big as Gates' punches and Mbodj's kick. If this incident never actually happened - and I'm starting to feel it didn't or we'd have heard a lot more about it by now and there probably would be some video somewhere of it - then I agree that video of him jumping on the table is not a particularly big deal.

Don't think so. Holloway was clearly referring to his own teammates and throwing them some "props" by referring to the as "gangstas." He was, however, articulate enough to clarify that they weren't "thugs", only gangstas. Wasn't about 3 weeks or so ago that there was a really nice, touchy-feely story in the paper about loveable Holloway?

Gates has to be one of the more disappointing UC players in recent history from the standpoint of potential to what he has actually accomplished.

So I take it from this statement that these highly unusual circumstances will demonstrate there may have been an unintentional violation of the drug program - for which, of course, Braun was in no way personally responsible. No doubt someone slipped some PED in his beer or that the guy he hired to give him a flu shot in a back alley one midnight must have inadvertantly injected him with an illegal steroid. He was clearly duped into taking these substances and was the simply the unwitting fall guy in this steroid scandal. I hope when the real, true full story of his victimization is released, it does not cause me to break down and cry. It sounds as though it will be a quite a sad story.

How in the world have you made this determination already? He looked and sounded extremely sincere in the presser and has the support of the UC President and AD. Give him a couple days to compile the necessary information and sort things out and then make your assessment on whether his threats are without substance. I think he will dismiss one or two players from the team and issue a very lengthy suspension to 2 players. And he hasn't exactly kowtowed to all of Gates' indescretions in the past, having suspended him last season for violating team rules (yelling at an asst. coach).

Just keep in mind that even "being prepared" or "aware of your surroundings" doesn't eliminate any possibility of being hit. There were 5-6 UC players in very close proxmity to him - hard to account for or prepare yourself for every one of their actions. Especially in an environment where you really don't expect it to turn into a good old-fashioned street brawl.

It certainly looks to me as though he's simply trying to keep space between UC players and his teammate that had already been hit. He did not appear, from the video I watched, to go into UC players swinging or on the attack. He simply had his arms extended out in front of him. What is it you see him doing?

You could find very few high D1 programs that don't have some "character issues" on their team. I don't know that UC's is especially worse than most. I do like how Mick has dealt with some of his problem children in the past and I think he'll do the right thing now. That being said, I totally agree that if you are going to have these types of problems with your program, you better win and win consistently so as to keep the masses from focusing on these issues. He very well may be looking at his final season at UC, as I don't think things are going to get much more rosey in Clifton for the remainder of this year.

You must be very talented to be able to watch five or six persons surrounding you at the same time, some of them only in your peripheral vision, discern which one is most likely to hit you first, and then react to that attack - all while there is screaming and craziness going on around you. You're seriously not criticizing him for going "into the mob" to help his teammates, right?

Some of Holloway's postgame remarks: "I talked to that whole staff (referring to UC coaches and players). I said this is my city. I'm cut from a different cloth. None of them guys on their team is like me. I let the whole staff know none of them was like me." "We got a whole bunch of gangsters in the locker room." "That's what the Crosstown Shootout is about. Guys getting ejected, guys throwing elbows." "You don't let people disrespect you. That's what I'm about. I don't regret anything that happened." "That's what you're going to see from Xavier and Cincinnati. We got disrespected a little bit before the game." "We went out there and zipped them up at the end of the game." This was after he told a reporter to tweet, "XU put them in a body bag." No need for any apologists to remind us he's still a kid. He's not (he's 22). He is a punk though.

So any chance this game doesn't get played next year? I personally think it will - time heals all wounds. But Mack's response to the question was pretty non-commmital as I recall (can't seem to re-access XU post-game conference - likely because X is busy editing out all of Lyons and Holloway's stupid comments. Which would essentially be everything that came out of their mouths).

I agree, but am glad he did. For me personally, it's good to know they are such punks. Now I know not to root for these guys. Which, of course, makes it tough to root for X in general since they're such a big part of their team.

Interesting. Perhaps it's just my computer or my lack of ability how to use one intelligently, but I can't get the press conference to play again. Usually I'm adept enough to know how to clink on a link. Anyone else unable to access? Certainly wouldn't be surprised if X pulled it. Didn't exactly shed their program in a real positive light....

Well, frankly, that's a shame then. Guy for whom you may have had the most symparthy in this whole affair may turn out to be as big a villian as Gates or big a "gangsta" as double-digit IQ Holloway.....

So, as best you know at this time, the story is accurate?

Sounds like you don't think it's justified? Or that he wasn't sincere?

Not a lot of people prepare for a street brawl or know the best tactics how to respond should they find themselves in the middle of one. Pretty tough grading system if you blame Frease for not being sufficiently aware of all the possible people who could hit him while he was in the process of defending a teammate. Sympathy level for him goes down quite a bit if he was involved in the post-game incident. Good to hear it's likely he wasn't.