Monday, January 12, 2009

Rankings Update 1/12

We moved up one spot in the AP poll to 15th and jumped two spots in the ESPN/USA Today poll. As reported earlier our RPI and SOS are headed south now that we are in conference play. If we can manage 12 wins in conference I think we will be 'AT LARGE' come mid March.

Some other notes and tidbits around the XU program:

- Brian Walsh is most likely headed for a redshirt season. Getting him an extra year would be great after playing spottingly in 8 games this season. His hand should be fine by season's end but why waste a complete year for a minute or two a game?

- Also Miller has alluded to X signing a big man in the spring. Most feel it will be Kyryl Natyazhko the 6-11 big man at IMG Academy in Florida. I have also seen DaShonte Riley, 6-10 post from Detroit Country Day, being mentioned as a possible. Prepstars rates them #58 and #53 respectively so I think we would be in good company either way.

- Speaking of big men the 6-9 Adreian Payne (class of 2010) was on the floor for last week's game against SLU. Most feel he is a strong UD lean. Interesting kid and prospect. Thad has been after him for awhile too.

- Also it is good to see Brad Redford starting to increase his minutes. As his minutes have climbed so has his confidence. He has now hit 19-37 from 3 point land (51%) but still needs several more shots to be counted in with the league leaders. IF he continues to deliver 8-12 points a game off the bench in A10 play he will deserve some consideration for All Newcomer team for the league.

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