Xavier Game
- Thread starter kranmars
- Start date
Bottom line: This team, in its 3rd year, is a complete and utter disappointment and failure to have to settle for an NIT berth.
This season, from the Europe trip to September claims of gelling come February, has been a joke.
I'm sick and tired of the "wait til next year" speeches.
NIT = complete failure
This season, from the Europe trip to September claims of gelling come February, has been a joke.
I'm sick and tired of the "wait til next year" speeches.
NIT = complete failure
Unfortunately, i was working last night so i had to tape the game. You could tell from the onset that the players heads were not there. Initially, rebounding was really good, the players crashed the boards and were aggressive. But, like many of the times we lose, we settled for jump shots. D'Angelo was off terribly, and you can tell in his face he had zero confidence in his shot. That transfers over to the team, because there is nobody to take "that shot" when needed. Even though his stats wont show it, I liked the way Jordan played. He at least was aggressive and was trying to create inside shots. If you watch the game again, there were so many lapses when there was no motion on offense, nobody creating shots for their teammates. Xavier was running double picks inside to create a lane, the johnnies were swinging it around the outside and....jump shot! Greene said it right, the defense was horrible and the transition baskets werent there because of lack of defense. I think this is the game that will bite us inf we win out ( and that wont be an easy task), one win in the BE tourney is no guarantee of a bid. Unfortunately, I think we are headed to the NIT unless this team can get a fire lit under their *ss again. As usual, I will root for them 100% and i hope im wrong here fellas. Go Johnnies!!
I agree with you completely if NIT ends up being the result, but I think we are still alive for the NCAA (and not just by virtue of winning the BET). Win the last two (obviously both must-wins) to get to 20 and see where this shakes out heading into the BET. I think this is at least a 4 bid league, and if the obvious 2 + Xavier are in, if we can stay in front of Prov, GTown, and Marquette we may be able to make a case for ourselves on that narrow basis alone. On and on, lot of scenarios (good and bad).
But if we don't make the NCAA there is not a single excuse or rationalization that exists. Lav still has us headed in the right direction in the big picture, but this season will be a failure.
100% spot on. The scary part about that lineup was you could hear about 5 people in my section asking aloud where the scoring was going to come from with that group. And then we proceeded to not score between 6:04 and 1:42 when Lav finally brought Jordan and Harrison back.
If a result is completely, absolutely predictable to fans sitting in the crowd then a coaching staff the caliber of ours should be able to get out in front of it. Giving us so little chance to score when we were having trouble scoring in the first place, and not capitalizing on how atrociously Xavier played offensively between the 12 and 4 minute marks of the 1st half, was a huge turning point in that game and it went against us in part because of an absolutely mind-boggling lineup being used for almost 5 minutes as you noted. That is something that is avoidable.
Mack's comments in Enquirer
He had special praise for Reynolds, who set new highs in points (17) and rebounds (16) and was a crucial interior presence when Matt Stainbrook was sidelined with foul trouble. Mack thought the freshman was the best player on the floor. Reynolds said he was just doing his job.
Reynolds knows Sampson from Brewster, that could be a factor trying to show the big guy.
He had special praise for Reynolds, who set new highs in points (17) and rebounds (16) and was a crucial interior presence when Matt Stainbrook was sidelined with foul trouble. Mack thought the freshman was the best player on the floor. Reynolds said he was just doing his job.
Reynolds knows Sampson from Brewster, that could be a factor trying to show the big guy.
Yes all disappointed but it is what it is. not a failure of a season but not one we all anticipated. Jordan will be a very good player he is a yr or 2 away from the next level A great player would have done enough to get us a win against Xavier We lost close games during the season that we should have won thereby making us a no brainer for the NCAA ..Sampson has the talent to move to the next level next yr But should he depends on where he will be in the draft Bottom line coach recruited long and lengthy players. He neglected to bring in outside shooters who could penetrate and create and shoot on the move not just a spot up shooter Harrison must stay and develop if he has any aspirations toward next level Hope we can get to 20 wins Do not see us winning BET So we settle for NIT and hopefully wins games there What is important to bring in shooters and a big in our next recruiting class Still behind coach The team try's and does their best Will pull for them till season ends
MarkRedman
Well-known member
The only good thing about last night's game was the opportunity to meet up with Fuschia and have a few cold ones together
Two things on the game last night:
(1) We might have been -12 coming out of timeouts. Xavier got 4 layups/dunks inbounding underneath after a stoppage. We come out of a timeout with the ball underneath and - after the obligatory adventure just getting the ball inbounds - look like we need another timeout.
(Speaking of timeouts, the one Mack banged just before the 12 minute TV was masterful. We had just gotten it to 1 on a Jordan layup and the crowd was louder than it had been all game. He completely took the air out of the building, they came out of the TO and hit a 3, and we never got closer than 4 the rest of the way. Not waiting for the 12 minute TV to call one - and then getting the benefit of essentially a double TO with the 12 minute TV included to further deflate the Garden - was really strong coaching.)
(2) If we are going to maximize wins the rest of the season the single biggest issue facing this team is getting more production from Greene and Pointer's minutes. We are locked into 40-50 close to empty minutes from them lately and it's really hurting us. I feel for Lav here because there isn't an easy answer - we don't really have a true college small-forward on the roster. But we have to try something different, and it probably involves some variation of Branch and Sanchez. Those two are playing better than Greene and Pointer right now, and it's not particularly close.
(1) We might have been -12 coming out of timeouts. Xavier got 4 layups/dunks inbounding underneath after a stoppage. We come out of a timeout with the ball underneath and - after the obligatory adventure just getting the ball inbounds - look like we need another timeout.
(Speaking of timeouts, the one Mack banged just before the 12 minute TV was masterful. We had just gotten it to 1 on a Jordan layup and the crowd was louder than it had been all game. He completely took the air out of the building, they came out of the TO and hit a 3, and we never got closer than 4 the rest of the way. Not waiting for the 12 minute TV to call one - and then getting the benefit of essentially a double TO with the 12 minute TV included to further deflate the Garden - was really strong coaching.)
(2) If we are going to maximize wins the rest of the season the single biggest issue facing this team is getting more production from Greene and Pointer's minutes. We are locked into 40-50 close to empty minutes from them lately and it's really hurting us. I feel for Lav here because there isn't an easy answer - we don't really have a true college small-forward on the roster. But we have to try something different, and it probably involves some variation of Branch and Sanchez. Those two are playing better than Greene and Pointer right now, and it's not particularly close.
It has gotten to the point of comedy - literally, we were sitting there laughing at it last night. One they got in the 1st half was off the grammar school box play: two bigs on the blocks backscreen two guards at the elbows. They got an uncontested layup out of it! Greene and Sampson were the culprits that time around.
But in all seriousness you make a good point. We don't allow ourselves margin for error to consistently get outclassed in this area. It almost cost us the Providence game and it certainly didn't help last night. Add on top of it how ineffective we are out of bounds (it usually either goes into the corner or launched out to half-court) and it's a negative spread almost every game.
Nice post. I thought to myself at least 10 times last night, "Mack's coaching is the difference right now." Is Xavier anywhere near as talented as we are? I don't think so.
We called a timeout I think with around 8 or 9 minutes left in the game and ended up with DLO heaving a 30 footer to try and beat the shot clock. How does that happen? What the heck is Lav saying during these timeouts that we stood around for 15 seconds with a shortened clock and settled for a shot way behind the NBA line? I don't know but credit Mack. A coach deserves that kind of praise when you know his team wants to play slow, and even though they were sloppy at times he had them playing at exactly the desired pace all game long. Really impressive job by him.
The DLo 30 footer out of the timeout was definitely the low last night strategically. That was incredible.
Great point on coaching last night. Lavin has been coaching his tail off the last month (both on the court and keeping this group together mentally after the slow start), but he got worked out by Mack last night. Xavier was dreadful offensively for the first 34 minutes of this game, but just look at the play-by-play and how many "Timeout ----->made shot by Xavier" sequences there were. The back to back dunk and layup by Reynolds and Stainbrook - when we were in zone! - under the 3 minute mark were really well drawn up plays too, and were backbreakers as we had just scored to get it to 4 both times.
But the players also didn't show up. Give Christon a lot of credit too - he broke us down off the dribble 3 straight possessions for layups/dunks when we got it close in the last few minutes. If we get stops on 1 or more of those possessions game could have gone a different way and he made it look easy.
Nice JPM 14 analysis of Xavier strategy;
http://www.newyorkbasketball.blogspot.com/2014/02/xavier-pounds-way-to-big-win-vs-st-johns.html
http://www.newyorkbasketball.blogspot.com/2014/02/xavier-pounds-way-to-big-win-vs-st-johns.html
