Xavier's Brilliant Strategy

[Sonoma Muskie]

I am compellled to admit my error in repeatedly harping on the Muskies tendency to fall behind opponents early in games. Clearly it is a brilliant strategy intended to lull the other teams into a false sense of confidence in order demonstrate Xavier's great self confidence, poise, team unity, defensive tenacity & ability to devastate the opposition with truly disheartening offensive barrages resulting dramatic turn arounds. Just wish I understood the situation a few weeks ago in order avoid the gnashing of myteeth, pound of my heart & spewing profanities heard throughout my neighborhood.

Georgia & Purdue wins show the Muskies have killer instinct, but it is a little sadistic to toy with your victims like a cat before delivering the coup de gras!

[Mr. Neutral]

I think it's a concerted effort by the players and coaching staff to give me a massive heart attack, and put me out of my misery for once and for all.

I, too, wish X wouldn't have these slow starts (you have to figure it's going to catch up with us at some point) but you can't argue with the strong finishes.

[finalfourorbust]

Liberal substitutions and keeping your players rested and out of foul trouble in the 1st half of games allows you to be very aggressive on defense against tired opponents in the second half. Tennessee did the same thing to Xavier at the Cintas Center and it was very effective in wearing Xavier down. The frequent substitutions in the first half of games sometimes leads to somewhat ragged play, but, usually pays dividends down the strech. Well rested players also seem to be better foul shooters when it counts.

[Sonoma Muskie]

In the early minutes of the Georgia & Purdue games as well as in others this season Xavier appeared tenative as they were "feeling out" their opponents. Their passing was not crisp & sometimes ill-advised.
Of course it is unrealistic to expect for any team to perform at their highest level of intensity for a full 40 min. so often there are a series of alternating runs by each team. But as an unabashed Xavier fan I dream of what this team could do with the depth of 9 able players performing optimally. With the likes of NC, Memphis, UCLA & Tennessee this year X needs that type of performance to win the NCAA championship.

Yes, Lavender particularly was very tired at the end of the Tenn game. But some of our younger players made poor decisions resluting in late turnovers. X is a much more experienced, healthier & deeper team now

[CarlosTheJackal]

Getting more reliable time out of Dante, even with his mistakes and lapses, was the unintended but very important consequence of the games where we had to live without Drew full time.Putting Dante in for the last minute before each media time out is helping us quite a bit. That is, as others observe, giving us some quality time.

I wish BJ could play 6 solid minutes of D at a time, it would so enhance the substitution and rest patterns.

Now give me one of those grass coupes, I'm always thinking green. That guy over there will have the coup de grace.

It's a great day to be a Muskie!