No St. John game thread?

[Anti-Homer]

Playing Hunter is not the problem. Educating Hunter is the problem. Educating the entire team is the problem.

Agreed. Starts with the recruiters masquerading as coaches. We'll see what Christopher is made of this offseason. Steele certainly doesn't act like a guy whose job is on the line, thanks to Mccaw, or whatever his FIL's last name is.

[pdxmuskie]

There can't be any doubt at this point, Travis has to go.

[longliveskip]

Hunter should be strapped to the bench. He's so bad. Why is he playing?

Because the only alternative is an athletic, good shooting 6'10 forward in Edwards, and Stanley, a leading scorer in his previous league, and a guy who showed on in only a few games before he tore his ACL that if extrapolated to Free-Bluiett like minutes, would have avg 18-20 pts a game. Remember when Steele said depth was the strength of the team? I know for sure now it wasn't depth of critical thinking. I would not mind if X lost out, even though I doubt X would make a change. However, even if it is a 1% chance, I'm all for it.

Hunter misses two awful three attempts, then for good measure, clanked another three. Steele responds by clapping. I said they need to make the Johnnies play to their pace as St. Marys did to the Zags. So, what does Steele do? He tries to play fast like them, and he didn't play zone, though the Johnnies can beat X off the dribble 4 out of 5 times and beat them at Cintas by 15. BTW, I appreciate Scruggs's effort through the years, but he and Freenamatle were nose to nose as to who has regressed more this year, and Scruggs is now three lengths tonight.

Oh well, until we get a new coach, the only high-performing quality teams are the Bengals, and OSU football. At least Steele won me coin tonight. My head has overtaken my heart. W/O his FIL, Travis Steele is Dead Man Walking. . Like X's program under his stewardship.

FIL or not, he simply cannot be retained. he can't. for that matter, i think Christopher needs to go as well. they need new leadership at both places. the new prez needs to step in and make this happen.

[Anti-Homer]

Hunter should be strapped to the bench. He's so bad. Why is he playing?

Because the only alternative is an athletic, good shooting 6'10 forward in Edwards, and Stanley, a leading scorer in his previous league, and a guy who showed on in only a few games before he tore his ACL that if extrapolated to Free-Bluiett like minutes, would have avg 18-20 pts a game. Remember when Steele said depth was the strength of the team? I know for sure now it wasn't depth of critical thinking. I would not mind if X lost out, even though I doubt X would make a change. However, even if it is a 1% chance, I'm all for it.

Hunter misses two awful three attempts, then for good measure, clanked another three. Steele responds by clapping. I said they need to make the Johnnies play to their pace as St. Marys did to the Zags. So, what does Steele do? He tries to play fast like them, and he didn't play zone, though the Johnnies can beat X off the dribble 4 out of 5 times and beat them at Cintas by 15. BTW, I appreciate Scruggs's effort through the years, but he and Freenamatle were nose to nose as to who has regressed more this year, and Scruggs is now three lengths tonight.

Oh well, until we get a new coach, the only high-performing quality teams are the Bengals, and OSU football. At least Steele won me coin tonight. My head has overtaken my heart. W/O his FIL, Travis Steele is Dead Man Walking. . Like X's program under his stewardship.

FIL or not, he simply cannot be retained. he can't. for that matter, i think Christopher needs to go as well. they need new leadership at both places. the new prez needs to step in and make this happen.

I think he comes back barring X getting pummeled the next two games. He may not be on par with Miller or Mack, but at least he isn’t a d@“k like the guy who blew a 22 pt lead as the higher seed with 10 minutes left in an NCAA tourney game.

[X-lucidity]

Houston, we have a problem. Typically I find myself in sync with Anti but I am a bit amazed by your last post here my man. I get it that you are in a sense predicting Steele likely comes back. But do I sense that deep down you are also sort of OK with that scenario? I feel many on this board are either kind of OK with that or resigned to it. Folks the way I see it we have a HUGE set of problems here stemming from an unfortunate hire. I am not here to rake Coach Steele over the coals. He is a very nice guy and undoubtedly bleeds X blue & white. I do not question his effort nor heart one iota. Only the talent and capacity to succeed at this level. I believe the jury is in. I feel strongly that we are at a critical juncture. I went back and rewatched Wednesday’s St. John’s loss. This time I was not concentrating on any particular play, sub patterns or from an X’s & O’s perspective. Because we all have beaten those to death. Instead I was watching facial expressions and body language. Save for a few like Dwon, Kunk and Cesare, who always seem thrilled to be on the court. The rest of our veterans almost seemed to be going through the motions. There seemed to almost be a sense of inevitability that they could not beat this team. Am I reading to much into it? Maybe, for sure, yes I am guessing and projecting. But like most of y’all, I have played many sporting contests on teams and have coached a bit. I feel like I have pretty much seen and experienced it all although certainly not on any D-1 level. Case in point, early in game at about the 9-minute mark of 1st half. X had been struggling mightily. We had not scored in like almost five minutes missing I believe 13 shots in a row. Jack was near top of key and caught a pass, faked right and spun left and found a clear path down lane for a monster dunk to break out of our funk. Since the Johnnies themselves had not been able to pull away too far, we were still clearly in game. Jack’s face as he wheeled around to run back down court, which should have been ebullient, was expressionless…! Like a ghost. No smile whatsoever. That is telling IMHO. Many times one of our players would make a dumb pass that was stolen. Typically on a squad with good mojo that player will pat his chest and acknowledge “my bad” and teammates would quickly run over and pat them on the back. I counted 3 times this happened and each time there was a mini scowl on the face of the player who the pass was intended for, almost disdain for having been a part of the turnover. Finally, note a time out late in game where FS1 goes’ “Inside the huddle” It was the X bench and St. John’s had just blown it open to like a 12 pt lead with about 4+ left. You see Travis’ back as he is facing the 5 players sitting who are in the game. Coach is rambling about ‘ gotta play D and get back, and hang tough’. But he himself did not sound convincing or confident. There was zero actual strategies nor X’s & O’s insights forthcoming. Only 8th grade level generalities. Nunge is the player we can see most clearly and his expression is a blank ghostly numb stare and the other players I could see were similar. Go watch it….. Now add in some of the twitter memo’s earlier from players like Stanley and the rumor Cesare is not exactly thrilled. (albeit an unsubstantiated rumor) and we are potentially facing a devastating offseason. Imagine an offseason with no change at the top. Imagine Nunge deciding to leave along with Cesare, and a couple of our 4-star recruits decommitting as they smell blood in the water. Imagine this overall slide continuing into next season and building in negative momentum. Imagine how hard it would be to recruit for the following year when the likelihood of a complete coaching change is even higher. Am I describing a worst case scenario? Heck yes, but reading the current tea leaves, this is very plausible. All this said, I am a fan, and I will be rooting for a big win tomorrow on Sr. night. I will not utter one boo even if we fail to win. We still have a chance to then win a couple in NY and make the dance, which I also will root for with all my heart. However, this ship has taken on water and the vibes ain’t good. Should this season end the way it appears to be heading, then this Admn must: RIP THE BANDAID OFF NOW… We appear to be at a dangerous program crossroad, the risk otherwise is too great. Sorry for the long memo here but this stuff means the world to me.

[Anti-Homer]

Houston, we have a problem. Typically I find myself in sync with Anti but I am a bit amazed by your last post here my man. I get it that you are in a sense predicting Steele likely comes back. But do I sense that deep down you are also sort of OK with that scenario? I feel many on this board are either kind of OK with that or resigned to it. Folks the way I see it we have a HUGE set of problems here stemming from an unfortunate hire. I am not here to rake Coach Steele over the coals. He is a very nice guy and undoubtedly bleeds X blue & white. I do not question his effort nor heart one iota. Only the talent and capacity to succeed at this level. I believe the jury is in. I feel strongly that we are at a critical juncture. I went back and rewatched Wednesday’s St. John’s loss. This time I was not concentrating on any particular play, sub patterns or from an X’s & O’s perspective. Because we all have beaten those to death. Instead I was watching facial expressions and body language. Save for a few like Dwon, Kunk and Cesare, who always seem thrilled to be on the court. The rest of our veterans almost seemed to be going through the motions. There seemed to almost be a sense of inevitability that they could not beat this team. Am I reading to much into it? Maybe, for sure, yes I am guessing and projecting. But like most of y’all, I have played many sporting contests on teams and have coached a bit. I feel like I have pretty much seen and experienced it all although certainly not on any D-1 level. Case in point, early in game at about the 9-minute mark of 1st half. X had been struggling mightily. We had not scored in like almost five minutes missing I believe 13 shots in a row. Jack was near top of key and caught a pass, faked right and spun left and found a clear path down lane for a monster dunk to break out of our funk. Since the Johnnies themselves had not been able to pull away too far, we were still clearly in game. Jack’s face as he wheeled around to run back down court, which should have been ebullient, was expressionless…! Like a ghost. No smile whatsoever. That is telling IMHO. Many times one of our players would make a dumb pass that was stolen. Typically on a squad with good mojo that player will pat his chest and acknowledge “my bad” and teammates would quickly run over and pat them on the back. I counted 3 times this happened and each time there was a mini scowl on the face of the player who the pass was intended for, almost disdain for having been a part of the turnover. Finally, note a time out late in game where FS1 goes’ “Inside the huddle” It was the X bench and St. John’s had just blown it open to like a 12 pt lead with about 4+ left. You see Travis’ back as he is facing the 5 players sitting who are in the game. Coach is rambling about ‘ gotta play D and get back, and hang tough’. But he himself did not sound convincing or confident. There was zero actual strategies nor X’s & O’s insights forthcoming. Only 8th grade level generalities. Nunge is the player we can see most clearly and his expression is a blank ghostly numb stare and the other players I could see were similar. Go watch it….. Now add in some of the twitter memo’s earlier from players like Stanley and the rumor Cesare is not exactly thrilled. (albeit an unsubstantiated rumor) and we are potentially facing a devastating offseason. Imagine an offseason with no change at the top. Imagine Nunge deciding to leave along with Cesare, and a couple of our 4-star recruits decommitting as they smell blood in the water. Imagine this overall slide continuing into next season and building in negative momentum. Imagine how hard it would be to recruit for the following year when the likelihood of a complete coaching change is even higher. Am I describing a worst case scenario? Heck yes, but reading the current tea leaves, this is very plausible. All this said, I am a fan, and I will be rooting for a big win tomorrow on Sr. night. I will not utter one boo even if we fail to win. We still have a chance to then win a couple in NY and make the dance, which I also will root for with all my heart. However, this ship has taken on water and the vibes ain’t good. Should this season end the way it appears to be heading, then this Admn must: RIP THE BANDAID OFF NOW… We appear to be at a dangerous program crossroad, the risk otherwise is too great. Sorry for the long memo here but this stuff means the world to me.

No, I don't think he is a good coach at all, and commentators of X's game, particularly Bill Rafferty, who doesn't like to criticize coaches like most, are constantly doing so. I just feel bad because he genuinely loves X and coaching and works as hard as anyone. However, four years is enough. I truly hope he finds success elsewhere.