Lehigh Game Thread 11/11/16

[webxu]

Losing London is something I think the staff will regret for a loooong time. X has too much talent to not have a very good season, especially when Gates, and possibly Myles comes back. Even if we lost against Lehigh, the world wouldn't have come to an end. It's ok to acknowledge they didn't play well today. There will be 3-4 games a year they'll play subpar ball. Happens to all teams. Don't take it so personally. You're still in my top 400 favotrite posters on this board.

Can we stop this London talk.. he was not productive here, and isn't productive at Chat.. he simply is not a good college player.. get over it.

[thecoach]

London still has 3 years of eligibility including this year if i recall he redshirted his first year here? He can still become a contributing player somewhere, but i agree his help for X this year would have been defensively. My fear is that when you get up against more athletic teams inside SOM is going to struggle with foul trouble. I think London would have given them more athleticism and minutes defensively which i think they will need. It's going to be tough on these perimeter guys as the season goes on if they have to help a lot with inside D. I suspect a lot of zone.

[longliveskip]

the line on the game was 17.

let's not look at last year's 17-15 record as any indication of what kind of team Lehigh actually is. they go and PLAY people. they lost in the Patriot League final. that team will have the 3-time Patriot League POY at the end of this season. so what if we didn't cover the spread? take the win and move on.

every team has plenty of things they need to improve on after game 1.

we have our share.

we have 4 guys who have never put on an X uniform for a REAL game until last Friday and we are asking them to contribute IMMEDIATELY. they will be far from perfect to start.

get Gates back healthy and hopefully MD, and these guys can beat anyone, anywhere, anytime.

they need only worry about Buffalo at this point.

[mumuskie87]

While Lehigh's record over the past 3 seasons is 47-47 or .500, their non-conference SOS last season was ranked 39th by KenPom.
They finished strong last year with a 11 game winning streak until losing in the Patriot League conference tournament final.
Veteran team with a very good post player in Kempton.
All that said, O'Mara and Gaston need to rebound better - 6 boards in 39 total minutes.
Xavier lost 14.3 rpg with Farr and Reynolds and they averaged 40 minutes of PT combined.
Also, X needs to shoot better from 3 - they were 4-17 and Lehigh made 5 more 3's, going 9-23.
Getting a healthy Gates back and hopefully Myles too will help.
I think Gates has the potential to be X's best big this year and is the best shooting big from 3 since D Brown in 2009.
Kaiser's 3 point shooting stat last year were 13-39 or 33.3%; however, in his last 12 games he went 5-11 from 3.

[mumuskie87]

London still has 3 years of eligibility including this year if i recall he redshirted his first year here? He can still become a contributing player somewhere, but i agree his help for X this year would have been defensively. My fear is that when you get up against more athletic teams inside SOM is going to struggle with foul trouble. I think London would have given them more athleticism and minutes defensively which i think they will need. It's going to be tough on these perimeter guys as the season goes on if they have to help a lot with inside D. I suspect a lot of zone.

London is a soph and has 3 years of eligibility left so it's premature to say he won't be a very good player for Chattanooga after 2 games in.
However, historically, guys that have transferred from X to play elsewhere have not had great success. Johnny Wolf had a decent career at UNC-Wilmington and Brian Walsh played decent at Akron. I exclude Dez Wells from this discussion because he didn't transfer on his own accord.
I wish Makinde the best and will root for him. Seems like a well-rounded kid (loved his piano bit last year).
I'm not sure how much of a contribution he would have made this year. He certainly would have added some depth on the inside. He was a 6-1 guard that had a late growing spurt in HS to 6-10. Seemed to me that he was still a guard in a 6-10 body. 18 of his 25 shot attempts were from 3 last year. And he shot 39% from 3. But X has guys that can shoot the 3 - Bluiett, Gates and Davis (if and when they get back). They lost 14 boards a game in Farr and Reynolds. That's what they need - rebounding. Hopefully, O'Mara and Gaston will improve their play as the season goes. O'Mara averaged 6.6 FC/40 last year - highest on the team. Jalen was at 6.2. Sean's FC/40 in the Lehigh game was 4.8 - 3 fouls in 25 minutes. Better and hopefully he can keep that up.

[Anti-Homer]

do you know what the line for this game was, Anti? How did X do in their game last year against miami?

I do not. What was the line? I searched several sites. I have a friend in Vegas this weeked (I won the FSU game -21 btw), and as of the early afternoon, there was no line. I wouldn't have touched it anyway, since I knew their best player was matched up against our achilles heel: the bigs. I think Seam will be o.k.; solid offensively, good rebounder, subar defensively, and will often be in foul trouble. I see Gaston as a poor man's Larry Syke's. Great effort, good size, but lacks the skills ofa prototypical B.E. post player. I hope I'm wrong, but all he can do is his best.

Losing London is something I think the staff will regret for a loooong time. X has too much talent to not have a very good season, especially when Gates, and possibly Myles comes back. Even if we lost against Lehigh, the world wouldn't have come to an end. It's ok to acknowledge they didn't play well today. There will be 3-4 games a year they'll play subpar ball. Happens to all teams. Don't take it so personally. You're still in my top 400 favotrite posters on this board.

the line was 4 seems you need a lesson in Goggle also. But then when you use an abacus as a calculator I expect you to be behind the curve instead of ahead.

Soooo,

Seemingly no one else to my knowledge was able to find a line, but you somehow did? Congrats; what betting house was it? However, I have to ask, have you ever heard of a top 10 team be only a 4 point favorite AT HOME against another who is not near ANYONE's top 25 list? One would figure X would be at least 17 point favorites. Then again, Mman told me on 11-7 that Gary Johnson was projected to win the election by 34 electoral votes.

[Anti-Homer]

Losing London is something I think the staff will regret for a loooong time. X has too much talent to not have a very good season, especially when Gates, and possibly Myles comes back. Even if we lost against Lehigh, the world wouldn't have come to an end. It's ok to acknowledge they didn't play well today. There will be 3-4 games a year they'll play subpar ball. Happens to all teams. Don't take it so personally. You're still in my top 400 favotrite posters on this board.

Can we stop this London talk.. he was not productive here, and isn't productive at Chat.. he simply is not a good college player.. get over it.

Agreed. No one who had poor freshman seasons, though London's was not poor imo, never grew to be productive players. I jave no idea why X didn't give up on players like Jason love, Bj Raymond, and scores of others who had trouble acclimating. Good to see (for some) that the time held tradition of denigrating players who left our program for greater opportunities continues yet for another year.

[Anti-Homer]

the line on the game was 17.

let's not look at last year's 17-15 record as any indication of what kind of team Lehigh actually is. they go and PLAY people. they lost in the Patriot League final. that team will have the 3-time Patriot League POY at the end of this season. so what if we didn't cover the spread? take the win and move on.

every team has plenty of things they need to improve on after game 1.

we have our share.

we have 4 guys who have never put on an X uniform for a REAL game until last Friday and we are asking them to contribute IMMEDIATELY. they will be far from perfect to start.

get Gates back healthy and hopefully MD, and these guys can beat anyone, anywhere, anytime.


Thanks for clarifying. I posted my response to my confused mentor before seeing this. Mman, still waiting for the answer on where you saw the line of 4. I would have taken Lehigh with the points, knowing their best player is at the position of our greatest vulnerability: post play.
they need only worry about Buffalo at this point.

[Anti-Homer]

Losing London is something I think the staff will regret for a loooong time. X has too much talent to not have a very good season, especially when Gates, and possibly Myles comes back. Even if we lost against Lehigh, the world wouldn't have come to an end. It's ok to acknowledge they didn't play well today. There will be 3-4 games a year they'll play subpar ball. Happens to all teams. Don't take it so personally. You're still in my top 400 favotrite posters on this board.

Can we stop this London talk.. he was not productive here, and isn't productive at Chat.. he simply is not a good college player.. get over it.

Agreed. No one who had poor freshman seasons, though London's was not poor imo, never grew to be productive players. I jave no idea why X didn't give up on players like Jason Love, Bj Raymond, and scores of others who had trouble acclimating. Good to see (for some) that the time honored tradition of denigrating players who left our program for greater opportunities continues yet for another year.

[webxu]

Agreed. No one who had poor freshman seasons, though London's was not poor imo, never grew to be productive players. I jave no idea why X didn't give up on players like Jason Love, Bj Raymond, and scores of others who had trouble acclimating. Good to see (for some) that the time honored tradition of denigrating players who left our program for greater opportunities continues yet for another year.]

Fair point, however X didn't give up on London, he gave up on X.