Musketeer Madness

Last summer I stated here that for the first time in my 33 years as a season ticket holder, I was predicting Xavier would be a Final Four team this season. Of course that was before Myles's incident, and Kaiser's injury, but I am sticking with it. Here is what I am seeing. I would be curious if you are seeing the same, or see something else.

Jones and Gooden have talent, and have had moments, but they have a ways to go. I believe they will both develop quickly and will be valuable bench players for us in March.

Gates, Gaston, and O'Mara just don't look comfortable on the floor. They look unsure of themselves, where they are supposed to be, and their role.

Gates is understandable after sitting with the injury. I believe he is going to turn the corner very soon and become a great inside player for us.

Gaston shows toughness under the basket. He will go up against anyone. But right now, other than rebounding, he is not playing with confidence. It shows in his missed FTs and the inability to finish under the basket. We need him to be a rock under the basket and rebound and score both on put-bask and FTs. He will draw a lot f fouls.

O'Mara is trying to play with too much finesse. He seems to be playing good defense, (not allowing offensive players to post up deep under the basket). But he can not play toe-to-toe with these more athletic post players. He needs to use his asset: size and bulk. When we watched Hill, Williams, Grant, and West, they never watched the ball in flight. They looked for someone and moved them out from under the basket. O'Mara needs to get more physical, and he needs to have that mentality that the space under the basket is his. And offensively, he needs to be more aggressive and bull rush his way to the basket instead of trying to make a move. He should watch films of Stainbrook, (a great LP player without great athleticism and jumping ability, but with tenacity).

Bernard is a good player and a nice asset to bring in off the bench, but if we have to rely on him to be more than a roll player, we are in trouble. That will mean other players aren't developing the way we need them to.

And our Big Three: Bluiett, Sumner, and Macura are great, but we can't win with just those three. We need more contributions from others, and we need our Big Three to have confidence in those other players. It was evident today. With no support from the rest of the team, and the game slipping away, all three really forced the ball to try to take the team on their backs. As good as they are, we can't win games 3 on 5.

Myles will really help when/if he comes back. Gooden and Jones will continue to develop. But right now the key to this team is Gates and Gaston. They need to feel comfortable in their roles in the offense and defense, and the Big Three need to feel comfortable enough to go to them. I believe over the next 3-4 games that Gates will really step up his game and become a star for us. I think Gaston will get in stride and embrace his role with this team. When they both do, and O-Mara get's more physical, we will have a Final Four team.

Thoughts?

I think it's way to early to panic.

I agree! Absolutely no panic here. I think we are good enough to win our next four, and the future is extremely bright.

People are expecting way too much from Gates. He averaged 3 points per game last year. He will fill a role but is a long way from being a "great inside player".
Our bigs are are just not very good. They can't score around the rim and are horrible at the line.
Having said this I still think we can go a long way if MD comes back with his previous form.``

I would like to see Gaston getting the start over O'mara. Would help his confidence and O'mara matches up better with the other team's second team as well.

We are clearly missing Myles' leadership right now. Unfortunatley, it's going to be hard for him to assimilate quickly back into that leadership role when he does come back.

I think we can be a very good team, final four not sure about that. To add to this post, I think Sumner and Macura are playing too many minutes and therefore their production is dropping off. Granted Ed, scored 19 points yesterday but he drove to the basket many times off balance and had only 2 assists to 4 turnovers. I think Ed can be an elite PG, but I think he needs to play 30 minutes with a few breaks to keep his legs fresh and his mental game where it needs to be. JP gives his all when he is out there but clearly he is playing tired and I think when you review this game, it is clear both players fatigue plus Blueitt's foul trouble led to our problems in the last 10 minutes.

Myles will definitely help with lengthening our bench and bringing leadership plus outside shooting. I think Gates will get better of course and this team will be tournament bound, how far they go will depended on our young guys grow into their positions and our inside game improves. I think this loss will serve as a wake up call for players and coaches to realize how much more improvement X needs to have success in the Big East and the Dance.

In the meantime, many fans need to " JUST Breathe"

I love gates and would like to see him become more physical. I talked to an insider who played for X and his opinion is Gates is a tall man but not a big man, for those that know what he is talking about.

I have been disappointed in Gaston and while his missed bunnies have driven me crazy I have noticed he can dominate the boards at times. Is Gaston throwing off a little rust from not playing or is it like every transfer big man that they seem to start slow, some it takes a whole year which I hope is not the case for Gaston. It might be good that he gets a start because it looks too much like Sean is trying to think things through every play.
Jones has been a happy surprise and of any big man he has really made me notice his game. I was, at first, not too impressed but as a freshman he has made better strides than Gaston and Sean. Maybe it is shot blocking but he doesn't seem to have any fear inside. At first I didn't like two big men as they seemed to get in each others way but I have grown to like it when Jones and another big man play together.

Too many minutes for Ed and JP might be right but the answer is the elephant in the room. I hope Myles comes back and his rust doesn't hurt the team. I hope we don't have to wait till the start of the second semester to see him. I think he would have helped some yesterday but when X misses FT it doesn't matter who is shooting because it seems to effect him. I can't remember JP missing two foul shots.

Q might not have looked good yesterday but his first big time away game so I give him a pass. I want him to be successful because he makes the guard position so much deeper.

Tre is Tre and if he is confident he is the best player on the floor, sorry Ed, he rebounds, he draws fouls, he scores the ball.

I'm also for starting Rashid. Mack said on radio he was the toughrst man on the team. His shot will return. Starting might give him a different mindsat.

Thought coming into the season that Tre,Myles, JP and Ed were as good as any combo of 4 guys 6-6 and under in the country.
Of course, Myles's issues has kept him off the court.
Simply put, X will need him to come back and be the player he was last year. He has shot just over 38% from 3 the last 2 years, had an assist to TO ratio of greater than 2:1 last year and also shot over 85% from the FT line.
Whether he is in game shape and can fit in to the team flow is another question.
Thru 8 games, Ed, Tre and JP are averaging 103 minutes per game. That is an increase of 24 minutes per game for those guys.Again, Myles can pick those minutes and maybe take a few from Bernard.
Bernard is a nice role player and has, for the most part, filled Remy's shoes from last year.
He is averaging 5.1 PPG while Remy averaged 6.4 but Malcolm is a much better rebounder. Avg's 4.5 boards compared to Remy's 1.6. Malcolm is shooting a respectable % from 3 - 36% (8 for 22) but his career % coming into this season was 24% (20 for 83). I would be surprised to see significant improvement over that.
Goodin did not play well yesterday but he is still an improvement over LA Jr. And he should continue to improve as the year progresses.
I was impressed with RaShid rebounding effectiveness against Baylor. Unfortunately, he is not a very FT shooter. His career average is 52.6%.
RaShid did shoot 63% from the field in his last year at Norfolk St. However, big difference in level of competition between the Big East and the MEAC. The MEAC has consistently been ranked as the worst conference in the country by Ken Pom.
Plus, it seems like guys who sit out a year it takes a while to shake off the rust. See Travis Taylor and Isaish Philmore.
I think Tyrique "Basketball" Jones will continue to get better as the season goes on. An impressive offensive rebounder. Just needs to be able to make put backs. As a note, he has already played more minutes than London played last as a freshman and also more minutes than what Big Game James played as a freshman.
But both RaShid and Tyrique need shoot better than 46% and 43% from the field.
Big Sean has shot well - 62% from the field and 70% from the line. Both %'s improved over last year. Still gets too many fouls called, Is averaging 6.3 fouls called per 40 minutes.
Someone posted that Gates could be a candidate for the All-Big East team. I'd say he has a ways to go at this point but still think he could be X's best scoring big. But if he is the 2nd best 3 pt shooter on the team (based on Coach Mack's comments last year) he needs to shoot better than 30%. Might not be All BE this year but would definitely see him doing that next year.
All that said, X needs Myles to come back and the Fab 4 (JP, Myles, Tre and Ed) will need to lead the way for this team to go deep into the tournament. And Tre is the straw that stirs the drink for this team....and BTW, his 3pt % is now up to 33%.

Watching this Kyle Washington the transfer from Nc st. playing for UC, i think we should try to trade Gaston, O'mara and the rights to Ekylor for him. Kid looks like Bill Russell. Good luck zoning them as that kid is money from inside the paint. He's good.