NIT Bound

[XU Captain]

This team, without Sumner, is not even close to what it was in December. It is not Mack's fault as all. Let me make that clear. Gates and Goodin are not capable of giving Xavier enough good minutes to compete with top Big East teams. Both are 8th or 9th men with a good roster. After watching this tonight, there is no doubt in my mind Xavier is headed to the NIT. I have no problem with it, either. You earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament. This team, without Sumner, has not earned it at all. I just hope we get to host 3-4 games in the NIT.

[XU Captain]

At this point I am beginning to wonder when we start talking CBI instead of NIT. I just looked at the criteria for the NIT and there is a chance if Xavier loses to Butler and Marquette the Muskies might not get an NIT invite. That is assuming we lose in the Big East first round, which looks like a sure thing right now.

[skyhops]

Agreed

[PT71]

VERY disheartening play of late...we have no one who can create his own shot...Macura is the closest thing to it. The perfect storm hit X this year, between injuries, Davis and Eykior leaving us high and dry, right before the season was to start...therefore, no depth! Will root on our Muskies regardless, but its getting difficult...as I said in a text tonight to a classmate watching in Detroit..."now we know how DePaul must feel." Sad, huh.

[XU Captain]

VERY disheartening play of late...we have no one who can create his own shot...Macura is the closest thing to it. The perfect storm hit X this year, between injuries, Davis and Eykior leaving us high and dry, right before the season was to start...therefore, no depth! Will root on our Muskies regardless, but its getting difficult...as I said in a text tonight to a classmate watching in Detroit..."now we know how DePaul must feel." Sad, huh.

The sad fact is we are closer to being DePaul than being either Villanova or Butler at this point. And we still have to beat DePaul on the road to be guaranteed of an NIT berth. If we lose out, by the NIT criteria, Xavier will likely be outside looking in because of all the auto berths going to mid-major conferences for the NIT. I can not imagine Selection Sunday and being told NO by the NCAA, and later getting a NO from the NIT. But if we lose the final three games, it might become a CBI bid we are looking at.

[oldhoopster2]

Gates and Goodin are not capable of giving Xavier enough good minutes to compete with top Big East teams. Both are 8th or 9th men with a good roster.

Goodin had 8 assists and 2 turnovers last night. He has several steals since becoming a starter. His only issue is shooting. The whole team's issue is shooting. We run no offense, our bigs are offensively challenged against good front lines and we don't have a player who can create. Hopefully Goodin will be instructed to shoot, shoot and shoot all summer (and maybe drive to the right once in a while). He'll be fine at this level if we have some other offense. Goodin is going to be a good true point guard. Gates is hot and cold and doesn't seem to defend as well as he did last year. He did have 7 rebounds and 7 points last night and has become one of the better FT shooters on the team.

[X-lucidity]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7vtWB4owdE
Well my Xavier Nation chums. You all may well be right but the whole tone of this thread is disheartening. I played sports well into my forties and NEVER took the field or court without the excitement and a thirst to win. Nor I suspect does anyone on our current team nor Mack. We have 3 'winnable' games left. Could we lose some or all of them? - hell yes. That is the nature of this season. You know: Big East schedule times injuries plus poor shooting = recent losing streak. It ain't rocket science.
I am going to make the call right here for Sunday: X 67. BU 63
Then we tackle MU. One at a time. Very doable.....
Let's Go X.

[oreobob]

Q, Mal and Kaiser shot 8 times in almost 90 min on the floor. As the Greaf One said, you cant score if you don't shoot.

[pcp33]

XU Captain, I quite literally just registered for this board because of how immeasurably wrong pretty much every one of your posts has been so far. If you are so confident this is an NIT team, I'm curious what your thoughts are on the following quotes from Joe Lunardi.

“I don’t think they’re in danger of missing the tournament in any significant way.”

“I just think it’s a matter of impacting their seeding at this point ... If they were to lose two out of three and lose in the conference tournament early to a team below them, they’re probably going to be in the 8-9 game.”

So, who should we trust here, ESPN's noted Bracketologist (as well as literally every other outlet's equivalent personality that have XU safely in) or the guy who is out of touch to the point he gave up season tickets become some players and coaches want to make a livelihood based on their skills?

[X-lucidity]

Welcome PCP33. We could certainly use another voice grounded in common sense and not emotive hyperbole..
Post to your heart's content