Musketeer Madness

Time to fire Steele because he can’t coach defense ? No 1-3-1 no trapping no pressure !!ll Can’t tell his kids don’t reach in on a last drive !!

Up 19 at one point ! Just awful !!

6 free throws? Clueless on personnel match ups in all games (not just Butler game). No set plays. No D at all. Allowing poor % 3 point shooters to shoot 3’s? Turnovers... same ***** over and over...

Dude is clueless. Couldnt coach a grade school team.

I’m not on board with him being a good recruiter either. Other than Butler (and probably DePaul based on record-didn’t watch them play this year), every other team in Big East has better talent than X.

FIRE HIM! He’s awful

Recruiting is definitely a curious topic at this point. Odom and Jones can ball. They understand the game so from that standpoint Travis can recruit. Neither however has a consistent shot or are pure scorers. Odom's shot is horrible but he can do a lot of other things. Jones has a solid shot but does a bit of everything. Potentially great players but you have to pair them with the right people.

Free has offensive skills but his defensive is horrendous. X will either need to develop his defensive ability or mask it.

Tandy has a smooth stroke and a ton of potential. My complaint with him is that he forces the issue and hasn't fully adjusted to the talent at the college level. His defense was terrible but he showed growth recently. He also showed growth in shot selection recently. I get the impression he needs time on the court to assess the defense. I'm not a fan of that trait but with the right coaching that learning curve could both be shorter and less hurtful.

Miles is a good gamble. He has huge potential.

I can't voice an opinion on Wilcher. He fits with the there is no bad shot theory. His form is terrible. His results are solid in a limited sample size. Nothing jumps out in what I've seen other than confidence.

I believe the remaining recruits have experienced injuries so no comment on them.

If Tandy could be the deep threat X needs and the offensive spark then Jones and Odom become very intriguing. That is a lot of faith to put in Tandy from a recruiting standpoint. Many recruits do not pan out so Travis should have made another scorer, with shooting ability a priority.

End result is Travis has to go. He couldn't work with the talent he recruited nor could he develop them into what he needed. That is a fail.

mad, maybe Travis needs to reevaluate the assistants. You know the head coach in most programs have assistants that specialize in coaching the guards or big men. They are there to improve the players just like the strength coach is there to build them into players strengths-wise and health-wise. Maybe the fault of Travis is he worries about the coaches being nice or how they connect to everyone in the room...when they should be worring about connecting with everyone on the court. Who is the outstanding coach in the Xavier program? I know it all comes back on the head coach but we have a coach from Georgia that brought us some recruits from Georgia and how have they impacted the team? Ben Johnson recruited Zach Freemantle and has been here since 2018. He is in charge of developing our perimeter players.. where are the fruits of his labors over the past few years...how did Q improve, Naji? And then the fan-favorite JAMES P. CRAWFORD ASSISTANT COACH, his bio reads, He has seen it from a player’s perspective, and now he sees it from the coaching perspective, and I think that’s really, really powerful. How so and has it helped, fans would like to know.

Maybe we need a coach with the experience that is not a great guy but a good bench coach to help a young coach or maybe X should just pay for good assistants that help the coach. I know one or two of the coaches are in charge of substitutions and their feet need to be put to the fire for some of their calls this year.

Posey and I have unfinished business. Next to score works for me.

I love the effort Posey gave on the court. He was willing to do whatever it took to win. Does he still have that attitude? Does he coach that attitude?

I can't identify who is to blame on the staff for the current issues. At the end of the day Travis is responsible. That being said, if there is enough evidence to indicate the bulk of blame resides elsewhere, then there could be reason to hold onto Travis. The evidence would need to be substantial and it would need to vindicate the various issues throughout the year. That would include game management. Did Travis put substitutions in the hands of the assistant coaches? Did he charge them with timeout responsibilities?

Based on what has happened, I'm not sure how Travis could keep his job even if he found some scapegoats.

What I don't see from X and haven't seen in a long time is tenacity. There were some players under Mack that had offensive tenacity but in my opinion that is weak. Real tenacity is on the defensive end. A players manhood is measured by his defense. In women's basketball there would be different terminology but it would drive home the point that you D up or you are a liability.

Travis should be accountable for substitutions. He is responsible for timeouts. If X was chucking 3s that Travis disagreed with he could have pulled players or had chats with coaches/players after games to insure that was a 1 off. Coaching is certainly about everyone being aligned but if someone is completely out of alignment, you let them go. Better to take on more responsibility or find someone last minute to do what is needed.

I always said Posey and Cage... give me the heart of Cage and the body, length, and tenacity of Posey. Posey had a nose for the ball and I can still see his arm reaching out to tip a ball and taking it the length of the court or his arms and legs flailing on inbounding plays which lead to turnovers and scores when X needed it the most.

What I saw this year was too much falling for the head fake and letting players get around X players with no one to pick them up or an easy dump-off inside pass for an easy score. I saw breakdowns in D caused by player inexperience with one game in one month and only 3 practices in that same time period. X started the season great because they had practices and games they knew the roles that made them jell and then nothing of consequences for a month and players reverting to preseason inconsistencies with the addition of two major injuries. You know how important reps are and how important time in the gym is for younger players. As for the injuries, Ben might not have played that much but his size not in height as much as girt and athleticism were missed sorely at times. Nate was top 5 in the nation in three-point average and tops in the BE before he went out. Both Ben and Nate made holes that were not able to be made up, except by freshman. Look at the record before Nate's injury and then after, look at the team's three-point shooting average before and after. Nate was more than just three points as his three-point threat created more ability to drive and space the floor. Nate was also important in rebounding and was a very good passer.

Nova has more talent and experience than X but their two injuries might just mean they are out just as quickly as X.

Losing Nate was huge.

Odom was playing at a very high level before the first Corona break and then he was benched. When he finally got time, he was a fraction of who he was. If he had covid and was suffering residuals for weeks after (I know from experience that is possible - months) then that is a possible excuse.

Without knowing the details of what happened after the covid break, Odom came back benched and essentially lost.

Jones started for a stint.

Kunkel started for a stint as well.

I'm all for exploring what works but Travis also subbed in several players at a time for much of the season. That is rarely a good idea. If everyone is essentially an exact substitute for one another it is fine but if starters are significantly better than the bench it is very risky. Sub out those playing poorly and those needing a rest. Keep anyone with energy and playing well in. Look for complimentary offensive cohesion and defensive adjustments.

It felt like Travis did very little to consider game flow offensively or defensively.

I agree that youth was likely an issue. I was willing to concede that at the beginning of the year through about mid season. Travis essentially has a freshman and sophomore class. The rest are transfers and carryovers.

Scruggs is a gift of a carryover.

Defense doesn't take long to teach. You either ignite the fire or you don't. Yes there will be youthful mistakes but the energy and desire will show.

Stupid shots also doesn't take long to teach if you do it right. Pull a player after a stupid shot and the point is driven home quickly. Prefer to have the team ride him in practice for his ignorance and that can work too. Call him out watching film for stupidity and that will drive home the point as well.

Shot selection and defense was why X lost down the stretch. It wasn't youthful mistakes that cost X the NCAA tournament, it was an inability to drive home basic basketball fundamentals and desire. Losing is never the issue. The issue is losing because you fail to do the basics. You fail to defend. You fail to find an open teammate in scoring position. You fail to understand the difference between a good shot and a bad shot.

I would argue that Jones and Odom have a better understanding of a good vs bad shot than most of the other players on the team. Yes Odom took a few bad shots throughout the year but the interesting thing is that the bad shots increased later in the year. Did he come in knowing he is a bad shooter and finished thinking he should also throw the ball at the rim?

you know reasons are not excuses but they still mean something. I think that everyone is guilty of stupidity at times this year, players and coaches alike but I also think that if you play basketball there are things that work on a player's minds.

Odom was quarantined not once but I believe twice. I think his lack of reps took him out of the starting lineup and because Paul had more experience that coach went with what he knew. The problem was Paul disappeared for some reason and then reappeared as the go-to guy, a number of times this year. With his experience, I wonder what was wrong. When he was making his shots he was very good but his Kobe fade didn't get him to the line much and that shot was good for Kobe but not everyone. Free can play offense but like another player that didn't see much action, he never met a shot he didn't want to take. Carter's problem with shooting just seemed to escalate as the season progressed which I felt led to him not shooting at all at times or just one or two shots from an inside guy is problematic. Carter played better with Jones last year but Free is not a good complement and when either one of them shot there never seemed to be anyone under the basket to rebound. Had Ben been available I think he would have taken more of Carter's minutes. The good thing is he seemingly acknowledged that he was not a three-point shooter and took them only as a last resort. Offensively, we didn't have a player who hunted shots, good shots. When X's assists go down so does the team and ball movement stops

Defensively, we had a big man that didn't run the court well and when defending a shooter all he did was raise his hand, no elevation. Oh, when he was in the block and caught a pass he could score but he again didn't elevate and had shots blocked and when you play limited minutes you need to impress but more importantly, you need to produce. Maybe he didn't know the plays as well or like Anthony Myles needs a second year to become a factor. Big men don't always click the first year

Think before you vote. Not that the vote here really means anything. But. 3 straight years of no March Madness. A poor BE record against the better teams. No longer a top 40 team in the country. Last best ranking was 4 years ago as a number one seed under Chris Mack. It is either one more year or fire him. Should be no extended contract beyond one more year.