Marquette game thread

[muskieman]

Time to retake first place in the BE. Marquette at home will try and bury X's chance to be in the hunt for first place.

Sean find a way to get a W.

[Kevin Reilly]

I think we rebound and get a tough road win. We need to take care of the ball and play defense the WHOLE game. Miller will have the guys ready to go. We need this to get back on track and not limp into the post season. Sub guys early so the first team doesn't get foul trouble and tired. Marquette is going down.

[skyhops]

I can't imagine us covering on the road the rest of the year. We have no one that can stay in front of Kolek and without Free Nunge will continue. I hope I am wrong. Too bad Edwards is too slow and uncoordinated to provide good minutes.

[longliveskip]

not sure on the spread but i'm gonna guess we are about 6.5 point dogs at Marquette tomorrow.

i'm not as pessimistic as Hops as his posts always seem to indicate that this team is in a downward spiral that we will never get out of. i get we don't have Free but we played fairly well in the first two games without him. Butler was what i would call an "anomaly".

there are two coaching cliches you can try to attribute to this team. 1 - "you are only as good as your last game". as a coach, i don't subscribe to this one. this Xavier team is NOT what we saw at Butler and i'm 100% confident that Sean will make sure that's not who shows up at Marquette. does that mean we are going to win? not necessarily, but you're gonna see a different effort/mindset/etc. if Marquette plays better, so be it. the other cliche is 2. "you're as good as you're record says you are". I like this one better. we are way closer to that, even without Free, than we are to what we saw last Friday night.

Marquette will be a tough road game. besides Creighton, it may be the toughest place in the BE to play on the road.

i, for one, EXPECT us to win. mainly because i believe we can win every game. that's how good this team is. that's how good Sean is. will that happen? who knows. these dudes are 18-22 year-olds out there busting their a$$ to entertain us and give us s$%& to talk about on here for days at a time.

let's get behind them.

they're gonna give their best. they deserve ours.

we are with you, boys.

LET'S GO X!!!

[kyzrex]

Only real problem I have with that is the statement that the 18-22 year olds are busting there A$$ to “entertain us”, like entertaining us is their purpose. It’s not. Entertaining the fans is not something that THEY should be concerned with in the slightest. Their purposes should be to try and win every game they play, and to make sure that no matter what the outcome that they gave 100% of their efforts toward preparing and competing to win the games they play. X might not beat Marquette in this game, but I expect them to try their best to do so, and I expect to hear from the coach afterwards that they practiced hard and prepared as best they could to win the game. I don’t think that we can ask for anything more, or anything less, than that from the players and coaches.

[muskieman]

Sole possession of first place is on the line.

[longliveskip]

Only real problem I have with that is the statement that the 18-22 year olds are busting there A$$ to “entertain us”, like entertaining us is their purpose. It’s not. Entertaining the fans is not something that THEY should be concerned with in the slightest. Their purposes should be to try and win every game they play, and to make sure that no matter what the outcome that they gave 100% of their efforts toward preparing and competing to win the games they play. X might not beat Marquette in this game, but I expect them to try their best to do so, and I expect to hear from the coach afterwards that they practiced hard and prepared as best they could to win the game. I don’t think that we can ask for anything more, or anything less, than that from the players and coaches.

i didn't say it was "their" purpose. that's what it does for US. Xavier basketball is an "outlet" for us as fans and alumni. it's something we do to support the program/school that we went to. i'm not saying that's why THEY play or that they play for that purpose. but in the end, for US, it's entertainment - an outlet for us and a way for us to put our energy into something that we love. that's all i meant. of course, the boys play hard because they want to WIN. i agree with all you said in regards to that.

LET'S GO X!

[X-lucidity]

back to the game at hand, going to be an extremely tough challenge to come out on top this evening. As "Hops mentioned, we have trouble staying in front of drivers, and Marquette excels in a 4-out motion offense that looks to penetrate. That said, this is doable... Especially if Des can score it a bit and reduce his TO's, Because we are going to need his perimeter D. Kunkel hitting 3 or more threes will be important and Jack not struggling to score when he is in close will be vital. IMHO we will need to score 82 or more to have a solid shot here. As this certainly will not be a defensive struggle...
Fingers crossed. Come out like a tiger, pull no punches, and we shall see where the dust settles.

[muskieman]

Keys Limit Kolek because he scored more than twice his average in the first game. Jones was most effective even though X threw three other players against him. He is their playmaker, and his assists are a big part of the Marquette game plan.

Oliver prosper gave zack and Jack headaches and scored above his average without Zack; Jerome has a big task because Prosper while not taller, plays like a big wing.

Ighodaro, their big man, about 3 inches smaller than Jack but an athletic forward that can handle the ball. He also acted more than his average in the first game. Good at the pick and roll and floaters. Maybe Jerome can handle him

These are the players Xavier had the most trouble with in the first game.

The key to X’s defense is Des. Has he learned from the first game how the double screens work for MU? Can Colby be as effective against Kolek, and can X still dominate the paint and limit second-chance points?

OH, and one last thing, how is Souley? He can't be at 70-80%, but X needs him at 100% tonight.

[skyhops]

Sources say Claude might not play this evening. The February curse continues