Musketeer Madness

when: Wednesday 7 PM
where: Madison Square Garden


TV: FS1 with play-by-play from Dave Sims and analysis from Donny Marshall.
Xavier Radio: 700 WLW-AM available on the Varsity Network and on Sirius XM.

PAYBACK TIME, BOYS

I didn't get the chance to watch any of the last St. Johns game (i'm glad, actually), but we've won our last 3 since then and it seems whatever team meeting happened after this game has helped. I don't know if it's gonna help tonite AT St. Johns but if we play like we have the last 3 games, i'm confdent that we will be in a "winnable" game.

Johnnies are as talented as anyone in the league, with the best coach in CBB. They have length and athleticism at every position and always have 3-4 guys on the court who can beat their man off the dribble. They bullied X in the lane last time, a big reason for their 20-rebounding advantage, including 20 ORBs. Their two Achille's heels: subpar free throw shooting, and poor three-point shooting.

X has to sag in the D to keep them out of the lane and force them to shoot from the outside, as they did with MQuette. They also need to play some matchup zone. I know in theory this may make them more vulnerable to rebounding, but how could they get any worse? Frankly, in the 1st game, most of their O Boards came when one player beat their man off the dribble, forcing help defense and an easy O-board by the freed-up man.

Conwell had his worst game along with the one at MQuette, but I don't see it happening twice in a row. X has to minimize T.O.s, and they did a pretty good job the 1st time around, helped out by the stellar P.G. play of McKnight, with his ridiculous 8:1 A/To ratio during the game at Cintas.

Despite his slump from 3, Free needs to take a few (and hopefully make) threes at the top of the key, to draw Ejiofor out of the lane. He was a menace in game one on the offensive end and had 4-5 blocks, as well as changing a few shots on D.

X needs to go at least 1 - 1 in the next 2. This would be a bigger prize, as it is a Quad 1 away game.

Pitino can still coach at 72 and St. John's is 5 points Away from being undefeated. They were longer, quicker, faster and much more motivated the first time around. Tough match up for us. The last game was embarrassing. Hope we come to play this time. Need to fight every possession and make it a ugly game. They toyed with us last time. Need to play defense and bounce them around . We owe them some payback.

Nice first half, despite the one ref's blindness on several St Johns slapping fouls.

Best half of the year. Amazing what playing good defense and driving to the basket will produce. Long way to go but we are showing a lot more effort on the defensive end. Hugley even looked good bouncing them around a little bit.

Hard to score when your running your offense 30 feet from the basket. We need to keep driving to the basket. Freemantle is letting Ejiofor catch the ball to close to the basket. Need to toughen up down the stretch.

X drive gets hammered, no call. they drive, and it is always called. Refs are letting SJ mug our guys

Need to stay aggressive. Making it very easy on St. Johns . Make the ref's make a call. Be strong with the ball and attack the rim.

Freemantle needs to be closer to the basket. Can't score at the top of the key.