Musketeer Madness

Sean Miller won his 80th game today as Xavier's Head Basketball Coach. That's 80 games in less than 4 full years with 10 games left in this regular season and against arguably the most difficult schedules that Xavier has challenged itself with. Today's 80th win was a virtuoso performance in the way that his team was prepared-in all facets.

Interesting that in the Enquirer's poll as to fan satisfaction, Sean Miller's tactical ability had 21% of the respondents only giving him a 6 or 7. My question is, what the hell do you want better? Let's review today and this team.

Today's game was not won in the preparation between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon. In essence the team had 48 hours between the dump game and today with travel in between, and the team couldn't even shoot in the Mullins Center until this morning because of a hockey game yesterday. No, this game was won by a continual process of coaching this team to be better, to be unselfish, to buy into defensive principles. It is no accident that Xavier has held some of the most talented players in the country- Beasley, Lofton, Forbes, Singletary etc. to well below their season averages. Stan and his teammates have been coached and convinced into a system that is working- the Pack Line system with occasional tweaks, that Dustin Dow so well described last year. With time under their belts, these players are executing it and executing the opposition. That is a pretty good tactical decision- not on the spur of the moment, but a process that is implemented, evolves and endures.

Offensive tactics? Well, when you have 6 players averaging double figures and when you can get players, some who were former starters now coming off the bench, to buy in to the system because they will "still get theirs" you have some solid schematics and "tactics". Today was a Picasso as to how to control tempo. UMass got very few fast break baskets and only scored 65 points, in large part because of Xavier's patient diversified offense. XU still scored 77, despite not shooting well from outside and missing many more free throws than usual.

How about coaching that hard to describe "poise"? Well, how about today? UMass gets a little momentum, makes a run to get the margin to 5 in their building and what happens? XU runs their offense, isolates Josh Duncan who schools his defender and scores to make it a 7 point lead. Does Drew Lavender help this team's "poise"? Of course, but the play described above shows there is much more there than just giving the ball to Drew.

How about spur -of-the-moment "coaching moves"? How about this one? Today, UMass is making a run. Lead is down to 7 when Drew goes the length of the court for a layup with 4:26 to go. XU's players who were chasing the play, were out of defensive position. UMass likes to rip the ball out of the net and race back up the court. Sean saw the court and called an immediate time out after Drew's bucket stopping a sure UMass return basket, set up the defense and quieted the crowd. Good quick thinking.

Sean Miller has coached successfully through some of the most adverse luck a guy could have to deal with beginning with King Cole's devastating injury in 2004, continuing with other injuries and some turmoil. Through it he has 2 NCAA appearances in 3 years, will have a 3rd this year, and two A-10 Championships- be they Tournament of Regular Season. He has brought, and is bringing in outstanding recruits who continue the Xavier way of being educated, graduating and representing the school well. These are "his" players. He develops his players to be better. He has built an excellent Assistant Coaching staff. The program today is arguably stronger than it ever has been in its history.

Who knows what will happen before the balls are put away this year? A break either way, or a red hot opposing team, may extend, or cut short the season, but no matter what happens, there should be no question about whether Xavier University has the right guy for now and the future to coach its basketball team. If there was any doubt at all, today's solid and impressive performance, despite mediocre shooting, proved that in a microcosm.

You are right on with your observations about Sean Miller! It used to be that we all feared the mention of an opposing team playing a zone, but now I look very much forward to watching the Musketeers disect a zone and patiently work for the open shot.

In today's game it was interesting to watch as the guys worked the ball around the horn, then, with a second or two left on the shot clock....take it to the rack, and score!

There was NO panic, NO noticable fear of the other teams players....just a workman-like approach to "getting the job done."

I look forward to the next few weeks as our Musketeers hone in and improve their individual and team skills, both offensively and defensively, and become a team possessed with that "killer" instinct that top echelon teams have. This truly could be a final 4 team if they don't get satisfied.

I think they are hungry for the kind of success that Sean expects.

Go X!

MOR, I'm not taking issue with your analysis, just asking a few questions.

It sometimes seems as if our substitution patterns affect our continuity, while also attempting to build a 9-man rotation (which I'm 100% in favor of). What are your thoughts on how Sean gets guys in and out of the game?

During much of today's broadcast, Byron kept calling for X to get the ball to C.J. much more than they were as he felt UMass had nobody who could stop him. Thoughts?

When the 3's aren't falling, do you think we should try to go to the basket more?

Just asking-really.

Mr. Neutral wrote:MOR, I'm not taking issue with your analysis, just asking a few questions.

It sometimes seems as if our substitution patterns affect our continuity, while also attempting to build a 9-man rotation (which I'm 100% in favor of). What are your thoughts on how Sean gets guys in and out of the game?

During much of today's broadcast, Byron kept calling for X to get the ball to C.J. much more than they were as he felt UMass had nobody who could stop him. Thoughts?

When the 3's aren't falling, do you think we should try to go to the basket more?

Just asking-really.

I think (if you want my opinion) that Sean has found a good sub pattern with Jackson and Graves. They have come on and I am seeing a marked improvement in their D side too.

I think UMass didn't have answers for a number of players today not just CJ. I watched the game again tonight and laughed at their D when Drew got the ball. Sometimes they had 3 guys on him and he would leave them in the dust. Only one time did I think he broke the cardinal rule when he was trapped and stopped his dribble. D Brown looked like an NBA players and a couple fouls called on him were bogus including the one steal that they called on him. His D alone was outstanding.

When the threes are not falling I think they know to take it inside. But with their D I think they can start the O better and except for Raymond the other seem to stop shooting after a number of missed threes. Of course today when they missed the threes Love cleaned up with the put backs.

I also would like to add that when the score got down to 5 today everyone in my house but me was worried they might blow it and then 20 seconds later the lead was 11. I think that X is starting to show that given time they will put so much pressure on the other team they will fold and points will come in bunches.

Agreed, MOR. I like the rotation, especially the early use of Jackson to get him into the flow in case we need him later in the game. With the way Drew played today, and knowing we were about to have 6 days off, it was tough to take him out. But in general Dante's really picked it up on both ends of the floor. He's been a contributor (and a key one against UD).

As for getting the ball into CJ, I really didn't think that was an issue at all. If anything, CJ seemed a bit out of sorts when he had the ball today. I think he traveled at least 3 times. That'll happen to just about anyone every once and a while, though.

I really can't complain about any of Miller's decisions lately. I like his use of timeouts, I like his substitution patterns, I like his lineups, I LOVE our team defense. Hell, I'm no Dustin Dow but I even like his ties (sorry Dustin, had to!).

Mr. N - My opionion is that the substitutions were pretty perfect today...

CJ was great on offense (except the travels), but, Sean mentioned in the post-game show that he had a couple of lapses on defense leading to layups. I agree that a player needs to get yanked for that. Sean also said, though, that he has all the confidence in CJ's ability to improve in that area because, "he's very intelligent".

That's another thing I love about Sean - He can be honest/critical but you always get the feeling he has faith in his players' abilities to improve. He really analyzes every player and helps them work through their shortcomings. It amazes me how many details he picks up from games before watching any film.

Regarding the three's - I agree with what someone else said - Love cleaned up the misses pretty well, and I don't want BJ to stop if he's feeling it. He's been doing a good job of stepping inside the line when necessary, too.

And, I thought he dealt with the foul trouble of Love and Duncan masterfully, ensuring that Josh was in there at the end. That sure paid off!

Mr. Neutral wrote:MOR, I'm not taking issue with your analysis, just asking a few questions.

It sometimes seems as if our substitution patterns affect our continuity, while also attempting to build a 9-man rotation (which I'm 100% in favor of). What are your thoughts on how Sean gets guys in and out of the game?

During much of today's broadcast, Byron kept calling for X to get the ball to C.J. much more than they were as he felt UMass had nobody who could stop him. Thoughts?

When the 3's aren't falling, do you think we should try to go to the basket more?

Just asking-really.

Xavier outscored UMass 42 to 22 in the paint yesterday. That's not counting all of the free throws that were caused by guys being fouled near the basket. Moose, Xavier scored 77 points shooting about 23% from 3. I'm not sure how many more times you can pound the ball down low. That's why Travis Ford resorted to playing Lo. At least he blocked a couple of Xavier's shots.

CJ Anderson scored 13 points, DBrown scored 14 and Josh Duncan scored 10. Jason Love scored 8. That's four of our top 5 scorers from yesterday marking from down low. I don't think that Derrick scored from an outside shot.

Subs? What's wrong? You want your guys to play hard for as long as they can. That requires some breaks. Skip used to say that "college kids should never get tired" then we saw how his teams wore down near the end of the season. Judicious minutes, and getting Dante and Adrion some good time is productive and builds their confidence. XU has depth. Use it.

I think the low score given to the 'tactical' category just reflects the tendency of the fans to always second guess coaches in general. Without it, radio talk shows would be non-existent and many of the posts on this board would be gone. I wouldn't put too much into the fan response on that item while I would gloat over the general satisfaction with the program. Remember, we find it a lot easier to complain than to compliment not only in sports but in life. Quite frankly, I trust that Sean knows more about running this team than some guy in the upper deck with 5 beers in him.

Whatever "team chemistry" is, it seems to go hand and hand with on court success. I think "team chemistry" is coached and Sean has done a great job.

I credit Josh Duncan - much like I did with Stanley last year when he all of a sudden bought into the concept. It looked like Josh and his family had NBA dreams early in his career. His role on this year's team that spreads the ball around is not going to get him much attention, but he's playing great right now. I know I'll be rooting for him when he gets attention in the late NCAA rounds!

Hold off on the canonization. Sean Miller is a very good young coach and we're very fortunate to have him. However he is not tactically perfect(OSU last yr.). We have a good team this year that so far has proved nothing, except that we have potential for a very good season. We still play soft at times, and to the level of our competition. As for the sched. I like what we're trying to do, however; UVA, UC, Creighton, Auburn all having "down years. We beat one good team IU; and folded against Tenn. I wouldn't trade Sean Miller for anyone right now, but he's not the second coming of John Wooden.