Marquette Game thread 2/18/17

[XU Captain]

Xavier was never in this one. Give Marquette credit for good defense and putting this game away in the first five minutes. Goodin is completely overmatched at this level of basketball. I had heard his skill level was nowhere near his athletic ability earlier in the season, now it is showing. Goodin is probably best served as a 8th or 9th man, not a starter. But who else can we put in there with the injuries and Davis defection? The big men did a good job after we were down 19 or 20 points. The guard play was very disappointing. I feel like Xavier would be better fit in the NIT at this point. Not the same team without Sumner. Or Blueitt for that matter. At least in the NIT we would have a chance to play 3-4 games at least, get a couple of home games. I read online tonight the NCAA committee will consider Sumner's injury and this will hurt Xavier's chance at getting a bid. But I will not be upset with the NIT this year. Still a Xavier fan, win or lose.

[commish118]

Not saying we would have won with better officials, but they definitely had an affect on the outcome, and on the 21-2 lead Marquette took to start the game.

There also seems to be a lot of unrealistic expectations from posters right now: critical of the players, our freshman point guard, our effort, and our coach. Let's see. We come into this game down our top three scorers from last season. We come into this game with just 7 scholarship players. Gaston plays only 20 minutes because he fouled out, getting 3 fouls on 2 plays that he didn't commit a foul on. So we played half the game with only 6 Scholarship players. Bernard gets hurt and misses at least 10 minutes. (yea, another guard!) So we had 20 total minutes with 7 scholarship players, 20 minutes with 6. And we forced to have centers and a power forward play defense, and offense against Marquette guards.

Take any school in the country, any! Coached by anyone! Take away their top 3 returning scorers from the previous year, all guards, force them to play a freshman almost the entire game at point, and oh by the way, allow them to only have only 1-2 scholarship players on the bench, and tell me they would have done any better than the Muskies tonight. I know you guys want to see them win, and so do I. But come on! These kids are working their asses off and playing positions they have not played before. And not to make excuses for not getting lose balls, but no player can risk fouling out. There are not enough bodies.

We have survived without Tre. It was a rough three road games. We have the next two at home, with a healthy Tre, then a road game at Depaul. I say we win all three. But you can stop watching, sell your tickets to the next two games, do whatever you want. This is still my team! I still love the Muskies!!! I am with them through thick and thin. I refuse to jump on them when they are down!

[muskieman]

MU is not a great Defensive team but making 10 TO in the first 8 minutes of the game is a problem. One thing I notice is that JP and MB are poor passers when they are pressured just like Tre is at times but Tre's are sometimes just soft passes. Watch how some passes are to the opponent side hand and/or too low or high when a player is wide open, few times they are made in shooting position. The loss of Ed was bad but the loss of Tre is exponentially bad because now they could focus on JP especially when Q can drive but not make a layup. Shame that the bigs showed up now and not at the beginning of the season because a few of the losses might have been wins with a solid inside game.

Still they can right the ship and maybe this will make them stronger

[commish118]

Xavier was never in this one. Give Marquette credit for good defense and putting this game away in the first five minutes. Goodin is completely overmatched at this level of basketball. I had heard his skill level was nowhere near his athletic ability earlier in the season, now it is showing. Goodin is probably best served as a 8th or 9th man, not a starter. But who else can we put in there with the injuries and Davis defection? The big men did a good job after we were down 19 or 20 points. The guard play was very disappointing. I feel like Xavier would be better fit in the NIT at this point. Not the same team without Sumner. Or Blueitt for that matter. At least in the NIT we would have a chance to play 3-4 games at least, get a couple of home games. I read online tonight the NCAA committee will consider Sumner's injury and this will hurt Xavier's chance at getting a bid. But I will not be upset with the NIT this year. Still a Xavier fan, win or lose.

It may have been different had he been playing point from the start of the season, but it is an extremely rare for a freshman to be the only point guard you have on your team, and play almost 40 minutes. I agree, he is not ready to be the starter and quarterback... yet. The plan was to play him 15-20 minutes a game this season, and a good portion of those at the #2 guard. the good news is, he is gaining experience under fire.

[thecoach]

It's kind of remarkable you can lose by twenty points to a team that missed 23 three pointers. They really have nothing inside to speak of so you can score down low, but we also were out rebounded 41 to 34. I thought they showed some fight, but it will be interesting to see how they finish the year, and who is back next year. The ship is in rocky waters right now.

[XU Captain]

Hopefully Jones and Gates will continue playing well. Along with Gaston and O'Mara, I thought Jones and Gates were bright spots. We will miss Gaston next year. But Jones will only get better, hopefully Gates does as well. Part of the reason I will not be upset if we are in the NIT is the fact it will give Jones and Gates several more games this season to gain more experience against postseason teams. I like Goodin's athletic ability, but he is not a point guard for a Big East team. I see him more as a wing, small-forward type who can get into the lane and pass. He can not finish at all. I know we have at least three recruits who will either start or see significant minutes next year. Goodin is the type of athlete who will do well with 10-15 minutes a game as a wing player to put defensive pressure on other team's guards.

[bluegrass]

Does Gaston have to sit out next game for the 2 technicals or is that just if you get ejected for fighting ?

[thecoach]

Does Gaston have to sit out next game for the 2 technicals or is that just if you get ejected for fighting ?

I do not think so. In fball you have to sit out a half in the next game with the flagrants, but i thought bball you were ok. Not 100% on this, but i think this is the case. it's more complicated now as i think they have regular technicals, unsportsman like fouls etc.

[skyhops]

The last two games we have had no opportunity to win from the start. Mack for some reason has no idea how to motivate this group, so we continue to take poor shoots and play minimal defense. They allowed a freshmen to hit 9 3's most uncontested.

[XU Captain]

The last two games we have had no opportunity to win from the start. Mack for some reason has no idea how to motivate this group, so we continue to take poor shoots and play minimal defense. They allowed a freshmen to hit 9 3's most uncontested.

How can you say this about Mack? What is he supposed to do? We are missing Sumner, Blueitt, lost Davis, and are playing people who are lower rotation at best. Marquette has better players at this point. Poor shots? Goodin missing layups, JP missing wide-open shots? How is that coaching? It's called talent level. Xavier did not have great depth to begin this season after losing Reynolds. Then the Davis episode. Now we lose Sumner and Blueitt. That's four players Mack thought this time last year would be in his starting lineup. As I have stated previously, Goodin is not a Big East point guard. He is, best case, an 8th or 9th man in the rotation for a team that has realistic hopes for challenging in the Big East. Goodin would not see the floor for Marquette, their guards are much better than him. I like JP as role player, but he's not getting it done as a primary scorer. That is because he is not a 1-2-3 option for most teams. Quit blaming the coaches. Look at the facts, that Xavier is missing four projected starters in this lineup when you figure we all thought Reynolds would be back this time last year. Get over it.