Seton Hall Game Thread

[Anti-Homer]

A win is a win, but this game was a microcosm of how steep a learning curve Steele has. Jones was great the 1st half, awful the second, yet Hankins was nailed to the bench early in the 2nd after a 5-8 night. Jones and Hankins were unstoppable together in the 1st half.

Then, despite SH cutting a 16 point lead to 1 with 55 seconds to go, and X not running a good offensive set in the last few minutes, Steele doesn't call a t.o., and Goodin throws up a fadeaway 27 foot 3. Luckily, X got bailed out and got a bad call go in their favor, so after a t.o., X can't get it in. Next play? They throw it to their worst f.t. shooter on the court, who promptly missed the front end. Good defense bailed them out.

I've been a Steele apologist, but it gets harder and harder. As usual, AH will go with the glass 9.75 full attitude and simply celebrate their 3rd win in a row. Hopefully, i won't get lambasted by the Tony Yates of bball twitter in Broering, when i say a veteran X and O's coach would be X's best recruit next year, even if they got the number one recruit.

Seacrest out.

[skyhops]

His out of bounds plays are terrible. At game end and Seton Hall has to foul and we throw it in the Jones? Unreal. He needs to get Scrugg’s confidence back because both Q and Naji pee down their legs with the lead and game end. At least in Marshall’s defense he isn’t a guard. We need a PG!

[harryfe]

Sure glad we got a win. I believe the 2 worst assets to this team are Q and Steele. How many to’s did Q have ? Did Scruggs score ?
I sure hope Marshall and Tyrique return.
Someone on this board a while back said our turnovers have improved. It seems we have been averaging about 17 last 4-5 games even though we have won 3 in a row.

[skyhops]

Good points, can’t believe we are winning with these turnovers, but besides Q this team is playing hard. Naji and Jones are beasts.

[Anti-Homer]

Sure glad we got a win. I believe the 2 worst assets to this team are Q and Steele. How many to’s did Q have ? Did Scruggs score ?
I sure hope Marshall and Tyrique return.
Someone on this board a while back said our turnovers have improved. It seems we have been averaging about 17 last 4-5 games even though we have won 3 in a row.

Harry,

It was one of the beloved moderators, and he had metrics to back it up. Granted it was only a 5 game sample, but over than span, I believe they only averaged 11 t.o.s a game, versus the previous avg of 18. It's the bizarro world with this team. As Marshall starts to show great progress, Scruggs is regressing at the same pace. Goodin had a tough night, but I believe he is steadily improving overall. He really isn't a prototypical point guard. He has more power than quickness, and only an above average handle. However, there are no other options there. He just has to make better decisions.

Despite that, X has won 3 in a row. As my friend Kramer said to his roommate who stiffed him on the rent 20 years earlier, "Watch out Nova. The bell tolls for thee."

[muskieman]

Inbound to Jones might not be the optimum choice in most circumstances but Jones was probably the strongest player and the way SH was playing the ball anyone else might have turned it over. They might have been up by 16 but they didn't give it all back and as a person that is optimistic it was a positive sign. Look at this team during their 6 game losing streak, X would have lost this game. They may be frustrating to fans that expect a double-digit win but a win is a win and based on most fans outlook they should be happy with that right now.

[joeabe]

If we had a ball handler we win by 15 tonight. Give us some credit we hung in and won on the road....Let's jump on the wagon and kick Nova's butts!! Our bigs are playing championship ball....as is #13....he's become a warrior. Perhaps he's finally healthy??

[bluegrass]

Sure glad we got a win. I believe the 2 worst assets to this team are Q and Steele. How many to’s did Q have ? Did Scruggs score ?
I sure hope Marshall and Tyrique return.
Someone on this board a while back said our turnovers have improved. It seems we have been averaging about 17 last 4-5 games even though we have won 3 in a row.

After losing 6 in a row ,I'll take a win no matter how ugly an end.It is what it is-this team turns the ball over a lot.Why would Ty and Naji not return?

[longliveskip]

tale of two halves for this game, but really that stretch from about the 13 min mark to the 7 min mark of the 2nd half was some of our best basketball at times. as dominant as Jones was in the first half, he was out of sorts the first 5 min of the 2nd half. couldn't finish. he was turning it over. thought steele should've went to Hankins sooner in the 2nd half but sometimes you gotta let guys play through stuff, especially as good as he'd been in the first half.

got the 16 point lead but this part is not on Steele - our guys gotta know that the pressure is coming. that SHU was going to "turn it up a notch" with their energy to try and get back into the game. we did not match their intensity with our own focused, fundamental basketball. we played tentative. it's on the players to handle the ball, get to open spots, make solid passes, etc. with about 6 min left we also got into "clock kill" mode too early. we needed to just run our stuff and be aggressive to try and score. that's on Steele. we either bled the clock down and didn't get a good shot or we were aggressive early, got a GREAT look and missed it (Naji corner 3 comes to mind). Naji did have a great game but he can't get into this "i'm the best 3 pt shooter and i'm feeling it so i'm going to jack up 3's early in the shot clock" mode. he did that a couple times in that span. the one 3 that was quick that was a great look you have to take was when Q drove to middle and kicked it to him in the corner. just need to knock it down.

either way, we got too passive and didn't create enough good scoring opportunities when we got the 16 pt lead. we didn't handle their pressure very well either. that's not surprising considering what we've seen from this team.

not sure why Scruggs went "MIA" in the 2nd half again. i saw one bad turnover and then he was out for awhile until maybe the 3 minute mark.

it's frustrating when you see the Jeckyll and Hyde from this team during the SAME game. not saying we need to beat SHU by 20 (we could have) but at some point these guys have to learn how to take care of the ball.

[X-lucidity]

There's been tons of negativity on this board. I have contributed to it, and quite frankly, there has been a lot to be frustrated by. Especially given the prior couple years of glory where we were only worried about our seeding and how many times Bill Murray would show up at games.... But as I took in last night's game, I was reminded about how pure & unforgiving this sport we love is. In any given 4 minute "war' momentum can shift and games can be won or lost. This is the Big East, not the Big East of 15 years ago but still an intense conference with all schools having B-ball as their top priority. X is playing better. Had we not blown the two earlier home games vs Prov & Seton Hall, well crap, we would be on or very close to the freaking bubble. No need to fret though about 'woulda-shoulda-coulda' - however, with the BE being a bit down overall this year, at least now X can go into March with a snowball's chance in hell to contemplate winning an automatic bid in NY. Likely? well honestly 'no'.. But worth a midnight dream or two, which was not the case two weeks ago. As many have noted, the 3 transfers are playing their hearts out. None of them try to do more than they are capable of and all three seem to have glass half full personalities. We all need to show up and give them a worthy standing O on senior night damn it. In summary, there aren't any "gimmies' for this group this season. Winning is tough and should never be taken for granted. I am making it a point to remind myself of this going forward. I am celebrating a hard fought victory, on the road, against a desperate well coached team. Way to fight boys...!