Still too early... but sky seems to be falling

[Anti-Homer]

Our horrible shooting team (Stats don’t lie) & the season trending the wrong way with several road games coming up with the better teams in our conference yet to be played. Not a very good track record the last 3 Yrs on the road. Better win the home games or it could get real ugly.

Losing to Marquette was not unexpected, as they are a very good team. One loss doesn't define a season. The way X lost again is the issue, and imo, is a pattern seen since Steele took over. First of all, you mention shooting. X has good shooters. The problem is Steele's philosophy of anyone having the freedom to shoot any shot, any place, any time. Nunge and 10% Zach continue to fire up threes like they are Kunkel and Johnson. Hunter too, but at least his percentage since league play is going up .But even if he was shooting at 15% from three, he'd still have the green light. If they took shots they can make at a decent clip, the shooting percentages would go up several percentage points, which means "x" number more points per game. They also take way too many high degree of difficulty shots, including Scruggs 15 foot baseline fadeaway which even shocked the announcers. As great as Jones is, he takes several improbable shots a game as well, as do the others.

I think the lack of accountability and lack of discipline from a coach with a veteran laden team is shocking. Zach has been beaten like a drum on D, but unlike with Tandy, Steele seems oblivious to it. Based on Twitter, he is the only one. Scruggs had three very bad possessions in the final eight minutes, and Steele didn't pull him at all. What message does this send? X still is a tourney team, but I feel like I did after year one. Talent has to trump the lack of sound strategy and in game management. Fortunately, Steele is definitely excelling in the area of recruiting.

[longliveskip]

Our horrible shooting team (Stats don’t lie) & the season trending the wrong way with several road games coming up with the better teams in our conference yet to be played. Not a very good track record the last 3 Yrs on the road. Better win the home games or it could get real ugly.

Losing to Marquette was not unexpected, as they are a very good team. One loss doesn't define a season. The way X lost again is the issue, and imo, is a pattern seen since Steele took over. First of all, you mention shooting. X has good shooters. The problem is Steele's philosophy of anyone having the freedom to shoot any shot, any place, any time. Nunge and 10% Zach continue to fire up threes like they are Kunkel and Johnson. Hunter too, but at least his percentage since league play is going up .But even if he was shooting at 15% from three, he'd still have the green light. If they took shots they can make at a decent clip, the shooting percentages would go up several percentage points, which means "x" number more points per game. They also take way too many high degree of difficulty shots, including Scruggs 15 foot baseline fadeaway which even shocked the announcers. As great as Jones is, he takes several improbable shots a game as well, as do the others.

I think the lack of accountability and lack of discipline from a coach with a veteran laden team is shocking. Zach has been beaten like a drum on D, but unlike with Tandy, Steele seems oblivious to it. Based on Twitter, he is the only one. Scruggs had three very bad possessions in the final eight minutes, and Steele didn't pull him at all. What message does this send? X still is a tourney team, but I feel like I did after year one. Talent has to trump the lack of sound strategy and in game management. Fortunately, Steele is definitely excelling in the area of recruiting.

only thing i agree with on here is the Freemantle defense part. he's been awful. the "freedom to shoot any shot" mantra has GOT TO GO. you've beat this dead horse for so long and it just ain't right. you act like Freemantle and Nunge are only jacking up 3's and nothing else. they don't. Freemantle took TWO. TWO. and they were wide open. Nunge took 4 and they were also WIDE OPEN. they're not shooting BAD shots.

degree of difficulty??? really? How often have we seen Scruggs make the shot you're describing? we are all fine when Scruggs takes over vs Creighton and makes those shots but not when he misses? can't have it both ways. did Scruggs play well? no. not at all. there were a couple shots he took where i thought he should have dished but the fact remains if this team makes half of the WIDE OPEN 3's we got (NATE???) and a few EASY LAYUPS then we aren't having this discussion at all.

i don't care how you slice it, college hoops comes down to MAKING SHOTS. we had a PLETHORA of great shots/looks. we didn't make them. Marq did. that's why they won.

everything else you wanna argue makes no difference at all.

that's the reality of college basketball and there's no other greater truth than this: when you make shots you look better than you are. when you miss shots you look worse than you are. it's that simple.

[skyhops]

Freemantle is a horrible shooter and should not be taking 3's plus when he does there is no one under to rebound. Free has to realize that a guarded 8' half hook is also not a good shot vs actually posted a defender and getting an easier shot. Scruggs has yet to play a complete game and he has taken poor shots on many occasions just like yesterday.

[Xavier2005]

Sky not falling yet. But X is playing like a 6 to 10 seed for March Madness. In the middle of the pack for the field of 68. If they keep losing too much , then the sky may fall to a lower seeding near the Bubble.

[muskieman]

Freemantle is a horrible shooter and should not be taking 3's plus when he does there is no one under to rebound. Free has to realize that a guarded 8' half hook is also not a good shot vs actually posted a defender and getting an easier shot. Scruggs has yet to play a complete game and he has taken poor shots on many occasions just like yesterday.

if Zach doesn't take wide-open shots what should he take? Maybe pass it to someone heavily guarded to miss a layup! The team as I said earlier missed shots and like others say when you miss shots you look bad and when you make shots normally you win and then YOU have nothing to talk about

[Jesseandrippers]

Sky not falling yet. But X is playing like a 6 to 10 seed for March Madness. In the middle of the pack for the field of 68. If they keep losing too much , then the sky may fall to a lower seeding near the Bubble.

I think this take is spot on. The emotions on this board are coming out because some of us thought this team had the juice to make a deep run. That dream isn't dead yet but we are running out of halves to give us confidence and a decent seeding to make that run. Sure we can click and try to go deep as a 10 seed but would be nice to avoid that gauntlet.

[pdxmuskie]

I completely disagree with Skip regarding Free shooting a wide open 3. Watch him shoot from 3, he is straining to shoot it. Not quite as bad as Odom but Odom doesn't shoot them because he understands it is not a good decision. If Free wants to take those shots, then he needs to fix his mechanics or whatever is causing him to look as though he doesn't have the strength to get it to the rim. Put in the work then expand range in games.

A guarded Johnson 3 (while not in a shooting slump) is better than a wide open 3 from Freemantle. I don't like either but being open is not a good enough reason to shoot. If it were, players should shoot from half court all game.

[skyhops]

Xavier -7 tomorrow, wow. I think Muskieman must be helping out Vegas.

[X-lucidity]

Xavier -7 tomorrow, wow. I think Muskieman must be helping out Vegas.

exactly, Vegas has not caught up to our slide. I capitalized Sunday, made a dime, went off at X minus 1.5. (yes, X was a fave!) I jumped all over that. Was hoping that by betting I would jinx the outcome and help X win. Yea right. Tomorrow's line actually seems about right. Probably will settle at X minus 6.5 and I will not touch that. Honestly, I feel we are due to play well and would lay the points if forced to play this one.

[skyhops]

We haven’t covered in four games not that it matters I just want a win PU always tough their bigs could ouch us around.