Villanova Game thread 2/21/23

[Kevin Reilly]

Skyhops Jones does struggle at the foul line But he's strong enough to make the shot. Boum is a great foul shooter but poor to terrible at taking the last shot. If he doesn't draw the foul he most likely will put up a off balance fade away shot. Boum seems to make too many mistakes at the end of games. Getting trapped when they press, losing the ball by being physically over powered, and waiting to long to attack the basket. On top of that he is guilty of letting his man make the winning shot. If the other team knows Xavier is going to let Boum take the last shot and wait till the last couple of seconds it's basically Boum trying to drive thru 5 guys. We have seen how that works out. One on five is poor odds. He doesn't look to pass even if he has 2 or 3 guys on him. We make it very easy to defend our last possession. No ball movement....just Boum bouncing the ball 35 feet from the basket and than trying to drive thru the whole team.

[skyhops]

I agree unless Boum is on the FT line he has been terrible recently at the end of games. It was a terrible decision and we needed a few passes. Our offense was awful in second half and their guards pushed us around. Boum, AK, and Nunge are all around 24 years old and have not played like veterans consistently the last 10 games. What is with the lobs to Nunge and Hunter all second half? That’s on Miller to put a stop to that but he was too busy whining to refs. Hopefully we win one more during the Feb/March curse

[bluegrass]

Boum has lost the last 2 for Xavier. 2 TOs in the last 40 seconds against Marquette and then a wild shot with plenty of time left against Nova. Certainly Kunkel deserves a lot of credit for this loss given his 2 turnovers late combined with giving them a 3 point play and 3 off those turnovers.

X has lost to 3 of the worst 4 teams in the BE. This team can lose to anyone but also capable of beating anyone.

The defensive effort is improved from earlier in the season. Decision making is much worse. Going for the high risk pass to the block is not a good idea unless you are outmatched and desperate. Work the ball for the right angle into the post.

Free will increase the margin of error. He will allow more rest for the bigs and create more offensive efficiency. He won't however fix the decision making issues. The team has to fix that before he returns or they will eventually lose, even at full strength.

So you're giving Colby a pass on tonight? 4 points on 2-10 shooting and 0-2 from the line. For a guy projected to be a first round pick,thats unacceptable.Sadly with Freemantle out no one can have a bad night.

[X-lucidity]

We can debate who should take the last shot until we are blue in the face. However I think AH nailed it when he referenced the disjointed situation that we were left with, 90 feet, 11 seconds. Some mini natural panic sets in and you get what we got. Now that said, I will say that for years X seems to struggle in these last shot situations. Like the triple OT game versus Prov last year. Or even the end of last night’s first half – where we had about 22 seconds and wound up with a 46-footer. (that miraculously went in). So maybe, and I would have to believe this is already worked on, the staff reviews a few last second scenarios so that our guys can confidently execute something based on whether you need a two or a three and how much time is left. For situations where you simply do not have a TO. My selection would have been to have Nunge go up high and isolate Hunter down low for the last shot. Just my 2 cents. Nova had no one to match up with Jerome, (with Dixon occupied on jack), and he always can get off his shot with his strong upper body. But again, that is just a symptom and fodder for speculation. The real issue is, has been, and will be our lack of depth. Our starters are just mentally and physically worn down for these last 8 min stretches. Turnovers increase, shot selection decisions become poorer. We simply have to get Free back and to a lesser extent, Kyky would certainly help. As another noted, Edwards MUST give us more. We have been fortunate that these last few games the refs have not called it tightly, as that would add another danger. Finally, a hidden detriment to our horrific current lack of depth is that Sean has to take one addl TO earlier in the 2nd half than I believe he normally would. I believe last night it was around the 6 min mark. Just to give our core 5 a blow. Because he could see the flat out fatigue and could not wait for the under 4min TV break, (which I believe was the prudent move). Having that TO left would have been just what the Dr. ordered last night with 11.6 seconds left…

[connecticut72]

Totally agree with X lucidity and the use of time outs by Miller. Sean called our last TO with 1 minute left in a 3 point game and I think it was after a dead ball. He has burned TOś in other games this year too early. We could have used a time out for that last possession. Miller as was mentioned used a TO to get Nunge back in the game because Villanova was killing our small lineup. It was unfortunate to have to do that but it was necessary. Villanova had 2 TO left with 40 seconds to go and needed it when when we trapped the in bound pass. A great trap with 40 seconds left. Another point I would like to make. Nunge was wide open at the top of the key after Villanova switched on Souley but he went foul hunting instead. Lastly, Kunkel is like the little girl with the curl when good he is very good but when bad he is awful. He was too involved in our last possessions. He only made one good play the other plays were turnovers or a missed shot.On a positive note. I have complained about X defense all year bit it was fantastic, particularly the last couple of minutes of this game. We played hard but there is no margin for error with this limited lineup.

[muskieman]

As I stated earlier, I wanted Colby to take the last shot despite his horrible offensive game, but let's look at it from another point of view. The thing I read most in the last couple of years is the team was undisciplined and had no go-to-guy in the clutch situation, absent Naji, but even Naji hit big shots and missed big shots. We can be upset with many players, including those that played decent, but we focus on Souley because of the last two games.

So let's look at those two plays. Souley is doubled by two players and loses the ball. Could he have stepped through the double? Maybe but the ball was tipped when the scramble began...everyone else was standing around watching the play, not getting into position to help. Where was the open man moving to the ball when he saw Souley in trouble?

Last night Souley should have passed the ball when he saw them switch, and Nova stayed big, but the guy on that side of the floor was Des. Maybe Souley didn't want to let the freshman have to take the shot, or perhaps he wanted to be the "ROCK STAR" Souley's job was to get the ball up on the rim where maybe Jones on the other side of the basket, or Jack at the front of the rim could get a tip in but like several plays in the second half the shot was short and never got to the rim which reminded me of a running shot Souley left short a few minutes before. My bet is Souley is still sleeping as I write this because he was totally worn out by the end of that game, and just because he is a "young" man does mean he does get tired.

As to X needing to practice end of games, they do that and have several plays, so was that call from the bench?

If you can triple-team Moore, which you should, because inside, he hurt X, then why didn't they double Dixon when he got the ball against Hunter? BTW Hunter stopped Dixon the first time when the help came. Moore sandwiched an inside score between the two Hunter gave up to Dixon. Also.

Justin Moore > both Whitmore and Daniels because he plays bigger in big games, and Moore gave Netune his most significant win last night. X needs to watch the last two minutes of the Butler and Nova games and see what their opponent did that made them succeed. Three losses in the previous seven by a total of 4 points and two challenging road games make the possibility X is playing the first day at the BE tourney and has a losing record in the last ten days. I hope Sean realizes that seven or eight-man rotations can not work in the BE unless they are all built like Moore, Whitmore, and Dixon et al. I remember during Sean's first tenure with X some posters had the same complaint.

BTW there are other ways to get a stoppage of play to get Nunge into the game besides calling a time-out. Colby and Adam each had one personal foul last night. Maybe that time out was to refocus the team on helping D on the inside because that happened after that time out on most of the plays. When X was playing help D last night, they looked good and did it without fouling.

One last thing I would like to see Colby and Adam bring up the ball more in games where Souley is playing maximum minutes. This constant having to have Souley getting pressure in the second half of fun, even if it is slightly to make him change directions, can't help his stamina.

[ChitownSteve]

Guess I am watching a different game than so,e beefing about Time Outs. Assuredly, not every TO this year has been perfectly timed. Yet, last night there was a purpose behind each one called.

7:54 to go with Nunge on the bench, X gives up a 6-0 run, and is playing poorly, falling behind by 4. A TO called. Last year many on this Board rightfully wailed about our Coach stonily waiting for the TV time out as X fell further and further behind and the opposition run continued.

Again, I will assert it was also better to have called last the TO with 1:01 to go and behind three. With 0:42, Kunkel stole the ball, Boum then hit 2 FT’s to pull within one. Also, another possession was assured without needing to foul, both missions, a stop and an assured possession accomplished. Agreed, Boum’s decision-making was poor at the end and X fell short. Yet, X was in a good position to tie or win in the final possession.

Let’s add some more context, Villanova never scored again after the TO with 1:01 to go. Memories must be short. Seems X has long, and I mean long, had an inexplicable difficulty in in-bounding the ball from the far baseline after either team called a TO. Oh, and Villanova burned its final TO with 34 seconds to go. Let that sink in.

No Coach is above criticism. Second-guessing is part of fandom, so some of us will differ. As I sat and watched, each time a TO was called, it appeared Coach Miller had a darn good reason.

[X-lucidity]

I also agreed with every TO called Chitown. I did not go back a rewatch as you did, I thought I had recalled one TO Sean seemed to call after a flurry of motion just under the 8min mark as he sensed our guys were gassed. Obviously he may have had a dual reason for the TO, but our young men were exhausted. And yes, that is a well placed TO. As Coach Miller has said now many times in pressers, we really need to get healthy.

[gundun]

Can we at least spell NOVA in the heading by replacing the E with an A

[muskieman]

Can we at least spell NOVA in the heading by replacing the E with an A

Yes, Mom, I missed that. I hope it didn't cause you too much consternation.