Oakland Game thread

[XU_2011]

[skyhops]

I hope that Coach Miller doesn't tell us again that Lazar is the second best player on this team. He can't guard a mailbox right now nor can Gytis. I figured this was a down year, but if our bigs are this bad and we can't hit a shot or make a play when it matters we will be in DePaul territory in the BE. Missing three FT's in a row win it mattered was bad, but having Oakland go on a run with us up three at the end was Steele like. Next time I hope we read the scouting report.

[Kevin Reilly]

Well close but no cigar. I only saw the second half but from what I saw I wish we would sprinkle in some zone. Claude played very well on offense but just as poorly on defense. He kept letting Townsend catch the ball 8-10 feet from the basket. He never fronted him and made Oakland lob the ball over his head. Not enough ball pressure on the ball either .Not sure why Nemeiksa didn't get a chance on him. I think we are in for a lot of zone defenses against us this year. We don't have much firepower with the Big's. . Wish Nzeh had got a chance. He played well last game and the big guys did little in the second half. This might be the least physical Xavier team in 30 years. We are not a good shooting team (41 % from the field and 30% from 3 point line). Oakland is a pretty good team but not one we should lose to at home. We need to take a big step forward before we get into the Big East. Swain gave up two crucial offensive rebounds in the last 3 minutes. Both lead to baskets. He was leaking out after his man shot. He had a very tough defensive game against Bryant too. Pinzon ( 18 points) was eating him up. Beat Houston.

[skyhops]

Good points Kevin, but Claude had no business guarding Townsend which is on Miller. As Mm stated and he is correct Hunter would have guarded him but we have to have a big that can guard otherwise we are in trouble. Your points are valid on Swain he will be a good defender but his turnovers and cheating on defense hurt. Nzeh or Gytis could have been used although Gytis didn’t play well defensively. McNight needs to be better offensively.

[bluegrass]

Wow that was disappointing.The interior defense was horrible.I think this team should play some zone defense to protect our slow interior guys. They make Freemantle look like a good defender I think we're looking at a .500 season Best we can hope for in the non conference is 7-4 and that means beating UC.Ten wins in BE would be an accomplishment.

[Xavier2005]

FG per cent scoring is bad, free throw shooting is bad, 3 point per cent is bad....scoring is at its worse....

[Jesseandrippers]

The optimists are going to have to face it and reset expectations. This is a rebuild. We have good, but very young talent. This is quality experience for them if they take to the coaching and do things right. We need to hang onto our youngsters, recruit HS, and hit the portal hard. The rebuild could be very short if we can find some bigs. Our guards and wings will be just fine. But for this year, lets hope we can keep our noses above the .500 mark and not get blown out. Anything above that is a masterful coaching feat.

[skyhops]

Our three transfers are not young at all, they just are mid major players. McNight can play defense, but is a terrible shooter which is why Oakland's coach was daring us to shoot. Milelr mentioned in his presser that he should have doubled Townsend. he also mentioned that we folded up 3 with 4 minutes left at home. We lucked out with Nunge, Boum, and AK they were difference makers the new players not so much.

[muskieman]

I am taking the connecticut72 approach. Yes, we were beaten by Oakland, which should not have happened, but we should not have lost last season to DePaul. The funny thing is two basketballs can go through the basket at a time, but sometimes the ball can't be thrown into the basket even if it were twice its size.

We heard last season that Souley wasn't any good and was a mid-major player; we heard Jack was too soft; we heard ZACH COULD NOT PLAY DEFENSE AND WAS A LIABILITY. We heard Hunter and Zach should never take a three, EVER. We heard Hunter fouled too much. We heard Kunkel was too streaky and couldn't defend; we heard that Colby didn't bring it every game and that Kyky should be getting minutes. All that was forgotten by the people who said those things last year by the time we played Texas, and then it came out again.

Like always, I will let the season play out and see if Sean is the magician, the wizard, or the uber coach people hung on him. Maybe he will be a miracle worker, or perhaps he is playing the long game, which is not obvious right now.

I heard someone say a few weeks ago that they thought it might not be the year but expected every game to be exciting. I will leave you with something, including me, have said.

In Sean, I trust.

[olsingledigit]

I still have to trust in Sean. Lot of things against us this year, but we have one of the best coaches in the country. If we end up with a bad year it will hurt Sean more than anyone.