Coaching

[pdxmuskie]

Certainly way to early to call for a coaching change but I am shocked a Miller team looks so bad this far into the season. Losing all but 1 player from last year warrants growing pains and a down year but the way this team loses is so frustrating. I've never seen so many unforced turnovers. So many missed front ends and overall bad FT shooting. The defense is awful.

No offensive flow. Ball has no energy. Team has no energy at various points in the game.

A lot of youth on the team but they need to start making progress. The team does seem to be forcing fewer shots but that seems to be the only progress.

[bluegrass]

He certainly has to share in the blame. I do think he was put in a bad situation when Freemantle and Hunter were ruled out. He had to scramble to find some guys and so far they are not up to par. I still trust Sean and think he will get it turned around-but probably not this year.

Kami’s supposedly to be redshirted. Trey was still ill last night which is why he did not play more.

[muskieman]

Gytis disappeared last night on offense and took only one shot(that can't happen), Laz, I attribute to the broken hand/finger, which is still taped but he needs to get some energy because he is not showing that talent he has shown in practice. Sasa we thought was a project has been a bright spot but only limited. So far the international players have potential but no results. Grade C- to C

Abou can play D but players are letting too many get to the rim, O he can't catch the ball cleanly and when he does he makes himself small and susceptible to the steal by bringing the ball down, and when he is successful at putting the ball up he can score but not at the level we need. Mcknight, unlike some I think he is doing okay distributing the ball and we never thought he was going to fill it up. He was touted as a driver which he has done and has been successful as a person who pulls up and can make the short-range shot which he needs to do more but is not getting to the foul line like we thought. Because we have not had a knockdown three-point shooter they have packed the lanes which makes driving harder. Quincy coming off a great night still needs to be consistent with his scoring and a shutdown player on D to make him a successful player for X. I think the transfers are playing on eggshells and are afraid to be too aggressive, except for Abou. Transfers grade C to B-

Freshmen, Swain looks good at times on the court but is limited in his success for a freshman he had a decent night with the only exception he could have had 6 more points but kept deferring to outside shooters when he has a chance from close in.. For every good play, he makes a couple bone head plays. Trey shows flashes but not on D. Reid is in the same house as Kam and doesn't get a sniff of the court. I don't know how much time Saean spends talking to them and explaining why they are not getting time. He did this to a couple of freshmen when he was coach last time but he commented on air that he apologized to BJ saying he needed to find him more playing time. Kzeh where are you? Sean, give the kid 3 minutes Only players getting minutes are Trey 4 minutes last night 2 TOs and 1 assist, no points one shot, one rebound. Swain with 29 minutes because Des was in foul trouble. This class and Kam incomplete to incomplete.

Sean Miller... He deserves some of the blame for this team. Granted we didn't have the international players till late but then why not put your assistants to work on bringing them up to date? Where is the development of Kam and Reid sure one was hurt and one is new but not good enough to get playing time with a trip early in the summer with extra practice. The motivation which was his biggest asset didn't help after halftime and hasn't worked on the two buy games X has lost (that was a statement I thought I would never write...note every coach has lost a buy game, well not every coach) I still trust our coach but am flummoxed by his posture on the sidelines watching his team make mistake after mistake without trying something different.

Saturday we play that team with the other Miller coach and while they have not played anyone they beat the teams that they played and did it with ease. If Sean is trying to sneak up on them he is doing it with a team in total disarray and with little to no confidence in the offense. I hope he has a trick or ten up his sleeves because a loss in Cintas to that other team will not sit well with the faithful. That other team hasn't won in Cintas in 22 years. This year better not be the end of that streak. Grade as of now C to D

Hard to be negative but St Marys is our best win and it wasn't an easy win. Like someone said you have to hit rock bottom before starting upward. A win this Saturday might help that upward trend to start.

[Kevin Reilly]

PdxMuskie I have to take up for my man Coach Miller. Look who we lost. Boum 2,455 points , Freemantle 1,227 points, Nunge 1,383 points , Jones 1, 062 points and Kunkel 1,394 points. That's a lot of talent. Turnovers.... Last year we averaged 12.4 turnovers a game this year 13.1 turnovers a game. Foul shots we are shooting 67% from the foul line ..... last year 71% from the foul line. Jones shot 65% , Nunge shot 67%. Freemantle shot 65% and Claude shot 57 % from the line. The difference being Boum and Kunkel both shot 87 %.. So the turnovers and foul shooting are almost the same as last year. The difference is the talent level. I don't think any coach could do any better with this group. We have had a roller coaster team this year. Some nights a good defensive effort and some nights not so good. I feel we hit the Lotto with hiring Miller back. He is easily a top 10 coach if not a top 5 coach. We will take our lumps this year. That is pretty obvious. But Miller WILL get this turned around. It wouldn't surprise me if we knocked of the Bearcats. Go X

AMEN!

[skyhops]

Lazar might look good in practice, but look who he is playing against in practice. I can't remember a less talented group of bigs for Xavier in the last 20 plus years. Coach Miller mentioned that Lazar was our second best player early in the season, but he is just not ready for the speed or toughness of college basketball. Figures we would get the only 3 Euro's in college basketball that can't shoot.

[muskieman]

Lazar might look good in practice, but look who he is playing against in practice. I can't remember a less talented group of bigs for Xavier in the last 20 plus years. Coach Miller mentioned that Lazar was our second best player early in the season, but he is just not ready for the speed or toughness of college basketball. Figures we would get the only 3 Euro's in college basketball that can't shoot.

I give Lazar somewhat of a pass because a fracture of the hand can make catching the ball very difficult. Let's give him a few more games before we cast him into the dustbin of failure As for the other international players they have had their ups and downs but by no means are failures.

[Anti-Homer]

Gytis disappeared last night on offense and took only one shot(that can't happen), Laz, I attribute to the broken hand/finger, which is still taped but he needs to get some energy because he is not showing that talent he has shown in practice. Sasa we thought was a project has been a bright spot but only limited. So far the international players have potential but no results. Grade C- to C

Abou can play D but players are letting too many get to the rim, O he can't catch the ball cleanly and when he does he makes himself small and susceptible to the steal by bringing the ball down, and when he is successful at putting the ball up he can score but not at the level we need. Mcknight, unlike some I think he is doing okay distributing the ball and we never thought he was going to fill it up. He was touted as a driver which he has done and has been successful as a person who pulls up and can make the short-range shot which he needs to do more but is not getting to the foul line like we thought. Because we have not had a knockdown three-point shooter they have packed the lanes which makes driving harder. Quincy coming off a great night still needs to be consistent with his scoring and a shutdown player on D to make him a successful player for X. I think the transfers are playing on eggshells and are afraid to be too aggressive, except for Abou. Transfers grade C to B-

Freshmen, Swain looks good at times on the court but is limited in his success for a freshman he had a decent night with the only exception he could have had 6 more points but kept deferring to outside shooters when he has a chance from close in.. For every good play, he makes a couple bone head plays. Trey shows flashes but not on D. Reid is in the same house as Kam and doesn't get a sniff of the court. I don't know how much time Saean spends talking to them and explaining why they are not getting time. He did this to a couple of freshmen when he was coach last time but he commented on air that he apologized to BJ saying he needed to find him more playing time. Kzeh where are you? Sean, give the kid 3 minutes Only players getting minutes are Trey 4 minutes last night 2 TOs and 1 assist, no points one shot, one rebound. Swain with 29 minutes because Des was in foul trouble. This class and Kam incomplete to incomplete.

Sean Miller... He deserves some of the blame for this team. Granted we didn't have the international players till late but then why not put your assistants to work on bringing them up to date? Where is the development of Kam and Reid sure one was hurt and one is new but not good enough to get playing time with a trip early in the summer with extra practice. The motivation which was his biggest asset didn't help after halftime and hasn't worked on the two buy games X has lost (that was a statement I thought I would never write...note every coach has lost a buy game, well not every coach) I still trust our coach but am flummoxed by his posture on the sidelines watching his team make mistake after mistake without trying something different.

Saturday we play that team with the other Miller coach and while they have not played anyone they beat the teams that they played and did it with ease. If Sean is trying to sneak up on them he is doing it with a team in total disarray and with little to no confidence in the offense. I hope he has a trick or ten up his sleeves because a loss in Cintas to that other team will not sit well with the faithful. That other team hasn't won in Cintas in 22 years. This year better not be the end of that streak. Grade as of now C to D

Hard to be negative but St Marys is our best win and it wasn't an easy win. Like someone said you have to hit rock bottom before starting upward. A win this Saturday might help that upward trend to start.

et tu Muskieman? Your grade for Coach Miller is “Grade as of now C to D.”? I don’t know if the team has over, under, or performed as they should based on their inexperience (9 minutes of TOTAL playing time from last year returning, along with 6 freshman). They also lost their two best-returning players to injury, had their best shooter remaining (Kraft) redshirting due to lost time (injury), and one of their very talented, but young and inexperienced int’l players stuck in October preseason learning mode due to an injury. On top of that, they had arguably the hardest preseason schedule in the history of the program playing two Top 5 teams, along with a very good Washington team.

Sean Miller, who did a top 5 coaching job last year, is in the B- range in my mind, but the jury is still out. His over-achievement last year created inflated expectations. Unlike all others on this Board, I should know, having coached a 3rd grade girl’s CYO team and 7th grade boy’s CYO team to league titles in the same year, before the era of NIL. I’m shy, which is why I never mentioned it previously. Anyway, back to the point of the post.

The same thing that haunted Miller in his first go a round at X haunts him now: he blows all his timeouts early in the game, including 2-3 in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half in a couple. He has also mismanaged Claude, by playing him with three fouls early in two games which contributed to losses. Most egregious is when he channels Jim Boeheim and refuses to change defenses until the game is out of reach. When he said it was his fault for not doubling Townsend on Oakland in the post until late was due to them not practicing that was Cronin like excuse making. They just played the poster child of doubling down three games earlier when they faced Zach Eddy. The same thing happened against Deleware when they got beat on dribble drives and they passed to a cutter on the baseline for a lab, and they also scored at will with a high ball screen which their pg (ended up with 30 points or so) and went straight to the hole. 28 points in the first ten minutes of the second half by Delaware (not NC or Gonaga), should have been a hint that man to man wasn’t working.

However, I’ve seen enough of what SM has done in his career, including improving the shooting/scoring stats of the top six players last year and taking them to the SW16, in a game they could have easily won if not for 12-13 possessions where X didn’t execute. I don’t think that has ever been done, except for a coach who did it simultaneously with a 3rd grade girl’s and seventh grade boy’s CYO teams a few years back.

The team is not built for the BE this year. They are built for a league like the AAC or MEAC. Their alpha is a guy who averaged 9 minutes a game last year and would be the 4th best scorer on any BE team other than GTown or DePaul this year. Everyone has to play one or two notches above their skill or experience level for extended minutes out of necessity. Olivari is the only one who has met expectations but can’t do it alone.

Also, for those deriding the international players, I think they have been a welcomed edition, especially considering how late in the process X picked them up. Nemeiksa has been good in all but two games, and Ciani has performed better than anticipated. He plays 15-17 a game, and that number would have been 2-3 on last year’s team. Djokovic is highly skilled, but again, has been hurried along out of necessity after missing critical preseason practices. The BE is unforgiving, so I don’t expect too much out of him this year.

The freshmen class has also been phenomenal and are playing way more minutes than they are ready for. Green, Swain Djoko, and Ciani will be very good. Ducharme can be as well, and Nzeh is a wild card. It reminds me of Skip’s Lumpkin-Brown-Williams class.

None of these guys would get near the amount of PT they are playing now if on last year’s team. None. Friends, I don’t mind being the voice of reason all the time, but let’s wait until the year plays out before rendering a verdict. If Shadow, Mman, and OSD were this inpatient during my internship as a MOD a decade ago, I never would have made it, as I kept spelling Boubocar Coly’s name wrong. Tomorrow: X 73, UC 71.

Saturday we play that team with the other Miller coach and while they have not played anyone they beat the teams that they played and did it with ease. If Sean is trying to sneak up on them he is doing it with a team in total disarray and with little to no confidence in the offense. I hope he has a trick or ten up his sleeves because a loss in Cintas to that other team will not sit well with the faithful. That other team hasn't won in Cintas in 22 years. This year better not be the end of that streak. Grade as of now C to D

Hard to be negative but St Marys is our best win and it wasn't an easy win. Like someone said you have to hit rock bottom before starting upward. A win this Saturday might help that upward trend to start.
[/quote]

[Anti-Homer]

PdxMuskie I have to take up for my man Coach Miller. Look who we lost. Boum 2,455 points , Freemantle 1,227 points, Nunge 1,383 points , Jones 1, 062 points and Kunkel 1,394 points. That's a lot of talent. Turnovers.... Last year we averaged 12.4 turnovers a game this year 13.1 turnovers a game. Foul shots we are shooting 67% from the foul line ..... last year 71% from the foul line. Jones shot 65% , Nunge shot 67%. Freemantle shot 65% and Claude shot 57 % from the line. The difference being Boum and Kunkel both shot 87 %.. So the turnovers and foul shooting are almost the same as last year. The difference is the talent level. I don't think any coach could do any better with this group. We have had a roller coaster team this year. Some nights a good defensive effort and some nights not so good. I feel we hit the Lotto with hiring Miller back. He is easily a top 10 coach if not a top 5 coach. We will take our lumps this year. That is pretty obvious. But Miller WILL get this turned around. It wouldn't surprise me if we knocked of the Bearcats. Go X

AMEN!

KR,

If you attend the game tomorrow, please be my guest at our Mod's suite until the 1st time out of the 1st half. Thanks for being a rare, voice of reason.

[muskieman]

AH, the grade came from watching Sean stand there arms crossed in the last two games and did nothing to change what was happening. You have said why didn't the team change things up and play some zone or why didn't this guy get some minutes when this other guy wasn't producing and last but not least the coach looked overmatched. I believe Sean will have the team ready by Feb and March I just hope it is not too late by then. I didn't expect mid-season form in Nov and December but Sean is looking like a coach everyone criticized for not producing even though that coach won shootouts, let's see if Sean can keep the string going tomorrow.

Put it this way Sean is a better coach than Wes but if Wes wins the shootout Clinton Community college will be burning down their campus like that School up North burn down their ghetto

[Kevin Reilly]

Anti-Homer thanks for the offer. That would be fun however I live in California. I am feeling a positive vibe about the game. Not sure I'm that reasonable but what I do know is that we have a top notch coach . Be nice to share a beer with you guys and watch a game. Enjoy the game and go Muskie's.