Creighton Game thread

[pdxmuskie]

Claude defense has been atrocious. He is creating an impossible situation for the Xavier bigs as his man is getting straight to the rim. If the bigs stop ball, Kalk gets a dunk. If they stay home, easy layup for Creighton.

X has exacerbated the issue by committing numerous unforced turnovers. They are not even looking at the floor before making passes. Shot selection has been questionable on a number of occasions.

Refs have given Creighton a few extra possessions but X has done a good job of beating themselves so hard to blame the officials.

[pdxmuskie]

5 point swing on the missed foul on Claud's shot. 3 at the other end killed the run. Big officiating blunder at a key moment in the game. Destroys the Xavier run.

[muskieman]

They should have fouled Kal, not Ashworth. Disappointing loss

[muskieman]

[XU_2011]

Djokovic defended Kalkbrener really well in the first half. So Sean starts with Abou in the 2nd half and then goes with Ciani. Kalkbrener promptly schools them both. Lead grows to 20. There's your ballgame.

Hope to see a lot more of Lazar at the 5. Love Abou's heart and grit but his touch inside is utterly horrendous and a net negative.

[X-lucidity]

Ousman: easily the worst game by a starting post player in a big critical game in Xavier history…

[Kevin Reilly]

Well it was nice to see the comeback. McKnight is a hell of a ball player. McKnight had 21 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. I thought Djokovic played Kalkbrenner way better than Ousmane and Ciani who were both terrible. They combined for 2 points and 3 rebounds. The front court has been the soft spot all year and today was no different. Kalkbrenner is a great player on both offense and defense and he was the difference but we played him way too soft. Scheierman getting that rebound off Claude's last drive was a killer. Djokovic had the inside position and got pushed out of the way. By the way Scheierman had 12 rebounds and Claude who covered him and is the same size got 1 rebound. Happy to see us not get blown out on National TV like we did at U Conn. Ciani needs to play to his strength which is Physical strength. Letting his man catch the ball 6 feet from the basket and standing flat footed with your hands up is poor defense. Push your man out and make him work for his position.

[connecticut72]

Too much Kalkbrenner. We could not handle the pick n roll. Great effort at the end of the game but too little too late. I agree we had a chance to foul Kalkbrenner at the end but fouled Asworth a 93% FT shooter. Not sure it would have made a difference. Lazar miss times his jump when attempting offensive rebounds a lot. When we drew Kalk to cover the driver it was wide open for a put back rebound and we never did it once. For example, when Claude got blocked at the rim at the end by Kalk Lazar should had that rebound for 2. That could have been a huge play. Anyways we just fell too far behind. I am still waiting for our bigs to help us. I guess I will have to wait until next year.

[connecticut72]

2 POINTS TOTAL from Ciani, Ousman, Lazar and Gytis that is all you need to know.

[pdxmuskie]

It was great effort at the end. Ousmane rushed a couple shots and took another that had no chance of going in. He was bad. Gytis had a stretch of 3 bad plays in row very early - possibly perfectly timed with Creighton starting to get back in the game. Ciani seems afraid to get in the way of the opposing team. He seems to take terrible angles when defending making it easy for guys to get around him or pass around him.

Djokovic was a step up from the other bigs but he definitely mis timed his jump on the potential putback.

I played basketball for the 2nd time in about 5 years the other day. My conditioning is possibly cardiac surgery at this point (getting that checked). I couldn't breathe and my heart was pounding to the point where a heart attack was quite possible. I still didn't let my guy drive past me. How can this team get blown by so often. I'm basically risking my life for a pickup game at the gym and these guys can't even put the effort in on National TV. It is embarrassing when a guy blows past you to the rim. Players should take that personally. Intensity should immediately go to another level when that happens. I fully understand the talent I played against was not the same level but unless the Xavier players have decided they are not on the same level as the teams they play, then they need to find the intensity they need to lock people down. No open shots and no wide-open drives to the rim.