Georgetown game thread 3/2/2021

[ChitownSteve]

Well, both of you either specifically or humorously, confirmed my thoughts. You did it far more succinctly.

No malice intended toward Coach Steele, he has wonderful attributes. I like him. Coach Steele needs to let his imaginative spirits and humor show. He appears to be far too regimented in coaching. Heck, be the same guy who plunked down $1,000 on Dana’s Bar with your young son ... and X Fans loved it. Build off of that!

Recommendations:

Get a T early in the game after an awful call. Pull my favorite player, Z Free, or anyone else, after jacking up a 3 a mere 5 seconds into the shot clock. Sit P Scruggs after a ridiculous T (which lead to him fouling out). Stop making practice a Final Exam for the game itself, some quiz better than others. Recognize Carter is not a Starter. Immediately pull someone like Odom who made an egregious mistake in the last minute tonight. Recognize practice is practice and games are games - and there is a difference.

Al McGuire admitted he was one of the worst practice Coaches of all time. He had Hank Raymond’s at his side to run practice. Al ran the games and won a National Championship. Hank, the better X’s and O’s guy, never had the same feel for the game. Be a #1 guy and not a #2.

Coach Steele has a choice. Run practices and a team with minutiae or be a real game time Head Coach. Coach McGuire set a path to follow and had a tremendous feel for the game itself. Tonight’s 2nd Half may have exhibited an awakening.

We want Coach Steele to succeed. He can recruit and making adjustments will benefit him and the Program.

Go Muskies!

[AirJordan]

The above comment and others on this board throughout the season seem to assume that Coach Steele can recruit, that we have competitive talent and the problem lies (mostly) in game management.

Not sure that's true. I'm NOT defending Steele's game management, preparation or much else. He's the Captain of the ship and the ship has leaks. He is in charge of a program that hasn't done much in three years. But all aspects of the program have been average not just his coaching.

Back to talent, while we seem to match up O.K., we clearly are not superior to other B.E. teams. Our guards are small. We don't have great shooters or defenders and we are so deficient in bigs, that Carter gets thirty minutes a game. We have one A player (Scruggs), a B player (Freemantle) and lots of role players. Our frosh have potential but they are freshman---I have no way of knowing if they are superior to other conference freshman but there is no basis to so assume. Our young bigs, Ramsey and Miles have not seen the anything approaching material playing time in the two years they have been with the program. And, while I accept the college game has changed, making the recruiting of transfers more important going forward, we have been dependent on transfers to fill our roster. I expect that Steele will have to go back to the transfer portal again, in a big way, to find players for next year.

There is a bunch going wrong with our program. I like Steele, want him to mature, grow and eventually succeed in building back Xavier basketball. But, at minimum, there are a couple more hard years ahead of us. And, until Steele succeeds, we won't really know if he can.

[edgecliff hall]

See Pointed comments at XavierHoops.

[skyhops]

Agree with the above comments. Scruggs and Free are BE talent for sure, but it takes both to have superior games in order for us to win. Jones is going to be a good player, but he just can't guard larger athletic players off the dribble. I hear that Steele is a superior especially with his players, but his recruiting of bigs has been horrible. If Ramsey and Miles can't provide minutes late in their second year we are in trouble. Our interior defense is miserable, but as Mman says Carter does a lot of the little things (70 mins in last three games 2 points and 3 rebounds are very little). We have transitioned into a perimeter team that is the second worse shooting team in the league not sure that is recipe for success. Glad Steele still had three TO's with three mins left. I think David Bell could give him in game management lessons (thats scary).

[muskieman]

Agree with the above comments. Scruggs and Free are BE talent for sure, but it takes both to have superior games in order for us to win. Jones is going to be a good player, but he just can't guard larger athletic players off the dribble. I hear that Steele is a superior especially with his players, but his recruiting of bigs has been horrible. If Ramsey and Miles can't provide minutes late in their second year we are in trouble. Our interior defense is miserable, but as Mman says Carter does a lot of the little things (70 mins in last three games 2 points and 3 rebounds are very little). We have transitioned into a perimeter team that is the second worse shooting team in the league not sure that is recipe for success. Glad Steele still had three TO's with three mins left. I think David Bell could give him in game management lessons (thats scary).

typical comments from Sky. When Crater doesn't score knock his scoring but ignores the other things he does when he does rebound the same thing even if he scores double digits even if he plays fewer minutes sky will find something to complain about, hey, let's try the dead horse he has been beating Travis Steele. When things do go good for the Team Sky's sarcasm comes out like a lead balloon. If all else falls on deaf ears let's misquote Mman. Nice job sky are you vying for the AH NP award?

[skyhops]

MMan, how can we defend Carter these last four games? Steele limited his playing time against CU and worked out well, so there is really no room for a player that can’t rebound our score more than two points in three games. Where are Steeles guys we talk about? Miles and Ramsey?

[thecoach]

MMan, how can we defend Carter these last four games? Steele limited his playing time against CU and worked out well, so there is really no room for a player that can’t rebound our score more than two points in three games. Where are Steeles guys we talk about? Miles and Ramsey?

I'm a little surprised Miles doesn't even get a few minutes in a game like last night. Obviously GT has a big height advantage and Miles has 5 fouls to give. It's awful tough to make a "leap" if you do not hit the court for some limited minutes. I thought at the beginning of the year he'd play quite a bit more than he has.

[SC in DC]

Hate to pile on, but we say Steele is a great recruiter but half his guys hardly play, or play very little up til now.

[AirJordan]

MMan, how can we defend Carter these last four games? Steele limited his playing time against CU and worked out well, so there is really no room for a player that can’t rebound our score more than two points in three games. Where are Steeles guys we talk about? Miles and Ramsey?

I'm a little surprised Miles doesn't even get a few minutes in a game like last night. Obviously GT has a big height advantage and Miles has 5 fouls to give. It's awful tough to make a "leap" if you do not hit the court for some limited minutes. I thought at the beginning of the year he'd play quite a bit more than he has.

As another poster noted, we must get significant minutes out of Ramsey and Miles next year. But, in a game when we needed post defense, even if for just a couple of minutes, neither even got a smell of the court. One explanation is neither of them are ready physically and since both have suffered from protracted injuries, that explanation is potentially ominous. The other explanation is that neither has developed as hoped.

I don't know the answer but two guys who must make big contributions next year, aren't seeing any minutes when they are needed very late this season. This should concern us.

[skyhops]

Agreed with the above but you have to throw Miles and Ramsey out there to rebound and use their fouls same should have been with Scruggs although he got hosed on a few by our fav ref (double T’s are stupid). All our bigs on bench could have done better than Carter. I expect the same against a Garcia and John. We are in trouble