Game Thread: Xavier v Seton Hall University (12/20/2022)

It is impossible for a team to play their best bb EVERY night. X certainly didn’t play their best in this game, but they still won. I’m not confident that would have happened the last few seasons, but it happened this season. Why? I point to one thing…assists. 23 assists on 26 made baskets. What does that mean? It means that they are playing TEAM offense. No more one pass and jack up a shot. No more dribble it around the exterior and jack up a shot at the end of the shot clock. They are moving the ball and looking for the open man and the better shot. SE was only giving up 61 points a game and X scored 73. When you look at how badly X shot the ball overall and from 3, and still they scored 12 points more than what teams had been averaging against SE, that’s somewhat impressive. You have to credit the defense of SE for some of their shooting woes, but through playing team BB X was able to overcome that. I’m encouraged by that.

But the defensive still has a long way to go. Way to many easy drives to the basket down the lane. Way to many post up baskets by SE. they are still not rotating well on a regular basis. However, when they did rotate well they were able to draw several charging calls (and they could have gotten a couple of more that were called blocking and weren’t IMO). Jones with the defensive play of the game in the last minute.

X won the battle of the boards and looked better on their defensive rebounding, especially after SE missed a 3 point shot. So there were some encouraging signs that the defense is improving. Still not good, but improving.

8 days until the next game. Take a little break. Get everyone healthy and rested. The Johnies will be a tough road game, but it’s winnable. Go X!

Everyone have a Merry Christmas!

Happy for the W, of course….BUT…

And, look, I LOVE Sean Miller, BUT, I am flabbergasted that against a lousy shooting outside team (other than Dawes(sp?) who drives the ball to the basket EVERY DAMN POSSESSION, Xavier didn’t play a single posession of zone defense in that game last night. Not even with a few guys in somewhat 3 foul trouble. Everyone knew that SH was gonna go to the basket EVERY time, buy the fact that Sean stubbornly refused to even try it just frosts me.
I can love a coach, but still second guess strategy.
I’m glad we won. Merry Christmas.

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Originally Posted by Jumpin_Jamal_Forever

We should never make a statement like this about a Big East opponent. Tonight, we escaped with a win against a supposedly inferior team on our home court.

First, even though the Banners article says this is a down year for the Big East, it is still the BIG EAST where every single game can turn into a dogfight. The Georgetown game was way tougher than I expected and tonight, Georgetown took it to a vastly superior and richly talented UCONN team in Storrs. Even though they ultimately lost, Ewing had his team ready for the Huskies.

With the transfer portal, it is difficult to evaluate an opponent and predict game outcomes accurately----at least, early in the season. I saw Seton Hall play a few weeks ago and they looked horrible. But many teams have transfers, and it is reasonable to expect some time is needed before the team starts playing together seamlessly. So, tonight, just a couple of weeks later, The Hall is a different team. They had energy and confidence and just took the game to us. Glad they cannot shoot free throws.

Hats off to Hunter but tonight we played a seven-player rotation (not counting Edward's thirty seconds). I cannot imagine we will be able to rely on just seven players going forward. We are now going to be fed a steady diet of wide bodies down low for the balance of the season and we have to get much better help off the bench. If we don't, we will lose of bunch of games. Where will we get that help? Doesn't appear it will come from Edwards or Miles. At least, not now.

We start Big East conference play 2-0 against two teams of which little was expected this year. Now, we go to St. Johns and UConn. We could very easily end the year with two conference losses.

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While I understand your sentiment, this x team should beat a bottom 1/3 team in the big East at home by double digits. Outside of hunter and free, the rest of the team played really poorly. Colby had a good stat line and saved our butts there at the end but even he did some questionable things. Anyways, shit happens. A win is a win and on to the next. The next five games are brutal. I hope x can get out of it with a 3-2 record.

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Originally Posted by Xville

While I understand your sentiment, this x team should beat a bottom 1/3 team in the big East at home by double digits. Outside of hunter and free, the rest of the team played really poorly. Colby had a good stat line and saved our butts there at the end but even he did some questionable things. Anyways, shit happens. A win is a win and on to the next. The next five games are brutal. I hope x can get out of it with a 3-2 record.

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Agree except the double digit comment. Teams will have off nights, And with that Seton Hall isn’t terrible. They just beat Rutgers at Rutgers who was coming off drilling Indiana and losing a road gave at Ohio State on a prayer 3. They also beat a pretty good Memphis team. Seton Hall has warts, but they play a hard ugly style that can make things uncomfortable.

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Originally Posted by xavierj

but they play a hard ugly style that can make things uncomfortable.

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= Big East

Hall may be one of the better defensive teams we will face all year and we all knew that there was going to be a night where we didn't shoot it well. Add to that Nunge was just not there last night and Kunkel struggled as well. Take the W, Hunter and Free played well and Colby was Colby.

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Originally Posted by Xville

While I understand your sentiment, this x team should beat a bottom 1/3 team in the big East at home by double digits.

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On paper..absolutely. On a night where the flu is hitting the team and your starting center forgets how to play basketball..I'll just take it and move on. UCONN was down to Georgetown for a big portion of the second half against a BAD Gtown team at home and gutted out a win. Stoopid nights happen in the BE

Worst shooting night of the year and still find a way to win. I’ll take it. Figured we couldn’t have a few guys with off nights and still win in the big East. That’s a good sign if nothing else

I’m starting to believe either some people on here are new to the game of basketball and sports in general. Obviously, a better team should win by double digits in their own house. However, that doesn’t always happen in sports. Xavier won, they played sub-par and the unsung hero was not who any of us would have imagined. We have lost 4 straight times to SH at home. Guess what we did last night?

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Originally Posted by OTRMUSKIE

I’m starting to believe either some people on here are new to the game of basketball and sports in general. Obviously, a better team should win by double digits in their own house. However, that doesn’t always happen in sports. Xavier won, they played sub-par and the unsung hero was not who any of us would have imagined. We have lost 4 straight times to SH at home. Guess what we did last night?

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LOL, the Vegas line was anywhere from X - 4.5 to 6.5