MBB: Xavier v. George Washington (November 23, 2017) Continental Tire Invitational

[THRILLHOUSE]

It was a lazy game, but we did what we needed to do. They were not inspired, but did plenty. Don’t try to peak every game. Mack’s best ability in my mind (along with recruiting) is getting them to peak at the RIGHT TIME.

[xu82]

Just give me 100 more times to pick up my game?

[GIMMFD]

I don't even want us to peak yet, I'd much rather have a situation like last year where we played our best basketball in March, until then let's just gel, run some line-ups, let the Freshman get their feet wet. Would I love an undefeated season? Hell yes, but an actual peak? Save that for March.

[XUGRAD80]

They were 18 point favorites, they win by 19. Sure, it wasn’t pretty. But I’ll take 25-30 more like it. It’s darn near impossible to get totally up for every opponent. Sometimes you do win just because of superior talent overcoming lesser talent, even with that lesse talent playing with more emotion. I imagine that tomorrow we may see a more mentally ready Xavier team on the floor.

[Perma Fro]

I don't even want us to peak yet, I'd much rather have a situation like last year where we played our best basketball in March, until then let's just gel, run some line-ups, let the Freshman get their feet wet. Would I love an undefeated season? Hell yes, but an actual peak? Save that for March.

Let’s save that peak for around 11:45 ET on Monday, April 2nd.

[letskeepitreal]

Amen, the good thing is the freshmen and Kanter are getting valuable experience. I like what I see from the guards as well as the bigs and I believe we are pretty deep. We’ll see how good we really are over the next three games.

[xuwin]

I am a little concerned with JP's disappearance on offense the last two games. He doesn't seem to be getting open for the three's this year and his penetration into the lane has been slowed down considerably. Maybe the other guards are just not looking for him for open shots. We are about to play teams that are going to slow down our lane penetration and these new guys are going to have to start showing that they can shoot something besides layups and dunks. So far we have had our way in the lane.

[bobbiemcgee]

I think Mack is trying to get Q more involved in the scoring offense (working!) but takes some touches away from JP. JP will be fine.

[XUFan09]

I think Mack is trying to get Q more involved in the scoring offense (working!) but takes some touches away from JP. JP will be fine.

Yep. Q and Scruggs will be valuable for dribble penetration over the course of the season, and the bigs are also getting plenty of touches early on. They need to rack up some possessions making plays so they are ready to contribute when it really matters (e.g. against Villanova). It's not like J.P. is going to lose his touch or forget how he works within the Xavier offense because he didn't look for his shot much against a couple bad teams.