Game Thread: Xavier v. Evansville (November 10, 2018) Non-Conference Game #2

[Xville]

Nevermind.....on to wisconsin.

[Lloyd Braun]

I’m convinced we will beat Villanova and lose to DePaul this year.

[xu82]

I’m convinced we will beat Villanova and lose to DePaul this year.

If you’ve bumped your head, you may want to get that checked.

[noteggs]

First two games:

From what I’ve seen from Tyrique and Scruggs, I’m very encouraged. Hankins looked good today and Welage on Wednesday. Castlin is going to be a good role player.

From our projected two best players we haven’t seen their best for various reasons.

Harden has not been the shooter we thought, but ironically is a decent ball handler. Kennedy has shown some promise as a defender which might translate to minutes as the season goes on.

New coach with extremely new team chemistry - not too bad.

[AviatorX]

Well then maybe it was the way Mack taught it and now the way Steele is teaching it, because it did seem to work better when Miller was here.

I think Steele is going to be a very good coach, but how many years are we going to hear about executing on defense? Everyone blamed it on the players (Trevon, JP, Kanter, O'Mara, Stainbrook, Farr, etc.), and how they just weren't good defenders.

You can't tell me Scruggs with his crazy wingspan, Naji, Goodin, Tyrique, Castlin, etc. are just bad defenders.

If it's poor execution, then Mack was to blame for the past few years. If this team doesn't improve, then Steele will be to blame.

1000 percent agree. This team has the horses to be very good defensively (in any system). If they aren’t good in the system they’ve chosen to implement, that’s on coaching. I’m just not ready to call it after two games.

[AviatorX]

It's a gimmicky defense that leaves the wings wide open and it's exactly the reason why Villanova has consistently destroyed us.

In regards to this season though, my expectations were pretty low before the season started so I'm not going to worry too much. As I said before, if hy middle of next year we look like this then it may be time to push the panic button.

In what way is the packline a gimmicky defense? A huge chunk of teams play it. Villanova is on a run of historic offensive dominance, they destroy every defense.

[XUBison]

If we ran the pack line effectively we would hear about how terrible our offense is. The players we have excel in open court.

Then why are we running pack line?

[XUBison]

I hate to say it, and I hope I’m wrong, but at times he looks a little.....””Naji-centric”?

I’ve had the same thought. Hope we’re wrong.

[IM4X]

Xavier built a 15 point lead in the 1st half and looked like they were going to cruise. Then they stopped playing defense and Evansville kept raining in threes. Naji was in foul trouble and Q got ejected. Harden and Kennedy had to play a lot more minutes than they should have. X's defense was terrible (did I mention I hate the packline defense?) and Evansville was hot.

Offense was good, but the defense, foul trouble, and Q's boneheaded flagrant was terrible.

Hopefully Naji shows up Tuesday against UW.

Thanks for filling me in X Factor.

This X team clearly has the shortest bench in years. Hopefully we see better defense as Q, Scruggs, Naji and Tyrique play more minutes together.

[Xuperman]

I think the guys saw that 40 pt beat down and simply underestimated UE....All the player interviews I have seen in the past month shows that our core 4 + Hankins, are a very cocky bunch. The formally modest Naji Marshall vanished after claiming he was disrespected when not selected ALL BE. That slight hasn't seemed to motivate him to this point but hoping it will with better competition. Scruggs WILL post crazy numbers with Q at point and Agent 0 looks like Delgado 2.0. So harken back to last years OOC close calls....just get the W and move on!