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  1. #1

    Early Assessemnt

    -5 games in.
    -3 seniors that never played for XU before.
    -HC in his first year.
    -4 Returning guys that played secondary roles so far in their careers.

    We gotta figure it out, for sure. a few keys....

    - Offensive tempo: we dont have a creator on offense. By that I mean a PG that can get others open while he has the ball, or a catch and shoot guy that gets open on his own. Trevon made Q, because of hustle and screens. The personnel is so different now, and yet we run plays like we have JP and Trevon. Turn it up a notch. The halfcourt offense is our weakness. Push offensively.

    - Defensive lack of awareness: This is a mix of issues. Prior recruiting priority of offense over defense. Transfers and D2 guys dont seem too aware about the basic defensive principles. This might be because they had lesser coaching at their previous levels....or maybe their relative talent could mask their deficiencies on defense. ..or maybe they could never play defense which is why they ended up at a lower level in the first place. Not what I expected at all. What is the defensive identity of the team?

    -3 pt shooting: We really dont have an elite shooter. Welage should be at 45% given the looks he's had all year. We can't give him 17-20 minutes in a game where he goes 0-3 and is a defensive liability. Its equally as bad that we might actually need him to win or close out games for us. He doesn't rebound or play defense. We need the uptempo offense to result in Welage going to a cormer to hit 3's. He's an outlet for a drive, not a guy that works off of screeens. Again! not the same personnel as last year. Welage needs 35% of the attempts when he is on the floor. Also, TAKE A FOUL!!!! Watch Justin Doellman get flattened on VHS to see what I'm taklking about. Go to the rack!

    -3 pt shooting pt. 2: Someone please tell Kaiser Gates to stop advising Quinton. WTF!!! Stop shooting. Or, be better at shooting. Please use your body to get to the rack and make contact instead of hoisting up ugly threes!.

    -3 pt shooting pt. 3: No explanation. Just pure slop. Some guys make alot of shots, and the ones they miss seem to just graze off.

    Honestly, if we are down 3, and need a guy to step up, I have absolutely no idea who I want taking that shot. We have about 5 guys that can make it, and zero guys i have confiedence in.

  2. #2
    Junior IM4X's Avatar
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    X continues to struggle in a number of areas.

    The good news is that this team has enough talent to end up in the top half of the BE (no BE team is looking overly imprsssive).

    They first just need to prove they have the ability to play smart and poised for two halves, pass better, guard better (especially against the 3), rebound better, get to the line more, shoot better from the line, stop taking so many quick shots... and they need to shoot better from the 3.

    Today Scruggs was 0-5 from 3. Marshall was 1-5. Wealage was 0-2.

  3. #3
    All-Conference
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    This team's main problem is at the defensive end. No clue how Steele thought this team would be off the charts defensively.

    The only player I've been impressed with defensively is Hankins, and even he has a learning curve. No one else sticks out AT ALL in terms of being a defensive stopper.

    Our only saving grace is that the Big East is down this year. And we can still beat UC.

  4. #4
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    I’m not sure where all this talent is that people are saying x has relative to high d1 basketball. Most of these guys wouldn’t be on the team had x not struck out so much on the recruiting trail. They can and will be better as the year goes along but this team isn’t oozing with be talent outside of a few players.

  5. #5
    Sophomore XURunner85's Avatar
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    At times this team looks really good, usually in first half. They have built some big leads, but then somehow they lose focus. The opponent starts hitting their shots and we go cold. we don't play a very good defense and teams seem to become great 3 point shooters against. On the defense of end we seem to grab a lot of rebounds but on offense we shoot the ball and everyone takes off down the floor and forgetting that the shot might not go in. I am not sure if we were to play slow would help or if we should just play fast tempo run in gun style. if we can get it together soon, we can still have a good year. If not could be long year. One thing for sure, us old guys need to see our cardiologist to make sure our hearts can take these games.
    Section 201 Proud member of the Loudmouths. Our motto: Cheer often and cheer loud. And at times cheer long.

  6. #6
    Sophomore XfansinKy's Avatar
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    It's like when this team tries to pick up the tempo, it results in Q or Naji shooting some kind of pull up jumper off the dribble that either bricks or bounces off hard, giving the opposition the exact shot we were looking for. What is it that the kid from Columbia is good at? I realize he's trying to fit in a new team/role, but what is he known to be good at?

  7. #7

    Early Assessemnt

    This Harden is the one I thought we would see this year. He is a bit timid. I think if he got more aggressive he would get more playing time.

    That said, this team is built for small ball or really ended up being a small ball team. We will get a lot better once Marshall and Goodin dump the hero ball in favor of a more even handed approach on offense. That should also allow them to devote more energy on defense.

    Edit to say that I bet Steele plays the matchups with Kennedy/Harden/Welage. All three can shoot, none play great defense.

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    Last edited by ArizonaXUGrad; 11-23-2018 at 12:28 PM.

  8. #8
    All-Conference XUFan09's Avatar
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    Effort is necessary for good focus, but it is not sufficient, as focus most definitely requires ability. It's a skill just like so many other things. Some people have a stronger ability to focus on a task that others, plain and simple. Like any ability, it can be be improved with practice and experience, though. Naji at his best is intense and more focused than most, but it will take practice/experience and the discipline that comes with it to make that a more consistent thing. It was probably easier to maintain focus when his role was smaller last year. Concerning the discipline from experience, the consequences of inattentiveness seems to have been a wakeup call after that SDSU game, as he and the team in general were much more attentive against Illinois.

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  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by XUFan09 View Post
    Effort is necessary for good focus, but it is not sufficient, as focus most definitely requires ability. It's a skill just like so many other things. Some people have a stronger ability to focus on a task that others, plain and simple. Like any ability, it can be be improved with practice and experience, though. Naji at his best is intense and more focused than most, but it will take practice/experience and the discipline that comes with it to make that a more consistent thing. It was probably easier to maintain focus when his role was smaller last year. Concerning the discipline from experience, the consequences of inattentiveness seems to have been a wakeup call after that SDSU game, as he and the team in general were much more attentive against Illinois.

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    IF we're being honest, the defensive wasn't all that good against an undisciplined team like Illinois.


    We won that game with rebounding, and getting our offense to click.

    Illinois still scored a point per possession. They still made 11 3's at a 48% clip. They missed a lot of shots at the rim that they shouldn't have however we did defend the paint pretty well, but thats never really been our issue.


    Perimeter defense was still an issue. They only difference is; Illinois wasn't good enough to beat us despite that.


    I'm not going hang my hat on that performance. They only thing different about that game and others is that we won and we did it because we shared the ball and took much better shots.

  10. #10
    All-Conference XUFan09's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RyanblockXU View Post
    IF we're being honest, the defensive wasn't all that good against an undisciplined team like Illinois.


    We won that game with rebounding, and getting our offense to click.

    Illinois still scored a point per possession. They still made 11 3's at a 48% clip. They missed a lot of shots at the rim that they shouldn't have however we did defend the paint pretty well, but thats never really been our issue.


    Perimeter defense was still an issue. They only difference is; Illinois wasn't good enough to beat us despite that.


    I'm not going hang my hat on that performance. They only thing different about that game and others is that we won and we did it because we shared the ball and took much better shots.
    I'm not saying the defense was great in that performance, but I don't think effort and focus were the major issues, which is different from previous games. The ball screen defense was the major issue there (together with some instances of over-helping that were at least less common than before). Illinois' handoff screen with the guard cutting to the hoop as he receives the ball was a tricky action to cover, and the team was inconsistent in communication and execution. Still, it wasn't a bad defensive performance; Illinois got a decent number of their points, including threes, off turnovers and second shots from offensive rebounds.

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