Game Thread: Xavier v. University of Cincinnati (December 8, 2018) Crosstown Shootout

[bleedXblue]

I certainly don't disagree with your point, but I don't see any other option against a team like UC with this roster.

They completely took away the interior. Our interior offense was non-existent. Hankins and Jones did absolutely nothing. People here love to say Goodin and especially Naji are being lazy. What about Hankins and Jones? Were they in the building? They couldn't even get open for a pass.

No one had success driving the ball. They crashed and completely took that away. Plus, none of our players are good enough passers to dependably pass inside-out. At best we won some fights on the boards, or picked up drop balls and got put backs.

We can't depend on volume from Welage. Castlin couldn't hit anything. What am I missing that seems so obvious to everyone else? Crap threes are the best looks we were able to get all game. If we took less threes we would have just had more turnovers.

I think to be fair, you are giving way too much credit to UC's defense. There are definitely ways to get them spread out more and create shots closer to the basket. X is still struggling to find out the right rotation. Add to that I think they are still a little lost playing without guys like Tre and JP who bailed us out of bad situations many, many times. Regardless, its not the offense that's going to carry this team anyway. And THAT is the issue. This team hasnt bought into playing better D and creating more turnovers.

[xu82]

Pump the brakes people, those of us who know basketball well knew this was coming. This year is going to suck. Next year is where Steele proves himself. He will have two seniors and three juniors in the program long term to use. Add to that a great class coming in and hopefully a 4-5 star in Odom coming after.

The season will be tough but the future is just fine.


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While I happen to concur, there was a way to say that without coming off as being so pompous. :-)

[kellernr]

Naji plays as if there’s not another team playing defense. He’s just perpetually careless

And then instead of running back on D when he turns it over he puts all the way back down the court. The kid has a ton of potential if he would just realize he should be playing inside the arc. Look at how Farr played his senior year once he quit living on the perimeter.

Q needs to just work on finding open guys and setting them up for good shots. He thinks he is blueitt out there with all those 3s he chucks up.

Scruggs would play better if he could stay out of foul trouble. He's got a nice shot from 3 and should have shot it more today instead of pump faking. Their D realized we were pump faking every shot so they just stayed disciplined and blocked it on the drive.

Jones has been a disappointment. He dropped all that weight but now he doesnt seem to be a physical force down low and gets knocked off balance to easily.

These are the 4 guys that should be leading this team and trying to calm everyone down when the other team goes on a run. Instead we give up a 3 and race down to the other end and try to match them by chucking a three early in the shot clock.

Also I dont have any faith in Steele right now. Before the season started he claimed this would be the best defensive team X hs had in years. From what I've seen so far this year this is a very undisciplined team and they can't play a lick of defense. No one ever has their hands up when defending the perimeter so guys are going to keep pulling up and shooting right over them. Steele needs to light a fire under this team. If he hurts thier feeling so what. They are here because they can hop it up. They aren't at X for the degree.

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[noteggs]

If I had to bet, the UC board last year was very similar to ours this year. Grant it both teams had higher expectations last year for season end.

[Jumpin_Jamal_Forever]

Buckle up. It is going to be a long season.

I'm led to believe, by many posts, that the Calvary will arrive (in the form of better talent) over the next two years. Although not a follower of X.U. recruiting, I will accept that.

But, we have had talent in prior years...indeed a lot of talent last year. And, we still lost some big games in the conference regular season and in the Big East tournament.

The Big East is a coaches conference. it has some of the best coaching talent of any conference in the country. And, its venues have some of the toughest fans in all of college basketball.

Even talent requires coaching. We must learn to play tough, hard nosed, team oriented defense. We must learn to play smart disciplined basketball requiring that we stop turning the ball over, jack up threes which are low percentage (made more so, when they are taken by Q and Naji) make some damn free throws (honestly this is one of the most basic skills in the game), and play with "J.P. like" grit refusing to be intimidated by either foul mouthed coaches or tough crowds.

This team has demonstrated none of that, none I say.

The grad transfers, although initially exciting, have proved to be mortal human beings; one dimensional like RW, a bit overrated like ZH or just average players like KC. Scruggs and Naji, although talented, are undisciplined. Q, who improved significantly last year (from his freshman season) apparently spent the summer working diligently on his golf game and everybody else has excelled only, it seems, at arriving on time for the team bus.

this team is undisciplined, easily intimidated and I fear, on the verge of quitting. That, at least, is conjecture and remains to be seen. Coach Steele, with the departure of a seasoned group of assistant coaches to U.L. was dealt a bad hand---although one he requested. I

[drudy23]

There's a reason why our grad transfers spent the last 3-4 years where they were.

Plain and simple, it's a transition year. For everyone, coaches and players included.

Honestly, it may be a transition 2 years.

[drudy23]

I'm not going through all of the previous 12 pages....yeah I'm lazy.......if this team doesn't start taking their defense seriously......as in its the #1 priority of this team before we do anything on the offensive end....this is going to be a LONG year. We DO NOT HAVE TREVON BLUEITT and JP on this team. We have a bunch of guys who are mediocre shooters at best.

We must DEFEND, create MORE turnovers and be a defensive minded team FIRST. Forget all of the the other BS.

While in theory I agree, you can't just flip a switch either. Good defenders are good defenders.

You can't expect 3 transfers that played well below high D1 level to be great defenders. The speed, strength, quickness, and athleticism are all new to them. In reality, they're not good enough to be great defenders. That isn't going to change over the next 2 months.

Just come to the conclusion that we're going to take our lumps this year. Big East play could get ugly. 4-5 wins ugly.

[drudy23]

I certainly don't disagree with your point, but I don't see any other option against a team like UC with this roster.

They completely took away the interior. Our interior offense was non-existent. Hankins and Jones did absolutely nothing. People here love to say Goodin and especially Naji are being lazy. What about Hankins and Jones? Were they in the building? They couldn't even get open for a pass.

No one had success driving the ball. They crashed and completely took that away. Plus, none of our players are good enough passers to dependably pass inside-out. At best we won some fights on the boards, or picked up drop balls and got put backs.

We can't depend on volume from Welage. Castlin couldn't hit anything. What am I missing that seems so obvious to everyone else? Crap threes are the best looks we were able to get all game. If we took less threes we would have just had more turnovers.

This is all very accurate.

[XUGRAD80]

It’s simple....Xavier has a pretty weak roster right now because of players leaving and not enough good recruits coming in to take their places. Forget the transfers and just consider this team if the seniors on the team right now where Summers, Gates, and London? For all intents and purposes that is a lost year of recruiting when looking at THIS year’s team. X has brought in and has kept exactly 4 good quality recruits that a solid contributors to THIS YEARS team over the last 4 years...Q, Jones, Naji, and Scruggs. Hardin, James, Kennedy may eventually become solid players in the future, but right now, they aren’t giving X very much. For me, this is a prime example of why it’s silly to leave scholarships unfilled. Sure, X lost a lot after last year, but everyone could see that coming. What they didn’t do was a good enough job preparing for that. We are seeing right now what lack of consistently restocking the roster with quality freshman recruits, and then developing and keeping those players for 3-4 years, brings about. Let’s hope that some of the freshman coming in next year will be able to contribute right away and that the others will stay and develop to where they can also contribute. Let’s hope that the underclassmen on this roster right now stay and continue to develop, and let’s hope that Steele can continue to bring in strong recruiting classeshear after year.

[Juice]

It’s simple....Xavier has a pretty weak roster right now because of players leaving and not enough good recruits coming in to take their places. Forget the transfers and just consider this team if the seniors on the team right now where Summers, Gates, and London? For all intents and purposes that is a lost year of recruiting when looking at THIS year’s team. X has brought in and has kept exactly 4 good quality recruits that a solid contributors to THIS YEARS team over the last 4 years...Q, Jones, Naji, and Scruggs. Hardin, James, Kennedy may eventually become solid players in the future, but right now, they aren’t giving X very much. For me, this is a prime example of why it’s silly to leave scholarships unfilled. Sure, X lost a lot after last year, but everyone could see that coming. What they didn’t do was a good enough job preparing for that. We are seeing right now what lack of consistently restocking the roster with quality freshman recruits, and then developing and keeping those players for 3-4 years, brings about. Let’s hope that some of the freshman coming in next year will be able to contribute right away and that the others will stay and develop to where they can also contribute. Let’s hope that the underclassmen on this roster right now stay and continue to develop, and let’s hope that Steele can continue to bring in strong recruiting classeshear after year.

I see two big issues:
1) Gates leaving. I don't think anyone was prepared for that.
2) The non- development of Elias Harden. He should be providing depth, shooting, etc