Game Thread: Xavier vs. Marquette (January 6, 2019)

[bleedXblue]

Blue...

these are Steele’s guys... at least a lot of them are.

I don’t think anyone should be talking about running Steele out of town. But do you think these players are playing as well as you thought they would be?

Are they looking as good as Steele and the players let on before the season... all that “we have tremendous chemistry” talk. “Look out for Jones who lost all this weight and added muscle... he will be a beast” Scruggs is going to be a huge weapon from 3”

sorry Steele... not seeing it.

I expected better out of the gate. I was okay that they struggled at first... but this team should be improving in areas it isn’t... playing smarter.

We lost the best single class to ever play at X last year. We lost the best coach X had ever had. It's Steele's first year. 2 frosh who aren't contributing much of anything. We lost a significant impact transfer in Evan B. Steele had to piece the transfers together over spring and summer to just get a 10-11 man roster together. To not think there were going to be some challenges through that would be extremely naive.

I think expectations were probably a bit high for this group.Steele isn't going to be a high performing head coach right now. Rarely do you see that right out of the gate. Naji and Scruggs are going to be fine and we can build around them. After that, we honestly don't have much. Very disappointed in Jones and Q. Not progressing and not leading more than anything. They sulk and hang their heads instead of pulling their team up around them.

I hate this, but am not going to start questioning Steele right now. Have we all not learned our lesson after Skip, Matta, Sean and Mack all struggled in their tenure's?

[IM4X]

We lost the best single class to ever play at X last year. We lost the best coach X had ever had. It's Steele's first year. 2 frosh who aren't contributing much of anything. We lost a significant impact transfer in Evan B. Steele had to piece the transfers together over spring and summer to just get a 10-11 man roster together. To not think there were going to be some challenges through that would be extremely naive.

I think expectations were probably a bit high for this group.Steele isn't going to be a high performing head coach right now. Rarely do you see that right out of the gate. Naji and Scruggs are going to be fine and we can build around them. After that, we honestly don't have much. Very disappointed in Jones and Q. Not progressing and not leading more than anything. They sulk and hang their heads instead of pulling their team up around them.

I hate this, but am not going to start questioning Steele right now. Have we all not learned our lesson after Skip, Matta, Sean and Mack all struggled in their tenure's?

I complete get what you are saying about losing such a great class. I do. I am separating those higher expectations with expectation Steele passed along Before the start of the season about how dominant Jones would be this year and all the talk about what great chemistry the team would have.

I think we all also recognize that the top tier BE teams are not as good this year. That should have made things a little easier. I would go so far as to say, I believe X had evnough talent to completely turn things around...IF... these guys could make smarter decisions and play hard for anywhere close to 40 minutes a game. Too many times X had a little positive momentum and they go right back playing dumb and reckless. It is hard not to include coaching in that issue happening again and again.

I feel like Steele could be a great coach for X... but I don’t see it happening until he changes his approach.

[xu koop scoop]

Proud of team effort today. I will get reamed for that comment I imagine. We tried 26 FTs to their 10. +16 on FT Attempts shows aggressiveness. We may have been more then +16 if we make 1 plus 1's better. We have 13 TOs to their 10. -3 on TO not bad. We also go -3 on Rebounds. THE 3 PT SHOT CONTINUES TO KILL US. We make 1 of 14 for 7% - horrendous. They make 10 of 29 for 34% - which is mediocre. 17 of 54 overall on FG is 31%, that's worse than their 3pt %. I predict we win the next 2 at home to start BE play at 3-2

[XU 87]

Blue...

these are Steele’s guys... at least a lot of them are.

The only guys on this team that are "Steele's guys" are Castlin and Welage, who were brought in primarily because of last year's bad recruiting class. It was rumored that Hankins was coming to X before Mack left.

[SkyWalker]

If the debate on this team is lack of talent vs. poor coaching, I'm not sure where I come down. but, I'm interested in how others think about this so I'm going to put this out there.

Just a few months ago, this board (in general) was pretty optimistic about this year's team. We had four starters returning (Scruggs being a sometime starter), we had three grad transfers one of whom was the DII player of the Year, we had Hardin returning (a four star prospect who had been unable to crack the lineup as a frosh given lots of talent on last year's team) and we had Kennedy and James. To many, it appeared we had above average ingredients to do something this year.

We had a rookie head coach but hey, after all, he had been with the program for ten years, the last few as Associate Head Coach. And, he was credited with being our lead recruiter. So, it wasn't like we had a virgin coach here.

After the first few games, some cracks appeared. The team did not appear to be jelling, we seemed to flat out quit against U.C. and the guys we thought were our leaders (Naji and Q) didn't seem to be leading.

Did we truly miss on the talent side? Are we that much worse than many of us first thought? Or, is it our coach?

I can't tell. While it seems like it is some of both, I have to wonder what Wojo, Willard or Wright would be able to achieve with this group. Our guys aren't playing with confidence (admittedly a tough ask given their record) and our leaders aren't leading. In particular, Q strikes me as almost uninterested.

Anyway, wonder how others come down on this.

I am going to take a shot at this. I know I am going to get lambasted but here goes. I think the biggest problem is control by Steele. Back in November, I started a thread titled "Head Bands" I asked for opinions on this new look for our Musketeers. I honestly felt and still feel that this was a concession to the players to work with the coach in an atmosphere of friendship, respect and shared goals - a kumbaya moment. I think this backfired and is not something most college coaches would "give away" to their new team. Miller and Mack didn't let the players wear headbands. Almost by definition, I think college basketball coaches are controlling figures. "Do it this way or sit." "I am in charge." "This is my team." How many times have you seen a coach get into a players grill?. This is far different than the recruiting skills that Steele has succesfully demonstrated over the years. You need to have a different relationship with the players as head coach vs head recruiter. I believe the head bands are a symptom of his lack of control or being in charge. He wants to be their friend. Coaches coach/Recruiters sell.

As for the core 4, many have regressed from last year. Q is not a shooter but he successfully ran the offense last year and found the open man. He should be able to do that this year. Tyrique should be better than last year, but has been very inconsistent so far. Naji is very athletic but tends to play out of control frequently but again should be improving over last year. Scruggs seems to be improving the most.

Right now I am putting most of the blame on the coach. I am not convinced he has taken control of this team and the staff is not developing the players as I feel only Scruggs is playing up to last year's standards.

[Jumpin_Jamal_Forever]

The only guys on this team that are "Steele's guys" are Castlin and Welage, who were brought in primarily because of last year's bad recruiting class. It was rumored that Hankins was coming to X before Mack left.

If Steele was in charge of recruiting the last few years, aren't they all his guys?

[IM4X]

The only guys on this team that are "Steele's guys" are Castlin and Welage, who were brought in primarily because of last year's bad recruiting class. It was rumored that Hankins was coming to X before Mack left.

I don’t think he’d say that...

Steele's first order of business, he said, will be reaching out to current players. All of them were recruited by Steele to some degree.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cin.../amp/475752002

[ArizonaXUGrad]

Steele probably doesn’t have control of this team but neither did Mack when Miller left. If you think he did look at the zip em up presser and tell me if didn’t roll Tu and Mark out to look like fools.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scoscox]

And that was Mack's second year

[XU 87]

If Steele was in charge of recruiting the last few years, aren't they all his guys?

I think we're getting into semantics, but I use the term "his guys" as meaning players that Steele had the final say over as head coach as whether they would be recruited or offered a scholarship. Using that definition, most of these players are "Mack's guys".