I like the Super Bowl analogy and also think it can be applied to the impact of being a 1 seed and regular season BE champs last year. I think we have seen some overconfidence coming into this year mainly in Goodin, but also in Jones and Marshall. Obviously these guys have gone through a crazy amount of change with all that we've lost since last season.
Results 181 to 190 of 223
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01-07-2019, 06:44 AM #181
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01-07-2019, 08:29 AM #182
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I'm not sure what some of you expected from this game. Did you think we had a really good chance of winning? We were 9 point dogs for a reason. Marquette is good, X is not. The talent isn't there this year, and maybe JP and Tre were able to hide the fact that Q and Tyrique are just not very good basketball players at the Big East level. That last point I am unsure of, but it's a possibility.
To question Steele right now in my opinion is silly. If it is this time next year, and the team looks like this I get it, but the cupboard was left pretty bare. X isn't Kentucky, Duke, Kansas etc that has the ability to reload after 4 guys leave (2 of whom are bouncing from NBA to G League rosters) for professional leagues. I simply believe this is a blip in the radar. Yeah we might only win 15-16 games this year, but I think next year we could be in the twenty range, and two years from now be back to what we are accustomed to seeing. We, myself included, need to keep focus and be patient with this transition.
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01-07-2019, 08:37 AM #183
Personally, I expected us to lose by more than 7.5, which is why I took Marquette -7.5. However, Marquette was pretty awful in the first half. The fact that Xavier out-awfuled them by that margin was pretty hard to take. Marquette sucked for 20 minutes, and the game was never competitive. That's disappointing.
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01-07-2019, 11:41 AM #184
Do you mean “silly to question his current appoach” or “silly to question his ability as a head coach?”
It may be silly to read into what is going on now and say “Steele will never have what it takes to be a very good head coach.” On the other hand, I do not think it silly to question his approach at this point. It simply isn’t working. To be a successful head coach one not only has to be able to recognize what is and is not working, but find a way to get his players to fix it. Steele is saying a lot of the things you’d expect a “knowledgeable coach” to say to show he sees the problems with the team. He has not yet shown he can teach them the right things to do to fix it.
In fairness,(as you have pointed out) Steel does not have the depth or overall talent of last season’s team. Mack knew this year’s team was never going to have quite the success of last year’s team. But there is enough talent on this team to be winning more games than they have. This team has shown they can play well enough to compete with and beat most of the teams they’ve played, if they could just stop making so many stupid decisions.
Therein lies the question: whose fault is it that these players are not playing to their potential as individuals and as a team? Whose fault is it that the team does not have the chemistry or discipline now that we were lead to believe they would had? Whose fault is it that they do not appear to be getting even a little smarter with their decisions or a little more tenacious with their play in every game. This team shows laziness with the ball even during the beginning of a game (so tiredness is not always an excuse).
I don’t know if the headband thing is a factor or not, but this team has looked more like a bunch of thrown together parts with no one seeming to understand their role or where they should be. If that is not something to question a coach about then I don’t know what is.
So I can appreciate that Steele has less to work with than last year (included a few key 3 point shooters), but the BE competition is not what it was last year and there is a bit more talent on this roster than the performances and results we’ve seen would suggest.
Steele may still end up being a great coach for X, but he’s going have to get his hands dirtier to really mold this team. I am not going to judge him on whether this team makes the NCAA tournament but rather on how much better he can make THIS team each game. How much better the chemistry of THIS TEAM gets. How much better the decision making gets during THIS SEASON. I believe that will help tell a lot about Steele and his ability to coach.
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01-07-2019, 11:51 AM #185
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My question back to you would be how do you know that they aren't playing to their potential? We have a total of 4, maybe 5 guys that would normally be on a BE roster, especially Xavier's. Maybe this is the best this team can do given the talent and the square peg round hole roster makeup. I think Scruggs is playing to his potential (based on recruiting ranking) and miles ahead of where he was last year, the other 3 of the 4 aren't presumably but as I stated previously...maybe that is because JP and Tre were able to hide the actual talent level of those 3 guys.
Last edited by Xville; 01-07-2019 at 11:56 AM.
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01-07-2019, 11:54 AM #186
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01-07-2019, 12:27 PM #187
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01-07-2019, 12:32 PM #188
Agree with 100% of this. This team is deteriorating as lessons learned from last year fade- especially the returnees (not Paul. He's good enough to just play). And if Travis Steele was too complacent to see that he had to change up last year's offensive approach with this team that doesn't have the shooters- such as introducing more "Princeton Offense" back door cut principles- then that is all on him. You have to mold your approach to the guys you have, not force your system on those who can't handle it.
"I Got CHAMPIONS in that Lockerroom!" -Stanley Burrell
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01-07-2019, 12:44 PM #189
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For all those knocking Steele. I ask you this: What games would we have won if Mack and his staff were here? Very tough question to even answer but I would think MAYBE:
Wisconsin, San Diego State, Seton Hall and that's it. MAYBE MAYBE UC, but doubt it.
Steele is not a bad coach but he's only been a head coach for 1 year. We knew this going in. He needs time to make first year head coaching mistakes.
The difference between Mack and Steele's first year is Mack had TALENT. If Mack was not a FIRST YEAR HEAD COACH I say we win the 2OT game against k-state. Who knows.
Give it time and have some patience. We have been spoiled with TALENT.
Hell who knows maybe we can make a run like Miller did winning 4 games in 4 days and one of those wins was blowout against #1 undefeated St. Joes. Is it likely NO but anything can happen.
The moral of the story is we just are not that talented with too many variables on this team to GEL in a short time. 3 grad transfers, 2 3 star freshman, and a BRAND NEW coaching staff.
Folks we have for now a TOP 10 recruiting class coming in and a lot more basketball to play. WE will be happy again and we have to trust the Xavier Way and the system.
Hopefully we can get some W's this year that we do not expect. GO X
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01-07-2019, 12:49 PM #190
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