Game Thread: Xavier vs. Villanova (January 18, 2019)

[AviatorX]

Uh... hmm... who on the bench could shoot 5-16 and 1-7 from 3? How about anyone.

Welage only took 2 3s. Really? He was 1 of 2 and Naji was 1-7. Were you in the least bit surprised Naji would struggle from 3? Oh wait he has sucked at shooting 3s all season... oh... so let’s allow HIM to keep launching 3s and be the guy to try to shoot us back in a game against a good 3 point shooting team. Raally?

If anyone is going to be shooting 3s it should be Scruggs and Wealage and then maybe Castlin. Naji getting the green light to shoot 3s whenever he wants is part of what has screwed up opportunities for this team to win at times. . I mean were you watching the same game?

It’s almost as if there are other parts to the game...it’s not like playing Welage more makes this a good shooting team.

[xukeith]

Good game. Sorry we lost but proud of our fight. I now see if X plays to its potential, X can scrape together 10 BE wins, maybe 11.
I'd be happy as they are looking a lot better than say, 4 games ago. Win all remaining home h=games except 1. Pull off 1 road surprise.

[Xville]

That game is probably the toughest one they will have the rest of the year, so I think we can feel good about the fact that they hung in there, and had a chance to win with about 8 minutes left. I'm starting to feel positive about this team continuing that conference streak.

[xukeith]

In a game like this Welage can’t only have 2 shots. He gives you your best chance to cut those 11-2 runs

defense too cuts those runs. His weakness. But he is getting better with D and rebounds.

[XU_Lou]

I like our chances on 2/24

[xudash]

I watched nothing but improvement.

We missed too many FTs and bunnies, but they played a fairly clean game when it came to turnovers and scoring in the paint.

And I'm sorry, but a few of those Nova made 3's were pure luck.

Hate losing, but Nova is a class program. I'd rather travel to Philly to play them at the Wells Fargo Center than going there to play LossSalle and the other two.

Steele is molding these guys into a team.

[GreatWhiteNorth]

X is playing better. I believe that we stand a fair chance of winning when they play us at Cintas.

[bleedXblue]

With Nova you can't give them second chances. Seemed like every time we got close they missed a 3 but got the o rebound and hit a big 3. Next game at home we have to limit those and......execute on our end. Hankins was scoring at will but getting abused on the other end. Surprised we didnt try more 1-3-1

[IM4X]

It’s almost as if there are other parts to the game...it’s not like playing Welage more makes this a good shooting team.

It certainly makes it a better shooting team than when Naji is in there shooting it from deep.

Naji = not a good 3 point shooter... yet he chose to shoot 7 times from 3, making 1. The result of all of those misses was that Nova got easy rebounds and piled on more points.

Welage and Scruggs = good 3 point shooters... yet they both only took 2 shots a piece, making 1 each. Why is Nova able to get their better shooters plenty of looks while X seems okay with settling on just letting their weaker 3 point shooters go to town from deep, desperately hoping that these statistically inferior 3 point shooters somehow might get hot. They don’t get hot, they just put the team in a bigger hole.

It’s exciting to see this team bringing so much fight. Such great hustle. These guys can win a lot of games if they have the right personnel in the game at the right time and if individual players stick to what they excel at doing and not try to be the hero by also doing the things they have struggled to doing so far this season.

[noteggs]

Man I hate the phrase “moral victory “. Shouldn’t be a part of sports. What does that even mean? Seems like a bad phrase that describes a Bengal performance against the Steelers.

Last night was a moral victory because X made it enjoyable to watch versus Nova! Heck, I didn’t even take a drive to Walgreens during the game like I did last year when they were in Philly.

Interesting this year when I finally lowered my expectations, my whole attitude on this team got a lot better. Of course next week may be different.