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Thread: Fire Steele?

  1. #41
    Supporting Member xudash's Avatar
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    I got home in time to catch the second half. If less is more, commentary-wise, then please allow me to focus on one aspect (question) here: is it Steele or is it the play of his players?

    Here is what I noticed and I believe it is irrefutable. There were at least two or three occasions when Steele called a timeout at key points in the second half when things got tight, in part to obviously set up an inbounds play. Xavier came out and executed successfully in both instances, including Marshall fading down underneath the defense to be set up with a pass and then dunk. BANG. Xavier retains a thin hold on the lead in both cases (if I recall correctly).

    Otherwise, as things became tight towards the end and the game was tied, Gooden blunders his way into two straight turnovers, combining with Paul's two travel calls. The primary focus here is on Gooden. He began what became a meltdown.

    Beyond that, towards the end, DePaul came down the court and blew the lead away by making shots. Two of our responses to that involved Jones and Marshall missing from close range.

    Bottomline: I sense from reading some of MOR's analysis that Travis must still do better managing his personnel decisions and matching his resources more effectively against what is being thrown at us. BUT, my God, when some of our players melt down on the court and go full stupid, they do so full throttle, and Steele cannot control that. Case in point: Q making a lazy pass that gets picked off by an obviously quick and athletic DePaul player for a touchdown bucket. Is that Steele's fault? If it is, then i have a lot more to learn about this game.
    X A V I E R

  2. #42
    Supporting Member bleedXblue's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by xudash View Post
    I got home in time to catch the second half. If less is more, commentary-wise, then please allow me to focus on one aspect (question) here: is it Steele or is it the play of his players?

    Here is what I noticed and I believe it is irrefutable. There were at least two or three occasions when Steele called a timeout at key points in the second half when things got tight, in part to obviously set up an inbounds play. Xavier came out and executed successfully in both instances, including Marshall fading down underneath the defense to be set up with a pass and then dunk. BANG. Xavier retains a thin hold on the lead in both cases (if I recall correctly).

    Otherwise, as things became tight towards the end and the game was tied, Gooden blunders his way into two straight turnovers, combining with Paul's two travel calls. The primary focus here is on Gooden. He began what became a meltdown.

    Beyond that, towards the end, DePaul came down the court and blew the lead away by making shots. Two of our responses to that involved Jones and Marshall missing from close range.

    Bottomline: I sense from reading some of MOR's analysis that Travis must still do better managing his personnel decisions and matching his resources more effectively against what is being thrown at us. BUT, my God, when some of our players melt down on the court and go full stupid, they do so full throttle, and Steele cannot control that. Case in point: Q making a lazy pass that gets picked off by an obviously quick and athletic DePaul player for a touchdown bucket. Is that Steele's fault? If it is, then i have a lot more to learn about this game.
    I give Steele credit for sticking with his guys, but Q is not there right now and we might not see that player again this year. Also, WTF is Castlin playing for? Seriously 20 minutes for basically giving us next to nothing? If Kennedy cant play right now in place of him what the hell is going on?

    Right now, I limit Q's minutes as much as I can and get Harden and Kennedy more minutes. See what you have for next year and give them a chance for regular time in the rotation.

  3. #43
    Sophomore X-Fan's Avatar
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    I haven’t posted much if anything on XH in this cluster of a season. Came on here to see what the feel is.

    While it’s perfectly fine to question the coach, firing is completely off the table. I’m frustrated like everybody else. Last night I Tweeted that at this point in the season I have no idea what the identity of a Travis Steele coached team is. I realize that a lot shouldn’t have been expected from the season when you have an inexperienced returning roster and 3 Grad Transfers. However, really good coaches can take the cards dealt to them and maximize their strengths. We all see it, this team is better than their results. That’s why we are concerned.

    Now, it goes without saying we aren’t D1 coaches and we aren’t in that locker room. Any observer can see that the players share responsibility for the losses/collapses. Q has either regressed, isn’t doing what the coaches are telling him, or is just a bad fit for this team. Naji has been inconsistent (partly due to health issues) and hasn’t taken the BIG step we were expecting/hoping he would. I have no idea how Welage scored so many points at SJSU. Harden & the Frosh have barely played much less had an impact. That’s a lot of "misses" for a team that needed a lot to go right.

    Again, like you guys I’m frustrated and worried. 2 things make me chill on beating Steele up too much: 1. It’s his first season as HC (growing pains happen), 2. He has a FANTASTIC class coming in next year (that might get even better).

    Also, I know X has a leader of men in Paul Scruggs who has learned and grown a ton this season. I expect Steele will be able to fix the stuff that contributed to all the late game collapses, maximize whoever returns, and mix in the new guys. If he doesn’t then let’s revidit the subject of this thread.

    As always, Go X!!!!

  4. #44
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    Stop being rational.

  5. #45
    Quote Originally Posted by Xavier View Post
    I disagree with this wholeheartedly. It takes an exceptional team to win the Big East. It takes an exceptional team to get a 1/2 seed, and it takes an exceptional team to get to the elite 8. I was hard on Mack but he has 2 of the top 4 teams in Xavier history, won coach of the year honors and is in the running this year for the same award at Louisville. As many have said over and over this team has been close in a ton of games this year. They really haven’t been blown out much and I think Mack would have this exact team in position to make the tournament, no question.

    If Mack had no exceptional teams, his accomplishments are even better. Has Xavier ever had an exceptional team, in your eyes?
    Youre entitled to your opinion. To answer your question, no. IMO X has had some good teams and some overachievng teams, but never an exceptional team
    Pray the Rosary daily

  6. #46
    Supporting Member XUGRAD80's Avatar
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    Is part of the problem that we have overrated the talent on this roster? Are we so disappointed because almost nobody expected this team to struggle like this? Did we not expect this because we went into the season thinking that X had a solid core returning and 3 really good grad transfers coming in? Did we expect to much out of the players?

    I have to think that the answer to all of these questions is yes.

    But even more distressing to me is that the players seem to be not improving, not even holding their own, but regressing in many ways. In addition, there seems to be a general lack of mental toughness on the part of the players, and there don’t seem to be any leaders among the players.

    Lack of talent, lack of mental toughness, and lack of leadership is not a good combination. The first thing can be somewhat overcome if a team has the last two things. But it’s hard for even an abundance of talent to overcome the lack of the latter items.

  7. #47
    Administrator Muskie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by XUGRAD80 View Post
    X-fan(s)

    Is part of the problem that we have overrated the talent on this roster? Are we so disappointed because almost nobody expected this team to struggle like this? Did we not expect this because we went into the season thinking that X had a solid core returning and 3 really good grad transfers coming in? Did we expect to much out of the players?

    I have to think that the answer to all of these questions is yes.

    But even more distressing to me is that the players seem to be not improving, not even holding their own, but regressing in many ways. In addition, there seems to be a general lack of mental toughness on the part of the players, and there don’t seem to be any leaders among the players.

    Lack of talent, lack of mental toughness, and lack of leadership is not a good combination. The first thing can be somewhat overcome if a team has the last two things. But it’s hard for even an abundance of talent to overcome the lack of the latter items.
    I think many people discounted the amount of roster turnover and the level of the returning players. None of our players fared well on the pre-season Big East teams (only Naji garnered a mention). The other coaches around the league certainly saw what we now have seen. Any one of or all of the grad transfers were great complimentary additions to this team. However, this team has no consistent scorer, I think Scruggs and Marshall are getting there. To me, the biggest issue is that the program could have framed expectations better for the fanbase.
    "He's a little bit ball-dominant, he needs to have the ball in his hands, and he's not a good shooter." Ball-dominant … isn't that a nice way of calling someone a ball hog? Where is my Jay Bilas Thesaurus?

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  8. #48
    Supporting Member paulxu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by xudash View Post
    BUT, my God, when some of our players melt down on the court and go full stupid, they do so full throttle, and Steele cannot control that. Case in point: Q making a lazy pass that gets picked off by an obviously quick and athletic DePaul player for a touchdown bucket. Is that Steele's fault? If it is, then i have a lot more to learn about this game.
    This.
    ...he went up late, and I was already up there.

  9. #49
    Supporting Member bleedXblue's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Muskie View Post
    I think many people discounted the amount of roster turnover and the level of the returning players. None of our players fared well on the pre-season Big East teams (only Naji garnered a mention). The other coaches around the league certainly saw what we now have seen. Any one of or all of the grad transfers were great complimentary additions to this team. However, this team has no consistent scorer, I think Scruggs and Marshall are getting there. To me, the biggest issue is that the program could have framed expectations better for the fanbase.
    How do you do that? I hear ya, but no program ever says that before the year starts..........we should have known better but had no idea how the grad transfers were going to impact this team. AND, everyone thought Q, Naji and Jones were going to take major steps forward.

  10. #50
    Supporting Member OTRMUSKIE's Avatar
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    If we do fire Steele can we get Archie Miller? He is about to be shown the door soon. Either him or his brother. Both will jobless by next year if things don’t change. If Steele sucks this bad next year with no improvement and the Millers are available X needs to grab one. But Steele will be fine so not to worry.
    If I was going to school for school, I wouldn’t have picked the University of Cincinnati. Dontonio Wingfield

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