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  1. #1
    Supporting Member XUGRAD80's Avatar
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    It’s Shootout time!

    Enough with the prelims. It’s time to get to the Main Event of the pre-conference schedule. It time to tame the kittens! Let the Crosstown Beatdown commence!

  2. #2
    Supporting Member paulxu's Avatar
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    I'm more than ready for the Skykyline Chili Crosstown Shootout.
    But what I really am ready for is some structured offense.

    I see us pass the ball around the key, with the defense giving us a lot of wide open 3's. (Carter was a 34% shooter last year, so I hope 0-6 is an anomaly...especially in his own gym.)
    I see guys come out for the high screen and try to pick and roll.
    I see guys crashing the lane, sometimes (except maybe Marshall) with less than stellar results. (although if you are kicking out to 20% 3 shooters maybe that's understandable.)

    What I don't see are many "offensive" play calls with multiple screens, back door cuts, and the team moving to create opportunities.
    So use to watching Mike Young coach this sort of team for years it is frustrating to not see some of that from us.
    I assume Steele has those tricks in his bag, and maybe my eyes are old and I just don't see it...but it just doesn't look right.

    Hope we come out blazing on Saturday.
    (and none of this addresses our continued sloppy passing/TO's. (Yes we held it to 10 against GB; but a ratio of less than 1 for your PG is still not good)
    ...he went up late, and I was already up there.

  3. #3
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    When you have guys that cant consistently make a 3 shooting a 3, the lane is completely packed in. You cant have backdoors, or crashing the lane when its packed in so tightly. Did you see how far off greenbay was playing? Every team is going to do that until we start making threes and there is nothing really schematically that Steele can do to circumvent this, until the lanes open up.

  4. #4
    I still believe. muskiefan82's Avatar
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    Did anyone else think it was odd that Green Bay put on token pressure and then immediately backed off? They seemed to have the horses to run a full press, but they never tried. I think they could have forced several turnovers if they had actually kept pressing X
    We've come a long way since my bench seat at the Fieldhouse!

  5. #5
    Supporting Member paulxu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by muskiefan82 View Post
    Did anyone else think it was odd that Green Bay put on token pressure and then immediately backed off? They seemed to have the horses to run a full press, but they never tried. I think they could have forced several turnovers if they had actually kept pressing X
    I should go look at the tape, but my impression was they applied token pressure, then backed up towards the basket once we picked up our dribble.
    Daring us to shoot the 3.
    ...he went up late, and I was already up there.

  6. #6
    Sophomore surfxu's Avatar
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    OK... here we go. Enough with the tune ups, it's time to tighten the laces and get going. We've been playing cat and mouse this entire season. Hiding our true offensive weapons, only to bring them out when it counts. Throw away any game tape prior to this, the true Xavier is about to be unleashed. The first game in the post Yellow Toothed Gnome era tips off at 5:00 EST 12/7. The uc mouth breathing fan base will be glued to Luke Fickell's second to last game as a uc football coach, with delusions of a New Years day game dancing through their heads, only to be stomped on by some tigers. With tears in their eyes they will turn the channel only to find further dismay as the Musketeers are running rough shod in an offensive and defensive onslaught never seen before. Walk ons will start the second half as a show of mercy by the benevolent Coach Steele. XU is about to unleash wave after wave of double digit scorers while racking up kills numbering in the dozens. The narrative has been written by the basketball Gods. Let the fury commence, for it is time for the Crosstown Shootout once again. On Xavier!
    I have complete faith in coach Steele and Co.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Xville View Post
    When you have guys that cant consistently make a 3 shooting a 3, the lane is completely packed in. You cant have backdoors, or crashing the lane when its packed in so tightly. Did you see how far off greenbay was playing? Every team is going to do that until we start making threes and there is nothing really schematically that Steele can do to circumvent this, until the lanes open up.
    kyky should help and i don't think we're gonna shoot that poorly normally. moore, carter, freemantle and james combined to go 0-12. on the bright side, naji, q, and paul shot 6-16. kyky went 2-5 and that's only gonna get better once he gets his rhythm back. honestly i saw a lot of reasons to be optimistic with how we played on offense.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by scoscox View Post
    kyky should help and i don't think we're gonna shoot that poorly normally. moore, carter, freemantle and james combined to go 0-12. on the bright side, naji, q, and paul shot 6-16. kyky went 2-5 and that's only gonna get better once he gets his rhythm back. honestly i saw a lot of reasons to be optimistic with how we played on offense.
    Agreed...I think it is slowly starting to get better, and that will open up the scheme. It is going to be very hard to keep kyky off the floor. He is just what this team needs right now.

  9. #9
    Supporting Member xubrew's Avatar
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    I don't like saying this, but has the Shootout sort of....yunno....lost something??

    It used to get people as amped up as an NCAA Tournament game. Sometimes it even seemed like it was even bigger than that. At times I was annoyed because it seemed like winning The Shootout was enough, and that if we continued to have a bad season after we won it then it was okay because at least we won The Shootout. I don't know if it was actually that way or not, but that seemed to be how it felt.

    Now, it seems as if people are mostly aware that we are playing Cincinnati on Saturday, but are no more amped up for it than they are for any other game. That, and it kind of sucks that it starts when it does. The first Saturday of December is a date on the college sports calendar that is already so stuffed full with showcase football and basketball games, that a game like the Shootout kind of gets lost in the shuffle. If it were the following week, or even on a weeknight, the spotlight on the game would probably be a lot brighter. There were multiple years where the game was the lead story on SportsCenter and (at least for a day) at the top of the list of pretty much all college sports consciousness. That will NEVER be the case if the game is played on the first Saturday in December.

    Is the game even making waves in Cincinnati? Or is it kind of having to share the stage with the AAC Championship game? It seems to me that it's hard to feel the full rivalry experience of a game when half of one of the team's fanbase is focused on something else.

    But anyway, BEAT UC!
    "You can't fix stupid." Ron White

  10. #10
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    I feel sorry for the people that pick UC football over this annual feudal match of entertainment goodness. There's no better game in Cincinnati every year. I could also care less what other people think.

    Escalate the hate.

    And tell Brannen to get some sleep - dude looks like a zombie.

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