New Starting Line-Up?

[JTG]

All the KyKy hype is yet to be proven as justified. It may take him, like Scruggs, to be a significant contributor late in February because it is not clicking yet. What has he done? He is the best shooter of 3's in practice. Best in game performance is 4 shots and 8 points. He is not playing with confidence. He defers to all other players.
I hope the light bulb goes on for him sooner.

We'd all take 8 pts on 4 shots any day of the week. And he doesn't defer, they ignore him, even when he's wide open
Marshall is especially guilty of this. The 3 KyKy hit at Nova was a beautiful shot. He was in the same spot 2 other times and Marshall ignored him. I'm not saying Tandy is Bluiett, but Steele needs to knock some sense into Marshall.

[bleedXblue]

We'd all take 8 pts on 4 shots any day of the week. And he doesn't defer, they ignore him, even when he's wide open
Marshall is especially guilty of this. The 3 KyKy hit at Nova was a beautiful shot. He was in the same spot 2 other times and Marshall ignored him. I'm not saying Tandy is Bluiett, but Steele needs to knock some sense into Marshall.

He's got the gold jersey in practice this week.......so I'm not sure what that means or what message that is sending?

[American X]

Start Leighton Schrand again. Xavier is undefeated with him in the starting lineup, just saying....

[AviatorX]

We'd all take 8 pts on 4 shots any day of the week. And he doesn't defer, they ignore him, even when he's wide open
Marshall is especially guilty of this. The 3 KyKy hit at Nova was a beautiful shot. He was in the same spot 2 other times and Marshall ignored him. I'm not saying Tandy is Bluiett, but Steele needs to knock some sense into Marshall.

The "this team ignores KyKy" line of thinking is certainly something. The man has taken 33 shots in 75 minutes played at a nearly identical usage rate as Scruggs. If guys are trying to freeze him out, they're sure doing a terrible job of it.

[bleedXblue]

The "this team ignores KyKy" line of thinking is certainly something. The man has taken 33 shots in 75 minutes played at a nearly identical usage rate as Scruggs. If guys are trying to freeze him out, they're sure doing a terrible job of it.

well he certainly isn't shy about shooting it.......he pulls the trigger when he gets the ball......I think most posters are referring to the Nova game where he clearly was open a few times and both Naji and Q deferred to taking the shot themselves

[AviatorX]

well he certainly isn't shy about shooting it.......he pulls the trigger when he gets the ball......I think most posters are referring to the Nova game where he clearly was open a few times and both Naji and Q deferred to taking the shot themselves

Yeah I mean there is one possession where Naji clearly missed him on the wing in a secondary break situation. Pretty clearly a bad play in hindsight, but I think it's a pretty big overreach to come to the conclusion guys are intentionally ignoring KyKy.

[drudy23]

well he certainly isn't shy about shooting it.......he pulls the trigger when he gets the ball......I think most posters are referring to the Nova game where he clearly was open a few times and both Naji and Q deferred to taking the shot themselves

Not only taking the shots, but taking bad shots (step back 3s) when Ky was wide open.

[bleedXblue]

Not only taking the shots, but taking bad shots (step back 3s) when Ky was wide open.

He's auditioning for the NBA...come on man......and not doing a good job IMHO. He's never gonna be a good shooter. Just not his game. He's better off working on shots from 10-15 feet.

Yeah, Steele better put a stop to that real quick.

[AviatorX]

He's auditioning for the NBA...come on man......and not doing a good job IMHO. He's never gonna be a good shooter. Just not his game. He's better off working on shots from 10-15 feet.

Yeah, Steele better put a stop to that real quick.

I'd also be fine with him never shooting from 10-15 feet. This offense has looked its best (not a high bar, admittedly) when Naji catches it on the perimeter coming off a curl or screen going immediately downhill. They ran a lot of this against TCU and UC. He's also a good distributor (or has the potential to be) from that spot. I think they'll figure it out to a degree. These are the windows they're looking for when they're running constant dribble handoffs on the perimeter (which seems to piss off a lot of fans).

[BigMoeMusketeer]

The interesting thing about Naji is this: if you asked most Xavier fans, what is his best game this year, you would get "UC". 31 and 8, and really took it to Jarron for most of the night. The combative among us could pick another game and provide some nuanced reasons for it, but by and large, the fan base as a whole would say "UC".

He took 11 three's that night. 8 for 11 from two, and 4 for 11 from three.

My point: I think we can all live with him taking threes, especially when he is otherwise attacking and getting into a great rhythm, however, it is the occasional (or more than that) terrible shots that he takes that are so mind-numbing. That step-back three (which looked like it may have actually been a two had it gone in) was just a horrible play.

I guess the summary is my issue with Naji is less about taking three's, and more about general decision making. He is 6'8", skilled, powerful, and athletic, yet it is the 6" between his ears that occasionally holds him / us back.