Coach Steele

[Masterofreality]

THIS. XJ,...you are consistently on point. I have NO idea how/why this "soft" narrative is getting traction....it is insanely void of anything in reality. There are way too many of our senior posters here that have zero patience and very questionable optimism.

It’s getting traction because the Head Coach of this team said it out of his own mouth himself, and rebounding stats back it up.
How it is addressed going forward is what will determine how this year goes.
Whatcha got Coach?

[Masterofreality]

In your eyes, anytime X loses is because Steele is a shitty coach. The last two years you preached that Steele doesn't know how to run an offense. Now that he has good offensive players, you now say he doesn't know how to run a defense. The team is 8-2, and this is what you have to say?

8-2 with no big wins. It took a missed free throw by Bradley to give us that game. Oklahoma at least may turn out to be after beating Huggins but is our record a mirage? Is the early season shooting a mirage vs other weak defenses? Scouting and good oppo coaches make s difference.
Our defense is 90th ranked. That is not good. Our rebounding is awful.
We shall see what changes are made going forward. I’m hoping that Seton Hall was a one off, but they barely beat Providence yesterday.
Being concerned with substandard performance and not having your team ready for stuff the oppo will throw at you is appropriate.

[Smails]

This thread has taught me a lot about 70 year olds on the internet...

This in spades...

[Masterofreality]

This in spades...

Why? Because we are seasoned, see reality and are realistically concerned without rose colored glasses?
Look, I’d like to just throw platitudes around but there are concerns, and as I pointed out, not by 70 year olds, but young former Xavier Managers.
There’s that.

[xavierj]

Why? Because we are seasoned, see reality and are realistically concerned without rose colored glasses?
Look, I’d like to just throw platitudes around but there are concerns, and as I pointed out, not by 70 year olds, but young former Xavier Managers.
There’s that.

A Xavier manager that must have thought all was well under Mack? It wasn’t. If your idea of success is losing 12 to 15 games half the time and making an occasional run to the sweet 16 or elite 8, then have at it. I want Xavier to be more like Villanova and Gonzaga. Mack wasn’t taking us to the next level. Hopefully Travis can put together that team or program that can. 2.5 years in and we don’t know. We are building the shooters and skill but need that total team to get there. Offense, defense, rebounding, toughness and attitude. Keep building.

[X-band '01]

For everyone who said this was a complete team, the main missing cog right now is a Tyrique Jones/Zack Hankins/Matt Stainbrook enforcer in the post. Even though Seton Hall was a better matchup last year, it's still going to be very unnerving to see our guys outtoughed.

It's also not helping that we don't know what their next opponent will be - if St. John's can't go this week, their next game will be at home against Providence next Sunday. That's another game that could be a potential embarrassment if they can't correct the mistakes from the Seton Hall game.

[xu82]

Belichick was fired by Art Modell when he moved the whole team to Baltimore.
Maybe you can criticize Jimmy Haslam over the past few years, he probably should have given Mike Pettine more time, but the Belichick thing is no where close.
The Browns have it right now though. Would you rather go the Bengals/Clifton Community College route by keeping a guy around for years who couldn’t win in the postseason rather than going for the ring?

The Browns have had 8 coaches since 2010 (including two interim HC’s), and 12 since 2000. THAT is a joke, and that is my point. It may have been some hyperbole on my part, but stability counts for something in my book.


https://www.clevelandbrowns.com/team...y/head-coaches

[JTG]

For everyone who said this was a complete team, the main missing cog right now is a Tyrique Jones/Zack Hankins/Matt Stainbrook enforcer in the post. Even though Seton Hall was a better matchup last year, it's still going to be very unnerving to see our guys outtoughed.

It's also not helping that we don't know what their next opponent will be - if St. John's can't go this week, their next game will be at home against Providence next Sunday. That's another game that could be a potential embarrassment if they can't correct the mistakes from the Seton Hall game.

Butler just barely lost to SH and they have freshmen playing, and no big bodies down low. So was it just an anomaly ? I don't know. I just know we need less finesse, and more nasty.

[bleedXblue]

My only real expectation for this year for Steele was for him to emerge and show that he clearly has the program moving in the direction. Time will tell......I like some of what I see and some I don't. Another mediocre season was not what I was hoping for and it just feels right now that we are headed there.

[XUGRAD80]

When evaluating this season I think it’s important to note that it has not been smooth sailing in regards to the schedule. Not just the game schedule, but also the development and practice schedule. Nor should be expect it to be for the remainder of the season. Even now, after having yesterday’s game rescheduled, we still don’t know for sure if they will play SJU on Wednesday. They didn’t have hardly any off season workouts, had several OOC games canceled, have already had one pause in the season, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone if that happened again. In other words, the progress curve should not be expected to be smooth. Like the rest of the season, there are going to be stop, starts, missteps, and even back steps, from time to time. This is far from a finished product and a set back from time to time should not unexpected or reason to panic.