Coach Steele

[Muskie in dayton]

Meanwhile, at the University of Clifton, Coach Brannen has rallied his team together, reigned in their star player, and has his team playing great. Ugh.

Next year, I know X will be young and will struggle. All I ask is that Steele has them all on the same sheet of music, they play with energy and passion, and they show steady improvement over the year. Anything less and it’s time to cut bait. Heck, maybe that will still happen this year, but I see zero reason to hope for that.

[boozehound]

Meanwhile, at the University of Clifton, Coach Brannen has rallied his team together, reigned in their star player, and has his team playing great. Ugh.

Next year, I know X will be young and will struggle. All I ask is that Steele has them all on the same sheet of music, they play with energy and passion, and they show steady improvement over the year. Anything less and it’s time to cut bait. Heck, maybe that will still happen this year, but I see zero reason to hope for that.

Good point. With this year (likely) being so bad it's going to be tough to make a call on Steele within the next ~2 years. Having a 'lost years' scenario if he is the wrong guy is a very real possibility. How do we determine what success next year looks like? The team will likely be very young.

[Xavier]

Meanwhile, at the University of Clifton, Coach Brannen has rallied his team together, reigned in their star player, and has his team playing great. Ugh.

Next year, I know X will be young and will struggle. All I ask is that Steele has them all on the same sheet of music, they play with energy and passion, and they show steady improvement over the year. Anything less and it’s time to cut bait. Heck, maybe that will still happen this year, but I see zero reason to hope for that.

One of the very few benefits of a weaker conference. Gives the new coach ability to learn and succeed a lot easier. Another one- when the team isn't very good, you have a real shot of steadily improving and can win conference tournament a lot easier than say the BE. NCAA hopes stay alive most of the year

[Masterofreality]

One of the very few benefits of a weaker conference. Gives the new coach ability to learn and succeed a lot easier. Another one- when the team isn't very good, you have a real shot of steadily improving and can win conference tournament a lot easier than say the BE. NCAA hopes stay alive most of the year

Welp. We wanted this......for years!! And we have the bright lights.
What that means is that you can't just take the easy ways anymore. You have to go for excellence. Look, I don't know who else may have indicated that they wanted interest in this job. But I cannot remember too many schools in major conferences (which we are assuredly in now) just handing the keys to a lifelong assistant, no matter how many years they were at a school, other than Wojo, and he was with Coach K for 15 years with Final 4's on his resume. I'm certainly open to the board correcting me, but it seems that we have taken the easy way out here. Even VD brought a head coach with experience in. I didn't even see much expertise going on by the Assistants with Steele during the All Access. (Grits Teeth)

[xudash]

Mack leaves, Steele is named head coach, and:

1. He immediately goes out and shores up a depleted roster with transfers.

2. Turns around a failing season and just misses the NCAA Tournament in his first year with that patch quilt group.

3. Along the way, has secured some very serious incoming talent.

Some of you believe that this team plays without passion, yet I've seen them show enthusiasm - - you see that when TV cameras take shots at the bench after good plays or when players go to pick-up a fellow player off the floor after a hustle play, etc.

- - - - - - - -

Now the flip side:

1. Particularly in the case of Goodin - and unfortunately also with our other upperclassmen - carelessness and a lack of focus have led to way too many turnovers in games to-date.

2. For those of you who know the game of basketball well, you aren't seeing enough in the way of effective offensive sets, etc.

3. Naji "Hero Ball" - and at the worst possible times in a few key games this season.


I have no answers for why this season looks the way it looks. But I'll stop on two important points:

1. I believe it should be remembered that Mack's whiff in recruiting on one full year class has done current damage to the roster.

2. In the aggregate, Xavier is not perceived as having a legitimate 3-point threat. So, it looks like LaGuardia on Friday afternoon around the basket.


Footnote: BTW, anyone who thinks we should be in a weak conference like the A10, etc. needs to have their head examined. Xavier isn't going to lose the money or exposure or brand positioning that the BE provides.

[AviatorX]

Welp. We wanted this......for years!! And we have the bright lights.
What that means is that you can't just take the easy ways anymore. You have to go for excellence. Look, I don't know who else may have indicated that they wanted interest in this job. But I cannot remember too many schools in major conferences (which we are assuredly in now) just handing the keys to a lifelong assistant, no matter how many years they were at a school, other than Wojo, and he was with Coach K for 15 years with Final 4's on his resume. I'm certainly open to the board correcting me, but it seems that we have taken the easy way out here. Even VD brought a head coach with experience in. I didn't even see much expertise going on by the Assistants with Steele during the All Access. (Grits Teeth)

To really get a sense of this, you'd have to throw out all schools who were replacing a coach fired for performance, because obviously they aren't promoting from within. That's a sizable chunk of major conference coaching openings. I know you agree with this, but no way Xavier would have hired an assistant from another school.

I'm also not sure there's really a one to one comparison because it's likely Travis could have had a low-major head coaching job, but was incredibly selective in what he even pursued. Not saying having him cut his teeth elsewhere wouldn't have been better for all involved, but that's just what the situation was.

Dayton brought in a guy who got fired from his last college job...

[drudy23]

Agreed on the cutting teeth part - he's doing that on the job. Is that the right answer? All depends on how long it takes. Time's running out to figure out what he wants to lay as his framework for Trav Steele - Head Coach.

I'm pretty confident Mack knew he was going to take the Lousville job for a long time (as did the people in the ears of recruits). I'm also pretty confident that had an impact on the recruiting class. It wasn't as much a "whiff" as much is that he knew it wouldn't be his problem to fix.

[GoMuskies]

There was no reason to suspect that Louisville job would be open when Mack whiffed on the recruiting class.

[drudy23]

There was no reason to suspect that Louisville job would be open when Mack whiffed on the recruiting class.

There was some strong interest from several high caliber recruits that year and they all fell through. All of them. Something was up and I think they knew it.

Obviously, I have no proof of this, but it was either that or a perfect storm of recruits changing their minds.

[GoMuskies]

Those guys all knew Pitino was going to be implicated in an FBI sting and fired? Pitino was supposed to be at Louisville for 5 more years at least. Hell, the week before his firing he was on College Gameday as UofL's designated representative (supporting soon to be fired Bobby Petrino's team!).