Notes from the Coaches show

[drudy23]

Is Kunkel's defense really all that great?

I have a feeling Steele is priming us for Kunkel being a starter lol

[bleedXblue]

Is Kunkel's defense really all that great?

I have a feeling Steele is priming us for Kunkel being a starter lol

Ahead of Johnson? Not possibly ahead of Jones?

If he does, I will have lost the last remaining amount of hope for Steele

[Xuperman]

Does anyone else think it is odd how many injuries we’ve seen with this team? I don’t know if it has anything to do with their training or if it is just bad luck, but quite a few players have been (or will be) lost for a significant part of the season because of injures.

Johnson
Stanley
Tandy
Miles
Freemantle

(Probably missing someone)

Plus, we have a transfer in Nunge who is still trying to recover from last year’s injury.

Feels like we are becoming X-ray U.

Hunter's redshirt season was due to some sort of leg injury.....multiple surgeries reported.

All these guys are prime candidates for what I like to call "The Big East ALL SCAR Team"!

[nuts4xu]

I was at practice on Monday, and Kunkel looked every bit the leader as Scruggs or Johnson. This is a veteran laden team which should be it's strength. I was impressed with how well Stanley and Nunge were moving, coming off the injuries. I really like Jerome Hunter and what he brings to this team. He is a tall, lanky, athletic dude who shoot 3's and drive the basket.

Miles was held out of practice but was on the sidelines. KyKy was sick and not there. Freemantle was working on his rehab exercises and taking laps on his crutches around the arena. He even took part in sprints on his crutches.

That is your full report.

[Xuperman]

I am convinced that Tandy injured his foot trying to pull off that high flying Slam during the Madness Dunk Contest as a freshman. Tried it several times because his reputation proceeded him and the crowd challenged him to pull it off, which he never did.

[drudy23]

Ahead of Johnson? Not possibly ahead of Jones?

If he does, I will have lost the last remaining amount of hope for Steele

I was kind of kidding - but he does love him some Kunkel. More weapons equals more open looks for Kunkel - if he can hit them at 40%, then yes, keep him in there. But he has to shoot better than last year.

[D-West & PO-Z]

Where does this turn the ball over too much come from? First year he turned it over on avg once a game. Last year in 14 minutes he averaged .8 a game.

It’s baloney and not rooted in fact, kind of like how I feel Steele talks about his defense. He’s not any worse than most of the guards on this team.

He is a guard with a career 1 to 1 Assist to turnover ratio.

And if it was turnovers coupled with doing other things well, like defense, or passing to set teammates up, then you can live with that. But he doesnt so the turnovers he does have get magnified.

[drudy23]

He is a guard with a career 1 to 1 Assist to turnover ratio.

And if it was turnovers coupled with doing other things well, like defense, or passing to set teammates up, then you can live with that. But he doesnt so the turnovers he does have get magnified.

He also averaged 7 points in an average of 14 minutes of game time, by far the best scoring ratio on the team. That is his "doing other things well" - he's a scorer. No other player on the team is held to the same defensive standard as him. Kunkel's stats are comparable to KyKy's (and worse in some areas) and let's not make believe Kunkel is the greatest defender in the world.

[D-West & PO-Z]

He also averaged 7 points in an average of 14 minutes of game time, by far the best scoring ratio on the team. That is his "doing other things well" - he's a scorer. No other player on the team is held to the same defensive standard as him. Kunkel's stats are comparable to KyKy's (and worse in some areas) and let's not make believe Kunkel is the greatest defender in the world.

Kunkle does so much more offensively to make others better than KyKy, it isnt even close.

That pass at the end of the Marquette game that Kunkel made to Scruggs that led to Scruggs pass to Jones for the win, was incredible. KyKy could only make that play in his dreams.

I'm not sure why some people think there is some big conspiracy against KyKy? Should he maybe have gotten some more opportunities last year when we struggled offensively, sure. But some act like hes this huge difference maker that Steele hates and isnt playing, purposefully holding Xavier (and thus himself) back.

He had 5 double digit scoring games last year against:
Oakland
Toledo
EKU
Tenn Tech
Georgetown

He got 23 mins or more in all those games, but it was against some of our worst competition. There is no denying he has the ability to light it up but against out better competition he hasnt.

He got double digit mins against:

UC
Oklahoma
Marquette
Seton Hall
Creighton

In those games he was:
7/21 from the field
5/13 from 3
Had 1 assist
Had 5 turnovers
Had 0 FT attempts
Had 0 steals

Not exactly a difference maker there.

I would love to see Kyky get some run, make a positive impact and force Steele to find him mins this year. Can never have enough shooters.

[drudy23]

Kunkle does so much more offensively to make others better than KyKy, it isnt even close.

That pass at the end of the Marquette game that Kunkel made to Scruggs that led to Scruggs pass to Jones for the win, was incredible. KyKy could only make that play in his dreams.

I'm not sure why some people think there is some big conspiracy against KyKy? Should he maybe have gotten some more opportunities last year when we struggled offensively, sure. But some act like hes this huge difference maker that Steele hates and isnt playing, purposefully holding Xavier (and thus himself) back.

He had 5 double digit scoring games last year against:
Oakland
Toledo
EKU
Tenn Tech
Georgetown

He got 23 mins or more in all those games, but it was against some of our worst competition. There is no denying he has the ability to light it up but against out better competition he hasnt.

He got double digit mins against:

UC
Oklahoma
Marquette
Seton Hall
Creighton

In those games he was:
7/21 from the field
5/13 from 3
Had 1 assist
Had 5 turnovers
Had 0 FT attempts
Had 0 steals

Not exactly a difference maker there.

I would love to see Kyky get some run, make a positive impact and force Steele to find him mins this year. Can never have enough shooters.

You could make the same argument for Kunkel. I would venture to guess that most of our players have worse stats against our better competition last year - because we didn't win many of those games against good teams.

When you say you're not sure about the big conspiracy against KyKy - I'm not sure why people think Kunkel is THAT much better. Based on what?

They're different players. It seems KyKy's strengths get more overlooked and his deficiencies are more talked about. I'm not sure why.