Well Folks, We’re In Rough Shape…

[SCMuskie]

There is a lot of blame to go around. It all starts with the coaching staff, but doesn't necessarily end there. We have major holes in our skill sets at a number of positions, but we don't seem to be able to scheme around it at all. Here is my take on just a few of our issues.

1. Ball Handling - We only have one guard that is a good (but not elite) ball handler and that guy can't shoot (Odom). Scruggs ball handing in particular is very poor for someone who plays the point. It inhibits our ability to push the ball, and makes us easy fodder for teams that can press because we can't decisively get the ball up the floor.

2. Passing - Our passing from the guard position is pretty poor as well. We make lazy passes around the perimeter and we telegraph them. Passes aren't crisp, and receiving players don't meet the ball. The rare times that somebody cuts to the basket and gets open, we often don't see them until it's too late.

3. Shooting - We have had extremely poor shooting for 4 years now, despite seeming to make shooting a priority when recruiting. The gravity of this can't be understated. We recruit wings and forwards that 'can shoot' at the expense of other skills, but then when they get here they seemed to get sucked into some kind of vortex that strips them of all perimeter shooting ability. We also can't make a layup. There is literally no spot on the floor from which this is a good shooting team.

4. Defense - It's not good. Even when we used to have bad teams under Mack, they could generally stay in games by playing good defense.

5. Movement with and without the ball - Our ball movement sucks, and our movement without the ball also sucks. We don't have bigs that can bang down low with the Big East beef that other teams have, but we also don't capitalize on our relative speed advantage in the post by using a lot of motion and cutting plays.

5. Basketball IQ - Pretty much all of Travis' teams seem to lack basketball IQ. I'm not sure how much this is a function of Scruggs being the leader of the team, but we make a lot of unforced errors. Nobody seems to have good court vision.

I agree with the above...and it's pretty depressing. One other aspect of the Steele regime that I am curious about is the strength and conditioning program. Is it on par with other teams in the Big East? It feels like our guys do not get stronger throughout their time at Xavier and these late season collapses that take place each year could be a byproduct of the S&C program. Anybody have any insight on that?

[drudy23]

I've been thinking about this question the last few weeks and at the end of the day sort of hits nail on the head. What's our identity, what's our blueprint to be successful to win a big game? What's our path to beating a team that's on paper that's equal or better than us?

At least with teams like Tyrique and Hankins our identity was controlling the glass and establishing the post. What are we good at?

Exactly right - Steele's team has never established what they are. I'm not sure Steele knows either.

It's obvious what he's tried to make our identity, but it's obvious he's trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. This team doesn't have the competencies to establish his vision. My take is that his vision was off from day 1 - why try to change an identity that's worked for 50 years?

[Mrs. Garrett]

There is a lot of blame to go around. It all starts with the coaching staff, but doesn't necessarily end there. We have major holes in our skill sets at a number of positions, but we don't seem to be able to scheme around it at all. Here is my take on just a few of our issues.

1. Ball Handling - We only have one guard that is a good (but not elite) ball handler and that guy can't shoot (Odom). Scruggs ball handing in particular is very poor for someone who plays the point. It inhibits our ability to push the ball, and makes us easy fodder for teams that can press because we can't decisively get the ball up the floor.

2. Passing - Our passing from the guard position is pretty poor as well. We make lazy passes around the perimeter and we telegraph them. Passes aren't crisp, and receiving players don't meet the ball. The rare times that somebody cuts to the basket and gets open, we often don't see them until it's too late.

3. Shooting - We have had extremely poor shooting for 4 years now, despite seeming to make shooting a priority when recruiting. The gravity of this can't be understated. We recruit wings and forwards that 'can shoot' at the expense of other skills, but then when they get here they seemed to get sucked into some kind of vortex that strips them of all perimeter shooting ability. We also can't make a layup. There is literally no spot on the floor from which this is a good shooting team.

4. Defense - It's not good. Even when we used to have bad teams under Mack, they could generally stay in games by playing good defense.

5. Movement with and without the ball - Our ball movement sucks, and our movement without the ball also sucks. We don't have bigs that can bang down low with the Big East beef that other teams have, but we also don't capitalize on our relative speed advantage in the post by using a lot of motion and cutting plays.

5. Basketball IQ - Pretty much all of Travis' teams seem to lack basketball IQ. I'm not sure how much this is a function of Scruggs being the leader of the team, but we make a lot of unforced errors. Nobody seems to have good court vision.

6. This team is soft/has no heart. I've never seen a team come out listless 100% of the time. Get beat to every 50/50 ball. It wasn't long ago this program played with a chip on it's shoulder, demanding respect from everyone who took us lightly. Those days are long gone.

I watched DePaul/Marquette last night and Tony Stubblefield has had only 7-8 players available all season long and they go out and bust their asses for 40 minutes and are now only 1 game behind X in the standings. Give Stubblefield a full roster and we'll be looking up at them too in the standings soon.

[drudy23]

Roughly 3 times a year we get hot from deep and look great. The rest of the time we suck at most of the things you have to be good at to win games. I will say that I think it all comes back to shooting for this team - we passed on traditional bigs to recruit stretch bigs with the idea of stretching the floor and creating space, but we are consistently one of the worst 3 point shooting teams in the nation. It boggles the mind, but it's been very consistent under Steele. I don't really know how to explain the cause though. Are we not teaching good technique? Did we just get a bad run of players that looked like they could shoot but really can't?

It's very hard to find wing players that excel on the perimeter and can hold their own in the post. Those are normally NBA guys.

Villanova has developed and put numerous of those stretch 4s in the league - we haven't. This program has never had success relying on the stretch 4 concept because our recruiting profile isn't high enough. Those guys are blue chip guys and are going to the top programs in the Big 12, the ACC, and Villanova.

Focus on building a balanced team of great shooters and strong post guys who have a bit of a chip on their shoulder and want to prove Xavier is the real deal. It's what this program does. He tried to recreate the wheel with a system based on players this program just hasn't and likely won't get.

Another point - whatever Villanova does with lower body weight training is working. All of their dudes are body movers, even their guards. This has huge impacts on those perimeter bigs being capable post presences as well.

[X-band '01]

6. This team is soft/has no heart. I've never seen a team come out listless 100% of the time. Get beat to every 50/50 ball. It wasn't long ago this program played with a chip on it's shoulder, demanding respect from everyone who took us lightly. Those days are long gone.

I watched DePaul/Marquette last night and Tony Stubblefield has had only 7-8 players available all season long and they go out and bust their asses for 40 minutes and are now only 1 game behind X in the standings. Give Stubblefield a full roster and we'll be looking up at them too in the standings soon.

Don't look now, but if DePaul finds a way to win at UConn Saturday and Butler loses at home to Villanova, Xavier plays the Blue Demons in Round 1 instead of Butler. That may well turn the temperature of this board up another 1000 degrees.

[boozehound]

It's very hard to find wing players that excel on the perimeter and can hold their own in the post. Those are normally NBA guys.

Villanova has developed and put numerous of those stretch 4s in the league - we haven't. This program has never had success relying on the stretch 4 concept because our recruiting profile isn't high enough. Those guys are blue chip guys and are going to the top programs in the Big 12, the ACC, and Villanova.

Focus on building a balanced team of great shooters and strong post guys who have a bit of a chip on their shoulder and want to prove Xavier is the real deal. It's what this program does. He tried to recreate the wheel with a system based on players this program just hasn't and likely won't get.

Another point - whatever Villanova does with lower body weight training is working. All of their dudes are body movers, even their guards. This has huge impacts on those perimeter bigs being capable post presences as well.

Exactly. We were never going to get those players, and we were fooling ourselves if we thought we were. It's a recruiting philosophy based on a flawed foundation. It's like when Chris Mack and staff would waste a bunch of time and effort recruiting top 25 PGs at the expense of top 100-150 PGs. We'd end up in the final 2-3, but they never actually came here, and we missed out on recruiting other guys who might have actually attended Xavier and been solid PGs.

Somehow our compromise has ended up being wing players that can kind of shoot the 3 sometimes but are soft in the post and don't have the size or strength to compete down low. It's the worst of both worlds.

[KabeX]

Tried the find the old "What time is it? It's WINNING TIME" video with BJ Raymond. But this will have to suffice:
https://tucson.com/sports/basketball...a10ad583c.html

Oh how I long for those days ... AND THAT ATTITUDE!

[American X]

3. Shooting - We have had extremely poor shooting for 4 years now, despite seeming to make shooting a priority when recruiting. The gravity of this can't be understated. We recruit wings and forwards that 'can shoot' at the expense of other skills, but then when they get here they seemed to get sucked into some kind of vortex that strips them of all perimeter shooting ability. We also can't make a layup. There is literally no spot on the floor from which this is a good shooting team.

For most of the first half (until The Jerome Hunter Three-Point Experience), the shot selection was actually alright. The shooting percentage was lower than Fred Garvin's taste in women, but the shots taken were generally open. I thought this period, as much as any time during the season, highlighted that this team is simply not that good at scoring the ball.

Of course, it got much worse, with bad three-point shooters taking bad shots and good three-point shooters taking terrible shots.

[CinciReds11]

Exactly right - Steele's team has never established what they are. I'm not sure Steele knows either.

It's obvious what he's tried to make our identity, but it's obvious he's trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. This team doesn't have the competencies to establish his vision. My take is that his vision was off from day 1 - why try to change an identity that's worked for 50 years?

What exactly is the vision he has in mind though? There doesn't seem to even be a plan that we aren't sticking to. He just throws the talking point around about 'our system' but I don't think he has one. Chris Mack's strategy just poorly executed?

[Masterofreality]

Another point - whatever Villanova does with lower body weight training is working. All of their dudes are body movers, even their guards. This has huge impacts on those perimeter bigs being capable post presences as well.

The Xavier Strength and Conditioning Coach is now Chase Campbell. Matt Jennings is now an Assistant Athletic Director.
We've gotten physically weaker and had more costly injuries ever since Jennings got promoted- this despite having an upgraded weight and conditioning room that cost a lot of money to enhance. I'm not sure how much day to day interaction Matt has anymore with the players.
Houston, we have a problem somewhere.