As the year comes to a close, has the XU Men's program reached "Miller mediocrity"? I don't think so, but would like to hear others opinions.
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Thread: Thoughts on the remaining season
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12-28-2024, 09:24 PM #21
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12-28-2024, 10:38 PM #22
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12-29-2024, 07:37 AM #23
With the current active roster, I don’t see 12 as a possibility . I don’t even see how they reach 10 wins out of the remaining 18 games. Not with virtually no interior game. IF Free returns before February AND is at full strength when he is that MIGHT give them a couple of extra wins to where they can get 8-10 wins, but that’s still a big if.
BUT…I don’t know of any squad that could overcome the injury problems that X has had the last 2 years and do any better than they have. As long as the kids continue to play hard and compete I’m not going to be dissatisfied. Disappointed? Yes. I’ll still play the “What if” game a little bit. I’ll wonder what might have been. But I won’t dwell on it. I won’t cry and scream. I won’t throw the rest of the team under the bus. Players are being asked to do things, and play positions, that they never prepared for and for the most part don’t have the talent to do. At this point all the coaches can do is ask them to try and to not give up. I haven’t seen any of the players still on the active roster quit and I’ll not quit on them either. But I will let reality temper my expectations. It’s possible that they might exceed my expectations and I’ll certainly be happy if they do!
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12-29-2024, 10:18 AM #24
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12-29-2024, 10:26 AM #25
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I disagree a bit with your expectations and ceiling for this team not because of roster construction but because they were right there with the two best teams in the conference. I’d have to think if they put forth that kind of effort (which could be difficult) in most if not all remaining games, 12 could happen. If they give the effort, that’s all you can ask like you indicated.
The second part I agree with fully and well said. Swain is playing out of position, foster is starting, Jerome is starting etc etc. get the win against hall, get some confidence and ya never know.Last edited by Xville; 12-29-2024 at 10:28 AM.
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12-29-2024, 11:13 AM #26
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This won't be popular, but I'm tired of the "well, they tried hard" mantra.
We're likely heading into the 6th out of 7th year not making the tournament, and some people continue to chalk this up to covid and injuries.
Even if we make the tournament the following 3 years, that's a 40% clip over a decade - it should be double that. That's a massive failure for this program, and I can't stand how people ho hum it. Once people start to accept things like this, it becomes the norm. IMO, it's not acceptable, and you can't just roll into next year with no changes and keeping the status quo.
Things to Assess:
* Is the right staff and structure in place to get to the next level? Not talking about Miller, but I am talking about the assistants, as well as the support staff and how NIL is managed
* How is the frontcourt rebuilt completely, and not just a stop gap initiative every year?
* I've heard a tough bulldog mindset on defense for 3 years, and I don't think anyone sees that persona on defense
* Do we have the right personnel moving forward to continue to push an up-tempo game - is it really working when it comes to wins? Does a more traditional and balanced approach work better at a place like X?
* What's the special sauce that makes X stick out when it's not going to be NIL $$$? Is the AD capable of finding a successful path to success in this new world?
I often wonder, how much of this should be attributed to the job of the AD or is this strictly program related? I'd look at that as well - sometimes the current guy isn't the right guy for the next phase. It's not a good look to have the worst 7-year period in X modern history on your watch, with what seems like little vision for that next phase.Last edited by drudy23; 12-29-2024 at 11:29 AM.
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12-29-2024, 11:58 AM #27
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I don’t think anyone involved at x whether it be fans, coaches, admin and especially here are accepting this or thinking this is ok. But from a fans’ perspective there is little else that we can do. We attend games, we give to the program, nil is in a good spot so we have done our part.
With that said, imo Christopher is an awful ad. He’s never done anything in his entire career to point to that says yeah this is the right guy. The women’s team has crumbled under his leadership. The mens have been awful due to his hiring of the worst coach in x basketball history since probably when? Tay? He fundraises well I guess, but feel most can do that job.
The staff has to be looked at outside of miller. Maybe we need an older bench coach that is good with development and with that said from my perspective, we need new strategy in this day and age and not being a blue blood. We need to go back and develop, and fill in gaps in the portal vs getting 5-6 new guys every year and hope we hit on all or most of them.
As far as scheme etc. I’m fine with the offense if we get a few guys who can beat their man off the dribble. I think that’s missing. As far as defense, I despise the pack line and think it’s antiquated. I’d rather see a high pressure on the ball man to man with zone mixed in as needed.
Just a few of my thoughts
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12-29-2024, 01:43 PM #28
Had Xavier gone through with starting up football, then everyone would know who and what to blame!
"You can't fix stupid." Ron White
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12-29-2024, 01:50 PM #29
I think there are very few college players that can “do it all” well. A lot of guys have 1 or 2 areas they excel at and frankly are pedestrian otherwise. We are particularly prone to having guys like this. They rare player that can “do it all” tend to go to the blue blood schools or will head to the NBA at first chance.
So, this idea that we will be this run and gun offense and ALSO be a hard nosed defense is kinda wishful thinking. The guys that would excel at one of these things probably wouldn’t excel at the other. Take Green for instance. He’s a good fit in a “fire away” offense, but couldn’t get on the floor due to his defensive limitations. But his defensive limitations only exist due to our scheme. Sure he would still be limited in other defensive schemes as well, but we could manage under other circumstances. On on-ball pressure scheme would suit him well. Look at Maddox too. He doesn’t seem like a guy that’s played a lot of D, but he’s fearless offensively. Are we running the right schemes for our personnel?
To take it a little further, we really need to simplify our Offense and Defense. We don’t have YEARS to teach these guys the schemes. Word was that Craft was a great shooter but couldn’t get on the floor due to not picking up the scheme. Maybe that’s on Miller? Maybe the scheme is too complicated for everyone to be able to adapt to it seamlessly? Craft could have been very valuable last year when we desperately needed shooting, but he talked his way into getting a redshirt instead (still a questionable decision my Miller to not just show him the door and instead we burnt a scholly that could have been used).
We don’t really see many options here. If this were a corporation, it might be time for a “restructuring” exercise where you take a massive write off in one quarter and then just start fresh. But in our case that would take the form of adding 5-6 freshmen in one year and just allowing them to flounder a bit. The question is whether any returning guys would stick around if they knew winning wasn’t likely. Its a pickle.
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12-30-2024, 05:48 AM #30
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These past 7-8 seasons have taught me that X needs a consistent feed of frosh recruits (2 per season) and bank on 1 of the 2 frosh recruits to be developed into a solid starting player by their junior year. Maybe that is impossible with NIL and transfers.
Some X staff have thought of the upside of Jason Carter, Nemeiksa, Craft, Abou, Lazar, Hugely, and Miles. The frontcourt talent pipeline is weak, and unpredictable. The CUSA transfer guards are more predictable.
The BE has had seperation these past 4-5 years with X, Prov., Nova, settling and battling in the mid 4th-7th positions. MU, CU, UConn, have elevated in talent, and post season success.
Maybe the solution is come this spring Conwell ,Swain, and Hugely can all agree to take cut in NIL $ for the betterment of the frontcourt. Do any of the current BE teams have a top post transfer?
UD is winning more often with less talent and solid coaching in the A10.Last edited by xukeith; 12-30-2024 at 05:52 AM.
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