Game Thread: Xavier vs. Providence (2/24/2021)

[Xville]

Can someone be a dear and link the press conference? I’m excited to hear all the coach speak bs

[KabeX]

I'll save you the trouble. It was short:

"Our 3 pt defense stunk"
"Couldn't throw it in the ocean"
"We gotta figure it out man"
"Free was great tonight"

[drudy23]

Can someone be a dear and link the press conference? I’m excited to hear all the coach speak bs

I listened - it was very vanilla.

No tough guy talk, but no accountability either.

Byron and Joe are way too nice.

[Xville]

I'll save you the trouble. It was short:

"Our 3 pt defense stunk" —-because you play the wrong people
"Couldn't throw it in the ocean"——because you let free and carter shoot 3s and don’t let Tandy play
"We gotta figure it out man" ——- you never change anything, ever. Next game if Johnson is healthy, you’ll get your coach by numbers coloring book out and play the same starting lineup like you have almost all year., and you’ll continue to have carter and free stand around the three point line.
"Free was great tonight" ——-yeah he scored...I thought it was important that they played good d? I guess that’s only for Tandy. (Yes I know he rebounded, that’s only one part of playing d)

Fire steele

[Backyard Champ]

There is ZERO logical explanation for the minutes Carter gets. ZERO.

We're going to have 3 guys graduate and 3 guys transfer. It's not looking good boys and girls.

We're on the verge of some very bad things.

Carter is a role player, I’m not sure what people want from him. He’s absolutely not the reason we got killed tonight.

Our team defense is primarily the reason for our poor play. We simply aren’t playing together, defensively. Too many times opposing teams have wide open looks, and our players are wondering how it happened. Maybe it’s poor communication, poor scheme, or lack of reps. Either way, it’s bad. It’s not even just one player, Freemantle is absolutely a defensive liability. He’s great on offense, but is lost defensively.

Scruggs may have put up some points tonight, but he is not the leader he was to start the season. There was a time where he was looking like he would be 1st team all big east. He’s fallen off quit a bit. If we want to turn things around, I believe it starts with Scruggs.

[drudy23]

Carter is a role player, I’m not sure what people want from him. He’s absolutely not the reason we got killed tonight.

Our team defense is primarily the reason for our poor play. We simply aren’t playing together, defensively. Too many times opposing teams have wide open looks, and our players are wondering how it happened. Maybe it’s poor communication, poor scheme, or lack of reps. Either way, it’s bad. It’s not even just one player, Freemantle is absolutely a defensive liability. He’s great on offense, but is lost defensively.

Scruggs may have put up some points tonight, but he is not the leader he was to start the season. There was a time where he was looking like he would be 1st team all big east. He’s fallen off quit a bit. If we want to turn things around, I believe it starts with Scruggs.

I agree he's a role player - then he should be playing role player minutes.

Scruggs was the best player on the floor tonight - well besides the surfer dude.

Scruggs is the least of this team's worries.

[Backyard Champ]

Watching the game Scruggs did not dominate. He missed buckets at the rim, dribbled out of control, and did not lead in any way. Just a completely different player than he was 2 months ago. He got his points tonight, but he certainly isn’t leading the team the way he was when we were clicking. I don’t think he’s been the leader we desperately need since our Covid breaks.

We’ve seen the potential this team has, which is why this is frustrating. I’d like to say more games together would have made a difference, but I’m not sure that’s the case.

[xavierj]

I agree he's a role player - then he should be playing role player minutes.

Scruggs was the best player on the floor tonight - well besides the surfer dude.

Scruggs is the least of this team's worries.

Paul was ok and he wasn’t the reason they lost for sure, but he was 8-21 from the floor, 0-4 from 3, had 3 assists and 2 turnovers. If he had help from a wing that would have been ok. But the way this game was going Paul needed to be more efficient. I also think he is beat for whatever reason and does not seem to be fully engaged. This team definitely lacks a leader on the floor. The good news I think for the future is that I think Odom and Jones will bring leadership on the floor.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I listened - it was very vanilla.

No tough guy talk, but no accountability either.

Byron and Joe are way too nice.

Probably a tough spot for Byron and Joe though. They arent reporters/journalists.

[IM4X]

Let’s hope things can get turned around but right now a few things are as clear as a sunny day:

We currently have only one proven BE caliber big and even he is a below average defender right now.

Scruggs is not as good (nor is the team) when Johnson is out of the lineup.

The defense is not getting any better, despite Travis continually promising everyone that it will.

Travis still struggles miserably to understand which lineups work well.

Steele seems to think his coaching choices are not part of the reason this team is not playing up to their potential.

Travis believes hard work in practice trumps talent or the hot hand when it comes to extended playing time in a game.

Steele doesn’t see his bigs living out on the perimeter and shooting threes at will hurts the team, even when there are clearly better 3 point shooting guards on the floor.

There is no truly good defender in the paint on the current roster and no one coming in next year who looks to be able to change that glaring issue.

Hearing Travis push the “I’m not worried about the offense” narrative during the past 4 games and then today hearing him say his players “Couldn’t throw it into the ocean” is not giving fans confidence that they can trust what he says at this point.

“We gotta figure it out” are not exactly the words you want to hear from the head coach with so few games left in the season. If he hasn’t paid enough attention to “figure it out” by now... especially when one of the things he and his staff haven’t “figured it out” is how to teach his team to play solid defense and when one of the thing he hasn’t figured out is that HE continues to make the type of bad decisions (horrible lineups, waiting too long to call timeouts, allowing bigs to shoot 3s at will, etc) that ultimately cripples his team and puts them in the kind of holes that are almost impossible for them to crawl out of and win games.