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Thread: Fire Steele?

  1. #61
    Supporting Member XUGRAD80's Avatar
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    If I look back on my posts from earlier this year, I was complimenting the team on how hard they played. I felt then, and still feel now, that while they were not as talented as I was expecting, I was Ok with it as long as they played hard. They are no longer playing hard in my eye. So what happened? It could be that they are just tired. Just physically worn out by the length of the season. The constant pounding, and the amount of minutes they have played. But there is another kind of tired too. The mental kind. We here in Cincinnati have seen this happen with others. The reds in recent years. The Bengals for seemingly forever. Losing does it to you I guess. It certainly does seem like team has lost any confidence they might have once had. Can’t imagine that it’s much fun to go to practice or to even play games. Pretty sure the players k ow what is going on. Catching lightning in a bottle and running off a bipunch of wins,making a post season tourney, ending the year on a positive note.....these are all things we would like to see happen. But they aren’t going to happen if the players don’t believe they can happen. Watch the kids in pregame, or in the huddle, in the aft r the game presse. None of these kids look excited to be there. None of them look hopeful. None of them look confident. Even more importantly, non of them look “hungry”. Think back to some of the great players X has had. Most of them were great because they were great competitors. They had the will to win. They had the will to prepare to win. They all played HARD. The leaders demanded that their teammates play hard to. They demanded that they support and push each other too. I’ll bet Mack never had to tell JP to start playing hard. I’ll bet JP and Sean had no problems getting on Naji or Scruggs if they weren’t playing hard. A coach can only do so much. This team has no leaders, and it shows.

  2. #62
    Junior Lloyd Braun's Avatar
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    Eyebrow is raised that’s for sure. There’s enough talent on this team to win more games than we have. Depth is not great but the rotations are questionable at best. Learning curve may be steeper than we thought for Steele but I have confidence he will keep the program going in the right direction.

  3. #63
    Supporting Member XUGRAD80's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lloyd Braun View Post
    Eyebrow is raised that’s for sure. There’s enough talent on this team to win more games than we have. Depth is not great but the rotations are questionable at best. Learning curve may be steeper than we thought for Steele but I have confidence he will keep the program going in the right direction.
    “Enough” talent? I’m not so sure about that. However, they have lost some close games that they could have won, if they had played a little smarter down the stretch. Vince Lombardi had a saying, “ fatigue makes cowards of us all “. It’s also true that fatigue often leads to stupid mistakes. Xavier seems to make more than its fair share of stupid mistakes late in games. How much of that is caused by the lack of depth, how much by an absence of talent, how much by bad coaching? Have to believe that it’s a combination of all 3.

  4. #64
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    Quote Originally Posted by XUGRAD80 View Post
    “Enough” talent? I’m not so sure about that. However, they have lost some close games that they could have won, if they had played a little smarter down the stretch. Vince Lombardi had a saying, “ fatigue makes cowards of us all “. It’s also true that fatigue often leads to stupid mistakes. Xavier seems to make more than its fair share of stupid mistakes late in games. How much of that is caused by the lack of depth, how much by an absence of talent, how much by bad coaching? Have to believe that it’s a combination of all 3.
    I'm not sure if I can buy the fatigue argument. Nova played a 7 man rotation for the most part during both of their championship runs. However, maybe that group was just mentally tougher, and more talented so depth was not as much of a concern. I just believe that outside of paul and naji. The talent isnt there and paul and naji are still trying to figure out end of game situational basketball at this level. Although, they did know how to do it against gtown and butler when q wssnt playing.

    Anyways I think overall talent combined with a coach still trying to figure it out is what has led to this season. That and I think the misuse of welage is horrible coaching.

  5. #65
    Administrator Muskie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by XUGRAD80 View Post
    If I look back on my posts from earlier this year, I was complimenting the team on how hard they played. I felt then, and still feel now, that while they were not as talented as I was expecting, I was Ok with it as long as they played hard. They are no longer playing hard in my eye. So what happened? It could be that they are just tired. Just physically worn out by the length of the season. The constant pounding, and the amount of minutes they have played. But there is another kind of tired too. The mental kind. We here in Cincinnati have seen this happen with others. The reds in recent years. The Bengals for seemingly forever. Losing does it to you I guess. It certainly does seem like team has lost any confidence they might have once had. Can’t imagine that it’s much fun to go to practice or to even play games. Pretty sure the players k ow what is going on. Catching lightning in a bottle and running off a bipunch of wins,making a post season tourney, ending the year on a positive note.....these are all things we would like to see happen. But they aren’t going to happen if the players don’t believe they can happen. Watch the kids in pregame, or in the huddle, in the aft r the game presse. None of these kids look excited to be there. None of them look hopeful. None of them look confident. Even more importantly, non of them look “hungry”. Think back to some of the great players X has had. Most of them were great because they were great competitors. They had the will to win. They had the will to prepare to win. They all played HARD. The leaders demanded that their teammates play hard to. They demanded that they support and push each other too. I’ll bet Mack never had to tell JP to start playing hard. I’ll bet JP and Sean had no problems getting on Naji or Scruggs if they weren’t playing hard. A coach can only do so much. This team has no leaders, and it shows.
    I didn't see the warmups but I had a few people tell me the team looked really good in warmups before Depaul. Maybe people see what they want to see? I do think this season has been mentally taxing. I know that the players read the message boards and social media, and the fan complaints have been rampant this season.
    "He's a little bit ball-dominant, he needs to have the ball in his hands, and he's not a good shooter." Ball-dominant … isn't that a nice way of calling someone a ball hog? Where is my Jay Bilas Thesaurus?

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  6. #66
    Supporting Member bleedXblue's Avatar
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    When has a team ever looked "bad" in warm ups? This is funny. They are shooting layups and uncontested shots? Come on now.

    I don't buy the fatigue issue at all. I just think this team lacks leadership and mental toughness. Very few guys WANT the ball. Its why we piss down our leg in almost every close game. The opposition tightens up their defense and we don't execute well.

  7. #67
    Administrator Muskie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bleedXblue View Post
    When has a team ever looked "bad" in warm ups? This is funny. They are shooting layups and uncontested shots? Come on now.

    I don't buy the fatigue issue at all. I just think this team lacks leadership and mental toughness. Very few guys WANT the ball. Its why we piss down our leg in almost every close game. The opposition tightens up their defense and we don't execute well.
    I meant interested and tuned into the game. Wasn't specifically talking abou thow many shots they hit.
    "He's a little bit ball-dominant, he needs to have the ball in his hands, and he's not a good shooter." Ball-dominant … isn't that a nice way of calling someone a ball hog? Where is my Jay Bilas Thesaurus?

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  8. #68
    Junior Lloyd Braun's Avatar
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    It’s easy to say the talent isn’t there when they’re playing like crap and getting beat at home to DePaul.... but this team has enough talent to compete and they aren’t. Paul, Naji, Q, Tyrique all are talented... that’s a good core to compete and that is why many of us had optimism for that at the onset of the season. Outside of Paul, they have not competed or improved their games. They actually look worse in some instances. I do think Q has a lagging injury, maybe same for Naji but that is not a good excuse for the mental mistakes which are abound. That falls on coaching...

  9. #69
    Supporting Member D-West & PO-Z's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lloyd Braun View Post
    It’s easy to say the talent isn’t there when they’re playing like crap and getting beat at home to DePaul.... but this team has enough talent to compete and they aren’t. Paul, Naji, Q, Tyrique all are talented... that’s a good core to compete and that is why many of us had optimism for that at the onset of the season. Outside of Paul, they have not competed or improved their games. They actually look worse in some instances. I do think Q has a lagging injury, maybe same for Naji but that is not a good excuse for the mental mistakes which are abound. That falls on coaching...
    The problem is after those 4 guys the talent drop off is huge. Maybe not so much for hankins but the rest of the guys for sure. Especially in the backcourt. And our severe lack of shooters is a big lack of talent and makes it easy for defenses to take away the things our talented players do best.

    Q looks worse and probably is but it might be just as much that he has zero shooters around him and the D packs it in and he cant get anywhere he wants to.

    Lets hope we never get in a position again where we have no shooters on the team.

    Are any of the recruits good shooters? I dont follow recruiting that closely?

    If not a grad transfer proven shooter is a must for next year.
    "I’m willing to sacrifice everything for this team. I’m going to dive for every loose ball, close out harder on every shot, block out for every rebound. I’m going to play harder than I’ve ever played. And I need you all to follow me." -MB '17

  10. #70
    Junior Lloyd Braun's Avatar
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    They don’t have a lot of great shooters but the scheme is poor right now. They run a couple good sets but lack playmaking guards who actaully pass the ball. Welage should be getting more than 2 shots a game. Q should not be jacking up 3s. They are not held accountable for this and I think that is something that will hopefully change in future years.

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