I agree with everything except Simmons. He rarely sees the floor any more. If Xavier is to win they must dominate the inside, guard the 3 and avoid dumb turnovers. Arizona does not have big physical guys so Xavier needs to use that to their advantage. I think Tyrique, Sean and Gaston can score at will on offense but will be a mismatch defensively for Arizona.
Results 11 to 20 of 53
Thread: We meet again
-
03-20-2017, 12:49 PM #11
-
03-20-2017, 01:14 PM #12
- Join Date
- Jan 2009
- Location
- Minnesota
- Posts
- 3,296
So, Lord Helmet, at last we meet again for the first time for the last time.
zip em up
-
03-20-2017, 02:26 PM #13
-
03-20-2017, 02:43 PM #14
Markkanen is likely going to have to guard either Tre or Malcolm/Kaiser if Miller continues to favor two bigs.
I definitely think Lauri is capable and I was extremely impressed with how he adjusted over the course of the game in how he guarded Landale from SMC, but it will be interesting to see how they match up.
Xavier is definitely going to play their junk zones and keep Arizona's offense at bay a bit. Worked ok two years ago before they got it going at the end. XU's man is mediocre to begin with and as noted Markkanen and others would present massive matchup problems.
Loose comparison here, but Rick just mentioned on the Skinny Pod that a potential matchup of Lauri/Tre has callbacks to The Ellenson/Tre battles from last year.Last edited by AviatorX; 03-20-2017 at 03:04 PM.
-
03-20-2017, 03:06 PM #15
Need to really take care of the ball again like they did against Florida State. Can't let Zona get going in transition or else they'll run em out the gym. Same goes for avoiding blocks in the lane. Thought they did as good of a job as possibly Saturday in both of those areas. Need to do it again
-
03-20-2017, 03:09 PM #16
- Join Date
- Jan 2008
- Posts
- 8,446
Sean > Hamilton
We won't get handfuls of easy buckets out of sets like we did against FSU. Sean and his staff will know us backwards and forwards. This game will test us...need timely shots and good decision making.
-
03-20-2017, 03:30 PM #17
That does really interest me heading into this one. What adjustments does Chris make going in, knowing Sean knows a lot of the sets they run. I haven't re-watched the game from 2015 in a while, but I'm guessing X isn't going to get away with the simple stuff they've run for years. The back screen for a big with JP whipping it in from the corner comes to mind
-
03-20-2017, 03:53 PM #18
Xavier is pretty mediocre on defense, but on the plus side, they've logged a lot of minutes running a lot of different defensive looks. In just the last two games, I've seen them run man, 2-3, 2-3 matchup, 1-3-1, and even a few possessions of what looked like almost a 2-1-2. The downside is that they've had a lot more outright defensive breakdowns (losing guys on the baseline for easy backdoor cuts), but you can tell it confused Maryland and FSU. Part of that is coaching, but the other part is simply that it's asking a lot of college players to adjust quickly on the fly to new defensive sets that they weren't expecting coming out of a stoppage or a made basket.
-
03-20-2017, 04:03 PM #19
- Join Date
- Jan 2008
- Location
- SYMES TOWNSHIP
- Posts
- 398
I hope coach Mack reads and implements what everyone has stated; we might win on Thursday. He might also hire a lot of new assistant coaches.
-
03-20-2017, 04:20 PM #20
I don't think either coach will be surprised at what gets thrown at their respective teams.
I remember last time Zona was the only team not to double Stain. Sean let him get his points and he had a monster game, but he wasn't allowing the defense to collapse and kick it out to the perimeter like we did to everyone else.
Sean Miller is a fine coach. I would like to beat him and get to the Final Four before he does. Then I think that Xavier should buy Mack a Lexus.RIP Brian Dargin McCormick
Bookmarks