Page 2 of 6 FirstFirst 1234 ... LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 53

Thread: We meet again

  1. #11
    Senior xavierj's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Northern KY
    Posts
    5,907
    Quote Originally Posted by GetUp5 View Post
    Sucks we run into each other again. Crazy as it sounds, I've been a huge Sean Miller fan since he left. The way the players of the past talk about him, it's hard not to like the guy...

    Arizona is down at #18 in KenPom for whatever reason, assuming because of the bottom feeders in the Pac-12. #17 in offensive efficiency and #24 in defensive efficiency. They're pretty good at almost everything they do, but not great in any one area. 15th in the nation in 3P% and score the 34th most points from the free throw line.

    I did notice they're 244th in the nation in defensive turnovers, which is nice because we've had turnover problems all season. They are also 321 out of 351 in experience. While Markkanen (frosh), Trier (soph), Alkins (frosh), Simmons (frosh) are all studs, the only upper classmen that play more than 50% of the minutes are Kadeem Allen (sr.), Dusan Ristic (jr.) and Parker Jackson-Cartwright (jr.). Seems like one of the few areas we may have an edge with Bluiett, JP and Malcolm all being older guys.

    Who guards Markkanen? He's a huge problem if you've watched Arizona at all this year. Going to be a lottery pick, gets lots of comps to Porzingis, etc. He's 7 foot and shoots 43% from 3... Body him up with Tyrique? The game plan vs. FSU was simple - zone them up and make them beat us with the 3. While I'm sure we mix in a lot of zone vs. Arizona, there's a hell of a lot better chance that they beat us with the 3.
    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.

  2. #12
    Junior
    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

  3. #13
    Sophomore Caveat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Cincinnati
    Posts
    995
    Quote Originally Posted by GetUp5 View Post
    Who guards Markkanen? He's a huge problem if you've watched Arizona at all this year. Going to be a lottery pick, gets lots of comps to Porzingis, etc. He's 7 foot and shoots 43% from 3... Body him up with Tyrique? The game plan vs. FSU was simple - zone them up and make them beat us with the 3. While I'm sure we mix in a lot of zone vs. Arizona, there's a hell of a lot better chance that they beat us with the 3.
    I don't know that Tyrique can move with him on the outside.

    On the plus side, his 3 point shooting hasn't been as good lately -- lot of 0-fers behind the arc in the last ~2 months.

  4. #14
    Supporting Member AviatorX's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    4,007
    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.

  5. #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

  6. #16
    All-Conference
    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.

  7. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by drudy23 View Post
    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.
    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

  8. #18
    Sophomore Caveat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Cincinnati
    Posts
    995
    Quote Originally Posted by AviatorX View Post
    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.
    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.

  9. #19
    Supporting Member
    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.

  10. #20
    All-Conference Snipe's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Hell's Kitchen
    Posts
    9,736
    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

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •