Seat is warming

[madness31]

Travis has this year and probably next to achieve results. He inherited a disaster and is just now playing with his players.

That being said, his use of timeouts and the team's awareness of when to use timeouts is concerning. The mediocre to bad defense is a huge concern and continues from the days Mack ran the team. In game adjustments are lacking. Rotations seem questionable.

Generally I like the recruits. Odom is a legit point but needs to improve his range. Jones is a solid all around player but certainly needs to develop his offense. Freemantle is an offensive force. Miles has potential to be big time but not quite ready. Tandy has had moments, not quite sure about him at the moment.

The transfers are legit. Griffin has earned more minutes. Carter does a bit of everything but shoots a bit too much from deep. Johnson has been fantastic with the exception of the last couple games. Kunkel has had moments but needs to be more consistent and man up on defense. Stanley can get buckets.

Recruiting is not enough to keep Travis if he can't coach at a high level. Looking at the 2 classes, he doesn't have enough to wow. Bringing in transfers is partially related to being left with too many holes and he did a great job of bringing in talent. Relying on transfers may be enough to give him a pass again this year but he needs to show in game coaching ability. He needs to be able to stop runs by the other team, calm X down, etc. He has enough talent to win. He has enough athleticism to play legit defense.

There is time for growth but Travis needs to start showing coaching ability. Sloppy turnovers and shot selection are dramatically improved from past seasons but the other issues remain. Improvement in those areas could be more about personnel than coaching.

[Anti-Homer]

Travis has this year and probably next to achieve results. He inherited a disaster and is just now playing with his players.

That being said, his use of timeouts and the team's awareness of when to use timeouts is concerning. The mediocre to bad defense is a huge concern and continues from the days Mack ran the team. In game adjustments are lacking. Rotations seem questionable.

Generally I like the recruits. Odom is a legit point but needs to improve his range. Jones is a solid all around player but certainly needs to develop his offense. Freemantle is an offensive force. Miles has potential to be big time but not quite ready. Tandy has had moments, not quite sure about him at the moment.

The transfers are legit. Griffin has earned more minutes. Carter does a bit of everything but shoots a bit too much from deep. Johnson has been fantastic with the exception of the last couple games. Kunkel has had moments but needs to be more consistent and man up on defense. Stanley can get buckets.

Recruiting is not enough to keep Travis if he can't coach at a high level. Looking at the 2 classes, he doesn't have enough to wow. Bringing in transfers is partially related to being left with too many holes and he did a great job of bringing in talent. Relying on transfers may be enough to give him a pass again this year but he needs to show in game coaching ability. He needs to be able to stop runs by the other team, calm X down, etc. He has enough talent to win. He has enough athleticism to play legit defense.

There is time for growth but Travis needs to start showing coaching ability. Sloppy turnovers and shot selection are dramatically improved from past seasons but the other issues remain. Improvement in those areas could be more about personnel than coaching.

Steele ain't a polished product but this is his third year. He has done a good, not great job this year, as he has two good wins, and almost lost to three bottom feeders. I agree there should be no talk about his seat being hot yet this year, but think if he misses the tourney, year four will be critical for him, as it should be. I loved Skip Prosser as a person, but he was one of the worst coaches at X in my 80 years of fandom. Travis is currently in Skip territory. Hopefully, he avoids falling into the quicksand.

[Jesseandrippers]

Think it may be time to stop the inbreeding. We are starting to have poor coaches create new poor coaches in their trees. Recruiting is key and they have succeeded on that front. However, tactics and game management has been abysmal for the past several years. I know we get these guys on the cheap, but it may be necessary to pay a coach from the outside who can do both.

[skyhops]

I’m getting sick of hearing what a great recruiter Steele has been. Jones has been a below average player in both sides of the ball yet he continues to play all the time. Miles is not a basketball player and is a project at best. Odom cant shoot and Tandy, Wilcher, and Jones can’t play defense. Steele let a team come into the Cintas and go on a 15-0 run with no timeout and four guards in the floor. Relying on the three ball is fools gold. This team is a 8th seed BE team and that is not up to Xavier standards.

[Xavier2005]

Beating average teams means little. Constantly losing to the above average and great teams shows inability to coach or recruit. Xavier should be recruiting name coaches and proven coaches.

[Anti-Homer]

The tradition continues in 2021 since becoming a moderator. I will make the 1st post of the new year. Vanilla Ice left Steele with a mess. He did a remarkable job of putting together a decent roster in 18'. He followed that with a highly ranked recruiting class (though one of the prizes has seen about 3 minutes in over a year in Ramsey in 19'), did a decent job, but imploded in the last three games.

He has the pieces this year and has a deceivingly good record of 8-2. They have beaten two good teams, but easily could be 6-4 as they had to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against three bottom feeders. He deserves four years, but really should make the tourney in the next two years.

The guy can recruit, and seems like a really good guy. When I see the product, his lack of timeouts and in-game strategy or lack thereof (eg. pulling starters out after building a 17-5 lead against a Top 10 Team, pulling Tandy after hitting two threes in three minutes, changing defenses when the game is already over), I've seen enough to believe he doesn't have the coaching chops of his three most recent predecessors. He is the best recruiter though. It's working great for Haraway at Memphis right?

He likes to focus on who practices the hardest and cheers the most on the bench. Practicing hard is a good metric, but I remember playing at the professional level in four sports and three countries and know it was almost the 10th man on the bench who practiced and cheered the hardest.

Some guys are great assistants and have a difficult time transitioning to the big chair. Not saying this is TS but the trend ain't looking good. This board is the benefactor of me graduating from being a copy editor to Chief Mod, and I hope for the same for TS. HNY.

[X-Expert]

I’m getting sick of hearing what a great recruiter Steele has been. Jones has been a below average player in both sides of the ball yet he continues to play all the time. Miles is not a basketball player and is a project at best. Odom cant shoot and Tandy, Wilcher, and Jones can’t play defense. Steele let a team come into the Cintas and go on a 15-0 run with no timeout and four guards in the floor. Relying on the three ball is fools gold. This team is a 8th seed BE team and that is not up to Xavier standards.

Hops i do agree that Jones plays too much right now given that he has provided very little offense. I think he will be good but having him, Odom, and Carter on the court at the same time makes X an easy team to guard. I don't think there is enough to evaluate Wilcher on thus far and Tandy is basically a hired gun. Problem is he wants to score and shoot so badly he will take bad shots.

Steele recruited to be a 4 or 5 out team like Nova a few years ago. Problem is that while X can shoot, they are pretty much set shooters and can't shoot off the dribble. Bluitt was the same but X had an inside presence. Teams are extending perimeter defense beyond the 3 forcing X to take longer 3 point shots or rushed shots. SHU and Creighton pretty much decided to let the bigs try and beat them and not give up an easy 3. My worry is that is the blueprint to beat X is out.

[jct1941]

Some posters forget ONE thing - on the roster when you get down to the coaches it does not have Steele listed as Xaviers coach he is listed as the Sadler family mens basketball coach. If that family was not kicking in on his salary we would be looking for a div 2 coach. The so called EXPERTS list the recruiting and XU is and has been in the top 25 year in and year out. Ky is 2 and 6 but no one thinks Cal is in any danger. We lost to Creighton by five (and it was really three and if Kunkel hit the three attempt it would have gone into overtime) and Seton Hall is playing very well and went on a 15 to nothing after Carter had to leave the game at which time he was playing his best game of the year. Some posters listed Odom, Jones, and Wilcher as not living up to expectations but have only 10 games in on the season so lets see how they progress. The Big East is a tough conference and what lies ahead is going to tell us were we stand. Lets get behind the players and get some some wins. Go Xavier!

[skyhops]

A D2 coach? Wow, nothing amazes me on this board.

[Jesseandrippers]

A D2 coach? Wow, nothing amazes me on this board.

Yeah, clearly that would be our only option.