Butler game thread

[skyhops]

Good points AH. Double teaming Hunter and Nunge was game changer and we had no answer. Hunter has been a role player, so he just isn't used to this pressure. Matta played six players and we did not make it difficult for them or add any pressure. Muskieman, referring me to Biden is something I have never heard and a few years ago would be the cause for a ban on this board. Unfortunately, our lack of depth was caused by Steele altough we sure could use the potential BE defensive player of the year Miles spell Nunge for a few minutes. With Freemantle likely out for the rest of the year someone will have to spell Nunge and provide some decent minutes. Considering that Nunge is working on his PhD you would expect a smarter player at game end. I do believe that Nunge listens to Avett Brothers and Coldplay as his pump it up mix. I'm not a gambler, but expect Xavier not to cover on the road. MM, please lay off the Zima when texting after the games. The Biden comment was offensive.

[muskieman]

LOL i did not know it was NOW policy that posts can use POLITICAL comparisons to talk about Xavier Basketball !! Since Muskieman has opened this door ...i guess WE all can now start doing the same. LOL

You and ah have a weird sense of what is political conversation. But if you want to talk politics then you will find you posts in the same bin as the spam posts deleted everyday

[Kevin Reilly]

Rantings from last night. Being a Monday mourning QB is easy. We all have the answers after the game. I am definitely guilty. We sure miss Fremantle and having Dwon Odom and his 13.3 points per game and 103 rebounds and 88 assists would be nice. But we don't and we have what we have. Not sure why Craft didn't get some time. I think Boum is getting chewed out at halftime for his defense so he concentrates in the first half on defense ( poorly) and concentrates on offense in the second half. There was no movement on the offensive end in the first half. Boum was out and out lazy. He wasn't moving at all. Nunge had all kinds of trouble with Bates bumping him and physical play. I know Nunge is a good three point shooter ..... maybe our best but he is more effective getting 8 offensive rebounds than making a couple 3 pointers. I also don't understand when the other team switches why Nunge can't hold his position with a guard on him. He lets the guard go around him and steal the ball. Hell he's 7 foot and 245lbs. He stands straight up and down. Doesn't spread his legs and pin his man with his body. Butler is not a good basketball team ( 106 ) in the country. I don't blame Miller for the team we have. He had to hire assistants, try and keep the players we had and recruit all at the same time .I think he's done well with what we have . I don't see a strong finish to the season. The players are worn out. I have to wonder if the team will figure out what a screen is before the season is over. We had the ball twice in the last minute of the game after a scramble and both times lost it back. Sign of a tired team

[Kevin Reilly]

I forgot to mention Jones had a great night. Jones had 17 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists , 3 steals and great defense and effort. I often forget to mention how good he is. Far and away our best player. I take his effort and team play for granted too often. When Boum is having another invisible first half they should move Jones to point guard like they did in the N.I.T. last year when he was M.V.P. Claude can come in and let Boum think about playing hard. Another random thought.... When the other team has 10 blocks... mix in a head fake or ball fake to get them in the air. Then jump into them to draw a foul.

[xaviermuskie2003]

Crippled Matta missing his best player > Motivated Miller with one of the most experienced teams in the country.

If you don't know, now you know.

[Kevin Reilly]

What we do know is your not a Xavier guy Xaviermuskie2003. Don't know why you keep posting. Always negative posts. Wish you would give up and post elsewhere.

[pdxmuskie]

First half was truly pathetic. Sloppy and lazy. Shot selection wasn't great. Ball movement was lacking.

Nunge had a rough start and obviously a bone headed play late. 2 comments about the TO called by Nunge - first, Sean probably shouldn't have called the timeout with 2 minutes remaining (did have 2 TOs at the time so not a horrible decision but game flow favored X at that time). 2nd, Nunge was sliding on the floor, which used to be called a travel, so in a panic, called for the TO.

Nunge did in my mind make up for the TO incident. He drilled the 3 and then blocked the game winning dunk. Had Jones not grabbed the rim a split second after the block, Nunge would have likely been the hero as X wins in OT.

The officials were mostly good but a few key calls late certainly left a bad taste. Most aggravating is if the goal tend happened, why was the clock not reset to 3.8 seconds? 2.5 seconds vs 3.8 is very different. Outcome is possibly the same but getting it right is both easy and important.

So many of the Turnovers were unforced. Xavier deserved to lose that game but I'm not sure Butler deserved to win.

Rebounding was the only positive from that game other than Jones. Jones had 3 turnovers, at least 2 unforced but he also had the 3 steals, shot efficiently and rebounded well, in addition to playing good overall defense. Kunkel also played well offensively but some bad post entry passes negate that a bit.

Bringing up a president or former president with either positive or negative overtones is political. The same statement talking about both Biden and Trump blaming everyone else would however, fail to be political as you would be casting both political party "leaders" in a negative light.

[muskieman]

After the game Kam played last time out, I thought for sure Sean would have given him a few minutes than the under one minute he was in. He didn't even have time to take a shot. Heck, he could have missed a shot better than the misses everyone else did that night. The game should have been won or lost in overtime had the refs called the illegal screen at the end of the game, and then the goaltending would have been a mute call. By the way, the ref at mid-court called the goaltending on Jack, not Colby's touch of the rim.

Granted, X should have won this game even with the bad calls and the off-night shooting; just hit your FTs, not 57% from the line. That stat alone is an embarrassment for a D1 team. Also, 12 assists on 26 shots are not where Sean wants this team

I agree with PDX that the first half was the worse I have seen from X this year. It was like they were wearing mittens handling the ball because they turned it over and looked like they didn't know where to throw the ball. I think the block shots were the keys because Jack suddenly wanted to hang around the arc too much. 6-18 from your best three-point shooters doesn't get it done when they turn into fast break points

[skyhops]

Should have been at least 3.8 secs left after the goaltending call. They typically don’t let players get clipped anymore like they did on the screen on Boum. Duke just got hosed at the end of the UVA game.

[muskieman]

Should have been at least 3.8 secs left after the goaltending call. They typically don’t let players get clipped anymore like they did on the screen on Boum. Duke just got hosed at the end of the UVA game.

Anderson was one of the refs in that Duke game...prancing down the court and out of position