Musketeer Madness

Damn, X wouldn't get in the tourney even if Covid made a comeback... Dan

Wow, no chatter and no game thread. Let this sink in folks. How quickly a program can become irrelevant. Do not run from this moment, embrace it and pray our Prez and AD will do all in their power to rectify this freefall. Because if not, next season we will not even be on the NIT bubble and the NCAA tourney will be 3 to 4 years away from today. As James Hetfield would say: Sad but true...

Once again Xavier not ready to play and they are attacking our slow guards with no adjustment. Did Steele know they play four guards? Scruggs looks like he is done. What a mess

The atmosphere at Cintas is palpable. And by palpable, I mean it has all the electricity of getting your licensed renewed. Over/under is 2,000 people, or maybe 1500. It looks like the AAC final. I listened to the pre-game show, and heard these gems come out of Steele's mouth:

- CSU is very talented and can beat anyone in the tourney.
-X wins if they have 15 turnovers or less. No not 10, but 15. No, not 13, but 15. This, against a 7th seed in the Mac (?).
-Play defense. I am not kidding. I thought he was going to say score more points.

It is also the 1st game when Byron said the biggest key of the game will be staying awake.

Down 16-13 with three air balls in the 1st with 8:30 to go. Steele coaching this like they are playing Gonzaga. Miles might get 30 seconds if they get a thirty point lead. Meanwhile, Christopher keeps turning to his wife and saying "We aren't in Bowling Green anymore right?"

Losing out to make the NIT is very different from making a run and settling for the NIT. No incentive for fans to get behind this coach.

Money lost on a sunk cost may be less than money lost when fans stop coming to games and have to be incentivized to return. Administration needs to consider all sides of the cost equation. If fans are losing interest, how long until recruits lose interest. Once recruits lose interest, it is much harder to regain attention of future players. Usually success will bring them back but hard to have success without getting quality talent. Basically X will have to hire a coach years from now that can significantly coach players up or get lucky on a few recruits.

Rip the band aid off now. Stop the slide. There was nothing encouraging about how this year ended. No lessons learned. Team found a way to lose to everyone other than GT.

Getting pushed around by Cleveland State and five straight trips no buckets. It certainly looks like Freemantle is leaving or just disinterested. We have an advantage with Nunge. Scruggs playing like he doesn't want to be there as does Johnson

Scruggs is currently 0-2, 2 FTs, and four turnovers. Has played the entire half. Travis Steele is the head coach.

How about being up four then taking out Nunge and Odom and then not score in four straight trips? Steele should get shown the door for playing Free and Hunter together against a four guard lineup. He just doesnt get it

I am not going to mention all all the players names, but.... Xavier played very well most years from 1980 to 2018. Xavier had a lot of coaches who made a name for themselves by winning at Xavier. Those coaches recruited basically unknown players that were not 4 and 5 star high school players. But those players that came to Xavier played as a team and played hard and had "something to prove" and they proved it. Many great seasons, many NCAA tournaments, many sweet 16s, and 3 Elite 8. The right coach recruiting quality players can mold a group in to winners...because those players want to play and win and prove they are great. Think about all the players that went to the NBA that were unknown before they played at Xavier. Steele has not been able to coach his players in to a winning combination and or the players think they can win without performing and scoring. The right coach and the right players can be like the Xavier teams of old...making a run thru the NCAA Tournament. But X cannot keep losing great coaches to other schools, find a great coach and keep him for the long run....pay him the big bucks and keep him....quit re building and just reload every year. If Steele is there next year, the arena will be half full to empty.

Mistake after mistake and there are no consequences for the perpetrators. As one of the savvy posters put it after the Butler debacle, Steele just does not have the chops.

X used to run the outstanding inbounds plays, no more. Now they even give up uncontested layups on an inbounds and struggle to inbound it on their own.