Xavier Wins

[edgecliff hall]

15-0 run at the end. Xavier wins tonight.

[Jesseandrippers]

15-0 run at the end. Xavier wins tonight.

They played the 8th grade CYO city champs

[skyhops]

Was at the game, we still can’t shoot especially with Kunkle not playing. Miller will not use the bench much so starters played a lot. If Jones is all BE and an NBA player he will have to be aggressive on offensive because he didn’t not play well against lesser opponent. Miles won’t play much and I’m not sure if Edwards is hurt but he didn’t play nor did Tucker. Defense much better in 2nd half.

[pdxmuskie]

I wouldn't necessarily assume Miller will not use the bench much after seeing an exhibition game. It is quite likely the bench is not as far along in learning what is expected of them.

I suspect Miller will not go deep into the bench with significant minutes but way too early to determine what the rotation will be. Hopefully he strategizes about player strengths and weaknesses and adjusts rotations based on who is best able to exploit mismatches/style of play. Further making lineup adjustments based on who is playing well and who is not. Some will stand out from the rest and get the bulk of minutes but the next 5 or so should be based more on strategy and who is playing well.

[skyhops]

If he is not going deep into his bench against KY Wesleyan when will he? Miles looks lost when he is in the game and Tucker might not ever get in the game. None of this will matter if we can’t shoot 3’s like last night.

[Jesseandrippers]

If he is not going deep into his bench against KY Wesleyan when will he? Miles looks lost when he is in the game and Tucker might not ever get in the game. None of this will matter if we can’t shoot 3’s like last night.

Its a whole new system he is installing. Probably is concerned the kids who will eat up all the minutes arent where they need to be. Not a good sign but I am more concerned if they cant shoot, play poor man defense and dont rebound. Hopefully, the players will adjust to the new scheme but they gotta have skills/technique/hustle no matter who is making X’s and O’s.

[X-lucidity]

WWWWWWWWWWW-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too early to be launching any serious concerns about our shooting %'s yet. I agree that it is now a decent time to speculate about PT and rotations. We are both: a) developing chemistry with some new ingredients. & b) everyone is learning new systems and language on both offense, defense & inbounds plays. What I want to see is a slow but steady evolution from the Steele regime to Millers. Without having to suffer an early season loss against a foe we typically should beat. That said, it may happen. One common complain most of us lodged year after year under Steele was the lack of both individual development and especially team development as a season plays out. This year we are starting a bit father back on that sliding scale. My hope, and trust, is that Coach Miller and this staff will be light years better in both those categories so that by Mid-December we should be accelerating the growth curve. Rome was not built in a day, so they say. I'm just X-Tremely glad the season is upon us.

[longliveskip]

exhibition games aren't posted on most websites and i'm not going to search each school individually but i'm willing to bet you can find plenty of other high major D1 schools who played "close" games with D2 schools in their exhibitions. heck, U of L LOST theirs, i think.

not reading too much into this.

i'll wait until Monday when it's for REAL.

Loved Sean's post game comment about ZF being best player on the floor and that Muskies are gonna need him to be for them to be successful.

Let's hope he's ready.


GO MUSKIES!

[Lead Guitar]

Sean’s post game comments were right on. Both offense and defense were tentative and for most of the game we had no transition scoring even though we had a significant number of defensive rebounds. Even with a team as small as KY W, you can’t let them set up their defense. I think this will change, for Sean had indicated he wanted to play faster. It appears that taking an open 3 in the first15 seconds has been discouraged and it showed. Unfortunately we end up with a very similar shot, 15 seconds later.

Zach should lead the league in offensive rebounds because of Nunge’s ability to score from anywhere. (Anthony Myles did that when he was playing along side West but I am not comparing Nunge to West!) last night we did not hit the O glass aggressively.

KY was only in the game for the first half mostly because of their made FT’s and a couple more 3pointer plus our missed FT’s. Second half—-no FT’s and we hit most of ours. Souley lived up to his %.

A number of our TO’s were in an attempt to feed the low post. Zach will need to go after the feed with strong two hands and get fouled. Too often he reached with one and the ball was batted away.

Too bad we did not see Edwards or Tucker. Maybe the next game or two they will play instead of moving Zach to the 5 when Nunge rests.

Looking forward to four years of Desmond and Craft.

[muskieman]

steady progress.... I hear that Miller thought X defense improved as the game went along and toward the end of the game the 15-point run says KW didn't score on X's defense. Sean said that in the last 11 minutes KW scored 6 points. I have heard that X needed scoring but they scored 45 points in the first half and while it was 45-44 if x can score at that clip and the D improves X will be fine...then again we don't play KW type talent in the Big East.

The ball screen d was not good by Zack, Jack or Hunter and they are the guys that have to defend. maybe if Sean thinks the same he will fix or junk it. So many times there was an open three or like in the case of Hunter a foul

I also thought the beleaguered and belittled Hunter had a nice game scoring 5 to those last 15 points. X had 6 steals in the game(5 by Jones after he woke up and started exerting himself which showed signs of NIT Jones), but none of the 6 steals were in the first half which shows they stepped up the D in the second half. If Sean can get the last ten minute Jones for all his minutes, Colby would be an all-American and certainly a MVP of the Big east

For those of you that like an inside game the first half would have made you please because most of the points were scored inside. The guards feed the big men and Freemantle was the big winner here. X had 45 points at the half and had they had the defense it might not have been close...KW 3s kept them in the game.

Desmond started as a freshman and showed freshmen-type minutes with a number of turnovers but settled done and played a decent game. His scoring wasn't bad, and he didn't turn over the ball after his first-half start. He is not a black hole shooter but made 5 of his 8 shots. The important thing is he is the real deal because you could see is a number of his plays after he started to get confidence. He looks smooth. Kam looked like a freshman, and we will see how he progresses...not much else to report

Souley also was not the volume shooter or maker this game(1-4), again his first game but he did foul a lot, but only Hunter fouled out. Souley seems to struggle on D. He looked weak on his passes and loose on his ball handling.

The takeaway might be that X started slowly maybe because they were pressing(not defense) and did not communicate well, and It lead to a lot of fouls, but once they got their feet under them, they started to show improvement.

Sean comments
on Souley and Desmond, every day and every game will show improvement. He thinks Souley is pressing and just need to take a deep breath. The point guard play was up and down in the game. Sean on Zack; When Zack plays like he played last night is the best version of the team. He added that nobody has worked as hard on his body as Zack and thinks the same for Kyky and what Kyky needs is better D, but on Offense, he gives what X needs. I thought Sean thinks that X will be better going forward and emphasis will be better D and communication and trusting in fellow players