Nova Game thread

[skyhops]

Hard to belive that Miller has this team at 7-5 in the BE considering that we have the worst skilled bigs I've seen the past 30 years at Xavier. Look for more teams to play a zone against us daring Des to shoot 3's like last night. Swain was a difference maker last night he has knack for rebounds and steals.

[Jesseandrippers]

Hard to belive that Miller has this team at 7-5 in the BE considering that we have the worst skilled bigs I've seen the past 30 years at Xavier. Look for more teams to play a zone against us daring Des to shoot 3's like last night. Swain was a difference maker last night he has knack for rebounds and steals.

Well said Mr Hops. This is not what I expected. Is this a final 4 team? Doubtful. But, this team is avoiding the disaster season I thought we were headed for. Some good young and experienced guards and wings really making an impact.

[longliveskip]

Hard to belive that Miller has this team at 7-5 in the BE considering that we have the worst skilled bigs I've seen the past 30 years at Xavier. Look for more teams to play a zone against us daring Des to shoot 3's like last night. Swain was a difference maker last night he has knack for rebounds and steals.

pretty sure we had a year where Travis Taylor, Isaiah Philmore, and Jeff Robinson were our "bigs". No way these dudes are that bad. Farr only a frosh that year and only played in 13 games so he doesn't count.

i'd argue that year was worse.

[Anti-Homer]

I agree with several who talked about what a great job Miller is doing to date. It may be his best coaching job in his career. Neither Nemeiksa nor Abou would start on 90% of teams in the top 50 NET, and Miller has been able to hide the deficits of many players. Masterful job. Nova on a neutral court, trading coaches (Miller for Neptune) is a 7-8 point favorite, as their overall personnel is considerably better. Some other observations:

• I like Nemeiksa as a 12-14 minute a game guy. He is a horrible defender, but don’t blame effort, blame genetics. When he doesn’t make threes and finishes, he is a serious liability. I thought SM was harsh in his post-game assessment of him ag. Nova, but it wasn’t inaccurate. He was 1-7, and that was a lab in the first two minutes. More and more minutes should go to Djoko and Swain.

• Claude was solid, except for, once again, his inability to understand that if his feet aren’t in the paint, he should pass the ball. The worst thing that happened was the anomaly in the first 90 seconds: he made a three. He went on to miss six straight after, in a low-possession game, and only one was actually close (rimmed in and out). I’m going to see if we can get a slot on the show Intervention to curb his 3-point shooting.

• Swain continues to be stellar. 8pts, 5b, 2 steals, 2-2 from the line. He had two incredible rebounds, and blocked Bamba(?) on a fast break without fouling. That’s the hardest shot to block. Also, Armstrong blew by McKnight routinely. Thank God he missed three labs. SM, n a brilliant move, put Swain on him in the last four minutes.. He never came close to the basket after that. I saw a metric on Twitter last night that said Swain was in the top ten of freshman defensively. There must be over 1,000 freshmen this year. It's even more impressive when you consider that he is playing in the new Conference of Champions.

• Ousame was horrible offensively, but outstanding defensively, with 5 blocks. He also only committed one foul, despite the fact that they all tried to attack him in the paint, knowing his propensity to foul. His D was elite in the last two minutes, when and he ran down court to block a breakaway lab. Then, in the last 15 seconds, he prevented Dixon and the player who switched (Hausen) from getting off a shot. Incredible D.

• McKnight 9 pts, 7 A, no TOs. Yawn. Consistency personified.

Tomorrow is a very big game, obviously. E-8/FF probable Creighton is a handful, but there are very few gimmes in the new C of Cs. They better score in transition, and double on the block. They also need to drive aggressively on him and attack the glass for offensive boards. Trey Green needs to see more minutes. I would also play Swain 30 minutes and stick him on Alexander or Scheierman. Prediction? X 78-76. Hopefully, I improve on my 123 – 17 record this year, thus far.

[skyhops]

I would take Taylor, Phillmore and Robinson over our current bigs. 58 mins yesterday and only 2 points from our bigs unreal.

[X-lucidity]

Can’t argue with that at leafy offensively. Travis Taylor was undersized but had a lion’s heart.

[X-man]

Matt Stainbrook was at Listermann on Saturday (he works a bit there sometimes), and I told him we needed him to suit up. He wished that he could.