tonight's game

[connecticut72]

Hello fellow Muskies! I cannot wait to tip off the season. According to the polls the team on paper looks good. In fact the NY Post picked them as the Big East dark horse to make the final four. I hope they are correct. Question. Are you all sure the game is on FS1> The papers around here have St John's playing Fordham at 6:30 on FS!, Please advise. Let's go X!!!

[longliveskip]

FS1 is doing "whip around" coverage of all the Big East games so you'll have to go to the FS1 app if you wanna watch JUST the X game.

[muskieman]

FS1 app says Texas Southern's leading scorer is P. Henery and X's is Q. Olivari so we know FS1 is on top of everything. BTW our top Rebounder is Abou Ousmane

[muskieman]

X with the win 78-69

Welcome back, Zach Freemantle. It was like he never left, as he had a double-double of 19 and 11 (9 of 10 from the line). Speaking of the line, it was very, very good for X tonight as Southern tried hard to foul out their starting five. X was 34-41 or 82.9% from the line. X took 15 threes in first half and did not shoot that well in the first. Southern stayed in the game with their threes; they were 10-23, while X shot 23 but made only 6

Also, welcome to Q Oliveri jr, known as Ryan Conwell, who was the leading scorer for X with 21 points (5-10 from three) Only one other X player made a three

Texas Southern had 31 rebounds, and X had 30. Texas had 19 TOs to 9 for x and scored 21 points off those TOs

OH one stat I almost missed: McKnight was unbelievable while he was in the game he ended up with 5 assists 19 points, and I believe no TOs

X didn't cover the spread to the betting crowd

[X-lucidity]

We avoided a Southern Utah style horrific opening day loss. That’s about the only positive, other than big Frosty looking sharp on offense in the paint & Conwell finally heating up in 2nd half. Back to the drawing board for everyone else. I’ll bet there was some peeled paint in the X locker room after halftime. But, it’s a new group looking to find some chemicals familiarity- so absolutely zero reason to fret. I will say a couple dudes from TX S. Played out of their minds…. Tip of the hat especially to their diminutive guard, #2.
We had no answer as he was slick as snot on a doorknob

[pdxmuskie]

Free had a great game and Conwell did too but to say everyone else needs to go back to the drawing board ignores great games by 2 others. Swain and Mcknight both played incredible. Swain did not have 4 TOs. When you hit your receiver in the hands with the ball in perfect position to score and the guy fumbles it out of bounds, that is not on the passer. ESPN needs to correct that.

Offensive flow was horrific in the first half. Defense was lacking at various points throughout the game. Glad to see X attacking the rim more in the 2nd half.

Hunter had a tough game shooting but he contributed on multiple plays. He and Zac still have chemistry. Foster rebounded well but not sure what to think of him beyond that.

A lot of new pieces so not shocking it started a bit rough. Getting the W is all that really matters. X has a few more games to work out the kinks, give guys a chance to grow into productive backups, etc.

[skyhops]

I sat behind the bench and I am still very concerned with the lack of depth at the 4 and the 5. Hugley may have lost close to 50 pounds, but he still looks out of shape and makes Will Caudle look like David Robinson. Hopefully, he just needs to get into the flow of the game. Having Swain and Foster at the 3 and 4 can work against smaller teams but not against BE teams particularly on the boards. Free looked great and we probably did not do enough to get him the ball, Texas Southern had size.

Conwell is as good as advertised, hopefully Foster and Maddux had first game jitters, Maddux seemed smaller than I remembered at UD. Swain was aggressive and hopefully can find his shot since teams are daring him to shoot.

[longliveskip]

here's my take: TS simply played HARDER than us the first half. they knocked down some shots, even banked in a 3. some of that was our lack of urgency on D. some of that was them making plays. Free looked good on offense, subpar on D, and definitely struggled at times on the boards. I know he had 11 but there were times he just simply couldn't grab the ball or didn't box out and the rebound went over his head to his man.

Conwell gonna be good. I'm gonna get really tired of announcers calling him the Next Quincy or Q 2.0 or whatever nickname they wanna give him.

Bench HAS to bring more offensively. it's that simple whoever said we have the most talented offensive team EVER is sorely mistaken.

TS also just HACKED and made the game choppy, etc. there was no flow because we were getting hammered almost every time down the floor. it's hard to get into an offensive flow when every time you touch the ball, drive, etc you're getting smacked.

FT shooting was phenomenal minus a couple missed front ends of 1 and 1's. can't have those.

Hunter will come around offensively as I think he's gonna take longer than Free to get acclimated to everything.

Hughley will need time as well to get into the shape he needs to be able to add 3-4 minute spurts to rest Free and Hunter.

Green, Maddux, and Foster have got to find some way to contribute offensively without forcing the issue.

Take the win. move on and get better.

[muskieman]

I agree with PDF. Everyone can't be hitting on all cylinders to start, but I was glad to see Conwell be a scoring leader. Foster and Maddux will come around if Sean has anything to do with it. If Conwell, Foster, and Muddux are hitting what we hear they can do, this team will be good to very good. The lack of size worries me. Foul trouble in the paint will be a worry, especially with some of the BE refs that like to be the show.

I give Hugley a pass. Someone who has lost all that weight will be trying to get himself coordinated, much like a guy who grows multiple inches over a summer. Working against Zach in practice should help during the year. I wish Tranore was healthy, but I can not cry over spilled milk.

I think the positive is that X won, and Sean can beat on them in practice because of the mistakes. Two things need to happen: McKnight and Freemantle must stay out of foul trouble this year, and Maddux can't be a one-point scorer

Press conference and highlights below

https://youtu.be/gTiod27FStY

https://youtu.be/oBbEVGk9S24

Highlights https://youtu.be/oBy92k05SIk I hope you enjoy

[X-lucidity]

Honestly…? Most of you think the team was generally “fine” last night…? Ok. I get 1st night jitters. I get not everyone is going ton”click” every night. As I said in my earlier post, zero reason to panic or fret. But that TO by swain on a breakout with Foster WAS a lousy pass. I was seated lower corner on Muskie basket side. That play was coming right at me. Swain’s pass was a tad late and behind the hard cutting Foster. (As Foster should have been cutting hard). If you don’t believe me, why after just recently entering the game, did Miller pull Dailyn immediately at the next stoppage of play and give him the ice stare as he went to the bench? Alright, enough of that. Swain had some fab moments as well and seemed to be the ONLY X player capable of slowing down their #2. Just overall we seemed rushed and looking to score 8 points a minute & settling for too many early three’s 1st half. Most were decent shots. But Foster and Green couldn’t throw it in the ocean from the pier last night. That figures to be an anomaly. Bottom line, if you don’t know there was paint peeled off the locker room at halftime- well, ya don’t know ball..