South Carolina v Xavier Game Thread

[Lead Guitar]

Too bad the loss of one player, Traore, could have such an apparent impact, although it happened last year with Freemantle and Hunter. Freemantle is a terrific stretch 4, not a Big East 5. The “if” for success comes down to 45%+ 3pt shooting and a few offensive rebounds. As of now, we are playing five out motion. Adjusting to Swain, Foster and Hunter slashing to the basket and getting fouled (making FT’s) will open up the 3 for Conwell, McKnight, Maddox and Green and provide O rebounds opportunities.

Our D is fine against the level of competition so far, but interior D will be exposed against the competition in the near future.
I am hoping that Sean has held back showing any secondary defenses for now because our talent level with man to man is better than the teams we have played so far. With TCU, UC and the Big East we will need to show different looks based on the players on the floor. Right now scouting us is too easy, for we haven’t changed much of our approach.

Sean is a good coach, so I expect changes. That is why we have the non-conference schedule. We just hope we don’t have the Delaware or Oakland losses.

[Kevin Reilly]

Lead Guitar you made a lot of good points. Losing Traore was a killer. That really will be hard to overcome .Inside defense will hurt us all year. When Freemantle does get in foul trouble and he will.... we will be in all kinds of trouble. Freemantle is our best player and it's not even close. Freemantle really is a four but what can we do. Shooting 45% from the three point line is not happening .I know we are all worried and we should be. If Miller gets this group to the tournament I think he is up for Coach of the Year. People can blame Miller but he did lose Hunter and Freemantle last year and Traore this year .My man Anti-homer thinks we have a lot of talent but I haven't seen it yet. The reason he didn't pull Swain or Foster is we really don't have a lot coming off the bench. Speaking of which Swain and Foster better get more focused on rebounding. Everyone better get their hard hats on and serious about rebounding. We are very lucky to have Miller. Fifty other schools would take him in a heartbeat. Win ,lose or draw I'm with them but we have a steep hill to climb.

[Anti-Homer]

Remember last year when Miller lamented scheduling too hard? How did his change of philosophy work out? Through seven games, they've played 5 Q4 games, and 2 Q3 games. The Net at 6-1??? Drum roll please..... 103. I said last year that losing Q1 and Q2 does more for the metrics than winning Q4s and Q3s. If he keeps this up, SE Louisiana is going to try and steal him away.

KR, the consensus around with all of the experts was that X is SW 16 good, and some pontificated further. Based on the resumes of players he pulled from the portal (Freeman, Maddox, Conwell) this is a tourney team on paper. You have to try pretty hard to screw it up. Thus far, the puppet master is trying pretty hard.

I certainly haven't given upon him, and said he did a top 5 job in 2022, but the bloom is coming off of his rose.

[skyhops]

I typically agree with AH, but I don’t agree about our talent level. Besides Conwell, our portal pickups are all under performing. Miller seems to be pushing Maddox further and further away even though he was supposed to be our best new scoring. Foster is 6’4 small forward that is too small to guard at this level and Hughley makes Lazar seem like the Joker.
How long do we have to wait for Swain to even develop a mid range jump shot? Pretty simple, opponents pressure our guards on perimeter rotating in a zone defense and we look like we have the last few games. I was at the UD scrimmage and it was a scrimmage not a real game. The talent and size is just not there to compete in BE and make the tourney this year. I trust Miller, but proclaiming him the John Wooden of the portal is incorrect. We should not have let Lazar go and even Abu, which I can’t believe I’m saying.

[longliveskip]

man, i'm sure glad Sean coaches this team and not some of you on here. good grief it's like walking into the seven circle of he$$. you'd think we were 1-7 and not 7-1. my goodness. ya know, the MMQB on here is fine. it's what a message board is for, at times, but the constant nitpicking of every single microcosm of what Sean has done is just unbearable. how the heck do you even know that he failed in the portal yet? we've played EIGHT games for crying out loud. I don't care wth Abu and Lazar are doing for their respective teams now - they weren't getting it done for us at all and if it wasn't for Traore getting hurt we wouldn't even mention Abu's name on here. Lazar is playing against dudes in the CAA. he would get abused here just like he did last year.

you guys haven't been to one practice but you think from the games you've seen that Maddux deserves more PT? why? that's not how it works. you EARN your PT in practice and then earn MORE when you go in the game and actually PERFORM. Maddux hasn't. he came in last game, didn't play defense/gave up an open 3 then came down and turned the ball over. guess what? you're OUT when you do that. but you guys think that he should be fitted with the same leash as the starters. guess what? WRONG again. starters are STARTERS for a reason so they get more leeway when they make a mistake. that's how sports and being on a TEAM works. know your role. perform when given the chance but if you don't you better know your PT will be limited, as it has been with Maddux. it's that simple.

Sean knows what he's doing but the comments on here towards him you would think that Travis Steele was still the coach. I'm all for calling things out at times but the incessant Sean bashing is just ridiculous. we are lucky to have him and the dude is one the best, most honest, hard-working guys in the country. he's having to adapt the whole identity of this team since losing Traore. it will take time and dudes that weren't really counted on to play certain roles will have to step up. the scheduling part is fine. I could care less if our NET is 103. good lord, UC's is 11 and their schedule looks like my son's GCCYS schedule so who the f$%^ cares about the NET? the NET will matter in mid-January/early February. means squadoosh right now.

let's go beat TCU.

[skyhops]

Hughley can’t even score against South Carolina State and has done absolutely to make the casual fan excited. Lazar and Abu would both be better options at this point. Miller was proclaiming Maddox as a potential leading scorer when we got him yet he can’t play a min vs the worst team on our schedule? I think these are reasonable comments. Why spend valuable NIL money on a player that is 60 lbs overweight and then loses 50 pounds and is out of shape?

[longliveskip]

Hughley can’t even score against South Carolina State and has done absolutely to make the casual fan excited. Lazar and Abu would both be better options at this point. Miller was proclaiming Maddox as a potential leading scorer when we got him yet he can’t play a min vs the worst team on our schedule? I think these are reasonable comments. Why spend valuable NIL money on a player that is 60 lbs overweight and then loses 50 pounds and is out of shape?

Lazar and Obu didn't leave because we got Hughley. they left because Sean got Traore. his injury was unfortunate but neither of those guys were staying because of that so we needed someone to play 8-12 minutes behind Traore and that was Hughley. they saw potential and he's worked his way towards it by losing the weight first. now he needs a little time to figure out how to play at that weight at our pace. he will get better. and you can see the potential in Maddux which is what Sean saw in him last year but for whatever reason he hasn't gelled/figured it out in this system yet. and you don't just "throw him out there and give him minutes" for the heck of it. he will have to figure out how to get on the floor more. i'm sure Sean is very openly honest with him about what he needs to do to earn more minutes. let's just hope he buys into it and improves on what it is he needs to work on.

[skyhops]

Hughley had the better offensive skills of the two bigs coming in. And he was expected to play more than 8 minutes per game and many believe he would start. Miller needed another big and this wasn’t addressed. Watching UConn, Creighton, Marquette, and St John’s we are in big trouble inside. TCU plays strong perimeter defense and forces turnovers, which is a recipe that has worked against us last two games. Millers last interview he sounded defeated, so he needs to things straight. I hope Maddox gets more time. A minute against a bad team isn’t gonna work.

[longliveskip]

Hughley had the better offensive skills of the two bigs coming in. And he was expected to play more than 8 minutes per game and many believe he would start. Miller needed another big and this wasn’t addressed. Watching UConn, Creighton, Marquette, and St John’s we are in big trouble inside. TCU plays strong perimeter defense and forces turnovers, which is a recipe that has worked against us last two games. Millers last interview he sounded defeated, so he needs to things straight. I hope Maddox gets more time. A minute against a bad team isn’t gonna work.

this is false. Traore was better at all facets and was projected starting C until his injury.

we will see how this team responds on the road tonight.

[gym from delhi]

X a 1.5 point underdog tonight