finesse

[Kevin Reilly]

I think it is fair to call us a finesse team. We recruited a lot of good 3 point guards but we have no balance on offense. Besides Freemantle we don't have a low post presence . We are way to easy to play against. I miss the bone crunching picks set by Ciani and the warrior mentality of Ousmane. Freemantle is better when he plays 26-28 minutes a game. He tends to wear down when he plays 30-35 minutes a game. We need more back screens , back door cuts and more feeds to Freemantle. Though we aren't really good at driving to the basket we need to try to get to the basket .I think Hugley should play more. He was very good at Pitt. He could at least set some picks on the top of the key like Ciani did to free up the three point shooters. On defense we need to scrap a lot more than we are now. We need more deflections, more loose balls. more on the ball pressure. Foster looks like a SEC linebacker . Conwell is a big strong guard. They both need to play with a lot more physicality. We are not a big strong team but we can be a lot tougher on both ends to even that out. I think Hugley spent so much time losing weight that his basketball skills have slipped a little. Give him a chance to get back in the groove. We desperately need Fletcher but he must not be ready yet. The young guard from Gonzaga is a tough two way playing guard that will really help us next year. Xavier has always been a TOUGH team that played very hard on both ends of the court. We need to make it very hard on every possession. Basketball Jones, Dereck Strong. Tyrone Hill , Brian Grant... I could go on and on. We need to get back to the take no prisoners mind set that Xavier was famous for

[skyhops]

I agree that Free is going to get worn down in the season if he continues to play these minutes, but we don't really have anyone. It is almost impossible to have Hunter and Hughley on the floor at the same time. Neither takes care of the ball much and both are offensively limited, which is surprising since Miller has talked about how talented Hughley is on offense. Xavier is not very athletic, which is an issue for primarily a perimeter team. Losing Traore obviously left a hole in the middle, but he is limited on offense. We are heading into the BE with our three and four being Foster and Swain. Swain has the yips and can't guard the four. Foster is a backup at the BE level and an undersized forward. No way that we win more than 7-8 games with this lineup and roster. I hear about All in and toughness, unfortunately this roster once again isn't constructed properly. I don't see UConn, Creighton, or others ignoring bigs.

[Kevin Reilly]

Skyhops in a perfect world Ciani stayed and Ousman stayed. Freemantle should be a four and seems to get worn out at the end of games battling true centers. We seem to bring in guys with injury history ( Hugley, Fletcher) never mind Hunter and Freemantle coming off injuries. Might be a good idea to bring in healthy big guys. I know guys want playing time and they know who's coming back so they leave. Might be better to bring in more freshman and let them work their way towards playing time. Transfers don't want to come in and share time. Right now things are looking tough but i think Miller can turn things around. Glad to see Maddox getting a chance and hope Hugley and Fletcher can help out too

[longliveskip]

hearing some things about dissent in the locker room - be it the players vs. Sean or the players vs. each other, etc. just not sure which or specifically who but just hearing there are frustrations that are coming to head and i'm sure that's what some of the issue with this team is. hopefully these guys come together and figure this out.

[skyhops]

I’ve sat behind the Xavier this year and what Skip is saying doesn’t surprise me. The players that seemed disengaged were Maddox and Conwell, which sounds about right based on their body language recently although Maddox was one of the bright spots at TCH. We are gonna see this more and more with NIL and continue roll over of rosters. Xavier is also not tall, not long, and unathletic which is not a good combo.

[Anti-Homer]

hearing some things about dissent in the locker room - be it the players vs. Sean or the players vs. each other, etc. just not sure which or specifically who but just hearing there are frustrations that are coming to head and i'm sure that's what some of the issue with this team is. hopefully these guys come together and figure this out.

Shocking! You mean, throwing players under the bus during press conferences, and not taking accountability for coaching gaffes (i.e. having the immobile Hugley (instead of Hunter) chasing around the very mobile Danny Wolf, and letting TCU score 4 of 5 consecutive labs w/o making any adjustments causes dissension? That's news to our estimable coach and the guy at UCLA.

[longliveskip]

hearing some things about dissent in the locker room - be it the players vs. Sean or the players vs. each other, etc. just not sure which or specifically who but just hearing there are frustrations that are coming to head and i'm sure that's what some of the issue with this team is. hopefully these guys come together and figure this out.

Shocking! You mean, throwing players under the bus during press conferences, and not taking accountability for coaching gaffes (i.e. having the immobile Hugley (instead of Hunter) chasing around the very mobile Danny Wolf, and letting TCU score 4 of 5 consecutive labs w/o making any adjustments causes dissension? That's news to our estimable coach and the guy at UCLA.

this stuff was happening BEFORE the TCU game, Anti, but go ahead and act like it's because of those things.

[Anti-Homer]

hearing some things about dissent in the locker room - be it the players vs. Sean or the players vs. each other, etc. just not sure which or specifically who but just hearing there are frustrations that are coming to head and i'm sure that's what some of the issue with this team is. hopefully these guys come together and figure this out.

Shocking! You mean, throwing players under the bus during press conferences, and not taking accountability for coaching gaffes (i.e. having the immobile Hugley (instead of Hunter) chasing around the very mobile Danny Wolf, and letting TCU score 4 of 5 consecutive labs w/o making any adjustments causes dissension? That's news to our estimable coach and the guy at UCLA.

this stuff was happening BEFORE the TCU game, Anti, but go ahead and act like it's because of those things.

LLS,

Ya think that helps the narrative? So, SM thought it would be a good idea to throw gas on a dumpster fire? Do you endorse that? Sir, I respectfully do not. I was SM's biggest cheerleader, and even somewhat of an apologist despite last year's historically bad year. But calling out players AND fans with his self-righteous criticisms was very off-putting, especially as he has earned a D- so far with coaching thus far. However, I'm an optimist. I think he can regain the form that made him one of the top 15 coaches in CBB, up until 2022. One can hope.

[pdxmuskie]

I am in complete agreement that Miller has not been coaching at a high level. His comments regarding defensive performance several games ago were oddly harsh after 1 of the better defensive performances. His inability to get the team playing with effort during the 3 game stretch against Michigan and the next 2 was odd. Lack of timeouts as the team looked lost offensively. Terrible offensive flow against teams applying perimeter pressure.

I have stated a number of times that Miller was Xavier's best coach ever. So far, I'm not seeing it this time around. He gets a pass for last year with the injuries to Free and Hunter. Not ideal that we are again down a big but there are enough pieces to consistently beat good teams and below. The loss to TCU could be written off as a bad game if it hadn't been 2 straight bad games prior to that.

The team can be good if they are hungry on defense and find a flow on offense. When the ball is moving the team is dangerous from deep and Free can definitely score down low. The team must play with high energy.

[longliveskip]

Shocking! You mean, throwing players under the bus during press conferences, and not taking accountability for coaching gaffes (i.e. having the immobile Hugley (instead of Hunter) chasing around the very mobile Danny Wolf, and letting TCU score 4 of 5 consecutive labs w/o making any adjustments causes dissension? That's news to our estimable coach and the guy at UCLA.

this stuff was happening BEFORE the TCU game, Anti, but go ahead and act like it's because of those things.

LLS,

Ya think that helps the narrative? So, SM thought it would be a good idea to throw gas on a dumpster fire? Do you endorse that? Sir, I respectfully do not. I was SM's biggest cheerleader, and even somewhat of an apologist despite last year's historically bad year. But calling out players AND fans with his self-righteous criticisms was very off-putting, especially as he has earned a D- so far with coaching thus far. However, I'm an optimist. I think he can regain the form that made him one of the top 15 coaches in CBB, up until 2022. One can hope.

i'd love to see video of when he called out players' names specifically (and fans because I don't remember that). when did he call out players - and I mean specific names of guys/threw them under the bus? when did this happen? feel free to post any presser where he did this. because there's a major difference between calling our your TEAM and its effort and saying that some players need to understand what the expectations are, etc and if they don't, they're not gonna play. what's wrong with that?

and guess what - your grade of D- for SM and his coaching this year is about as useful/meaningful as a poopy-flavored lollipop. no offense.