The Crosstown Shootout

[Xavier2005]

going to be another tough year for X. Maybe a bubble team . They do not play a strong overall game. Their main hope is that the other BE teams are worse.

[skyhops]

McKnight was awful today and that is our fifth year starting PG. We haven't won a meaningful game in two years and continue to choke down the stretch. Hard to when when your starting four gets 0 rebounds. Looks like NIT bound. Refs did not do us any favors

[Anti-Homer]

McKnight was awful today and that is our fifth year starting PG. We haven't won a meaningful game in two years and continue to choke down the stretch. Hard to when when your starting four gets 0 rebounds. Looks like NIT bound. Refs did not do us any favors

Hops,

I keep telling you. The orange gummies in Mman’s candy dish are candy, but the green ones you gulped down are his medicinal treats, prescribed for his allergies, so he says. McKnight was very good today. He only had two points, but that belies how well he played. 9 assists and only 3 T.O.s against very good defensive guards (James and Thomas). He frequently broke down the D and got into the lane, the only X player to do so, but then UC’s athletic 6’9” and 7’0” bigs collapsed to challenge his shots. Instead of forcing it, he dished it off, thus the 9 assist. He also held Jizzle James, who came in averaging 14 a game, to zero points from the field. This is the same player who had about 15 or so points last year at Cintas as a freshman. Outstanding D.

X lost another lead under 6 minutes (7 points), aided by a missed dunk by Freemantle, who was very good otherwise. Swain played really well on offense for a change, and poorly on the boards for a change. Inexcusable to miss on a blockout. That and the late turnovers cost X.

Hunter's number look good on paper (8 pts, 7 boards), but he had 4 turnovers, 3 unforced.

Maddox didn’t play well on O, but was solid defensively again.

Hugley was a non-factor, yet again—Sean’s Scarlet Letter for NIL.

Conwell played well, as did Foster, for 12 minutes. Then, he disappeared for the remainder of the game.

Sean coached a good game, but had two glaring errors during critical times, again, First of all, down one, with 15 seconds to go, he should have instructed Swain to grab Mitchell’s jersey before the ball was put in play, so he would be the one to go to the line (21% from the line for the year), with no time draining from the clock. Instead, Jizzle James, who shoots around 75% hit a couple. Then, with 6.6 seconds left, he had Swain in, and not Maddox, a guy who has shot 40% from 3 over the last two years. He still did a good job overall, so he can sleep well tonight knowing he received a B+ from me.

Good game, and happy X came to play at an overrated, but very solid team. I didn’t expect X to win, and the loss to TCU is what makes the situation desperate. Even Michigan’s loss wouldn’t be so bad, as they have proven to be a top-10 caliber team. The deficit makes it bad and occurred due to the 17-0 run, something that has happened way too often this year under Miller’s watch. Need to go 1-1 over the next two minimally and win some games they aren’t expected to in conference play without bad losses to make the Tourney.

I neve thought I would be writing this now, right before conference play. Neither did 99% of the pundits.

[Jesseandrippers]

NIT baby! Lets go!!!

[muskieman]

Empty possessions, the last few minutes of a tight game kills. The putback on a missed FT was a killer, and the four or five fouls called toward the end didn't help. The TOs at the end reminded me of past Bearcat teams. It's sad for Zach because I know he wanted that fifth win against UC. The next two games are very problematic; there are some players who need to step up and become more aggressive.

I am glad the 8-9 point spread was never achieved

[Xavier2005]

after UC game Xavier's RPI is 125th. Not beating quality teams. Xavier must win games against quality teams, or they will miss March Madness. Scoring around 70 points and or under does not win many games. Very good teams score in the mid 70s and up.....the very best teams will score 80s and up. Need more offense and a better defense.

[Kevin Reilly]

On the positive side we have Freemantle who is very talented, Conwell who can score, McKnight who is a very good PG and Swain who can finish well in the open court and .... we play hard as a team. On the negative side we are very thin in the front court, Foster and Conwell have slow feet...Swain can't shoot and is turnover prone and we have big guys who are recovering from injuries ( Hugley, Fletcher, Hunter, Freemantle ). On top of that Maddox who obviously is very talented seems uncomfortable in our offense. It is hard not to peek into the future. I believe we lose Freemantle, Hunter and McKnight at the least. With transfers and N.I.L I wouldn't be surprised to see others leave. At a minimum I think we need three healthy front court players .Incoming PG Lewis and Anderson hopefully bring much needed speed and quickness. The only guy who can move well is Swain. I am also worried about Freemantle's minutes. He is coming off a year and a half layoff. If he misses any time it will be a very long season. We really could have used Fletcher yesterday but they are being very careful with his recovery. Looking for some Miller magic.

[skyhops]

AH, if you think McKnight played a great game I would like what you are smoking. He scored two points and choked the last five minutes of the game. We really only have three legit players in Conwell, Swain, and Free. Could have used Green tonight vs Maddox who is mid major at best. If we are going to play the transfer game we must get better players then Hughley and Maddox and even Foster.

[Kevin Reilly]

I'm with you Skyhops on McKnight. I like him a lot but he had a tough game. ( Two points in 34 minutes ). Hunter had 4 turnovers and Conwell had three including two terrible lobs to Freemantle when we had numbers. Freemantle is playing way to many minutes ( 35 ) and we are asking for trouble. That's probably why he didn't finish near the rim at the end of the game. But I would think McKnight would be the first to tell you he had a rough day.

[Michigan Musketeer]

Miller won 2 Yrs ago with Travis’s recruits. Now struggling with his Trfs. Taking players getting over injuries has proved to be costly. Walk Ons look better than Hugley. What is going on with Green. Is it an illness or something else. Would not surprise me to see the Connecticut game get ugly like last Yr. Better beat Marquette at home or all bets are off for this team. A lot of tough road games to be played. Looks like it could be another disappointing season for a program that once went to the Tourney 9 out of 10 Yrs.