Providence game thread

[Kevin Reilly]

Hell of a win. To beat a TOP 20 TEAM that is 16-0 at home and you overcome 24 fouls from a team that only plays 7 guys is amazing. Never mind missing one of your best players. Jones and Boum were unreal. Way to go coach Miller and the lads. Go X.

[kyzrex]

Boum and Jones had 33 and 29 points respectively. Each also had 4 assists.

They were the best guard and wing combo in the country tonight.

BIG win for the team and BIG game for both of those players.

[Anti-Homer]

Muskie Man you are so right about Anderson. He has reffed many of my sons games over the yrs. and my son totally agrees with your assessment. He loves to be center stage. Unbelievable game by X. So much heart and guts. Not only did we beat PC but we beat the refs. So proud of our team. Now I know why we don play zone. It is worse than our man to man use to be. It was also a big game for BE seeding.

Conn72, you obviously know the game. Do you think three possessions in zone was better than the man-to-man employed which cut the deficit in the last five of the first half by 13 points? Not to mention the foul trouble X was in. X didn't win due to their D. Providence scored 80 points in 30 minutes. When they went back to man, Providence averaged about 3.7 points per possession. They just happen to run into the best offensive team in the country.

[gym from delhi]

One of the guttiest performances I’ve seen in 65 years of watching X basketball

[muskieman]

I don't know what is in the water or whatever both teams took, but the stats look crazy both teams 50% from three, X 80% from the foul line, and PC 76% Colby 10-11 from the field

Des continues to imprrove and prove he is the real thing. 12 points on 5-9

If Zack comes back 75% this team has a high upside.

[olsingledigit]

Awesome game for X. These guys are for real.

[pdxmuskie]

First, great win. Beating a top 25 with no home losses on their home court is huge.

I will nitpick Boum despite his great offensive game. He took a stupid rushed shot in the first half off a tipped out rebound (if I recall correctly) that was missed and lead to a 3 at the other end. Boum has a tendency to take 2 to 3 bad shots per game and a good percentage of them lead to points at the other end. These are big swings in the scoring column. There was another bad shot in the 2nd but not nearly as obvious. He had a great game.

The officials were solid in the first half but they deserve a special place in the afterlife for the 2nd half performance.

Miller made 1 of the dumbest coaching decisions I've ever seen. Some of you called him out for playing Nunge in the first half after his 2nd foul but that was not the problem. That was a poor decision, not because Nunge had 2 fouls but because he had sat too long with 2 fouls. Common wisdom is that players foul more when exhausted. It is also true that they foul more when tight. Too little rest and too much rest both tend to lead to more frequent fouls. That however is not my complaint.

Xavier proved at the end of the first half that they were struggling to score with Nunge (and Hunter) off the floor. Starting the 2nd half with Nunge on the bench is beyond stupid. First, as stated previously, fouling tends to happen more frequently with too little rest and too much rest. Also, fouling is more likely when teams get desperate. X had a 9 point lead to start the 2nd half. Nunge needs to be in at the start of the half to improve the probability of maintaining that lead in addition to being able to sub him out after 5 or so minutes. Short rest and then back in. Sitting him almost 1.5 minutes causes the lead to drop to 4 putting more pressure on players increasing the probability of fouls.

Amazing 2nd half by Jones. Big block by Nunge after the missed front end.

[X-lucidity]

Goodness - sure am glad PDX was not one of my Professors in my Senior yr at X, I would never have passed a test. A wise man once noted, "perfection is the enemy of great" To each his own, and pleased he is part of Xavier Nation, but - - wowza.......

[olsingledigit]

First, great win. Beating a top 25 with no home losses on their home court is huge.

I will nitpick Boum despite his great offensive game. He took a stupid rushed shot in the first half off a tipped out rebound (if I recall correctly) that was missed and lead to a 3 at the other end. Boum has a tendency to take 2 to 3 bad shots per game and a good percentage of them lead to points at the other end. These are big swings in the scoring column. There was another bad shot in the 2nd but not nearly as obvious. He had a great game.

The officials were solid in the first half but they deserve a special place in the afterlife for the 2nd half performance.

Miller made 1 of the dumbest coaching decisions I've ever seen. Some of you called him out for playing Nunge in the first half after his 2nd foul but that was not the problem. That was a poor decision, not because Nunge had 2 fouls but because he had sat too long with 2 fouls. Common wisdom is that players foul more when exhausted. It is also true that they foul more when tight. Too little rest and too much rest both tend to lead to more frequent fouls. That however is not my complaint.

Xavier proved at the end of the first half that they were struggling to score with Nunge (and Hunter) off the floor. Starting the 2nd half with Nunge on the bench is beyond stupid. First, as stated previously, fouling tends to happen more frequently with too little rest and too much rest. Also, fouling is more likely when teams get desperate. X had a 9 point lead to start the 2nd half. Nunge needs to be in at the start of the half to improve the probability of maintaining that lead in addition to being able to sub him out after 5 or so minutes. Short rest and then back in. Sitting him almost 1.5 minutes causes the lead to drop to 4 putting more pressure on players increasing the probability of fouls.

Amazing 2nd half by Jones. Big block by Nunge after the missed front end.

And yet we won. WTH Sut back and enjoy it. This year has been fun.

[edgecliff hall]

pdmuskie, I think many of us would be interested to hear more about your experience playing basketball. When, what team or teams, what position played, what it feels like, the emotional kicks and dumps. My hunch is that there is not much being written today by basketball players. Or maybe I just don't know where to look. Could be. I should have asked my Dad while he was still with us. He played forward for the Anderson Indiana high school team in 1920. He stood a good five foot three. The kids called him "Banty."