Gold Jersey

[mistabeecee41]

For the last few years we've always heard about the 'gold jersey' given out in practice. Mack tweeted that Semaj was the week 1 winner and also posted what it encompasses and the full results.

Pretty interesting stuff.

https://twitter.com/CoachChrisMack/status/387295597893406720/photo/1

[XUFan09]

Martin was the next best player, followed somewhat closely by Reynolds and Farr.

[GoMuskies]

Martin was the next best player

This is either a REALLY good thing or a REALLY, REALLY bad thing.

[RealDeal]

Interesting, top guys were Semaj, JMart, Reynolds, Farr. JMart filling it up from 3. That's new.

[LA Muskie]

I like seeing how Reynolds and Farr were hitting the boards on both ends. Looks like quite a week of battling between Reynolds and Stain. I'm guessing most if those 8 fouls were on Stain.

[ammtd34]

Philmore with 12 3's?

[LA Muskie]

JMart filling it up from 3. That's new.
Not really. Old hat at practice. Hoping it shows better in games this year.

[LA Muskie]

Philmore with 12 3's?

No. They count for 3 each. My guess is that means he went 4 for 4. Still love it.

[ammtd34]

Ah, makes sense.

[GoMuskies]

I'm not sure we want Philmore to have too much success shooting threes in practice. He clearly had some success shooting threes in practice last year, too, based on the fact that his first shot against Pacific was from behind the arc (and it went in). I'm personally not looking forward to seeing Philmore standing behind the arc and shooting a bunch of threes in games this year.

Hope he shoots 40+% and proves me wrong, though.

Any early word on whether Semaj's jumper is less broke?

[ammtd34]

I'm not sure we want Philmore to have too much success shooting threes in practice. He clearly had some success shooting threes in practice last year, too, based on the fact that his first shot against Pacific was from behind the arc (and it went in). I'm personally not looking forward to seeing Philmore standing behind the arc and shooting a bunch of threes in games this year.

Hope he shoots 40+% and proves me wrong, though.

Any early word on whether Semaj's jumper is less broke?

If he's getting to the bucket at will, I'm not sure it matters too much. I'd like for his jumper to improve, obviously, but if he can't be stopped from penetrating, I ultimately don't care. Case in point, everyone knows Manu is going to go left. The guy never goes right. He hasn't been stopped in 10 years.

I think he's going to be on a different level than nearly every guard we play against this year.

[GoMuskies]

I have no doubt he's going to be amazing, jumper or no. He's just going to be completely unguardable once he can shoot.

I just hope he still plays for Xavier at that point.

[Titanxman04]

I love this concept. I've already written it down and have looked into purchasing a custom gold jersey for my lacrosse team I coach. I want this to be something all the guys shoot for every week. With any luck, that's the case.

[GoMuskies]

Stainbrook -8 on twos? I'm going to choose to believe that whoever is guarding him is playing FANTASTIC defense.

[BMoreX]

Reynolds with 8 fouls and everyone else with like 3 or 4 made me chuckle.

[GoMuskies]

He must have been guarding Stainbrook, because he got credited with 10 fouls drawn. I guess Stainbrook could never manage to get a two down since he got fould every time he had a good look.

[X-band '01]

Did he get Butler's permission to use "Xavier Way" on the practice chart?

[Muskeagle]

J-Mart could have missed some threes and made more than 4....they subtract one for missed threes.

[GoMuskies]

Martin's 3 pointer score was 17. So he obviously hit at least 6 and missed at least one.

BTW, how does Martin get a 5 in charges drawn? You get a +2 for every charge drawn. Was one borderline, so he only got half credit?

Man, I didn't realize how much I was missing basketball season until these numbers got posted.

[bobbiemcgee]

I love this concept. I've already written it down and have looked into purchasing a custom gold jersey for my lacrosse team I coach. I want this to be something all the guys shoot for every week. With any luck, that's the case.


1267

[Titanxman04]

1267

Exactly.

[Milhouse]

Man I love this. Hope Mack posts every single week. Really great for the fans and to build hype.

Anyone notice Randolph lead both squads in assists? Any chance he pushes Dee for starting minutes by years end?

1 MONTH AND 1 DAY TIL THE SEASON STARTS.

[PMI]

This is either a REALLY good thing or a REALLY, REALLY bad thing.

I feel like every offseason, there's a point where we hear something really encouraging about Martin, and a point where we hear something really discouraging about him. I guess that kind of sums up his history of consistency. It sure would be nice to see him put it together this year. I think it would be the difference between Xavier being good and Xavier being great. The 3 is the one position where we could be weak in my opinion. Even though I expect some three guard lineups, it would be such a luxury to have Martin playing focused every night and hitting a decent percentage from outside.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Randolph in the starting lineup at some point this year. He seems to really be catching on fast. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Myles Davis start at some point. I think Dee will benefit from not playing as many minutes as he did last year. I think he'll play hard, fully energized, and with an even bigger focus on tenacious defense. I think he'll start coming into the season, but I don't think it would be a bad thing if we end up bringing him off the bench. The backcourt rotation should be pretty impressive this year.

[sirthought]

This is a lot of fun to read. I guess I'm not up to speed on a couple things, though.

Is this just from one scrimmage game? Or a whole week of scrimmage?
How can some players have goose eggs for all categories?

It would be nice to know who is going up against who, generally.

I am also pretty cautious about Martin's stats here. First week, not a lot of depth at his position in a system he knows, the younger guys might not be playing defense well. But it is really hopeful when you see him scoring some points and getting rebounds. We now have enough players with size that he doesn't have to be the one rebounding, but he's showing some effort.

I love that we have a budding star in Christon, but I also hope that he learns to pass it a bit more than last year. Yeah, I see he had 8 assists, but my bet is he still dominated the ball every trip. I'd like to see more ball handlers in the flow of each play.

[sirthought]

Is it just me, or do others think that Stain might be way more effective in Mack's system than Kenny Freeze ever was? The guy hasn't played a game, yet makes captain, and he's not scoring, but doing a lot of the little things that add up. Just needs to protect the ball more and be a bit stronger.

[X-band '01]

It's a whole week of practice/scrimmage.

[X-man]

Did he get Butler's permission to use "Xavier Way" on the practice chart?

Reps, man. Hilarious.

[Milhouse]

I love that we have a budding star in Christon, but I also hope that he learns to pass it a bit more than last year. Yeah, I see he had 8 assists, but my bet is he still dominated the ball every trip. I'd like to see more ball handlers in the flow of each play.

I mean he averaged 4.5 APG last year....as a freshman....he also didn't have many offense options to pass to....

[Masterofreality]

Did he get Butler's permission to use "Xavier Way" on the practice chart?

Same here brother. I was trying to rep, but the Iron Fist of Oppression has squashed my initiative.

[nuts4xu]

I mean he averaged 4.5 APG last year....as a freshman....he also didn't have many offense options to pass to....

I was thinking the same thing. I didn't want Semaj passing it very often last year. Xavier was better off with the ball in his hands than anyone else on the team. Yet, he still had a relatively high APG. He ranked 5th in the conference for Assists as a freshman, how much more can the guy pass it?

[PMI]

I agree, as it pertains to last year, that Semaj didn't need to pass much more than he did. But I am interested to see how that part of his game develops now that he's on a team with more weapons, as well as now that he's going to draw even more focus from opposing defenses. If he continues to improve in that area, it will open a lot more up for himself and the team. He's going to be the best player on the court most nights and he's going to score. But it will be nice knowing we don't need to rely on him carrying the offensive load by himself for 38 minutes a game like last year.

Biggest area I'd like to see improvement in BY FAR for Semaj is at the free throw line. I think free throw shooting (much due to fatigue late in games but also due to just bad shooting) kept us out of the postseason last year.

[Milhouse]

I agree, as it pertains to last year, that Semaj didn't need to pass much more than he did. But I am interested to see how that part of his game develops now that he's on a team with more weapons, as well as now that he's going to draw even more focus from opposing defenses. If he continues to improve in that area, it will open a lot more up for himself and the team. He's going to be the best player on the court most nights and he's going to score. But it will be nice knowing we don't need to rely on him carrying the offensive load by himself for 38 minutes a game like last year.

Biggest area I'd like to see improvement in BY FAR for Semaj is at the free throw line. I think free throw shooting (much due to fatigue late in games but also due to just bad shooting) kept us out of the postseason last year.

Hate to say it but I think a lot of it is mental too.

I say Semaj = Trey burke numbers this year. 17 and 7 and he throws up the peace sign as heads to the NBA lottery.

I wouldn't mind if emulated Burke completely throwing the team on his back to a NCAA runner up.

[GoMuskies]

I wouldn't mind if emulated Burke completely throwing the team on his back to a NCAA runner up.

I'd mind it the night of the national championship game. I'd be up all night in a depressed drunken stupor. But I'd get over it soon after and be damn thrilled.

[PMI]

I'd mind it the night of the national championship game. I'd be up all night in a depressed drunken stupor. But I'd get over it soon after and be damn thrilled.

Yea, I would probably do some things I'd really regret later if we lost the title game. Let's just hope it doesn't come to that and we make it a laugher against Kentucky early.