Quick Reactions from Seton Hall game

[XUBob]

Wow , this one was tough. As I try to remain positive its hard after watching this team the last few weeks. Really concerned about the defense guards have consistently been getting into the lane way too easily. Teams shoot well from three because they seem to get consistent open looks. I know Chris is a pack-line guy but I’m wondering if its not a good strategy for the Big East. Worked well in the A-10 but one thing it does is give open jumpers. Teams in this league have more than one guy that can hit the three. Well, everybody other than X—X has got to improve the outside shooting. This team is becoming easy to guard, pack it in and force X to beat you from the outside.
Also I have been disappointed with the effort as of late, at Providence and home today I though the team looked listless at times. What is unusual is the fact that X seems to be regressing, for the last few years that hasn’t been the case.
Wondering if its time to consider a different starting lineup. Zeke, seems to start really slow and kills us early, he plays better as the game progresses, maybe bringing him of the bench would help.
Maybe having a quick turn-a-round against a very good Villanova squad will be the best medicine. No time to dwell on today, they have to turn around and play well on Mon. or it could get ugly. Plenty of season left, hoping the guys get out of this funk and get back to playing basketball the way they were not long ago.

[Backyard Champ]

I'm disappointed with the effort. Seemed like the whole team, even the student section and the rest of the crowd, was lethargic.

Dee Davis and Justin Martin need to play a lot better if we are going to win a lot of games. I think both those players are really really good, so when they each don't play well, it really hurts.

[DC Muskie]

What's so surprising is how they had a week off then came out flat. At home.

[sirthought]

I wonder if all this shitty weather just doesn't have the team in a good state of mind.

[OH.X.MI]

Dee Davis and Justin Martin need to play a lot better if we are going to win a lot of games. I think both those players are really really good, so when they each don't play well, it really hurts.

Agreed. Especially with Martin. The game goes as Justin Martin goes. We need him to start playing at a high level again, which I have no doubt he will.

[XU 87]

I wonder if all this shitty weather just doesn't have the team in a good state of mind.

Please don't blame a loss on bad weather.

[Musketeer_15]

When the Davis duo shoots 3-15 from the field and 2-11 from behind the arc then I don't expect us to win. Also when our starting guards have a combined 10 turnovers sucks. Stenger played well but he is so limited to just getting loose balls and rebounds. It hurts when we basically had three guys (Myles, Dee, and Stenger) out on the court that couldn't shoot the ball. I wonder what would have happened if we had Jalen out there instead of Stenger...

[XU3232]

I'm disappointed with the effort. Seemed like the whole team, even the student section and the rest of the crowd, was lethargic.

Dee Davis and Justin Martin need to play a lot better if we are going to win a lot of games. I think both those players are really really good, so when they each don't play well, it really hurts.

Yea your right about the crowd and students. I was there and it was quiet. Seton Hall completely took the crowd out of the game. Dee was awful. Same with JMart and Myles Davis is really not shooting well. The team looked like didn't want to even be there except for Semaj.

[xavierj]

Please don't blame a loss on bad weather.

He thought this was the Dayton board.

[XU 87]

I thought from the start, the team, except for two players (Semaj and Stainbrook), looked lethargic and without focus. Dee Davis played like crap at the start and continued to play like crap the rest of the game. His first pass at the start of the game was a weak one handed pass to the wing. The guy next to me commented "That was a soft pass." Dee's second pass was a soft pass to Philmore, which resulted in a turnover and a dunk. Dee's third pass was another one handed soft pass inside (which was not stolen). But Dee looked out of it all game, as shown by his stats of 5 turnovers and three points. He did a poor job of running the offense. As he showed in Bahamas, for some reason he can just disappear for a game(s). If I were Mack, I would have sat him down. He was killing us today.

As for Mack, this team looked lost against a 2-3 zone. I also didn't understand why Philmore and Semaj were both on the bench until 3:30 to go in the game. I realize they both had 4 fouls, but by the time Mack put them back in, we were down by 9. The game was essentially over at that point. Semaj was about the only guy generating any offense. Stenger was in there for Philmore, and Stenger missed two free throw towards the end. I just don't understand keeping guys out of the game until the very end. It's just stupid.

I realize we shot poorly from the three. But I didn't think we had a lot of good looks from the three either.

What I saw today was an unfocused team (as further demonstrated by the poor free throw shooting and turnovers), led by an unfocused point guard, that for the most part didn't show up to play today. And we saw the results.

[mohr5150]

We just lost to a team who lost to Fairleigh Dickenson. At home. Nothing else needs to be said. Just horrible.

[XU 87]

Yea your right about the crowd and students. I was there and it was quiet. Seton Hall completely took the crowd out of the game. Dee was awful. Same with JMart and Myles Davis is really not shooting well. The team looked like didn't want to even be there except for Semaj.

We had a sold out game. But when the team Is sleepwalking, I think it's tough for the crowd to get into the game. Actually, I thought the crowd was pretty good when the team went on a few runs.

[dabott]

It's something about afternoon games, especially 12 noon games...

[xsteve1]

What's so surprising is how they had a week off then came out flat. At home.

Agree. That's what so alarming about this loss.

[OH.X.MI]

We had a sold out game. But when the team Is sleepwalking, I think it's tough for the crowd to get into the game. Actually, I thought the crowd was pretty good when the team went on a few runs.

Sold out doesn't mean every seat is filled. There was a noticeable lack of fans there, especially for a weekend game. And the student section was horrible... students should be into the game even when things aren't going great. This is Xavier, not UC.

[XU3232]

Sold out doesn't mean every seat is filled. There was a noticeable lack of fans there, especially for a weekend game. And the student section was horrible... students should be into the game even when things aren't going great. This is Xavier, not UC.

Exactly.

[X-band '01]

We just lost to a team who lost to Fairleigh Dickenson. At home. Nothing else needs to be said. Just horrible.

Seton Hall is really an enigma - it's not just FDU, they also lost to St. Peter's at home. They're only 1-3 at home in Big East play but they are 3-2 on the road in conference play. You'd have to draw lots to assume that those wins were at Providence (their only home loss), at Georgetown and at Xavier (also their only home loss).

I was afraid of this being a "trap" game, but I'm glad this happened against Seton Hall and not an also-ran from the A-10.

[NY44]

The game was at 12 for Seton Hall too. It was after a week of bad weather for Seton Hall too. What's different is that it was after a demoralizing loss for SHU. There was a lot of talk that there was trouble in their locker room after the loss to Butler. The coach was fired up, as you can see by his T, which Coach Gillen thought was a good move by him. They needed this win and it showed. X on the other hand might have been looking ahead to Nova on Monday, a big game which is ironically made bigger by this loss, they certainly didn't look ready to play Seton Hall.

No matter what the reason was, they really just out-played and out-coached us. The scouting report had to have had a mention of Seton Hall's ability to get steals, yett the team was lackadaisical with the ball. You beat a 2-3 zone by doing 2 things: passing and shooting, we did neither. With Martin and Dee not playing well it seemed like Semaj and Stainbrook recognized that it was up to them to score and they took a couple forced shots with the zone collapsing on them. In these past 2 games Semaj has reminded me of Tu in his junior season. He tried to let the offense run its course, but when the game started getting away he started keeping the ball to himself.

[xubball1993]

Agree. That's what so alarming about this loss.

Ditto that. Could've used Redford suited up, not in a suit and tie.

[xudash]

Bad karma moment: SHU's first possession - the first possession of the game, in fact - Xavier works them down to the end of the possession clock, one of their guards goes to the top of the key and launches a Hail Mary shot and BANKS it in.

That right there set us up for a bad day, I'm absolutely not certain of it.

[waggy]

Hall was daring Semaj to shoot the 3, and he wouldn't take it.

[paulxu]

I would venture a guess that you would not win one BE game shooting 14% from the arc.

[Thor in 204]

This team plays "too cool". It looks to me like they expect to win somehow because they expect they'll go on a second half run and win the game. I don't understand why they are not intense from the get-go. They weren't just lucky against UC, they went out and played hard. I think they played hard from the start against Creighton. I'm guessing they were just more up for those games, somehow knew they had to bring their best. It was very disappointing to watch them today. This team is becoming a head case, not so much full of negativity, but a head case in that they are forgetting about what it takes to win, that they have to make wins happen, starting with the first plays of the game. 57% from the line?...mentally not fully into it. Have to get tougher.

Today, Semaj was the true point guard. I admired how he can visualize plays and set them up. I wonder if he might emerge into team leader not just because he's the best player but because he has the most command of the game on the floor. Dee has ability like this but wasn't showing it today.

[wkrq59]

Stay calm.

[OTRMUSKIE]

X looked lazy out there, never felt they had a sense of urgency. Semaj has to take the open three, he has gotten better at that so not sure why he didn't take the shots. If I had to guess what is wrong I guess maybe you can say this team is built for the A-10 still. A weak Seton Hall is still better than almost 75% of A-10 teams. Creighton was ready to compete in the Big East but maybe X and especially Butler still need another year or two to really bring in better talent.

I have noticed a lot of students leave at half and a lot of them tell the usher they arnt coming back. It's always the females that I see do that too. It's not enough of them to really make a difference but it just leaves a bad impression in my mind.

I think X will be okay but now we have to steal two road victories and that is going to be at Marquette and Nova and hold serve at home. Very very very tough task but I feel if they don't do that then we might be looking at the NIT :jawdrop2:

[XU3232]

I really hope this a wake up call to the players. Villanova will run us out of the gym if we play like we did today.

[OTRMUSKIE]

Actually if we can win at Marquette, GTown and St. John's and hold serve at home we should be okay.

[Xavier]

X is in a lot better shape than you think. Top 50 RPI+SOS. Still playing for seeding at this point. The bubble is always horrible, I'd still be shocked if they miss the tournament.

[waggy]

They are okay for the tourney right now, but they don't look good. I think they'll be fine. The season is a lifetime.

[Patrick Bateman]

I wonder if all this shitty weather just doesn't have the team in a good state of mind.

I was wondering the same thing

[NY44]

X is in a lot better shape than you think. Top 50 RPI+SOS. Still playing for seeding at this point. The bubble is always horrible, I'd still be shocked if they miss the tournament.

Yes, if today was just a fluke day.

[jhelmes37]

The highlight was Redford. I'm annoyed I drove from Detroit to watch that mess. Brutal basketball.

[bigdiggins]

The highlight was Redford. I'm annoyed I drove from Detroit to watch that mess. Brutal basketball.

He was 3 feet past 1/2 court. Cheater. May as well have been a savings bond kid that kept moving closer we "give him one more try."

[Masterofreality]

I'm disappointed with the effort. Seemed like the whole team, even the student section and the rest of the crowd, was lethargic.

Dee Davis and Justin Martin need to play a lot better if we are going to win a lot of games. I think both those players are really really good, so when they each don't play well, it really hurts.

This about sums it up. I was really disappointed in the players effort, but the crowd sucked yesterday too. The only time they seemed to even wake up was when Brad Redford hit the half court shot then died after that.

Plus...Myles Davis is missing a lot of shots and Jimmy Farr was invisible yesterday. This was maybe the most depressing game I've ever attended at Cintas.

[UCGRAD4X]

Definitely the most disappointing game of the year, more than any, and maybe even all of the Bahamas. These are the games you need to hold if you expect to be at or near the top of this league.

Hopefully we will be able to look back on this as the low point of the season and the game that "woke them up"!

[GetUp5]

The student section has always been embarrassing.

[OTRMUSKIE]

Reminds me of the southern Utah state game which eventually led us to the sweet 16. In my 38 years on this planet I have rarely seen X lose in person. La Salle was a bad one when they got destroyed, Southern Utah St was the biggest one I remember. Keep in mind this is the Big East and this will happen more than it did in the A-10.