Post-Game Thoughts

[XUFan09]

Here (http://fromstaaktomack.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/some-post-game-thoughts/)are some of my post-game thoughts. God, I love going to the tournament.

[SemajParlor]

Was at the game tonight. The Big East tournament at MSG is and will be a fantastic experience for years to come.

[OTRMUSKIE]

How was the crowd? It looked sort of empty in the upper bowl. Otherwise it looked like they had at least 10k which is about 3 k more than the A10 had for a championship game if not 5k more depending on who played.

[OTRMUSKIE]

Disagree with the defense. I thought X played one of the best defensive games of the year. They executed Mack's plan to perfection. They kept Marquette from scoring from the perimeter and yes Marquette got some baskets inside but that was Xavier's game plan I am sure. Thomas did squat, Mayo has been on fire and he looked great tonight and they had the one kid who I can't remember play the game of his life. Mack's game plan worked to perfection. There were times where Xavier just completely locked Marquette down. What a great game by X. I also want to have a beer with Buzz because he looks like a great time.

[xubball1993]

When I look at the box score, this jumps out to me: X only had 10 turnovers all game; X won despite being outrebounded; Marquette was horrible at the charity stripe, 57% whereas X was 74%.
Huge hill to climb tonight. Let's go X!

[XU-PA]

only one thought post game, besides YIPPPPEEEEEEE!!!!!
Martin, Justin Freakin Martin. The man went to NYC to play!

[X-Fan]

Disagree with the defense. I thought X played one of the best defensive games of the year. They executed Mack's plan to perfection. They kept Marquette from scoring from the perimeter and yes Marquette got some baskets inside but that was Xavier's game plan I am sure. Thomas did squat, Mayo has been on fire and he looked great tonight and they had the one kid who I can't remember play the game of his life. Mack's game plan worked to perfection. There were times where Xavier just completely locked Marquette down. What a great game by X. I also want to have a beer with Buzz because he looks like a great time.
I totally agree. I wanted to give Coach Mack some props. Over the years, I have felt he's been out-coached a number of times. The most glaring, IMO, was X's loss to Marquette in the 2012 tourney. I felt like Mack got some revenge last night and completely out-coached Buzz. He thankfully made it CLEAR that Thomas would not have another breakout game. Then he swallowed his pride and played as much zone in one game than I've ever seen in his time at X. X has had issues containing the 3 pt shot all year, Mack put his team in the best position to win by mixing up their game plan. Heck they even came out in a 2-3 Zone...much to Bill Raftery's disdain! lol!

Great job coach and guys! Keep it up! Go X!!!!

[sgarcia]

I am a guy that loves zone defense for the fact that most teams are stupid and take bad shots when they can easily get the ball inside. When Marquette was slicing up our zone in the beginning I wanted us to get out of it which we did for a bit. Marquette finally started missing some shots against the zone later on and we were able to capitalize. While Marquette shot very well for the game I wasn't too upset because they were hitting 2's rather than 3's like they did in both regular season matchups. Mack did an excellent job of switching things up. I think he and the team knew it was a do or die situation and they'd have to resort to anything to win that game last night. My one criticism of our zone is that no one gets their hands up other than the guy in the zone who is closest to the ball. I suspect we might see a little zone tonight only because it's a back to back and we had 4 guys play over 33 minutes last night. We need everyone to have active hands and make that pass to the foul line a little more difficult. Other than that, all positives from us last night.

[XUGRAD80]

I would tend to believe that the aim was to minimize the amount of running back and forth that Stain had to do, so ditch the hedging on the screens and just switch out top. I was shocked when he put Stenger in for minutes in the 2nd half, but it turned out OK. He got a big defensive rebound and was active out at the top of the zone. Also a good sub at end of 1 st half when he took Semaj out and put Randolf in for the last defensive possession. He got the foul and Semaj didn't. I was surprised that he did put Semaj back in after picking up his 2nd foul in the first half, but the team played well without him and he played smartly after he got back in. Also liked the Reynolds and Farr combo that was used midway through the 2nd half, then put Stain and Philmore back in for the two of them down the stretch. I think that Mack had his best substitution descisions game all year.

[Xavier]

Didn't he keep Semaj in after his 2nd for a few minutes then give him rest? I liked the move, showed how important this one was.

[X-Fan]

I would tend to believe that the aim was to minimize the amount of running back and forth that Stain had to do, so ditch the hedging on the screens and just switch out top. I was shocked when he put Stenger in for minutes in the 2nd half, but it turned out OK. He got a big defensive rebound and was active out at the top of the zone. Also a good sub at end of 1 st half when he took Semaj out and put Randolf in for the last defensive possession. He got the foul and Semaj didn't. I was surprised that he did put Semaj back in after picking up his 2nd foul in the first half, but the team played well without him and he played smartly after he got back in. Also liked the Reynolds and Farr combo that was used midway through the 2nd half, then put Stain and Philmore back in for the two of them down the stretch. I think that Mack had his best substitution descisions game all year.
Yep, I thought Farr gave some great minutes. To me, the steal that he got was both pivotal and a sign of him finally "getting it" on defense. Great play, great contributions. Now if he can hit a few shots, X can get ROLLING!

Go X!!!!

[Masterofreality]

How was the crowd? It looked sort of empty in the upper bowl. Otherwise it looked like they had at least 10k which is about 3 k more than the A10 had for a championship game if not 5k more depending on who played.

13,807. While that is 6,000 below capacity, it's still decent for no Northeastern area teams playing. I'm sure a lot of the Creighton fans took off after the game.

This league needs St. Johns to be good, and make the NCAA's, and to a bit lesser extent Seton Hall. New Yorkers are pretty myopic and don't think much exists outside of the metropolitan area. Hopefully, the schools in the future will be able to sell 1,500 full packages each. That eats up 15,000.

[Masterofreality]

When I look at the box score, this jumps out to me: X only had 10 turnovers all game; X won despite being outrebounded; Marquette was horrible at the charity stripe, 57% whereas X was 74%.
Huge hill to climb tonight. Let's go X!

Marquette shot 57% from the field. They out rebounded us 29-23. They also hit 5 threes and shot 45% on those. So how, the hell did X win?

A) We got to the line 23 times and made 17. Marquette only made 8 at 57%.
B) Even though we only shot 33% from three (5-15) we matched the number of Marquette. Myles Davis, at some point, HAS to make some shots. 0-3 last night and he also missed a 2 pointer.
C) We turned Marquette over 15 times vs our 10. We scored 15 points off of their turnovers.

That being said. I almost lost it when, with a 5 point lead in the last 20 seconds, Dee Davis leaves Todd Mayo to double down on Gardner and gives Mayo a wide ass open 3 from the top. Of course, he drills it. C'mon man. Give up the 2 but guard the 3. Even if Gardner scores, we still have a 3 point lead and they have to foul again. As is was, the lead goes to two and we are really having to make 1-1 frees. DON'T leave 3 shooters open in those cases, people!!!!!

[Masterofreality]

By the way,

Evening session attendance comparison: Big East 13,807 with no Northeast team playing. AAC with a Memphis home game 13,081. So, ESPN? Requiem for exactly whom?

It was funny hearing Doris Burke trying to justify the lousy crowds by saying that "This place will be packed and rocking with Memphis tonight". Uh, not so much. Fed Ex Forum hold 18,119. Plenty of seats available. Nice job picking Memphis for that Tourney, Mike Aresco.

[Mel Cooley XU'81]

Marquette shot 57% from the field. They out rebounded us 29-23. They also hit 5 threes and shot 45% on those. So how, the hell did X win?

A) We got to the line 23 times and made 17. Marquette only made 8 at 57%.
B) Even though we only shot 33% from three (5-15) we matched the number of Marquette. Myles Davis, at some point, HAS to make some shots. 0-3 last night and he also missed a 2 pointer.
C) We turned Marquette over 15 times vs our 10. We scored 15 points off of their turnovers.

All this.

Last night is exactly the kind of win that sends a tingle up my leg.

Hard fought, well-coached, no-panic, minutes from the freshmen, star plays like a star, JMart goes LEADER, Dee and Zeke play like grown ups, the list goes on.

Huge, satisfying, tournament-caliber-team win.

Very proud of the way it went down.

Bravo.

[Mel Cooley XU'81]

And in New York City.

Sweet.

[XU-XHI]

All this.

Last night is exactly the kind of win that sends a tingle up my leg.

Hard fought, well-coached, no-panic, minutes from the freshmen, star plays like a star, JMart goes LEADER, Dee and Zeke play like grown ups, the list goes on.

Huge, satisfying, tournament-caliber-team win.

Very proud of the way it went down.

Bravo.

Yea, not bad for a team having such an unsuccessful season as some would say. For the most part the team played well and smart. Coaches put the team in a good situation to win and for the most part it seemed like the players executed the plan. Tonight versus the Jays should be fun.

[XUFan09]

Disagree with the defense. I thought X played one of the best defensive games of the year. They executed Mack's plan to perfection. They kept Marquette from scoring from the perimeter and yes Marquette got some baskets inside but that was Xavier's game plan I am sure. Thomas did squat, Mayo has been on fire and he looked great tonight and they had the one kid who I can't remember play the game of his life. Mack's game plan worked to perfection. There were times where Xavier just completely locked Marquette down. What a great game by X. I also want to have a beer with Buzz because he looks like a great time.

I think calling it one of the best defensive games of the year is a little over the top. It was one of the better ones, but there's at least a handful that were better. The St. John's game on the same court comes to mind. I agree with much of what you're saying, but I think you're undervaluing Marquette's baskets in the lane. Those are highly efficient shots that they were able to get, and that wasn't part of Xavier's gameplan. That's why they adjusted to what Marquette was doing and started helping out more on those drives. Marquette didn't get as many opportunities later in the game and only survived until near the end by hitting some tough shots and getting some points off live-ball turnovers.

That's why I wouldn't call it spectacular defense, as it had its flaws. It was good defense, one of their better performances, but just not great.

[xudash]

I would tend to believe that the aim was to minimize the amount of running back and forth that Stain had to do, so ditch the hedging on the screens and just switch out top. I was shocked when he put Stenger in for minutes in the 2nd half, but it turned out OK. He got a big defensive rebound and was active out at the top of the zone. Also a good sub at end of 1 st half when he took Semaj out and put Randolf in for the last defensive possession. He got the foul and Semaj didn't. I was surprised that he did put Semaj back in after picking up his 2nd foul in the first half, but the team played well without him and he played smartly after he got back in. Also liked the Reynolds and Farr combo that was used midway through the 2nd half, then put Stain and Philmore back in for the two of them down the stretch. I think that Mack had his best substitution descisions game all year.

That scared the crap out of me, but that's why Chris is the coach and I'm just a fan.

[XU-XHI]

I was shocked when he put Stenger in for minutes in the 2nd half, but it turned out OK.

Hey, It's a mostly Catholic league, everybody (on scholarship) gets to play!