XAVIER vs ST JOHN'S

[D-West & PO-Z]

I have read none of this thread and have nothing meaningful to say. At the last minute I got tickets off stubhub and decided to go and I am now 2-1 in the tas this year. Very frustrating loss, any home loss is frustrating to me to an extent though. On to the Bearkittens!!

[RoseyMuskie]

I don't understand why people think the hedge is the issue with our defense. We rarely give up open three's on the hedge, and our main defensive weakness is defending the three. We can't defend the three because we can't defend 1 on 1...period. Our guards can't keep penetration to a minimum, and our bigs apparently need help from the guards (you CONSTANTLY see guards dipping down to help the post and the post throwing it right back out to an open man.

I'm not sure there's a big man great enough to beat us by himself in this conference. For the life of me, I don't understand why we don't let our bigs play straight up D and take away the 3...but that's just me.

It's more so a lack of communication than getting beat one on one..not to say that hasn't happened though.

When a screen is set, how many times have we seen two defenders on one opponent and none on the other? That's what has routinely burned X.

[Masterofreality]

[QUOTE=Masterofreality;486615]

You don't hedge just to stop the shot. You hedge to stop the shot, the drive, or the easy pass.

And St. John's scored on all of those categories against the hedge Saturday. Even their stiff white center scored on a roll to the hoop- When Jalen was in because their PG rejected the ball screen.

Biggest problem is that the hedge creates a bad scramble mode. Has happened all year. 26 games don't lie.

[IM4X]

Okay... If these stats are correct... Only 8 players in Division 1 have more assists than Dee.

Let me repeat that stat... ONLY 8 players in Division 1 have more assists than Dee.

And only one of those 8 Players plays in the Big East conference.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/statistics/player/_/stat/assists/sort/avgAssists

Dee ALREADY has about the same number of assists at this point of his senior year as Tu had during his entire senior year. While Tu was a bit more of a shooter than Dee, it's still impressive.

Every player on the team has parts of their game that they still need to improve (including Dee), but our senior PG has done a very nice job of distributing the ball this year and he's been about the only player who's been hustling every game. And as I've mentioned before, it's not like the shooting guards and small forwards are playing lights out. They are missing lots of shots and have had their share of turnovers.

In this last game...

Dee play 34 minutes and had 2 turnovers.

Larry Austin played PG for only 2 minutes and had 1 turnover.

Abell played 25. Min and had 2 turnovers

Jalen played 19 min and had 2 turnovers

Macura played 16 min (less than half of Dee's minutes) and had 1 turnover

Farr played only 7 min and had 1 turnover

O'Mara played only 2 min and had 1 turnover

Many of these turnovers were the result of X players throwing lazy passes again and again in a game filled with a very quick and tenacious St. John's players.

[X Factor]

It's pretty impressive, especially since X is shooting less than 30% from three through 14 conference games. I'm sure a bunch of those missed threes came off passes from Dee.

The thing about Dee is his own shooting has completely disappeared. He's shooting less than 20% from three in conference play. So yes, while he has been really good at distributing the ball, we are getting nothing out of him on offense. He has turned into London Warren from three.

[bourbonman]

...Many of these turnovers were the result of X players throwing lazy passes again and again in a game filled with a very quick and tenacious St. John's players.

I saw not only lazy passes, but predictable repetitive passes. We saw where the pass was going before they came across half court. Very predictable.

[Cheesehead]

Dee has been great w/ assists but he has to be a threat to score and someone shooting 20% from three's in conference play is not exactly a threat to score. Teams need to guard Dee and he has not given any team a reason to do that. We need both thing from him; creating w/ assists and scoring.

[IM4X]

I saw not only lazy passes, but predictable repetitive passes. We saw where the pass was going before they came across half court. Very predictable.

Yes... Though I personally would classify predictable passes as being under the umbrella of lazy passes. In any event we seem to agree that the passes either had no zip on them or were telegraphed or were, as you said, just very predictable (which St. John's player anticipated and easily picked off.

[XU 87]

[QUOTE=LA Muskie;486637]

And St. John's scored on all of those categories against the hedge Saturday. Even their stiff white center scored on a roll to the hoop- When Jalen was in because their PG rejected the ball screen.

Biggest problem is that the hedge creates a bad scramble mode. Has happened all year. 26 games don't lie.

If run correctly, it doesn't usually create scramble mode. But I agree, with Xavier, we are often in scramble mode.

[paulxu]

Not that it means anything, but JP had the ball in the corner and whipped a crazy good pass to Reynolds (?) under the basket. Like a bullet.
That kid can pass the ball.

[GoMuskies]

Not that it means anything, but JP had the ball in the corner and whipped a crazy good pass to Reynolds (?) under the basket. Like a bullet.
That kid can pass the ball.

He was immediately replaced by Remy, who threw a pass to no one in particular for a St. John's layup and took a wild, off-balance three that had no prayer in the decisive sequence of the game.

[IM4X]

Dee has been great w/ assists but he has to be a threat to score and someone shooting 20% from three's in conference play is not exactly a threat to score. Teams need to guard Dee and he has not given any team a reason to do that. We need both thing from him; creating w/ assists and scoring.

No question, I agree he needs to start shooting better from outside. Not that he needs to scores a ton of points. Just shoot well enough to make defenders pay when they don't defend him out there.

[XUFan09]

He was immediately replaced by Remy, who threw a pass to no one in particular for a St. John's layup and took a wild, off-balance three that had no prayer in the decisive sequence of the game.
Remy seems to have regressed in the latter half of this season.

[X Factor]

I see Harrison for SJU is 0-11 from the field tonight against GTown.