St. John's Silver Lining

[Roach]

Yes, it was St. John's, and we should have handled them, but I don't think the fact that it was close is all that surprising. Have a look at their lineup - 3 seniors, 2 juniors, 2 sophomores, and 7 freshmen. They're a young, upstart team with some real talent coached by two NBA legends (Mullin and Richmond), both of whom have NBA coaching and front office experience. They played well over their heads tonight, especially Balamou who, with 20 points, had a career high. X clearly looked like the better team, but the Johnnies simply hit some shots and were opportunistic with some lucky breaks. It also would not have been nearly so close had Jalen hit his free throws.

[xeus]

Sorry, but what was the silver lining?

[Roach]

That the team that played them close was actually better than people think. St. John's is much better than their record indicates. I think it's actually a decent win, especially given that it allowed X to practice some man defense.

You could also say that winning is the silver lining to a sloppy game ... or that X is the first team in college basketball to reach 20 wins.

[paulxu]

Is it my imagination or have there been a couple of guys this year who have had career highs playing us?

[bobbiemcgee]

silver lining is we're 20-2

[D-West & PO-Z]

Is it my imagination or have there been a couple of guys this year who have had career highs playing us?

Every year it seems like, not a good sign for us.

[GoMuskies]

That the team that played them close was actually better than people think. St. John's is much better than their record indicates. I think it's actually a decent win.

Are you high?

[xu82]

silver lining is we're 20-2

That has such a great sound to it! First team to 20 is sweet. Good teams can play poorly and find a way to win. I'll have to settle for that. That can't all be beautiful. Hopefully it helps to motivate them to work hard where they need it.

[XMuskieFTW]

St John's is abysmal. The silver lining is we are 20-2, we have some good film to hopefully correct the massive flaws in our man to man defense, and no one got injured. That's about it.

[Masterofreality]

St John's is almost abysmal. The silver lining is we are 20-2, we have some good film to hopefully correct the massive flaws in our man to man defense, and no one got injureed. That's about it.

This, except that St. John's beat Syracuse, oh....but they lost to Fordham....OK- semi-abysmal.

[bobbiemcgee]

How many 20 wins seasons in a row does that make? Lost count.

[X Factor]

The only thing I'll say is it took a last second three pointer for Golden State to beat the 76'ers, the worst team by far in the NBA.

Yes, we played poorly and SJU hit a lot of tough shots and played pretty well, but it's a win and Mack will use this to keep the guys focused.

Who predicted a 20-2 start?

[drudy23]

The only thing I'll say is it took a last second three pointer for Golden State to beat the 76'ers, the worst team by far in the NBA.

Yes, we played poorly and SJU hit a lot of tough shots and played pretty well, but it's a win and Mack will use this to keep the guys focused.

Who predicted a 20-2 start?

If it was pros against pros, yeah, I see your point.

We won...time to move on.

[X Factor]

If it was pros against pros, yeah, I see your point.

We won...time to move on.

My point is heavy favorites at any level don't always play like it. You couldn't understand that?

What does pros vs pros have to do with it? The 76'ers are byond abysmal at that level.

[vee4xu]

Was there tonight and the game seemed like a scrimmage. No energy from the team, no energy from the crowd. Mack moaned a bit about the seats being empty at game time and the on social media everyone expected for X to win in a rout. But, someone forgot to tell SJU. They aren't good, but they played hard and never quit. X did enough to win. Oh, and 67 total FTs is ridiculous this late in the season. I don't care if X did shoot 40 of them. Yet, a win is a win and move on to Marquette.

[drudy23]

My point is heavy favorites at any level don't always play like it. You couldn't understand that?

What does pros vs pros have to do with it? The 76'ers are byond abysmal at that level.

I understand fine.

[paulxu]

The only thing I'll say is it took a last second three pointer for Golden State to beat the 76'ers, the worst team by far in the NBA.

Yes, we played poorly and SJU hit a lot of tough shots and played pretty well, but it's a win and Mack will use this to keep the guys focused.

Who predicted a 20-2 start?

I'm still alive for this. Had us 12-0 OOC, and 15-3 in conference. Losses at Nova, Prov and Butler.
Had to swap the Georgetown loss with Providence win, but still alive.

[drudy23]

SJU has some ballers...but they shoot alot of tough, contested shots and made some tonight. Mullin probably loves them because they all look and play like NYC street ballers (except the little Italian that looks like he's 13). But that type of play really doesn't translate at the highest level of D-1.

[Roach]

This, except that St. John's beat Syracuse, oh....but they lost to Fordham....OK- semi-abysmal.

Fordham is actually much improved in the A-10 this year ... which is to say they have double digit wins (even before February!). All joking aside, I really like Jeff Neubauer and I think he has Fordham finally headed in the right direction.

[Cheesehead]

Too many f-ing free throws. Horrible game to watch

[kyxu]

How many 20 wins seasons in a row does that make? Lost count.

You lost count at 3?

[XUMIOH12]

You lost count at 3?

haha he must have forgot about the 12-13 season

[bjf123]

...Mack moaned a bit about the seats being empty at game time...

That will always be the case for 6:30 tip offs. Not everyone can leave work early enough to get home, pick up their spouse and/or kids, and get through rush hour traffic to be in their seats before the game starts.


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[Milhouse]

Last year we didn't hit 20 wins til the BET...

[XMuskieFTW]

How many 20 wins seasons in a row does that make? Lost count.

18 of the last 20 also.

[sgarcia]

Too many f-ing free throws. Horrible game to watch

"Freedom of movement." Some refs call the fouls that they are being told to call more than other refs.

[markchal]

That will always be the case for 6:30 tip offs. Not everyone can leave work early enough to get home, pick up their spouse and/or kids, and get through rush hour traffic to be in their seats before the game starts.


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Given the time and the opponent I actually was surprised at how full it was at game time. Also sort of a cop out to blame the crowd. Tough to get excited when you're trading baskets with a terrible team and barely holding a lead.

[xufan2434]

How many times has X been in games like that? Used to happen all the time in the A-10 when they couldn't get up to play the bottom feeders of the league. Wasn't really surprised X was sleep walking through that one. Happened last year quite a bit. Silver lining would be in years past, X probably loses that game and this year they can survive and escape.

Need to get up for Marquette and I expect they will. BTW, Seton Hall looked great last night. That's going to be a huge game following Nova at home in a couple weeks

[xuwin]

How many times has X been in games like that? Used to happen all the time in the A-10 when they couldn't get up to play the bottom feeders of the league. Wasn't really surprised X was sleep walking through that one. Happened last year quite a bit. Silver lining would be in years past, X probably loses that game and this year they can survive and escape.

Need to get up for Marquette and I expect they will. BTW, Seton Hall looked great last night. That's going to be a huge game following Nova at home in a couple weeks

The way they are playing now I think Seton Hall is the third best team in the conference. Their young team is getting better every week and are very balanced.

[drudy23]

At least there was like 6 dunks...dunks are alway cool.

[Masterofreality]

Was there tonight and the game seemed like a scrimmage. No energy from the team, no energy from the crowd. Mack moaned a bit about the seats being empty at game time and the on social media everyone expected for X to win in a rout. But, someone forgot to tell SJU. They aren't good, but they played hard and never quit. X did enough to win. Oh, and 67 total FTs is ridiculous this late in the season. I don't care if X did shoot 40 of them. Yet, a win is a win and move on to Marquette.


That will always be the case for 6:30 tip offs. Not everyone can leave work early enough to get home, pick up their spouse and/or kids, and get through rush hour traffic to be in their seats before the game starts.


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Geez, the game was sold out. I know my Musketette Daughter and hubby who had the tix last night had trouble getting there on time again. With night school traffic, end of rush hour traffic, trying to transition from work to the game, a 6:30 start is tough. Probably a 7:30 start would be optimal for everyone- except for TV and it will never come to that.

Look, last night was an off night in a lot of ways for everyone. Like I said before as Pete said, "They all won't be Picassos" but it's a W on the sheet. That's all that counts. Thank gawd for our depth. We've lost games- mostly in the A10- on nights like that. We have enough guys who can pick up slack when some others are off.

[Steve A]

Geez, the game was sold out. I know my Musketette Daughter and hubby who had the tix last night had trouble getting there on time again. With night school traffic, end of rush hour traffic, trying to transition from work to the game, a 6:30 start is tough. Probably a 7:30 start would be optimal for everyone- except for TV and it will never come to that.

Look, last night was an off night in a lot of ways for everyone. Like I said before as Pete said, "They all won't be Picassos" but it's a W on the sheet. That's all that counts. Thank gawd for our depth. We've lost games- mostly in the A10- on nights like that. We have enough guys who can pick up slack when some others are off.

Exactly, and the most important thing is that they won. Nothing else matters in a week.

We all fondly remember "The Run" in 2004, starting with Chalmers' shot against UC all the way to the Elite 8. I think we forget that in the middle of that run, X lost at home to a eventual 12-17 Duquesne team that had already beaten X once earlier in the season. Nights like that night, and last night, are going to happen, and I'm happy our boys had enough in them to still pull out the W.

[Snipe]

We had a bad shooting night and we put 90 points on the big board. Nice problem to have.

Myles Davis had 16 second half points. Epic

You guys are a bunch of spoiled hurt manginas.

I will take my victory thank you, and I would like to hear less about the rest of your vaginal cramps, ladies.

[Muskie in dayton]

"Silver lining" means something really bad happened but we can scape a little good out of it. NOTHING BAD HAPPENED! We won a hard fought game where an in-conference opponent played us like it was their Super Bowl. We won. WTF???

This is the stupidest thread ever. Right there with jumping off one foot.

[MADXSTER]

EVERY team is going to be gunning for Xavier since a win will their best way of punching their ticket into the NCAA.

[Masterofreality]

"Silver lining" means something really bad happened but we can scape a little good out of it. NOTHING BAD HAPPENED! We won a hard fought game where an in-conference opponent played us like it was their Super Bowl. We won. WTF???

This is the stupidest thread ever. Right there with jumping off one foot.

Those who bet X vs a 19 point line need a silver lining today- mostly in their pocket.

[GoMuskies]

Those who bet X vs a 19 point line need a silver lining today- mostly in their pocket.

Where did you see 19? I saw 24.

But seriously, St. John's sucks. It's a win, so who cares, but there wasn't really anything positive about it other than it was a win. I'm also not too worried about it, because of course the guys already knew that St. John's sucked, and there was no carryover effect from playing like shit at St. John's either.

[LA Muskie]

That the team that played them close was actually better than people think. St. John's is much better than their record indicates. I think it's actually a decent win, especially given that it allowed X to practice some man defense.

You could also say that winning is the silver lining to a sloppy game ... or that X is the first team in college basketball to reach 20 wins.
They are 0-10 in conference for a reason. They aren't better than people think. They suck as a team. And they aren't all that good individually.

[mid major]

Exactly, and the most important thing is that they won. Nothing else matters in a week.

We all fondly remember "The Run" in 2004, starting with Chalmers' shot against UC all the way to the Elite 8. I think we forget that in the middle of that run, X lost at home to a eventual 12-17 Duquesne team that had already beaten X once earlier in the season. Nights like that night, and last night, are going to happen, and I'm happy our boys had enough in them to still pull out the W.

I was there and I thought we lost to Richmond and not Dookane. I do remember Matta walking off and someone yelling for him to "GO BACK TO BUTLER".

[GoMuskies]

I was there and I thought we lost to Richmond and not Dookane. I do remember Matta walking off and someone yelling for him to "GO BACK TO BUTLER".

It was definitely the Dukes. Almost ruined my Vegas trip. It also almost ruined the Run, because it meant we had to beat undefeated #1 St. Joe's to get into the NCAA Tournament. Uh....that went swimmingly. Thanks to MOR for sending me the DVD reminder a few years ago of how well that went!

[xu82]

EVERY team is going to be gunning for Xavier since a win will their best way of punching their ticket into the NCAA.

Ahhh, yes. This is the price we pay. Even for teams who have no shot at the Dance, a win against X would be the highlight of their year. It just goes with the territory. The "elite" teams deal with this every year. I love that we're dealing with it.

[Masterofreality]

It was definitely the Dukes. Almost ruined my Vegas trip. It also almost ruined the Run, because it meant we had to beat undefeated #1 St. Joe's to get into the NCAA Tournament. Uh....that went swimmingly. Thanks to MOR for sending me the DVD reminder a few years ago of how well that went!

I had to edit that DVD because Snipe and Fred Garvin were on there after the game sloppy drunk and making ridiculous fools of themselves in the VDump. Didn't want that to get out into the public domain. :lmao:

[mid major]

We had a bad shooting night and we put 90 points on the big board. Nice problem to have.

Myles Davis had 16 second half points. Epic

You guys are a bunch of spoiled hurt manginas
I will take my victory thank you, and I would like to hear less about the rest of your vaginal cramps, ladies.

Ok Snipe, was that vaginal clamps or virginal cramps?