Xavier - Colorado From a Hall of Fame Coaches Perspective

[Masterofreality]

Many of you know that my Cousin, Ceal Barry, was Colorado's Head Women's Basketball Coach for over 20 years, won over 500 games and will be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Last night she and I sat and watched while Colorado beat XU and her viewpoint was interesting to get. I'm going to list her observations in random order:

- Xavier's on ball/man to man defense was the best she has seen for a long time. She was very impressed with it. Not so much with the 1-3-1, especially since XU gave up a 3 pointer one time when using it.
- Colorado's PG play was far superior to Xavier's. White is a 5th year Senior- former Division 2 All American- who basically took over the game. She was not overly impressed with Ed overall, but did like his physical tools. She said he still has a lot to learn about running a team.
- Was very impressed with Mack's coaching and how organized the team seemed to be.
- Observed that there was a huge drop off when the freshmen were on the floor and wondered whether Quentin Gooden had any offensive mindset at all. Way too passive in her mind.
- Was very impressed with Gaston and thought he was a bull down low. Thought he held his own against a tough Xavier Johnson. Was impressed by XU's rebounding overall, but said that there weren't enough conversions to points afterward.
- Liked JP Macuras hustle, but thought that he was a bit too "free" rather than team oriented.
- Stated before the game that XU as the road team would need to hit 75% of their foul shots to win. Prophetic. XU his 62% at 13-21 and missed big ones from Ed an Tre.
- Thought that there was a definite lack of floor leadership at games end. I said we were missing our Senior Myles Davis and she noted that was probably a big factor.
- Ceal said that Kaiser Gates "didn't look right". I told her of the knee scope, and she said he looked a bit gimpy still. Where is his shot??

The bottom line. XU had an 8 point lead with about 10 minutes to go in the game. That is when Mack tried to steal some rest minutes for Ed, Tevon and Gaston which I have no problem with. Colorado promptly went on a 15-0 run. I made the comment to Ceal at about the 9:30 mark with Q, Tyrique, Malcolm, JP and Kaiser Gates out there as to who was going to score? Obviously NO ONE did. That was the ball game.

Right now, we are getting zero production from the second unit and add to that that JP, Malcolm and Kaiser are doing no scoring so therein lies the tale of losses. We need to get a lot better before Big East Play.

Can't say that this team is Top 25 right now. Don't care what the F the rankings are. Grow up and play better kids.

That being said, having a great time in Colorado with my Cuz.

[Olsingledigit]

Excellent analysis MOR. They need to grow up quickly. Q was a big scorer in HS. Still finding his legs in big time college ball. It seems Ed has taken a step backwards. Kaiser is not back in shape yet.

[Muskie]

Which is why I'm not sure why people think Myles will be ready day one. True he's not been out with an injury, but he's not in game shape either.

[X Factor]

Can't argue with any of that MOR. Seemed like she nailed it. Really good analysis.

[paulxu]

MOR, appreciate the recap.

We only lost to Colorado by 2 pts. We could find many reasons we were out of sync: 2 long road trips close together, altitude, whatever.
I've got (at this point) a more simplified look.
Gates and Macura were 2 for 12 at Baylor, and 0-9 at Colorado. That is wildly out of sync for Macura (a 34% average) or Gates (a 31% average).
It's just crazy. If either guy hits one or two at Colorado we might win. Hit 30% and we surely win.

Have no idea what is causing the slump, especially for JP. They both appeared short on a lot of shots last night; maybe the air, tired, just getting back, whatever. Maybe having Myles spell them for a while would be helpful.

The second half scoring droughts are absolutely killing us. Hopefully we can correct. Long way to go.

[LA Muskie]

Which is why I'm not sure why people think Myles will be ready day one. True he's not been out with an injury, but he's not in game shape either.
This worries me too.

[D-West & PO-Z]

Which is why I'm not sure why people think Myles will be ready day one. True he's not been out with an injury, but he's not in game shape either.


This worries me too.

To me this is more of an issue in football. You cant play pick up football and simulate game action with pads etc, you can stay in basketball shape by playing pick up games and working out and running etc. Way different than a guy coming back after no football for a period of time. Will there be some rust and adjustment need? I am sure there will be, but hopefully Myles has been doing what he needs to do to be ready and come back and contribute pretty much right away. I think we are lucky he is a 5th year guy.

I know he cant simulate the atmosphere of an XU practice etc but there is so much in basketball guys can improve on their own I dont think it will be much of an issue. That is why you see guys make such big jumps in off-season even though they havent been playing organized basketball.

[LA Muskie]

To me this is more of an issue in football. You cant play pick up football and simulate game action with pads etc, you can stay in basketball shape by playing pick up games and working out and running etc. Way different than a guy coming back after no football for a period of time. Will there be some rust and adjustment need? I am sure there will be, but hopefully Myles has been doing what he needs to do to be ready and come back and contribute pretty much right away. I think we are lucky he is a 5th year guy.

I know he cant simulate the atmosphere of an XU practice etc but there is so much in basketball guys can improve on their own I dont think it will be much of an issue. That is why you see guys make such big jumps in off-season even though they havent been playing organized basketball.
I get what you're saying and I don't necessarily disagree. Obviously this isn't akin to an injury situation. But we see it all the time with redshirts. It takes them a while to get back into the groove. And unlike Myles, they've at least been practicing.

[birdman71]

I get what you're saying and I don't necessarily disagree. Obviously this isn't akin to an injury situation. But we see it all the time with redshirts. It takes them a while to get back into the groove. And unlike Myles, they've at least been practicing.

But unlike redshirts, Myles has game experience, and a lot of it, with the XU system. He will need time, but hopefully, not a whole bunch.

[D-West & PO-Z]

But unlike redshirts, Myles has game experience, and a lot of it, with the XU system. He will need time, but hopefully, not a whole bunch.

Yeah this is what I was going to say. The redshirts we see are usually freshman who have no college experience or transfers who have some experience (varies) but in a different system.

Some adjustment I think we should expect but I think Myles will get back into the groove very quickly. After Ed and Tre he will be our most important player imo.

[Masterofreality]

Interesting aside.

Last night right before the Pregame lineup announcements Colorado made a big deal about a canned Pregame PA gig of "Welcome to High Altitude... We hope that you don't get groggy or sick at 5,300 feet!"

Don't think that affected us....or maybe our judgement was groggy at the end? :lol:

[bobbiemcgee]

Interesting aside.

Last night right before the Pregame lineup announcements Colorado made a big deal about a canned Pregame PA gig of "Welcome to High Altitude... We hope that you don't get groggy or sick at 5,300 feet!"

Don't think that affected us....or maybe our judgement was groggy at the end? :lol:

They trot out this attempted psych every game. I was 4 rows up from the bench and didn't really see anyone gasping for air or tired. I was worried about spasms but Mack must have had these guys drink gallons of water this week. We still had a shot with the chaotic play at the end but Tre couldn't control the ball. If he does and pulls out for a good shot, think we win.
Gaston impressed but still can't make a ft. Macura and Sumner had off games. Didn't seem to know what to do with the ball. Goodin still wants to make the fancy pass but nobody else knows it coming. I didn't like the way we panic'd at the end. There was still plenty of time.
Learning experience. But, As always, proud of these guys.

CU was embarrassed by losing to CSU last week. I think we got the backlash.

[xu82]

Which is why I'm not sure why people think Myles will be ready day one. True he's not been out with an injury, but he's not in game shape either.

I hope to peak in March, so some learning lessons in December are not the end of the world to me. It WILL take Myles some time, but I think we win that game with him at 100%. Would have been a nice win on the resume come selection time.

[XfansinKy]

Q was not some big scorer in high school. He was bigger, stronger, and more athletic than the other 5'8 slow guards in KY. He's good. Really good. I've followed him a few years. If he was as big time as people who never watched him play in high school say, UK would've offered him a scholarship because they had room. Let him develop this year. Being a big time D1college basketball point guard is a tough gig. Let him get used to this size and athleticism. I'm more concerned about our 6'6 third year sophomore point guard that's playing tentative. The hit he took at Villanova was nasty and may still play on his mind going up and over guys 6'8 250 or so.

[XUGRAD80]

Re:Summers

His offensive game is very predictable and not very diverse. Teams do not respect his outside or midrange shot. His quickness and length is hard to defend, but not impossible. Thus, he struggles at times against certain others when his shot is not falling, and he's a streaky shooter so that is often the case. However he still is able to score quite a bit just because of elite athleti ability.

I also know a hall of fame coach well, and worked with him for a bit. He used to tell the kids "perfect one move, get very good at another, know a third". Ed has about perfected the drive to the left of the basket. If he gets the 1st step he is just about impossible to stop on that move. Does he have another that he is very good at? I don't see it...unless his 3 shot is falling. When that happens he is darn near impossible to stop, but right now it's too inconsistent.

[Masterofreality]

A couple of other things as we reflected on the game as we watched the 18th ranked and undefeated Colorado Women wipe out Colorado State:

- Really liked the way XU ran the "High-Low" play to get the ball to Gaston and the other bigs down low. She also loved baseline cross-screen plays to free up Gaston that XU ran twice. The only thing that she criticized was the fact that too many times the PLAYERS on the court forgot about feeding the post and jacked up barely passable 3's (read JP Macura and sometimes Ed)

- Just couldn't see that Ed Sumner is ready to be a pro. She said that he definitely needs another college year. She asked me if he liked school and I said that it appears that he does, and his family isn't in dire straits financially. She gave a strong recommendation that he stick around for a LOT more development . The pros look for a lot more than one or two flashy moves.

- Was very impressed by Tre Bluiett. Said he definitely is a pro prospect. She was really positive on how his body had slimmed and his defensive work.

- When one of the Colorado women made an off kilter play, she commented that it reminded her of JP Macura going "off the reservation" at times. Mind you, Ceal loved a lot of what JP does, but he's just got to clean it up a bit to become a real winning team player.

- Commented on how she thought it was cool that XU charters planes to all road trips. Said that Colorado only does it half the time. Surprising.

She'll be on the Colorado plane back to Cintas next year. She's looking forward to some family time in Ohio. Could be a nice caravan of fam coming up from Louisville for that one. I'll be looking to scarf tickets.

BTW. Still cold as hell in Colorado. Low of 3 degrees last night and a high yesterday of 15. Where's the Global Warming? :yuk:

[drudy23]

Injured knees, legs, and ankles have significant impact on your shot. Mostly because it messes up the "normal" rhythm you have with your footwork where even a small injury can disrupt that "feel". Kaiser will make shots when he's back to 100%.

The key to this team's success is Sumner. He needs to be better.

Losing the condors James Farr and Jalen Reynolds drastically reduces the effectiveness of the 1-3-1

[XUMIOH12]

Re:Summers

His offensive game is very predictable and not very diverse. Teams do not respect his outside or midrange shot. His quickness and length is hard to defend, but not impossible. Thus, he struggles at times against certain others when his shot is not falling, and he's a streaky shooter so that is often the case. However he still is able to score quite a bit just because of elite athleti ability.

I also know a hall of fame coach well, and worked with him for a bit. He used to tell the kids "perfect one move, get very good at another, know a third". Ed has about perfected the drive to the left of the basket. If he gets the 1st step he is just about impossible to stop on that move. Does he have another that he is very good at? I don't see it...unless his 3 shot is falling. When that happens he is darn near impossible to stop, but right now it's too inconsistent.

i know he isn't having a great season so far, but at least spell his name correctly instead of being one of those damn idiots.