CrossTown Meltdown aftermath

[Masterofreality]

After 3 days to reflect, I had to get this off my chest before our next game.

We had a kid Go OFF for 40 freaking points....and still lost. Let that sink in. A 40 point game by one guy, and lost to garbage.

This, to me, is the most embarrassing loss to the Clifton Cretins since Sean Miller's team lost to YTG when the BoreCats had to resort to big minutes from Conor freaking Barwin...a football player, because they didn't have any players.

To be out worked, out hustled and out -efforted in a rivalry game is just unfathomable. I have never seen a more pathetic rebounding exhibition.

This team seems like they have an entitlement attitude where they seem to think that they can just roll out there and the game will fall their way. I think that is why Mack closed practice last Saturday and brought a bunch of alumni players in to talk to these guys. It sure didn't take Thursday night.

I'm sure not giving up on this team...I already have my 2 full session Big East Tournament tix in hand, but I am no longer expecting anything special from this group. I haven't thought we were Top 20 caliber since the Colorado game that I attended with my Hall of Fame cousin coach. Something has been missing, and now I think that what is missing is HEART. The game against a second rate coach and barely high major talent- but their biggest rival- where they just exposed as poseurs, convinced me.

No more screaming at the TV. If they aren't putting forth the effort, then I'm not either.

#StillPissed

[MHettel]

A lot of my friends, who are not fans of XU but know that I am, have asked me this year how the team is and the basic answer has been "mentally weak".

Of the losses only Villanova was a real beating. And even in that game we had a 24-16 lead, and then the wheels came off.

I think in every other game this year we had a lead late and were in a position to win, and yet they just cannot do it. That's mental to me...

[AviatorX]

Your dismissal of UC is laughable. Did you consider that they have a really good team this year and this was their biggest home game in years? Nothing second rate about their talent. The loss was disappointing as hell, but that rebounding performance by UC was as remarkable as Trevon's 40. The other team has good players too.

Not sure what I am expecting from someone who goes out of his way to type Borecats though.

[bleedXblue]

Agree about lacking heart as well as the team and certain players not giving maximum effort and doing whatever it takes to win. Showing up and playing hard is one thing..........playing you're ass off and leaving it all on the court no matter the outcome is another thing.

Chemistry is not ideal either IMHO.

Are far as UC is concerned, I real don't care about them much them.....but I do think they have a better team and chemistry than X this year.

[Masterofreality]

Your dismissal of UC is laughable. Did you consider that they have a really good team this year and this was their biggest home game in years? Nothing second rate about their talent.

Not sure what I am expecting from someone who goes out of his way to type Borecats though.

Yeah, a team that shoots 48% from the foul line and 35% from 3 is a "really good team"? And THAT was in their own building. Nah. They had good effort, but are not "good." They play in a garbage league and really haven't beaten anyone else other than Xavier all year. They are certainly not terrible, but they truly are second rate. No props. We lazed through it and got our ass handed to us. This is totally on Xavier, and no one is going to lessen the embarrassment of our effort by trying to prop up SucKS.

[XU 87]

UC has a good team. That said, XU needs to get mentally tougher.

[GoMuskies]

Not only does UC have a good team, from what I saw Thursday their team is far superior to Xavier's. That second half did not appear to be a fluke. It appeared to be men vs. boys.

[xudash]

Who leads this team?

I don't see a leader; a glue guy that pulls them together to focus on securing a win.

It's like a team of independent contractors.

[Masterofreality]

Not only does UC have a good team, from what I saw Thursday their team is far superior to Xavier's. That second half did not appear to be a fluke. It appeared to be men vs. boys.

Our effort sucked. 30 second chance points to 4. Good effort, but not good.

[OTRMUSKIE]

Who leads this team?

I don't see a leader; a glue guy that pulls them together to focus on securing a win.

It's like a team of independent contractors.

He left the team due to woman problems. This team has zero inside game. They can grab rebounds but that's It. UC didn't impress me at all. If X boxes out we win the game easily. UC is good but they are a 2 and done team at best. X is a one and done the way they are playing right now.

[AviatorX]

So UC doesn't get any credit for putting an absolute beatdown on X on the glass even though X was statistically the 3rd best defensive rebounding team in the nation coming in to the game? Lol. Some of you are blinded by hatred.

Evans/Caupain/Clark/Washington are very very good. Cumberland has come on strong as well. Let's not kid ourselves.

No question UC is a top 20 team if not more. Guess that's not good though. "Second rate"

[94GRAD]

So UC doesn't get any credit for putting an absolute beatdown on X on the glass even though X was statistically the 3rd best defensive rebounding team in the nation coming in to the game? Lol. Some of you are blinded by hatred.

Evans/Caupain/Clark/Washington are very very good. Cumberland has come on strong as well. Let's not kid ourselves.

No question UC is a top 20 team if not more. Guess that's not good though. "Second rate"

Bingo! Public and private reps.

[IM4X]

Who leads this team?

I don't see a leader; a glue guy that pulls them together to focus on securing a win.

It's like a team of independent contractors.

Agreed. Leadership for X usually has been found in either seniors or a veteran PG and of coarse the coach... which makes sense

No one wants to be the TU or the Dee or Matt or Farr (their senior year). Part of it could be that while Trevon and Edmond may have been looking to leave after this year, neither of them are seniors and they both may be thinking a little too much about the NBA as opposed to making sure the whole team is playing well together. Though, part of the blame has to be owned by Mack.

Is it fair for a coach to get a pass for his struggling team, just because he has pointed the finger at his players? We see players who are out of position at times. Players who are sloppy with the ball and lazy with passes. Players who take bad really shots. Players who don't seem to crash the boards or at least out inconsistent the game and look unfocused and sloppy for long stretches in a game. A team that comes out in the second half without any killer instinct. Ecause they have the lead. We point to different players and say this player didn't do this or that player didn't do that... but when it seems to be an issue with the collective team, the head coach (along with his assistants) need to just to own it and get to work on fixing it instead of just pointing the finger at the "soft bigs."

Wouldn't we feel much more confident about this team moving forward if Mack's post game comments were closer to, "There were clearly some problems on the court today. The bigs looked soft and not many our guys other than Tre really stepped up. But I can't just sit here and point the finger solely at the players for this loss or some of our other ones. And let's be honest, with out Tre's once in a career field goal shooting percentage, this game would not even have been close. When a number of players are playing quite well at stretches during a game and not so well during other stretches, it tells me that we could be doing better as coaches. We as coaches must step up and do a better job on our part to get our guys making smarter decisions and playing better together more consistently. The ceiling for this team is much higher than what we have seen so far. All we have to do is look at Trevon's performance today to prove what can be accomplished if we focus and put our hearts into it."

[waggy]

I'm certainly more confident now that Macks post game comments have been reformulated for him three days after the game.

[X Factor]

UC is not that good. They didn't even make 50% of their FT's. Have they even come to close to dominating a team on the boards this year like they did Xavier? Have they absolutely owned anyone else on second chance points this year like they did Xavier?

When Xavier's best player goes off for 40 points on 15 attempts and we still lose, that has to tell you something.

I would also like to mention that 2 of Xavier's starting 5 were playing at the lowest level of DI basketball before they came to Xavier. I don't think that can happen at Xavier when we're trying to compete at the highest level of college basketball.

[Xavier]

Not only does UC have a good team, from what I saw Thursday their team is far superior to Xavier's. That second half did not appear to be a fluke. It appeared to be men vs. boys.

I agree, UC has a good team. I think what we saw Thursday was UC team that wanted it a lot more than X. I don't think they are far superior. X shot 25% from inside the arc. I think the teams are pretty even (though, UC appeared to have a lot better young guys which stinks)....still, what we saw from X on Thursday was something we hate to admit: as of now, this team is both physically and mentally soft. Especially down low. Defensively we have no one we can count on and everyone is torching the 1-3-1. A great recipe for a quick March.

[AviatorX]

Why are we using UC's shooting percentages from a single game to decide if they are good or not? I feel like I am crazy here. Pretty much any metric you can find points to UC being pretty good. Anyone think maybe, just maybe UC's talent caused some of Xavier's suckiness in areas which are typically strengths?

[OTRMUSKIE]

Because they have had multiple games where they shoot that bad.but overall they are ranked 28th and we are like 140. So maybe they arnt as bad as I thought.

[Classof1985]

UC is not that good. They didn't even make 50% of their FT's. Have they even come to close to dominating a team on the boards this year like they did Xavier? Have they absolutely owned anyone else on second chance points this year like they did Xavier?

When Xavier's best player goes off for 40 points on 15 attempts and we still lose, that has to tell you something.

I would also like to mention that 2 of Xavier's starting 5 were playing at the lowest level of DI basketball before they came to Xavier. I don't think that can happen at Xavier when we're trying to compete at the highest level of college basketball.

Actually, UC averages about +6 rebounds per game. They are regularly stronger in the paint. Even in their loss to Butler, they outscored Butler in the paint 34-26 and on 2nd chance points 14-7. They doubled up on 2nd chance points against Iowa State 16-7. It is part of their DNA.

When Xavier's best player goes off for 40 on a night when the opposition can't buy a made free throw, and the other guy still wins, it says they did something else.

Obviously, the second chance points and rebounds were big. But UC played great defense. Aside from Blueitt, X shot 24.3% from the field. Sumner was 1-7, Macura 4-11, Gaston 0-5, Gates 1-5, Bernard 1-5. UC had 9 blocks, 5 steals, and forced 12 turnovers for 16 points. So it wasn't just that X had a bad shooting night except for Blueitt - UC played stifling defense on everyone else. And they played stifling defense on Blueitt for a 10-minute stretch in the second half while they flipped the game. Throw in 50% shooting, and you have a recipe for disaster for X.

X did not lose this game. UC won it. They won it because they out-defended, out-rebounded, and out-shot X. They won because they are the better team, at least this year. Not a convenient truth, but a truth all the same.

[xubrew]

It's hard to win at UC. In fact no one has done it.

There aren't many teams that are good enough to win games that are as hard to win as that. The number is probably around 20ihs, if that. Actually, it's probably less. I'm not going to count the number of teams that have beaten a ranked team on the road, but I think it's safe to guess that it's less than twenty.

Last year we were one of the few teams that was good enough to win a game like that. This year we are not, or at least we haven't shown it yet.

I mean that to be taken at face value. I'm not trying to put a positive spin on anything, nor am I trying to paint a dim picture. I think the reason we lost is because we're not as good as the teams who are able to win those kinds of games.

[Drew's Crew]

Ok, I get it.

Xavier's best player goes off for 40 and they lose - Xavier is mentally weak.

UC out rebounds us and out hustles us - Xavier is physically weak.

UC plays insanely high level defense in the second half - Xavier has no post game and their offense sucks.

This reminds me of the stupid posts that high -major programs would write following an ass kicking from "lowly" Xavier from the A10. What a crock of shit this is. I don't mind fans being pissed, but MOR was literally the same guy who cried about how the BE used to be soooooooo overrated and that no one appreciated how good we were in the A10 and only true basketball fans knew it.

Well, UC is in the AAC. the AAC sucks ass. But UC is actually pretty damn good. They beat us down...and Tre started 10 FOR 10 from the field. They wore us down with defense and rebounding and they outhustled us. They also made adjustments in the second half and went right after our bigs on the perimeter and kept drawing some questionable fouls.

And I swear, if one more person mentions that UC isn't good bc they suck at FTs....I mean, does anyone watch the games anymore?! Yes, they suck at FTs and still have beaten almost everyone on their schedule. That isn't a fluke. That means if they hit more free throws they might be a top 10 team, as crazy as that sounds.

If you want people to take you seriously you can't keep being so ridiculous.

P.S. i am really pissed you guys are being so blind that you made me just write a post defending UC. I dislike that team and hate that coach SO MUCH.

[Wheelhouse]

And I swear, if one more person mentions that UC isn't good bc they suck at FTs....I mean, does anyone watch the games anymore?! Yes, they suck at FTs and still have beaten almost everyone on their schedule. That isn't a fluke. That means if they hit more free throws they might be a top 10 team, as crazy as that sounds.


True. The funny thing is that WE actually suck at FTs. We're 8th in the Big East! We shot well from the line against UC which helped keep us in a game in which we were dominated.