What happened?

[markchal]

We seemed to make clutch plays all season long. We were one of the best teams in the country at shooting free throws. We have a lot of tournament experience. An offense that can score in so many ways. And a rotation of 9 deep that is probably the most talented we've ever had. We also had some key players on a team with a good seed that was upset early, which is something I thought would help us avoid that fate again.

What happened in the last 10 days to this team? I agree that we weren't one of the top four teams, and that we were probably closer to our KP rating (10-15), but we were certainly a lot better than Providence and FSU. Yet we end with two frustrating, confusing losses sandwiched around beating a 16-seed.

I thought the Gonzaga game would be a toss-up, but even the day after, it's still tough making sense of the last 8 days after a historic regular season.

[Cheesehead]

18 turnovers, 63% from the FT line, Tre went MIA, Naji was not healthy, and oh.... the refs sucked too, calling 3 BS fouls on JP.

That's what f-ing happened. Oh and the court sucked too.

But I am not bitter!!!

[Blue Blooded-05]

Throw in Mack coaching with 1 foot out the door an getting out coached by the guy that he made look foolish just 365 days prior.

[Caf]

I don't want to sound like I'm blaming him, but Xavier's dirty secret is that Bluiett could be shadowed by an athletic defender and taken completely out of a game.

We've all seen this happen several times throughout his tenure, and we all knew it could happen in the tournament. It did and that's all there is to it. Everything else can be debated infinitely, but at the end of the day if your top scorer and 3pt threat is nullified the rest of the team has to be perfect. Looking back at games where this has happened against decent teams we have either lost or someone else had a miraculous performance. @Creighton and Providence x2 come to mind.

[THRILLHOUSE]

Played with fire all year long. I think we all knew an event like last night (and Providence) was a possibility, even if we really didn't want to admit it. For whatever reason, Team 96 struggled to put teams away but somehow would find ways to survive, until it caught up with them these past two weekends.

[smileyy]

18 turnovers, 63% from the FT line, Tre went MIA, Naji was not healthy, and oh.... the refs sucked too, calling 3 BS fouls on JP.

That's what f-ing happened.

Exactly this.

[mistabeecee41]

Also, we ended the half up 2 - but why didn't he at least try to get Kanter in when we went 8 freaking minutes without a FG? Obviously is JP/Tre picked up a 3rd in the first half we would have been fucked with Naji unable to play, but Kerem had 2 capable backups in the event he picked up a 3rd.

[THRILLHOUSE]

Also, we ended the half up 2 - but why didn't he at least try to get Kanter in when we went 8 freaking minutes without a FG? Obviously is JP/Tre picked up a 3rd in the first half we would have been fucked with Naji unable to play, but Kerem had 2 capable backups in the event he picked up a 3rd.

Yeah, that was the big coaching decision of Mack's that I didn't agree with last night. I even would've put Tre back out there at some point during that stretch and just trusted that he'd play smart. But I assume his line of thinking was along as FSU didn't pull away that we'd be fine in the 2nd half. And he wasn't really wrong til everything fell apart after JP's 4th "foul".

[Drew]

They were simply more athletic. Florida St's last 3 recruiting classes were ranked 12th, 4th and 11th. That would be the best ranking in the Big East. Like it or not, we had not seen that caliber of athlete all year and it showed.

[MHettel]

I'm blaming this shit squarely on the fouls. Especially the block and Steal by JP. Those were absolutely, undoubtedly not fouls. They directly contributed to points either being given to FSU or taken from us.

And not to mention that JP was absolutely the best player on the floor last night and had to ride the pine because of these fucking horrible calls.

I accept that Tre struggled. I accept Naji getting banged up.

I cant accept a fucking ref missing calls and deciding the outcome.

We could have tolerated any 2 of these 3 events. Not all three.

[Caveat]

I don't want to sound like I'm blaming him, but Xavier's dirty secret is that Bluiett could be shadowed by an athletic defender and taken completely out of a game.

We've all seen this happen several times throughout his tenure, and we all knew it could happen in the tournament. It did and that's all there is to it. Everything else can be debated infinitely, but at the end of the day if your top scorer and 3pt threat is nullified the rest of the team has to be perfect. Looking back at games where this has happened against decent teams we have either lost or someone else had a miraculous performance. @Creighton and Providence x2 come to mind.

But, that's the reason he was still here -- if Bluiett could beat an athletic defender to get an open look or get a shot off, he'd had have gone to the NBA last year.

Someone else needed to step up. When the team needed a lift, Gates and Q were simply too quiet.

[Caf]

But, that's the reason he was still here -- if Bluiett could beat an athletic defender to get an open look or get a shot off, he'd had have gone to the NBA last year.

Someone else needed to step up. When the team needed a lift, Gates and Q were simply too quiet.

I completely agree.

Besides from Q's miracle to end Creighton, the person to step up has always been Macura. Naji is probably the only other player who has the ability to pick up that slack. Injury + foul trouble = perfect storm

[xavierj]

Man just put myself through hell and re-watched the game. JP was screwed. Had it not been for the refs he goes for 30+ and Xavier wins by 15+. Complete garbage on his block and then steal. He was trying to take care of everyone else and the refs had a different plan. Really sucks.

[bleedXblue]

Staying with the 1-3-1 was a mystery after they shredded it for about 5-6 straight easy baskets.

I don't care if your in foul trouble or not........

We had a 10 point lead when we went to it..........thought Mack waited too long and played too conservatively with it.

Also, why you don't go to your 2,000 point scorer in the clutch and not Kanter (who everyone in the building knew was going to take that shot). Play should have gone through Kanter to Blueitt for the big shot.

[xavierj]

Staying with the 1-3-1 was a mystery after they shredded it for about 5-6 straight easy baskets.

I don't care if your in foul trouble or not........

We had a 10 point lead when we went to it..........thought Mack waited too long and played too conservatively with it.

Also, why you don't go to your 2,000 point scorer in the clutch and not Kanter (who everyone in the building knew was going to take that shot). Play should have gone through Kanter to Blueitt for the big shot.

I agree but Tre also has to get more than 8 shots for the game. If you go down go down with Tre shooting a ton of shots.

[D-West & PO-Z]

Staying with the 1-3-1 was a mystery after they shredded it for about 5-6 straight easy baskets.

I don't care if your in foul trouble or not........

We had a 10 point lead when we went to it..........thought Mack waited too long and played too conservatively with it.

Also, why you don't go to your 2,000 point scorer in the clutch and not Kanter (who everyone in the building knew was going to take that shot). Play should have gone through Kanter to Blueitt for the big shot.


I agree but Tre also has to get more than 8 shots for the game. If you go down go down with Tre shooting a ton of shots.

He couldnt get open.

There was a reason no one was near Kanter when he put up the last shot.

Cant believe he airballed it.

[bleedXblue]

He couldnt get open.

There was a reason no one was near Kanter when he put up the last shot.

Cant believe he airballed it.

I was referring to the possession prior to that where he had 3 guys all over him and he missed from 5 feet.

Also, there are ways to get guys open...its called a screen or pick. Really poor offensive execution by the whole X team and coaching staff.

[HenryMuto]

Have been sick to my stomach all day over this game. To have a 12 point lead with like 6 or so minutes left and then completely fall apart is tearing my heart out. Don't like to blame the refs but they made a couple horrific calls on JP that took him off the floor and the team fell apart with him off the floor.

I can't believe all the missed FT's that was a strength of this team. So bitterly disappointed.

Those last couple possessions were just god awful Tre does a step back and then does not shoot tries to drive and just loses the ball that was a crusher.

Going to be hard to get over this one. This team was a #1 seed and likely will never have the bracket open up like it did to get to the Final 4.

This team has been to the elite 8 several times but every time they are seeded like 10 or 11 and run into a great team in the Elite 8 and can't win.

North Carolina was gone only needed to beat Gonzaga and Michigan.

FAWK.

[whopper]

I believe the seeds were sown in first 2 minutes and my family said I never smiled even when we were up 10 esp when Q AND JP sat.
JP fouled the big center on the first play, and Tre had what I thought was a strip and out of bounds that I thought was a no call but ended a foul at 3 min in. Their second fouls were more noticed and by taking them out(along with Karem) we had an offensively challenged team that went 8 min without a field goal. That is when I believe Tre would have shot himself into the game. In the second half, things seemed to be going so well he did not shoot much but played solid. When JP and Q got their 4th fouls within a minute of each other at the 10 min mark(JP bad calls, Q a bad close out and a low post reach good calls), Tre and Scrggs played guard and I never saw Tre bring the ball up so much. When he brings it up, he can’t set himself up and never got started. That cross court pass was a result of pressing, the slip (maybe ) due to condensation.
Without those early meaningless fouls we probably are up 12 at half and it changes. Florida St had kind of interchangeable players so their fouls did not change any rotation. My two cents

[SemajParlor]

I'm not strong enough like some others to rewatch any footage yet. Can we talk about fouling down 1 with the shot clock already cut in half though?

[BandAid]

I'm not strong enough like some others to rewatch any footage yet. Can we talk about fouling down 1 with the shot clock already cut in half though?

I'm pretty sure that was a mistake. Mack probably wanted a hard trap and turnover. Gates got a little handsy.

[xdude]

I was at the game. It wasn't just a good defender, FS flew help every time he was inside the arc, and his 3's weren't falling. The officiating was uneven especially JP's block for #4, but the biggest thing for me was the pressure. Both the pressure from FS and more the pressure of being #1. They weren't having fun. They looked a bit tight.

Mirroring the loss by UC 2 hours earlier is just freaky. The boyz obviously saw that. Who knows the impact. Plus Virginia, Arizona, North Carolina had all just fallen. Focus and energy, no fear is the recipe. We didn't have that yesterday.

[scoscox]

Free throws, turnovers, rebounding, injuries, and refereeing all contributed. Kerem and trevon-3 fouls, Quentin -4 fouls, jp-5 fouls, naji-injured plays 12 minutes. That’s the starting line up.

[whopper]

the bigeastcoastbias.com web site stated that both Naj and Q were unable to play mid second half and we had Karem and Kaiser and Tyrique in for the fist time this season along with Scruggs and Tre. I noted the oddity at the time and was surprised at the number of times Tre dribbled up as a guard(very nervous on my part). I remember Q coming back in and making a strange turnover(near FSU bench) and another where it looksd like he lost a contact? He was in at end with the slow moving it up court as was commented on at the end. Was he hurt too? Seemed hobbled. Yesterday's news now but just asking. Man I follow the tournament a LOT less this week

[smileyy]

If Xavier had an on-ball defender / three-point shooter like Remy Abell or Malcolm Bernard, they'd be in the FF already. They were really missing that floor-stretching defender this year.

[xu koop scoop]

what happened 1. bad free throw shooting 2. bad game by Tre 3. Naji getting hurt 4. Q lost a contact I believe leading to a turnover 4. The 3rd thru 5th fouls on JP were all phantom calls. Only place I've seen this, but cbssports.com had footage of 3 FSU players storming court with 3.1 to 2.1 seconds left. 1 ran in front of ref. They could have called a T on FSU. But that would have been BS & glad they didn't. Over the years I have seen many games where the refs calls definitely impacted the final score. Sometimes against X. Sometimes against the Opponent. When you get 2 or more stars strapped on the bench the 1st half with 2 fouls, it impacts the game if the other team has 1 or 0. This then plays out in the 2nd half if you have multiple with 4 fouls & the other team doesn't. It especially imacts when a player like JP gets a bunch of phantom calls. But I have seen these phantom calls go against the opponent. This game's foul situation reminded my of our 1st Elite 8 & our energetic, blossoming Anthony Myles had 1 foul in the 1st half vs Duke & then fouled out with 16 minutes. He drew his 4th foul & he was left in for Dukes Foul Shot & got the 5th going for the rebound. I really wish they would allow these players 6 fouls. The refereeing screws up too many games both for & against our team.

[whopper]

I saw the contact lens loss (surprised not mentioned on TV) and I could be wrong but I think this led to the JP ball pin/fake foul and 2 foul shots. Damn I wish he called time out.

[SemajParlor]

I'm not a big blame the refs guy, but jeez this is bad.

https://twitter.com/CMac3428/status/975571709905526784

https://twitter.com/XuBarstool/status/975775490647748608

[whopper]

maybe the refs did not thing macura had the athletic ability to make these plays?

[smileyy]

maybe the refs did not thing macura had the athletic ability to make these plays?

Must have thought he only had A-10 athleticism

[KabeX]

I think the refs only had A-10 athleticism.