Coach and Player Comments

[IM4X]

I have been on board with everything Steele has said this year- I mean everything- until... he went and made the comment that he didn't care about the 3 point shots continually taken and missed... that he was only concerned about the turnovers.

Had Steele said he was MORE concerned about the turnovers, then sure, but he did not. Players shooting open shots just because they are open is a great idea only if the specific player taking that shot makes over 30% in practice. Unfortunately, we are talking about many players take those shots who have been shooting well below 30% in games and likely below 30% in practice.

One other observation: Sometimes it even looks as if some X players are so concerned about being behind the line when they shoot the 3 (from the new line) that they end up taking the shot several feet behind the line... and as a result the ball ends up clanking off of the front of the rim.

[OTRMUSKIE]

I take it as the 3’s will eventually drop. Everybody is still getting use to the new distance. X def has serious issues but Steele must believe the shooting will get better. Let’s see how things go when Kentucky Jelly comes back. (KYKY)

[IM4X]

Now Kyky is a different story. If he is hitting 47% in practice like Steele mentioned, then by all means let the kid shoot it whenever. Some one who is consistently good is going to be more likely to take smarter shots... where they are not rushed... from the specific spots behind the arc they know they shoot it best.

I am pretty sure Steele is itching more than everyone to get him back. Still, there just feels like there is something more behind the bad shooting of thIs team than just the extra distance (though it is likely part of the issue). Some shots look rushed. Others are shot too far behind the line. Some strokes even look like they are being thrown with little follow through.

i would love to see the coaches go back and see exactly what if different about the games where Scruggs was shooting lights out last season. Maybe the lineup played a role in his rhythm. Maybe he shot the ball from the same few spots.

Is it possible Scruggs struggled to get in a rhythm and stay there when certain players are on the court. All I know is that Scruggs was a very good 3 point shooter for much of last season and there is no reason he shouldn’t be one this season.

[xukeith]

Now Kyky is a different story. If he is hitting 47% in practice like Steele mentioned, then by all means let the kid shoot it whenever. Some one who is consistently good is going to be more likely to take smarter shots... where they are not rushed... from the specific spots behind the arc they know they shoot it best.

I am pretty sure Steele is itching more than everyone to get him back. Still, there just feels like there is something more behind the bad shooting of thIs team than just the extra distance (though it is likely part of the issue). Some shots look rushed. Others are shot too far behind the line. Some strokes even look like they are being thrown with little follow through.

i would love to see the coaches go back and see exactly what if different about the games where Scruggs was shooting lights out last season. Maybe the lineup played a role in his rhythm. Maybe he shot the ball from the same few spots.

Is it possible Scruggs struggled to get in a rhythm and stay there when certain players are on the court. All I know is that Scruggs was a very good 3 point shooter for much of last season and there is no reason he shouldn’t be one this season.

Dee Davis would never shoot against UC or tournament teams

[UCGRAD4X]

I take it as the 3’s will eventually drop. Everybody is still getting use to the new distance. X def has serious issues but Steele must believe the shooting will get better. Let’s see how things go when Kentucky Jelly comes back. (KYKY)

Or maybe he's conceding that they won't, so why spend any time worrying about it.

[UCGRAD4X]

I take it as the 3’s will eventually drop. Everybody is still getting use to the new distance. X def has serious issues but Steele must believe the shooting will get better. Let’s see how things go when Kentucky Jelly comes back. (KYKY)

BTW: I see what you did there.

[WCWIII]

How much of the low 3PT% is due to the added pressure of knowing this is an area where they can potentially struggle - pressure from media and fans?

Steele has been right on, in my opinion, emphasizing taking good shots, catching with 2 hands, ... concrete things that by themselves allow for better success. A couple of years ago, fans were down on the free throw shooting and we had a miserable year in that area ... remember how quiet it got when Tyrique made a FT attempt? Give him lots of credit for improving in that area. The point is, the players hear the fans and the media ... Coach Steele's response is about doing the things that will make the team better and not about validating the obvious from critical fans. We got so much talent, there is no way we will be 344/353 in 3 pt shooting by the end of the season. I can't wait for this team to show us wrong, improve their shooting, and use all the other talents to really break through like they did at the end of last season.

On KenPom's blog earlier this summer is a study that concludes the following ... for a close game at half-time, the most telling statistic for the eventual outcome is that the team with the "Lowest 3PT%" has the best chance of winning. Sounds contradictory, but an interesting read.

[D-West & PO-Z]

Yeah I get what Steele is trying to say but think hes kidding himself if he doesnt truly have an issue with any of the 3 point shots being taken and by whom.

Theres plenty of good looks that X has just missed that I would agree you keep taking them. But who is taking them has to be addressed I would think. Not every open 3 is a good look if you are no good at shooting.

I really think this team could be so much better served with Scruggs starting at PG and Goodin coming off the bench. I just dont think Steele would do that to Goodin. Mack sure as hell would. Steele is still a young coach so I know he has so much room to grow as a coach but I dont see that killer win at all costs mentality in him yet that we did in Mack. I know we didnt see that in Mack in the beginning either.

I think Mack would have already benched Goodin (still played, just removed from starting lineup) but, enough about Judas. I think Steele is going to be a really good coach, just wish he seemed to have total control over the team a little more than it does at times.

[American X]

"Yeah, I don’t care about 3-point shots. I don’t care. I don’t flinch. We’re going to take those all night long. I do not care. What I do care about is the turnovers."

Mick Cronin Lite doesn't flinch at bricking 20 threes a game. What a leader. He does not care. He is the Honey Badger of Big East coaches.

[AviatorX]

Xavier's 3PA/FGA ratio currently sits at 196th in the country. Last year (in a top 50 offense) Xavier's ratio was nearly identical and slotted into 207th in the country.

Even if we ignore the obvious impact passing up good looks from three has on the rest of the offense (this seems to be the position of everyone arguing X should stop shooting) - where does this ratio need to be for people to be happy?

Honestly, do people want to see more long twos or low efficient post ups?

[xukeith]

Unfortunately, we are talking about many players take those shots who have been shooting well below 30% in games and likely below 30% in practice the rim.

Obviously you admit that you do not know what they shoot in practice.

Tyrique Jones does NOT shoot 3's most likely because he is unreliable in practice.

4 games into the season and over 20 practices too tell the coaches who can shoot. If nobody here watches and evaluates practices, then we only know 25% of the capability of players.

Just like EVERY year, X and 300 other schools take time to gel and understand roles. We all know these are not paid professional players. They are 18-23 year olds who spend 10-20 hours in the gym to get stronger and understand each other.

X like Duke, Virginia, Florida, Auburn, etc. is shooting horribly but X is NOT turning the ball over like so many other teams.
I am not worried or concerned about the offense. I hope the defense gets superb and the X team continues to get fouled and make free throws.

[xukeith]

How much of the low 3PT% is due to the added pressure of knowing this is an area where they can potentially struggle - pressure from media and fans?

Steele has been right on, in my opinion, emphasizing taking good shots, catching with 2 hands, ... concrete things that by themselves allow for better success. A couple of years ago, fans were down on the free throw shooting and we had a miserable year in that area ... remember how quiet it got when Tyrique made a FT attempt? Give him lots of credit for improving in that area. The point is, the players hear the fans and the media ... Coach Steele's response is about doing the things that will make the team better and not about validating the obvious from critical fans. We got so much talent, there is no way we will be 344/353 in 3 pt shooting by the end of the season. I can't wait for this team to show us wrong, improve their shooting, and use all the other talents to really break through like they did at the end of last season.

On KenPom's blog earlier this summer is a study that concludes the following ... for a close game at half-time, the most telling statistic for the eventual outcome is that the team with the "Lowest 3PT%" has the best chance of winning. Sounds contradictory, but an interesting read.

Virginia (ranked #9 in AP and coaches poll) is the worst 3 point shooting team in the nation. They look very good from my standpoint. Their fans probably are very stressed out.

[xukeith]

One thing that cannot be taught is experience. Q is the most experienced player on the team. He plays the best defense and knows every single play.
I want him at pg this year. He is stopping his number of 3 point attempts. His leadership with Jones and talking to all while running the team is irreplaceable.
kyKy is learning the pg position this year. It will take him at least 2 months for the game to slow down for his brain like all frosh.
X will be very dangerous in February/March. Like all teams, X will struggle to find areas to be awesome at this early. 4-0 is good. Better to be lucky than good, sometimes.

[drudy23]

D1 level players should be able to consistently drop open 3's - we've had a ton of wide open misses. That doesn't give me alot of confidence that the percentages will rise. It would be different if we were missing contested and tough threes, but we've had a TON of wide open looks and they're still this bad percentage wise.

[scoscox]

Yeah I get what Steele is trying to say but think hes kidding himself if he doesnt truly have an issue with any of the 3 point shots being taken and by whom.

Theres plenty of good looks that X has just missed that I would agree you keep taking them. But who is taking them has to be addressed I would think. Not every open 3 is a good look if you are no good at shooting.

I really think this team could be so much better served with Scruggs starting at PG and Goodin coming off the bench. I just dont think Steele would do that to Goodin. Mack sure as hell would. Steele is still a young coach so I know he has so much room to grow as a coach but I dont see that killer win at all costs mentality in him yet that we did in Mack. I know we didnt see that in Mack in the beginning either.

I think Mack would have already benched Goodin (still played, just removed from starting lineup) but, enough about Judas. I think Steele is going to be a really good coach, just wish he seemed to have total control over the team a little more than it does at times.

Steele has said after multiple games this year they need to be more mature and better in shot selection. I think he just snapped because he’s tired of the question. We’re not really shooting a ton of threes or even that many bad threes. We’re something around 200th for number of threes a game. He has to believe they’ll start falling. There’s almost no way a team can shoot this poorly

[scoscox]

"Yeah, I don’t care about 3-point shots. I don’t care. I don’t flinch. We’re going to take those all night long. I do not care. What I do care about is the turnovers."

Mick Cronin Lite doesn't flinch at bricking 20 threes a game. What a leader. He does not care. He is the Honey Badger of Big East coaches.

Players can’t control missed shots. They can control turnovers. That’s the point. Trying to give his players confidence offensively is the opposite of mick cronin.

[XU 87]

A lot of those threes X missed on Friday were wide open looks.

[Masterofreality]

"Yeah, I don’t care about 3-point shots. I don’t care. I don’t flinch. We’re going to take those all night long. I do not care. What I do care about is the turnovers."

Mick Cronin Lite doesn't flinch at bricking 20 threes a game. What a leader. He does not care. He is the Honey Badger of Big East coaches.

Q shot 8 shots Friday night. NONE of them inside the arc. He shot 25%. No attempt by your point guard vs a zone to get penetration, to draw the defense and get to the hoop or kick to a better shooter. That is VERY flinch-worthy. That is also "settling" rather than being aggressive. This from a guy who couldn't shoot 29% all last year. It's not isolated, but long term reality.
I respect Steele not throwing his player under the bus, but on this board, we can talk about reality and it IS concerning.
By the way. Bad shots by bad shooters is just like a turnover and against better teams, we're not gonna get those offensive rebounds. Steele has to recognize and fix this.

[bobbiemcgee]

Teams are crowding the paint on us and daring us to shoot the 3 ball. This HAS to be a concern for Coach. How many times have we seen Tyrique battling 3 defenders down low.

[scoscox]

Q shot 8 shots Friday night. NONE of them inside the arc. He shot 25%. No attempt by your point guard vs a zone to get penetration, to draw the defense and get to the hoop or kick to a better shooter. That is VERY flinch-worthy. That is also "settling" rather than being aggressive. This from a guy who couldn't shoot 29% all last year. It's not isolated, but long term reality.
I respect Steele not throwing his player under the bus, but on this board, we can talk about reality and it IS concerning.
By the way. Bad shots by bad shooters is just like a turnover and against better teams, we're not gonna get those offensive rebounds. Steele has to recognize and fix this.

Q is one of our best shooters so far. so things are going well

[GoMuskies]

Q is one of our best shooters so far.

That is so depressing.

[AviatorX]

Q shot 8 shots Friday night. NONE of them inside the arc. He shot 25%. No attempt by your point guard vs a zone to get penetration, to draw the defense and get to the hoop or kick to a better shooter. That is VERY flinch-worthy. That is also "settling" rather than being aggressive. This from a guy who couldn't shoot 29% all last year. It's not isolated, but long term reality.
I respect Steele not throwing his player under the bus, but on this board, we can talk about reality and it IS concerning.
By the way. Bad shots by bad shooters is just like a turnover and against better teams, we're not gonna get those offensive rebounds. Steele has to recognize and fix this.

Which of Q’s threes were bad shots and how would him not taking those looks make it easier for him to drive and kick? Let’s just ignore the fact that it’s not true at all he didn’t look to get in the lane (turns out that’s more difficult when the lane is packed!). Unless you want Q, Naji and Scruggs shooting a long of mid range jumpers (hint: you don’t) I’d be very interested in hearing your solution.

Again, unless your proposal is for Xavier to shoot a statistically extremely low amount of 3’s (which is not how successful teams play basketball), the numbers aren’t crazy at all right now.

[American X]

Players can’t control missed shots.

Yes, they can. They can make them.


Bad shots by bad shooters is just like a turnover and against better teams, we're not gonna get those offensive rebounds.

I swear the other team scores off of every bad three attempt.

[paulxu]

https://media.tenor.com/images/78d63d0aa5eae9fde685ee792c87d59f/tenor.gif

[scoscox]

Yes, they can. They can make them.



I swear the other team scores off of every bad three attempt.

even good shooters miss 60% of their shots. agonizing over missed shots doesnt help you in any way

[IM4X]

Obviously you admit that you do not know what they shoot in practice.

Tyrique Jones does NOT shoot 3's most likely because he is unreliable in practice.

4 games into the season and over 20 practices too tell the coaches who can shoot. If nobody here watches and evaluates practices, then we only know 25% of the capability of players.

Just like EVERY year, X and 300 other schools take time to gel and understand roles. We all know these are not paid professional players. They are 18-23 year olds who spend 10-20 hours in the gym to get stronger and understand each other.

X like Duke, Virginia, Florida, Auburn, etc. is shooting horribly but X is NOT turning the ball over like so many other teams.
I am not worried or concerned about the offense. I hope the defense gets superb and the X team continues to get fouled and make free throws.

Playing great defense is vital with this team but it does not mean terrible offense is acceptable. There have been numerous times where Naji or Q had an. open lane to the basket or at least enough room to dribble in for a mid range jumper and they instead decided to take the quick, lower percentage three.

Naji mid range is pretty solid and he has a much better chance to create a little contact and get to the line.

Steele told us who is shooting best and second best. Now Kyky (best shooter by far in practice) is still out, but Moore, the clear second best shooter should be shooting the 3 more than most... yet Naji (14%) is shooting the most and much more than Moore... so are Q and Scruggs. Moore needs to be playing a little more and shooting a lot more.

[MADXSTER]

I think that Bishop will start knocking some in as well.

[Michigan Muskie]

D1 level players should be able to consistently drop open 3's - we've had a ton of wide open misses. That doesn't give me alot of confidence that the percentages will rise. It would be different if we were missing contested and tough threes, but we've had a TON of wide open looks and they're still this bad percentage wise.

I've noticed this myself, and take it as a positive. X is moving the ball extremely well and creating opportunities for wide open shots more than I've ever seen. I do think the percentage of makes will rise. Hard to get much worse...

[BandDad]

Yes, they can. They can make them.



I swear the other team scores off of every bad three attempt.

I went back and looked at the game log and XU missed 18 three pointers. We got offensive rebounds on three of these and M St got the defensive rebound on the other 15. They scored on 11 of those 15 possessions, a much higher percentage that the rest of the possessions. I think that is probably true for most games and most teams. Long rebounds tend to lead to rebounds by guards and small forwards and runouts by the defense.

[BandDad]

I think that Bishop will start knocking some in as well.

I like Bishop. He has good rotation on the ball, but he has to get the ball above the rim for it to go in. Shot is way too flat. Coaches are probably working with him on that I would believe. His two free throws in the exhibition game were the same way.

[XU 87]

D1 level players should be able to consistently drop open 3's - we've had a ton of wide open misses. That doesn't give me alot of confidence that the percentages will rise. It would be different if we were missing contested and tough threes, but we've had a TON of wide open looks and they're still this bad percentage wise.

I think that's the point that Steele was trying to make- a lot of these threes are really good looks. They just have to make a few.

[GIMMFD]

You know, I also wonder how much of that comment was the fact that Steele is a player's coach. He doesn't seem like he's going to openly rip the guys in public in a press conference or anything, and that's probably better for team morale and wanting to play for a coach. Also, that zone kind of forced us to take threes last game, which seems to be a smart game plan against us. Obviously we have some shooting woes, getting KyKy is going to be huge, but I still think some guys like Bishop, Moore, Carter, etc. will see their averages rise. I'm not so sure about Naji, Scruggs, and Q just because it's been so... weird with their three point shooting over the past couple seasons.

[xukeith]

If KyKy becomes the "known" shooter, what is not to stop defenses from only guarding him outside and let all the others shoot? Plus as a frosh, he might feel obligated to let juniors and seniors to have the ball.

We shall see...

[XUGRAD80]

If KyKy becomes the "known" shooter, what is not to stop defenses from only guarding him outside and let all the others shoot? Plus as a frosh, he might feel obligated to let juniors and seniors to have the ball.

We shall see...

Nothing......except that unlike the last designated “shooter” of a similar size, he can actually drive and dunk. If teams try to guard him by pressing him he will go right around them, and he’s not afraid to take it to the rim with authority.

We will see....

[paulxu]

If he's going to announce his presence with authority...let's call him Nuke.

[American X]

If he's going to announce his presence with authority...let's call him Nuke.

Now that's a great idea, but a tad late. (http://www.xavierhoops.com/showthread.php?33958-Game-Thread-Xavier-v-Jacksonville-(November-5-2019)-Non-Conference&p=655155#post655155)

[paulxu]

Now that's a great idea, but a tad late. (http://www.xavierhoops.com/showthread.php?33958-Game-Thread-Xavier-v-Jacksonville-(November-5-2019)-Non-Conference&p=655155#post655155)

Hah!

[xukeith]

KyKy driving past Villanova or Creighton defenders to always dunk on them will be special to see.

He is no longer in Kansas, ToTo!