Season Wrap: 2019-20

[MHettel]

Ok, what the hell was that?

I don't think I've EVER not wanted to watch XU play. But when they canceled the Dance I was secretly relieved that my misery was over. This was by far the worst year I can recall as a fan. For a number of reasons that go WAY beyond the Wins and Losses. Besides Tyrique, I didn't see a single guy out there that seemed to give a shit. I saw us run the same exact offensive and defensive schemes each game, in spite of the fact they weren't working to well. And it was just sloppy. But the WORST was the fact that we HAD the talent and that talent HAD experienced winning in the past.

RIP, 2019-20.

Now lets analyze WHAT THE HELL we just saw. I've got full team stats for XU and their opponents for the last 11 years. We can rank this years team offensively and defensively in a number of categories against prior years to see what was different. As you might expect, ALL teams have strengths and weaknesses, but some weakneses are just killers.

OFFENSIVE ANALYSIS (pun intended)

I'm offering both a qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Qualitative: Ugly

Quantitative: Ranking out of 11 teams

FG%- 11th
2pt FG%- 7th
3pt FG%- 11th
% of our Points from 3- 5th

PAUSE! we were the worst 3pt shooting team in 11 years, but managed to have the 5th highest % of points from 3. That combination means a whole lot of misses.

FT%- 11th
FTA per game- 10th
% of points from FT- 11th

PAUSE! I know you cant practice GETTING to the FT line, but you can practice making them, right?

Assist per game- 7th (not bad, considering the crappy shooting)
% of made Shots from Assist- 7th
Turnovers per Game- 11th
Asst to TO Ratio- 10th
% of turnovers NOT from a steal- 10th (these are passes out of bounds, offensive fouls, step on the sideline, backcourt, etc)
Opponent Steals per game- 11th
Opponent Blocks per game- 3rd (not bad!)

PAUSE! Well, the silver lining here is that I think I've figured out why I cant sleep anymore....

Offensive Rebounds per Game- 3rd (how could you NOT get offensive rebounds when you miss so many shots)
Offensive Rebounds as a % of total misses- 8th

PAUSE! Considering that Tyrique is our all time leader in ORebs per minute, I must wonder what the HELL were the other guys doing? Tyrique got 37% of the offensive boards. The next 3 guys COMBINED had 1 more than he did.

Conclusion: see my qualitative analysis

DEFENSIVE ANALYSIS

These are our rankings vs Opponents from 1 to 11 (as in this is the 4th best defense against FG% over the last 11 years)

FG%- 4th
2pt%- 5th
3pt%- 2nd
FT attempts per Game- 5th
ORebs per game- 9th (again, ALOT of missed shots by opponents so expect some ORebs)
TO per game- 2nd
XU Fouls per game- 2nd
Opponents PPG- 5th

Not much to say here really. Other than the defense wasn't too bad, and certainly wasn't the problem. Whats weird is that last years team was pretty horrible on D, and yet most of the guys from this year were on that team. And last year we had Hankins. Was the difference Carter over Welage? Maybe a little bit of Freemantle?

Anyway. A couple other tidbits

Combined shooting % of XU and Opponents was 11th.
Combined 3pt% was also 11th.

As I was looking at the data, I couldn't help but notice the numbers for the 2012-13 team. I think I've buried the memory of that team. Jeff Robinson, Isiah Philmore and Justin Martin played 35% of the total minutes on that team and scored a TOTAL of 649 points...which is 27 points LESS than Trevon scored as a senior. I mean that team was BAD...and then 2 years later made the Elite 8.

[XU 87]

This is really good stuff. Well done.

[IM4X]

Nothing like realizing we were actually every bit as awful on offense as we all were feeling.

[GIMMFD]

Boy, those numbers are gross to look at, helluva write up, but man.. we sucked this year.

[paulxu]

OK, we didn't have such a great year.

But I still would have liked to have seen us go to the dance.

[GIMMFD]

OK, we didn't have such a great year.

But I still would have liked to have seen us go to the dance.

I agree with this, I think if we snuck in, we would have caused a couple teams fits match-up wise, would have just been if we shot ourselves in the foot or not. Those last two games were painful to swallow though, wish it could have ended on a better note.

[Masterofreality]

I'm glad that this season was shot in the head and put out of its misery on March 12. 2020. Enough already.

Good job MHett.

[Lloyd Braun]

Well... this is certainly the glass half empty approach. Let me present the glass half full approach:

We won the shootout. Nearly won the Charleston Classic. Only lost 5 games to teams not named Nova/Butler/Marquette/Creighton (0-8) that clearly were bad matchups. No bad losses.

[sgarcia]

I found a stat that annoys me the most. This was the 4th straight season we committed more turnovers than our opponent. That is totally unacceptable especially when you have multiple buy games against what should be inferior competition.

[Muskie]

Things that jumped out at me:


3pt FG%- 11th
% of our Points from 3- 5th ---- OUCH


FT%- 11th
FTA per game- 10th
% of points from FT- 11th ---- TRIPLE OUCH

% of turnovers NOT from a steal- 10th - OUCH

Overall Defense wasn't bad and if we could have cured any of the above for any stretch of times this team was comfortably in the NCAA tournament and had an outside shot at the Big East Conf Tournament with the right draw. I keep coming back to it. Great collection of mismatched but talented players who couldn't figure out how to come together.

[IM4X]

Things that jumped out at me:

3pt FG%- 11th
% of our Points from 3- 5th ---- OUCH

FT%- 11th
FTA per game- 10th
% of points from FT- 11th ---- TRIPLE OUCH

% of turnovers NOT from a steal- 10th - OUCH




“If X doesn’t make the NCAA Tournament next season again, “Triple Ouch” might be a nick name that sticks with Travis.

Goodness, let’s hope the players and coaches get it figured out.

[paulxu]

The Athletic is running a fan survey of Xavier basketball.

[Masterofreality]

“If X doesn’t make the NCAA Tournament next season again, “Triple Ouch” might be a nick name that sticks with Travis.

Goodness, let’s hope the players and coaches get it figured out.

All I know is this.

Wins and losses aside. If this offense next year with Steele's handpicked players, looks the same as this trash we saw this year with the exact same scheme, I wouldn't be waiting for year four. The die would have been cast.

If I'm seeing ball movement, multiple screens and ball reversals with good cuts and player movement then I'm ok even if our final record is 16-15 because there is hope- just like in 1995-96 with young talent like Lenny, Gary and Darnell. They'll figure it out. If not, then it's on coach, 1000000%.

[muskiefan82]

All I know is this.

Wins and losses aside. If this offense next year with Steele's handpicked players, looks the same as this trash we saw this year with the exact same scheme, I wouldn't be waiting for year four. The die would have been cast.

If I'm seeing ball movement, multiple screens and ball reversals with good cuts and player movement then I'm ok even if our final record is 16-15 because there is hope- just like in 1995-96 with young talent like Lenny, Gary and Darnell. They'll figure it out. If not, then it's on coach, 1000000%.

I have to agree with this. There was NOTHING being run on offense. I recognize that the interior was packed because no one can shoot 3s, but you can at least run SOMETHING to try and get a run at the basket from motion instead of 1 on 1 from the top. So painful to watch this year.

[drudy23]

All I know is this.

Wins and losses aside. If this offense next year with Steele's handpicked players, looks the same as this trash we saw this year with the exact same scheme, I wouldn't be waiting for year four. The die would have been cast.

If I'm seeing ball movement, multiple screens and ball reversals with good cuts and player movement then I'm ok even if our final record is 16-15 because there is hope- just like in 1995-96 with young talent like Lenny, Gary and Darnell. They'll figure it out. If not, then it's on coach, 1000000%.

This.

It seems part of "Trav" getting this job was his insistence on running a Villanova type offense. That absolutely wasn't the case his first few years. The offense was a disaster for most of those 2 years. I guess we'll see what it looks like with a fresh sets of ballers.

Coaches rarely do a 180 when it comes to their offensive philosophy. I can't take another season of the crap we saw the past two years on offense.

[Muskie]

This.

It seems part of "Trav" getting this job was his insistence on running a Villanova type offense. That absolutely wasn't the case his first few years. The offense was a disaster for most of those 2 years. I guess we'll see what it looks like with a fresh sets of ballers.

Coaches rarely do a 180 when it comes to their offensive philosophy. I can't take another season of the crap we saw the past two years on offense.

How much better does this offense look if X shoots better from the line, Mid-range, and behind the arc? I'd say it's an enjoyable product on the floor to watch.

[XU 87]

How much better does this offense look if X shoots better from the line, Mid-range, and behind the arc? I'd say it's an enjoyable product on the floor to watch.

Offenses tend to look better when they actually make open shots.

[drudy23]

How much better does this offense look if X shoots better from the line, Mid-range, and behind the arc?

LOL - yes, that's true for any offense.

But at the same time, there were that many misses AND an offensive that wasn't anywhere close to together. It would be one thing if they just couldn't shoot. But, it was definitely that, and there was also zero continuity. The double whammy of offensive offense.

[XU 87]

LOL - yes, that's true for any offense.

But at the same time, there were that many misses AND an offensive that wasn't anywhere close to together. It would be one thing if they just couldn't shoot. But, it was definitely that, and there was also zero continuity. The double whammy of offensive offense.

I will agree to disagree with you, in part. Could there have been better offensive movement? Absolutely. Was Naji at times (too often) a black hole who, when he got the ball, the entire arena knew he wasn't going to give up the ball? Yes.

But I thought there was generally decent movement on offense. While it it could have been better, the Steele offense didn't remind me of the Prosser offenses.