Game Thread: Xavier v Ball State University (12/8/2021)

[paulxu]

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/2a1f45a0-e1cc-4202-89d7-1b7b5c27f309_1.3c18d8e111cdcd7e8a271effb6000907.jp eg?odnHeight=612&odnWidth=612&odnBg=FFFFFFVS.https://spng.subpng.com/20181106/zgw/kisspng-ball-state-university-ball-state-cardinals-footbal-5be168782edd75.674525591541499000192.jpg

THE MATCHUP

XAVIER UNIVERSITY MUSKETEERS (7-1, 0-0 BIG EAST)
BALL STATE UNIVERSITY CARDINALS (3-4, 0-0 MAC)
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 8, 2021 AT 6:30 P.M. ET
CINTAS CENTER (10,224) IN CINCINNATI, OHIO

TV, RADIO & LIVE STATS

Television: FS1 with play by-play from Matt Schumacker and analysis from Nick Bahe.
Radio: 700 WLW with play-by-play from Xavier Hall of Famer Joe Sunderman ('79) and analysis from XU all-time leading scorer and Hall of Famer Byron Larkin ('88). XU broadcast is also available on Sirius (135) XM (202) and the SXM App. (965).
Live Stats: Media stats at Statbroadcast.com and fan stats at GoXavier.com.

[GoMuskies]

I've got lots of family ties to old Testicle Tech, so it would be good for Xavier to win by a large margin today.

[Xville]

Glad to see hunter give himself a heat check…make sure he’s still not a good shooter

[Xville]

Hot garbage first four minutes

[noteggs]

Glad to see hunter give himself a heat check…make sure he’s still not a good shooter

That is funny. Reps

[kellernr]

Looks like these expected to walk all over Ball St. Need to wake up and run some offense.

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[noteggs]

Obviously didn’t win the first war

[kellernr]

Glad to see hunter give himself a heat check…make sure he’s still not a good shooterI understand letting Kunkel, Johnson, Scruggs and even Tandy to always have a green light but I will never understand why Steele let's Hunter shoot like he's Curry.

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[noteggs]

Free is actually a good passer inside

[Xville]

This is better :) . Hopefully this is the last game we see hunter in the starting lineup. I like his rebounding, and some other of his intangibles but I’m so sick of him jacking up 3 pointers… he needs to be a 10-15 minute rotational player.

[Xville]

Johnson is so good when he’s on, and nice move free!!

[kellernr]

This is better :) . Hopefully this is the last game we see hunter in the starting lineup. I like his rebounding, and some other of his intangibles but I’m so sick of him jacking up 3 pointers… he needs to be a 10-15 minute rotational player.Time to move Miles back to the end of the bench. With fremantle back and nunge playing well there is no reason for miles to be in the starting 5 anymore.

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[noteggs]

Last 5 games for Nate has been incredible!

[Xville]

Time to move Miles back to the end of the bench. With fremantle back and nunge playing well there is no reason for miles to be in the starting 5 anymore.

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Yeah I think 10-15 max for him as well. I’m sure Steele is just making sure that nunge and free are up to speed and gameshape befor the change is finally made.

[noteggs]

Nice 29 to 6 run

[Xville]

After those first four minutes, the team looks outstanding.

[Xville]

Welcome back free!!!

Odom’s shot does look a lot better

[whopper]

After those first four minutes, the team looks outstanding.. They can be worked in easily and i bet they will be hungry. No need to risk injury especially to Zach. We are very deep for sure but i would love to see what they can do.

[noteggs]

Welcome back free!!!

Odom’s shot does look a lot better

Better upper body mechanics but still has that weird knee hitch

[bobbiemcgee]

Like the Jack/Zac rotation.

[noteggs]

Liked the halftime history of X basketball. Just wish they brought up Bob Staak

[GreatWhiteNorth]

Good numbers all around, except for TOs.

[drudy23]

Alright get the key guys out.

[Xville]

Just a ton of good..free looks like his old self so great to see, Colby doing Colby things, Nate staying hot.

Up 40 with 7 minutes left….I think it’s time to empty the bench

[xubrew]

If Ball State was a sled dog it would be time to shoot it.

[xuphan]

Good numbers all around, except for TOs.

TOs have always been a staple of a Steele coached team. This is the first time in the Steele era that I feel confident about his team. We are playing pretty good basketball at the moment.

[drudy23]

Let’s see if KyKy can finally get a dunk.

[GoMuskies]

Remember when Ball State used to have good teams?

[Xville]

Damn Steele is even doing the right things emptying the bench with 5 minutes left. I’m amazed.

[drudy23]

Are my eyes deceiving me or is KyKy not on the bench?

[GoMuskies]

Is there any chance Stanley gets healthy enough to be a contributor this season?

[drudy23]

Is there any chance Stanley gets healthy enough to be a contributor this season?

Maybe, but honestly, whose minutes does he take?

[Xville]

Are my eyes deceiving me or is KyKy not on the bench?

I haven’t looked closely enough but that would make sense as to why he’s not in the game. One of the strangest situations I have ever seen with the promise he showed as a freshman

[Lloyd Braun]

Are my eyes deceiving me or is KyKy not on the bench?

He’s sick today (flu)

[Xville]

He’s sick today (flu)

Ah gotcha..I guess he was one of the last to get it

[xuphan]

Remember when Ball State used to have good teams?

I remember the Bonzi Wells days.

[Xville]

That was an ass beating. It’s now uc week

[GoMuskies]

Xavier gets 96, and the game is under the number (149). Pretty unusual!

[Lloyd Braun]

I may have placed a live X -45.5 wager for no good reason other than it was such an obscene number. Hail Cesare!!!

[kellernr]

I haven’t looked closely enough but that would make sense as to why he’s not in the game. One of the strangest situations I have ever seen with the promise he showed as a freshmanHeard he was out sick again

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[GreatWhiteNorth]

Welcome back Zach !
KyKy chose a wrong day to be sick. He would have played quite a bit today.

[Lloyd Braun]

Welcome back Zach !
KyKy chose a wrong day to be sick. He would have played quite a bit today.

Yea all of 5 minutes 8 seconds

[whopper]

I feel for Kyky..the crazy rules last year made Kunkel eligible early(and Stanley too who got hurt in incidental play when he could have spelled Carter). Then Nate and Scruggs come back (good for us bad for Kyky). If he works on his all around game he "could" step in for Nate J and play 25 next year (I like Kunkel but he is not that much better but more confident). Work in practice on D and ball handling. I am pulling for him as we could easily this year have Dwon as point guard with Kunk and Kyky as 2 guards. If I were Kyky I would try to pursue this path and he "could" end up playing overseas.

[GoMuskies]

I think we're just wasting bandwidth talking about KyKy. Just doesn't seem like it's going to happen for him at Xavier.

[bleedXblue]

I think we're just wasting bandwidth talking about KyKy. Just doesn't seem like it's going to happen for him at Xavier.

Exactly

Maybe a bigger role next year if he is still here.......

Ward and Craft are going to play from day 1. Still have Kunkel, Jones and Odom there too.

[xavierj]

Regardless of opponent, that was a really solid team effort out there tonight. Team has some serious potential. Zach has been out since August and just played his 3rd game and did what he did. Him and Nunge playing together is going to be fun to watch. This team can be really good. Now on to crushing UC.

[xavierj]

KyKy, Edwards and Stanley would either start or play a ton of minutes for UC. Let that sink in.

[noteggs]

Man 51 boards to their 26. Talk about a lopsided number. Of course it helps when they shot 30% from the field.

[xuphan]

Man 51 boards to their 26. Talk about a lopsided number. Of course it helps when they shot 30% from the field.

I am sure they got a good payday to play this game.

[XUGRAD80]

I hope that those clamoring for the end of the bench to get more time are somewhat happy. Edwards and Stanley played 6 and 5 minutes respectively.

Scruggs played only 28 minutes. Hunter, jones Johnson, and Kunkel played 23 each, and Odom got 22. Nunge 16 and Miles 11. Freemantle got 20.

9 different players got double digit minutes. The team should be well rested for Saturday's game. And nobody got hurt.

Ball state was clearly overmatched in every way. they are not a good team at all, but....

The Nunge-Freemantle combination looks extremely effective.
Scruggs only scores 7,but gets 9 rebounds.
Jones scores 14, gets 8 rebounds, and dishes out 5 assists.
Freemantle plays 20 mins. scores 24 points, has 7 rebounds. and 4 assists.
Johnson gets 14 points on 9 shots.

Who does the opposition try to shut down? X is offensively very balanced and very deep. If their defense continues to force turnovers they are going to become a hard team to beat.

[bleedXblue]

UC will try to up the tempo and full court pressure us. Would be very surprised if the want a half court 40 minute war.

Bring it on

[XUGRAD80]

KyKy, Edwards and Stanley would either start or play a ton of minutes for UC. Let that sink in.

I've seen UC play twice in person, and also on TV. I doubt that statement very much. UC is a very deep and talented team and X better not be sleeping on them. They are very inexperienced with playing with each other, but individually have a lot of college experience. They are getting better with every game.

One major factor in Saturday's game might be that so many of the UC players have never played a game that will have the intensity that the shootout does, and/or have never played in front of a crowd like they will experience in Cintas. But don't underestimate their talent. The have some very skilled and mobile bigs. Sanders is a blur on the court, one of the fastest guards I've ever seen. Davenport is a local guy who has a great understanding of the shootout and its history. However, he is inclined to try and carry the team himself at times, which results in bad forced shots. I think that X force them into turnovers that result in easy baskets for X, But they better not take them lightly.

[SkyWalker]

Fantastic effort tonight. Don't want to rain on the celebration but I am a little concerned about the number of turnovers especially the last three games. Need to clean that up going into Big East play.

[GIMMFD]

I think we're just wasting bandwidth talking about KyKy. Just doesn't seem like it's going to happen for him at Xavier.

Ha, jokes on you, I just upgraded to a complete mesh network to have full coverage in the house, plenty of bandwidth to talk about KY JELLY

[X Factor]

Fantastic effort tonight. Don't want to rain on the celebration but I am a little concerned about the number of turnovers especially the last three games. Need to clean that up going into Big East play.

Yep, that is really the only area that Xavier HAS to improve on heading into conference play. X is 280th in the nation in turnover %. Nova is 7th. They don't turn the ball over.

[D-West & PO-Z]

Hot garbage first four minutes

EDIT:

This is what made me laugh. I quoted the wrong post:

Glad to see hunter give himself a heat check…make sure he’s still not a good shooter

[D-West & PO-Z]

Man what a game.

Johnson is on a freaking tear.

Freemantle is back! So glad he was well enough to get a solid 20 minutes. I think we might see him back in the starting lineup against sUCks. Hunter is much better suited off the bench with less minutes I think.

Solid tune up game!

[noteggs]

Yep, that is really the only area that Xavier HAS to improve on heading into conference play. X is 280th in the nation in turnover %. Nova is 7th. They don't turn the ball over.

Unfortunately Paul will be Paul and hopefully he can trim it down. Such a great player but.. for the rest absolutely.

[Xavier]

If Johnson plays like this all year X will do very well in the big east. I may have underestimated the impact his season ending injury had on X last year

[waggy]

The turnovers hurt the offensive efficiency. Pomeroy's number for offensive efficiency went down despite scoring 96 points.

The defensive efficiency improved quite a bit though.

[wny08]

The turnovers hurt the offensive efficiency. Pomeroy's number for offensive efficiency went down despite scoring 96 points.

The defensive efficiency improved quite a bit though.

XU scored 1.19 points per possession last night, which I believe is their highest efficiency of the season. If the season number went down, it might be due to a strength of schedule adjustment, not because of XU being less efficient against BSU. Turnovers obviously impact points scored, but it's a separate metric that doesn't directly impact efficiency. Efficiency is just points scored per possession.

Interestingly, the game had 81 possessions, which is a really fast pace! I wonder how much the fast pace impacted turnovers while possibly helping XU in other areas of the game. Still a big cause for concern going forward...

[markchal]

Very pleased with the performance. It's fun to smash teams you are supposed to beat handily. I feel like there have been too many times the last couple years we would let games like this get wayyy too close.

At the same time, man, Ball St. looked awful. I know we've played teams that are worse, but they had a lot of just wild turnovers or terrible offensive possessions. I expected us to win going away but also thought they'd put up a little bit of a fight.

[sgarcia]

I didn’t get a chance to see the game but obviously a great win when you damn near double up the opponent. I don’t want to poo poo on anything but can somebody explain to me why Kunkel plays so much? He’s 34.4% from the field, 35% from 3 so far this year. That includes a game where he was 9-12/8-10 from 3. Is he a great practice player like Jason Carter? I just can’t wrap my head around it.

[xavierj]

I didn’t get a chance to see the game but obviously a great win when you damn near double up the opponent. I don’t want to poo poo on anything but can somebody explain to me why Kunkel plays so much? He’s 34.4% from the field, 35% from 3 so far this year. That includes a game where he was 9-12/8-10 from 3. Is he a great practice player like Jason Carter? I just can’t wrap my head around it.

I typically question Kunkel but last night he was very active on the defensive end and was causing problems for their guards and deflecting a ton of passes. He didn’t let his offense affect his defense. He also did not take bad shots but shots you live with. He also had 4 assists.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I sometimes think Dwon should get a few more of Kunkel's minutes but other than that I don't think there is anyone to take them. Whatever anyone feels still about Kyky, it seems safe to say that it isn't going to happen for him at X (at least this year, who knows about next).

[Xville]

I think he should be a 10-15 minute max player along with hunter, miles. I assume as we get closer and closer to March and nunge and free get more and more healthy that the rotation will tighten up even more and the five everyone thinks should be the starters, will be and will get the majority of the minutes.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I think he should be a 10-15 minute max player along with hunter, miles. I assume as we get closer and closer to March and nunge and free get more and more healthy that the rotation will tighten up even more and the five everyone thinks should be the starters, will be and will get the majority of the minutes.

I definitely think Hunter and Miles (especially Hunter) minutes will go down. I am not sure Kunkel's will go down that much.

[MHettel]

XU scored 1.19 points per possession last night, which I believe is their highest efficiency of the season. If the season number went down, it might be due to a strength of schedule adjustment, not because of XU being less efficient against BSU. Turnovers obviously impact points scored, but it's a separate metric that doesn't directly impact efficiency. Efficiency is just points scored per possession.

Interestingly, the game had 81 possessions, which is a really fast pace! I wonder how much the fast pace impacted turnovers while possibly helping XU in other areas of the game. Still a big cause for concern going forward...

I'd like to get more info on the "efficiency stat." Does anyone know where the "formula" is defined? I'm interested in such things as the definition of "possession." Is an offensive rebound and resulting basket considered a 2nd possessional or is that just considered 2 shots on one possession? What about an offensive rebound that leads to a turnover? Is that one possession with a shot and a turnover, or is that 2 separate possessions? These are the kind of questions I'm looking for answers on....

[sgarcia]

I sometimes think Dwon should get a few more of Kunkel's minutes but other than that I don't think there is anyone to take them. Whatever anyone feels still about Kyky, it seems safe to say that it isn't going to happen for him at X (at least this year, who knows about next).

I've finally given up on Kyky getting any minutes which is a shame. I can't imagine there's a better 3pt shooter on the team but it is what it is at this point.

[GoMuskies]

I can't imagine there's a better 3pt shooter on the team but it is what it is at this point.

Have you met Nate Johnson? He's the one with the wallet that says Bad Motherfucker.

[MADXSTER]

I've finally given up on Kyky getting any minutes which is a shame. I can't imagine there's a better 3pt shooter on the team but it is what it is at this point.

KyKy has the flu

[sgarcia]

Have you met Nate Johnson? He's the one with the wallet that says Bad Motherfucker.

Totally unacceptable brain fart on my part.

[sgarcia]

KyKy has the flu

He’s not getting any time even if he’s healthy unless there’s an emergency situation like the Va Tech game.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I've finally given up on Kyky getting any minutes which is a shame. I can't imagine there's a better 3pt shooter on the team but it is what it is at this point.

Ummm....Nate Johnson?

[D-West & PO-Z]

KyKy has the flu

Yeah, which is why he didnt play at all last night but has nothing to do with his lack of playing time overall this year.

[D-West & PO-Z]

Totally unacceptable brain fart on my part.

Ha, we all have them!

[JTG]

My guess is KyKy enters the portal, and leaves for good before 2nd semester.

[paulxu]

It seemed to me that Kunkel was playing a lot of point guard in the last 5 minutes. Bringing the ball up, etc.
Would love if anyone has a link to the full game video to post it. Would like to go back and see if I was dreaming.
(Yes...I may have had a couple bourbons....)

[XUBison]

My guess is KyKy enters the portal, and leaves for good before 2nd semester.

He should. As much as I liked that he opted to return, and especially that Steele welcomed him back, I’m starting to wonder if Steele maybe shouldn’t have, for Kyky’s own good. So hard to comprehend from the outside looking in— hate to think that kind of loyalty from both sides could result in a situation that either regrets. Have to think he would be tearing it up at any number of good mid-majors.

[xukeith]

He should. As much as I liked that he opted to return, and especially that Steele welcomed him back, I’m starting to wonder if Steele maybe shouldn’t have, for Kyky’s own good. So hard to comprehend from the outside looking in— hate to think that kind of loyalty from both sides could result in a situation that either regrets. Have to think he would be tearing it up at any number of good mid-majors.

Dontarious James transferred to Jacksonville St and last April told someone he transferred again but I can't find him in any D 1 school. Any ideas?

[xukeith]

KyKy may love his teammates. And they may love him. Steele does have the men developing positive philosophies and leading self improvement scenarios. It is the Oprah book club but basketball.

[xukeith]

How about Odom with a wide open made three. Not ugly at all?

[XUGRAD80]

How about Odom with a wide open made three. Not ugly at all?

It went in, but it sure wasn’t “classic” form.

[bobbiemcgee]

Dontarious James transferred to Jacksonville St and last April told someone he transferred again but I can't find him in any D 1 school. Any ideas?

He's on Howard's roster but apparently hasn't played this year for whatever reason:

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/howard/2022.html