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We continue our end of season reviews with the Musketeers of Xavier

OUT:
*Quentin Goodin
*Tyrique Jones
*Bryce Moore
*Naji Marshall

STAY:
*Paul Scruggs
*Jason Carter
*Zach Freemantle
*Kyky Tandy

IN:
*Colby Jones
*CJ Wilcher
*Dwon Odom

My 0.02: Muskies had a good non-con. Nice wins over Mizzou, Missouri St, UConn, Cincy and TCU. Blemishes vs Florida and Wake Forest. Then the X-men had a roller coaster of a conference season. It peaked when they beat the Hall at the Rock. It ended with a thud with a loss to DePaul. I'll just chalk it up to a year of development and learning. Next season is when they should be playing a little better. They got pieces there and a talented freshman class coming in. Let's see what Travis Steele can do.

I had a few dust ups with a select few X fans in the preseason; we simply saw things differently. So take my review as either an honest review or dismiss as competitive sour grapes but here’s what I saw this year:

In the OOC the win at TCU was very good; played really well that night. In conference the win vs the Hall was clearly the height of the in-conference slate. But otherwise I think it was not up to par with their talent or with Musketeer fan minimum yearly expectations. This is a proud program that has consistently performed. We’re it not for a couple Naji 25 footers the season might have been a complete failure. Look at the record vs Tier 1 teams. Just not where X normally is or where many (me included) expected them to be.

So what went wrong? I think Steele has to take most of the blame. Jones was a beast but neither Naji, Scruggs nor Goodin improved from last year. Look around the league. The Jays trio, or Bey and Gillespie or Duke, Baldwin and Thompson, MacClung, Rhoden, McKnight and Gill, etc. Lots of guys took a big step forward. Not so much at X (other than Jones). I also thought that X lacked an identity. Nova and CU would spread em and fire, PC, SHU and Butler would grind you down. X should have been a lights out defensive team who attacked the rim on O. Instead guys who couldn’t shoot tried to play like the Warriors.

Moving forward...the 2 Frosh look totally legit—building blocks. If Naji and PS come back they should be a tourney team. If they don’t the 2 Sophia will have to take big steps forward and the Frosh class will need players to step in immediately. Maybe a one step back next year to enable 3 steps forward in 2021-22 might be the best plan.

GumbyDamnit! wrote:I had a few dust ups with a select few X fans in the preseason; we simply saw things differently. So take my review as either an honest review or dismiss as competitive sour grapes but here’s what I saw this year:

In the OOC the win at TCU was very good; played really well that night. In conference the win vs the Hall was clearly the height of the in-conference slate. But otherwise I think it was not up to par with their talent or with Musketeer fan minimum yearly expectations. This is a proud program that has consistently performed. We’re it not for a couple Naji 25 footers the season might have been a complete failure. Look at the record vs Tier 1 teams. Just not where X normally is or where many (me included) expected them to be.

So what went wrong? I think Steele has to take most of the blame. Jones was a beast but neither Naji, Scruggs nor Goodin improved from last year. Look around the league. The Jays trio, or Bey and Gillespie or Duke, Baldwin and Thompson, MacClung, Rhoden, McKnight and Gill, etc. Lots of guys took a big step forward. Not so much at X (other than Jones). I also thought that X lacked an identity. Nova and CU would spread em and fire, PC, SHU and Butler would grind you down. X should have been a lights out defensive team who attacked the rim on O. Instead guys who couldn’t shoot tried to play like the Warriors.

Moving forward...the 2 Frosh look totally legit—building blocks. If Naji and PS come back they should be a tourney team. If they don’t the 2 Sophia will have to take big steps forward and the Frosh class will need players to step in immediately. Maybe a one step back next year to enable 3 steps forward in 2021-22 might be the best plan.

No point in adding much when a post is as "spot on" as this one!
I will say that Travis Steele is attempting to build a Nova type system....Xavier has some impressive versatility incoming with much needed threat from distance.

Yeah, I would say X disappointed this year. Seemed like thenperceived talent was better than the actual result.

Marshall said he was leaving

GumbyDamnit! wrote:I had a few dust ups with a select few X fans in the preseason; we simply saw things differently. So take my review as either an honest review or dismiss as competitive sour grapes but here’s what I saw this year:

In the OOC the win at TCU was very good; played really well that night. In conference the win vs the Hall was clearly the height of the in-conference slate. But otherwise I think it was not up to par with their talent or with Musketeer fan minimum yearly expectations. This is a proud program that has consistently performed. We’re it not for a couple Naji 25 footers the season might have been a complete failure. Look at the record vs Tier 1 teams. Just not where X normally is or where many (me included) expected them to be.

So what went wrong? I think Steele has to take most of the blame. Jones was a beast but neither Naji, Scruggs nor Goodin improved from last year. Look around the league. The Jays trio, or Bey and Gillespie or Duke, Baldwin and Thompson, MacClung, Rhoden, McKnight and Gill, etc. Lots of guys took a big step forward. Not so much at X (other than Jones). I also thought that X lacked an identity. Nova and CU would spread em and fire, PC, SHU and Butler would grind you down. X should have been a lights out defensive team who attacked the rim on O. Instead guys who couldn’t shoot tried to play like the Warriors.

Moving forward...the 2 Frosh look totally legit—building blocks. If Naji and PS come back they should be a tourney team. If they don’t the 2 Sophia will have to take big steps forward and the Frosh class will need players to step in immediately. Maybe a one step back next year to enable 3 steps forward in 2021-22 might be the best plan.

This is a fair read of the situation Gumby. The one thing you stated that has been chewed and analyzed to pieces on the Xavier board is Travis and the amount of blame that falls upon him for what transpired this past season. Here are a few things we now know:

1. Obviously, this was Steele's second year - - still some amount of "shake down cruise" took place as he adjusted to the first chair. Some fans cite the terrible defensive execution at the end of the Butler game as a concern about Travis and his ability to grow as a coach. There are concerns about his ability to make in-game adjustments. Frankly, while he owns some of the blame, and some fans want to assign him most of the blame, the boneheaded play on the part of the returning players, in particular, and the absolute lack of collective shooting talent/performance compressed his options this past season. I don't know that he gets "most of the blame", but the buck stops with him, so he gets a lot of it.

2. There may have been some contention in the locker room between Naji and a coach. Info came about about that; not sure of its validity. It seems valid to me. We came around to breaking Naji down into two people: "Good Naji" and "Bad Naji". Both versions of Naji managed to suck the oxygen out of the team playing on a synchronized basis, IMHO.

3. As it turns out, and unbeknownst to many - well, at least to me - Goodin became a father at some point this season/past year. I don't believe that his lack of improvement was a result of Travis not being able to coach him up. I believe he mentally checked out, or checked "down" this season and his play showed it. That lazy, stupid cross-court pass against DePaul in MSG was the poster child for his brain-numbing play this past season.

4. Paul? I don't know. Perhaps Naji sucked out some of his oxygen, in particular. Perhaps he couldn't drive because there were no openings for that, given our lack of outside shooting threats. His hamstring injury was a killer at the end of the season. We would have beaten Butler at home with him and the DePaul game would not have turned out the way it did (I know I'm being a little definitive about that, but I believe it would have turned out differently had we had him available and healthy).

5. As for the identity thing, Xavier played hard and they seemed to play for each other most of the time. Travis emphasized defense this year. He had to do that, given his lack of shooters. Nonetheless, they didn't always appear to run what Travis wanted run on offense - - simply too many 3-attempts by Goodin over the course of the year as one example, with mostly failed results, until Travis finally had had enough. The look on his face from time to time, when the television camera zoomed in on him, was a cross between incredulous and contained rage.

So, where are we headed?

Xavier has been about becoming a solid basketball program for almost 40 years now. Stack to Gillen to Prosser to Matta to Miller to Mack and now Travis Steele. Thanks to the "brand" and to being a member of the Big East and thanks to Steele's skill at it, the recruiting has never been better. IMHO, this is the first time that coaching transition hasn't caused a hiccup in recruiting. Just the opposite in fact: Travis certainly appears to be better and more effective at it than Mack.

Next year, we have Free, Miles, potentially Ramsey, Carter at the 4, KyKy, and potentially Paul returning. Don't be surprised if Miles becomes very effective early on. Carter seemed to spend a season adjusting from the MAC to BE caliber competition. Hopefully, he'll bolster his confidence and improve his performance. The newbies hold great promise. Dwon Odom is supposed to be the real deal. CJ Wilcher can shoot the rock. Maybe it won't be a step back, but a step sideways as Travis continues to build the program in his image. Finally, assuming a "come to Jesus" meeting is necessary between Travis and Naji, which assumes Naji would entertain coming back, and assuming that meeting flushes out any issues and firms up a solid go-forward relationship with Naji fully recognizing Travis as the HC, then maybe we do better than sideways.

I believe Travis Steele is the guy. I like where we're headed. I even believe we can hang onto him for a long time. He married into a wealthy Xavier family that happens to be from Cincinnati. This will never be a "Mack to Louisville for happy wife" outcome (yeah, maybe the money had something to do with that as well). We'll see.

During the all-access game it seemed like Steele was overcoaching during timeouts, drawing up plays all the time. Almost seemed panicked or unprepared. Mac just talked and the players gave their thoughts.

I remember thinking after we beat Xavier at X to even our record at 2-2 in the early going, Steele might be the only guy in the league Mac can outcoach . Then Mac went out and out-coached the whole rest of the damn league.

I believe coaches should be given opportunities to coach his own recruits before being put on hot seats. when you inherit veteran players such as Naji Jones Scruggs, it's hard to impose your system from day 1 especially for 1st time HC like Steele. for that reason, Naji leaving early may not necessarily be a bad thing.

Also, let's not forget coaches get better on the job. you don't expect 2nd yr HC to make all the right moves and adjustments, call timeouts and substitutions all the while working the official every game. even those who's been coaching 20-30 yrs get these complaints from their fans.

lastly, I agree 100% on the two freshmen cornerstones. Tandy and Freemantle should be fun to watch for next few years.

X this year had too many redundant pieces. A lot of athletic, tough guys who didn't have high basketball IQs and who couldn't shoot. A lot of people wanted them to play fast-paced on offense, but frankly, I didn't trust their decision-making in that regard and a fast pace on offense would lead to fast breaks the other way rather than a grind-it-out halfcourt defense. The team still generally got more good looks than their opponents, but so many of their opponents were better at putting the ball in the hoop. Miss an open layup on one end, give up a contested three on the other end. Rinse. Repeat.

The junior class was supposed to have two shooters, neither of which worked out, and the sophomore class was a nightmare recruiting year when they were after shooters and high-IQ guys in that class but whiffed repeatedly. The freshman class had a couple of okay IQ guys who could shoot it, but Tandy, the one who really helped in shooting, was out of of practice for a month at the beginning of the season and thus behind developmentally the whole season. Basically, this team had a bunch of dudes that I'd love to have on my team... but not all at the same time. Next year with the 2020 guys will do a lot to balance the roster out. They are high IQ guys, one who can really shoot it and the other two who aren't supposed to be terrible in that regard.