Xavier falls in the play-in game. Still a successful season if you ask me.
Successful? I suppose it meets the absolute bare minimum criteria for being successful. I thought Xavier needed to get back to the NCAA Tournament this year, and they did. Sort of.
The program feels like it's stagnating a bit -- with the same issues (vanilla offensive design, lack of consistent outside shooting, defensive lapses, refusal to play press / zone defenses unless forced to do so) continuing to plague the team.
At the end of the year, they'll be able to say they made the "Tournament" (since they technically consider the play-in game the tournament) and finished #3 in the Big East, but there needs to be some serious re-evaluation of some things in the offseason.
The results will continue to be inconsistent until the team and coaching staff dedicate themselves to a greater degree of mental toughness and awareness on both sides of the court and start to run offenses that aren't so reliant on dribble-drive penetration and picking up contact fouls around the basket.
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
Watching the tournament, you're next to nothing if you can't hit big three pointers throughout the game. There are other equal components like sharing the ball well and playing great defense, but I consider the three point shot to be an irreplaceable component to high level championship ball. Chris Mack's teams have not shot the three well at all and certainly haven't made up for it with any counter balanced strength like having a bunch of tall shot blockers on the roster. That said, I think they've started making up for that with next years class.
Chris Mack is, apparently, the main target for Wake Forest's coaching vacancy.
Interesting to see where this develops.
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
Now is a good time to keep a coach, I think. This is the bridge XU needs to cross that they didn't when Miller left. Miller leaving prevented a team with Derrick Brown and Jordan Crawford from happening. Semaj would likely leave if Mack did.
It'd be a terrible time to lose a coach, IMO.
Justin Martin can also transfer without penalty since he'll have graduated by the end of this semester. I imagine he'd immediately bolt elsewhere as a 1-year player as well.
Plus, I think they'd probably lose a huge chunk of their recruiting class as well.
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Time for XU to open the checkbook. Letting Mack go would be disastrous in the short term.
I am surprised. Particularly with Villanova. They were awful in the Big East Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.
Watching Nova hoist up so many threes made them look one dimensional. I guess they were afraid of Uconn on the inside. Uconn has always been a shot blocking team, but Nova was way too late in getting buckets inside. They almost set the record for least 2 pt field goals in that game. Bad strategy, bad balance, I thought. They were a better team than they showed. I didn't watch the Creighton game. They've never been to the sweet 16 and I don't know if they ever will at this rate. I think they were also less physical inside than they need to be in the future to have a better rounded team. Providence showed the best in the tourney, but also was an incomplete team. Heck Georgetown may have been a sweet 16 contender, but they were inconsistent and had no depth. Oh well. The conference title is there for XU's taking next year if Mack comes back with Semaj and Martin and that frosh class. Good time for Mack to leverage. They better find a way to pay the guy more money.
I'm by no means convinced Mack is a great coach -- I think he's got strengths and weaknesses. I'm also by no means convinced that, in a vacuum, Xavier wouldn't be better off with someone like Pat Kelsey as their head coach going forward.
But, given the massive influx of talent coming in right now that has yet to set foot on Victory Parkway for a game, they need to at least retain Mack for a few more seasons.
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
espn is reporting that he's not taking the cal job. i'm not sold on mack but i don't want to lose anyone from the incoming class. if it was me i would start stainbrook and 4 frosh. if that transfer from indiana is any good than maybe start him. if we are going to strugle i want the young kids learning from it for the future.
there's nothing like bowling a 300 game! 13 now and retired.
Ricky henderson has a higher OBP than C. patterson and he's retired. C. Trent 6-14-2008
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