Xavier wins

[Aquinas]

Xavier just upset Memphis. This is good news! Memphis is 2 ahead of us in the Coaches poll and well ahead in RPI.
This game will be a measuring stick with us going to Xavier next week. It is also a warning for us not to take Xavier lightly.

[Quality Is Job 1]

Messphis ain't ready for A-10 hoops! That was proven 11 months ago.

[Littlebill]

Memphis is 2-4 against top 50. Memphis is just overrated. Easy to dominate in a terrible conference. The C-USA is not good. X at Cintas is never easy though. We SHOULD be okay when we go there, as long as we don't lay an egg. It's not gonna happen.

[Quality Is Job 1]

The Bills weren't supposed to be able to "zip 'em up" at Cintas last year, either, but they did.

[Pistol]

I was at this game last night. Memphis is not as good as the team we (and Xavier) saw last season. They play with no focus. It's all about putting together one big run for them, which they did. Xavier had a 13-point lead at one point. Memphis chipped it down to 10 over the course of a few minutes. Then Xavier inbounded a pass to Redford, who dribbled into a ref who wouldn't get out of the way, and the turnover led to a Memphis layup that sparked an 8-0 run. Geron Johnson had 4 3-pointers in a short span. Memphis even went up 1 with just over a minute to play.

Honestly, neither team appeared to want this win too badly. Xavier had it in the bag for about 30 minutes before pissing down their own leg. I can't remember another team that has blown more double-digit leads than Xavier this season, many of which have resulted in losses. Memphis was 3-14 from the FT line at one point before hitting 3 of its last 4.

By the way, Memphis is a GREAT dunking team. Best I've seen yet this season.

But neither of these teams are nearly as good as SLU. Memphis could beat anybody because of their talent, but they're not well coached enough on the floor to rattle off a string of wins over strong teams. Their defenders would rather let guys get in close and try to block shots than actually take shots away. Xavier's 3-13 from 3 had more to do with missing open shots than being defended. The one thing Xavier does well that could hurt SLU is rebounding. They're one of the best teams in the country at it, and Travis Taylor is really playing well even though the team as a whole is not. If we don't beat them next Wednesday, it will be because we are not playing well. We should absolutely win.

[Taj79]

Pistol -- what is the status of Dee Davis? Xavier is weak enough in the backcourt, playing only Christon, Davis and Redford and Redford is a limited role player at best -- treys and free throw shooting. Davis got hurt against VCU and did not play last night and they were saying his absence amplified Xavier's inability to handle the VCU press, thereby allowing the comeback win VCU had from 20 down. Xavier started Christon as it's only guard last night, going with forwards Taylor, Robinson, Philmore and Martin. In 26 minutes, Martin went 0-6 from the floor (0-5 downtown) with no points and four fouls. The bigger lineup might present matchup problems but the talent level is not overly superior.

Once again, the dominant program in CUSA came out and was at a loss to handle a non-CUSA team. Pastner MIGHT be able to recruit, but he certainly hasn't shown me much in terms of bench coaching. You hit it on the head when you talked about Memphis' inability to defend, going for the SportsCenter highlight blocks instead of playing good defense. Taylor scored like 11 of Xavier's first 18 points and did have ten rebounds, but a lot of his offense was done because Memphis let Christon drive and the Memphis big men went for the block, thereby allowing no one on the defensive boards to keep Taylor away. I suspect we won't do that.

Still, Xavier seems quite unable to finish. Christon might be the best talent in the A10 as jbizz said to me in another thread but he is still a freshman. His outside shot is suspect; and they rely on Redford to supply that so he can't be left unguarded. Stenger and Farr add nothing off the bench and even if Davis is back fo rus, we are still more talented and deeper. Despite the total game dominance, Xavier got lucky at the end.

I'm not taking X for granted however. But we seem to have our heads on real well at this point of the year.

@Pistol -- Lindy's quote "Xavier lassoed the strongest group of newcomers ... Christon, Myles Davis, Jalen Reynolds and James Farr." Davis and Reynolds aren't even listed on Xavier's roster. What gives there? Dismissed? ineligible? Redshirted?

[Cowboy]

-I saw most of the second half and my thought for much of it was if X is forced to play Redford they are in trouble and almost were, he did hit a key 3 but airballed another and the interaction with the ref as well (one of two bad inbounds passes by X)

-speaking of interaction with the ref I would hope X would publicly reprimand Mack for what he was saying to the refs in the last 2 minutes, you didn't need to be a very good lip reader to understand that and then he looked at the camera, my guess to see if it was on him (can the A10 do anything?)

-Memphis player did miss a monster dunk that hurt them but they can slam it with the best of them and then they made a couple deep 3's, it looked like Josh knew the importance of this game and they couldn't close the deal after they took the lead

-I sure hope we walk out of Cinncy with another W, I don't care much for X these days

-Mack might still be playing checkers, I hope Crews is playing chess

[Pistol]

Dee Davis suffered a head injury going for a loose ball against VCU's HAVOC defense. Cut above the right eye. They haven't said what the extent of the injury is, but he was not on the bench for the Memphis game last night after watching them shoot around in street clothes. Shannon Russell Tweeted that he's "probably watching from somewhere less noisy." Concussion? Even if it's not a concussion, they're being cautious, which is a good thing.

What that means for SLU remains to be seen. I follow Russell (@slrussell) and will keep an eye out for any news. If Davis is not in the lineup, Xavier has serioius challenges bringing the ball up. Apparently Memphis didn't get the VCU tape. They could have eaten Christon and Redford alive. Redford is a one-trick pony with his 3-point shooting and weak with the ball. Christon only has one speed and therefore is called for more charges than anyone else in the league. He's a hell of a talent but we joke that the coaches need a little buzzer that shocks him into slowing down sometimes.

Stenger is nothing to worry about. He's basically a walk-on who transferred from a lower-division school and got a scholarship because of the depleted roster. He's not particularly strong but plays hard in limited minutes.

I'm surprised Farr doesn't play more. He's big and can spread it out with a shot defenders have to respect. Even if he's young and raw, might as well get him some minutes in a lost season.

Davis (Myles, not Dee) and Reynolds both got royally screwed by the NCAA. We'd be furious if the same thing happened to us. Oh wait, it did. Same situation that kept Cody Ellis out for half a season. They each had one credit that the NCAA didn't like and used those to declare them ineligible at the 11th hour. For a team that lost Wells to expulsion and basically asked Lyons to leave because of disagreements, they absolutely needed those two freshmen and found out very, very late in the game (mid-September) that they were ineligible. They were fine in terms of GPA and test scores. Funny how these things don't happen to the BCS conference schools. http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2012-09-14/xaviers-roster-thins-further-with-jalen-reynolds-ineligibility

So no one was wrong in saying Xavier had put together an impressive class. Christon's numbers are as good as just about any other freshman PG in the country. Reynolds and Davis were supposed to challenge for starting minutes; Farr was the fourth man.

[Taj79]

Last night, ESPN2 put up a graphic on the best freshemn points in the country ... Christon was one of the four along with Yogi Ferrel at Indiana, Marcus Smart at Oklahoma State and fourth guy who's name escapes me at the moment. Christon had the best ppg but might have been fourth on the apg. Of course, again, Xavier may not have guys able to finish. Seen that before.

[Pistol]

Last night, ESPN2 put up a graphic on the best freshemn points in the country ... Christon was one of the four along with Yogi Ferrel at Indiana, Marcus Smart at Oklahoma State and fourth guy who's name escapes me at the moment. Christon had the best ppg but might have been fourth on the apg. Of course, again, Xavier may not have guys able to finish. Seen that before.

Ferrell and Smart are probably more complete, mature players at this point but Christon's ceiling is every bit as high. It's not surprising he's lower than the others in assists. He's a score-first PG and quite frankly has limited options around him this season. He needs to develop a good 3-point shot and hit free throws with some consistency, but he can drive and score all day and stop and pop from anywhere inside the perimeter. A lot of his game reminds me of Jordan Crawford, who played at Xavier a couple seasons ago and just got traded from the Wizards to the Celtics.

Cincinnati has a summer league, the Deveroes League (named after a local store), that is by far the best semi-organized offseason basketball in the region. Lots of UC and XU players, some from the area who went to other schools, some of the best HS players, some pro players who are floating around. Basically the Bonner league but arguably better. Christon absolutely lit it up in this, consistently scoring 30 per game. Lots of guys bigger, stronger, more experienced couldn't stop him. The difference is probably that charges weren't being called against like they are now. But he's a kid who could be a pro if he figures it all out.

[RB2.0]

Interesting tweet from Pomeroy. This was sent before the loss to Xavier.

Ken Pomeroy ‏@kenpomeroy

Before Memphis started its 18-game winning streak they were ranked 35 in my system. Today they were ranked 37.

[Tonka]

I am as not worried about laying an egg against Xavier as I am the other three remaining games. I always get nervous in terms of "this is all too good to be true". This team just keeps proving they are the real deal. I just don't want to see a let down game. If there had to be one, I guess I would rather see it at Xavier than at GW or at home.

[Cowboy]

Interesting tweet from Pomeroy. This was sent before the loss to Xavier.

Ken Pomeroy ‏@kenpomeroy

Before Memphis started its 18-game winning streak they were ranked 35 in my system. Today they were ranked 37.

-the power of CUSA

[The Wiz]

I am as not worried about laying an egg against Xavier as I am the other three remaining games. I always get nervous in terms of "this is all too good to be true". This team just keeps proving they are the real deal. I just don't want to see a let down game. If there had to be one, I guess I would rather see it at Xavier than at GW or at home.

I would say X and LaS will be equally difficult....LaS the better team and X an away game. The key is there are no more easy games left....the remainder of the season, the A-10 tourney after we draw a bye, and then the Big Dance. It would be great if we could win the next 4 games as that will insure that we go to Selection Sunday with a 9-1 or 10-0 record over the last 10 games...a criteria that the committee uses for seeding ....in our case that would translate to 15-1 or 16-0 which is even more impressive.

As I said in an earlier thread , we will be favored in all the remaining games. We will go into those games with a poll ranking target on our back which means we will have to earn every victory. Let's just do it.

[SLU2017]

I have no idea how X will be able to score against SLU's defense. No offensive fire power compared to previous years (maybe Criston). A10 teams struggle at the Cintas but I like SLU- especially if Davis can't play.