Bear Down Wildcats

What do we have besides CSM coached there and we play similar styles? Cats open as a 7.5 favorite with an O/U of 143.5.

I have not watched any of there games this year other than some of the dismantling if FSU which was impressive.

Hopefully they end up being a true 11 seed and we walk through them easily

I know they aren't the same team in they were in 2015. And that's a good thing.

I also know Mack is great at getting the most out of his teams and their fan base would love nothing more than beating Miller.

I also know that ain't happening.

Once again, Arizona's Sean Miller crosses paths with Xavier, Chris Mack

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc ... /99373566/" target="_blank

Does Xavier have any Uber drivers on their team?

If not, we easily roll into the elite 8.

Alieberman wrote:Does Xavier have any Uber drivers on their team?

If not, we easily roll into the elite 8.

It's not Uber driving that scares me. I'm just scared of any center with really little legs and a long, thick torso.

I kind of liked there point guard. Big kid, seemed very fluid. Wasn't high on FSU and thought they were way over seeded but if you beat any team by 25 in the round if 32 you have to be impressed

azcat49 wrote:I kind of liked there point guard. Big kid, seemed very fluid. Wasn't high on FSU and thought they were way over seeded but if you beat any team by 25 in the round if 32 you have to be impressed

I agree but I watched Georgia Tech go up by 30 in the first half against FSU. When I saw how it unfolded, with just about the dumbest basketball I'd ever seen, I hoped we'd get FSU as a high seed in our bracket. My wish didn't come true.

Bluett's a stud. Top 25 national recruit when he came out of high school. We recruited him and so did UCLA. Sumner would be their second NBA level guy but he's out for the year. Macura's a really nice 6'6" guard and Gates is talented but inconsistent. A lot of talented 6'5"-6'7" guys. We should kill them on the glass though.

What would happen if Arizona comes out as the aggressor this time instead of being all, "What are all these arms waiving around? Nobody told us these guys have limbs!"

Unsurprisingly, this year’s Xavier team plays much the same style as the 2015 team. Xavier’s tempo is almost identical (65.4 in 2015, 67.1 in 2017) and scores in much the same way, with the distribution of points coming from three-pointers, two-pointers, and free throws all within a couple percentage points of the 2015 squad. And the end result is much the same: Xavier is a good team, with a better offense than defense, that is probably around the 25th-best team in the country right now.

This team lacks the size of the 2015 team, though. With Stainbrook and Reynolds, Xavier had two very good big men to account for. Not so much this year: Xavier’s most used line-up consists of one 6-foot-10 guy (Sean O’Mara) and everyone else standing 6-foot-6 or shorter.

http://www.azdesertswarm.com/basketball ... w-analysis" target="_blank

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... =400947273" target="_blank

im just thrilled AZ got Xavier instead of FSU -- three time zones and a Thursday tip...all the way to San Jose!!

Go Gonzaga!!!

I have this feeling that LM is going big this Thursday night

X completely shut down FSU with the zone, probably should expect it. But FSU has no shooting whatsoever, is terrible away from home and Leonard Hamilton is a terrible terrible coach. Why I picked X to the S16 in my bracket. Miller should do what Hamilton should've done and get the W.

Unless their shooting stays white hot.

They have no post play for the most part, but have guards with very good size.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc ... /99373566/" target="_blank

Already a story line. Nothing new really

Jay Williams with some love in saying that yesterday's game was 'the most high-level game' he's seen in the tournament.

Went to the Xavierhoops message board in hopes of finding the epic thread they had going that followed the events of Sean leaving Xavier to become our coach. Was kinda looking forward to taking a trip down memory lane, but it looks like that entire thread was deleted.

We did have another half where we shot 55% plus. Going to keep advancing if we continue with those kind of numbers

97cats wrote:im just thrilled AZ got Xavier instead of FSU -- three time zones and a Thursday tip...all the way to San Jose!!

Go Gonzaga!!!

I'm pulling for WVA. When you have so many guards, it feels like you can adjust in-game to pressure D, especially when you're not looking to extend the clock.

Gonzaga seems more like an epic heavyweight battle where either team will need something to go its way at the end.

Probably moot, since Gonzaga will adjust to WVA and win.

Bluiett shot 60% threes against FSU...29 points...shut him down they go down...he's Xaviers version of Bryce Alford


I'm calling at least three blocks by Kadeem that turn into fast break points...while for the most part the zone will be a slow downed game for us this game will have some serious highlight reel dunks...

Xavier lost to Rado by 2. They have a great player in Bluett, but Kadeem and company are usually good at shutting down the big scorers. They don't have a skilled big man, which is what seems to always kill us. They play hard for Mack and are playing excellent basketball. But I think we match up nice and if we play our game and can handle the zone okay I'm pretty confident.

I actually like this matchup better than St. Mary's but I could be wrong. Never know in the tourney.

The zone worries me. We need to avoid the droughts that we've had vs zones in the past.

The rest of the game I feel good about. As long as Bluiett doesn't go nuts, we should be ok.

We handled the zone pretty well against UCLA and Oregon when they went to it in the conference tourney. We'll have a whole 5 days of practicing against it, so fingers crossed.

Line moving down early as it is at 7 at a few places. Familiarity, facing a zone, their impressive play against a couple is higher seeds so I can see why. I think we have covered the line in 7 of our last 8 though

Spaceman Spiff wrote:The zone worries me. We need to avoid the droughts that we've had vs zones in the past.

The rest of the game I feel good about. As long as Bluiett doesn't go nuts, we should be ok.

Concern of mine as well. U just never know with us and zone, one minute we look like we turned the corner and then we are kind of flat again. If Rawles finger messes w his outside shot, thats a pretty big blow as he has been excellent at being a catch and shoot guy against the zone.

Their bigs arent dominating like the guys we faced two years ago, but they are still skilled (albeit undersized) and a couple of them can step out and shoot. I think its another situation where we should see more Lauri and Chance at the 4 and 5, or Lauri at the 5 and Rawle at the 4. Especially if theyre going to be zoning us, think its going to be too fast and compressed for Dusan to be comfortable.

Hope Lauri takes about 3-4 shots early right in the middle of the zone around the key area, or drives for a layup or dish (we can get assists.) Get a few offensive rebounds on any misses, get it going vs. the zone.

I'll say the same thing here that I said for St Mary's.

If we are a final 4 team we shouldn't be too worried about an 11 seed, even if they have played well the last 2 games.

We need to get out and attack the zone early, take the ball inside early and then hit some threes. Take care of the ball and rebound on both sides of the court.

Get an early lead and don't look back

Goes without saying. We certainly control our own path from here on out. We got the 1 seed we wanted, the best final four venue, and at best a 3 seed Between us and the title game. Cant ask for much more than that.

Just an FYI but as of March 3rd Xavier was 18-12 and had lost 6 games in a row

Should be more of a "fun" game than St. Mary's. Anything's better than watching a grind it out, work the clock on every possession game.

HiCat wrote:Should be more of a "fun" game than St. Mary's. Anything's better than watching a grind it out, work the clock on every possession game.

That depends on how we handle the zone. Zones are good at uglying up a game.

azcat49 wrote:http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc ... /99373566/

Already a story line. Nothing new really

Well I do appreciate how the article starts:

Maybe it’s old news by now, eight years after Sean Miller left Xavier for Arizona, making a no-brainer move to a blueblood program where he has a chance every year to win a national title.

scumdevils86 wrote:Just an FYI but as of March 3rd Xavier was 18-12 and had lost 6 games in a row

I throw all that shit out once a team enters the dance. Records mean shit at this point.

What matters is that Arizona is better top to bottom. The team needs to play well, and needs to win to advance. It's 40 minutes from the season being over, and as long as the players get that, things will be fine.

Visited their site ( http://www.xavierhoops.com/forumdisplay ... Basketball" target="_blank ) and there was a guy who still reference Parrom and a Lexus.

azgreg wrote:Visited their site ( http://www.xavierhoops.com/forumdisplay ... Basketball" target="_blank ) and there was a guy who still reference Parrom and a Lexus.

Posters don't seem aware of the Trier story, as though Arizona were the same team now as in December and Simmons' role were the same. Maybe myopic of me to expect.

azgreg wrote:Visited their site ( http://www.xavierhoops.com/forumdisplay ... Basketball" target="_blank ) and there was a guy who still reference Parrom and a Lexus.

"Lord I hope we beat U of AZ this time, not just because of the way Miller left us to go to a God forsaken place like Tucson, but also because of their insufferable fans. Having lived in Phoenix for 25+ years, I am imminently qualified to state that U of AZ has the most annoying, elitist, and lowlife fans (especially for basketball) west of the Mississippi"

NYCat wrote:

azgreg wrote:Visited their site ( http://www.xavierhoops.com/forumdisplay ... Basketball" target="_blank ) and there was a guy who still reference Parrom and a Lexus.

"Lord I hope we beat U of AZ this time, not just because of the way Miller left us to go to a God forsaken place like Tucson, but also because of their insufferable fans. Having lived in Phoenix for 25+ years, I am imminently qualified to state that U of AZ has the most annoying, elitist, and lowlife fans (especially for basketball) west of the Mississippi"

= Arizona is like Kansas, Louisville, UNC, and Kentucky. The Lexus programs.

NYCat wrote:

azgreg wrote:Visited their site ( http://www.xavierhoops.com/forumdisplay ... Basketball" target="_blank ) and there was a guy who still reference Parrom and a Lexus.

"Lord I hope we beat U of AZ this time, not just because of the way Miller left us to go to a God forsaken place like Tucson, but also because of their insufferable fans. Having lived in Phoenix for 25+ years, I am imminently qualified to state that U of AZ has the most annoying, elitist, and lowlife fans (especially for basketball) west of the Mississippi"

Living in Phoenix was the first mistake.

Some of those guys should come here. There's more crippling self-doubt based off past Elite Eight losses than elitism.

I am a lowlife, though. I'll give him/her that.

Someone from Cinci calling Tucson God forsaken? LOL

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... tournament" target="_blank

No. 2 seed Arizona Wildcats
First round: Defeated North Dakota, 100-82
Second round: Defeated Saint Mary's, 69-60
Sweet 16 opponent: Xavier

Why they will advance: Between 7-footer Lauri Markkanen, stud freshman Rawle Alkins, star player Allonzo Trier, senior leader Kadeem Allen and inside presence Dusan Ristic, the Wildcats have so many different weapons. Take away one, and there are still four other guys who can score in double digits.

Why they will go home: In each of their first two games, Arizona has had slow starts (the Wildcats trailed Saint Mary's by 10 in the first half; spent most of the first half of the North Dakota game with only a single-digit lead). That might work in the first and second round, but it won't fly moving forward. -- Chantel Jennings

No. 11 seed Xavier Musketeers
First round: Defeated Maryland, 76-65
Second round: Defeated Florida State, 91-66
Sweet 16 opponent: Arizona

Why they will advance: The Musketeers have left their six-game losing streak in the rearview mirror and are starting to get comfortable without Edmond Sumner (knee injury) at the point guard spot. Quentin Goodin has stepped up, Sean O'Mara has become a legitimate option down low, and Trevon Bluiett is playing his best basketball of the season right now.

Why they will go home: Xavier can struggle against pressure, as Goodin is a freshman point guard who can be prone to poor decisions. The Musketeers also can get stagnant offensively when their outside shots aren't falling, as they don't have too many players who can create their own shots against a set defense. -- Jeff Borzello

So someone from Ohio, the mecca of shit hole cities, is calling a city outside of Ohio a shit hole?

https://campusinsiders.com/news/arizona ... 3-18-2017/" target="_blank

Arizona vs. Xavier Prediction

Mack, who should be Indiana’s top choice to replace Tom Crean, lost his most important player and point guard in the middle of the season yet is still headed to the Sweet Sixteen. In a high-scoring affair, Arizona gets off to a much better start and gets key buckets in the final minutes from Trier in a close win.

Arizona vs. Xavier Score Prediction: Arizona 78, Xavier 73

http://collegefootballnews.com/2017/ari ... me-preview" target="_blank

What’s Going To Happen

At some point, Xavier is going to wake up and be mediocre again. Yeah, it’s great on the boards, and yeah, it knows how to play in the tournament, but at some point this is going to stop with a thud. Arizona – with time to prepare – is about to rip through a defense that allowed teams to hit 45% of their shots this year.

Fearless Prediction & Line

Arizona 78, Xavier 68

http://topbet.eu/news/2017-march-madnes ... eview.html" target="_blank

Writer’s Prediction
Xavier’s bench unit falls back down to earth, as Arizona (-7) goes on to win and cover.

After spending most of my day being unproductive at work, and delving into the Musketeers, here's my quick take on Xavier:

This is not the team that Arizona faced in '15, as that one was arguably just as talented as Arizona that year. This year, Xavier lacks some top talent especially after losing Edmond Sumner to an ACL injury (Hi Ray!).

Outside of a loss on the road to Rado (by 2), Xavier's losses have all come to tournament teams. In regards to common opponents with Arizona, there is a road loss to Rado (early in the season) and Xavier also beat Utah at home (before Utah got two starters in lineup) by 8, they beat Mizzou by 1 in OT in an early neutral court game, and split two games with Butler--beating them in their tourney a couple of weeks ago.

Xavier went 3-4 in January, 3-5 in February but is 5-2 in March. To be fair, Xavier lost one of (if not the) best players in Sumner in late January. They also dismissed a PG who was suspended leaving a Frosh PG to run the show, Goodin who was averaging about 15 mins before that. Since that injury Goodin is averaging almost 11 ppg, and averages 7 assists to 4 turnovers a game. Bluiett who has taken over as alpha for the team has had eight 20 point games since Sumner's injury, and has scored in double digits in all but one game--against Nova, in which he was held scoreless in a blowout loss. I think the key to disrupting their offense will start at the PG position.

Xavier pretty much goes 9 players deep--each of them averaging double digit minutes. They don't shoot terribly well, be it from the field, the line, or the arc...as Arizona beats them in all these categories. Xavier tore up the Big East tourney in the paint, scoring 98 points in 3 games with their bigs accounting for 48% of their scoring. I expect on defense to see a ton of different sets (1-3-1, 2-3 and man) switched possession to possession throughout the game. That was their game plan to beat Maryland, and I expect the same to be done to Arizona. The Cats will need to be able to recognize the switching defenses, and to be in the correct positions so that the offense does not get bogged down. The Cats will need to attack the interior of the zone, rather than settle for long jumpers IMO or else that could lead to one and done possessions and a lack of flow on the offensive end. When the defense switches to m 2 m, the Cats will need to drive and use their athleticism to get to the rim on every possession. This should also be a game where Lauri, Dusan and even Chance should get a touch down low on every m 2 m possession to see if Xavier will double resulting in an open kick out (do it Dusan!!). Xavier only has one player over 6' 9" so Arizona would be smart to use their size advantage in this game, rather than settling for jumpers.

In the tourney they handily beat FSU through defense and timely shooting. It wasn't a close game in which Xavier shot 56% from the field, 65% from the arc and outrebounded a bigger FSU team. They also had 20 assists on 30 made shots. Against Maryland two days before, they also shot well at 50% from the field, and still better than their average from the arc at 39%. Rebounding was also an advantage in that game, as they outrebounded Maryland by 10. In both their tourney games the opposition shot very poorly while Xavier was hot.

As for the coaching, Mack is a good one and even though alot will be made of the "relationship" with Miller, I don't know how much of it actually exists. I know they respect each other for sure, and Mack gets the most of out his guys when the chips are down as they were for various points in this season. I wouldn't be surprised if one of those big named jobs that are open gets Mack in the offseason.

For the intangibles, and as mentioned by 97 in a different thread...these guys will be travel weary. They played on east coast time in Florida on Saturday, flew back to Cinci and then will fly out West to play the late west coast tip against Arizona. That's alot of miles and now a different time zone meaning the tip should be about 10 pm their time...

Oh, and although I love the man as an actor/comedian, Bill Murray will be there to support his son. I shouldn't have to explain.

The keys to this game? Defend, recognize the Xavier defense and secure rebounds. If Arizona plays the way it has nearly every game, it will win.

Much appreciated, ODogg. I don't think I've watched Xavier since our last tourney meeting. But like you, I'm distracted from the kinds of things my annual review at work addresses.

Damn it we need a like button.

Excellent breakdown ODogg