As a pretty obsessed College basketball fan, I can say that I've pretty much watch every Xavier game this season.
To win this game its going to be 80% mental in my opinion. I want the guys to come out relaxed and confident and very much just treat this game the way we've been treating every other game.
Some quick notes about the game:
--Like Most teams we've faced, this will be the best defense Xavier has faced all year. I'm excited to see how the man to man holds up as we know how they are good at exploiting our Matchup zone
--They on paper don't shoot the ball well, but have multiple capable shooters. Gates, Blueitt, Macura and even Bernard can all get hot from 3 and we lose if they happen to all get hot at the same time (they haven't all year long, which has largely been their problem
--Xavier's problem is our strength: Team chemistry. Xavier has struggled to have a good offensive flow all year. They turn the ball over a lot. They never seem to get all their best player to have a good game on the same night.
--They still rebound the ball extremely well and it will be a battle for the boards.
Things Im Interested to see:
-- Xavier Offense VS Our Man to man
-- Gary Clark Vs Trevon Blueitt. Blueitt has 5 points in 2 games against us but he returned the favor last year and largely alone helped hold Gary Clark to a goose egg in a hugely important game
--The Flow of the game. Im curious as to which pace this game is played. I personally don't want to run too much but also don't want to grind it out. Just a nice even pace I feel is our advantage and we can always grind it out if we need to. Also curious to see how the game is called. I hope to God its not anything like we saw today at Tulane. Xavier fouls a lot and their bigs foul a lot more than ours.
Defensively I think the best shot we have at stopping Edmund Sumner will be to have Jacob Evans guard him. Evans has the length and ability to limit him. If we put TC on Sumner, it could be a long night.
Take the Charge Edmund Sumner goes recklessly to the basket multiple times a game. Its hard to get in front of him because he is so quick but we need to try. Also if we get beat, I feel much better about fouling him pretty hard at the rim to make him think twice about it and avoid the And 1. I hate when people touch foul him on his way to the basket and he AND 1's them all game because you didn't foul hard enough to disrupt his shot. If you gonna foul, get your money's worth.
Defend The 3: If Mick just looks at the stats and decides to give X the 3 point shot, it could be bad news. Good players hit big shots in big games and this will be a huge game for Xavier. Force them to beat your some other way.
Attack the lane Attack X's post players and also attack the driving lanes. In most of Xavier's tougher games, they were either beat by guys attacking the basket or just good 3 point shooting. they have no shot blocker. Gaston is big but doesn't play above the rim.
MYLES DAVIS
Im kinda sad we couldn't boo the shit out of him but I do love that he won't have the opportunity to go undefeated against UC.
Im pretty excited about this game. This is the first time not watching the Crosstown shootout from home and one of the main reasons I renewed my season tickets even with a pretty weak home slate. Crowd should be insanity
