All hope abandon?
Brad: Where are we on this team now? That’s twice in three games we’ve thrown away a good road win because they just lack any sort of composure at all when it matters. I don’t see them bouncing back and becoming a tournament squad. These are the guys, there’s no freshman to give more time or transfer who has been waiting in the wings. This is it.
Braydan: If you want to be optimistic, which I know you don’t, you could say that this team is a few clean possessions away from being 9-1. The way we didn’t get those clean possessions doesn’t leave much room for optimism. There was a moment yesterday when the camera hadn’t even finished panning to our offensive end, and we’d already thrown the ball out of bounds. I was hoping that the TCU meltdown was a blip on the radar, but we just ran it back yesterday.
I love Dayvion, but we needed more from him yesterday. He deferred in the first half and fed Frosty, but once Freemantle went missing, I thought Dayvion should have stepped up. UC definitely keyed in on Conwell and Foster to an extent, and that left us with no perimeter threat.
I’m hopeful these guys can figure it out, but we’ve just dropped two games we should have buried and are staring down a tough start to the conference slate.
Brad: You’re right in that it’s the way they’ve thrown those games away that saps the optimism from you. It’s one thing to lose, it’s another to be in a great position for a win and just completely collapse. And collapse under normal pressure. Neither team did much, we just folded.
Bry: I think it is fair to say this season has not met expectations for most of the fan base up to this point. While this team hasn’t taken the losses that last year’s team did (namely Oakland and Delaware), the long and short of non-conference boils down to beating South Carolina on a neutral floor, which is precariously close to dropping into Q3 territory. Not beating Texas Southern, IU Indy, or SC State by the margins expected has hurt the NET to the point that some of the 9 Q1 opportunities left (@ Villanova, @ DePaul, @ Providence and possibly @ Creighton) could end up being Q2 if Xavier wins them.
The good news is that cleaning up in Q2 might be good enough. Both FAU and Virginia made the field last year with only 2 Q1 wins, but both went 8-3 in Q2. If Xavier can get to 10 wins in the top 2 quads, they’ve got a chance of getting their name called on Selection Sunday. The only team left out that accomplished that last season was St. John’s.
The TCU and UC losses have been deflating, but there’s nothing to be gained from waving the white flag and giving up on this team now. If you choose to believe this team can go 10-6 in games that aren’t against Seton Hall or home to Georgetown and Butler, then there’s reason to hope they have a fighting chance.
Braydan: I think if the expectations hadn’t been as high, this would feel a lot different. Unlike last year, we haven’t dropped buy games at home. Also, unlike last year, this team was expected to be really good. There doesn’t seem to be an explanation outside of the expectations being too high to begin with.
I’d agree with Bry that it’s not time to pull the plug just yet. It wouldn’t surprise me if the team continues to struggle in conference play, and it also wouldn’t surprise me if they ended up where they were picked in the preseason.
Brad: I get the concept of being positive and thinking this thing can turn around, I’m just not sure where that spark comes from. Trey Green didn’t even appear to be with the team yesterday. John Hugley just isn’t very good, and neither is Jerome Hunter. Where is the boost?