Friday, Jan. 18, 2019-- (1) Big East Game

[paulxu]

Congrats Nova. If we can ever recruit some people (like Macura and Bluiett) who can hit a 3, we'll give you a game some day.

[GumbyDamnit!]

A battle in contrasting styles. X is really big across the board and I expected Nova to struggle with giving up points in the paint and O boards. I think the key was that Nova was able to rebound better than X was able to hit the 3 (if that makes sense).

[Novachap]

Personally, and I believe a lot of other folks who watched the game, don't understand how Hankins didn't play more in the second half. I think the main reason was, he got burned several times on the pick-and-rolls for easy dunks by Samuels and Crosby Roundtree, but obviously he was giving Nova fits underneath in the first half. I guess Steele just made the call that he was too much of a risk on defense. Tyrique Jones has come a long way and plays with much more control. He's money on the foul line too. He was probably the only one money on the foul line last night!

[XUFan09]

Personally, and I believe a lot of other folks who watched the game, don't understand how Hankins didn't play more in the second half. I think the main reason was, he got burned several times on the pick-and-rolls for easy dunks by Samuels and Crosby Roundtree, but obviously he was giving Nova fits underneath in the first half. I guess Steele just made the call that he was too much of a risk on defense. Tyrique Jones has come a long way and plays with much more control. He's money on the foul line too. He was probably the only one money on the foul line last night!

Yeah, I think it was pretty much that. And with Jones having such a good offensive game, the marginal offensive benefit of putting Hankins back in wouldn't make up for the marginal defensive benefit of Jones or the marginal rebounding benefit of Jones. Practically speaking, putting Hankins back in for a few minutes just to give Jones a breather would have made sense, but I think it just turned into a ball rolling downhill in terms of keeping Jones in.

[Xudash]

Congrats Nova.

Jay has put together the winning formula.

I do believe, having watched last night, that Steele will become a great coach. This patched up Xavier squad continues to improve.