Isaiah Whitehead is no Larry Austin, and the Big East is tough

Joel

I think we should have gone 2-0 on the week, but sometimes you have someone come into the building and play the game of his life, and that's what Tre Campbell did to us. That's the kind of thing that is going to happen occasionally with this defense. Does that concern you at all? I mean, you've gotta win six straight to be the champs; we're likely to run into someone who can shoot somewhere along the way, right?

Brad

Yes. I still see Nova as the likely champ. However, if our defense is clicking it may take a Tre Campbell to beat us. You know who it won't take? Isaiah Whitehead. What a clown.

Bryan

I actually felt like the game plan on Georgetown was decent, they just had a guy we had tabbed as someone not to worry about from three get hot. The more troubling part was that once they had us down, we couldn't get the stops to get back in the game. We will run into the Tre Campbell's of the world having great nights, but we lost that game in the second half giving up too many second chances.

I should say those second chances were just as costly. Campbell's 21 still didn't help.

Joel

Georgetown had a total of 5 second chance points in the second half. It just never seemed like we could string together the stops required to go on a run against them.

Our bench outscored Seton Hall's 40-12. That's pretty impressive. What isn't impressive - despite Dickie Simpkins and his blatherings to the contrary - was Isaiah Whitehead. He had 17 on 6-20/2-10/3-4 shooting. Throw in 5 turnovers and that's 19 empty possessions for him. He's gotta be a nightmare to play with.

Here's my blistering hot Isaiah Whitehead take: how far down Xavier's depth chart would you have to go to find someone you'd trade for Whitehead straight up?

Bryan

Walk-ons? Actually I wouldn't want him under any circumstances. Our team is based around sharing the ball, finding the hot hand, and playing as a unit on both ends. He plays hero ball and is bad at it. I certainly wouldn't give up any of our scholarship guys for him, and be wouldn't be worth the trouble he brings for the time he would get in our rotation. Seton Hall has at least 4 players who I would rather have than him, not counting Gibbs and Sina, who left at least in part because of him.

Brad

He's very impressive going to the rim, but he's way too content to shoot, and he's a dreadful shooter. Imagine there was an authority figure nearby, maybe on the bench or something, who would tell him to quit that. Wouldn't that be crazy?

Joel

Maybe someone older and bald? I can see Whitehead being a valuable bench scorer, but I can't see him accepting that role. Anyone who demands the ball that much isn't going to be happy with playing in bursts. Willard clearly can't control him; it's only a matter of time until Seton Hall cans Willard and hires Tyron Lue.

Brad

But to answer your question, LAJ.

Joel

I wouldn't move LAJ for him. LAJ has an ORtg of 88.9 in conference play and leads the team in steal%. Gimme that instead of Whitehead any day.

For what it's worth, Whitehead was a McDonald's All-American and a five-star recruit. His weaknesses in his scouting report were laziness, a bad attitude, and trouble fitting his skills into a team concept.

Brad

I was mostly just messing with you, but you underreacted. Whitehead is the classic guy who has been told his entire life that he's special and is now refusing to accept he may need some help. A good guard would have fed Carrington and Rodriguez today. Whitehead just kept desperately trying to get his.

Joel

I refuse to rise to such obvious bait on LAJ. If you were on a team with Whitehead in college, you would have ended up fighting him in the locker room.

The Big East has seven teams in the KenPom top 50, a couple of mediocre teams, and St. John's. In their last year in the A10, Xavier played three conference games against KenPom top 50 opponents all year. In 2011, only four A10 teams finished in the KenPom top 100.

When a portion of the fan base was ready to burn Cintas to the ground after the admittedly disappointing Georgetown game, it's probably worth it to consider that the A10 equivalent to the Hoyas would have been like a .500 St. Bonaventure team that we could have beaten by 15 with that performance.