Water cooler takes from Xavier’s loss to Colorado: let’s go dark

Optimism is the lingering abode of the foolish. A glass that's half full is probably going to be empty anyway. I know it's not even Christmas and champions are crowned in April, but this team has some serious problems that could well scuttle the ship long before the second weekend of the tournament. Doesn't it chap you just a little bit when someone is too ignorant not to be happy? Here's what to tell him to wipe the smile off of his face.

Xavier can't defend the arc at all

Teams get more than 40% of their shots from behind the arc against Xavier, and they're shooting 35% from deep. That adds up to teams getting more than 35% of their total points against X by virtue of the Muskies' extremely permissive defensive approach. We've all seen how quickly the three-ball can change a game; Colorado hit four of them in their 15-0 run last night. Meanwhile, no conference is shooting better from behind the arc right now than the Big East. That should be fun to watch for two solid months.

We can be zoned really easily

Trevon can score in the half court. At this point, it's not clear that anyone else can, especially against a zone. Colorado went into a 2-3 - the last refuge of 45-year-old white guys at the YMCA - and Xavier looked super confused by it. The Muskies ended up resorting to shooting a lot of long jump shots, most of which didn't go in (as is the nature of long jump shots). Unless Myles comes back and shows the rest of the guys where the high post is, the book is out on this team.

Coach Mack is a step slow

How much of a run would you allow before taking a timeout? If you said, "One that cost me the lead," you're apparently thinking along with Coach Mack. With a second straight road loss staring Xavier in the face, he watched it fade away before trying to stop the bleeding. Drawing up great set plays is fun; winning is actually important.