St. Xavier Basketball 2022/2023

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WorkRoadSammy

Active member
Went to the Elder and St. X basketball game Friday at St. X. St. X wasn't even competitive. I was disappointed it was not a better game. What is the story with their hoops program? They seem to have a lot of very good players and are big.
 
 
I have heard from a number of people the Head Coach is really tough. Specht is really tough but he is a good communicator and knows how to get the most out of his players. There is no reason for StX to have a mediocre basketball program.
 
FourthAndOne said:
I have heard from a number of people the Head Coach is really tough. Specht is really tough but he is a good communicator and knows how to get the most out of his players. There is no reason for StX to have a mediocre basketball program.
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The “tough guy” approach seems to get old fast these days! Tough guy approach without a lot of real success has to be hard for St. X Basketball Players and Parents to deal with.
 
A friend of mine has a son at X and his son said that no one wants to play for the hoop coach. If you look at the roster there are numerous kids that played last year that didn't bother to come out this year.
 
TR1982 said:
A friend of mine has a son at X and his son said that no one wants to play for the hoop coach. If you look at the roster there are numerous kids that played last year that didn't bother to come out this year.
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After asking around. The best basketball players in the school are no longer playing, they focus on other sports or just don't want to play. I bet all schools have this problem, that is usually on the coach if the best players no longer play.
 
WorkRoadSammy said:
After asking around. The best basketball players in the school are no longer playing, they focus on other sports or just don't want to play. I bet all schools have this problem, that is usually on the coach if the best players no longer play.
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If the best Players of a Sport are no longer Playing that Sport at their HS because of the Coaches “Tough guy” approach, How long can the School let this go on? Seems crazy that St. X athletic department is good with the Schools best Basketball Players just walking the Halls or joining the Chess Team!
 
WorkRoadSammy said:
After asking around. The best basketball players in the school are no longer playing, they focus on other sports or just don't want to play. I bet all schools have this problem, that is usually on the coach if the best players no longer play.
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Who are these “best players” that are no longer playing? I can’t think of one. There are a few role players who didn’t play this season but they were a far cry from being the best players. The kids who aren’t playing wouldn’t even see the floor at places like Moeller. They did lose their best player to injury before the season started. I’ve been to a few games (including big wins over #1 Fairfield and at Lasalle) this season and all three levels seemed to be very engaged, playing hard and having fun.
 
baller94 said:
Who are these “best players” that are no longer playing? I can’t think of one. There are a few role players who didn’t play this season but they were a far cry from being the best players. The kids who aren’t playing wouldn’t even see the floor at places like Moeller. They did lose their best player to injury before the season started. I’ve been to a few games (including big wins over #1 Fairfield and at Lasalle) this season and all three levels seemed to be very engaged, playing hard and having fun.
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I'm not a high school basketball fan (desperately need a shot clock)
Using the StX website and the GCL website here is a list of players that played for X last season but not this season

7 Seniors (Wassler, Devine and Houston were on varsity but never played)
Nolan Myers: starting safety on the football team, sustained season ending injury in Week 5 (September).
So not playing Sr. year due to the injury. As a junior averaged 21.1 minutes a game, 7 points and 2.6 rebounds

Robert Houston: starting safety on the football team, committed to play football at Army, will likely run track for StX in the spring.
Probably decided against playing basketball to concentrate on football

Alex Devine: starting LB on the football team, hoping to play football small college, no decision yet

Joey Wassler: starting TE on football team, committed to Princeton Tigers

Kyle Conner: last season as a junior averaged 7.1 minutes a game, averaged 2.4 points and 1.1 rebounds (actually is playing - my bad)
This year averages 14 minutes, 6 points and 1 rebound per game

Jake Gillinkirk: last season as a junior averaged 4.4 minutes a game, 0.9 points and 0.4 rebounds

Adam Peters: last season as a junior averaged 4.2 minutes a game, 0.5 points and 0.3 rebounds (is actually playing - my bad)
This year averages 4 minutes, 1.5 points and 1 rebound per game


4 Juniors (none of these 4 players played varsity basketball their sophomore year, not sure if any are varsity material)
Drew Weber: starting safety on the football team, preparing for senior season

Noah Beck: starting LB on the football team, preparing for senior season, at 6'2" 235lb may get D1 looks

Jack McClatchey: starting WR on the football team, preparing for senior season with hopes of

Ted Hammond: starting NG on football team, committed to Michigan


2 Sophomores (neither played varsity basketball freshman year, not sure if either are varsity material)
Tucker Kattus: starting tackle on football team, has half dozen D1 offers

Matt Schulte: starting LB on JV football team, has chance to start this fall as a junior
 
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ReLoad said:
I'm not a high school basketball fan (desperately need a shot clock)
Using the StX website and the GCL website here is a list of players that played for X last season but not this season

7 Seniors (Wassler, Devine and Houston were on varsity but never played)
Nolan Myers: starting safety on the football team, sustained season ending injury in Week 5 (September).
So not playing Sr. year due to the injury. As a junior averaged 21.1 minutes a game, 7 points and 2.6 rebounds

Robert Houston: starting safety on the football team, committed to play football at Army, will likely run track for StX in the spring.
Probably decided against playing basketball to concentrate on football

Alex Devine: starting LB on the football team, hoping to play football small college, no decision yet

Joey Wassler: starting TE on football team, committed to Princeton Tigers

Kyle Conner: last season as a junior averaged 7.1 minutes a game, averaged 2.4 points and 1.1 rebounds - actually on team this season as a senior

Jake Gillinkirk: last season as a junior averaged 4.4 minutes a game, 0.9 points and 0.4 rebounds

Adam Peters: last season as a junior averaged 4.2 minutes a game, 0.5 points and 0.3 rebounds - actually on team this season as a senior


4 Juniors (none of these 4 players played varsity basketball their sophomore year, not sure if any are varsity material)
Drew Weber: starting safety on the football team, preparing for senior season

Noah Beck: starting LB on the football team, preparing for senior season, at 6'2" 235lb may get D1 looks

Jack McClatchey: starting WR on the football team, preparing for senior season with hopes of

Ted Hammond: starting NG on football team, committed to Michigan


2 Sophomores (neither played varsity basketball freshman year, not sure if either are varsity material)
Tucker Kattus: starting tackle on football team, has half dozen D1 offers

Matt Schulte: starting LB on JV football team, has chance to start this fall as a junior
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Good information. Conner and Peters still play; Conner has started several games this season and averages 6 ppg.

Losing Myers to a football injury was a huge blow this season. None of the other players mentioned above are really basketball kids.

It’s nice to see someone do a little research before posting. The posts about “best players” not playing is completely false.
 
ReLoad said:
I'm not a high school basketball fan (desperately need a shot clock)
Using the StX website and the GCL website here is a list of players that played for X last season but not this season

7 Seniors (Wassler, Devine and Houston were on varsity but never played)
Nolan Myers: starting safety on the football team, sustained season ending injury in Week 5 (September).
So not playing Sr. year due to the injury. As a junior averaged 21.1 minutes a game, 7 points and 2.6 rebounds

Robert Houston: starting safety on the football team, committed to play football at Army, will likely run track for StX in the spring.
Probably decided against playing basketball to concentrate on football

Alex Devine: starting LB on the football team, hoping to play football small college, no decision yet

Joey Wassler: starting TE on football team, committed to Princeton Tigers

Kyle Conner: last season as a junior averaged 7.1 minutes a game, averaged 2.4 points and 1.1 rebounds - actually on team this season as a senior

Jake Gillinkirk: last season as a junior averaged 4.4 minutes a game, 0.9 points and 0.4 rebounds

Adam Peters: last season as a junior averaged 4.2 minutes a game, 0.5 points and 0.3 rebounds - actually on team this season as a senior


4 Juniors (none of these 4 players played varsity basketball their sophomore year, not sure if any are varsity material)
Drew Weber: starting safety on the football team, preparing for senior season

Noah Beck: starting LB on the football team, preparing for senior season, at 6'2" 235lb may get D1 looks

Jack McClatchey: starting WR on the football team, preparing for senior season with hopes of

Ted Hammond: starting NG on football team, committed to Michigan


2 Sophomores (neither played varsity basketball freshman year, not sure if either are varsity material)
Tucker Kattus: starting tackle on football team, has half dozen D1 offers

Matt Schulte: starting LB on JV football team, has chance to start this fall as a junior
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From a parent that has 2 kids at X. I cut and pasted.
1) Wassler (Senior) - Would have had a huge impact. Big and Physical. Senior Leadership. Quit. Division 1 Athlete.
2) Beck (Jr) - Would have had a huge impact and would have played significant minutes. One of best Athletes, big and physical. Quit. Division 1 Athlete.
3) Luttmer (Jr) - Started on JV last year and can score. Big Strong Kid. Quit
4) Jackson and Weber (Jr) - Bests two ball handlers in school (X desperate for ball handler.) Quit. Jackson Division 1 Athlete CC.
5) Weber (Jr) - The best pure shooting in the school. Shot 50% from 3 last year & led JV team in assists, steals and 2nd in scoring. Played with Indiana Elite for AAU and had great summer. Possible small school Division 1 athlete in 2 sports.
6) McClatchey (Jr) - Started on JV - Good Defender. Quit
7) Mention many more JV kids that quit as well as players from the senior class that started as freshman and quit along the way.

His conclusion: best players are not participating and X would have had a real shot at winning GCL if they had played.

My conclusion: Looks like all of these athletes are multi-sport kids and X like all GCL schools are very demanding institutions.
 
WorkRoadSammy said:
From a parent that has 2 kids at X. I cut and pasted.
1) Wassler (Senior) - Would have had a huge impact. Big and Physical. Senior Leadership. Quit. Division 1 Athlete.
2) Beck (Jr) - Would have had a huge impact and would have played significant minutes. One of best Athletes, big and physical. Quit. Division 1 Athlete.
3) Luttmer (Jr) - Started on JV last year and can score. Big Strong Kid. Quit
4) Jackson and Weber (Jr) - Bests two ball handlers in school (X desperate for ball handler.) Quit. Jackson Division 1 Athlete CC.
5) Weber (Jr) - The best pure shooting in the school. Shot 50% from 3 last year & led JV team in assists, steals and 2nd in scoring. Played with Indiana Elite for AAU and had great summer. Possible small school Division 1 athlete in 2 sports.
6) McClatchey (Jr) - Started on JV - Good Defender. Quit
7) Mention many more JV kids that quit as well as players from the senior class that started as freshman and quit along the way.

His conclusion: best players are not participating and X would have had a real shot at winning GCL if they had played.

My conclusion: Looks like all of these athletes are multi-sport kids and X like all GCL schools are very demanding institutions.
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Not taking anything away from any of the kids and I wish them the best but this is not in the least objective.
 
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Specht encourages his football players to play multiple sports. As someone else mentioned I don't think kids want to play for the basketball coach. It doesn't seem like a good culture in the program and when you have so many football players on the roster coming from a culture that is that good they are no likely to put up with a basketball coach that appears to have some issues
 
X has good players currently playing for their basketball team. They need to get more out of them. I don't care about who isn't playing for them, because they still have a really talented team. They have 6'9", 6'6", three 6'5" players, and three 6'3" players in their top 8 players, but don't play that physical and they don't dominate the boards. That's on the coaching staff to instill that mind set.
 
JBaller said:
X has good players currently playing for their basketball team. They need to get more out of them. I don't care about who isn't playing for them, because they still have a really talented team. They have 6'9", 6'6", three 6'5" players, and three 6'3" players in their top 8 players, but don't play that physical and they don't dominate the boards. That's on the coaching staff to instill that mind s
baller94 said:
Not taking anything away from any of the kids and I wish them the best but this is not in the least objective.
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Looks very objective to me and trust me when I write this, this guy knows hoops and how to judge talent. Best players are not playing, sounds like X coach needs to understand what it takes to win in the GCL and how to evaluate.
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baller94 said:
Good information. Conner and Peters still play; Conner has started several games this season and averages 6 ppg.

Losing Myers to a football injury was a huge blow this season. None of the other players mentioned above are really basketball kids.

It’s nice to see someone do a little research before posting. The posts about “best players” not playing is completely false.
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If multiple people that don't know each other are hearing the same things, and then also hearing it from student body there has to be something there. Nobody is saying that the team isn't good, but we are saying they could be way better.
 
TR1982 said:
If multiple people that don't know each other are hearing the same things, and then also hearing it from student body there has to be something there. Nobody is saying that the team isn't good, but we are saying they could be way better.
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I have never met the coach or know much about him. But as you have stated when people that don't know each other hear the same information it raises flags. StX is a tough school and in everything I know does not tolerate entitlement from any of their student athletes which makes it really tough for me to believe it just a player issue.
 
baller94 said:
Good information. Conner and Peters still play; Conner has started several games this season and averages 6 ppg.

Losing Myers to a football injury was a huge blow this season. None of the other players mentioned above are really basketball kids.

It’s nice to see someone do a little research before posting. The posts about “best players” not playing is completely false.
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Sorry I missed Conner and Peters - updated the list thanks
 
Insinuating Weber being a D1 athlete is laughable at best. He’s maybe 5’9 and not overly athletic. He would have helped the hoop team but was told that he really wanted to concentrate on football. I agree that Coach needs to throw out the old school style and try to recreate his image with the kids.
 
WorkRoadSammy said:
From a parent that has 2 kids at X. I cut and pasted.

5) Weber (Jr) - The best pure shooting in the school. Shot 50% from 3 last year & led JV team in assists, steals and 2nd in scoring. Played with Indiana Elite for AAU and had great summer. Possible small school Division 1 athlete in 2 sports.
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You sure about this? Indiana Elite puts many in high level D1 every year (e.g Mahaffey) and have had NBA players previously (e.g. McBride).

He was on their top team? Agree he's a decent player, but his size and skill level doesn't seem to fit here. He's nowhere in the ballpark of the type of talent mentioned above. He played AAU with one of the best AAU programs in the region and then just decided to quit basketball? This doesn't add up.
 
Doublehelix said:
You sure about this? Indiana Elite puts many in high level D1 every year (e.g Mahaffey) and have had NBA players previously (e.g. McBride).

He was on their top team? Agree he's a decent player, but his size and skill level doesn't seem to fit here. He's nowhere in the ballpark of the type of talent mentioned above. He played AAU with one of the best AAU programs in the region and then just decided to quit basketball? This doesn't add up.
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Mahaffey is 6'6" with a super crazy wing span. Duece is in the Nba so probably not a good comparison.
Weber would have had a role, but lets pump the breaks.

I would think most people that know basketball have thought that X has unachieved in basketball for years now.
 
As I said somewhere in another thread, the future is bright for X basketball. The coach will get credit for the improvement but IMO he is just inheriting better players. People in the building, including Spect, do not like him. Younger classes have loads of talent. X and Moe should battle for the league title for the next few years. Starting next year, if X is losing to Elder and LaSalle in basketball, X has a coaching issue.
 
pantherland said:
Mahaffey is 6'6" with a super crazy wing span. Duece is in the Nba so probably not a good comparison.
Weber would have had a role, but lets pump the breaks.

I would think most people that know basketball have thought that X has unachieved in basketball for years now.
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I'm not saying Weber is a comparison to those players. I'm saying that Indiana Elite has a laundry list of D1 recruits, and I find it hard to believe that he would make an elite team like that with his size and talent. As I mentioned, he's a decent high school player, but nowhere near the talent level of most of the guys on that team. I also don't see him on the Indiana Elite roster, so I'm questioning if he was really on their top team.
 
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JElder said:
Insinuating Weber being a D1 athlete is laughable at best. He’s maybe 5’9 and not overly athletic. He would have helped the hoop team but was told that he really wanted to concentrate on football. I agree that Coach needs to throw out the old school style and try to recreate his image with the kids.
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This did not age well considering he has offers from West Point, Valpo, Butler, Dayton, South Carolina and Kentucky, 1st Team all GCL in Football and 2nd Team GCL in basketball not bad for a Westside Kid.
 
WorkRoadSammy said:
This did not age well considering he has offers from West Point, Valpo, Butler, Dayton, South Carolina and Kentucky, 1st Team all GCL in Football and 2nd Team GCL in basketball not bad for a Westside Kid.
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It aged fine.

I will start by saying that any college level interest from any level of college is something to be proud of.

Pretty sure the USC and UK offers aren't scholarship offers, and the others are filling roster spots and enrollment numbers. Let's stop with the charade that his D1 offers exploded. They didn't.

As I said, something to be extremely proud of, but he's exactly where most good high school players from the GCL are at at this point in time. His dad also has a ton of connections for preferred spots and low level D1 interest. It's April - they're filling rosters at this point.

The initial post from @JElder wasn't that far off base. He's a good high school player. He's not a D1 prospect. Very similar to many very good HS players from the GCL that didn't have the size and speed to go D1.
 
"The best pure shooter in the school" (comment from above) is also laughable. Weber had the big name coming out of grade school. He was a good player, but c'mon people. Sounds like the Elder forum when it comes to him (it certainly started there as @Omar was talking about him since he was in 4th grade lol).

Just another example of alot of over-hype way too soon.
 
Weber is an eastside Ivy Hills kid and Donovan Waleskowski is/was the best shooter on the team. A. Weber is a really good high school multi sport athlete with opportunities to walk on at South Carolina and UK for football. I am sure he would have been good at any sport he wanted to play at St. X. Tennis, baseball, lacrosse, golf whatever.
 
wrestlingdad3 said:
Weber is an eastside Ivy Hills kid and Donovan Waleskowski is/was the best shooter on the team. A. Weber is a really good high school multi sport athlete with opportunities to walk on at South Carolina and UK for football. I am sure he would have been good at any sport he wanted to play at St. X. Tennis, baseball, lacrosse, golf whatever.
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Agree, but D1 was always a stretch, and that has pretty much played out. Doesn't mean he's not a good athlete.

If you can get 4 years of D1 money somewhere, I don't blame going for it. But he's a much better talent fit in D2/D3.

The westside connection is from his dad, who grew up there through high school (Elder), if I'm not mistaken.
 
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