As Xavier battles their way back, their veteran backcourt pair has stumbled a bit.
Guards win games. Great big men help, of course, as do wings that can run and shoot. A four that can pick and pop helps as well. All of those people, though, key off the point guard and his running mate. Someone has to bring the ball up the floor, someone has to distribute, and someone has to initiate the offense. Unfortunately for Xavier recently, those someones are struggling a bit at the moment.
Dayvion McKnight was a metronome last year. When the team played well, he was good. When the team played badly, he was good. When the team was average, he was good. Last season when Big East play came around he found another level. He shot 42.4% behind the arc and was the eighth most efficient player in the conference with an offensive rating of 121.1.
This season has been a different story. McKnight is playing about a minute less per game, but has been a lot worse. His offensive efficiency in conference play has been 96.4. He’s taking less shots and making fewer of them. In conference play he’s a 25% shooter from deep on only 20 attempts and is shooting a quite bad 40% from inside the arc. His assist rate has remained the same, but his turnover rate has ticked up almost 2%.
Ryan Conwell had six games last season where his offensive efficiency dipped under 100. This year he has six in conference play alone. His streakiness has been noted in these pages already. To reiterate, his shooting from three recently looks like this: 2-7, 1-8, 2-7, 6-10, 0-8, 4-9, 0-2, 4-8, 1-7. He’s not consistent and when he’s not shooting well, he doesn’t bring a lot else to the table offensively (his defense has been good).
So what needs fixed? Somehow, Xavier has to get these guys going. The bench depth has been an issue. Dante Maddox is mercurial. He might score 22 in a star turn, he might drop 14 in just 23 minutes, or he might have a game where he only shoots once. Like Conwell, he needs his shot to start falling to get into the flow of the game and really get rolling. Like Conwell, he’s streaky.
Marcus Foster deserves mention here, because he has been that steady contributor all season. His numbers aren’t spectacular, but his offensive efficiency is 112 and he’s shooting 44% from behind the arc in conference play. His defense has been stellar and he’s basically a name to pencil in and forget. No problems there.
Speaking of forgotten, that brings us to the player that could solve this issue: Trey Green. Basically all of his numbers were better than last year. His offensive efficiency was 105, he was shooting the ball well, and his turnovers were declining. Then whatever happened to him happened. That has left Xavier with one actual point guard, Dayvion McKnight. McKnight last year had possessions where Des Claude ran the point and keyed the offense. This year he is on the ball all the time. There is no point forward.
That isn’t going to change, though. There is no sign that Green will ever be back for Xavier. Dante Maddox isn’t a point guard and Dailyn Swain isn’t a point forward. Maddox has filled in the most, but his turnover rate is higher than his assist rate and, as mentioned above he can be a bit mercurial. (But I love him so much for it.)
This issue basically comes down to whether Dayvion McKnight can fix what is wrong. He needs to take and make more threes and not get so deep on his two point attempts. Ryan Conwell needs to find the consistency that he had last year and near the start of this one. Unfortunately, that’s all there is to it. Xavier can’t make a trade, they can’t buy someone in the transfer window, they can’t call up a AAA player. This is the team. This backcourt can be elite and has been in the past. They just need to find that.