The Musketeers overcame an 8 point halftime deficit only to collapse in final minutes.
Xavier went to TCU with a chance to get some momentum after a pair of dispiriting performances against Michigan and South Carolina State. Instead, they served up a first half that resembled more of an attempt to replicate those performances than improve on them and watched their second half rally fall apart as they shot themselves in both feet with a pair of turnovers in the final minute and a half of a tie game. The result will likely end up as a Q2 loss come Selection Sunday, but the hole the team dug themselves into and the lapses that sabotaged their chances of getting out will do nothing to lift the spirits of a fanbase hoping they aren’t witnessing a seemingly promising season going sideways.
The possession battle keeps costing Xavier
One thing you can’t do against a team who just got beaten by Santa Clara and Colorado State in back to back outings is give them a chance to get their feet under them. After turning the ball over 35 times over the course of two games, Xavier came out and committed 15 more tonight. 7 of them came in the first half, a half in which Xavier also split the rebounds at their defensive end 9-9 with TCU. All told, between the turnover and offensive rebounding disparity, TCU got the ball 11 extra possessions in the first half alone with which they were able to build a lead the swelled to as many as 11. In the second half, Xavier was crippled by a pair of turnovers in the last 1:21 of the game as they went from having the ball in a tie game to being down 4 without getting a shot up. We saw what a good team will do with these opportunities in the Michigan loss, but TCU is currently ranked 80th at KenPom, only Georgetown, DePaul, and Seton Hall rank behind them in the Big East. If Xavier continues to turn the ball over at the clip they’ve done recently, the Big East slate suddenly looks very treacherous indeed.
The bench continues to be a conundrum
It is no secret that Xaiver’s bench has been inconsistent in their production from the very first game of the season, in which they combined for 3 points. Tonight, Dante Maddox seemed to take a step forward after his 41 second cameo on Sunday with his 9/5/2 coming on 3-4 from deep. He was joined by Jerome Hunter (4/0/2) in fouling out of the game with Hunter’s final foul coming after he missed a 1 and 1 and put Brendan Wenzel at the line to tie the game. John Hugley (3/1/0) struggled again and only managed 2 minutes in the second half which is 2 more than Trey Green (2/0/0) managed. With Marcus Foster (0/4/2) having an off night and the team needing some life in the first half, the reserves again made a limited impact and, apart from Maddox, could not provide Xavier any scoring punch.
Zach Freemantle gives me hope
The first half would have been even more of a disaster without his 10/3/1 to give Xavier a fighting chance to get back into the game. He was less effective in the second, one might suppose from the fatigue of his team high 35 minutes tonight, but still came up with a couple of big shots when Xavier needed them. He did cough the ball up with 46 second left, but his 16/6/1 was mostly responsible for keeping Xavier in this game in the first place.
Time to figure it out
This team has been pretty good at times and pretty frustrating as well (more frustrating recently). The hiccups of winning buy games by single digits or faceplanting against Michigan can be chalked up as a new group coming together or whatever else you use to explain it away, but Xavier has one more buy game before the Crosstown Shootout (super excited to watch it on ESPN + after their sterling display tonight) and then Connecticut and Marquette to open Big East play. Xavier has 8 Q1 games left and 3 of them come in the next 16 days. If this team is to meet the goals it has set for itself, they have to start looking the part now.