Winter is coming. Xavier has lost games this badly before. It’s actually lost worse not all that long ago. UConn beat them by 43 just under two years ago. Xavier has also lost badly to very bad teams before. Skip Prosser got obliterated by La Salle the year way back in 2001. This, though, felt a little different. Xavier lost by 19 in a game that wasn’t anywhere near that close.
I’m not sure what you expected coming in to the year. Most likely, this was a confirmation of what you thought the worst case scenario might be. Xavier struggled with two low majors, and then just got destroyed tonight by a mid major. Some people thought this was a top six team in the Big East this season. We all said seventh or eighth on our preseason podcast. Even that seems like it may have been a reach at this point. The Musketeers currently look DePaul level bad.
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The specific numbers from this game tell the story in microcosm. Santa Clara had 832 offensive rebounds when they game was still in doubt. Xavier players not called Roddie or Tre combined for 18/18/12. While that would be a nice line for one guy, it is a horrid one for eight guys to compile in 129 minutes. They did it on 5-28 shooting. Malik Messina Moore had been a bright spot coming in. He scored none on no shots. That is better than scoring one on 0-7 (Jovan Milicevic) or scoring none on 0-6 (All Wright). It took the team outside the two best players 129 minutes of playing time to be almost incomprehensibly bad.
You can afford to do that if you are playing the kind of stifling defense that Pitino’s teams have been known for. Xavier didn’t. They got torched behind the arc early, then the Broncos realized they could just score at will inside. They shot 59% inside the arc for the game, Xavier shot 37%. (Xavier was also 5-18 from deep). There is just no way to parse this game as anything other than what it was: a complete beatdown.
Xavier is now 107th in the KenPom. The last time they were this low was January 12th of 2013. That was 4,685 days ago. Brad Redford was the MVP in a win over George Washington on that date. Landen Amos played 21 minutes and Erik Stenger played nine. That’s how long it has been since Xavier was this bad. That team wasn’t going anywhere and knew it. They were the brutal transition between the Tu Holloway Era and the Big East.
In 4,685 days, Sept 8th, 2038, we will know what happened after this. Back in 2013 a young Chris Mack was building a team that would return the program to elite status. A year later the team was in the tournament, two years later they were in the Sweet 16. Maybe that is what is happening here. Right now a trip to Iowa looks more grim than trips to the most boring place in America normally look. Old Dominion waits after that.
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In most games there is a narrative thread at which to pull to explain the game. This one was so bad there isn’t one. Xavier didn’t lose because of anything in particular, they lost because of everything. None of what they did was good. Roddie Anderson (29/3/3) continued his quest to become one of the most loved Musketeers in recent memory. That kid is a livewire and doesn’t quit. Tre Carroll (21/4/2) continued to be a solid focal point. Maybe this was a start for Filip Borovicanin.
But there is a long winter to come. It was foretold, now it is here. Brace yourselves, Xavier fans, this is not going to be pretty.
