Richard Pitino said he saw progress from his team on Friday night. Tommy Boy once famously(?) told another Richard “well, I was looking and you know what I saw?” but we’ll leave that for another time. For about 16 minutes Xavier looked like a team that had figured things out. The wheels then metaphorically fell off. In Tommy Boy right after that quote they hit a deer. This was like that, only there were no survivors.
If, though, you’re inclined to be positive you can almost see a way for this Xavier team to have success. No, it likely won’t be the kind of success that garners many Big East wins or dominates a non-con, but expectations have to be adjusted.
Advertisement
Xavier was at their best on Friday when they were extremely active. Jovan Milicevic and Isaiah Walker were probably their best contributors in that way. Milicevic was good offensively in the first half and, even though he didn’t grab many rebounds, was very active on the glass. Walker was less noticeably good, but his defense was active and he did stuff. (Yes, that’s the bar now.) Roddie Anderson was active as well, but he struggled with Iowa’s defense and with scoring. He doesn’t look a pure point guard right now.
Xavier also needs the three pointer to drop. They were 5-17 in the first half, with those five coming early. That isn’t good, obviously, but it was good enough to keep them close for awhile. They ended the game 8-33 from behind the arc. That, very simply, will not get the job done. Xavier won’t win games if they shoot that badly from deep, because they lack anything resembling interior offense most of the time. There was a glimmer in the Iowa game of a team that can score inside. Filip Borovicanin was 6-8 inside and All Wright managed to get to the rim and be 3-4 there. That’s progress.
Finally, Xavier needs someone to step up and take charge. They play like a team uncertain who its guy is. Is it Malik Messina Moore? He basically went AWOL for a game and a half, then sort of came alive in the second half. Borovicanin is trying, but he is incredibly raw right now. All Wright wants to be, but his shot isn’t going right now. Milicevic definitely wants to be that guy and, for a stretch in the first half, he was. Maybe that’s what this team needs. Someone needs to be the guy, it was nice to see someone try to be.
This isn’t going to be the season of dreams, but it doesn’t have to be a complete nightmare. Coach Pitino saw some improvement on Friday. Maybe if we squint a bit, we can as well.
