Was this a good game? Xavier went toe to toe with the 33rd ranked team in the KenPom and led them very late. Was this a bad game? Xavier was an inexcusable 16-38 inside the arc to drop their season mark to 42%, one of the worst in the nation. Maybe it depends on what you were expecting.
Let’s start with the positives. Xavier was fearless in this game. They punched with a high-major for 16 minutes, had their usual lull to allow a 15-2 run to go down 14, then slowly dragged themselves back into the game and took the lead. Their 2-3 zone was extremely effective as Georgia went 2-16 behind the arc in the second half. Despite having no interior offense to speak of, they were somehow 9-17 at the rim, Xavier managed 1.05 points per possession.
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That came down to Xavier’s top four players. All Wright (17/2/0) is generously listed at 6-3 but is a sprite who lights up the offense. He was 1-7 inside the arc, but didn’t let that bother him and went 4-9 from deep. He’s shooting 50% on threes this season. Tre Carroll is incredibly aggravating to me, but went for 19/10/1 and got himself to the line ten times. Filip Borovicanin (12/12/4) was incredibly aggravating to a lot of Twitter, but he was Xavier’s most efficient offensive player and flashed the ability to continue making opportunities for everyone else. Finally, Jovan Milicevic (19/5/0) is clearly the guy on this team who wants to just take games over.
Milicevic did just that early, hitting (or “stroking” if you’re Scott Williams) three straight threes in one stretch. When he went cold and Xavier went inside, things unraveled. It was five straight from him that got Xavier back within single digits in the second half. From there, things got ugly. X settled into a zone, and then neither team could score. In one riveting stretch that lasted nearly five minutes, the teams that had scored 26 points in the first five minutes combined to score just seven.
But Xavier just kept working, and grinding, and pushing, trying to claw back into it. They did just that. Milicevic hit another three, Tre Carroll got to the line, then something weird happened. Malik Messina Moore (6/6/3) threw up a three pointer with the shot clock expiring that went in. In the scrum, Tre Carroll got thrown to the ground. When the smoke cleared, Xavier had a four point play and with 1:38 to play, All Wright staked them to a 77-75 lead.
And that’s when the bad comes in. Xavier’s defense in the second half was better, but on the whole it was horrid last night. Georgia is not a good offensive team unless they are running. Xavier was gashed in the first half. They tightened it up to allow only 25 in the second half, but by that point they had allowed 52 and were down 12. UGA got 15 on fast breaks, 40 in the paint, and 39 from the bench. Xavier’s numbers there? 8, 30, and 4. Georgia simply scored too easily on the run and in the paint all game long.
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Struggles from the line
Xavier was also very bad from the line. Tre Carroll is a 75% free throw shooter for his career. He was 6-10 last night. The team was 12-19 all told, but left another attempt at the line when Borovicanin missed the front end of a one and one. On that, Jovan Milicevic should have been at the line with Xavier up two and 27 seconds to play. He secured the ball with one arm, then was dragged backward with both hands by Blue Cain, who appeared to be attempting to give away a foul. That foul wasn’t called, but a jumpball was, despite no Georgia player having a body part on the ball.
That bad call just compounded one earlier where Filip Borovicanin was brutalized across both arms and dragged to the ground. Both happened right in front of officials, neither was called. You can say referees don’t decide games, but when they fail to do their job properly, they absolutely do. It is weird the idea that we accept blatantly bad calls because “human error” is somehow part of the job. If a judge just guessed at stuff, they’d be disbarred. Anyway.
No depth
Xavier, as mentioned before, only got four points from their bench. That came from Roddie Anderson (4/2/2) who shot 2-10 from the floor. The rest of the bench played 12 minutes, grabbed two rebounds, and took a single shot, which they missed. Xavier’s rotation is four deep and then either Good Roddie or Bad Roddie. Triple M has simply vanished. In his last 89 minutes of play, he has made three shots. His rebounding numbers are superficially good, but his rates are 3.2% on the offensive end and a very mediocre 8% on the defensive. Xavier didn’t score after All Wright’s massive three pointer. Some of that comes down to the fact their options are limited by both ability and legs. Someone needs to get it sorted off the bench. Anthony Robinson (0/0/0) came in, played two minutes, turned it over, and was never seen again.
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There are no good losses
There was progress here, there’s no doubt of that. Xavier was right in this game. When it comes to getting better and being competitive, this was a big step forward. Unfortunately, the selection committee won’t consider that. Now, you can say that it won’t matter because this team won’t be close enough for it make any sort of difference. On the other hand, play well and win this game and build some momentum for Big East play. If all you from this season is progress, this was a good game. If you are a hopeful sort, this was just another step toward a March spent watching other teams.
