Yet another way to lose

Unlike the announcers said on the broadcast today, a Q1 win today was not going to give Xavier a boost to their resume. However, it would have been an excellent response from a team who had it’s heart ripped out just a few days ago. Instead, the team managed to take the supporters an another tour of emotions that ultimately ended in sadness and anger and brought the conference record down to 3-6. In those 6, there are two blowouts at home, a trip to Chicago where X got handled, and then two heart-breaking losses. First was the Marquette loss that didn’t resemble basketball, and then the absolute hosing that occurred in Omaha. Surely we’ve explored all of the ways to lose, right?

Of course not, dear reader. X wanted this one to hurt in a new, but oddly familiar, way. This team has gotten punked a few times. They’ve also been right in games the whole and just come up short. What they haven’t done is stormed out to a big lead, and watched it evaporate. When was the last time Xavier led an opponent by 16 in the second half only to lose? Why it was last season against St. John’s.

It did not always look like this would be a game that hurt so deep though. Early on, St. John’s stormed out to a 20-11 lead and X couldn’t stop Ian Jackson at all. Then X broke out a 16-3 run which was started up by a parade of free throws from Triple M (18/4/5) and Milicevic (14/3/0) who both got fouled on three point attempts. Then it was like it all clicked for our boys. Messina-Moore cashed a transition three, Jovan slipped a screen and got a layup, then Tre Carroll (31/3/2) hit a three. Then the bench guys came in and they kept the whole thing running. Isaiah Walker (3/3/3) hit one shot, but kept finding the open man and Roddie (4/4/1) ran around really fast and pushed the tempo as always. You’ll notice I didn’t mention the bench bigs and that’s because I want to be nice about it. With the pace through the roof and the ball moving, X cruised into the half with a 49-37 lead.

Even out of the half the onslaught kept up. Jovan went on a 4-0 run and forced the elder Pitino into an early timeout. Whatever happened in that timeout flipped the game, as from 17:04 to 12:56 the Red Storm ripped off a 16-1 run and cut the lead down to just 1. From there, X got contributions from Tre Carroll, Number 12, and the dude with the long hair. Obviously, Tre’s final possession left a lot to be desired, but he can only carry a team on his own for so long.

As if watching the lead evaporate in a flash wasn’t bad enough, the #refshow completely eliminated enjoyment from the equation. One could have maybe believed that Zuby Ejiofor got a favorable whistle in the paint, and one would be correct. They also allowed Dylan Darling to take roughly six steps to set his feet before firing off a huge three. The best was yet to come though. As Tre Carroll drove the lane, Zuby Ejiofor slid over to get in front of him. Tre didn’t stop and contact was made. I don’t think Ejiofor thought he was drawing a charge so much as he was just trying to prevent a bucket, but one moron in a striped shirt thought his sacrifice should be rewarded. This was an issue, because a different moron in the same shirt had made the opposite call. So what did they do? Let the possession arrow decide who gets the ball because both of them were too busy being the star of their own show to actually pay attention to what was happening in front of them. As for the possession arrow thing, I don’t know if that’s the actual rule, but if it is, it’s dumb.

The next bit malpractice deserves it’s own paragraph. Late in the game Bryce Hopkins drove in to the lane, shoved Tre Carroll out of the lane and then got Anthony Robinson in the air before leaving a layup short. Robinson was called for a phantom foul because Bryce Hopkins does not miss layups, he must have been fouled. The call was bad, but a media timeout meant the officials could go watch just how bad it was. First, it was assumed they were looking for a goaltend. Nope, nothing there. Well what are they doing? They actually switched up and said the foul was after the shot clock expired. One problem there, that didn’t happen. Instead of owning up to a crap call, chucking X a makeup call, or anything else, the refs simply decided to make up something that didn’t happen.

Back to the basketball part of the game. X fought back like they always do. Tre hit a big three to cut the deficit to 2 with 2:22 on the clock. Then a stop led to a layup for Malik and we were all tied up with 1:38 to play. Then Dylan Darling drove past Anthony Robinson, who wasn’t even looking at him. Filip Borovicanin (9/10/6) then finally made a layup and cashed his free throw to give X the 82-81 lead. Xavier was then outscored 7-1 in the final minute. Darling hit another three to swing the advantage back to St. John’s, then Tre finally made a mistake and lost his footing on a drive and threw a wild shot of the side of the hoop support. As a final nail in the coffin, St. John’s tipped in their last field goal to go up 4 with 15 seconds left. As is often the case with this team, they played hard, they gave themselves chances, and they just couldn’t execute.

TAKEAWAY TIME

– We saw both versions of the offense today

The first half was a clinic of Pitino’s offense. High pace, quick ball movement, and open looks. The second half looked like a different offense entirely. Granted St. John’s adjusted and played much more aggressively in the passing lanes and tried to limit ball reversals. However, X never countered that. They had the good sense to spam the Tre Carroll button after the game tightened up, but as we saw, even he can’t make every shot. The offense turned into a broken mess and resulted in too many isos for a team that doesn’t thrive in that area.

– No, toughness was not the problem

Yes, we gave up 13 offensive boards. That is not a toughness issue, it’s a simple mismatch. St. John’s wants to throw the ball off of the rim and let a combination of Dillon Mitchell, Bryce Hopkins, and Zuby Ejiofor go grab it and lay it in. They do this because Mitchell is a freak athlete, Hopkins is a thick and strong wing, and Ejiofor is build like a brick out house. No one keeps these guys off the glass because they are beasts. X wasn’t not tough today, they were just smaller and less athletic than their opposition.

– Yes, the refs still suck

We could do a detailed breakdown of every missed or blown call, but that’ll just make me more upset. I thought the call in Omaha was bad, but they straight up made something up that everyone watching the game could see didn’t happen. Not even a foul/no foul debate or a block/charge. Human error happens and we all understand that, but until these clowns actually get anything other than more chances to suck at what they do, nothing will change and they will continue ruining games for the fans and the players.