Xavier v. Richmond: Recap

What happened: Xavier 85- Richmond 62

Three the hard way

Joel, and Thomas Carlyle, were correct in saying that Xavier needed to change up the pack line defense for this game against Richmond. What neither of them could have known was that Coach Chris Mack was having much the same thought. "I just say, if they’re going to shoot threes, I want to at least know where they are on the floor. So we went to a zone defense," Mack explained. 

Attacking zone defense requires a good deal of athleticism and a trust that your teammate is paying attention. Today, Xavier's zone was a tremendous example of what a well coached team can do with a 1-2-2.

Xavier v. Richmond: Box Score Breakdown

What happened: Xavier 85 - Richmond 62

So Tu Holloway went off, huh? His 33-7-5 on 7-15/2-3/17-17 shooting led Xavier over Richmond. Holloway has a penchant for getting to the line anyway, but grabbing more than half his points from the line against a team that has been notoriously stingy in allowing opponents to get there is incredibly impressive. Other feats he performed today that could be filed under that heading include not missing on any of his 17 FTA and somehow scoring five points in the last two seconds of the first half. That burst at the end of the half gave Xavier their first breathing room in a game that had been nip and tuck all the way.

Perhaps even more encouraging going forward than Holloway's dominance was the performance put up by Xavier's defense on one of the best shooting teams in the nation. The .356/.333/.625 shooting line put up by Richmond was well below their averages on the season. It's hard to say if this was because of great defense by Xavier or an off day by the Spiders, but those numbers went a long way towards allowing Xavier to stay in the game early and pull away late.

Xavier v. Richmond: Preview

I don't think Duquesne has it in them to challenge for the A-10 regular season title this year, despite their hot start. I only mention that because it casts in an even more important light Xavier's game against Richmond, over whom they currently hold a one-game lead in the conference standings. Richmond is 51st on ESPN's InsideRPI today, their 16-5 record offset to some extent by the 107th most difficult schedule in the nation. Xavier is all the way up to 25th, gaining momentum with conference wins along with the 25th toughest schedule to this point.

The first thing that jumps off the page about Richmond is that, as a team, they can flat out shoot the eyes out of the ball. Their effective FG% of .556 is 9th in the nation, their 2P% of .519 is 43rd, and their 3P% is a stunning .419, good for 3rd nationally. They have five players who have shot more than 25 threes and connected on at least 40% of them. Xavier, by contrast, has zero such players.

Xavier v. George Washington: Box Score Breakdown

Given Xavier's recent emphasis on defense in practice, I can't imagine that this performance made Coach Mack very happy. For the third straight game - two of which have been against sub-par opponents - Xavier has played porous defense. George Washington came into the game as a poor shooting team, and then proceeded to post a .442/.556/.947 line against the Muskies. Once may be running into a hot shooting team, and twice may be a coincidence, but three of these defensive eggs laid in a row probably portends ill for Xavier.


Xavier did manage to protect the ball and shoot effectively enough to outlast GW's zone. They were 9-23 (.391) from behind the arc, to continue the team-wide trend of hot shooting. Tu and Cheek were particularly effective, combining to go 7-14 from behind the arc. A tally of 17 assists to only 10 turnovers looks nice at the bottom of the page, too.

Xavier v. George Washington: Preview

Xavier has a warm up for their road trip to Richmond on the weekend with their mid-week game against A-10 foe George Washington. Don't be confused by the Colonials' 3-2 conference record; all three of their wins (and one of thier losses) have come against the bottom five teams in the league. Their only true conference test has come against Richmond, where they lost by ten. This is a team whose wins have come over such luminaries as Towson (by six at home), Holy Cross (by one at home), and Marist (a twenty-point romp at a neutral site). Losses against Navy, Boston U, and UNC Wilmington aren't going to impress the selection committee and have contributed to GW's 209th ranking in the RPI. X is up to 27th after their win over Temple.

Despite their myriad flaws - which we'll get to in a minute - GW does some things right. It's also important to remember that this is an extremely young team, with their players averaging 1.23 years of experience. They are also rather deep, getting 35% of their minutes from the bench (96th in the country) and exceptionally tall - their effective height of +2.7" is 29th in the country. They take care of the ball well, with only about 19% of their possessions ending in turnovers. If things break the right way for this Colonials squad, they could be a legitimate conference contender in a couple of years.

Shootaround

Do you like how we've taken an "odds and ends" style column and given it a name that pertains to basketball? Our R&D team was up all night getting that one ready, and we're all pretty proud of it here at the Examiner.

-ESPN's Joe Lunardi said in today's chat that X is probably in line for an at-large bid if they fail to win the A-10 tourny but avoid any "bad losses." Thanks to Mike in Ohio for asking Mr. Lunardi.

Xavier v. Temple: Recap

What happened: Xavier 88 - Temple 77

It was that kind of first half for Cheek

In a game that had all the pre-game markers of a defensive duel, A-10 fans were treated to an absolute barn-burner instead. Temple came into the game making barely 30% of their threes, then connected on 11 of their first 22 before airballing their last three (!) attempts from behind the arc. Xavier had also been struggling from distance but went 8-13 as a team, good for 61.5%.

Ramon Moore came in as Temple's leading scorer, but Mark Lyons did a brilliant defensive job on him all game. Temple's offense struggled to find a rhythm early, but Scootie Randall came to the Owls' rescue. His first four shots took him over his season average of 8.8 points, and he had Temple's first eleven points on his way to 17 in the first half and a game-high 28. Without Randall's hot start, X's 16-11 lead could have been 16-0.