There is just one key to tonight’s game: play all of it.
Joel had one thought to wrap up his preview of tonight’s contest against St. John’s:
Play the whole game. I swear if I watch Xavier wilt out of the pointy end of the game after the whole of Musketeer Twitter fires off “Win the war, win the game” one more time, I’m gonna lose my mind. Presuming Xavier doesn’t get run off the court, this one is gonna be tight at the end. If the Muskies can’t get it across the line, they’re functionally out of meaningful opportunities.
That’s not an exaggeration. Xavier needs this one to make any of the next ones matter. They, more pertinently, need all 40 minutes of this one.
Thankfully, St. John’s isn’t the most mentally astute of teams late in games either. They threw the game away in their loss to Creighton. In their most recent game, against hapless Butler, they allowed a ten minute stretch in which the Bulldogs scored 25, went on a 16-2 run to take the lead, then promptly coughed it right back up. They held on down the stretch in a free throw shooting contest, but it didn’t make Rick Pitino a happy man.
Xavier’s woes down the stretch are well documented. Against South Carolina St, TCU, UC, UConn, Marquette, and Georgetown they have led late and either lost or nearly lost. Turnovers have piled up, free throws have gone wayward, the general idea of basketball as a sport has lost ground and been spoiled. It has been a parade of unforced errors, balls dribbled off feet, and passes closer to the coaching staff than any player.
There is no neat way to fix this. Perhaps giving each player a gummy during the last timeout would help with the nerves, but it might also lead to apathy. Coach Miller can’t run out a closer like baseball teams do or knee it out like American football teams. Basketball demands a full effort for the full game. Xavier isn’t significantly worse than anyone they’ve played, they are just significantly worse when it matters. When the game hits the pointy end, Xavier has collapsed. Don’t do that today and they could grab the life preserver this game could be to their season. Collapse again and all that will be left will be foam on top of the waves and a forlorn hope for the BET.