The team that will not die marches on

Wow

Oh my goodness.

I don’t even know what to say. Xavier should have been done this season. 9-7, 1-4 in the Big East they were basically dead and buried. Tre Johnson hit a three with 13:14 to play that gave Texas a ten point lead and a 88.4% chance of winning. Xavier should have been done. They weren’t.

You all saw it happen, I don’t need to describe it all. This is an all (in) vibes recap. How about Marcus Foster? 22/8/2 and a massive second half. When Xavier needed a lifeline, when they were barely clinging to their tournament life, Foster just kept scoring. He had 16 in the second half as he dug deep and just refused to let X die. When he wasn’t scoring he was grabbing a huge board and flinging it to Dailyn Swain for a beautiful and one.

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And how about Dailyn Swain? In the first half he was, and I say this lovingly, really bad. In the second half after that Johnson three, he was vital. Sean Miller tossed out whatever the normal game plan is and put Swain faceguarding Johnson. Johnson would make one more field goal the rest of the way and became visibly agitated when Marcus Foster, who else, kept him from even getting a dribble handoff. Johnson was brilliant. He wasn’t quite brilliant enough and committed a really dumb foul.

That foul came at the end of an insane sequence. Well, watch it.

John Hugley wasn’t good today, but no one is going to remember that. They will remember a big man caught between celebrations, running with arms half out, tongue all the way out, head shaking and getting back on defense. He walled up, Foster rebounded, Swain leaked, and Tre Johnson fouled. Texas never led again.

Of course it was Zach Freemantle at the end. It took him some time to get into the game thanks to James Breeding, but once he got the measure of Kadin Shedrick he duped him by spinning back twice. Shedrick then made a not basketball play to shove Freemantle to the ground. Freemantle made them both to give Xavier the three point lead. The next time down he went for the kill, missed wide right, and there was Dailyn Swain, grabbing one of Xavier’s paltry four offensive rebounds to stick back the clincher.

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Who had Jerome Hunter going 3-4 from behind the arc on their bingo card today? Big Rome had made three threes once in a game before. That was January 26th of 2020. He had never gone 3-4 from behind the arc in a game before ever. But when Dailyn Swain drove with 8:10, it was Hunter he found in the corner and Hunter who drilled the three to bring Xavier all the way back. In 5:04 of game time Xavier erased the lead.

The Musketeers won the final three wars 34-18. Dante Maddox didn’t factor much into that, but he contributed two second half assists. In the first half he took on the role that Marcus Foster would in the second half, racking up 10 points in his usual maniacal fashion. He said that he wouldn’t teach kids to play the game the way he does, but my goodness can it be fun to watch. Ryan Conwell started hot but fouls limited him. Dayvion McKnight struggled early and then stabilized and scored a couple big buckets.

There are probably a hundred things that other people noticed. I can’t clock everything that just happened. College basketball is amazing. March Madness is incredible. We’ll see you all Friday night.

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