Xavier’s season is in the balance, and no one is happy about it.
It’s fair to say that Xavier Nation is in an emotionally agitated state right now. The suggestion that it’s auto bid or bust didn’t go over well, neither did the idea that Coach Sean Miller shouldn’t be painted as the bad guy quite yet. Both are great ways to generate Twitter engagement, neither proved terribly popular.
But people get cranky when their team loses. That’s all the more true when the team was not expected to lose. Browns fans are cranky but resigned, because our franchise sucks. Bengals fans, I’d imagine, are a lot more angry about how this season went. That’s the case with Xavier Nation. The team was picked to finish third in the Big East and has started conference play 1-3. The team was supposed to be in the NCAA tournament easily and is currently 62nd in the NET and has exactly one win in the top two quadrants.
Writing all this is making me cranky again. This team is clinging on to the hope of a bid to the tournament. Realistically, it’s not going to happen. Theoretically it’s still possible. Another season is in great danger of just going up in smoke. Everyone wants to blame someone, so here are some options.
The players
Let’s be honest here, some of these guys aren’t working out. Ryan Conwell and Marcus Foster have both been good. Conwell has struggled a bit when teams key solely on him but that’s to be expected from most players. Dayvion McKnight has been his usual solid self.
But everyone else… Let’s cut Jerome Hunter some slack. Personally, I find it awesome he’s even playing again. Heart conditions are frightening, and he’s powering on through. He also gets a pass because in four conference games he’s been a menace. His offensive efficiency in conference games is over 124 and his true shooting percentage is second in the Big East.
His help hasn’t been spectacular. John Hugley, God bless the lad, has been horrible. Against Seton Hall he scored a season high 11. Against Georgetown he had a two minute trillion. Unless, of course, you count fouls, because he had two of those. Cam Fletcher was also brought in for front line help and has added functionally nothing this year.
Dailyn Swain has increased his efficiency and his usage rate is up 4% but there’s something lacking from his game right now. For moments he can go into attack mode and seem like he’s going to take over a game. But just as often he can be found lingering around the three point arc (where he still isn’t a threat) and his offensive rebounding has actually dropped since last season. God help me, I can’t figure out Dante Maddox at all. He’s either a whirlwind of defensive havoc and three pointers or he’s just running around a lot and not accomplishing much.
The coach
The self-same guy that almost every Xavier fan was clamoring for when Travis Steele was ousted is now the guy drawing the ire of a very vocal and very fickle portion of the fan base. There’s a lot of noise in there being yelled by people who don’t understand basketball, coaching, or NIL, but there is one very salient point being made by the more thoughtful portion of this crowd.
Sean Miller put this roster together. Trey Green is either hurt or having a sad about playing time, but he’s out. John Hugley is in great shape, but he’s bad at basketball right now. No one kidnapped the coach’s wife and made him bring in a gimpy Cam Fletcher or mercurial Dante Maddox. And let’s get into the production from the freshman, shall we?
Well, there is none. Xavier is way ahead of the NIL curve in one way: they filled their entire team with upperclassmen and Dailyn Swain. Not only is there very little continuity, there’s also no one to look at as the future. Coach Miller is very likely still one of the best in game coaches in the nation, but even Picasso needed paint. To torture that analogy a bit more, Miller has essentially locked himself in the studio with only watercolors. He might turn that into a masterpiece, but you wouldn’t bet on it.
Injuries
This is what I would blame. At one point this season Xavier had 34/18/3 per game sitting on their bench. Lassina Traore is a double-double machine and would free up Zach Freemantle to do a bit more freelancing away from the other team’s biggest defender. Instead, he’s hurt. Freemantle himself got injured and looked rusty in his first game back. Trey Green is hurt (?), Cam Fletcher is banged up, and Dailyn Swain limped through the game against Georgetown.
No team is built to sustain the injury luck that Xavier has suffered. The Musketeers may have brought in some guys with bad injury luck, but it was the one who hadn’t ever been hurt who did his knee. Zach Freemantle is a great player built of popsicle sticks and hopes. Jerome Hunter is battling his way back from horrid luck. You can’t add depth in this day and age, because players are going to take money to go play where they can get time. No one is coming in as a depth option for free. That’s not the world we live in.
So there we are. Choose your fighter. Xavier’s season hangs by a thread. Someone is at fault for that. It’s not me or you, friendly reader, but someone has to take fall for this. Or maybe, just maybe, the Musketeers will win tomorrow and breathe some life back into this season.