It’s all binary from here on out, and on a scale of win to lose, X landed on the correct side.
This is a game that played out over 40 minutes as a narrative, with fits and starts from both teams as the balance swung this way and that before finding an ultimate result. We’re going to skip all that for the moment and focus on two stats that tell the story for Xavier: 8 frontcourt points, and 3 bench points. That’s it.
If you’re going to get that little production from 40% of your starting lineup and 100% of your reserves, someone in the starting backcourt is going to have to answer the bell in a big way. Xavier’s big three of Des Claude, Quincy Olivari, and Dayvion McKnight took it in turns today.
His start was sluggish adjacent, with just 4 points in the first 8 minutes (which also, maddeningly, included a missed three), but he flipped a switch after the second media timeout. With Xavier coming out of the break down 15-14, it was like he suddenly remembered that there’s nobody on Butler that can keep him from getting to his spots or scoring from them. In Xavier’s next four possessions, Des went bucket, bucket, assist (on a monstrous lob to Abou Ousmane), bucket. An 8-0 run wholly of his device has the Muskies in command.
Briefly. Des took a break, and Butler stormed back with 11 unanswered points of their own. A couple of buckets by Quincy stopped the bleeding, but the Muskies went into the under 4 all tied up with Butler at 26. He came out of the timeout with another little jumper out of high ball screen action against an overmatched Finley Bizjack, made a couple of free throws, and scored the last bucket of the half with a floater over Landon Moore. Thanks to 16 points on 7-11 shooting from the league’s most improved player, Xavier led by 1 at the interval.
Out of halftime, Quincy Olivari took his turn. The brevity of his time in the driver’s seat just underscored how important it was. He assisted Dayvion McKnight on Xavier’s first three of the game. With Butler keeping pace, he drilled one of his own to put Xavier up 4 with 14:46 left, then – after a Des Claude layup – went 2-3 from deep on the Muskies’ next three trips down. X only got 6 stops in that half’s first 9 minutes, but the sudden outburst of offense led by Olivari was enough to hold the Bulldogs at bay. Quincy didn’t have an efficient game by his high standards, but he stepped up when the team needed a spark.
That leaves only Dayvion McKnight. By this point in the season, every team in the league knows McKnight’s instructions are to grab the ball – make or miss – and get out in transition as fast as possible. Somehow, he’s still an unstoppable blur from one end to the other.
A Lazar Djokovic defensive board turned into a layup for Dayvion in the blink of an eye. A steal by Dayvion led to a bucket for Quincy. The teams traded blows. With just over 5 minutes on the clock, Xavier’s advantage dwindled to 1. He somehow relieved inbounder Posh Alexander of the ball on a baseline out play, passed the eight other dudes on the floor that were between him and the bucket, and laid it in. Literally nobody not standing out of bounds was further from the basket than he was; a second later, he had Verstappened past them all and scored.
Still Butler kept coming. Des and Posh Alexander traded buckets, leaving Xavier clinging to a 69-68 lead with just over 2 minutes remaining. At this point in the game, nobody had played more minutes than Dayvion. He came off for his only break of the game with 15:48 left in the second half. At the 15:03 mark, he checked back in. If he was exhausted, it would hardly be a black mark on his sterling record.
Instead, he took over. First he put Andre Screen in a blender out of a high ball screen before gliding in for an uncontested layup. Next he drew a foul on Posh Alexander and calmly canned a couple of free throws. Then, for the coup de grace, he once again turned the corner at the top of the key and got downhill. Forced to pick the ball up a little higher than he would have liked, he leapt into the chest of Jahmyl Telfort, who is listed at 6’7”, 225 to McKnight’s 6’0”, 188.
In the Big East Tournament, size alone doesn’t determine the bigger man. McKnight collected the contact, hung in the air for a period of time that defied my understanding of the laws that govern physical objects, and scored. Up 7 with a minute to play, Xavier had put the game on ice. Now it’s time for ibuprofen and Pedialyte, because the Muskies roll again at noon against the tournament’s top seed, UConn.