Sometimes, you just get beat.
There is a recap for this game written below a bold line. You can read it if you’d like. It’s mostly a sad guy ruminating and lashing out. That’s not what this should be about though. Xavier just got beaten tonight. That happens sometimes.
Zach Freemantle, Jerome Hunter, Marcus Foster, Dante Maddox and Dayvion McKnight pulled the Xavier uniform on for the last time tonight. It didn’t end how we all wanted it to, but it ended how it always was likely to. All five of them brought a great deal of happiness to Xavier fans over six years or just over this year. It will hurt to never see them wear the X again, but my goodness did they give us some moments.
I, personally, fell in love with the maniacal way Maddox plays the game. He has a joy about him that is infectious. That wasn’t enough tonight, but hopefully he enjoyed all but the last 40 minutes of his time here at X.
We’ll be back at some point to look back at this season. Until then, thank you for reading along. Thank you for another great season of interaction on Twitter and now BlueSky. Thanks for listening to our podcast. We hope we’ve brought you some measure of joy during this season. Good night.
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This game was probably functionally over when Xavier went down 17 with 10ish to play in the second half. Practically, it was over when Tomislav Ivisic made his second three pointer. From there, Xavier was in rotation every time Illinois had the ball. To Brad Underwood’s credit, he just kept running a high pick and roll. Xavier never found an answer. Ivisic made enough more looks to keep Xavier honest. Illinois simply didn’t miss, and that, unfortunately, was that.
I mentioned in the recap against Texas that John Hugley had been bad but no one would remember it. He was also bad tonight and it seems likely people will remember it. He looked lost defensively, like a man who wandered into a revolving door and had the exits seal around him. Illinois exploited that ruthlessly. Zach Freemantle was better, but offensively he couldn’t get anything going against the seven footer. That left Xavier with something of a Sophie’s choice.
Dailyn Swain was magnificent all night long. He’d struggled recently, but he attacked Illinois with everything in his bag. Tonight that meant making three three pointers, but more it simply meant that he leveraged his unique combination of length and strength to keep attacking the rim. He finished with a career high 27. It didn’t matter.
The officiating, as it has been all year, was dog dirt. Illinois did whatever they wanted defensively in the first half. During Xavier’s late push to get within eight late, the refs missed an obvious out of bounds call. Brad Underwood should have gotten a technical foul. Ultimately, it didn’t really matter. It just seemed fitting they were rancid butt again tonight.
Xavier lost because Illinois is extremely good when they are hitting. While the game was in question, Illinois was 10-19 from behind the arc. Will Riley went into some sort of fugue state and simply could not miss, including a heave from the center logo that somehow caught nothing but bottom. Illinois didn’t miss a free throw all night. Sometimes you tip your cap.
Xavier also lost because their two stars simply didn’t have it tonight. Zach Freemantle and Ryan Conwell combined for 17/4/1 on 5-19 from the floor. Neither of them could get anything to drop. It just wasn’t Xavier’s night. There’s really nothing more to say. At least Liberty is getting destroyed.