Goodbye to Isaiah Philmore, who ended his college career with an efficient 11 points. (Al Behrman, AP Photo)
Well, that was disappointing. Xavier’s season ended in a loss to NC State when the Wolfpack held them at arm’s length for much of the game. At key moments when they could have eliminated the deficit, they missed open threes or they turned the ball over for a fast break score. These two issues were the story of the game. Semaj Christon, Matt Stainbrook, and Isaiah Philmore combined for 44 points on 18-33 shooting, but the rest of the team had only 15 points on 5-22 shooting. The team also turned the ball over 13 times, mostly through just careless passes, against a team that is generally bad at turning over their opponents. I am not going to go that in-depth but just wanted to cover the keys to the game that I listed in the last post.
TJ Warren
Warren got buckets, though most of the time Xavier made it hard on him. Actually, Justin Martin’s good efforts guarding him might have actually affected his production on the other end, as Warren can just wear you out. Warren had a moderately efficient 25 points (offensive rating only at D1 average of 104 but a usage rate of 40%), so Xavier succeeded in that regard.
Where Xavier failed was prevented others from getting involved. Ralston Turner had 17 points, going 3-7 from deep, which is pretty close to his average, but also going 3-4 inside the arc, along with knocking down two free throws. Jordan Vandenberg had an efficient 9 points around the rim and on mid-range jumpers, but this wasn’t an awful defensive breakdown. What hurt as much as Turner’s contribution was Tyler Lewis’ play: 7 points and 8 assists to 1 turnover. The undersized guard was too often allowed to roam free, creating for his teammates. Xavier would sometimes pressure him and body up against him, but they didn’t apply this pressure consistently.
Controlling the Glass
Xavier did fairly well in this regard but was not dominant on the offensive boards like they could have been (which really would have helped with the poor outside shooting). Stainbrook was actually fully ready, which I didn’t expect. The Wolfpack only grabbed 23.1% of their own misses, which is particularly good when you remember that they are a good offensive rebounding team. The Musketeers grabbed 32.4% of their own misses, which is a solid mark but one that could have been better against a weak defensive rebounding team. So, Xavier won the battle of the boards, but it wasn’t as resounding of a victory as it could have been.
Three-point shooting
NC State only went 4-14 from three-point range for 28.6%. Turner got his, but he didn’t go off on Xavier, only scoring around his average rate, and he didn’t get easy shots. The rest of the team combined for 1-7 from behind the arc, because the Musketeers didn’t even let the poor shooters get easy looks. Overall, a really good job on three-point defense for a team that has struggled to defend the three. Yes, the Wolfpack are not a good three-point shooting team, but the Musketeers didn’t slack off of them too much like they have against some other poor shooting teams this season.
The three-point offense, though, was as bad as the three-point defense was good. Xavier also attempted 14 shots total, but they only made 2 (when they are supposed to be a better shooting team). Dee Davis shot about at his average (1-3), but Myles’ slump continued to the end of the season (0-3), and Justin Martin, the only consistent shooter usually, went 0-6. This killed Xavier’s chances. There’s so much variance in three-point shooting, as even great shooters miss a majority of their attempts, so I can’t be too critical of this poor mark. It just represents the season-long problem that Xavier never could really overcome, as shooting is one of those things that is really hard to improve mid-season.
Free throws
This did not pan out how Xavier would have wanted. Both teams shot around their average, Xavier making 68.8% and NC State making 75.0%, but the problem was the number of attempts. NC State is generally poor at getting to the line, and their rate at getting to the line (30.2%) was well under their season average. On the season, though, Xavier was generally okay at getting to the line, and the Wolfpack were generally bad about sending opponents to the line, suggesting that Xavier should be able to get significantly more attempts. In the end, the two teams had the exact same number of attempts, 16. Philmore was in line with his season average, albeit at a low usage rate, but Semaj only had two free throw attempts and the team as a whole had a 29.1% rate, well under their 41.6% rate on the season. Some of this may have been how the refs called the game, as they allowed a lot on the interior, but this is still an area where Xavier should have out-performed NC State.
Semaj Christon
Semaj wasn’t as effective as he could have been. His shooting line wasn’t bad, making 5 of 9 two-pointers and 1 of 2 three-pointers, though like I just said, he only got to the line once, going 1-2. He had recently attempted far more shots than this to try to lead his team to victory, but what probably factored in was turnovers. Semaj had 7 of his team’s 13 turnovers (to 4 assists), which really hurt his productivity while giving free possessions to the Wolfpack.
Overall, a rough loss, but not all tournament games end prettily for teams. I’m just happy to see Xavier back in the tournament after a one-year hiatus and I hope for better production next year. Zeke, you will be missed, and I also bid farewell to seniors Erik Stenger and Tim Whelan. I’ll be rooting for Villanova, Creighton, and Providence later this week (and UVA, as I’m a secondary fan), but for Xavier, the off-season begins.
From Staak to Mack 