BE Tournament Game Thread: Xavier vs. Creighton (March 14, 2019)

[XUBob]

The encouraging thing is that X won while playing just ok. Very up and down against a good/hot team, didn’t let the drought beat us. It is March, survive and advance.

[GIMMFD]

We've been like a car, missing on a cylinder or two all year. Sometimes having enough horsepower to win and other times not.

Imagine, starting tomorrow, if our three transfers continue playing at a high level while Paul and Naji, in particular, wake fully up, and Q takes a few less 3 attempts.

Would be immense, and a great formula for success. It's been promising the last few days, so I'm happy to see them sorting out ways to win. Winning tomorrow would be absolutely huge, and strangely I feel confident that these guys have the ability to do it. Pulling out a 20 win season while we were dead in the water is mental to me.

[Xville]

The coaching that Steele has done since the team was 11-13 has been absolutely incredible. There was a real chance with the remaining schedule that this team could have fallen off the map and had a twenty loss season. Simply incredible job to now have gone 7-1 against the schedule. Really gets me excited for the future and claiming the final 2%.

[HenryMuto]

I wish Gus had been our announcer today would been fun at the end. Will get him tomorrow.

[Michigan Muskie]

Really gets me excited for the future and claiming the final 2%.

This is where I am right now. The current run and wherever it takes us this post-season is fun and exciting, but it seems like homemade sausage gravy slathered on a week-old store-brand biscuit. I just hope the gravy outlasts the biscuits.

But my outlook on the future of this team has changed dramatically in the past month. Next year's core players have proven a lot to me, and I think they have finally settled into their roles without Tre, JP, Kanter and Kaiser. Now, add KyKy et al to the mix and we start addressing areas of weakness, such as ball handling and shooting depth.

The future looks bright. The present is exciting as hell, too, but no matter how this season ends, I'm way more eager for November than I was a month ago.

[D-West & PO-Z]

Hankins was awesome! And Castlin coming up very big again. Those guys wanna play in the tourney bad you can tell it through their play. Lets get Nova tomorrow boys!

[XU 87]

2nd Half: Xavier went scoreless for about 9 Minutes... That’s Fricking amazing and we won after losing a 12 point lead.

Good defense kept them in the game. The current defense we now see is light years ahead of what we saw even 6 weeks ago.

[xudash]

The coaching that Steele has done since the team was 11-13 has been absolutely incredible. There was a real chance with the remaining schedule that this team could have fallen off the map and had a twenty loss season. Simply incredible job to now have gone 7-1 against the schedule. Really gets me excited for the future and claiming the final 2%.

+ 1,000%

[XU 87]

Does anyone else think that the Creighton fans were all yelling at the tv at the end, "Call Timeout!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"?

[whopper]

in contrast to our game, the post game line between ST Johns and Marquette looked like the "good game..good game" of a 6th grade girls Catholic school game. In fact I think the girls get madder..once you are "in" I guess you are happy

[Backyard Champ]

Does anyone else think that the Creighton fans were all yelling at the tv at the end, "Call Timeout!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"?

Possibly, easy to say after the fact. Watching live, I thought the Creighton player got wide open for 3, it was recognized a split second too late and the ball just got to him a second too late. If the pass was quicker, they could be praising their coach right now.

Thank goodness it got to him late.

[bobbiemcgee]

And Castlin coming up very big again.
Maybe Castlin will be this year's Bernard?

[XUBison]

Maybe Castlin will be this year's Bernard?


This narrative has been pushed since before Castlin stepped foot on campus. I get the parallels, but I’d rather watch him write his own story.

[American X]

Down 21-13, we stop playing Creighton's game and start playing Xavier's > 27-6 run.

What was with Creighton playing better defense during the second half? Since when does Creighton play defense? Since when does McDermott make adjustments? That's not fair.

What would the Xavier offense look like without all the ridiculous hero ball shots?

It is not the prettiest Xavier basketball, but I love it.

[paulxu]

The game winning block

https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2019/03/14210416/AP_19073750581097-e1552611965252.jpg

[xu82]

That came right after the game winning tip in by another senior, our MVP!

[Xavier]

Which came off a missed bunny by Naji. Good lord that woulda sat with me all off season if Hankins didn't tip it in and we lost.

[GoMuskies]

Which came off a missed bunny by Naji. Good lord that woulda sat with me all off season if Hankins didn't tip it in and we lost.

Like when Philmore missed the layup to end our season in 2013? Granted, we were all pretty much ready for that season to end!