What we learned as Xavier Musketeers fall to 1-4 in Big East after ugly loss to St. John’s

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Xavier’s room for error in the Big East is now microscopic.

In a pivotal return home Tuesday night, Xavier climbed out of an early double-digit hole only to fall flat in the second half in an ugly 82-72 loss to St. John’s at Cintas Center.

Xavier was once a team on the rise. A team highlighted by depth, quality shooting and experience that was 6-0 and ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 has now dropped seven of its last 10 games.

Tuesday was a Quadrant 2 opportunity for Xavier against a St. John’s team that looks the part of an NCAA Tournament squad after being snubbed a year ago. The Musketeers walked off the Cintas Center floor Tuesday staring at another missed opportunity and fall to three games under .500 in Big East play for the first time since the final month of the Travis Steele era.

Xavier is now 1-7 in contests that fall into the all-important first two quadrants in the NCAA NET Rankings and the hole the Musketeers have dug themselves by coming up short in multiple winnable contests might be too deep to get out of it.

Observations from Xavier Musketeers’ loss to St. John’s Red Storm

Toughness, anyone?

Sean Miller called for more toughness from his team following Friday’s six-point loss at Georgetown. While you won’t find a toughness column on a box score, the trait typically shows up on the defensive side of the ball.

On the glass, Xavier was tasked with containing a St. John’s squad that ranks No. 19 in KenPom in offensive rebounding. Xavier did not allow an offensive rebound for the first 12-plus minutes of Tuesday’s tilt, then the floodgates opened.

St. John’s finished with a 50-30 advantage on the glass and turned 20 offensive rebounds into 22 second-chance points.

Xavier had no answer as St. John’s pulled away

Xavier walked into the locker room with momentum after trimming St. John’s lead to 41-37. The air in Xavier’s balloon popped quickly as St. John’s set the tone early in the second half and built a 15-point lead by the under-12 media timeout.

St. John’s…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/learned-xavier-musketeers-fall-1-015017013.html

Author : Cincinnati.com | The Enquirer

Publish date : 2025-01-08 01:50:00

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