The season of constant tumult

Sometimes real life has the utter temerity to get in the way of college basketball. This weekend the Banners staff was all scattered about doing various things. When I jumped into the game in the first half, lo and behold, Xavier was up 19 on Marquette! This surely augured good things.

Well, you’ve seen this movie before. Xavier got up 21, let Marquette back within six, then made the shots they needed to get the game over the line. This season has featured a Xavier team that just cannot figure out what they want to be, so let’s write a look back of this game in full Musketeers fashion.

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What an incredible first half from All Wright. The scorer from Valpo has struggled to acclimate to the Big East at times this season. No one in his conference took a higher percentage of his teams shots last season. This year, he’s been a cog in wheel. He had a forgettable 14 against UConn. That was not the first half on Sunday. Wright was simply unstoppable. He poured in 16 on 3-3/3-5/1-1 shooting and played with a fearlessness that hasn’t always been missing from his game, but maybe hasn’t been the defining feature of it. He was brilliant in the first half and Marquette had no answer.

Jovan Milicevic has adjusted better to the Big East, but it hasn’t all been puppies and rainbows. If All Wright’s 14 against UConn was forgettable, Milicevic’s two was even more so. He also came out swinging against the Golden Eagles. In the first half he splashed three threes, more than he had made in an entire game in more than a month. He was also significant on the glass, where Xavier was far superior to what they had been in that collapse the last time out against Marquette.

And that was the story of the entire team. The Musketeers averaged 1.5 points per possession, turned the ball over just twice, held Marquette to five second chance points, drained 11 threes, scored 11 more on the break and in general dominated the Golden Eagles. It was comprehensive. It was 51-35 and…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/season-constant-tumult-001146073.html

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Publish date : 2026-02-17 00:11:00

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