Super big win -- while people know I have a lot of confidence in this team putting things together this year, it had to start somewhere, and a second road loss in a row yesterday following the Butler loss at home would have put this team in a very bad situation:
Offense:
Yesterday wasn't our best offensive performance (hard to do that while shooting 25% from 3, especially when you're taking 28 of them (for 7/28), but our performance from 2 PT was one of the best of the season (24/36, including 18/27 at the rim. A lot of this was Kalk, but Baylor and Alexander got to the rim a ton yesterday (3/6 and 4/7) and even Ashworth was 1/2
Overall 102.6 offensive rating is good enough to win when we play solid D, and we did yesterday (also a nice stretch in BE play where we've been over 100 in our offensive rating for 10 of the last 11 games (only UConn the one below in that stretch)
Defense:
Things looked bad to start this game, but the D had several stretches where they really locked Xavier down yesterday. We held them to an offensive rating of 93.4, and only the 3rd time they've been under 100 in the past 10 games - UConn, Nova in that rock fight, and us
Turnovers:
Another thing that looked bad to start, but we finished strong and only committed 11 on the game. How important is this? Well, Turnover% based on possessions shows that when we are above 15% we have a great chance of losing - stretch that to 14.9% (what we did against Providence) and we are only 3-5 this year when above that percentage. Yesterday was 11.5% (w/ 11 Turnovers) and we won
Rebounding:
Winning the boards is not just about keeping the opponents from getting second chances, it's about getting transition opportunities for us, and during key parts of the game late, we got rebounds that led to points on the other end that kept us from imploding. We outrebounded them 37-33, and when we are under 50% for rebounds, we are 4-4
Add in games like Marquette where we got outrebounded and turned it over and it's no shock we lost there... IF this team can rebound and hold onto the ball the way I think they can, we might all be shocked by how far they can go
Individual stuff:
Kalk - nothing I can say that someone else hasn't said already - insane game yesterday
Baylor - Double-Double (again!), w/ 8 assists
Alexander - didn't shoot great, but had 5 assists and hit some big buckets
Ashworth - had a tough day from 3 w/ some good looks, but didn't let it get him down and ended with 9 assists, some key FT's and a big 3 pter late
Miller - the kind of game we all knew we needed from the 4 lately, but also made some key defensive plays and on the boards. I know Mac Trusts Bello more in the late stages of games, but I'd like to see Miller take more of that time as his defensive length helps us
Bench -
Bello - did what he does, handles the ball, gets to the right spots and when he shoots enough he hits a 3 (at 40% this year!)
No King, Traudt played the backup 5, Green the backup 4. They did a good job (separately, IIRC?) in the first half, but had a bad stretch where they both ended up on the floor when Baylor needed a break. I'm encouraged by what I saw from those 2 in the first half, and hopeful Mac will get them more time (separately, though!)
The game reminded me a bit of the NC State game from last year - tough opponent with some dynamic guards when our 3 PT shot wasn't falling -- so we did the obvious and got the ball to Kalk over and over again while playing D, rebounding and limiting turnovers. If this team has learned that and can keep doing that consistently, we may surprise even me down the stretch this year