We’ve all been there, right? You’re a 6-8, 235 pound force of human resilience. You’ve got 28 points in yet another performance worthy of the Big East’s leading scorer. You scored a tip in, with the help of a little push off to force overtime, then hit two huge three pointers to keep your team in touching distance. Now, after Villanova has missed yet another free throw, you have the ball, a two point deficit, and nine seconds to put things to right. Filip Borovicanin, who has assisted your two big shots is calling for the ball, but past him you go. You drive on to that strong left hand but get walled off, then turn back central and look for a cutting Jovan Milicevic… and throw the ball over his head to no one. The ball bounces to Villanova and that is functionally the game. We’ve all been there.
Except, of course, none of us actually has. That was Tre Carroll’s plight last night. He was brilliant for 28/10/3 on 11-14 shooting. He was also bad with six of Xavier’s 16 turnovers, three of them in the last 15 minutes of the game. This is the dichotomy of college basketball: you can be both the hero and the goat.
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Xavier was in this position, again, because once again they put together a warrior’s effort against a team that would rightly have been expected to beat them based on resume and metrics. Once again, Xavier came out swinging. Malik Messina-Moore (15/5/7) and Jovan Milicevic (20/9/5 only three fouls) staked Xavier to an early lead but, as always, an opponent’s run tightened the game back up and Nova rode a 15-2 stretch to reclaim the lead. Nova still held that slim one point lead at the half.
Carroll and Milicevic were both excellent in the first half, but Filip Borovicanin (3/3/6) was not. The big Serb never really got things going as he struggled with the defense of Matt Hodge and Duke Brennan. Brennan was a menace all game. He finished with six of Villanova’s 13 offensive rebounds. X was generally good on the defensive glass, but Brennan was the exception.
The second half was cut and thrust the whole way. Xavier didn’t fade offensively, knocking down five threes and shooting 51.9% from the floor. Eight turnovers, the aforementioned four from Carroll, were the only mar on an otherwise good offensive half. Carroll, though, also led the team in scoring as he and Milicevic answered everything that Villanova threw at them.
The big talking points came late. Roddie Anderson (5/7/2) got caught in a switch and was on Matt Hodge when a missed three bounced high. Hodge tipped it back outside to Acaden Lewis, who drove down the left side of the lane past Tre Carroll and toward the rim. Roddie tried to take a charge but was just late to the position. The announcers caused a great deal of consternation by forgetting that a rule change in 2024 meant that the defender must be in legal guarding position before the offensive player plants his launch foot. Roddie, unfortunately, just wasn’t. Don’t worry though, a minute later the refs missed a travel on Tyler Perkins that had Coach Pitino pounding the scorer’s table in anger.
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Xavier didn’t panic, though, and it was MMM and huge stop and then Tre Carroll just manhandling his way under the rim for a tip in that sent the game to overtime. Once there, Xavier again trailed before again fighting their way back behind Carroll. Then, it was just Tre with the ball and nine seconds to win it.
After the game Tre took to Twitter to simply say “I’m sorry.” The sentiment was understandable. He knew that, despite all he had done, it was one bad play he made that ended the game for Xavier. For once, though, Twitter showed the better nature of people. Responses poured in from Xavier Nation thanking Tre for his effort and telling him he was the reason we were in the game.
You can find malcontents out there who think Coach Pitino should be finding ways to win these games or don’t like the players, but by and large Xavier has rallied behind this team. Gutting loss after gutting loss stack up, but this team just keeps putting in great efforts against better teams. If you can’t appreciate that, perhaps sport isn’t for you.
