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What happened: Xavier 102 - Northwood 68
UPDATE: our guys at goxavier.com got some video highlights up; please enjoy.
#Xavier starters for this exhibition v. D2 Northwood: Dee Davis, Brandon Randolph, Trevon Bluiett, James Farr, Matt Stainbrook.
— Shannon Russell (@slrussell) November 9, 2014
XU Scoring: Stainbrook 16, Reynolds 15, O'Mara 14, Bluiett 14, M Davis 10, Abell 9, Macura 7, Austin 6, London 5, D Davis 4, Farr 2
— Rick Broering (@RickBroering) November 9, 2014
With the gamecast not working, no TV coverage, and no radio, it was a night of gleaning details of Xavier's exhibition game off of Twitter. It's kind of silly to read too much into one exhibition, so let's just run through a list of bullet points, take in some highlights, and start the discussion.
- Brandon Randolph started at the two, which surprised me and a lot of other people.
- Brandon Randolph did not score any points, which surprised me and a lot of other people. He went for 0/3/2 on 0-8/0-0/0-0 shooting.
- The top four scorers were forwards, which shouldn't be too big of a surprise considering the fact that Northwood's starting center is 6'7"; I'm not reading too much into that.
- James Farr joins Brandon Randolph on the list of surprise starters who didn't produce much. Were they just out there at the tip to light some fires, or is Coach Mack playing at something with this?
- Larry Austin was very impressive, going for 6/4/7 on 3-4/0-0/0-0 shooting. Couple that with his vocal leadership and his play in Brazil and you may well be looking at Xavier's backup point guard from day one.
- Xavier's 23-29 from the line was encouraging to anyone who watched their struggles at the stripe last year.
- The Muskies also posted 26 assists on 37 buckets, which is a nice display of sharing the ball.
On the whole, Xavier did what you would expect to see them do to a D2 team, and they got out of there with no injuries. Here's the whole box score for your perusal:
Final box in XU's exh. win. pic.twitter.com/QnMqb6ZcOn
— Shannon Russell (@slrussell) November 9, 2014
And some highlights via the technological marvel that is Vine:
You know it's basketball season when it starts raining newspaper! #LetsGoX https://t.co/IdlEjxn8zj via @vine
— Xavier Gameday (@XavierGameday) November 9, 2014
Makinde's first half dunk was awesome. #LetsGoX https://t.co/Vmkl1TIMHB via @vine
— Xavier Gameday (@XavierGameday) November 9, 2014
London does it again!!! #LetsGoX https://t.co/nOnAZl0Lek via @vine
— Xavier Gameday (@XavierGameday) November 9, 2014
There you have it, Xavier fans. The exhibition is in the books, and it's nothing but real basketball between us and March. What were your impressions of the team tonight? Did anything that happened change your view on the season going forward?