Xavier v. Miami (OH): three takeaways

Xavier went back and forth with Miami for too long, almost putting them away a couple of times before just kind of easing it home down the stretch. It wasn't as dominant as you might have hoped, but 1-0 is better than 0-1.

Jalen is still Jalen

The good news: Jalen was just about unstoppable when Xavier fed him the ball, and he was a monster all over the glass. He also showed some good feel with the ball, distributing out of the post when the situation called for it. The bad news is that it took him seven seconds to pick up his first foul and less than a half to pick up his first tech. Jalen clearly had a reputation with refs last year; he's not off to a good start in terms of shedding that this season.

Edmond Sumner is for real

Early in the second half when it looked like Xavier was actually going to put the game away, Sumner brought the ball down in semi-transition, hesitated, then shifted gears and ran past his man for a layup. The next time down, he surveyed the scene before stroking home a deep three. Sumner spent more time on the floor than off it, did fairly well protecting the ball, and looked electric on offense. I believe in LAJ; point guard is going to be a strength on this team.

Defense is going to be a problem

Xavier dominated on the glass, dominated in the paint, forced more turnovers... name a stat and Xavier looked good in it. Unfortunately, they also allowed Miami to get enough clean looks from behind the arc to stay in the game for 36 minutes. Xavier resorted to a lot of 1-3-1 down the stretch to finally slow Miami down, but the results out of the man-to-man were not encouraging. IT was the first game; hopefully this is a launching point rather than a status report.