A complete team effort takes Xavier past Michigan

What happened: Xavier 86 - Michigan 70

I don't even know who to lead with here, so let's start with Jalen. He was an absolute bully in the first half, ending the game with 15/9/0 plus a block on 4-8/0-0/7-9 shooting. He was limited to 23 minutes largely because he had four fouls called on him, plus a technical for hanging on the rim after a missed dunk. The tech came with all five Michigan players standing under Jalen, giving him no place to land immediately, and at least two of his fouls were insanely soft. He doesn't always help himself, but it's fairly clear that officials are targeting Jalen.

Remy was pretty solid on the offensive end, especially when Xavier needed him most. He had a pair of big shots in the second half that broke Michigan runs when the Wolverines were threatening to make it a ball game. He also was tasked with guarding Michigan star Caris LeVert; that was a credit to Remy in that he spent a lot of energy on the defensive end, but LeVert had 29/7/3 on 8-16/5-8/8-10 shooting so... not a feather in Remy's cap.

Trevon matched Jalen's 15 and 9 and threw in 3 assists for good measure, but he took 5-14/3-6/2-3 shooting to get there. He wasn't at his efficient best, but he was very active on both ends, really got after it on the glass, and did well protecting the ball.

James Farr played 21 minutes, which math majors among us will notice is about half the game. In that time he went for 8/13/0 and mutilated Michigan on the boards. Nobody had an answer for Big Game James on the glass; it seemed like every missed shot was his. His 3-7/0-0/2-2 shooting line isn't going into his scrapbook, but he has evolved into a pivotal piece of this team.

I know I touched on it in the three takeaways, but LAJ was a dang hero. There's no question Edmond Sumner is dynamic, but X turned it over twice in the first half with Sumner out and seven times in the second when he got most of his minutes. I know the difference between LAJ and Sumner doesn't exist in a vacuum, but Sumner had four of the team's nine turnovers. Sumner is a sensation, but Austin, Jr. knows what he's doing out there.

Rebounding on the whole was a huge boost for Xavier this game. They posted an 80.5% DReb% and a staggering 45% OReb%. I don't have the second-chance points numbers in front of me right now, but there's no way Xavier didn't have a huge advantage in that department. Between that and shooting 23-26 from the line, X used graft and execution to head into the Crisler Center and deliver a beating to a ranked Michigan squad.

Odds and ends:

• Myles Davis rode 7-7 from the line to 14/6/3; his shooting on the year remains unspectacular.
• JP really throws his body around out there. He wasn't cracking on offense today, but he leaves everything on the floor.
• Xavier shot 17 free throws in the first half and 9 in the second half; make of that what you will.
• Michigan looked like LeVert +4 today, but I suspect this is going to end up being a really nice win.