Xavier v. USC: Three Takeaways

A game that had me concerned going in was functionally over as a contest by the second media timeout. USC beat a ranked but depleted Wichita State team and came in 5-0 with six players averaging double digits. Xavier did whatever they wanted to from the word go to remain undefeated and advance to final of a Thanksgiving tournament for the first time in forever.

This was just Xavier's game

Jalen Reynolds got off to a hot start, but he picked up two fouls early. James Farr stepped in admirably, but he also got a couple of fouls. Myles Davis missed most of his early jump shots. JP played a part in a double technical. None of it mattered. Xavier rolled to a 54-27 half time lead and sauntered through the second half that was more coronation than contest.

Myles's shooting is starting to concern me

Davis is distributing at a high level, protecting the ball well, and commanding the floor. What he isn't doing is making open jumpers, which is starting to be something of an issue. It's great to have a guy who can do what Myles does, but what Xavier needs him to be is the guy who could knock the air out of the gym with a big three. His lower body really seems to be drifting when he shoots right now; you'd love to see him clean up his stroke heading into conference play.

Xavier's focus still leaves something to be desired

The Muskies carried some serious energy out of the first-half locker room in burying the game, but the second half had a real NKU level of effort to let a 32-point lead dwindle away. The lead was big enough for that to not matter, but it's still not great to watch your favorite team mail in an entire half of basketball. At some point in time Xavier is going to need 40 minutes of locked-in effort to win; until such a time, it would be nice to see the team prove that they're capable of doing so.