Xavier v. Georgetown: Three Takeways

Stainbrook is back to his best

After a stretch during February when he struggled to impact games, Matt Stainbrook come up big once again to lead Xavier again tonight. For the third straight game, he led the way in scoring, this time posting a game high 20 to go with 9 boards. Xavier works best on offense by forcing teams to focus their energy on defending the paint and then opening them up with the three and the drive from there, and Stainbrook's resurgence has led to a similar return to that focus for X.

Xavier still struggles to close games out

Up 21 inside 14 minutes left, Xavier really shouldn't have had to sweat this one out, but an almost complete collapse down the stretch brought back some of the demons of past losses for X fans. A particular achilles heel was the free throw shooting, which we disastrous for a 10 minute stretch during which Xavier simply could not put up the points necessary to stop Georgetown's momentum. That is annoying at this point, but it could end the season next week.

We will play for a championship

One of the goals of this season for most X was to see the team solidify itself in the Big East Conference. The steps of having a unanimous all-rookie team selection in Trevon Bluiett and a second teamer in Matt Stainbrook were nice, but having a shot at the title in MSG is a dream come true for X fans and proves that Xavier belongs among the elite programs in college basketball.