Xavier v. DePaul: Three Takeaways

A second ball protector would be nice

With Quentin Goodin shouldering the load at point, Xavier has discovered that their true freshman is a safe pair of hands at the wheel of their attack, posting an A/TO of 20/7 now in his last three starts. What Xavier lacks in their newly found dearth of guard depth is a second ball handler as turnover averse as Q. Macura and Bernard are the ostensible backup plan, but theu combined for 9 turnovers tonight as Goodin was limited by foul trouble.

The post is taking shape

In the two weeks since Xavier lost to UC by essentially ceding the defensive glass to the Bearcats, a shakeup has occured in the post. Tyrique Jones has started every game since then and is coming into his own as a post scorer. Sean O'Mara had a big night against Seton Hall, Jones mangled Creighton's Justin Patton, and tonight Jones and Gaston combined for 22/9/1 on 9/12 from the floor. The unsung hero on the block right now is Kaiser Gates, who has secured 16 defensive rebounds the past two games.

This won't get the job done on Saturday

Tonight Xavier got away with a subpar performance by many measures because they were playing DePaul, a team that has yet to win away from home and has only 2 wins in the KenPom top 200. The Blue Demons play hard, they are just limited by their lack of talent. Coming to town Saturday is another team that plays extremely hard, and also happens to be the reigning NCAA Champions. 19 turnovers, 12-18 from the line, and shoddy work on defense will get you slaughtered by Villanova. X pulled a huge win at Cintas last year, but to do it again a much different team needs to show up than we saw tonight.