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Xavier Musketeers (19-3, 7-2)
| Player | MP | FG% | 3P% | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trevon Bluiett | 33.6 | .462 | .430 | .811 | 0.8 | 5.0 | 5.7 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 1.9 | 18.9 |
| J.P. Macura | 28.8 | .471 | .377 | .833 | 1.4 | 2.9 | 4.3 | 3.3 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 13.0 |
| Kerem Kanter | 15.8 | .566 | .324 | .762 | 1.5 | 4.1 | 5.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 10.0 |
| Kaiser Gates | 25.2 | .451 | .444 | .800 | 1.0 | 3.9 | 4.9 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 8.9 |
| Tyrique Jones | 16.6 | .657 | .552 | 1.4 | 3.9 | 5.3 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 2.5 | 8.1 | |
| Quentin Goodin | 28.4 | .412 | .207 | .843 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 5.3 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 2.3 | 2.1 | 7.8 |
| Naji Marshall | 19.4 | .555 | .348 | .698 | 0.9 | 2.4 | 3.3 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 7.6 |
| Sean O'Mara | 14.8 | .632 | .854 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 3.5 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 7.0 | |
| Paul Scruggs | 16.4 | .443 | .214 | .680 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 1.5 | 4.4 |
| Elias Harden | 7.5 | .250 | .125 | 1.000 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.8 |
| Leighton Schrand | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |||
| Matt Singleton | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | |||
| Nick Vanderpohl | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
St. John's Red Storm (10-12, 0-10)
| Player | MP | FG% | 3P% | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shamorie Ponds | 35.9 | .385 | .203 | .835 | 1.2 | 3.9 | 5.1 | 4.7 | 2.3 | 0.1 | 2.3 | 1.8 | 19.1 |
| Justin Simon | 35.4 | .473 | .429 | .654 | 1.5 | 5.9 | 7.4 | 4.9 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 11.6 |
| Bashir Ahmed | 28.0 | .396 | .359 | .584 | 1.7 | 2.8 | 4.5 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 2.8 | 11.5 |
| Marvin Clark | 28.2 | .441 | .411 | .911 | 1.3 | 2.8 | 4.0 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 1.9 | 3.4 | 11.1 |
| Tariq Owens | 29.2 | .531 | .348 | .737 | 1.9 | 4.3 | 6.2 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 3.4 | 1.2 | 2.8 | 8.7 |
| Bryan Trimble, Jr. | 16.9 | .328 | .308 | 1.000 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 1.7 | 2.9 |
| Kassoum Yakwe | 13.0 | .457 | .714 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 2.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.5 | |
| Amar Alibegovic | 8.5 | .275 | .200 | .667 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.5 |
| Jay Camus | 2.0 | .000 | .000 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| Justin Cole | 1.8 | .000 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.0 |
CBS Sports Stream-700 WLW-Full Preview
Musketeers in NYC tonight. If you can't get a cab to Carnesecca, here's your @GameDayGuide to follow the X Men! #Team96 pic.twitter.com/JSvRvel3AV
— Chris Mack (@CoachChrisMack) January 30, 2018
Three Keys:
Kick. Thanks largely to Tariq Owens, it's actually pretty hard to score on St. John's in the paint. Thanks to the other four dudes and probably the coach, it's really easy to score on them pretty much everywhere else. If X gets the ball into the middle of the defense, easy jumpers will abound everywhere else.
Be quick, but don't hurry. If you let St. John's speed you up, they can force turnovers and get out and score. They do love not defending in transition though. If Xavier can pick their spots, they can get out and go, but ball security trumps all other concerns on offense.
Waves of dudes. Here's your game, really. X gets more than a third of their minutes from the bench; St. John's gets about 22% of theirs. There is a finite number of things St. John's can implement to try to change the game, and Xavier's 4 1⁄4 bench guys give Coach Mack a much more diverse deck from which to play. Combine that with Coach Mack's superior coaching chops, and I think Xavier can answer anything St. John's can put out there.