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Xavier @ St. John's: Stream, stats, and keys to the game

Xavier is in new York tonight to take on a Red Storm team desperate for a win.

By Brad D
"They haven't won since WHEN?!?"
"They haven't won since WHEN?!?"
Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports

Xavier Musketeers (19-3, 7-2)

Per Game Table
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
Provided by CBB at Sports Reference: View Original Table
Generated 1/30/2018.

St. John's Red Storm (10-12, 0-10)

Per Game Table
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
Provided by CBB at Sports Reference: View Original Table
Generated 1/30/2018.

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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.