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Let’s preface this by saying Tre and JP are hands-down one of the best duos to ever come through Xavier. They’ve got boatloads of talent and they work their tails off. Muskies fans are lucky to have them, and they’ve put up their share of great performances in Xavier’s colors.
Last night was not one of them. They shot a combined 7-26/2-15/9-11 on their way to 25/9/5 with 6 turnovers. That’s a lot of empty possessions; it wasn’t pretty (at all).
That got me thinking, was that the worst game they’ve ever played together? (Particularly, I started thinking that right after Bryan messaged me to ask that question.) Let’s break it down.
I’ll spare you how the sausage was made and just say that I started with their combined ORtg, looked at their usage rates and minutes played, mixed in a little bit of my personal impression of the game, and came out the other side with the below list.
Oh, also, I didn’t use any games from their freshman year. Didn’t seem fair.
| Year | MP | ORtg | Result | Opponent | Score | Shooting | Game | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | 64 | 135 | L | Villanova | L, 89-65 | 6-21/2-10/2-6 | 16/8/5 | 4 TO |
| Senior | 59 | 137 | W | East Tennessee St. | W, 68-66 | 7-30/4-17/1-2 | 19/9/5 | |
| Junior | 59 | 130 | L | Villanova | L, 73-57 | 5-18/3-9/4-4 | 17/4/7 | 5 TO, Tre was hurt |
| Junior | 63 | 147 | L | Butler | L, 83-78 | 8-21/4-12/6-10 | 26/7/1 | 10 TO, 10 fouls |
| Soph | 62 | 134 | L | Creighton | L, 70-56 | 5-17/1-11/0-0 | 11/8/2 | 4 TO, 7 fouls |
| Soph | 51 | 139 | W | Cincinnati | W, 65-55 | 3-15/0-4/3-5 | 9/9/2 |
I ended up taking what I considered their two worst games from each of the last three years. What jumped out at me was the lack of truly ghastly games they’ve both played together. In the past three years, despite being counted on to carry a heavy portion of the load and probably being the focus of opposing defenses’s game plans, they’ve come in under a combined ORtg of 150 just six times.
Now I know a combined ORtg of, say, 155 isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire, but 150 is a rough cutoff for the difference between merely sub-par and truly sucking the paint off the walls.
It also shows the value of a good supporting cast. If you only have a couple of good guys, you’re not going to get very far if they crap the bed. On the other hand, a solid supporting cast can keep you in a lot of games, like they did last night.
JP and Tre have hit their quota for bad games this year; I guess things are going to be smooth as silk from here to early April.