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Muskies Handle Hawks!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/19/2012
Xavier used suffocating full effort defense and attacking high percentage shot offense to rub out an early second half St Joe's lead (43-37) and motor to a solid 68-55 win over the improving Hawks at Cintas. It's XU's 4th straight "W" (by an average margin of 15PPG). The Muskies are now 13-5 overall and 4-1 in the Atlantic 10. 4-1 puts X in solo first place- a half game up on Dayton (3-1) and a full game ahead of UMass (3-2) and Duquesne (3-2).
The Dukes beat the Minutemen Wednesday night in Pittsburgh 80-69. BJ Montiero returned to the DU line-up and scored 23 pts. Mass turned it over 29 times against DU's guard pressure. In a wild woolly A-10 race, 7 teams are tied for 5th at 2-2 (St Louis, Temple, La Salle, Charlotte, Richmond, St Bonnies and GW). The league is nuts!! Go figure!!
Richmond dominated a very good Temple team 76-65 Saturday at the Robbins Center. UR took the short drive up to DC Wednesday and lost by 18 to a sub .500 GW Colonials team.
Back to the Muskies' win over the Hawks!! By the way, kudos to the Hawk mascot!! "The Hawk never dies "as the motto goes but he does have new feathers this season. I like the two tone use of color.
XU bolted out of the gate and led 24-14 7 and a half minutes into the game. The Muskies' starting group (Holloway, Lyons, Walker, Wells and Frease) played at a very high level. SJU failed to double Kenny in the post and he dominated. Lyons stroked in 3 early 3's then Lyons and Andre Walker ran into foul trouble.
XU stopped scoring (after making 4 of 5 threes-the Muskies missed 7 in a row from distance) and the Hawks found inside baskets as Hofstra transfer Halil Kanesevic carved them up(9P-10R-5 assists in 19 first half minutes).
Too much faith in the three ball is usually a bad strategy and fool's gold unless you're Duke or Michigan or a very few other teams structured around the three pointer. For XU the three is complimentary-not a stable like milk and bread. Mark Lyons can wield the 3 ball like a dagger. Brad Redford,if he makes his first one and doesn't slide left as he shoots can be a game changer from long range but for the rest of the crew (except for Tu Holloway in any high pressure situation) the "3" is a tease. It will let you down most of the time and lead to long rebounds and easy transition baskets for the enemy. That's what happened to X and accounted for St Joe's 39-37 halftime lead.
Second half - different team - that's coaching and communicating!! Xavier started slowly-missing two jumpers and a pair of FTs while SJU fleshed their lead to 6. X then dug in and embarked on a dynamite 14-0 run to take control 51-43 with about 15 minutes left.
Obviously, the defense was sticky and harassing. The Hawks degenerated into a one and done jump shooting team. But the XU offense was a study in simplicity. No jumpers!! Just lay-ups and dunks and stickbacks and FTs thanks to a steady diet of fast break chances.
The Muskie post-up game prospered. Kenny Frease finshed with 13 pts-7 boards and 2 assists against a strong SJU front line. Kenny plays his best against the best(great games against UC and Yancey Gates and Gonzaga and Robert Sacre). Frease is posting up very deep in the lane (Thank you-Aaron Williams). He hasn't turned the ball over in 3 games and he's getting to the FT line (13-19 in 5 A-10 games).
Kenny now has a post-up partner in crime. It's Jeff Robinson. Jeff has scored 12, 13 and 12 in the last 3 games on 17 for 19 shooting (almost 90%). Those gaudy FG% numbers happen when you're releasing most of your shots looking down at the rim. Jeff is much more confident with the ball. His sweeping running hook shot off the dribble is almost unstoppable. And Robinson is chipping in 4 rebounds/game along with the 12PPG plus he's not losing his man on defense. All this in just 20 efficient minutes/game. Try to guard Frease and Robinson when they're posting up low on opposite blocks. UD Flyers,get ready!!
Xavier limited St Joe's to 16 second half points and 55 for the game. They average 73PPG. One caveat-SJU played without PG Carl Jones(ankle sprain). He would have helped but Jones had been in a shooting slump. SJU will be hard to handle if Xavier meets them again in the A-10 tourney. There is no trip to Hawk Hill in Philly this season.
Dez Wells is apparently OK after taking an elbow to the head and a shot to the jaw. His A-10 numbers are impressive(12PPG-7RPG) with minutes rising to about 30/game. His conference shooting stats(27-48) put him at about 58%FG.
Tu Holloway is being criticized by some creatons for not scoring 20PPG. I'll take 37 assists to 14 turnovers in 5 conference games with fly paper tight perimeter defense. Tu gets no assist when he leads Frease or Robinson into a bucket with a pass and they take a power dribble to finish. That's still an assist in my book but not in the stat rules.
XU is playing well. The starters must have been plus 25 points over SJU when they were together on the floor.
The bench is contributing nicely. Bench minutes are way up over last season(28 minutes/game to 70 minutes/game).
The defense is high level(#11 nationally in both 3PT FG defense-27.7% and Effective FG% Defense 43%). X forced 19 turnovers vs SJU.
Can the Muskies take this strong package on the road? They lost at La Salle and won by just 8 at Fordham. But please don't forget road wins at Vandy and Butler in December.
Dayton at UD Arena looms Saturday afternoon (1PM-ESPN2). First place is on the line. More of Muskies-Flyers Friday.
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