Lost in the hoopla of The Big No. 203, or Xavier head coach Chris Mack's program-record 203rd win, was an entertaining and interesting basketball game against St. John's University.
The game ebbed and flowed as you'd expect from a Big East Conference contest, even though it was one pitting the No. 11-ranked team in America against a St. John's team missing one of its best players (Marcus LoVett was injured) and entered the game winless in league play.
Xavier, as it has at several points this season, made matters interesting and had to grind out the positive result, but they did eventually get that positive result via Wednesday's 88-82 loss at Cintas Center.
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St. John's made 11 consecutive shots to open the second half – an uncharacteristic offensive flourish for what is statistically the worst offensive team the Big East – and it looked for a while like the Red Storm might steal the game.
It was yet another strong performance by head coach Chris Mullin's side that could have been rewarded with a victory but wasn't. The program, which was expected to take steps forward this year (and has in some areas), is stuck in a rut after the loss of LoVett, which has forced the team to reimagine its offense on the fly.
If St. John's is able to replicate Wednesday's performance when the two teams meet again at Carnesecca Arena in Queens later this month, the outcome could be a different story.
For now, the St. John's rebuild is stuck in neutral. Xavier benefitted from that one more time.
Xavier punched back at St. John's on Wednesday night with a decisive 15-0 run in the second half that vaulted the Musketeers back in front and toward the win.
Xavier improved to 17-3 overall and 5-2 in the Big East, and looks every bit of a big time program readying itself for a deep March sojourn.
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Here are the big takeaways from Wednesday's historic win:
• GRADUATE TRANSFER KEREM KANTER IS PLAYING OUT OF HIS DOME RIGHT NOW. After grinding all season, he displaced Tyrique Jones from the starting lineup on Wednesday for the second game in a row and made Mack look smart for doing that, scoring 22 points and snagging 13 rebounds to collect his second double-double in four games. During that four-game stretch, Kanter has arguably been Xavier's best player. The box score reflects that – 74 points and 38 rebounds over that span – but you have to look beyond the box score for the full story. Kanter isn't just a plodding rebounder. He grabs boards, and turns and fires and looks to start a break. He's also stretching defenses by mixing it some long-range shots, and opposing teams are forced to respect him from range. He's also been a loud communicator on the defensive end, which has been a hard thing for the soft-spoke, gentle giant to work toward, but it's a big thing if you want to be successful on a Mack-coached team. And right now, Kanter can only be considered a wild successful (for now) on this Mack-coached team.
ADDITIONALLY: Because Kerem's brother, Enes Kanter, is considered fine NBA stock, it was only is natural to ponder on whether Kerem might use his lone year of eligibility at Xavier and in the Big East to advance his own NBA ambitions. Well, he has. We've seeing his next-level quality every night since the calendar turned to 2018. As of now, he's going to get a long, hard look from NBA execs come draft time.
• MACK'S DECISION TO PLACE KANTER AND FRESHMAN NAJI MARSHALL INTO THE STARTING LINEUP IS STARTING TO LOOK LIKE A MASTERSTROKE. Kanter and Marshall, the reigning Big East Freshman of the Week, continue to produce at a high level in their starting roles. Meanwhile, the shockwave that emanated throughout the Xavier locker room when Mack showed he wasn't afraid to shakeup his lineup seems to have awaked Trevon Bluiett and Kaiser Gates from their respective shooting slumps.
Bluiett went for a team-high 23 points against St. John's and Gates appears to have embraced his role off the bench. Whether or not Gates enjoys that role is irrelevant to Mack, but it's working.
• CINCINNATI CELEBS AND INTERSTATE BILLBOARDS ARE PRAISING MACK FOR HIS ACCOMPLISHMENT following Wednesday's victory, his 203rd with the program. Mack said afterward he's been embarrassed by all of the attention, but he should see now what his success has meant to Xavier and Greater Cincinnati basketball fans, and college hoops fans at-large.
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By Thursday morning, Mack surely had wiped his internal system clean of any focusing on win No. 203, but hopefully he enjoyed it in the moment as much as his many supporters did.