Xavier head coach Travis Steele said he was talking to his coaching staff prior to Sunday's game against Butler about how long it had been since his team had won a game.
"I was like, man we haven't won in forever, seems like it's been five months," Steele said at the post-game podium following a 63-51 win that was far from pretty. "Just to give our guys some confidence, sometimes you need that and we'll take an ugly win.
"We'll absolutely take an ugly win. We obviously gotta clean a lot of things up, but I think that will give our guys some confidence especially on the defensive end."
In its first win in three weeks, Xavier (12-4, 5-4 Big East) showed improvement defensively – it helped that Butler was without three starters (Bryce Nze, Aaron Thompson, Bo Hodges) due to injury – but unlike Xavier's previous two games, the defense wasn't the problem, the offense was.
"I thought our defense was better tonight," said Steele. "I thought we showed more fight. I thought we contested more. Our transition defense was a heck of a lot better. We've gotta rebound better. We gave up (17) offensive rebounds. Butler, I believe, ended up out-rebounding us by four, that can't happen ... we'll get that cleaned up in practice.
"As much as I've been talking about defense the last couple days, man, maybe I should be talking about offense as well because I felt like we set back the game a few years on that end."
Steele said his team needs to finish around the basket, reverse the ball a little more and stay patient when trying to find the right shot. Steele gave credit to Butler's zone defense which seemed to keep the Musketeers out of rhythm most of the game until late in the second half when Xavier pulled away.
While Xavier and Butler spent most of Sunday night throwing rocks at each other, Colby Jones was busy making plays, plays that the Musketeers desperately needed.
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Jones, who was inserted back into the starting lineup, posted his first career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, and he added four assists and four steals.
"He plays like a veteran, he just does. He plays at his own pace," Steele said of Jones. "He's as versatile as any player as we've had at Xavier during my time. For a freshman to come in and do what he did and has been doing is really, really impressive especially with the interruptions he's had as well."
Jones played a team-high 35 minutes and he was everywhere, disrupting passing lanes, defending, backing down defenders, attacking the basket, dropping behind-the-back passes in transition. If there was an area where the game could be impacted, Jones impacted it. It was a detailed and disciplined performance from a freshman, and most importantly, when the game seemed to be teetering on the edge, Jones was there to steady the ship by making the right play.
Xavier was led by sophomore Zach Freemantle, who scored seven of his game-high 17 points in the final 90 seconds to help preserve the win. Freemantle added 10 rebounds giving him his third consecutive double-double. Jason Carter added 10 points and Dwon Odom had eight points and three assists.
It was another rough shooting night for Nate Johnson and Adam Kunkel – two of Xavier's better shooters – who are now a combined 3 for 26 from beyond the arc in Xavier's last two games, and Paul Scruggs had an off night offensively with just two points.
Steele said that Scruggs got lost a little in the flow of the game, but he still found ways to impact winning.
"He had two points, but he had six assists," Steele said of Scruggs. "He played really hard on defense, he was flying all around the floor. So even when Paul's maybe having an off-night so to speak as far as scoring goes, he impacts the game in other ways, and that kind of permeates throughout the rest of our team."
On a night when Xavier went 2 of 19 from beyond the arc, the Musketeers manufactured 36 points in the paint and 17 points off turnovers to help offset the shooting woes.
It's a short turnaround for Xavier with Wednesday's trip to Providence looming. The Musketeers will get a couple of days of valuable practice time to try and steal another much-needed win on the road.
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