Xavier's Friday win over Montana was a breakout offensive performance, but more importantly, the Musketeers showed improvement from the first game to the second, eliminating turnovers and playing much better in the second half than they did in the opener against Morgan State.
The next step for this Xavier team is "to put it together for 40 minutes," forward Jack Nunge said Friday. "We've kind of flip-flopped in our defense first to second game. But if we can put it together for all 40 it will be a pretty sight."
It's hard to get a sense just yet of where the Musketeers stand against premier competition. That test will come in a week when No. 13 Indiana visits Cintas Center.
But through the first week of the season, two things have been more telling than everything else.
More:How KyKy Tandy worked his way back into the rotation at Xavier
The importance of roles
First, there are defined roles up and down the roster. Head coach Sean Miller has clearly established order for how he wants his team to play, and the way to get there is by having his players accept and play within their roles.
On his weekly radio show earlier in the week, Miller spoke in-depth about this.
"I think it's just really important that as a coach and just generally speaking as a staff, that we're all in sync of this is what we need," Miller said. "This is exactly what we need."
Xavier's team isn't all the way there yet, but through 80 minutes of action, it's become clear that those roles have been discussed, implemented, and are being ironed out.
Jerome Hunter played his role perfectly against Morgan State. He didn't play as well against Montana and his playing time reflected that.
Desmond Claude had a rough game in the opener, but he bounced back on Friday night and executed his role in a way that helped the team win.
The coaching staff emphasized defense to KyKy Tandy in the win over Morgan State and he obliged. Ahead of the Montana game, they wanted Tandy to be more aggressive offensively and he responded with four 3-pointers.
This might be the clearest difference, so far, between last season and this season. Guys seem to know what's wanted, needed and required of them. And they seem to be listening.
It won't always work the way Xavier wants it to, but there's obviously a structure to Miller's system, and over time, it should lead to a more complete team that's built to win because the individual parts are executing their roles.
Freemantle, Nunge duo is flourishing
The second area that's stood head and shoulders above the rest, partially due to their size but more because of how well they're complementing each other, is the big man duo of Nunge and Zach Freemantle.
Through the first two games, Freemantle and Nunge have combined for 63 points on 23-of-36 shooting with 22 rebounds and 11 assists. They've each blocked three shots and have only committed three fouls between them.
"I really like the way Nunge and Freemantle are playing together," Miller said. "Some of our best plays in both of our games it's them passing to each other. And when you have two bigs like that, it's fun to watch, and usually, it's your guards finding them. In our case, they find each other, which I think is something not a lot of teams have."
This is also a relatively new development this season. Freemantle and Nunge were good together last season. This season they look great. That connection will really be tested when they start facing bigger, tougher frontcourts, but right now, it gives Xavier a really dynamic connection between two of its most-skilled players.
"They had a couple of really nice backdoor passes (on Friday)," said Miller. "Of course, we're always looking for big-to-big in the middle. I think both guys are smart, experienced and unselfish. We just have to do a great job of always keeping them engaged in the game on offense because when they're playing well and we're getting them the ball, they're a real part of what we're doing. I think that's when we're at our best."
Freemantle leads the Musketeers in scoring with 16 points a game, followed by Nunge with 15.5.
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