After a year of pandemic pauses, positive tests, and a Cintas Center that was left largely unrecognizable without fans, there was a basketball game on Friday night and it didn't seem to matter all that much to Xavier's men's basketball team or the fans that filed back in that it was an exhibition game against Division II Ferris State.
It felt like a dozen important things happened over the 40 minutes the Musketeers were on the floor routing Ferris State 100-59.
At the top of the list was sophomore Colby Jones, who's earned a fair bit of preseason praise and publicity based on what he did last season and his preparation for this season – adding 10 pounds of muscle and a daily regimen of 500 3-pointers every morning.
Jones went full-on destruction mode. The 6-foot-6 guard had two highlight-reel dunks, drilled a 3-pointer from the wing, got to the foul line (3 of 4), and he finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.
Jones looked comfortable attacking and working to get his shot, which is how he needs to play this season. He has go-to potential and on Friday night it looked like he believed he can be that guy for Xavier.
"That comes with confidence just having a year under my belt so yeah, I'm definitely looking to be more aggressive and more confident with my decisions," Jones said.
And Jones wasn't the only one with an inspiring performance, but before that, there were three other things that are perhaps more important than anything else to this season's storyline – defense, rebounding and turnovers.
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Xavier checked all three boxes. Granted, those boxes will only get harder to check as the level of competition rises.
Defensively, Ferris State didn't get many clean looks. The Musketeers were active in contesting shots, denying passes and helping when necessary. Xavier held Ferris State to 25% shooting.
The aggression on the glass was telling. That's exactly how Xavier's attacked rebounding in its preseason practices, clearly trying to correct a noticeable deficit in recent seasons.
The Musketeers won the rebound battle, 57-35, and collected 16 offensive rebounds that led to 12 second-chance points.
It took almost 10 minutes for Xavier to commit its first turnover. There were some sloppy stretches at different points of the game, but for the most part, Xavier took care of the ball which allowed its offense to maximize the number of shots taken. Xavier finished with 10 turnovers and forced 14 from Ferris State which led to 15 points.
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As for the best performances of the night, sophomore Dwon Odom could make a case. So could Adam Kunkel, who absolutely caught fire in the second half.
Odom finished with 20 points and went 10 of 10 from the foul line. Kunkel had 16 of his game-high 21 points in the second half and went 4 of 7 from beyond the arc, which amounted to more 3-pointers than Kunkel made in any game last season.
"We need Dwon and Colby both to take a big step forward into their sophomore years and they have, they've shown that and they've earned that right over the spring, summer, fall practice," said Xavier head coach Travis Steele. "Dwon didn't start tonight but he's playing like a starter just because we have five guys, we have to put five guys in the book to start the game.
"We have more than five guys that are able to start on our team. We need those guys to take big steps and those are talks that we have and how do we do that, right? The consistency. Sometimes freshmen are inconsistent with their effort, maybe their execution, it's a long season. Sometimes they'll hit that wall. I think those two guys have been really really steady throughout the preseason in practice and we need those guys to be really good players for us on both ends of the floor.
"I thought it started with their effort. Both guys, I thought they were relentless. Colby was relentless on the glass. Dwon's pressure was relentless the entire game and his pace. It was good to see and we need to continue to see that moving forward because we need both those guys to be really good players for us."
As for coming off the bench, Odom said, "It's a little different but I'll do anything I gotta do for the team. It doesn't really bother me at all because I know when I get in I gotta do my job no matter what so it doesn't matter if I'm starting or coming off the bench. I'm gonna play hard regardless. I'm just gonna try to help my team win."
Ultimately, it was an exhibition but Xavier did a lot of good things. The real deal starts next week with Tuesday's season-opener against Niagara, and from there, it only gets harder.
"We were pretty pleased but ... there's always room to get better," said Odom. "We played really well as a team, we moved the ball, we got stops, we did what we were supposed to do but this is not where we want to be. We want to be in the Final Four later on so we're just gonna keep getting better."
No more boot for Freemantle
When Xavier star Zach Freemantle emerged Friday and headed to the bench, he wasn't wearing a walking boot. He was still on crutches but appeared able to put weight on foot, nearly three weeks removed from surgery.
"I hope so," Steele said when asked if that's a sign of improvement in his recovery. "I know he was tired of wearing the boot. Yes, it is.
"We had a meeting with the doctor who did the surgery today and everything is progressing at a very good rate."
Big men
Without Freemantle, Friday night was a chance for Dieonte Miles, Jerome Hunter, Ben Stanley and Jack Nunge, who made his Xavier debut.
Hunter started at the four, played 22 minutes and finished with nine points, seven rebounds and two assists. Miles started at the five and he had two points and four rebounds in 13 minutes. Nunge scored eight points and grabbed three rebounds off the bench in 11 minutes, and Stanley had eight rebounds in 14 minutes.
"We tried to play everybody tonight so the rotations, what we did tonight aren't gonna be what they are probably moving forward," said Steele. "Dieonte's been really good in practice ... he's tremendous defensively. I think he can be one of the best defens
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