Good and bad from Xavier basketball’s season-opening win over Niagara

Like every other college basketball team, the Xavier Musketeers will get the chance to prove what they can be. 

One game doesn't determine anything in early November. But how Xavier responds to what happens early in the season will be very telling. 

There was good and bad – more than the Musketeers would have liked – on Tuesday in Xavier's 63-60 season-opening win over Niagara and it's worth dissecting all of it. 

First, the good. 

Paul Scruggs was clutch

The fifth-year senior sensed the urgency that was required late in the game and he made winning plays. That's the expectation. It was promising to see him close out a game the way he's capable, and he did it at both ends of the floor. 

"I was just trying to be a leader. I was just trying to lead out there on the floor and make the guys follow me and that's what happened," Scruggs said after the game. 

Ideally, Xavier doesn't want Scruggs to have to save every game from destruction – he needs help – but the fact that he was ready to do it in game one is a good sign moving forward. 

The defense is buildable 

It wasn't perfect, certainly not for 40 minutes, but Xavier's defense looked capable. It's a work in progress, especially considering there were some key stretches where the defense allowed straight-line drives and uncontested jump shots. 

For the most part, though, the defense kept Xavier ahead of Niagara and if the Musketeers can cultivate some consistency on that end, it can allow the offense some time to stabilize. 

The in-game adjustments have to drastically improve. Head coach Travis Steele said they were hammering the same point home in team huddles during timeouts about one specific adjustment related to Niagara slipping ball screens, and Steele said his team never made the correction. That can't become a theme this season. 

Dieonte Miles made some plays

The redshirt sophomore big man started and played a career-high 20 minutes. The first half was rough. Miles picked up three unnecessary fouls in a short span that limited his production, but in the second half, Miles finally got it going and finished with nine points and seven rebounds.

"I came into the huddle one time and Paul (Scruggs) was telling him, 'Hey man, you're the most athletic, longest guy on the floor. Play like it all the time. Use it.' 

Steele agreed.

"And Paul's right," he said. "Dieonte's gotta believe in himself. He's had a great spring. He had a great summer. He's had a great fall ... I don't care if one bad play happens, or one bad game. He's earned the right to be a good player. He's earned those minutes. And I thought his energy in the second half, he got a little better rhythm, a little better flow. He had five offensive rebounds. I think you're gonna continue to see Dieonte get better and better as he gets more comfortable out there." 

A win matters most

The record doesn't have an ugly column; it only distinguishes wins from losses. That's the most important thing that happened on Tuesday night. Xavier's 1-0 and on Friday at home against Kent State, the Musketeers will have an opportunity to show what they learned from a narrow win in the opener. 

"I'm gonna keep on saying it, it's early," Steele said. "There's teams that are gonna perform really, really well on night one and aren't gonna be very good at the end of the year. There's gonna be teams that play poorly on night one and end up being really good at the end of the year. It's about staying with it, sticking with it, sticking to the process, coming to practice tomorrow being ready to go. Don't get frustrated; don't get down if it wasn't your night. We just continue to get better and better and better and then I think we'll like our end result at the end of the year."

Winning ugly games is a requirement in college basketball. But it can't become the norm. 

Unfortunately for the Musketeers, the bad outweighed the good. 

The offense stumbled

The most concerning thing about the offense in the first game was that Xavier seemed content to live at the 3-point line most of the night (8 of 27 from 3-point; 13 of 29 from inside the arc). The Musketeers waited way too long to attack the basket, a tactic that should be a catalyst for the offense, not an afterthought, said Steele. 

Too many key players were non-factors offensively. 

Nate Johnson, who left the game late with leg cramps, was never able to get involved all night and finished with three points. Jerome Hunter was guilty of taking a number of bad shots. Adam Kunkel never found his footing the way he's capable of with just two points, and Dwon Odom had a rough night at both ends of the floor.