Providence wasn’t the first team to have trouble stopping Xavier this season — and they won't be the last.
A Musketeer program that had become synonymous with late-season swoons in recent years locked up second place in the Big East with a 94-89 victory at Providence on Wednesday night thanks to one of the best offenses in the country.
Of course, two key differences in 2023 are that Sean Miller has replaced Travis Steele, and perhaps even more significantly, Soley Boum transferred in from UTEP and gave Xavier an alpha scorer from its backcourt.
The Musketeers are 16th in the country in offensive rating, sixth in effective field goal percentage, and rank first in the nation in assists at 20.0 per game. They are third in the country in both field goal percentage and 3-pointer percentage.
So, yes, slowing Xavier was going to be a challenge for Providence on Wednesday.
It proved to be an even greater challenge with both Boum and All Big East performer Colby Jones catching fire, along with numerous lapses in what Ed Cooley deemed a “piss poor” defensive effort out of his club.
Xavier shot 72% in the second half, while Boum went for 33 points and Jones scored a career high 29 on 10-11 shooting (to go along with nine boards and four assists).
Man-to-man, zone, picking up full court, throwing different defenders at them — the Friars couldn’t slow either Boum or Jones.
Before Providence played at Xavier in early February, I had written about how PC’s best chance to contain them may come via a zone. Here is what I wrote at the time:
Xavier ranks in the 94th percentile in the country in points per possession, according to Synergy Sports. They rank in the 93rd percentile in halfcourt offense and average a league-leading 84.9 points per game in Big East play. They also lead the league with 21.4 assists per game in league games, well ahead of #2 Marquette (17.3).
When Providence travels to Cincinnati this week, it will be worth monitoring if Ed Cooley goes zone at any point.
The sample size is limited (6.2% of Xavier’s offensive possessions in 2022-23), but X ranks in just the 8th percentile nationally in zone offense. They are shooting 49.4% against man-to-man, a number that drops to 38.9% against the zone.
PC has rarely gone zone this year, doing so in just over 5% of their defensive possessions, but if X has it going on Wednesday night Providence could use it as a wrinkle.
Connecticut switched to zone when they surged back against Xavier at home — a comeback that ultimately came up just short.
Providence trailed by as many as 22 in the first half on Wednesday, but switched to zone with just over four minutes to play in a 44-27 game.
After PC went zone, Xavier scored one point over the final 4:11 of the first half, as PC climbed back into it and trailed 45-36 at the break. The Friars did benefit from some poor free throw shooting by Xavier, but they slowed them enough to give themselves a shot in the second half.