February 3rd, 2019: Xavier at St. John's

Just the Facts, Ma'am: St. John's never trailed in a 70-41 rout of Xavier. Four players scored in double figures for the Red Storm, paced by the 15-point, eight-rebound performance of Curteeona Brelove and the 10-point, eight-assist effort from Tiana England. No Musketeer scored more than seven points in the loss.

For inexcusable lateness, cluelessness, and chemistry, join your intrepid blogger after the jump. Hey, I got here eventually, more or less.

Our weekend concludes with Xavier, finishing off our time with the schools of the Old Northwest. The weather has vastly improved from the frigid temperatures of the last couple of days, and hopefully that means our shooting will also heat up.

We've got a group of small Queens kids here, from Kayla's neck of the woods- they've been cheering enthusiastically for her and the game hasn't even started yet.

Same anthem singer as last game. This is a very good thing.

Xavier is playing this game like the team we expected them to be, not the team that whooped Seton Hall so thoroughly on Friday. Their outside shots aren't falling as much, and they haven't been able to stop our transition game. Everyone's already scored, with Qadashah Hoppie and Akina Wellere leading the way with seven points each. Xavier does not look to be very good at basketball. Their footwork is atrocious, and their shooting might actually be worse. Brian Neal looks like a man who has only just now come to the realization that his team is not very good at basketball, but not the related conclusion that he might have something to do with this.

It should not take three train stations for you to get your kid to stop crying, and it should not take literal bribery to do so. And this is why I'm not having children.

Olivia Jenkins wasn't even listed on the roster for Xavier on today's official scorecard from St. John's, so either she's a walk-on or she's very new. She got in at the very end of the game. Aly Reiff got in early in the first half and late in the second half, and did absolutely nothing worth mentioning in either stretch. Ashley Gomez came on in the second half and committed a foul, this being her only contribution to the box score.

I do not like Lauren Wasylson. I do not like her hitting people in the face, and I do not like her elbows. She's tall, but like most of her teammates, she had terrible shooting touch. But more importantly, please do not hit people in the face and then get offended that people are offended by you hitting people in the face. Maddy Johnson actually started the second half for the Musketeers, after coming off the bench in the first half. I get the feeling I should understand why, or have some idea of what she brought to the floor, but honestly, Xavier doesn't have names, almost none of them were memorable, and we decided to stop for lunch so things are kind of hazy right now when it comes to most of the Musketeers. If you want notes about your team to be interesting, you should try to be interesting. Carrie Gross didn't play in the first half (or if she did, her presence was not announced) and then proceeded to start the second half. Why? We just don't know. (Update: checked the play-by-play, and apparently she did check in late in the second quarter. I guess Neal decided to just run with the lineup that ended the half.)

Princess Stewart's light pink sneakers certainly befit her name. She's got good moves, but they'd be better if she had better footwork. I do think she's got potential, but she's never going to reach it with this regime. Deja Ross used her big body to get boards and box out on the glass. She was the closest thing Xavier had to a true paint presence, and it wasn't close at all. A'riana Gray and her incredible nerd goggles displayed a propensity for hopping or moving before she had properly gathered the ball, and for all the travels she and her teammates were called for, there honestly could have been twice as many called. I like the way she slashes in the lane, but she's not going to be as effective if she doesn't learn to control her feet.

I have no idea what happened with Tee Owens. I mean, she was taking bad shots, but if that were a reason for Brian Neal to bench his players, he'd be running the managers out there. I didn't see her get hurt, either. All I know is that she didn't start the second half and she didn't come into the game until deep into the third quarter. That was definitely an interesting choice there. Aaliyah Dunham is so tiny! She's small even compared to Owens, who isn't exactly a big guard herself.

I have to be honest with you here, o patient readers who have undoubtedly wondered where this weekend's notes have been. Writing about Xavier is depressing. They're not good, they show very few signs of being good in the near future, and they're not even bad in an entertaining way. They're just bad. So I've been avoiding this. But I figured I should probably try to wrap things up before the next hectic weekend of games begins, because there will also be Feelings.

So proud of Jasmine Sina! It was so nice to see her shot going in, and you could almost feel how badly her teammates wanted her to crack double digits. She looked confident. It was nice. Kayla Charles got good minutes and killed it on the offensive glass. She also had a very nice block in the second quarter. Kadaja Bailey was back to looking a little bit lost, but she hit a couple of good shots. I'm glad to see her getting good minutes. I think that's the only way she's going to learn.

I love the fire Alisha Kebbe has been playing with this year. She's going all out on defense (there was a monster stop) and on the glass (look at those offensive rebounds). Her offense is streaky, but it tends to show up when we need it most. She's come up so big for us so much. Really solid game from Curteeona Brelove, who found little resistance in the post from Xavier's interior players or lack thereof.

At this point I can't come up with specific details for the guards, but the backcourt came through. I approve this message wholeheartedly, though I'm a little worried about Qadashah Hoppie's shooting (but she does seem to end up with the ball at the end of the shot clock a lot, which can't be helping her shooting percentages, and does put a bit of a damper on Tiana England's running of the offense). One of these days I'm going to stop kvetching about T's amazing ability to kill time and pound the air out of the ball, but today is not that day.

I don't know how much a blowout against the worst team in the conference can truly say about us, but I can be optimistic about the chemistry we demonstrated on the floor, and I can hope it carries through the rest of this season, through the most challenging pod in the conference, then two road games, then senior day against a rival.