By Luke Essig, Sports Editor

Xavier men’s basketball has gotten off to a worrying start this season. Standing at 2-1, neither of the wins were pretty and the loss was demoralizing. 

The Musketeers started the season off at the Cintas Center against the Marist University Red Foxes. As 12-point favorites, Xavier was poised to cruise past this game. After a tough start, Xavier took back the lead and went into halftime with a 10-point lead. 

Despite a strong run from Marist at the end of the second half, Xavier held on and started the season 1-0 after a 66-62 win.

With a completely new roster and head coach, the starting lineup is not set in stone. Center Filip Borovicanin scored zero points, forward Anthony Robinson had four points and guard Roddie Anderson III had seven points. Off the bench, forward Jovan Milicevic and guard All Wright each scored 14 points.

Their performances off the bench earned Milicevic and Wright starting spots in the second game against Le Moyne College, at the expense of Borovicanin and Anderson III. 

This game was much more electric. Xavier was automatic from the three-point line behind Malik Messina-Moore, who scored 17 points and hit four threes. The team itself shot 52% from behind the arc, which is considered an amazing percentage.

The players benched, Borovicanin and Anderson III, had good performances as well. 

“The biggest story of the game, in my opinion, was the response of Roddie and Filip,” head coach Richard Pitino said in his post-game press conference.

“Last game, I told these guys it’s not a punishment and they were ready to go,” he said.

“Filip battled his butt off to get 12 rebounds. Roddie was terrific offensively and defensively. So we’re going to get better and better with each game,” Pitino said.

With each of them providing some stability off the bench, the Musketeers beat Le Moyne 74-69.

“As much as you don’t like these close ones, we’re going to learn and grow from it, and we’ve got a really, really tough one on Monday,” Pitino said.

There was no exaggeration when he considered the University of Santa Clara Broncos “tough”. 

Instantly, Santa Clara was in control, straight from the tip-off. Xavier did not hold a single lead in the game, with the score favoring Santa Clara by 30 at one point in the second half.

Although Anderson III and forward Tre Carroll scored 29 and 21 points respectively, nobody else scored more than 10. Messina-Moore, Xavier’s leading scorer so far, did not attempt a single shot.

The scoring from the bench had not been an issue until Monday night. Xavier’s bench scored a single field goal and only five points across all of them, compared to Santa Clara’s 30.

Things need to change if the Musketeers want to even be slightly competitive in the Big East this year, because from what fans have seen, they will not scratch the surface of what they achieved last season.