Richard Pitino gets a third chance at a coaching milestone when Xavier hosts Old Dominion on Tuesday night in Cincinnati.
The first-year Xavier head coach gets another opportunity at career win No. 250 after missing in his first two chances.
Xavier (2-2) suffered blowout losses to Santa Clara on Nov. 10 and Iowa on Friday after starting the season with wins over Marist and Le Moyne. Old Dominion (2-2) was blown out on Saturday at George Washington, 96-73.
When the Musketeers lost 81-62 at Iowa, they were outscored 50-26 in the paint and outrebounded by a 41-24 count. Yet Pitino saw a stronger effort from his team compared to the 87-68 manhandling at home by Santa Clara four days earlier.
“What I saw was growth,” Pitino said. “I think we were all disappointed with our effort against Santa Clara. I didn’t think it was an effort problem (versus Iowa). We’re gonna learn from it. Iowa is always a hard place to play, but I thought the attitude and the will was there.”
Tre Carroll leads Xavier with 13.8 points per game and has been the only Musketeer who scored in double figures in all four games.
Old Dominion trailed just 44-41 at the half on Saturday at George Washington. But the Revolutionaries scored 26 points in the first eight minutes after intermission and the Monarchs never recovered.
“We didn’t come out in the second half with the energy that we needed,” said Old Dominion coach Mike Jones. “They went on that (first-half) run, had us down by 10. We come back and go up by (six), and we showed a lot of resiliency there. I am disappointed in the second half. Obviously, it was not our best night.”
KC Shaw leads ODU with 15.8 points per game without the benefit of any 3-pointers while LJ Thomas averages 14.3 points and a team-high 4.3 assists.
Xavier will be celebrating the 25-year anniversary of its first men’s basketball game at Cintas Center. David West-led Xavier beat Miami (Ohio), 68-54, on Nov. 18, 2000, behind the coaching of the late Skip Prosser.
