In 1997 in the far reaches of Siberia, an injured tiger killed two men and stalked several others. It started when a poacher named Vladimir Markov shot the tiger and stole a kill the tiger had made. The tiger tracked Markov back to his shack, laid in wait, and killed him. When word got out that there was a man-eating tiger on the loose, hunters were dispatched to kill it. The first one to find it became its second victim.
Eventually, a man called Yuri Thrush – himself at the head of a task force whose
reason for existence was to prevent tiger poaching – was instructed to find the tiger and put a stop to its reign of terror before it killed again. He eventually did so, from a range at which a second’s hesitation would have cost him his life and left the tiger roaming free.
I bring this up because one thing Thrush said – or is quoted as saying – about the inevitability of his deadly confrontation with the creature was, “Follow the tracks, arrive at the tiger.”
The tracks Xavier followed today were lain down over the course of several months. They started on March 23rd, when Sean Miller departed for ostensibly greener pastures for a second time, bailing on Xavier to head to Texas. Each subsequent print was tacked on as eventually every scholarship minute Xavier had left the school via the transfer portal or the end of eligibility. They continued through April 29th, when Alex Karaban announced he was coming back to UConn for his senior season.
Xavier arrived at the tiger at 5pm tonight, but the confrontation was inevitable to anyone who had been paying attention to the tracks they followed to get there.
If there was any question as to whether Xavier would be Markov or Thrush, it was quickly answered.
In a game in which they were heavily favored from the off, UConn answered Xavier’s first bucket with a 27-4 run that made the final half hour of clock time a formality. Before the third media timeout was called, the home team was down 25 with no realistic path back into the game.
Still, they fought more gamely than you would have been worried they would if you also watched their destruction at the hands of Creighton. An All Wright jumper at the half cut the deficit to 15. Five minutes into the second half, the Muskies had only been stopped twice and they were down 13. Squint – and delude yourself – hard enough and you could see a way they could make the stretch run a little bit interesting. A 13-2 run would certainly have fit the bill, if only it had been to Xavier’s benefit instead of UConn’s.
The tiger told the story that the tracks had hinted at. Every indication we had been getting for nine months that the Huskies would outman the Muskies played out in stunning HD for those blessed with access to Peacock to watch it on.
In the end, UConn had too many weapons, too many answers. Alex Karaban dropped 19 with little perceptible effort. Solo Ball added another 17 from mostly inside the arc and freshman sensation Braylon Mullins had 17 of his own largely thanks to 5-10 shooting from deep. Tarris Reed more or less took the night off, going for 10 and 8 in just 22 minutes.
Xavier had bright spots of its own. Filip Borovicanin cobbled together a tidy 14/11/6 with 4 steals in the kind of stat stuffing line that makes you wish he had a Covid year to burn. Malik Messina-Moore showed flashes of being the scorer Xavier needed when they landed him out of the portal, putting up 16 on 5-10/2-6/4-5 shooting and adding 4 assists to 0 turnovers. Roddie Anderson III was all effort, adding 15 points of his own through pure graft.
It wasn’t enough. It was never going to be.
Richard Pitino is a capable coach and program builder. He isn’t dragging talent from the mid-major ranks and floundering at the highest level like Wes Miller. With a summer to throw together a team, he’s keeping his head above water in the Big East. He pointed out in the post-game presser that UConn shows how far Xavier still has to go. I can’t think of a more accurate note to end on.
