Late shot lifts Xavier Musketeers to second NIT championship

Sean Miller was named Steele’s successor three days later, and the day after Miller and Xavier agreed to a deal, fifth-year senior Paul Scruggs suffered a torn ACL, ending his Xavier basketball career. North Carolina plays villain again, Kansas tanks

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Texas AM head coach Buzz Williams acknowledged that adversity after the game. 

“In my 28 years as a college coach, every head coach at Xavier has been ultra-successful,” Williams said. “I worked a camp at Xavier when Pete Gillen was the head coach and I had just finished my freshman year in college. And what has happened in their program over the last two weeks is historical and any (athletic director) that has a job opening should hire the undefeated head coach at Xavier, coach Hayes, because what they have been able to do in a very unique postseason run with an interim coach.” 

Hayes’ mother, Yvonne, and his twin brother, Jarvis, were there on Thursday in Madison Square Garden to watch. 

When asked about what Williams said, Hayes said: “Yeah, that’s special. … People don’t remember interim coaches, you know. But it’s an unbelievable opportunity to do it in front of my family. It’s a surprise they came for the game. But I think what’s more extraordinary, what I got was to have the adversity that they had but also have the competitive drive, competitive greatness to pull it all together and winning a championship. I think that’s more astonishing.” 

There were ups and downs, bumps in the road, and an ongoing list of challenges that made cutting down the nets in Madison Square Garden all the more special. 

“It means a lot, just knowing what all our team went through, all the ups and downs, we just all stick together,” said Jones, who had a career-high 21 points and was named the NIT’s Most Outstanding Player. “Really showed that we have a true bond and we play for one another. It just means the world for this group to win a postseason championship.”

There’s a mountain-high list of important things that happened over the course of 40 minutes on Thursday night. There were blocked shots, key rebounds, passes on time and on target, shots made and missed, and arguably Dwon Odom’s best performance in a Xavier uniform with 18 points, but what it really boiled down to was this team never gave up, they never stopped fighting for each other.

Because of that, the Musketeers earned a memory that they’ll get to keep long after they’re done playing basketball.

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