Musketeers Beat: In Beating Cincinnati, Richard Pitino, Tre Carroll Give Glimpse of What Could Be For Xavier

CINCINNATI — It’s time to start paying close attention to Richard Pitino and the Xavier Musketeers.

The first-year coach not only pulled off an upset in his first try as head coach in the Crosstown Shootout Friday night at Cintas Center, he has his Musketeers playing much better and winning more games already than some thought they’d win midway through the summer, when he didn’t have a full roster yet.

The 43-year-old Pitino is a chip off the old block, charming everyone he meets, much in the same manner his dad did at Providence in the 1980s, at Kentucky in the 1990s, for 16 seasons at Louisville, and now back where he belongs, in the Big East at St. John’s.

Hall of Famer Rick Pitino is equal parts passion, charm and basketball genius. His life is all about the college game. His son, in 10 games with the Musketeers, is showing the same.

On Friday night, the Musketeers played with the grit and determination that their coach has been instilling since he took over in April and started building a roster from scratch. Many didn’t give them much of a chance to make noise. But after getting embarrassed by 19 at home by Santa Clara and losing a nail-biter to Georgia by one and losing three-of-four in one stretch, Xavier has rebounded to win four straight, including Friday’s 79-74 triumph over UC. They are 7-3 and feeling good about what this season could be.

“Just hard work, you know? I think we tinkered with some lineups, got some confidence offensively, not turning the ball over. It’s been a huge thing to play in that game and have 19 assists and four turnovers versus one of the best defensive teams in the country is remarkable,” Pitino told me. “They’re buying into it. You know, I think they’re really sharing the basketball very, very well. They’ve always been a humble group. When we lost to Santa Clara, I didn’t feel like we needed to be humble. I just thought we needed to get back to work.”

No one is buying into it more than Tre Carroll. The 23-year-old grad student transfer from Florida Atlantic is just the kind of energy Pitino was looking for when he built his roster over the spring and summer. He scored a career-high 30 points and was all over the paint, grabbing seven rebounds and seemed to always answer every Bearcat run that threatened to spoil Pitino’s first taste of of the Shootout.

While Wes Miller is hearing it from his fan base and alumni, the focus shouldn’t be so much on criticizing the fifth-year Bearcats coach. Rather, every sports fan in Cincinnati should take a closer look at the rather remarkable job Pitino is doing on Victory Parkway. Pitino had only Roddie Anderson on his roster when he took the job on March 25, and he didn’t play last year. He grabbed two players (Jovan Milicevic, Filip Borovicanin) from his New Mexico roster last year and had to deal with the loss of Gabriel Pozzato to knee surgery this summer. But he kept building and building.

What Pitino has instilled is not only playing with energy but playing with discipline, such a fine line to walk in the college game but Friday night, committing just four turnovers against a pressure man defense, was beyond impressive. So impressive that Wes Miller switched to a zone that worked on Xavier for several minutes in the second half to help UC make a run and take a lead late.

To commit only four turnovers while dishing out 19 assists on 30 baskets is almost unheard of, given the pressure of the game.

“I would say the assist-to-turnover,” Pitino said when I asked what has been the most pleasant surprise about his group and their play through 10 games. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but I don’t know if I’ve ever played in a game where you only turn the ball over four times, to do that versus a team that really, really pressures you, and they’re long and they’re, I think that’s been a huge, huge key for us.”

Pitino could have pointed to energy, determination, poise or any other intangible. Nope. He pointed instead to a very basketball-specific detail, assist-to-turnover ratio against a pressure team. That’s the way Pitino wants his group thinking, especially heading into Big East play at the end of the month.

Filip Borovicanin added 12 for the Muskies and Xavier led by as many as 13 with 12 minutes remaining but Cincinnati rallied. Jalen Celestine drained a three with 2:39 left to give Cincinnati a 68-67 lead. But Borovicanin answered 14 seconds later with a three from the right wing to give Xavier the lead for good, 70-68.

Carroll then drove baseline for a reverse layup to put Xavier up four. Jovan Milicevic added 12 points for the Musketeers, which won for sixth time in seven meetings between its crosstown rival while Cincinnati lost its 11th straight at Cintas Center.

“This means a lot to me,” Carroll said. “I’m a graduate senior, and this is my only year at Xavier, and I didn’t want to lose the Cincinnati. When I took my visit that was the first video that showed me the Cincinnati versus Xavier regular games and no super thankful and blessed to be here.”

Carroll has exactly the experience Pitino is looking for, having played for the Florida Atlantic team that made a Cinderella run to the Final Four in 2023, though he played limited minutes in his freshman year there. Now, he’s exploded onto the scene with Xavier, leading them in scoring at 17.3 points per game through 10 games.

“This was a full team effort. I take partial credit but this was a dog fight, and we were up 13, they made a run, but at the end of the day, the toughest team wins, and in the last two and a half minutes, we really pulled it out,” Carroll said. “I just wanted to give the city like what it deserves. And I knew they lost last year, and I didn’t want to go out loser to Cincinnati, and I wanted to get the one for them.

It was extra sweet for Carroll because he got the better of his former teammate at Florida Atlantic, Baba Miller, the Cincinnati super forward who pulled down 17 rebounds but couldn’t lead his Bearcats to victory. It was the second time Carroll had suited up against a former FAU teammate and came out a winner, beating Brenen Lorient and West Virginia, 78-68, on Nov. 23.

“This is cool, but at the end of the day, it’s not me versus him, or me going against him, him going against me. It’s Xavier versus Cincinnati at the end of the day. We were both together last year and we will never have this opportunity again. So it really just came down to who wanted it more, and we as a team wanted it more. I played against former teammates. Shout out, Brenen Laurient at West Virginia. This is a basketball is a beautiful game. You’re going to go against former teammates. You’re gonna make new teammates, like I am this year. So, at the end day, it’s Xavier versus Cincinnati. It’s not me versus him versus me or anything like that, it’s Xavier versus Cincinnati.”

Shon Abaev had 16 to lead Cincinnati (6-3) while Day Day Thomas added 15. But Cincinnati was victimized by its own poor free throw shooting missing 11 of 22 chances at the stripe. Xavier was only too happy to take advantage.

Moustapha Thiam’s dunk 37 seconds into the second half gave Cincinnati a 39-37 lead. But Xavier answered with the next 13 points to take a 50-39 lead, with Carroll accounting for 10 of the 13. Jovan Milicevic and Roddie Anderson hit back-to-back threes to give Xavier its biggest lead at 56-43 with 12:21 left in regulation.

Cincinnati rallied with a 9-2 run to cut the Xavier lead back to six, 58-52, on a Jalen Celestine three with 8:20 left. Kerr Kriisa drained a three with 4:47 left to cut Xavier’s lead to two, 65-63.

But Carroll, as he did all night, answered again with a layup. Friday night, Carroll and the Musketeers had all the answers. The tests will continue to come as the Big East season awaits. But Richard Pitino likes where his team is headed, with Carroll, Borovicanin, Anderson and Milicevic leading the way.

“The one thing about me that I really, really try hard to do is never be too high, never be too low, be the same guy every day. And I think that consistency has really helped,” Pitino said. “And I think they’re really, really high character guys, as good as it gets.”