By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Never mind the missed opportunity at playing in Madison Square Garden in the national spotlight. Instead, Xavier learned it's not very good at certain things yet in Wednesday's Preseason NIT loss to Stanford, Musketeers coach Thad Matta said.

"We would have liked to have won the game to get (to New York), but hopefully we can learn and get better," Matta said. "That's what this team has to do. We're not there right now."

Most evident is that Xavier's players weren't accustomed to playing as favorites in a high-pressure road situation, when a win or loss has great implications. If the Musketeers (1-1) had won, they would be playing in New York next week with a chance to boost their schedule strength and No.11 national ranking, which is likely to fall.

"We lost one game," said Xavier guard Romain Sato, "It's just one game. We have to play better, and the next game is on Sunday (against Florida A&M at Cintas Center) We can't be worried about (not going to New York). We have to keep working to get better and not get down."

But in losing that one game, Xavier showed it is susceptible to relying too much on Sato, David West and Lionel Chalmers to score. Together, they had 54 of the Musketeers' 62 points. No one else scored more than three points and only three other players scored, period.

So when Stanford's 1-3-1 zone defense swarmed around West in the first half, Xavier looked almost incapable of scoring if Sato wasn't open, which contributed to an 8-for-21 first-half shooting performance.

"I thought it made them stand around a little bit," Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said of the zone. "It put Xavier in a tough spot. We took them out of their continuity. I don't know that we could have guarded West man-to-man for 40 minutes just because they know how to get it to him. That was time well-spent on a zone that really seemed to pay dividends for us."

Sato and West also combined for 18 of Xavier's 28 rebounds. Starting center Anthony Myles picked up three quick fouls and played just three minutes without scoring or grabbing a rebound. Backup Will Caudle grabbed three boards in 20 minutes, but he failed to score. Anthony Coleman, who didn't play in the first half, played solid defense in the second half but didn't come up with any rebounds. In total, Xavier's centers combined for three rebounds, three points and six fouls.

By contrast, Stanford's Rob Little had eight points and three rebounds by himself. But the real damage was done by the Cardinal's forwards, Josh Childress (14 points and eight rebounds) and Justin Davis (nine boards, five offensive).

Stanford's ability to control the boards made it obvious where Matta's team needs improvement.

"No.1, the rebounding factor," Matta said, but he didn't leave it at that. "We need to learn to handle situations better. It's just a good environment to play in on the road. You hope it makes you better. For some of these guys, this was the first time they've been in this. What a great test for this team."

Now it's time to see if the test pays off.

E-mail: ddow@enquirer.com