By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Xavier is counting on point guards Lionel Chalmers (top) and Dedrick Finn to get the Musketeers' fast break going this season. (Steven Herppich photo)

The premise seems so simple. A team, such as Xavier University, loaded with experienced guards should just run and run and then run some more.

Except that while it looks good on paper, playing at a breakneck pace doesn't always result in more points.

While Xavier will certainly look to push the ball more often this season with dual point guards Dedrick Finn and Lionel Chalmers, coach Thad Matta has no intentions of scrapping his half-court offense that generated 77.6 points per game last season, including an 82.3 clip in conference games.

"I'd rather ensure that we're getting the (defensive) rebound," Matta said, "and then if it's there, we can run a little bit."

That is essentially what Xavier did all of last season on the shoulders of David West; securing defensive rebounds to jump start the offense, which more often than not jogged, rather than ran, the ball up the floor. Xavier can run more this year, but rebounding is still key.

"You can't run when you're taking it out of the net," Matta said. "You've got to be a great defensive team."

The idea is to get the ball quickly into the hands of Finn or Chalmers, who can push the ball down the court looking for fast-break points. But part of running is knowing when to settle into a half-court offense, which Xavier used with West last year.

"We know how to do it, it's just the fact of playing at a fast tempo, but playing smart at the same time," said Finn, a sophomore point guard. "Anybody can go out and run, but we've got to run and be able to control ourselves at the same time."

Accomplished outside shooters Finn, Chalmers and senior Romain Sato can use the fast break to take open 3-pointers, as long as they have a clear, balanced shot.

"We'll push it and pick our spots," Chalmers said. "A good look is a good look. We want to push the ball more, but we're not going to take away from our execution. We still want to be able to execute it even better than last year."

The strategy makes sense. Xavier will be less experienced down low this year, and pushing the tempo could negate that deficiency. Learning to consistently execute the fast break is the challenge between now and the start of the season.

Chalmers must be reined in at times to keep from going too far with the dribble, and the big men must learn how to run the court effectively, which means finding the right spacing on the court and being able to catch an entry pass on the run.

"Up-tempo is not run like crazy," Sato said. "We have to take our time so we know what we are doing. We have to play good defense. We get a stop or a rebound. We don't do that, we can't run."

ALUMNI ADVICE: Xavier basketball alumni attended practice Wednesday and conducted a "meet and greet" reception afterward with current players. Executive director of the All for One Club, Dan Cloran and former player Michael Davenport teamed up to put on the event in an effort to initiate an alumni basketball mentoring program.

E-mail ddow@enquirer.com