Xavier rallies around player departures

Xavier’s Justin Cage admits it was a bit unnerving, at first, to realize Brian Thornton and Dedrick Finn no longer had his back.

Or the backs of any of his teammates, either, for that matter.

“It was really hard,” the Musketeers’ 6-foot-6 junior forward recalled of those dark days of February, when Thornton went down with a grisly season-ending ankle injury and Finn was dismissed from the team for violating undisclosed team rules. “Those two guys were our senior leaders. They were the two we knew we could always depend on.”

It took some time, along with some not-so-gentle urging from their second-year coach Sean Miller, but Cage and his teammates eventually discovered there was life – and victories, as well – after Thornton and Finn. Once they did, Xavier was able to recover from its late-season funk and, as the No. 10 seed, win four games in four days at the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament in Cincinnati.

In digging out those four difficult victories, the Musketeers (21-10) were able to capture the tournament title and the league’s automatic berth in this year’s NCAA tournament, where they will face third-seeded Gonzaga (27-3) in Thursday’s opening round of the Oakland Regional at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.

And they learned a lot about themselves in the process.

“We had to change, especially after BT went down,” Cage said of Thornton, a 6-foot-8, 244-pound power forward, who broke his right ankle and suffered extensive ligament damage, as well, during a 79-70 loss to La Salle on Feb. 11. “Without his presence and leadership, and without him to spread the court, we had to get more aggressive – especially on defense – and we had to start making more contributions.”

Thornton was averaging 15.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game – both team highs, prior to his injury – and was also leading the team in field-goal percentage (64.0) and blocked shots (2.1 per game).

“He was on his way to having a magical senior year,” Miller said. “To lose a player like that, it’s tough to continue to have success, and we certainly struggled in February without him. But we put it together at the right time, in large part due to some of our younger players stepping up.”

In Thursday’s NCAA opener against Gonzaga (27-3), the 14th-seeded Musketeers expect to start two juniors, two sophomores and a freshman.

“Right now, we don’t start a senior, and our leadership comes from two people – Justin Doellman and Justin Cage,” Miller added. “I thought those two guys had a great run in the Atlantic 10 tournament.”

Doellman, a 6-9 junior forward, is averaging 11 points and 6.8 rebounds and ranks second on the team in scoring behind sophomore guard Stanley Burrell (14.1). Cage, a two-time member of the A-10’s all-defensive team, is averaging 10.3 points and 5.4 rebounds for a Xavier team that has become more perimeter-oriented in the absence of Thornton on the low blocks.

Doellman and Cage both started as freshman on the Musketeers’ 2004 team that made it to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.

“And even though they were role players at the time, they’ve had a very good run in their three years here,” Miller said, “and, I think, have gone from good players to really terrific players in terms of their production and who they are.

“They’re leadership, and how those two have played in recent weeks – especially in the (A-10) tournament, that’s why we’re still playing.”

The Musketeers were 14-6 prior to losing Thornton. They won their next two games, but closed the regular season by dropping three of their final four, two of which were played without Finn, a 6-1 guard, who was averaging five points and four assists at the time of his dismissal.

It was during those late-season trials that Miller challenged his remaining players to reassess their roles, as well as their dedication.

“We had times when we definitely didn’t play as hard as others,” Cage recalled. “Coach really got on us to step it up.

“We depended on (Thornton) so much, and when he went down, it made us have to depend more on each other.”