NCAA Basketball: Best games from 2019-20 season – Butler vs. Xavier

A season-ending showdown between Butler and Xavier became a thriller; let’s see what happened.

The national pandemic may have canceled most of the NCAA Basketball postseason, but there were still a lot of exciting games on the season’s slate.

The Big East only managed the opening round of their conference tournament, but their regular season gave us plenty of enticing moments. Our look at the top 40 games from the 2019-20 season will look closely at one of the final matchups.

28. Butler 72, Xavier 71

March 7, 2020, Cintas Center in Cincinnati, OH

With the addition of Connecticut this past offseason, the Big East will only continue to blossom into one of the best and deepest conferences in basketball. Even with Villanova’s recent dominance of the conference, there have been great developments from the other programs in the conference. Though we barely got any of the Big East Tournament, one of the final games of the season gave us quite a spectacle worth mentioning again.

Butler brought back plenty of experience and rose to high as #5 in early January. Kamar Baldwin had been playing inspired basketball, though the Bulldogs had recently slipped in a tough Big East slate. They were coming off a pair of home wins over DePaul and St. John’s but had recently lost three straight tough contests. This date at Xavier was the final test and a great chance to maintain that momentum going into the postseason.

Second-year head coach Travis Steele was still in the process of rebuilding Xavier’s success and this season had been a similar struggle. They had gotten some solid play from Naji Marshall in recent weeks, but aside from an upset win at Seton Hall had yet to make a big impact in Big East play. Still, Xavier entered the season finale at 8-9 in Big East play, hoping to avenge a 5-point loss to Butler just under a month earlier.

Neither team got off to a particular quick start, as a Baldwin jumper was the only points in the first five minutes. Xavier would start making their shots, with a Jason Carter 3-pointer getting them on the board. The two teams went back and forth in the first half, with both surviving another scoring drought in the midway point. Leads quickly evaporated, though 5 quick points from Baldwin helped give Butler a 5-point lead, the largest of the half. By halftime, it was down to just 2 points.

Butler’s offense got going again in the second half and a Baldwin 3-pointer gave the Bulldogs a 7-point lead right away. The two teams traded points on their next five possessions until Baldwin struck again. His 3-pointer with just over 15 minutes left increased Butler’s lead to 8, though Xavier wasn’t going away. Carter replied with a long-range shot of his own on the ensuing possession.

A few minutes later, Aaron Thompson came up big for Butler, hitting a jumper and making a pair of free throws to run Butler’s lead up to nine points. Marshall made a few shots for the Musketeers while a KyKy Tandy 3-pointer got them within 4 with just under ten minutes left in the half. Fortunately, Xavier had another big response, putting together a 9-0 run that gave them their first lead of the second half, punctuated by a pair of free throws from Tyrique Jones.

The teams traded baskets as we approached the final stretch of the game. A jumper from Marshall gave Xavier a rare two-possession lead, but it was quickly erased. Another timely 3-pointer from Baldwin gave Butler back the lead with just under two minutes left, and his next basket made it 69-66.

Marshall hit a shot in the final minute and came up even bigger down the stretch. He hit a jumper, was fouled, and made the free throw to give the Musketeers a 2-point lead with less than ten seconds remaining.

But Kamar Baldwin would not be stopped, hitting a 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left to punctuate what was an absolutely incredible performance. His career-high 36 points were all necessary as the Bulldogs threw together the win. Butler made 57% of their 3-pointers, with Baldwin alone making 5 of his 7 attempts.

On the other side, Xavier got 21 points from Marshall in a solid outing, but the Musketeers were far less successful from long range, making just 26%. Carter added 17 points with 14 from Jones, but those 12 turnovers and 10 missed free throws also hurt this team. The Muskeeters earned the 7 seed in the Big East Tournament and lost to DePaul in the opening round before the rest of the tournament was canceled.

Butler didn’t get their chance in the postseason, though they did get back into the rankings at #24 after their third straight win. They may have underperformed a few times in Big East play, but with Baldwin firing on all cylinders, this certainly would have been a dangerous team in March. The lack of an NCAA Tournament was horrible, and this game represents the last time we ever saw Baldwin at the college game; though he certainly went out at the very top.