Basketball Primer: St. Francis Xavier Exhibition Game

Al Skinner is coming off his worst year since the Troy Bell turnaround. He has a solid nucleus of young returning players, some new faces and a star in Tyrese Rice. Can it all come together and get BC back in the postseason? We will soon find out. In the meantime, let's take a look at how the team played in its exhibition game with St. Francis Xavier.

"Canadian basketball, eh!"

BC won 82-56

What you need to know
I can't get too excited one way or another about handling a Canadian team in an exhibition game. This is what we learned:
-- Starting line up was Southern, Trapani, Raji, Sanders, Rice. Jackson was the first off the bench followed by Paris, Roche, Ravenel and Dunn.
-- Rice only played 29 minutes.
-- BC killed them on the boards.
-- We let them hang around into the second half and then pulled away.
-- The team and Al treated it like an exhibition.

Strengths
It was a good debut for Trapani. He rebounded well and worked within the offense. Corey Raji also came to play and got points off of second chances.

Issues
Aside from the lack of intensity, the team also did not shoot well from the 3-point line (4 for 20). As a reminder, the NCAA moved the line back this year. I hope it doesn't take us too long to adjust.

Miscellaneous
Although it was founded as a seminary, it looks like St. Francis Xavier is now a public Canadian university.

Outlook
The only big takeaway was the starting lineup. I don't think it is set, but I bet that is going to be Al's rotation for the first few games. Raji was the only real question mark and if he keeps playing like that, he'll get plenty of minutes. We'll certainly know more after the first real games.