Xavier head coach Chris Mack, left, argues a call with an official during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Butler during the Big East men’s tournament Thursday, March 9, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) NEW YORK – With Xavier’s Big East tournament life – and possibly NCAA tournament hopes – hanging in the balance, Chris Mack had a decision to make.
With 38.6 seconds remaining in the game and the Musketeers desperately clinging to a 57-56 lead against No. 18 Butler, Mack needed to pick a player from the Bulldogs to shoot free throws for Kethan Savage after a hard foul sent him crashing to the floor.
Mack had his choice of Kelan Martin, Andrew Chrabascz, Nate Fowler and Kamar Baldwin, and moments to make the pick while Savage was tended to.
“I think at one point I picked all four guys,” Mack said of the crucial moment. “Fortunately I didn’t say anything to the referee.”
As Butler waited in anticipation – its own NCAA tournament fate decided but looking to toss an 0-4 Big East monkey off its back – Mack crunched numbers and ran through scenarios.
“Number one, Andrew is a senior,” Mack said. “I mean, he’s been down this road before. He was 4 for 4. I don’t think he touched the rim. I eliminated him.
“And you had Kelan Martin, big-time gamer. He’s made big shot after big shot. He already had been to the line a minute or so before. He made the second one so I felt like he would sort of get a rhythm.”
Clock’s ticking.
“Then I looked at Fowler and Baldwin,” Mack explained. “Both of them are great free-throw shooters. I just think Nate, he’s very stoic. I don’t think the moment is going to get to him. Every time I watch him shoot a free throw, it’s like a machine, ball hits the net the same way.”
Time’s up, make your pick.
“I picked the best free-throw shooter on their team,” Mack said of Baldwin, who shoots a shade below 81 percent from the charity stripe.
While on the surface, it may have seemed like an unorthodox selection on the Xavier coach’s part, Mack also must have factored in Baldwin, a freshman, was playing in his first Big East Conference tournament and he had yet to take a free throw despite playing 33-plus minutes to that point.
Clang! Mack looks like a genius.

Baldwin missed the first shot, ensuring the Musketeers would come out of the moment tied – at worst – with Butler.
“Fortunately, he missed,” Mack said. “But any one of those guys could have missed one or made one; we just got lucky.”
Luck, or the cunning of a veteran head coach who has never had a losing season at Xavier and has made the NCAA tournament in at least six – and now likely seven – of his eight seasons at the school?
Either way, Mack’s sticking to his story.
“The game could have gone either way down to the wire,” Mack said after the 62-57 win. “It’s special to be playing Friday night [in the Big East semifinals].”