Xavier’s defense is one-size-fits-all

PHOENIX -- UCLA’s Kevin Love won’t be the first freshman phenom Xavier has played.

The Musketeers faced Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, too.

“Somebody mentioned to me they held him to five or six points,” Love said. “Hey, I think Beasley’s the most talented player in the country. For him to get five or six points shows how good they can be on defense.”

It was five points, to be precise -- 21 below Beasley’s average -- and it was the only time he failed to reach double figures all season.

Love has been beastly lately -- 29 points and 14 rebounds against Western Kentucky -- but what Xavier did against Beasley ought to give the Bruins pause as they prepare for today’s NCAA West Regional final.

The Musketeers play almost exclusively man-to-man defense, but they don’t have to try to defend the 6-10, 271-pound Love with only one player.

They have 6-foot-9, 238-pound Josh Duncan, 6-foot-8, 225-pound Derrick Brown and 6-9, 255-pound Jason Love, who as far as he knows is no relation UCLA’s Love.

They play tag-team man-to-man, and that means they’ll have some fouls to give.

“Duncan, Love and Brown are very good interior defenders,” UCLA assistant coach Donny Daniels said.

If you’re looking for extenuating circumstances that could explain Beasley’s statistics in Xavier’s 103-77 victory over Kansas State in December, there might be a couple.

Beasley went to the bench with two early fouls, came back and picked up his third. He ended up playing 32 minutes, though, and made only one of six shots.

The other thing, well, maybe it was the shoes.

The size 17s Beasley took with him to Cincinnati were ripped, and Kansas State finally came up with an ancient pair of Air Jordans for him to wear through a Cincinnati connection.

“We were going all over the city, and nobody in Cincinnati had a pair of 17s,” Kansas State Coach Frank Martin said by phone Friday.

“But I don’t want to take away from them. They’ve got great length and size and strength, and they’re experienced. They’re men.

“Duncan, Brown, B.J. Raymond, C.J. Anderson, Jason Love. They’ve been around. They play together. They’re real physical.

“With Mike, they tried to push him as far away from the rim as they could.

“When they beat us, I was very public about saying I thought they could make a deep run in the tournament.

“They’ll be a tough out. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made the Final Four.”

Don’t expect any gimmicks from the Musketeers, and don’t look for them to try to deny Love the ball. Just expect them to make him work for everything he gets.

“He is a great player, obviously,” Duncan said. “Very big guy, physical down low. I’ve just got to be ready to accept the challenge and just know I’ve got to bring my ‘A’ game on defense.”

Brown is braced for the challenge, too.

“He’s a real estate guy -- really big,” Brown said. “You’ve got to get your position. He’s a good player. He’s smart. He can pass the ball. He’s one of the best big men passing the ball. And he doesn’t seem to get rattled, even though he’s only a freshman.”

It will be a team effort as usual, Brown said, with plenty of help defense.

“You can’t stop great players. The thing we want to do is make it difficult for him to score,” Brown said.

“We don’t ever want to leave one of our teammates on the island, as we call it. At the end of the game, you don’t see that somebody guarded somebody, it’s a team score.”

Tag-team defense helped hold West Virginia’s Joe Alexander in check. He had put up some 30-point games lately, but was under wraps for much of the game against Xavier, finishing with 18 points on eight-of-18 shooting.

“We pride ourselves on defense,” Jason Love said. “The other day, we tried to make everything hard for Alexander. He’s such a great player he still got [his points], but during the game you just try to make everything hard for him.”

Love will be trying to make things difficult for Love today, even if they do share a last name.

“Somebody said we might be fifth cousins or something like that. We might, you never know,” said Jason Love, who is from Philadelphia. Kevin Love is from Oregon.

“I think it was like last summer when I started hearing his name,” Jason Love said. “I was like, wow, another Love, kind of crazy. Maybe after the game, we’ll have a family reunion.”

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robyn.norwood@latimes.com