You Can Count on Xavier Tillman
Like so much of what Xavier Tillman does on the basketball court, how he helped to beat Duke was subtle. With 4.7 seconds left in the East Regional final, the Michigan State forward was standing on the sideline in front of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. The Blue Devils were down one and had accumulated only four team fouls in the half, so their only hope for another last-second win was a steal and a quick score. Tillman knew, and as he waited for the referee to hand him the ball and blow the whistle, he locked eyes with guard Cassius Winston. And that's when he made a game-winning glance.
In lifting his eyebrows and moving his eyes upcourt in a blink, Tillman communicated exactly what he wanted Winston to do. Then Tillman slapped the ball, and Winston shed his defender and streaked up the court. Tillman hit him in stride and then watched in ecstasy as Winston dribbled out the clock and heaved the ball in the air. Duke was dead. The Spartans were heading to Minneapolis for the Final Four.
At the beginning of the season, Michigan State's coaches didn't expect for the 6'8", 245-pound sophomore to emerge as one of their stars in 2018-19, but they haven't been surprised by it. Tillman has a history of rising to the occasion. This past offseason, coaches asked him to improve his shooting. He has taken three times as many two-point attempts this season and is shooting a half percentage point better than a year ago on those shots. After not shooting a single three as a freshman, he's become somewhat of a threat from behind the arc. Coaches asked Tillman to shed some weight last year. He dropped 30 pounds over the course of a single summer.
The most monumental challenge Tillman has ever met, though, happened in high school: He became a father.
Balancing basketball and parenthood has been a battle every day, but Tillman wouldn't want his life to look any other way. "Having my daughter gave me a focus," he says. "There is no messing around anymore. Every day I am focused on being the best person I can be so she has a role model growing up."
Two-year-old Ayanna (or "Yanni" for short) has become a niece to every coach and player in the Spartans program. Tamia Todd, her mother, will become Tamia Tillman when she and Xavier are married this May. And for Xavier, the only thing that could make life sweeter is finishing this spring with two rings instead of one.
Tamia didn't believe the tests. She and Xavier were in New York for one of his high school basketball tournaments, and she went through half a dozen pregnancy tests before she was convinced they were correct. She worked up the courage to tell him. To her surprise, he was elated. From the day they'd met, Xavier said, she'd felt like family, and now it was official.
"I was terrified, and he was so excited," Tamia says. "I don't think there's any other guy that reacted the way he did. I was crying, and he was like, 'No, this is great.' He embraced it from the moment I told him."
The uncomfortable questions came when they returned home: Where are we going to live? What are we going to do? How are we going to tell our families? Tillman had recently committed to Michigan State, and when he discovered that his scholarship would allow them to live in a family dorm, he insisted she move up with him as they'd hoped. When it was time to tell their families, Todd was too scared to say anything, so Tillman did all the talking. He told her father that he took full responsibility for their unborn daughter. And he hasn't wavered since. Yanni was born on Dec. 3, 2016, and Tillman proposed to Todd the following April.
The summer he moved to East Lansing, Tillman grew up and slimmed down. All his life, he'd been the biggest guy among his group of friends, but he was a football and a basketball player, so it suited him. When he quit football, however, he didn't quit eating like he was a football player. He'd go to McDonald's for breakfast and then Qdoba for lunch. He'd order two of everything—chicken sandwiches, nuggets and fries—when he went to Wendy's. But playing at 280 pounds hadn't worked for him in the way it has for Zion Williamson. He committed to a workout plan and to making better choices at meal times. He even learned to cook. He lost 30 pounds.
As a freshman, he wasn't much of a factor. His transition to college basketball coincided with his transition to fatherhood, which meant plenty of sleepless nights and, at times, overwhelmingly full days. He averaged 2.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in 8.7 minutes per game. But behind the scenes, he was improving—not just in basketball but also in time management. He made a point to get to practice early so that he could leave right after team dinners. Most nights, he brought leftovers home and ate with Todd and Yanni. And when Todd needed some alone time, he would take Yanni to a teammate's apartment or to a team movie.
"Being a parent is time-consuming, and so is being a student-athlete," Todd says. "You don't get much time to yourself. I never hear him complain about 'me time.' Whenever he has extra time on his schedule, he wanted to do something as a family."
Last summer, he spent extra time in the gym shooting. He rarely left for the day without having put up 1,000 shots from all around the arc. And after a year in his new body, he worked on defensive switches, during which he now can capably handle 1 through 5. He wanted to become for Michigan State's coaches what he had become for his family—dependable.
"He doesn't do anything outside of himself," assistant coach Dwayne Stephens says. "He doesn't try to bring the ball down the floor or dribble between his legs or shoot a fadeaway jump shot. He makes solid plays. As coaches, you preach all the time: Go for singles and not home runs. Xavier is an unbelievable hitter."
This season, Tillman was the Spartans' sixth man and their leading scorer off the bench through the middle of the Big Ten slate. Then, on Feb. 17, big man Nick Ward fractured his left hand, and Tillman was thrust into the starting lineup. He was ready. He doesn't have as deep of an arsenal of post-up moves as Ward, but he more than makes up for it as a willing screener and rebounder and as a high-percentage shooter. In his first start after Ward's injury, he posted a double-double against Rutgers. He's scored in double figures in all but two of Michigan State's 11 games since, all but one of them wins.
"Xavier does what he can do, and he does it efficiently," freshman wing Aaron Henry says. "His game is kind of quiet, but don't let him fool you. There aren't a lot of things he can't do. You haven't seen it all yet, but he'll come out of his shell soon, and you'll see how high his ceiling really is."
The increased workload has meant more recovery time after practice, but he hasn't let anything cut into family time. He still wakes up with Yanni at 6 every morning, and dances with her to clean versions of Cardi B as they get dressed and eat their cereal. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, when Todd works as a nanny, he takes Yanni to daycare before going to classes, practices and tutoring. Even though he knows she won't remember, he won't skip class because he doesn't want Yanni ever to second-guess the value of an education. And at night, Tillman is always home in time for Yanni's bedtime routine: He and Todd take turns reading a page each of Goodnight Moon until it's over, and then they take turns hugging and kissing Yanni until she stops asking for more. "She doesn't get told no too often," Todd says. "She normally gets at least five or six from each of us."
On typical Big Ten road trips, he'll only be gone for two nights, and Todd and Yanni can take that. But the NCAA tournament has been more of a challenge. By Day 3 or 4, Yanni will start to act out. If Todd asks her what's wrong, she'll say that she misses her daddy, so they'll FaceTime or watch his highlights on YouTube to hold her over. And when Yanni's asleep, Tillman and Todd plan their wedding, which will be May 18. He admits that she has done most of the work, but as with basketball, he steps in when he's asked to. He has picked out the colors for the groomsmen's tuxedos (dark blue) and the honeymoon spot (a cruise to the Bahamas).
At times, it can seem overwhelming, but Tillman says he feels like he gets far more support than he gives. "Tamia is really understanding," he says. "She doesn't pressure me to be home when I have to be at practice or work out. She knows that basketball is how I am trying to provide for us. And my teammates are so open with Yanni. I bring her with me to dinners or movies all the time, and they love being around her. She brings people together."
In the hours after the NCAA men's tournament bracket was revealed, Tillman and Winston took a walk in the Breslin Center. They stopped at the tunnel and stared at the court, talking about the season that had passed and the road that remained ahead. The Spartans had won the Big Ten regular season and tournament championships, but they were still slotted as a No. 2 seed and sent to a distant regional in Washington, D.C. Michigan State fans were fuming, but Tillman and Winston got exactly what they wanted.
"We're going to play Duke in the Elite Eight," Tillman told Winston, "and we're going to make some noise."
Last Saturday morning, after Michigan State had dominated LSU and Duke had survived Virginia Tech, Tillman and Winston sat next to each other at breakfast. They would have their chance at the Blue Devils the next night. They remembered the conversation from Selection Sunday. Then, in between bites of eggs, Winston told Tillman: "Beating Duke is gonna be big for our resumes." They both laughed.
On Sunday, Winston scored 20 points and dished 10 assists, and Tillman added 19 points, nine rebounds and 29 tough minutes defending Zion Williamson to help secure the win. After the Spartans' charter plane touched down in East Lansing, Tillman drove Winston home. As they sat in the parking lot that joins their buildings, they talked about what it would take to return back in another week with a title. "We came this far," Winston told Tillman. "We might as well win it all."
A few days later, Todd strapped Yanni into her car seat and picked up Winston's girlfriend, Erin, so they could make the 10-hour drive to Minneapolis together. Now, no matter when Michigan State's run ends, Tillman will be able to run into the arms of his family and do what he's done since he arrived in East Lansing—prepare for what's next.
