You would think that since the A10 got 5 teams in the NCAA tourney and X beat 4 of those 5 that X would have easily made the NIT. Nope, the NIT invited 3 A10 teams but not the Muskies.

What the heck??? I really feel for the Seniors who worked so hard this year and I'm sure wanted to finish their careers on a brighter note than being knocked out of the A10 tourney.

Xavier was offered to play in the CBI tourney but declined. This tourney requires the teams that are invited to actually pay an entr...
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The Seniors stepped up huge on Senior night. I love it! Travis Taylor had one of the best Senior night games in Xavier history. Although X blew a lead late in the 2nd half, they pulled away to win it in overtime.

Taylor played 43 of a possible 45 minutes and had 19 pts, 19 rebs, and 6 blocks! Brad Redford had 11 pts on 3 3-pointers and 2 big free-throws down the stretch and Jeff Robinson had 9 pts and 6 rebs.

Oh, and in his best attempt to be playing like a Senior, Freshman Semaj Christon had 2...
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The season is winding to an end this week. It's not been an ideal season but I still hate to see it come to an end. The last home game is tonight against St. Louis. As it turns out, it also looks like it will be our last ever Atlantic 10 game at home.

St. Louis is playing great basketball. The Billikens have won 11 in a row and are now 12-2 in conference and ranked #16 in the AP poll and #15 in the USA poll. They run deep, playing 9 guys at more than 12mins/gm and having a balanced scoring att...
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With basically 7 players, the Muskies pulled out a big upset win over Memphis on Tuesday night!

Everybody stepped up huge in Dee and Landen's absence.

Semaj started off slow shooting but came up big down the stretch - 13 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast, only 1 turnover
Redford - 32 big minutes of the bench (only Semaj played more) - 10 pts
Travis Taylor - the man! Despite sitting a lot of the 1st half with 2 early fouls, 18 pts, 10 pts, 2 blks
Philmore - big game! 15 pts, 6 rebs, 2 blks
Robinson - 8 pts on 3/4 s...
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Saturday's loss at home to VCU is one of the roughest to endure that I can remember. A win meant that the Muskies would have knocked off a top 25 team and jumped up to 2nd place in the A10 with just 3 conference games remaining.

That seemed like it would've been reality on Saturday, with X up 17 with 18 minutes to go in the game. Then in a matter of minutes, VCU went on a 10-0 run and Dee Davis was knocked out of the game. Everything turned horribly when Dee was helped off the floor. Redford n...
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As we've seen often this year, it didn't look pretty at times but the Muskies got it done. A rough 1st half with Dee Davis in foul trouble put the Muskies behind early. But Semaj Christon and Justin Martin played big last night.

Christon - 19 pts, 5 ast, 2 stl
Martin - 16 pts, 7 reb, 2 blk
Taylor - 10 pts, 9 reb
Robinson - 10 pts in 19 min
Davis - 10 pts, 4 ast in 24 min

That's right, all 5 starters scored in double-digits; a rare feat this year. Also, Redford hit a couple 3s and Landen Amos dunked...
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It wasn't a pretty win, but a win nonetheless. The Muskies won on the road against Duquesne in front of a pretty sparse crowd. I'd guess there were no more than 3 or 4 thousand in attendance with about a third of us being X fans!

Balanced scoring was a pleasant surprise Saturday. How about these 4 guys stepping it up?!
Semaj 16 pts, 8 ast, 7 reb, 2 stl (and just 1 turnover)
Philmore 16 pts and 6 rebs, went 8-12 on FTs
Martin 15 pts on 6-9 shooting, 8 rebs
Taylor 13 pts on 5-7 shooting, 12 rebs
 
Dee...
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Wow! What a game! This rivalry never disappoints (unless you're a Dayton fan).

The streak continues. No Dayton wins over Xavier in Cincinnati since 1981.

The Muskies came out swinging and played with energy for 40 minutes. Dayton's hot 3-point shooting kept them right with us but rebounding and second chance points were the difference. XU 66  UD 61. X out-rebounded UD 36 to 18! (Dayton by the way is the #1 rebounding team in the A10, or was before last night) And how about this, the Muskies had...
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The Muskies have not had a lot of success at Charlotte recently. Former XU coach and not Hair Club for Men member, Alan Major, and the 49ers have won 2 of their last 3 home games against Xavier. They are 9-0 at home this year and 15-3 overall. They come into tomorrow's game as a 3 point favorite over X.

Charlotte is heading to Conference USA next year so unless we meet them in the A10 tourney in March, this could be our last match-up for quite a while. The 49ers, like the Muskies, are a good r...
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Although it looked ugly at the beginning when LaSalle jumped out to a 20-9 lead, the Muskies played great to close the 1st half and then ran away with the game on Saturday.

It was another all-around effort by X. Dee Davis played in his first game back and appeared able to use his injured wrist without any problems; he scored 6 on 2-3 shooting and had 7 assists in 23 minutes. Semaj had 18 points and 5 assists on an impressive 8-11 shooting. Redford had 13 pts, Robinson had 10 pts & 6 rebs, and ...
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The Muskies are going for their 4th win in a row when LaSalle comes to Cintas on Saturday. LaSalle has not had a great basketball season in quite a while but this year they are legit. The Explorers are 12-4 but just 4-3 on the road. Ramon Galloway is a big-time scoring threat and a familiar faces in the A10. The Senior is averaging 17 pts/gm and shooting 43% from 3. Galloway might be the best player in the A10; he's definitely one of the most dangerous. Let's see if walk-on Landen Amos can sl...
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Wow that game was crazy, way too nerve-racking! Semaj had 19 points and 10 assists, Redford had 17 points, and Taylor had 11 points and 7 rebounds.

How about the Muskies on the glass? Overall, they won the rebuilding 26-21 and won on the offensive glass 12-5.

Christon was 7 for 9 from the line and hit the game winner with 5 seconds left.

The Muskies are 3-0 in the A10! WOOHOO! Next up, a home game at 2pm on Saturday vs LaSalle.

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The Bonnies attempt twenty 3s a game and play a quick, guard-heavy offense. And while their road record is as hideous as their former mascot, Bona Fanatic, they are actually a good team at home. Their only 2 losses at home are to quality teams, Iona and VCU. Their weakness is their inside game and their lack of consistent defense. They have been out-rebounded by their opponents in 4 straight and while they are averaging 72 pts/game, they are also giving up a hefty 71 pts/game.

Dee Davis is exp...
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Dee Davis' wrist is in bad shape so Xavier had just 2 guards for today's game vs GW but those guards played huge! Brad Redford scored 21 off of 7 for 8 shooting from 3! Semaj Christon scored 21 and had 7 assists. And Jeff Robinson got the start and had 14 pts and 6 rebounds. Add in Travis Taylor's 6 pts and 11 boards and the team played quite a game today.

Congrats Muskies, 2-0 to start the A10 season! Let's hope Davis can play next week.

Next up - Wed at 8pm on the road at St. Bonnie

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Huge win for the Muskies last night! Everybody stepped up to beat a very good Temple team by 5 points. We were up 20-12 with about 8 minutes left in the 1st half and everything was looking great. Then Temple hit a 3 and during the play, Dee Davis fell awkwardly on his wrist. He left the game and the arena to get his arm examined at a local hospital. The Muskies gave up their lead and then fought back to build one again, only to give it up again. Semaj Christon was cramping up a bit and for a ...
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Instead of the usual basketball talk this time, I'd like to point you to a great story about the people of Frankenmuth, Michigan. They put their money together to purchase the Sandy Hook jersey that Frankenmuth native Brad Redford wore during a Xavier game last month. Xavier auctioned off all the jerseys to benefit the people of Newtown, Connecticut in the wake of the Dec 14th shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Please check out the full story here:
http://www.tuscolatoday.com/index.php/2013/01/...
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AHHHHHH!!! Despite Travis Taylor's 20 pts and 11 rebs and a 12 point halftime lead, the Muskies fell apart in the 2nd half and lost to Wofford, 56-55. Almost no students there due to Winter Break and many season ticket holders for this one; that certainly didn't help the effort.

Two Brad Redford's three-pointers brought the Muskies back and tied the game in the closing seconds. But Jeff Robinson fouled Lee Skinner after he received the in-bounds pass with 8 seconds left. WHAAAAAAAAT! Skinner m...
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Well, to say that was disappointing would be an understatement. We did play solid defense most of the night. The Muskies played tough and led at the half despite missing all their 1st half free throws! The 2nd half was horrendous though. Justin Martin with 2 quick fouls in the first 3 minutes of the game and then quick ones to start the 2nd half kept him out most of the game; he scored zero points. Cramping injuries kept our main scoring threat, Semaj Christon, out the 2nd half and kept Dee D...
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Semaj Christon, Dee Davis, and Brad Redford accounted for 42 of Xavier's 62 points in a 62-55 win over Kent St. We didn't look great as was expected with Justin Martin sidelined (concussion). But Semaj scored 18 to lead the Muskies in scoring again, Redford had 14 points (4 of 5 shooting from 3), and Davis had 10 points and 4 assists.

Throw in 9 and 8 rebounds from Travis Taylor and Isaiah Philmore respectively and it was enough to get the win. The Muskies did lose the battle of the boards (36...
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Semaj Christon has already showed why many big schools were recruiting him. In just his 4th career game, he showed his star potential, scoring 23 points on 10-14 shooting, 3-3 at the line, with 6 assists and 3 rebounds. And remember, he has not been 100% due to injury in those first few games. The Muskies out-rebounded Drexel 25 to 17 and won the game 69-65. It was a great team effort as JRob scored 13 pts on 5-9 shooting, Martin had 12 (3-3 shooting and 5-6 at the line), Davis had 11 and Red...
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What a frustrating game to watch! The Muskies start off 9-0 and then look pretty bad the rest of the game. While Semaj Christon (18 pts, 6 asts) and Travis Taylor (13 pts on 5-8 shooting) played well, most of the team didn't seem to ever get into the flow of the game. We shot 48% and only turned the ball over 8 teams but allowed Pacific to shoot 57% and were out-rebounded 28 to 17. Brad Redford was never open and took one shot and Jeff Robinson only took 3 shots all day. Not the recipe for su...
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It wasn't pretty but a win is a win, right? The Muskies held on to win 61-59. Robert Morris came out hot shooting 3s early on but Xavier's defense improved later in the 1st half and looked better in the 2nd half.

Justin Martin scored 10 points before the 10 minute mark in the 1st half and ended up with a career-high 17 pts, thanks in large part from going 4 for 6 on 3-pointers. Dee Davis scored 15 pts on 6 of 10 shooting and Semaj Christon had 12 pts and 6 asts despite still not being 100% hea...
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The Muskies shocked the Bulldogs today. Xavier, a 5 point underdog a home, looked like the experienced team and shut down Butler defensively.

It was a great effort all around by the whole team. Dee Davis did an amazing job slowing down Butler's star shooter, Rotnei Clark, and added 9 points. Semaj Christon hadn't been at practice for several days before yesterday and looked a little in his debut but still had an impressive 8 assists off the bench. Jeff Robinson 17 pts/8 reb and Travis Taylor h...
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With only 7 scholarship players available, the Muskies went crazy in their regular season debut, pouring on the offense and beating Fairleigh Dickinson 117-75! All 7 scholarship players scored in double figures. 

Highlights:
- Dee Davis had an unreal first half, 14 pts and 12 asts, and finished with 22 pts and 15 asts. 
- Travis Taylor almost had a double-double in the first half as well and finished with 20 pts and 12 rebs.
- Brad Redford was 6 for 7 shooting, all 3-pointers, and had a 4 point p...
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