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Season tips off Wednesday, Nov 25th!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, November 19, 2020, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
After a long COVID-y spring, summer, and fall...it will be with many fans, but at least Xavier basketball is returning! 

Xavier vs Oakland - Wednesday, Nov 25th at Noon - Fox Sports 1

Xavier vs Bradley - Thursday, Nov 26th at Noon - Fox Sports 1

Xavier vs Toledo - Friday, Nov 27th at Noon - Fox Sports 1

Go Muskies!
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Xavier Basketball IS BACK!

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, November 13, 2019, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Finally!  The Reds, Bengals, and FC Cincinnati showed us how not to play this year so it's time to see some wins. 

Tyrique Jones, Naji Marshall, Quentin Gooden, Paul Scruggs, and Jason Carter are the expected starting 5 this year.  The team is projected to finish 3rd in the Big East but it's a long season...Anything can happen!

Let's Go Muskies!
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HERE COME THE MUSKIES!

Posted by Josh on Friday, March 1, 2019, In : Other News 
Never count out Xavier!  After losing 6 in a row, we've now won 5 in a row and climbed from last place to 3rd in the Big East.  Next in the cross hairs is Butler on the road.  This team has shown heart and it's been more evident than ever in their performance over the past couple weeks.  As excited as this run has been, the future is equally exciting with the great core we have coming back next year plus a great recruiting class coming in.  Let's Go Muskies!!!
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#5 Xavier vs Butler tonight!

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, January 2, 2018, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Butler just took down #1 Villanova on Saturday and heads to Cintas Center tonight to play #5 Xavier. 

LET'S GO MUSKIES!
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Xavier heads to Northern Iowa for tough road contest

Posted by Josh on Thursday, December 21, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
With Macura, Gates, and Marshall all banged up and questionable to play, Xavier heads to a tough venue in Northern Iowa. Northern Iowa is 8-3 thus far and 6-0 at home.

Let's hope the Muskies get healthy quick and are ready for this challenging road game prior to Christmas. Tip-off is 9:30 on Friday.

Go Muskies!
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Xavier seeks revenge on Baylor!

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, November 28, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier and Baylor are both in the top 25 rankings when they square off.  Last year, Xavier went to Baylor and played well in the first half but were outplayed in the 2nd half and lost to the Bears.

Let's get this win! GO X!
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Xavier headed to Las Vegas Invitational

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 24, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
GW down, Arizona State up next. Moving on to the title game! Let's go Muskies!!!
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Xavier Seeks Revenge at Wisconsin!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, November 16, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
We owe Wisconsin a loss after they knocked us out of the tourney 2 years ago.

Let's go get a "W"! Let's go Muskies!!!
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Xavier vs Rider - Monday 8:30PM

Posted by Josh on Monday, November 13, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier goes for 2-0 vs the Rider Broncs at Cintas tonight!

Go Muskies!!!
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Basketball Season Is BACK!!!

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 10, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Woohoo! Xavier basketball is back! 

Regular season tips off at 7PM on Friday, November 10th vs Morehead State. Let's go Muskies!!!
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X vs Gonzaga for a Final Four spot!

Posted by Josh on Saturday, March 25, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
HERE WE GO!!!

LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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X vs Arizona Rematch for an Elite 8 spot!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 23, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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XAVIER vs FSU - Saturday 6:10 Tip-off in Round of 32

Posted by Josh on Saturday, March 18, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
A Sweet 16 spot is on the line as X takes on the 3 seed Florida State!

LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier vs Maryland - NCAA Tourney 3/16/17 - 6:50PM Tip-Off

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 16, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier's dance ticket is to Orlando.

Let's take down the Terrapins of Maryland!

LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier beats Butler, advancing to Big East Semis

Posted by Josh on Friday, March 10, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
NCAA Ticket punched! With a big load carried by Trevon Bleuitt last night, the Muskies pulled out the upset win over Butler! Butler has not won a Big East Tourney game since joining the league 4 years ago. Sorry Butler.

Next up - Creighton!  

LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier vs Butler - BIG EAST TOURNEY!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 9, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Down to a 7-man rotation with Tyrique Jones out for concussion protocol. NCAA bid on the line. Against Butler. Doesn't get much bigger than this!

LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier loses 6 in a row!!!

Posted by Josh on Friday, March 3, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
(Sorry the site has been dormant for a while, it's hard to endure all the losing)

Xavier has dropped 6 in a row, all to teams competing for or definitely in the NCAA Tournament, but still inexcusable.  We've fallen from a cool 8-3 Big East record, competing for 2nd place in the league, to now 8-9 and locked into the 7th spot.  We play at DePaul Saturday and then will play the Blue Demons again next week in Round 1 of the Big East Tournament.

Please let the Muskies win the next couple games!!! C...
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Xavier goes for 4 in a row vs DePaul!

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, February 8, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The highs and lows of college basketball, right???  No Sumner but we win at home vs Seton Hall and at ranked-Creighton!  Going for 4 in a row at Cintas Center tonight. Let's beat DePaul!

Let's Go Muskies!
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Xavier hosts Seton Hall in 1st game without Sumner

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, February 1, 2017, In : A10/Big East News 
Best of luck to Edmond Sumner as he rehabs his way back after the ACL injury this week.  Wishing him all the best in his future.

Down to one Point Guard now. Quentin Goodin has showed he can play ball even as a Freshmen this year and will be getting a BIG jump in minutes tonight. Let's see how they fare against Seton Hall! 9pm tipoff at Cintas Center and on FS1.


Go Muskies!!!
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Crosstown Shootout tonight at UC

Posted by Josh on Thursday, January 26, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier has won 3 Shootouts in a row and 7 of the last 9. Surely UC is due for a win this year....right?  UC is at home and favored by 4.5 points by Vegas.

Let's Go Muskies!!!
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Xavier looks to rebound vs Georgetown at home Sunday

Posted by Josh Bobinger on Friday, January 20, 2017, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

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#7 Xavier (7-0) at #9 Baylor (6-0)

Posted by Josh on Saturday, December 3, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
In our first true road game of the year, it doesn't get much tougher than this! Baylor is 3-0 vs ranked teams in the early season so far. X and Baylor are 2 of the 15 undefeated teams left in the NCAA.

Let's go Muskies!!!
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Xavier season opener vs Lehigh tonight!

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 11, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier tips off the regular season tonight against Lehigh.

Fun Facts:
  • Lehigh University is a private school in Bethlehem, PA with about 5,000 undergrad and 2,000 grad students. (A few hundred students different from Xavier)
  • They've made the NCAA Tourney 5 times, most recently in 2012 as a #15 seed where they upset #2 Duke and then fell to our beloved Musketeers in the Round of 32
  • Mascot is the Mountain Hawks. They were the Engineers from 1865 until 1995.
Let's go Muskies!!!

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Xavier hosts Ferris State for Nov 5th Exhibition

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 4, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Here we go! For those of us (most of us) who don't know, Ferris State is in Big Rapids, Michigan. They have just shy of 15,000 students and their colors are crimson and gold. They play DII in all sports except DI in hockey.

Hailing from Ferris State have been a handful of NHL players as well as the current Tennessee Vols head football coach, Butch Jones.

GO X!
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Are You Ready???

Posted by Josh on Thursday, October 27, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Season tickets have been mailed. The schedule is out. Let's play some basketball!

The exhibition game is Nov 5th at 7pm and the regular season tip-off is November 11th at 7pm!

GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier 2016-2017 Schedule is here!!!

Posted by Josh Bobinger on Tuesday, September 13, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The schedule is out today! Have a look!  Gotta love seeing the national TV games!
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Ekiyor will NOT be a Muskeeter!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, August 18, 2016, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Students are moving in at Xavier but Eddie Ekiyor is not.  Rick Broering just broke the news.

@RickBroering Official from XU: Eddie Ekiyor is no longer enrolled at Xavier. He will enroll for the fall semester at Carleton University in Canada 

This was certainly unexpected, at least for Xavier fans.  Assuming Malcolm Bernard is on the roster this fall (not actually official yet), this leaves the Musketeers with just 10 scholarship players this year.  The number is 11 if you count Tim Stainbrook ...
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More Xavier commits!

Posted by Josh on Friday, July 29, 2016, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Chris Mack & Company got 2 commitments in the last 48 hours!  Naji Marshall and Elias Harden both committed to Xavier this week!   Both are athletic wings that can score. The high school class of 2017 is already looking bright for XU!
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Review of Xavier's Scholarship Breakdown

Posted by Josh on Sunday, July 24, 2016, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Thanks to Coach Mack and company, seems like most Xavier off-seasons are about reloading, not rebuilding. This off-season is no exception.  Practice for Xavier's 95th men's hoops team has already begun and new to the Musketeers this year are Freshmen Quentin Goodin, Tyrique Jones, and Eddie Ekiyor, as well as 5th-year Senior transfer, Malcolm Bernard.

Xavier has also received a verbal commitment from 3-start Small Forward Jared Ridder, out of Springfield, MO. Ridder will be a Freshman on the 2...
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2 Xavier vs 7 Wisconsin Sunday for spot in Sweet 16!

Posted by Josh Bobinger on Sunday, March 20, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier handled 15-seed Weber State without much trouble Friday. Wisconsin edged out PIttsburgh 47-43 in Round 1 (lowest scoring NCAA Tourney game since 1999) and will face X on Sunday.

Wisconsin played Duke for the National Championship last year and they return a few players from that great team. Should be a formidable opponent for the Muskies but if X plays their "A" game, they should get out alive. Look for the veteran Muskies to step up again!

GOTTA GET IT! LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier lands highest seed ever; Let's March!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 17, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies did not end the Big East tournament the way they would've liked but that's behind us now as the field is set and the Big Dance is starting Thursday afternoon!

Xavier landed a #2 seed, the highest seed in school history. They're in the tough, but winnable East region. #2 Xavier plays #15 Weber State in St. Louis. Wisconsin, who played in the National Championship game last year, could be who X faces should they win Friday. UNC, UK, Indiana, and West Virginia are all potential oppone...
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BIG EAST TOURNEY TIME!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 10, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
HERE WE GO! 

LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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Senior Day and Revenge Day vs Creighton

Posted by Josh on Saturday, March 5, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Saturday is Senior Day. It's also time for REVENGE against the Creighton Bluejays!

Congrats to Remy Abel and James Farr on their upcoming graduation.  Remy transferred in from Indiana and has been a great defender and big part of the team the last 2 seasons. James has gone from a Freshman who sat on the bench 99% of the season to "BIG GAME JAMES" his Senior year this year. He's been ranked as the best statistical rebounder in ALL of college basketball when looking at rebounding efficiency stat...
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XAVIER BEATS #1 VILLANOVA!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, February 25, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
XAVIER WINS! XAVIER WINS XAVIER WINS!!!
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#1 Nova at #5 Xavier - History will be Made!

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, February 24, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

A lot of history will be made on Wednesday:

The 2 schools tied with each other with the best record in the country currently (24-3) will be playing each other.
- Xavier has not beaten Villanova since joining the Big East.
- Cintas Center has never hosted a game between top 5 teams and never hosted a game involving a #1 ranked team.
- In school history, Xavier has never played in a game where both teams were ranked in the top 5.
- Xavier has beaten the #1 team in the nation 3 times in program his...


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Xavier exacts revenge on Georgetown on road

Posted by Josh on Monday, February 22, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier made up for their onlyhome loss of the season with a solid win over Georgetown in Washington, D.C. on Saturday.

Next up, another Revenge game and the games don't get any bigger than this....#1 Villanova will be at Cintas Wednesday night!  Preview to come.
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#7 Xavier hosts #20 Providence

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, February 17, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
(Couldn't stop myself from posting the pic above, an old favorite!)

Xavier looks to keep a stronghold on the 2nd spot in the Big East while Providence is trying to avoid another loss after a rough patch of late.

Can we slow down Bentil and Dunn?  Expect Xavier to run a lot of 1-3-1 zone defense as the Friars are not a great 3-point shooting team and this will eliminate having to guard Dunn 1 on 1.  I would also expect a fast pace of play by the Muskies as Xavier's bench is deeper and can handle...
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Xavier tries to rebound on road at Butler Saturday

Posted by Josh on Friday, February 12, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
After what could have been one of the worst shooting nights in Xavier basketball history, Xavier's chance to recover is Saturday afternoon at Butler.

1 for 21 from 3-pt land at Creighton tells the story of Tuesday night's defeat at a sold-out, loud road game at Creighton. But Xavier is still firmly in the 2nd place spot of the Big East and in the hunt for a very good seed in the Big Dance.

Nothing would make me feel better than a win on the road against Butler so let's do it. Trevon Blueitt and...
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Muskies head to tough venue to battle Creighton

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, February 9, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier is rolling off the "W"'s but they haven't been pretty of late. The defense has been average, or worse, over the last few games (home games against St. John's and Marquette). Give them credit for getting the job done when it has counted and pulling off these wins but it will take a much more complete effort to win at Creighton tonight.  

You know how good Creighton is at home when Vegas sets the #4 ranked Musketeers as just a 1 point favorite against the Blue Jays. Creighton is in the to...
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#5 Xavier (19-2) hosts last-place St. John's (7-15)

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, February 3, 2016, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
After Xavier's off-shooting night and loss to Georgetown, the Muskies have strung together a 3-game win streak and climbed back to #5 in the Coaches Poll and 2nd place in the Big East.  St. John's is still winless in the Big East but kept the game versus X very tight back in January at MSG. While they've been blown out by several Big East schools, they've kept it close in a handful of conference games. 

James Farr left the last game with a minor leg injury but did practice yesterday so expect ...
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#6 Xavier keeps rolling, heads to Nova

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, December 29, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
In what will surely be one of the toughest games of the year, undefeated Xavier heads to Philly to play Villanova at NOON on New Year's Eve. Nova is 10-2 with their 2 losses coming at the hands of Top 10 schools, away from home.

Expect a battle!  LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier hosts UC in Shootout on Fox Saturday at 5:30!

Posted by Josh on Friday, December 11, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
9-0 Xavier hosts 8-1 Cincy on national TV (Fox 5:30pm) on Saturday!

Gonna be a good one! Xavier has scored 90+ in 3 straight games while UC has a solid defense this year, as usual.

Both teams are talented and playing great defense right now.

There has been at least one Technical Foul in 7 of the last 8 Shootouts! The exception was the first game after the good old fight...

LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier plays Dayton for Orlando tourney championship!

Posted by Josh on Sunday, November 29, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Our most hated rival of yesteryear advanced through the bottom of the bracket so Xavier faces Dayton today at 4:30 (ESPN2). Both team are undefeated, Xavier is a 3 point favorite according to Vegas. This should be a good one!

Check out #ThingsILikeMoreThanDayton on Twitter for some great laughs. Some Dayton fans are going with the classy hashtag of #FUXU so there's that.

Let's GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier heads to Orlando for Thanksgiving tourney

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, November 25, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Advocare Invitional tips off on Thanksgiving with 4-0 Xavier taking on struggling Alabama at Noon. Nationally ranked Wichita State and Notre Dame are also in the bracket, as well as our old foes from Dayton.

Let's go Muskies!!!
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Xavier wins at #24 Michigan!

Posted by Josh on Saturday, November 21, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier took advantage of their first road trip of the young season and beat up the 24th-ranked Michigan Wolverines, 86-70. Despite foul trouble, the Muskies played great with scoring coming from all over the roster. Jalen Reynolds, Remy Abell, and Trevon Bluiett all scored 15, and Myles Davis scored 14. Sumner had 9; Farr and Macura had 8 each.  Xavier out-rebounded Michigan 47 to 29!

Xavier has now won 9 of their last 11 games against Big Ten teams.

Go Muskies! Next up is NKU at home Monday ni...
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2-0 Xavier heads to Michigan for first road test

Posted by Josh on Saturday, November 21, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies looked ugly at home vs Missouri but still got the win so we'll take it. X is 2-0 and heads to Michigan for a late night tip-off against Michigan.  

Michigan is coming off a rough season but their 2 best players were hurt all year. They are back and healthy and ranked 24th in the nation.  It will take a big game from our Muskies to knock off Michigan but this is a talented bunch. Let's go Muskies!!!
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Muskies win opener vs Miami!

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, November 17, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies won the opener! Edmund Sumner, JP Macura, and Jalen Reynolds led the charge. Remember all, that was Sumner's first collegiate start (and he's a Redshirt Freshmen after taking a medical redshirt last year) so he led Xavier in scoring in his first full game!

Life is good, the Muskies are back!

Xavier hosts Missouri Tuesday night at 6:30. 

Let's Go Muskies!
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Basketball is BACK!!!

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, November 4, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
It's finally here! Xavier has an exhibition game Saturday at 2:00 at Cintas Center.

See you there. 

LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier lands another highly rated commit for 2016

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, October 7, 2015, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Xavier got a verbal commitment from a 3-star big man out of Canada today. That's the 3rd recruit who's committed to Xavier for the 2016 class, all inside of or flirting with the Top 100 ranking list of 2016 prospects.

Nice job XU coaching staff! Now let's enjoy the 2015 season!

GO MUSKIES!!!
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Complete Non-Conference Slate Announced

Posted by Josh on Thursday, May 28, 2015, In : A10/Big East News 
The non-conference schedule is complete! All opponents are now set, game times won't be set for a while.
2015-16 Men's Basketball Home Non-Conference Schedule
Saturday, November 7 -- Exhibition Game (opponent TBD)
Friday, November 13 -- Miami (Ohio)
Tuesday, November 17 -- Missouri
Monday, November 23 -- NKU
Saturday, December 5 -- Western Kentucky
Tuesday, December 8 -- Wright State
Saturday, December 12 -- Cincinnati
Saturday, December 19 -- Auburn 

Non-Conference Road Schedule
Friday, Novembe...
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Muskies Sweet 16 matchup vs Sean Miller & Arizona

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, March 25, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
In an effort to get more viewers from noctural creatures, the NCAA last game of the night Thursday will start sometime around 10:30PM, maybe later depending on how late the Wisconsin/UNC game goes.

But that's a great complaint to have as it means our Muskies are in the Sweet 16 once again! Only Michigan State (7) and Louisville (6) have made more Sweet 16's in the last 8 years than Xavier has (5).  Xavier heads to LA to play huge favorite (11 point spread) Arizona and former Xavier coach, Sean...
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Muskies advance to round of 32!

Posted by Josh on Saturday, March 21, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Seniors Dee Davis and Matt Stainbrook led the Muskies to their their most lopsided NCAA Tourney win in school history. With a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line, X play the Georgia State Panthers, the 13 seed in the West who upset Baylor.

Let's make it happen X! LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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Muskies vs Ole Miss - HERE WE GO!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 19, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

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Xavier vs Butler in Big East Quarterfinals - Thurs 9:30PM

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 12, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The stage is set and the Muskies meet Butler late Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. 

Xavier played awful at Butler in January, losing by 12. Then X blew out Butler at Cintas in February. They were up by more than 30 for a while and after clearing the bench, ending up winning by 17. That game at XU did not involve Butler's Andrew Chrabascz, who scored at will in the first matchup. He's back from injury so the Muskies will have to slow him down this time around.

It's March so anything can ...
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Xavier heads to Creighton seeking revenge in season finale

Posted by Josh on Saturday, March 7, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier is more than likely in the NCAA tourney but a loss at Creighton and a loss in game 1 of the Big East tournament next week would make Xavier Nation VERY nervous on Selection Sunday.

Let's get revenge on the Creighton Bluejays, who beat X at Cintas in February. Creighton started out 0-8 in Big East play but is a much more respectable 4-5 in the last 9 and they are playing the top teams in the league very tough. They fell by 4 to #4 Villanova and by 2 to #19 Butler in their last two home g...
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Xavier hosts #6 Nova on Senior Day

Posted by Josh on Saturday, February 28, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Last year, Villanova was 6th in the country in the final week of the regular season and came to Cintas Center and spoiled Xavier's Senior Day.  Today, hopefully only some of history will repeat itself. Again 6th in the country, Nova comes to X to play the Muskies on Senior Day. The game is nationally televised on Fox.

Matt Stainbrook and Dee Davis will be suiting up for what will be their last game at Cintas Center (unless we really fall apart in the final week and BE Tourney and end up in the...
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Muskies head to MSG to play St. John's

Posted by Josh on Monday, February 23, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
After two big wins last week, over UC and Butler, the Muskies have a quick turn-around and play in NYC tonight. St. John's hosts at Madison Square Garden, in a game that will help determine the final Big East tournament seeds. XU is in 5th place and St. John's is in 6th with just 3 games to go for the Muskies.

Let's go Muskies!!!
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Xavier hosts #19 Butler in snowy Cincinnati

Posted by Josh on Saturday, February 21, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Fresh off a win over the Bearcats in the Crosstown Shootout, the Muskies have an even bigger game Saturday! The 2nd place Butler Bulldogs will be here for a 2:00 tip-off. Let's hope we again see the same ice cold veins of our Senior point guard, Dee Davis,that he showed us in the Shootout. Dee stepped up BIG time, playing all 40 minutes, going 5 for 5 from 3-pt range, ending with 16 points, 8 assists and only 1 turnover! (That turnover was BS refs! They called a very questionable double-dribb...
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Crosstown Shootout back to UC's Campus - Wed Night

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, February 18, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
After 2 years of idiocy, i.e. playing a game re-named the "Crosstown Classic" at an old dumpster arena downtown, the SHOOTOUT is back to where it should be...the college campuses. This year, it's at UC, and right in the middle of a war of a Big East season for the Muskies.  Gotta focus on this non-conference road game and take care of business before we get back to our brutal final stretch of Big East games.

UC is listed as a 1 point favorite at home. Both teams are coming off of disappointing...
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Xavier vs St. John's on Valentine's Day

Posted by Josh on Saturday, February 14, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies are coming off of a 20 point win at Marquette and look to make it three in a row Saturday when St. John's comes to Cintas. Happy Valentine's Day folks! The game tips off at 12:30 and will be nationally televised on Fox.

The Muskies are sitting in 5th place in the Big East and right in the middle of the battle for a NCAA Tourney spot. Every game is HUGE now!

Let's go Muskies!!!
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Muskies head to Marquette looking for road win

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, February 11, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
After the low of losing to Creighton and the high of beating Providence a la Dee Davis assists and Jalen Reynolds super dunks, the Muskies must focus as they go for a win on the road. 

Marquette is struggling this year but still a few tough out. Vegas has X as a 1 point favorite. They need a "W" to stay in the hunt in the Big East.

Let's go Muskies!!!
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Sell Out Crowd for Saturday...Let's Beat Providence!

Posted by Josh on Saturday, February 7, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
After a horribly discouraging loss to Creighton at home (Xavier's only home loss of the season!), the Muskies have to recover Saturday against the 2nd place Providence Friars.

Gotta get this one guys! Let's GO MUSKIES!!!
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Beat Creighton!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, February 5, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 


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Muskies win at #21 Gtown, head to Seton Hall

Posted by Josh on Thursday, January 29, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The monkey is finally off their backs. After an 0-4 start on the road in the Big East, Xavier beat up #21 Georgetown Tuesday night. At 5-4 in the conference, the Muskies are back in the hunt of the Big East standings as the top 7 teams all have between 2 and 4 losses. No easy games, that's for sure, and the Muskies head to Jersey for a noon game against Seton Hall on Saturday. Seton Hall is a talented team that has struggled of late. After cracking the Top 25, they lost 4 of their next 6 game...
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Xavier hosts 1st place DePaul on Saturday at Noon

Posted by Josh on Saturday, January 24, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
DePaul has been on a tear since starting Big East play. After a lackluster non-conference record of 6-7, DePaul has started 5-2 in the conference, good enough to be tied for first place. The Muskies fell apart at DePaul earlier this year after having a double-digit lead. X needs this one bad!  

Side note - is that really DePaul's mascot???? Good lord. Hopefully he's been replaced but there's pictures of that thing all over the internet and it's truly horrifying. 

Tip-off is at Noon Saturday. Fi...
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Muskies road woes continue with OT heart breaker at Providence

Posted by Josh on Friday, January 23, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
SON OF A !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Xavier hosts Marq Sat at Noon - Mascot Salt & Pepper Shaker Giveaway!

Posted by Josh on Saturday, January 17, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

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Xavier heads to #5 Villanova for toughest game of the year as road woes continue

Posted by Josh on Thursday, January 15, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

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Xavier heads to The Barn to face Butler Saturday

Posted by Josh on Saturday, January 10, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies are flying high after another top-25 win. After sending #19 Seton Hall packing, Xavier goes to Indy to face Butler. Butler is 11-5 on the year and is always tough in The Barn due to malfunctioning clocks and loosely bolted water fountains. Butler is a 3 point favorite by Vegas odds so the Muskies will have to bring the same fight to the floor that they did on Wednesday night to shut down Seton Hall. Expect Remy Abell to be all over Butler's sharpshooter, Kellen Dunham. Abell has d...
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Xavier hosts #19 Seton Hall Wednesday Night

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, January 7, 2015, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Well after an exciting win of #25 Georgetown, the Muskies had a huge lead against DePaul in Chicago over the weekend and then blew it. Very disappointing!

But the beauty of college hoops is you can make up for it quickly. The Muskies host #19 Seton Hall tonight. The Pirates beat #15 St John's and then #6 Villanova to put them at 2-0 and tied for first place in the Big East.

LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier hosts #25 Georgetown as we hit New Year

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, December 31, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Georgetown is rolling and fresh off a win over Indiana over the weekend, the 25th ranked Hoyas come to Cintas to play Xavier in the final game of the Big East kick-off day of games.

Going to be very difficult to lock these guys down but let's do it and throw away the key!

Go Muskies!!!
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Xavier hosts Florida Gulf Coast Sunday at 4:00

Posted by Josh on Sunday, December 28, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
After a tough, tough 2OT loss at Auburn last weekend, the Muskies look for revenge against the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles tonight! FGCU is 7-3 but they've played just one game against a top-100 RPI team (a 14 point loss to Green Bay). 

Let's shoot down the Eagles and get back in the Win column!!!

Go Muskies!!!
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Xavier hits the road for Missouri and Auburn

Posted by Josh on Saturday, December 13, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
After a solid win over a SEC Alabama team last week, the Muskies go on the road to 2 more SEC schools, Missouri and Auburn. X doesn't mind facing the conference; they're going into Saturday with a 13-5 record vs the SEC since 2007. Let's hope for 15-5 after these next 2.

Xavier hasn't had any great resume-building wins this year and wins at Mizzou and Auburn wouldn't qualify for such either. But road wins looks good and with Missouri and Auburn looking like they'll have a tough year in the SEC...
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Muskies host Bama Saturday night

Posted by Josh on Saturday, December 6, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies lost their last 2 in the tourney out in California, and predictably a small portion of Xavier Nation flipped out and overreacted.  We looked horrible in big stretches of those 2 games. But our team is made up of 9 freshmen+sophomores! They are young, inexperienced, and learning on the fly. They will learn from the sting of those losses and get better. The Muskies 3-pt defense has to get better, no doubt about it. And the wide open shots that weren't falling for X certainly were in...
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Xavier hoops in Wooden Legacy for Thanksgiving weekend

Posted by Josh on Thursday, November 27, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Gobble gobble kids. Take your turkey to the couch on Thursday! The Muskies play San Diego at 4:30 on ESPN2. Round 2 is Friday and the final game is Sunday. These early season tourneys have bitten the Muskies of late. Let's hope the Muskies come home 3-0 from this one!  

Let's go X!!!
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Muskies go for 4-0 vs Murray State tonight!

Posted by Josh on Monday, November 24, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Murray State Racers come to town tonight and the 3-0 Muskies will be waiting. Let's go X!
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Muskies go for 3 in a row versus Stephen F. Austin

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 21, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier and their high-flying Freshmen go for 3 in a row to start the season as another axe-wielding monster comes to town. After beating the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks and the Long Beach State 49ers, X squares off against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. SFA went 32-3 last year and 18-0 in their conference; UCLA beat them in the Tourney in the Round of 32. Although they are expected to match that success this year, they are a solid team that will test the Muskies.

See you at Cintas! GO MUS...
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Xavier tips off season tonight vs Northern Arizona

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 14, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
WOOHOO! We are here! Xavier vs Northern Arizona tonight! Time to chop down the Lumberjacks!

HERE WE GO MUSKIES!

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Favorite Muskies of the last 10 seasons - Tu Holloway

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 14, 2014, In : Muskie Recognition 
Tu Holloway's last year at Xavier was 2012 so we all remember the greatness of #52.  When a guy is a part of 4 tournament appearances out of 4 years, that speaks for itself. Tu was A-10 Player of the Year his Junior year and got snubbed in earning the same reward his Senior year (Andrew Nicholson of St. Bonaventure won).

His stats were some of the best in school history; 6th all-time in scoring, 3rd in assists; best career FT% of all time at 85.2%, and most career FTs made.

Of course we all rem...
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Xavier nabs Forward, Kaiser Gates, to 2015 class

Posted by Josh on Thursday, November 13, 2014, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Kaiser Gates, a 6'8" forward out of Georgia, has committed to Xavier for next year. He's in most recruiting top 150 rankings. Welcome to the Xavier family, Kaiser!
http://scouthoops.scout.com/story/1479756-gates-signs-with-xavier?s=75

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Muskies roll in exhibition, prepare for Season Opener

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, November 12, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies rolled Northwood in the exhibition game at Cintas Center on Saturday. Lots of points but on the board for X but we all know exhibitions don't mean much.  The real fun start Friday night when Xavier opens the regular season, hosting Northern Arizona.

Edmond Sumner, one of the many talented newcomers this year, is not expected to play, as he's still resting his knee (tendinitis).

Bring on the regular season!!!
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Hoops is (almost) back!

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 7, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
It's ALMOST here! As photo-shopped kittens know everywhere, basketball is back!!!

Muskies exhibition game vs Northwood (who?) is Saturday night at 8PM.  

Projected Starting 5:
PG - Dee Davis
SG - Remy Abell
SF - Trevon Bluiett
PF - Jalen Reynolds
C - Matt Stainbrook

See you at Cintas Center!

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Xavier hosts Lauren Hill's first collegiate game

Posted by Josh Bobinger on Thursday, November 6, 2014, In : Other News 
Most everyone knows the story of Lauren Hill, the amazingly positive, strong teenager who has terminal brain cancer but is living every day to the fullest.  The game that Xavier hosted on Sunday was one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of. The awareness that Lauren is raising for pediatric cancer is nothing short of remarkable.

Coach Mack describes Lauren better than I can...please read his words here:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaw/2014/11/02/college-basketball-xavier-ch...
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Favorite Muskies of the past 10 seasons - Justin Cage

Posted by Josh on Friday, October 17, 2014, In : Muskie Recognition 
We're counting down our top 5 favorite Muskies of the past 10 seasons and this guy was an easy choice. Justin Cage! Cage played 2003-2004 through 2006-2007. In short, he was THE MAN! He managed to start half the games as a Freshman and then EVERY game the rest of his career at X! In total, he started 113 of 131 games.

Cage's Freshman year was a memorable one for Muskies fans. X crushed the #1 team in the country, St. Joe's, en route to winning the A10 Tournament and then beat Louisville, Missi...
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Favorite Muskies of the past 10 seasons - Brian Thornton

Posted by Josh on Friday, October 3, 2014, In : Muskie Recognition 
There have been a lot of smart, team-first players over the years at Xavier. One of the best examples has to be Brian Thornton. The big man transferred to Xavier after 2 years at Vanderbilt. He made a big impact as a Junior, averaging 10.7 pts and 5.8 rebs per game. He was a model of consistency his Senior year (2005-2006 season), going for 15.3 pts and 6.8 rebs per night (both led the team) before rupturing his ankle near the end of the season in an Atlantic 10 game against LaSalle. I rememb...
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Favorite Muskies of the last 10 seasons - Jason Love

Posted by Josh on Sunday, September 21, 2014, In : Muskie Recognition 
We're counting down our favorite Muskies of the last 10 seasons and there's no better place to start than with Jason Love.

Jason played for Xavier for 4 years from 2006-2007 through 2009-2010. He is the perfect example of a Xavier basketball player. The Philly native was under the radar when D1 coaches were recruiting his class. His Freshman year, he played a total of 76 minutes. But as many had before him, he worked hard and practiced against the big men in front of him and steadily received ...
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2014-2015 Schedule announced!!!

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, September 10, 2014, In : A10/Big East News 
Woohoo!!! All the dates are now set for the entire 2014-2015 season.

Exhibition game tips off Saturday, November 8th. See you there!
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Who are your favorite Muskies over the past 10 years?

Posted by Josh on Friday, August 29, 2014, In : Muskie Recognition 
With the off-season dragging, I was think about my favorite Muskies over the last 10 years (2004-2005 season through 2013-2014 season)....I'll list out my top 5 as we inch closer to Musketeer Madness and the start of the season.

Who are your favorites? And I'm sure the picture is missing some great guys. It was hard to just pick a few guys when you think about all the great guys over the years!
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X completes perfect exhibition trip through Brazil

Posted by Josh on Sunday, August 10, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier won all 4 exhibition games in Brazil this week. Along with visiting a few tourist sites and spending time with local kids in need, it certainly appeared to be a great team-building trip for this young team.

Check out Coach Mack's quick take on the trip as well as the highlights from X's final game in Brazil. I'll have the videos on the top of the homepage for a couple days.

Go Muskies! Musketeer Madness is October 24th, see you there!
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Xavier starts Brazil trip with a win

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, August 6, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
In game 1 in Xavier's exhibition trip in Brazil, the Muskies beat Flamengo 99-68. 

James Farr had a double-double, 12 pts, 14 rebs. 
Jalen Reynolds - 8 pts, 13 rebs
J.P. Macura - 14 pts
Trevon Blueitt - 12 pts, 8 reb
Myles Davis & Brandon Randolph - 10 pts each

Check out videos on the top of the home page this week.

Go Muskies!
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Practices Start up!

Posted by Josh on Friday, July 25, 2014, In : Other News 
Because of Xavier's participation in the exhibition tour down in Brazil in August, they are allowed to get a head start on practice this summer. Everyone is in town and has participated, including all 6 freshmen.

Musketeer Madness will be Friday, October 24th meaning we are less than 3 months from Xavier basketball people!!!

Gotta tame the excitement everyone, but we're getting closer and closer every day by my math.

Go Muskies!
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Xavier's non-conference schedule finalized!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, June 19, 2014, In : A10/Big East News 
If you haven't been following along on the Schedules page, you'll see that the Muskies' non-conference schedule is now finalized.  Less than 5 months until the regular season opener!
Friday, Nov. 14 Northern Arizona (Opening Night) 
Tuesday, Nov. 18 Long Beach State (home game as part of the Wooden Legacy) 
Friday, Nov. 21 Stephen F. Austin 
Monday, Nov. 24 Murray State 
Thur./Fri./Sun., Nov. 27/28/30 Wooden Legacy in California 
Saturday, Dec. 6 Alabama 
Tuesday, Dec. 9 IUPUI 
Saturday, Dec. 13 at M...

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Crosstown Shootout is Back to CAMPUSES!

Posted by Josh on Monday, May 12, 2014, In : Other News 
Common sense prevailed today as news is breaking that the Crosstown Shootout will return to campus play after being played in a large dumpster the last 2 years. UC was due to host so this winter will be at UC, next year at XU, and so on. 

Logic and Reasoning have a rare victory!
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Off-season updates

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, April 29, 2014, In : Other News 
Well, as seems to be the case in most off-seasons of late, Xavier's break from hoops started off rough this year. Semaj declared for the NBA, Justin Martin announced he will transfer out, and (erroneous) rumors swirled about Chris Mack leaving. Thankfully the Mack rumors were all garbage. Coach Mack is still here and he welcomes his top-15 rated 2014 recruiting class to join Matt Stainbrook, Dee Davis, and the Muskies this fall.

Ronnie Johnson (Purdue PG who announced he will transfer) toured ...
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Semaj officially declares for NBA

Posted by Josh on Friday, April 25, 2014, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Semaj hired an agent today, making it official that he's heading to the NBA. Best of luck to him. An exciting, extremely talented athlete to watch no doubt. It's a shame his career at X doesn't include any NCAA Tournament wins but the program was certainly much better with him on the team these past 2 years. 

That means that yet another Musketeer will be playing pro basketball soon! 
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My apologies for the site lull of late!

Posted by Josh on Friday, April 11, 2014, In : Other News 
To all of those who visit the site, thank you so much for your time here and, more importantly, for your loyalty to everything-Xavier! My sincere apologies for being a complete slacker on the site the last couple weeks. I have a new Musketeer in my household and she has taken up a lot of my free time! It didn't help me that XU was eliminated on Day 1 of the tourney! It takes a while to process a Xavier tourney loss before I can move on; will have to get better about that. But I'm back!

Much to...
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Xavier vs NC State in Dayton - NCAA Round 1

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, March 18, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
March Madness is finally upon us! Many are saying Xavier got screwed over having to play in a Round 1 play-in game but hey, you gotta play with the cards you're dealt. So, let's go up to UDump Arena and take out some frustration on NC State.

NC State is led by TJ Warren, a super scorer who was just named the ACC player of the year. Warren played AAU ball with Semaj Christon and Jalen Reynolds so they know how talented he is. NC State is a young team that is not great defensively but they've be...
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WOOOHOOOOO!

Posted by Josh on Friday, March 14, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Muskies WIN! Marquette goes down and out of nowhere Stainbrook plays!

I LOVE IT! Xavier vs Creighton Friday Night at 9:30. Winner heads to the Big East Finals!!!

GO X!!!
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XAVIER VS MARQUETTE - BIG EAST Quarterfinals!

Posted by Josh on Friday, March 14, 2014, In : A10/Big East News 
The Muskies face off with Marquette tonight without big man Matt Stainbrook. Vegas has set the Golden Eagles as a one point favorite.

Let's see how Xavier fares in their first Big East tournament game! Can Semaj and the boys rise to the occasion with Stainbrook off the court?

GO MUSKIES!!!
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Xavier earns #3 seed and faces #6 Marquette Thurs at 9:30

Posted by Josh Bobinger on Sunday, March 9, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Even with the injury to Stainbrook and dropping the final two in Big East play, Xavier finished 3rd in the conference. Not bad for a team picked to finish 7th or 8th by most "experts"!

Xavier takes on Marquette on Thursday night at 9:30 on Fox Sports 1. The split the season series with the home team winning taking both games. Xavier tourney chances are certainly not as solid as they once looked after the big win over Creighton...a win Thursday would more than likely put them in everyone's "at ...
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Xavier faces #6 Nova without Stainbrook

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 6, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
In what is likely the toughest test of the year, a battle with 6th ranked Villanova, the Muskies are without their best big man, Matt Stainbrook, who injured his knee early against Seton Hall on Monday.

It is Senior Night and we'll honor Isaiah Philmore, Landen Amos, Erik Stenger, and Tim Whelan tonight. Sadly it's spring break for the students but we will be close to or at a sell-out to support our Seniors.

We're against tough odds tonight but let's get loud for the Muskies!

GO X!!!
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Xavier seeks revenge on Seton Hall

Posted by Josh on Monday, March 3, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Seton Hall delivered Xavier it's only home loss of the season earlier this year. Revenge is on our mind as well as holding onto the #3 seed in the Big East tournament. Fresh off a HUGE win against Creighton, Xavier needs to keep the momentum going.

Two games left before the conference tourney! At Seton Hall tonight and at home vs #6 Villanova on Thursday

Go Muskies!!!
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HUGE SHOWDOWN with Creighton this weekend!

Posted by Josh on Saturday, March 1, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Top 10 ranked Creighton takes on Xavier in Cincy on Saturday and it will be the biggest crowd in Cintas Center history! The game sold out and Xavier has sold standing room only tickets this week.

This will be a history-making day for Xavier fans as Doug McDermott comes to town. He is now in the top 10 of all time scorers in NCAA history. Within his sights are Danny Manning and Oscar Robertson.

It's going to take a near perfect gameplan and great game by our Muskies to defeat Creighton but guess...
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Huge game at St. John's tonight!

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, February 25, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
St. John's started the Big East at 0-5 but are not at 8-7. Xavier, on the other hand, started out 5-1 in the conference but now sits at 8-6. Both teams are on the bubble for sure and could use a win tonight.

The Muskies MUST play better defense tonight. Less turnovers and a more consistent offense would be nice too. And I'll also ask for a victory while I'm making requests.

Go Muskies!!!
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Xavier heads to Georgetown

Posted by Josh on Saturday, February 22, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
With a few weeks left in the season, every game is big! Xavier heads to DC as a 2 point underdog today against Georgetown.

Let's beat the Hoyas and hold onto 3rd place in the Big East!

Go Muskies!!!
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XU faces DePaul tonight

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, February 19, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

Xavier hopes to beat DePaul again tonight. Let's slay the Blue Demons!

Go Muskies!!!


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Xavier faces tough test at Marquette, 3rd place on line

Posted by Josh on Saturday, February 15, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier's road games continue as they take on Marquette today, with 3rd place in the Big East standings at stake.

The Muskies got the best of Marquette earlier this year at home. Vegas has Buzz Lightyear's, umm I mean Buzz Williams' Golden Eagles as a 4 point favorite over XU as the host in round 2. It's on FOX today...actual Fox, which is interesting. Hopefully XU will look good on the national stage.

Let's go Muskies!!!


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Another game at the barn...

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, February 11, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

We're playing Butler for what seems like the millionth time in the past few years.

Road game at 9pm Tuesday, never easy. Vegas has X as a 2 point favorite.

Will there be a draft in the barn? Likely. Will there be clock malfunctions? Probably. Let's hope we can escape with a victory.

Go Muskies!!!


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XU hosts Providence for 3rd place spot in Big East

Posted by Josh on Saturday, February 8, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier is trying to snap a 3 game skid and could REALLY use a win tonight against the team who started that streak.

Let's Go Muskies!

(My apologies for the lack of posts, pics, and general fun on the site the last couple weeks. My wife and I welcomed our daughter into the world. Xavier Nation has added yet another big fan!)
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Xavier hosts Seton Hall Saturday at Noon

Posted by Josh on Friday, January 31, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

After a frustrating road loss to Providence, the Muskies can redeem themselves this weekend against Seton Hall. The Pirates are coming in with a losing conference record but, like any Big East foe, can't be taken lightly.

Let's get back in the win column tomorrow!

GO MUSKIES!


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Xavier heads to Providence for Saturday noon game

Posted by Josh on Saturday, January 25, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies have another tough road test at Providence. Providence beat up the explosive Creighton Bluejays last week and look to defend their home court again tomorrow at noon.

Two of the best scorers around will square off in this one, Semaj Christon for XU (17ppg) and Bryce Cotton (20ppg) for the Providence Friars. Should be fun to watch.

Let's go Muskies!!!
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MLK Day matchup - Xavier at DePaul

Posted by Josh on Monday, January 20, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

The Muskies win over Georgetown puts them at 4-1 in the Big East. Creighton lost at Providence over the weekend putting them at 5-1. Villanova remains on top at 5-0.

X tips off at DePaul at 4pm on MLK Day. DePaul is 2-4 in the Big East but are a top-100 RPI team and this is a road game for the young Muskies so it is by no means a gimme victory. Vegas has X as a 5 point favorite on the road.

Let's go Muskies!


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3-1 Xavier hosts 3-1 Georgetown

Posted by Josh Bobinger on Wednesday, January 15, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

After a tough loss at Creighton (I'd be shocked if they lose more than 1 game all year in that arena!), the Muskies look to get back on track tonight against Georgetown.

Both teams are 3-1 in the Big East, with only Villanova and Creighton ahead of them in the standings.

Another big matchup of high-scoring Sophomores: Semaj Christon vs D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera. DSR once committed to Xavier and then decided to eventually go to Georgetown. But I think all XU fans out there would agree, we are VERY ...


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Huge Road Test as X travels to Creighton!

Posted by Josh on Sunday, January 12, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier plays in one of the toughest venues in college hoops today. Creighton packs more than 18,000 into their arena and will certainly doing that today as the 13-2 Bluejays (3-0 in Big East) host the 13-3 Musketeers (3-0 in Big East).

Two the most exciting players in basketball square off, Doug McDermott and Semaj Christon. This is XU's first look at McDermott this year. He's pouring in 24 pts/gm and shooting 48% from the field, 43% from 3, and 90% at the line!

This is what college basketball ...
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Muskies host Marquette, going for 3-0 Big East start

Posted by Josh on Thursday, January 9, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier has won 7 in a row and, while projected to finish in the bottom half of the Big East by the "experts", the Muskies are tied for first in the league with an early 2-0 record. They go for Big East win #3 tonight as Marquette comes to town; game is on Fox Sports 1 so don't miss it.

X is 11-0 at Cintas this year while Marquette is a disapointing 1-3 on the road thus far. Don't let that make you think that the Golden Eagles are a push-over. They were one of the favorites to win the Big East ...
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XU hosts rival Butler Saturday afternoon

Posted by Josh on Saturday, January 4, 2014, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Fresh off a New Year's Eve win against St. John's, Xavier hosts Butler for it's 2nd conference game.  Butler comes in at 10-3 and with some close losses to some very good teams (Villanova & Oklahoma State). Xavier, now 11-3, carries a 6 game win streak into the game.

This rivalry game promises to be a good one, as usual. Both teams are playing stout defense, giving up just over 63 points a game. Both teams are led in scoring by Sophomores with Semaj Christon averaging 14.4 pts/gm and Kellen Du...
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Xavier hosts first game to kick off Big East Marathon Day!

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, December 31, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
St. John's at Xavier - Noon on New Year's Eve - This is the FIRST game of the new Big East Conference. All 10 teams are playing on Fox Sports 1 tomorrow - 12 straight hours of Big East hoops on your TV.

Let's kick it off right with a Muskies victory! GO X!
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XU goes to Bama for 1st road game

Posted by Josh on Saturday, December 21, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Exams are over and Christmas is almost here. The Muskies play their first true road game at Alabama tonight before taking a holiday break.

Bama is a 5 point favorite so it will be a tough game for X.

Let's go Muskies!!! Let's roll the Tide!
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Crosstown SHOOTOUT tonight!

Posted by Josh on Saturday, December 14, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
For the 81st time, Xavier and UC play tonight. It's the Crosstown Shootout, don't call it anything else! And hopefully for the LAST time, it's at US Bank Arena downtown. BRING IT BACK TO CAMPUS!!!

UC (7-1) lost their first game of the year last week at The Pitt in New Mexico. The Muskies, after a bad tourney in the Bahamas, have won their last 2 to get to 7-3.

The Bearcats come in as a 5 point favorite, with Sean Kilpatrick leading the team with 19.6 ppg. Semaj Christon was out of most of the g...
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Muskies host Evansville tonight

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, December 10, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

After a near-disaster game against Bowling Green, the 6-3 Muskies play against Evansville tonight. Evansville is also 6-3, having lost to Murray State, Indiana, and Ohio. Over the weekend the Purple Aces beat Miami OH by 13 (X beat them by 26 in Nov). XU Coach Chris Mack hooped at Evansville for 2 years before transferring to Xavier.
Let's see if the Muskies can get it together and play solid for a full 40 minutes tonight.

AND....Quick Change is performing at Halftime!

Go Muskies!


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I never liked the Bahamas anyway...

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, December 4, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

What a disaster of a tournament....after falling apart and coughing up what would've been a big win over #23 Iowa, X loses to Tennessee in a revenge game and then to USC on Day 3.

Free throws and turnovers continued to be a problem. Xavier came in 5-0, all wins at home, and leaves 5-3, with an 0-3 record in road/neutral games. NOT good for the resume come March! The good news is that there are a lot of young guys on the team and they will only learn from this. Hopefully it also lights a fire u...


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Semaj cramps up, Muskies collapse vs Iowa

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 29, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies were up 15 in the 2nd half and leading the whole way against #23 Iowa. But Semaj left the game with 12 1/2 minutes to go with cramps and countless fouls on X slowed production to a halt. The game eventually went to OT where Iowa finally took the lead and won by 3.

How about a million reasons why we didn't win this game...?
Injuries - Semaj goes down with cramps with more than a quarter of the game remaining. Amos, our best defensive player who we could have really used, of course is...
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Xavier begins Battle 4 Atlantis on Turkey Day

Posted by Josh on Thursday, November 28, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies come in as a 5 point underdog against #23 ranked Iowa tonight. Our toughest game of the young season thus far. Iowa has dismantled most everyone on there way to 5-0 this year. The Hawkeyes are averaging 92.6 pts/game, 4th in the nation, while XU has only given up 59 pts/gm defensively. 

Should be a good one. Fill up on turkey and then cheer on your Muskies at 7:00 on Thanksgiving Day.

Round 2 will be Friday and X will Tennessee or UTEP at either play at 1:00 or 7:00

Round 3 is Saturd...
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Xavier welcomes Abilene Christian to D1 Monday night

Posted by Josh on Sunday, November 24, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
As part of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas later this week, the tournament committee scheduled Xavier to play against Abilene Christian before the real tourney kicks off.

The Wildcats (see horrifying picture above) are new to Division I this year and are not enjoying the transition. They are 2-5 but the 2 wins were against DII schools. They played Iowa and lost 103-41! Yes, they lost 103-41.

Go Muskies!
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Muskies smash Miami, go to 4-0!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, November 21, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Another smooth game for X and another win! Philmore had a sore wrist and didn't play but this team looks very DEEP this year. Farr and Reynolds each grab 11 rebounds off the bench, Farr getting a double-double in just 16 minutes! 

Miami played most zone defenses and Xavier made them pay, hitting 9 threes (Dee Davis was 3 for 4 from three) and crashing the glass (14 offensive rebounds), winning the battle of the boards 42 to 25.

Well done Muskies! Next up, a home game versus lowly Abilene Christ...
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3-0 Muskies host Miami tonight

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, November 20, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

After a solid win over Morehead State Friday night, the 3-0 Muskies welcome Miami. The Redhawks are a long-time foe but this marks the last game scheduled between the two so it may be a while before we see another XU/Miami game.

While X is rolling, Miami is the polar opposite. After a 12 point loss to Notre Dame, Miami managed to lose to Arizona State by 36! Ouch.

Tip-off is 8pm on Fox Sports 1 if you can't make it to Cintas. Go Muskies!  


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Short-handed Muskies beat Vols to go to 2-0

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, November 13, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
With Justin Martin & Dee Davis out, the Muskies still pulled out the win Tuesday night. Was GREAT to see everyone contributing.

Stainbrook(12pts/9reb), Philmore(9pts/6reb), and STENGRAY(6pts/7reb) more than held their own against a very good Tennessee frontcourt. James Farr even came in a made some nice plays (4pts/3reb). Without Dee, Justin, and Landen Amos, Christon (18pts/2ast) & Randolph(5pts/4ast) played 39 minutes each and Myles Davis scored 13 pts in 21 minutes of the bench.

X shot 54% ...
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Xavier battles injures as Tennessee comes to town

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, November 12, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Dee Davis, Myles Davis, and Justin Martin are all questionable to play Tuesday night (and Landen Amos is out 4-6 weeks). Will the Muskies be able to handle a talented Tennessee team at home? 

Let's hope so! Check out the action on Fox Sports 1 if you can't make it to Cintas Center


Let's go Muskies!
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Xavier tip-off regular at home vs Gardner Webb tonight!!!

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 8, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

A respectable Gardner Webb team comes to Cintas Center tonight to kick off the regular season for our Muskies. What's not respectable is they are one of seemingly dozens of teams with a Bulldog as a mascot. The call themselves the "Running Bulldogs" to be marginally creative so give them that, I guess.

GO MUSKIES!!!


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Xavier basketball is back!!! Exhibition game today

Posted by Josh on Saturday, November 2, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies tip-off against Quincy today at 4:00 in an exhibition game before the regular season starts next week.

Let's go Muskies!!!
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Musketeer Madness is Friday!!!

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, October 22, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

We've waited and waited and we're now almost there! Musketeer Madness is this Friday night at Cintas!

And then Saturday, Nov 2nd, Xavier plays an exhibition game against Quincy. Regular season kicks off the following weekend, on November 8th!

LET'S GO MUSKIES!!!


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Xavier gets verbal from Center Sean O'Mara

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, October 8, 2013, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Xavier nabbed a 4th player for their 2014 class, Center Sean O'Mara. Current 2014 team recruiting rankings now have Xavier in the top 10 classes. Once some of the top high school players commit, X is likely to drop a few spots, but this is a great class no matter how you slice it. Two 3-star and two 4-star players in the Class of 2014 now.

Meanwhile, 4-star SF Trevon Bluiett has de-committed from UCLA. Xavier was one of his top choices before he committed to UCLA and many are reporting XU is b...
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Xavier reels in 4-star player Makinde London!

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, September 25, 2013, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 

Minutes ago, 4-star Power Forward Makine London committed to Xavier! London is a 6'9", 210lb talented kid playing down in Montverde, FL. Scout.com has him as the #71 player overall (#16 PF) in the 2014 class.

London joins J.P. Macura (4 star Guard, #20 SG on Scout) and Edmund Sumner (3 star Guard, #27 SG on Scout) as Chris Mack & Co. continue to load up the 2014 class. Can't wait to see this talented trio join the team next year.

Expect one more kid to be signed for 2014. Sean O'Mara, a 3-star...


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BIG EAST SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED!

Posted by Josh on Friday, September 6, 2013, In : A10/Big East News 
Xavier's Big East schedule is finally here!

Tuesday, December 31
St. John's at Xavier Noon FOX Sports 1 1

Saturday, Jan. 4
Butler at Xavier 2:00 FSN National

Thursday, Jan. 9
Marquette at Xavier 9:00 FOX Sports 1

Sunday, Jan. 12
Xavier at Creighton 3:00 CBSSN

Wednesday, Jan. 15
Georgetown at Xavier 7:00 CBSSN

Monday, Jan. 20
Xavier at DePaul 4:00 FSN National

Saturday, Jan. 25
Xavier at Providence Noon FOX Sports 1

Saturday, Feb. 1
Seton Hall at Xavier Noon CBSSN

Monday, Feb. 3
Xavier at Villanova 7:0...
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Offseasons suck! Lawsuits, Recruits, and the Latest

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, August 21, 2013, In : Other News 

If not for all the turmoil of each off-season, being a Xavier fan would be all good.

This week, news has broke that Dez Wells has filed a lawsuit against Xavier for smearing his character and wrongfully expelling him. It revolves around Xavier not giving him a fair chance during the expulsion and appealing process.

Just when we think we can put all the bad news behind us, this comes up. Who knows if Xavier will fight this or try to settle out with Wells outside of court. I hope this all ends v...


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Rumor is no Vez at Xavier this fall

Posted by Josh on Monday, August 5, 2013, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
After a great performance in an under-18 tournament in Europe in July, today Alexander Vezenkov is rumored to have signed a 3 year deal to play professionally in Europe.

Xavier fans were fearing this would happen. He had verbally committed to Xavier and Coach Mack but the demand for Vez in the European pro leagues has only gone up in the last few months.

Vez was expected to at least earn solid minutes at Small Forward and potentially compete with Justin Martin for the starting spot. This would ...
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Battle 4 Atlantis field is set

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, July 30, 2013, In : Other News 

The Muskies will square off against Iowa at 7pm on Thanksgiving Day! Tennesse, Kansas, Villanova, USC, UTEP, and Wake Forest are also in the tourney.

Come on basketball season, get here already!


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HAPPY XAVIER DAY! We are officially in the Big East!

Posted by Josh on Monday, July 1, 2013, In : A10/Big East News 
It's Xavier Day today in Cincinnati as we officially join the Big East Conference. 26 years ago, Xavier's basketball program got their FIRST NCAA tournament win. The players', coaches', and athletic administrations' hard work over the years has paid off time and time again. Now, we can proudly say we are playing in a major basketball conference.

Festivities in Fountain Square will be happening from 11:30 to 1:00 and it's Xavier night at the Reds game tonight. Xavier players and coaches will b...
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Xavier officially adds Carter; Cantino to transfer out

Posted by Josh on Thursday, June 20, 2013, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Some quick news and notes if you haven't been keeping up...
- As was expected last week, Mizzou assistant coach Rick Carter has left the Tigers and joined Chris Mack's staff at Xavier. He has served on Tom Izzo's staff at Michigan State as well as on the Western Michigan staff when current Muskie Matt Stainbrook played at WMU. Carter's big ties in the Michigan area should be helpful for XU's recruiting in that area. Welcome aboard Coach Carter!

- Chris Cantino, who transferred into X last year ...
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Full non-conference schedule released

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, June 5, 2013, In : Other News 
GoXavier.com released the full non-conference schedule.

Sat., Nov. 2 vs. Exhibition game TBA
Fri., Nov. 8 vs. Gardner-Webb
Tues., Nov. 12 vs. Tennessee - moved to primetime on Fox1
Fri., Nov. 15 vs. Morehead State
Tues., Nov. 19 vs. Miami (Ohio)
TBD in Nov: Battle 4 Atlantis home game
Thur., Nov. 28 vs. Battle 4 Atlantis in The Bahamas
Fri., Nov. 29 vs. Battle 4 Atlantis in The Bahamas
Sat., Nov. 30 vs. Battle 4 Atlantis in The Bahamas

  • Battle for Atlantis Field - Xavier, Kansas, UTEP, Villanov...


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Xavier Recruiting Week Continues!

Posted by Josh on Saturday, May 18, 2013, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Remy Abell, former Indiana Hooser, announced just hours ago that he will be transferring to Xavier. He'll have to sit out this coming season and then will have 2 years of eligibility.

While you might be asking why Xavier would want a guy who only played 12.5 min/gm last year, don't forget who else was on Remy's roster. The team was loaded with All American candidates and future NBA stars.

So that's the 3rd Musketeer reeled in this week! 2014 Detroit guard Edmond Sumner and 2013 Bulgarian forwar...
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HELLO BULGARIA! Another new Musketeer is named

Posted by Josh on Friday, May 17, 2013, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 

Chris Mack's quick trip to Europe between games a few months ago has paid off huge. Aleksander Vezenkov, a 6'8" forward from Bulgaria, committed to Xavier yesterday. AND he will be enrolling this fall and should be eligible immediately.

There has been some debate on his eligibility due to him playing on a pro team in Greece. He has never signed a pro contract or been paid to play for the team so he meets all NCAA guidelines regarding this issue.

Vez (much easier to write and say than his full n...


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Xavier staff gets verbal commitment from 2014 PG Edmond Sumner

Posted by Josh on Monday, May 13, 2013, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Travis Steele and company reeled in a 2014 commitment from a Detroit-area point guard last night. Edmond "Skinny" Sumner" is a 6'2", 160 pounder who has just recently come up on big schools' radar. As a point guard, he'd be the likely man to fill in the shoes of Semaj Christon, should Semaj leave for the NBA after this coming season or next.

Credit Coach Steele & Xavier for finding Edmond early on and being the first college program to show interest in Skinny.

Sumner joins Melvin Swift as 2014 ...
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One kid's dream to enroll at Xavier

Posted by Josh on Thursday, April 25, 2013, In : Other News 

I've heard about this through other Xavier alumni and thought I'd spread the word. A young man in Philadelphia is trying to raise money to attend his dream college, Xavier. He's been accepted but is in the foster care system and does not have the money to pay the balance due ($17,000) after financial aid. Last week this was mentioned on the Musketeer Madness and Xavier Hoops chatboards and since then the money raised has shot up from a just over a thousand to over $7,000 as of the morning of ...


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The Muskies starting 5 this fall

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, April 9, 2013, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
There's lots of time and practices before the season starts in November but here's a very, very early prediction for the starting 5 when the season starts.

Guard - JR, Dee Davis
Guard - SO, Semaj Christon
Forward - JR, Justin Martin
Forward - SR, Isaiah Philmore
Center - JR, Matt Stainbrook

Christon, Philmore, and Stainbrook were named team captains for this coming season which makes sense. I think all 3 will be big-time contributors on the floor this season. The reigning Atlantic 10 Freshman of th...
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X hires new AD, Greg Christopher

Posted by Josh on Friday, March 29, 2013, In : Other News 
The man responsible for bringing a myriad of new athletic facilities to Bowling Green is now Xavier's new Athletic Director. Greg Christopher spent his last 7 years as Bowling Green's AD and was an Associate AD at Purdue prior to that.

To those asking "who is this guy?", let me remind you that many asked that when Mike Bobinski was named Xavier's AD in 1998 and that worked out pretty darn well.

We have a new conference and a new AD. It's time to get back to our winning ways! GO MUSKIES!
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Xavier outplays St. Joe's but loses in final second

Posted by Josh Bobinger on Saturday, March 16, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
That game was just too painful for us Muskie faithful. I can't remember a game where that many good shots were in and out. Very hard to take that loss. As the A10 tourney continues, I can't even watch any of the games. I know that Xavier is capable of beating every team in the conference which is really frustrating.

The Muskies are not NCAA tourney bound for the first time since 2005! I forgot how crappy it feels to not be in the tourney. March Madness is not fun without our Muskies.

X will alm...
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BEAT THE HAWKS!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 14, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
"I can guarantee you're going to have to cut our hearts out of our chest for us to go down." - Coach Chris Mack

GO MUSKIES! BEAT THE HAWKS!

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Baby Bulldogs eek out a win against X

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, March 12, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
You can always count on not counting on any help from the refs at the old Hinkle barn. The Muskies played with heart and fight Saturday night but came up just short against Butler and their psuedo-child coach.

The narrow loss dropped X from a possible 4th place A10 finish down to the 7th seed and sets them up with an opening round matchup against St. Joe's on Thursday at 6:30. X lost on the road to the Hawks earlier this year. St. Joe's is a talented team that just haven't been able put it tog...
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Xavier/Butler rematch in Saturday's season finale

Posted by Josh on Friday, March 8, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Back in mid-November the underdog Muskies beat the heck out of favored Butler at Cintas Center, 62-47. Soon after, Butler started playing at the level most expected, and then some. They beat then # 9 ranked UNC (obviously they were not a top 10 team), #1 ranked Indiana, and #8 (now #1) ranked Gonzaga. Not too shabby. Butler sits at 23-7 and 10-5 in the A10 after dropping games 2 of their last 3. They lost to SLU and VCU before beating UMass. A Xavier win at Butler on their Senior night would ...
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Muskies beat #15 SLU, Taylor dominates!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 7, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Last Home Game Tonight, Thanks Seniors!

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, March 6, 2013, In : Muskie Recognition 
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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Muskies give up 13 threes, fall to UMass at home

Posted by Josh on Sunday, March 3, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
With a less than 100% Dee Davis and no Landen Amos, the Muskies couldn't get it done on Saturday. The biggest problem was the 3 point shot. UMass hit 13 of 25 on 3-pointers, accounting for more than half of the Minutemen's points.

With UMass star Chaz Williams in foul trouble most of the game, the Muskies really should've been able to win this game. Semaj played 39 minutes and had 17pts and 6 ast, includ 7-8 from the line. Philmore had 14 and Redford had 13 but the first of the team didn't hav...
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It's a great day to be a Muskie! X to join new Big East

Posted by Josh on Friday, March 1, 2013, In : A10/Big East News 
ESPN and multiple news outlets have reported that the "Catholic 7" will buy the rights to the "Big East" name and form their own basketball conference for the upcoming season. Xavier and Butler will be joining immediately!

All the details outside of the 7 teams + XU and Butler have yet to be worked out. The 2013-2014 season will have at least those 9 schools and possibly a 10th. The season after that will then likely have a total of 12 teams. The schools commonly referred to during conference ...
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No Dee? No Amos? No Problem!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, February 28, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Depleted Muskies host Memphis tonight

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, February 26, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Dee Davis is out tonight after colliding with a VCU player on Saturday. Landen Amos is nowhere close to 100% with a hip injury.

The Muskies play the top-20 ranked Memphis Tigers tonight, who have won 18 in a row and have a ton of talented players. Exactly the type of team we don't want to play with an under-manned roster. Memphis can score and score efficiently, averaging 76 pts/gm and 48% shooting overall.

Had we had a healthy Dee Davis tonight, I'd have felt pretty good about our chances. But...
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VCU knocks out Davis, Muskies 2nd half lead vanishes

Posted by Josh on Monday, February 25, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Rams of the A10 - The Good

Posted by Josh on Friday, February 22, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
After beating the Bad and Ugly Rams of the A10, the Good remain. VCU has a solid team and has put together quite a program over the years as well. The Rams have made the NCAA tourney 5 times in the last 10 years, and 3 times in the last 4 years, including that Final Four run in 2011. 

Shaka Smart, who's been the head coach since '09, has put together another fine team this year. The Rams have been in the top 25 much of the year, and even after losing at SLU on Wednesday, boast a 9-3 conference...
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Taylor and Christon power the Muskies to victory on the road!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, February 21, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies put together a solid 2nd half to beat the Rhody Rams 55-42. Travis Taylor was great in the paint, 13 pts and 17 rebs! Semaj Christon had 16 pts & 7 rebs.

No one else scored more than 7 for X but it was enough as the Muskies played nice defense against at already-woeful offense. The Rams shot just 24% from the field, and 17% from 3.

Nice win Muskies! Next up is a real tough one at home, VCU on Saturday at 2pm.

Go Muskies!

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The Rams of the A10 - The Bad

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, February 19, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies next play the Bad version of the Rams, Rhode Island. As you recall, X had a tough enough time playing the Ugly Rams, Fordham, last week. So, this could be bad news. While we pulled out the win vs Fordham at home, this one is on the road and the Muskies road woes continue (reminder - I hate you Dayton).

So what's the deal with Rhode Island? Well, since their fall from basketball respectability more than a decade ago, not much good has happened, unless NITs are what you're striving f...
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Hey Dayton, I hate you

Posted by Josh on Monday, February 18, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Congrats Dayton. You played up to your potential yesterday. Now I guess you'll go back to varying between mediocre and pathetic the rest of the way.

I can't bear to go through a recap of that one. Let's all just move on and forget about this. I guess Dayton has to win some when the series is at their place so that we can keep calling this a rivalry.
 
I hate Dayton. That is all.

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Muskies head north on 75 for Dayton's Super Bowl

Posted by Josh on Friday, February 15, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
It has become so commonplace, it doesn't even seem odd anymore. Every year, Dayton has some talented players and high hopes to start the year. A handful of delusional fans claim that this is the year they win their first A10 regular season championship. Then the season starts. The great players only play good. The good players only play average. The team turns to garbage, save a few guys here and there. 

Then comes the home game against Xavier. Dayton's players and fans realize that they can s...
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Muskies beat Fordham, Christon & Martin shine

Posted by Josh on Thursday, February 14, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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The Rams of the A10: 1st up - The Ugly

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, February 13, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Over the next 10 days, the Muskies play the 3 Rams of the Atlantic 10, VCU, Rhode Island, and Fordham. These 3 programs have had very different paths to where they stand today. First up are the Rams with the biggest problems, the Fordham Rams.

X fans, consider this. The Muskies lost all 5 starters from last year and we certainly didn't have extremely high hopes for this year. However, X is a game out of first place although not good enough right now to be in the tourney picture. Not a bad seas...
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Muskies win on the road, keep pace in A10

Posted by Josh on Monday, February 11, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Xavier heads to Pittsburgh, needing a win vs last-place Duquesne

Posted by Josh on Saturday, February 9, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Xavier needs a road win to say the least. Losers of 3 straight A10 road games, X still sits just a game out of 1st place. I can't say I'm confident in the Muskies anywhere on the road but the most winnable place may be in Pittsburgh against Duquesne. The Dukes are currently on a brief 36 year hiatus from the NCAA tournament. This year they are 0-8 in the A10 and losers of 10 straight after starting the season at a respectable record of 7-5. They've played some tight games in conference, losin...
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Taylor scores 24 but free throws sink Xavier

Posted by Josh on Sunday, February 3, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The 73-71 loss was painful, as usual, but particularly more because of our horrible free throwing shooting. 

Travis Taylor was dominant, 9 for 11 shooting for 24 pts and 8 rebs. Semaj scored 15, Philmore 10, and Robinson and Davis 8 each AND we shot 60% from the field! And we lost!

The biggest reason was that we shot 64% from the line while Richmond shot 80%.

Very frustrating loss. We have a week to recover before heading to Pittsburgh to play Duquesne next Saturday.

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Muskies play at Richmond tonight

Posted by Josh on Saturday, February 2, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Which Muskies team will show up tonight? The one that played solid for 40 minutes against Dayton on Wednesday, or the one that struggled on the road last week at Charlotte and St. Joe's?

The bad news is, unlike their hideous mascots (new or old), their team looks good. At least at home. The Spiders are 11-1 at home, including a win over VCU last week. The Spiders are not a great defensive team though and don't really rebound well either. Even still, Vegas has Richmond as a 3 point favorite wit...
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Beating Dayton, A Xavier Tradition

Posted by Josh on Thursday, January 31, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Time to get crazy Xavier Nation!

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, January 30, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The current 2-game slide hurts and while the postseason is not looking probable right now, there's nothing that would feel better than to beat Dayton at home tomorrow night.

Dayton has had some ups and down this season. As of now, they are not a tourney-caliber team but they aren't real far off. Their 3 conference losses are to arguably the best 3 A10 teams. Some solid wins and a good finish in the A10 would likely get them to the big tourney. The good news is that Dayton is just 1-3 in true r...
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Same old story, X loses on the road

Posted by Josh on Monday, January 28, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
I'm getting sick of seeing the Muskies lead and/or be right there for most of a game and then fall apart and lose. Same story again, Semaj and Trav score in double-digits but no one else does and we lose. The offense looks horrendous again, 34% shooting and 1 for 13 on 3s!

With Saturday's loss at St. Joe's, X has now lost 4 of their last 5 on the road. This up and down team is back in the "down" category for now.

Please God let the Cintas Cintas and the home crowd help the Muskies turn it aroun...
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Xavier heads to St. Joe's Saturday

Posted by Josh on Saturday, January 26, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies couldn't have looked any worse on Wednesday at Charlotte, bringing their 4 game win streak to an end. 

Can they turn it around against St. Joe's? The Hawks are always tough at home and their mascot is always annoying. St. Joe's has a shot-blocking machine in C.J. Aiken. Aiken is blocking 3.1 shots/gm in addition to 11.9 pts/gm and 6 reb/gm. If you watched Wednesday's titanic struggle, you saw the Muskies get swatted 10 times. We better start trying some pump-fakes and stop taking i...
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Muskies lose in horrible fashion at Charlotte

Posted by Josh on Thursday, January 24, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
That was 40 minutes of ugly. Plain and simple. The Muskies and 49ers traded the lead for most of the game and X ended up losing 63-57. Semaj Christon and Travis Taylor were great - They each scored 18 pts, each had 3 steals, and Taylor had 11 boards while Semaj had 5. The rest of the team was apparently sleep-walking.

While Trav and Semaj shot a combined 17-32, the rest of the team shot 8-36!!! The foul disparity didn't help our cause. X was called for 27 fouls vs Charlotte's 15. And the 49ers...
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Muskies hit the road at Charlotte, go for 5th in a row

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, January 23, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Muskies keep streak going, beat LaSalle for 4th in a row!

Posted by Josh Bobinger on Monday, January 21, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Muskies host LaSalle, try to keep momentum going

Posted by Josh on Saturday, January 19, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Muskies win nail-biter at SBU!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, January 17, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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XU's first A10 road game, at SBU tonight

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, January 16, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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No Davis, No Problem! Redford and Christon score 21 each to beat GW!

Posted by Josh on Sunday, January 13, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Muskies win a wild one to open A-10 play!

Posted by Josh on Friday, January 11, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Michigan town and Xavier honor Sandy Hook

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, January 9, 2013, In : Other News 
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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Where do we go from here?

Posted by Josh on Monday, January 7, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Where do we go from here? With a 7-6 record and a 4-game losing streak, things are looking quite grim for Xavier fans these days. I think we all know that we lost all 5 starters last year and have endured some bad luck to say the least. Other than Senior Travis Taylor, no one is playing well consistently right now. Most of our key players are young this year which is very uncommon for Xavier teams over the years. Semaj Christon is a freshman and Dee Davis and Justin Martin are sophomores...

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Muskies lose 4th in a row

Posted by Josh on Thursday, January 3, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Our 4th lost in a row came to Wake Forest last night, giving us our longest losing streak since the 1999-2000 season. As we've seen in the every game since our win at Purdue, the Muskies had long stretches of no offense.

Travis Taylor scored 18 points on 9 of 10 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds. But 16 of those points were in the first half, the Muskies couldn't get Taylor the ball in the 2nd half. Everyone else struggled to score. Jeff Robinson did get 10 pts and 6 rebs after not playing at a...
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A Tale of Two Losers?

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, January 2, 2013, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Okay, I know that's too strong. But the Muskies are trying to avoid their 4th loss in a row tonight while Wake Forest is trying to avoid falling to a .500 record. Wake Forest is 4-2 at home but they have 0 decent wins. Here's how they've fared against "decent" teams...
 
@UConn - lost by 6
Iona (neutral) - lost by 26
Neb - lost by 16
@Richmond - lost by 2
Seton Hall - lost by 4

That's their 5 losses; their 6 wins were against some not-so-great teams to say the least....UNCG, Furman, High Pt, W&M, Me...
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2nd half collapse dooms Muskies to 3rd loss in a row

Posted by Josh on Monday, December 31, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
This is just getting too hard to watch. The Muskies finally make some free throws and go hard to the glass to dominate in rebounding but go on to blow a big 2nd half lead again! 

Other than Travis Taylor and Erik Stenger, I don't think anyone for Xavier can be counted on right now. Taylor had 12 pts and 7 rebs in 22 minutes of play due to foul trouble and Stenger had 6 pts and 8 rebs in just 20 minutes. We had 19 turnovers! Some of those were due to good defense by the Vols but many of those w...
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Xavier plays at Tennessee, hoping to end losing skid

Posted by Josh on Saturday, December 29, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies have depressed us to new levels in the last couple games. I forgot what it's like to lose. I don't like it!

XU plays at Tennessee at 6:00 today on ESPNU. Tenn is a 6 point favorite as they probably should be. They are 6-0 at home this year. One of the largest concerns in this one has to be rebounding yet again. While the Muskies have struggled on the boards, Tenn is out-rebounding their opponents by 7.4 rebs/gm. Neither team is an offensive powerhouse and both are good defensively....
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XU throws away another game, coughs up game to Wofford

Posted by Josh on Sunday, December 23, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Good 1st half, 2nd half injuries and fouls sink XU in Shootout

Posted by Josh on Thursday, December 20, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Shootout Day!

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, December 19, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
We are just hours away from the Shootout. Here's some keys to the game:
Turnovers - UC thrives on playing tough defense and forcing turnovers. The Muskies have to take care of the ball and not give away free points.
Rebounding - UC is great on the glass. The Muskies, not so much. Gotta hold our own on the boards tonight.
Free Throws - The Muskies are making more FTs than their opponents are attempting. Tonight would be a great time to continue that trend.
Helping Semaj - We know that UC is going ...
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Crosstown SHOOTOUT is almost here!

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, December 18, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The apocalypse is now just 2 days from now. No, not the day when Mayans predicted the end of the world. I'm talking about the Crosstown Shootout. As we learned from the media after last year's UC/XU game and endless times since, "the fight" (where 1 total punch was landed) was the most important, horrible, un-called-for, amazing, horrible-again thing to ever happen to college basketball, Cincinnati, and the human race.

Given all that, I don't need to remind you that the game is Wednesday at 7:...
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Xavier to leave A-10, join new conference?

Posted by Josh on Friday, December 14, 2012, In : A10/Big East News 
Rumors are swirling that the 7 non-football schools in the Big East have voted to leave the conference and create a new basketball-only conference. They are rumored to have invited Xavier and Butler to join, as well as possible other schools like Dayton, St. Louis, Creighton, or VCU.

Things are constantly changing with all this conference talk so we'll stay tuned. Could be very good news for Xavier basketball!

Go Muskies!

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Guards lead Muskies in win over Kent St

Posted by Josh on Monday, December 10, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Justin Martin out vs Kent State today

Posted by Josh on Sunday, December 9, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Justin Martin is out today due to suffering a concussion at the end of the Vandy game. Jeff Robinson will start in Martin's place today.

Who's gonna step up? I'll be honest, I'm worried. Kent St can shoot the 3. They do give up 71 points a game so hopefully XU can get their offense back on track.

GET IT TOGETHER MUSKIES!

Go Muskies!

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Muskies give away the game in ugly loss to Vandy

Posted by Josh on Friday, December 7, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Just about the whole team played horrendous at one point or another to manage to lose a double-digit lead and go down at home to Tennesse in overtime on Thursday.

It was a very ugly game but looked like the Muskies could coast to a win when they were up 40-27 four minutes into the 2nd half. Then they played like crap in most every aspect of basketball. The Muskies made just 9 of 17 free throws. The defense only allowed 54 points in regulation but gave up 12 points to Kyle Fuller in overtime. T...
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Muskies take on Vandy at home tonight

Posted by Josh on Thursday, December 6, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
It's "White Out" night. Everyone gets a white Xavier shirt at the game tonight. If you can't make it, tune in to ESPNU for the 7:30 tip.

Vanderbilt, like Xavier, lost most of their top players after last season. The Commodores aren't handling their recovery quite as well as the Muskies have thus far. Their record is 2-4 without having played any great teams. Their bright spots are at guard, as Kedren Johnson (16.7 ppg) and Kyle Fuller (11.3 ppg) lead the team in scoring, although they also ave...
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Muskies win on road at Purdue!

Posted by Josh on Sunday, December 2, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
How about them Muskies?! 6-1 record now after beating Purdue 63-57 on the road today.

Despite getting out-rebounded 38 to 26 and zero points from Jeff Robinson, the Muskies held on for the win. A big reason was not allowing Purdue to make any 3-pointers; they went 0 for 17! Semaj Christon had another big game, scoring 25 pts and adding 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals (8 for 12 shooting and 8 for 8 at the line). Justin Martin scored 12 and despite him and Christon being the only 2 to score ...
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Xavier takes on Purdue in first true road test Saturday

Posted by Josh on Thursday, November 29, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
How will this young Muskies team handle their first road game? 

We will find out Saturday at 2:15 on Big Ten Network.

I think there are 3 big factors that will determine what we see on Saturday:
1 - Hostile Environment - How does the team handle their first true road game of the season? They have yet to play in a hostile environment and Purdue and their fans will be out for revenge after their loss at Xavier last year. (If you don't recall, they were stomping X before a crazy comeback led by Tu ...
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Semaj leads the Muskies to a win over Drake and 5-1 start

Posted by Josh on Monday, November 26, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies beat Drake 74-70, again led by Freshman Semaj Christon. The game was back and forth all day until Xavier pulled away at the end. Drake then hit several 3s at the end to lose by 4.

After a sloppy, turnover-filled first half, the Muskies turned it all around in the 2nd half. Jeff Robinson had 0 points in the 1st half but then scored 13 in the 2nd. Justin Martin had 13 pts and 8 rebs and Dee Davis scored 15. Christon though was again the star of the show; today he had 16 pts, 7 ast, a...
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Muskies beat Drexel, Semaj breaks out with 23 points!

Posted by Josh on Saturday, November 24, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Muskies look awful, lose to Pacific by 3

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 23, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Xavier takes on Pacific as 1st game in Anaheim Classic

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, November 20, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Forget football, the Muskies play at 2:00 on Thanksgiving Day! Pop on ESPNU and work up an appetite cheering for Xavier.

The Muskies take on the hapless Pacific Tigers, who are 1-2 this year and have yet to defeat a Division 1 team. Their win was against Holy Names. That's the actual name of team they played, according to ESPN.com (don't believe me? look http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/schedule/_/id/279/pacific-tigers)! 

Pacific has 3 guys with good size in the paint, one 6'10" ...
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Xavier survives with ugly win over Robert Morris

Posted by Josh on Sunday, November 18, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Xavier goes for 3-0 homestand vs Robert Morris on Saturday

Posted by Josh on Saturday, November 17, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The Muskies face Robert Morris tomorrow, a team who was blown out by Rider and Lehigh before beating Fordham by 16 to start the season 1-2. RoMo is a team that last year more or less lived and died with their top scorer, senior guard Velton Jones. That's good news for Xavier, at least it would seem, as Dee Davis shut down Butler's big-time scorer on Tuesday. Expect the Muskies to be playing tight man-to-man defense again to go for 3-0 in the season-opening homestand. It will also be exciting ...
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Recruiting Update - Mack & staff come through again!

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, November 14, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
This summer, the recruiting trail seemed dry and hopeless for the Muskies. But all that changed very quickly. Last week saw the Xavier staff collect verbal commitments from 3-star player Kamall Richards (2013) and 4-star player Melvin Swift (2014). 

Today, the Muskies have added another, a 4-star PG out of California, Brandon Randolph. Randolph visited Xavier last Friday and saw the Muskies light up FDU in their season opener. The plan was that Rudolph would visit Missouri this coming weekend....
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Muskies defense crushes Butler!

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, November 14, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Butler at Xavier breakdown

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, November 13, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
The word is that Semaj Christon will play against Butler tomorrow at 4:00. Expect Dee Davis to mostly be running the point with Christon playing at SG and occasionally spelling Davis at PG. We can expect solid minutes out of Redford after his hot shooting night Friday IF he can stay with one of the Butler guards on the defensive side. As for the forwards, no doubt all five guys (Stenger, Martin, Taylor, Robinson, Farr) will earn time and be asked to hit the boards hard again.
 
Butler has a sol...

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No Semaj, No Problem! Muskies sets Cintas scoring record!

Posted by Josh on Saturday, November 10, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
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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Undermanned teams tip off season - FDU vs Xavier

Posted by Josh on Friday, November 9, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Well, we thought we'd be short-handed coming into the season. But in the final weeks before and the morning of the season-opener, that is an understatement. 
Isaiah Philmore must sit out the first 3 games for a NCAA infraction from a summer league form not signed 3 years ago.
Chris Cantino has still not been deemed eligible/ineligible by the NCAA and will not suit up tonight (or possibly all year).
- Brad Redford has been day-to-day with a hamstring injury. The good news is that it sounds li...
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3-star 2013 recruit Kamall Richards commits to Xavier

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Chris Mack and the Muskies picked up a verbal commitment from a 3-start small forward today. Kamall Richards is 6'5", 195 lb and currently plays high school ball in South Kent, Connecticut.

He would join Jalen Reynolds and Myles Davis as newcomers next fall. Transfer Matt Stainbrook will also be eligible to play next fall.

Kamall has also mentioned that he is trying to get fellow teammate and a 3-star point guard, Shane Rector, to join him at Xavier next fall.

GO Muskies! The season tips off Fri...
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Muskies win exhibition vs Kentucky St with ease

Posted by Josh on Sunday, November 4, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
It was certainly not the most impressive win but there were some good signs from the Muskies in their exhibition Saturday. XU won 74-53 using only 8 players (other than the last minute of the game). Redford's hamstring was not 100% after tweaking it last week. He did not play Saturday but should be good to go to start the season.

Starting Five: Dee Davis, Semaj Christon, Erik Stenger, Jeff Robinson, Travis Taylor
 
Some takeaways from last night's game: 
The Good:

- We survived a game with only 2 ...
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Basketball is back this week!

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, October 30, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
WOOHOO! Saturday at 7pm, the Muskies play an exhibition game with Kentucky State.

Last week, in a closed-doors scrimmage with West Virginia, the word is that Semaj Christon and Dee Davis played well and that the Muskies led most of the game but lost by a few points in the end.

Expect a starting lineup looking something like this:
Guard - Davis
Guard - Christon

Forward - Martin
Forward - Robinson
Forward - Taylor

At guard, Brad Redford will play plenty as he, Davis, and Christon are the only scholarsh...
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Goodbye offseason! Musketeer Madness is almost here!

Posted by Josh on Monday, October 15, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Tu, Frease, and Walker graduated. Lyons transferred. Two assistant coaches took jobs elsewhere. Wells was expelled and immediately enrolled at Maryland. Two of the incoming freshmen were deemed ineligible by the NCAA. 

AHHH!!!  All of that happened over the course of a few months. We Xavier fans are used to getting bad news in the offseason...like Thad Matta leaving for Ohio St, or Sean Miller leaving for Arizona, or Crawford or Brown leaving early for the NBA.  But this off-season was more th...
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Top 2013 Guard Chris Thomas decommits

Posted by Josh on Monday, October 1, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Once considered a top 10 player nationally, Chris Thomas has taken a step back from his verbal commitment to Xavier. Chris Mack met with his family in Denver last week and all appeared to be well but Thomas wants to be courted by the top programs as many of his current teammates are experiencing. Hard to say if this is the main reason for him taking a step back right now.  It's hard to not wonder if the administration's handling of Dez Wells earlier this summer didn't have a negative impact.

I...
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XU Freshman Jalen Reynolds ruled ineligible by NCAA

Posted by Josh on Monday, September 17, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
This off-season has spun out of control.  Word is the NCAA has now ruled another Xavier Freshman, Jalen Reynolds, ineligible to play, practice, or receive aid this year.

Every week seems to be a slap in the face of Muskies fans this summer.  Please, can we just start the season???

We will now have no more than 8 scholarship players this year.  God help us.  No word on whether Chris Cantino is eligible or not...


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XU Freshman Myles Davis ruled ineligible by NCAA

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
News just broke by CBSSports.com, Jeff Goodman wrote the following:

Myles Davis and Sam Cassell Jr., sat in the same classroom as eight of their Notre Dame Prep teammates two years ago, took the identical classes and yet they have both been ruled ineligible by the NCAA while the others were allowed to take the court last season.

Davis is a Xavier freshman guard who has lost both of his appeals while Cassell, who signed with Maryland, is the son of the former NBA player with the same name who is...


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Xavier full schedule released today

Posted by Josh on Thursday, September 6, 2012, In : A10/Big East News 
Check it out:
 http://www.goxavier.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/090612aaa.html

We start conference play with Temple and finish with St. Louis and Butler.  We are in for some very tough games.

Go Muskies!

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First Wells interview since being expelled

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, August 29, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/blog/eye-on-college-basketball/19967359/dezmine-wells-speaks-for-first-time-following-expulsion-

Well, just as has been happening all along, Xavier is looking really foolish again here.  What a disaster this offseason has become.

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More Wells rumors swirling

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, August 28, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
What the hell is going on now???

Attorney Joe Dieters as well as Dez Wells' lawyer were just on 700WLW talking about how Xavier wrongfully treated Wells in their decision to kick him out of school.

Remember that uneasy feeling about whether the administration screwed up again?  I was hoping that feeling would go away but nope.  Now, it's even worse.  

Xavier was the ONLY school that Dez Wells was considering in high school.  He then shot up the recruiting rankings and big-time programs were inte...

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A closer look into losing Wells

Posted by Josh on Thursday, August 23, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Now that I've had some time to think this through, I have to say that I don't feel much better about this. My gut feeling on what to think is "I don't know what to think".  

On the one hand, if Dez Wells did something that broke the Student Code of Conduct, I'm pleased that Xavier acted swiftly and treated him just as they would any other student. No one person, even the best athlete on campus, is above any other at Xavier.  I commend Xavier for handling this as they have.

I wish those were my ...
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Wells out, Chris Cantino commits to XU

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, August 22, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Among all the chaos yesterday of the announcement of Dez Wells being expelled from Xavier, several places have reported that Chris Cantino has committed to Xavier.

Cantino played in Junior College last year so he is immediately eligible to play.  He's a forward and would likely jump into the competition for one of the starting spots.

More on Wells to come.

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Dez Wells kicked out of Xavier

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, August 21, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
I'm just speechless. 
http://www.goxavier.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/082112aae.html 
Dez Wells, who had the potential to become one of the best players in our bright history, has been expelled from school for violating the code of conduct.

I'm so disappointed that I can't elaborate on this right now.  He's easily the most exciting and talented player in recent time to play at Xavier.  With Wells gone, now all 5 starters from last year must be replaced when the season starts this fall.
...
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Will Mack make a late addition to this fall's team?

Posted by Josh on Thursday, August 16, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
We've been wondering all summer...what will Xavier do with the last scholarship opening for this fall?  Another high-schooler from the class 2012, a transfer, or maybe save the spot for an extra freshman next year...? 

When it looked like the first option was completely off the table, it might end up being just that.  Indiana had one too many players slated to be on scholarship this fall.  In a classy move, Tom Crean over-recruited this class and someone had to be squeezed.  Ron Patterson, an ...
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Xavier-led team wins Summer League, Semaj is MVP

Posted by Josh on Monday, July 30, 2012, In : Other News 
After Semaj Christon was allowed to change teams in the Deveroe's Summer League due to his original team being DQ'ed for not having 5 guys at tip-off team, he joined the Deer Park team.  He scored 31 points and was ward awarded MVP in the championship game as his new team, which included Dez Wells, Jalen Reynolds, James Farr, and Myles Davis, won the tournament.

I don't want to put much emphasis on this as summer leagues don't mean a lot.  But it's clear that we have a talented player joining ...
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Xavier announces all opponents for upcoming season

Posted by Josh on Friday, July 20, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/xavi/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/2013Schedule.pdf

The Muskies filled in the their final 3 spots for this year's schedule, adding Kent State, Robert Morris, and Wofford.

The full non-conference list:
Nov 9 - Fairleigh Dickinson
Nov 13 - Butler
Nov 17 - Robert Morris
Nov 22/23/25 - Anaheim Classic Tournament (Cal, Drake, Drexel, Georgia Tech, Pacific, Rice, Saint Mary’s and Xavier)
Dec 1 - @Purdue
Dec 6 - Vanderbilt
Dec 9 - Kent State
Dec 19 - UC ...
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4 months 'til Butler vs Xavier kicks off season

Posted by Josh on Friday, July 13, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
November 13th, 4:00pm at Cintas Center (and on ESPN), Butler will play Xavier to kick off the season for the Muskies.

We have to make it 4 more months people!  Can we do it?  A few weeks before that we will have Musketeer Madness and probably 2 exhibition games to whet our appetite.

Go Muskies!

Comments
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Our first look at this fall's team

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, June 26, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Guards: Dee Davis, Brad Redford, Myles Davis, and Semaj Christon

Forwards: Dez Wells, Justin Martin, Jeff Robinson, Travis Taylor, Isaiah Philmore, Jalen Reynolds, James Farr, and walk-on Erik Stenger

With 4 of last year's starting 5 gone, the Muskies have lots of holes to fill.  This will be a very young team so there will be a lot of uncertainty.  But these young guys were highly recruited so their potential is through the roof.  One thing is for sure, Dez Wells will be starting on day 1. The...
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Crosstown Shootout will be at USBank with a new name

Posted by Josh on Thursday, June 14, 2012, In : Other News 
A press conference at the National Underground Freedom Center downtown just occurred and it's been announced that the Crosstown Shootout will be played at the US Bank Arena the next 2 years.  It's not the Crosstown Shootout anymore though.  It's now called the "Skyline Chili Crosstown Classic".  Yes, really.  A portion of the ticket sales will be shared with the Freedom Center.

The change of name certainly wipes away the past, doesn't it?  What a joke.  Now people will always see this new name...
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Coleman chooses Gonzaga, XU has 1 scholarship open

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, June 12, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Gerard Coleman will be transferring to Gonzaga.  He had the Zags and Xavier at the top of his list but it appears a concern for earning playing time at his position could have been the reason he ultimately didn't choose X.  With Dez Wells here and assuming that Chris Thomas will be here next year (when Coleman would be eligible to play), Coleman would've been at odds to getting a starting spot.

This leaves the Muskies with one scholarship spot this fall.  There are very few 2012 high school pl...
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XU could be close to reeling in Providence transfer...

Posted by Josh on Friday, June 8, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Gerard Coleman, a slashing guard who's played 2 years at Providence, just had a visit to Xavier's campus.  It's said that he is going to pick either Xavier or Gonzaga in the near future.  That's quite a ways from his hometown of Boston!

He played over 1900 minutes in his two years in the Big East, averaging 10.3 pts/gm as a Freshman and 13.2 pts/game as a Sophomore.  His turnover rate and 3-point percentage are far from great but his ability to score makes him a solid pickup, should Chris Mack...
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A10 conference schedule is out!

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, In : A10/Big East News 
Here's what Xavier's A10 schedule will look like:

Home: Dayton, Fordham, GW, LaSalle, St. Louis, Temple,  UMass, VCU
Away: Dayton, Butler, Charlotte, Duquesne, Rhode Island, Richmond, St. Bonaventure, St. Joe's

It's nice to get SLU and VCU at home.  Road games at Butler and St. Joe's will certainly be tough.

This means that either the ESPN Season Kickoff game vs. Butler at Cintas will not be played or it will be played but considered a non-conference game.

Can't wait for the season!  Once the dat...
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Update - VCU will join this year!

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, May 15, 2012, In : A10/Big East News 
The CAA Commissioner just announced that VCU is bolting and will join the A10 this summer.  So, in less than a week, VCU went from being in the Colonial to joining the A10 in a year to joining the A10 immediately.  Welcome aboard!

This makes 15 teams in the conference for this fall as Butler-in, Temple-out, and Charlotte-out don't happen until next year.  That will make the A10 scheduling a bit tougher.  Xavier would likely now only play two teams twice (instead of 3) as the conference schedul...
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Mark Lyons to AZ, Summer League, other notes

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, May 9, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Some various Muskies notes for you...

Mark Lyons has told Sean Miller and Arizona he'll be heading there this fall.  Best of luck to him.

Chris Mack has been out recruiting and likely trying to decide who's going to fill the 2 assistant coach vacancies.  We'll update as soon as we hear more.

Summer is coming and Musketeer Madness seems so far away.  It's nowhere near as exciting, but at least the summer leagues will be in June and July.  Saturday, June 16th will be the first sets of games.  It's...
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2 XU assistant coaches leave program

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, May 1, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 

Sorry I didn't post this earlier.  There was a lot of speculation that these 2 were leaving, but I waited until it was official. 

Rasheen Davis took a position with Manhattan.  He is from the NY area so you would think that he wanted to be closer to home.  Davis is a great recruiter and the main guy involved in landing the #5 overall 2013 player, Chris Thomas, in next year's class.  We've heard from Thomas' camp that he still intends to attend Xavier in the fall of 2013 but there's a lot of t...


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It's official. Lyons will not be back

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, April 24, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Well, with all the rumors and media clownery the last 2 days, we could see this coming.

GoXavier.com released a statement today saying that Lyons will not be back for his Senior year.  We are sure going to miss his scoring ability and tenacity.  I hope it's the best move in the long run.

Reports are that Arizona, Kansas, and Kentucky have already expressed interest in Lyons.  If he graduates as expected in May, he will be eligible to enroll in grad school at another school and play immediately....
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Ummmm, is Lyons gone or not?

Posted by Josh on Monday, April 23, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
In what has been a year swirling out of control with XU's PR, we will continue that trend today.

News broke yesterday that Lyons was asked to not return to Xavier for this Senior season....ummm, yeah but others have now written that that may not in fact be the case.  Or, maybe not yet.  There's other articles that he could transfer to Arizona and Sean Miller.  There have been no statements from the coaching, AD, or Xavier.  In my opinion, his has been handled absolutely horribly.

My thoughts at...
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Xavier sign transfer Matt Stainbrook out of Western Mich

Posted by Josh on Wednesday, April 18, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
This week the Muskies signed Matt Stainbrook, a 6'10", 290lb center who's played his first 2 seasons at Western Michigan.  This was kinda out of nowhere as we'd been hearing about a few other transfer players on Xavier's radar but not much about Stainbrook.

Stainbrook will be eligible next fall (2013-2014 season) and will have 2 years of eligibility left.  This past year, he averaged 11 points and 7 rebounds a game and shot an impressive 58% from the field.  He's certainly not flashy and fast ...
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2011-2012 Xavier Season Wrap-up

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, April 10, 2012, In : Muskie Recognition 
Well, I kept putting this off...I was trying to forget about the loss to Baylor and probably trying to avoid coming to the realization that the season is over. 

The season certainly was a rollercoaster. Seven games into the season, I didn't think the optimism could be any higher for Muskies fans....then as we watched Xavier build a huge lead against UC at Cintas, an 8-0 record and a 20 point win over our rival was undoubtedly going to be boost our confidence even more…

Then of course, the fig...

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Xavier lands #5 overall rated 2013 player Chris Thomas

Posted by Josh on Thursday, April 5, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Several sources have just reported that 6'5" Shooting Guard Chris Thomas has committed to Xavier.  He's from Denver but has jumped around to several schools and will be playing in Junior College this fall to qualifty for Division I basketball.

Chris Mack and Rasheen Davis are responsible for reeling in this big-time scoring guard.  Incoming Freshman Semaj Christon will be the first 5-star recruit to start his Division I college career at Xavier this fall.  And Thomas will be the second!  Two f...
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McKenzie to transfer

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, In : Recruiting/Roster Updates 
Griffin McKenzie, who's played very limited minutes in his 2 years with Xavier, will be transferring.

We wish Griff all the best and hope he gets to play in an expanded role elsewhere.  This leaves the Muskies with an open scholarship for this coming fall.  One of 3 things could happen here:
1 - Mack gives the scholarship to a guy on the team who doesn't have one (namely Stenger, who transferred in from NKU last year)
2 - Mack could offer to a high school senior that would be eligible to play th...
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Muskies lose...it's over.

Posted by Josh on Saturday, March 24, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
8 months til Muskies play again.  We don't start down 22-4 to Baylor, we win easily.  I'm so disappointed. 
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ________
. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . ,.-‘”. . . . . . . . . .``~.,
. . . . . . . .. . . . . .,.-”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .“-.,
. . . . .. . . . . . ..,/. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ”:,
. . . . . . . .. .,?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\,
. . . . . . . . . /. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...

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#3 Baylor vs #10 Xavier - Preview Part 2

Posted by Josh on Friday, March 23, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Well, the day is finally here.  As has been the case in many previous tournament games, the Muskies are the underdogs.  I didn't really think this could be possible, but apparently UC's win over Florida State to make the Sweet 16 was the first time in school history that they beat a higher seeded team.  That's pretty wild.  I'm curious how many times Xavier has done that.  I may have to check some numbers and post that next week.
On to the matchup... Baylor is unbelievably talented. They've lo...

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1 day away!

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 22, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Part 2 of the Baylor/Xavier preview is coming.  Dezmine Wells was able to practice today so he appears to be in good enough shape to play Friday.  Unfortunately, Andre Walker has been held out of practice all week after getting hit in the head a couple times in the games last weekend.  Hopefully he will be alright.

I wanted to pass along a comical breakdown of who to root for of the final 16:
http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story/_/id/7722387/page-2-rooting-guide-sweet-16

It's a quick read but no ...
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#3 Baylor vs #10 Xavier - Preview Part 1

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, March 20, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
If you haven't heard this yet, it's worth repeating...Xavier, North Carolina, Mich St, and Kansas are the only schools to make 4 of the last 5 Sweet 16s.  That's pretty impressive!

On to our next opponent: Baylor.  To be quite honest, the 2 teams I would least want to play in the tournament, from a standpoint of matchups, are Baylor and UK.  And if we are going to the Final Four, that's probably who we're going to have to beat.  Baylor's big guys are very athletic.  Their combination of size a...
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#15 Lehigh vs #10 Xavier Preview

Posted by Josh on Saturday, March 17, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
If you didn't see what was one of the coolest upsets ever in the NCAA Tournament yesterday, you probably still know nothing about Lehigh.  The school is in Bethlehem, PA.  Their mascot is the Mountain Hawk and their bold choice of colors are brown and white.  With a total of about 7,000 undergrads + grads, they are very similar in size to Xavier.

Other than that they beat Duke, what do we know about them?  Well, they beat Duke.  Oh, other than that?  Nothing.  They have a respectable RPI of 91...
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MUSKIES WIN! XU vs Lehigh Sunday for Sweet 16 bid!

Posted by Josh on Saturday, March 17, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

MUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Sorry Notre Dame.
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#7 Notre Dame vs #10 Xavier Preview: Part 2

Posted by Josh on Friday, March 16, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Here's a breakdown of our 3 common opponents.  We had the luxury of playing all 3 at home where as the Irish did not.  We certainly fared better but 5 of the 6 games below were very early on in the season.  While the Muskies started strong and then faded, the Irish did the opposite and were on fire during the conference season.

Common Opponents (H=Home, A=Away, N=Neutral site)
               Notre Dame     Xavier
Georgia    L by 4(N)      W by 14(H)
Gonzaga  L by 20(A)    L by 7(H)
Cincy       L b...
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#7 Notre Dame vs. #10 Xavier - Preview Part 1

Posted by Josh on Thursday, March 15, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
It looks like the Muskies will tip-off closer to 10PM than 9:30 on Friday.  More than half of the original 68 teams will be eliminated before XU's 1st game is decided.  And it may even be St. Patrick's Day when it the game ends as well.

The Irish are getting to celebrate their favorite holiday Saturday, let's hope that'll be all they celebrate.  They are a 2 1/2 point favorite over the Muskies.  The Muskies are in an underdog role that we have certainly thrived in, in years past.  A slight und...

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Where will you watch the big game?

Posted by Josh on Tuesday, March 13, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
If you're an out of town Muskie fan, see if the Xavier chapter in your city has a designated place to unite and cheer on our Muskies...

http://www.xavier.edu/alumni/content/get-informed/basketball.cfm#viewing

Scroll halfway down that page and you'll see what chapters are hosting and where.  Hope you can enjoy the game Friday night with some fellow Musketeers.

GO MUSKIES!!!
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Muskies fall to Bonnies, but face Notre Dame Friday night in NCAA Tourney

Posted by Josh on Monday, March 12, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

We lost to the Bonnies in the A10 title game.  It was not fun. Nicholson was out of this world and was getting the foul calls that a NBA star gets.  But guess what, time to forget about that and move on.

Looks like about a 9:40 tip Friday night against the Irish!  Should be a good one.  Much more to come.

MARCH ON MUSKIES!!!


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Billikins v Musketeers Part Trios

Posted by Boardwalk Empire on Saturday, March 10, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 
Revenge is sweet, but pan seared Billikin is delicious. Xavier has not had much luck against SLU this year losing 2 of 2. Today Mack's Mighty Muskies get another chance for redemption. SLU is seen as a tournament lock having big wins in the early part of the season and closing out the conference 12-4. Obviously if XU wants to dance they have to knock out St Louis much like George McFly knocked out Biff Tannen in Back to the Future to get into the dance. Conklin and Mitchell are the two leadin...
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Xavier Edges Dayton to Keep March Hopes Alive!!!

Posted by Ron on Saturday, March 10, 2012, In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc. 

When it comes to rubber matches all bets are off and you can count only on pure mayhem to ensue. The northeastern playground of Atlantic City got all that and more as two foes squared off in a battle royale. Miles from the safe haven of I-75 the battle was waged. The first half was a disaster and looked as if the Dayton Dumpsters would again dash the hopes of the Musketeer faithful. I don't know what was said in that locker room during halftime but the mighty Muskies came back with a vengance...


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