Just one thing here: Xavier Basketball

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 nailed some huge 3s which gave us hope but VCU's full-court pressure defense (with lots of contact on Xavier ballhandlers I might add) was too much for X without their point guard available. A VERY questionable charge call on Semaj in the final minutes sunk us for good. From my angle, it appeared that the VCU big man moved right into Christon's path as he went up and scored. Bad breaks are the theme for Xavier this year though. I should have expected that.

With the log-jam of teams at the top of the A10, the loss is a huge blow to Xavier's hopes of earning a bye in the conference tourney. I'd say it also makes it a certainty that the Muskies can not make the NCAAs this year without winning the A10 tourney. Very depressing. 

Next up - Memphis at home on Tuesday night, status of Dee Davis still up in the air. Go Muskies!

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 record, a half game back of the Billikens. VCU plays a face-paced game with 40 minutes of intense pressure defense, "Havoc" as they call it. They score 77.5 pts a game, good for 14th in the nation. But the craziest stat is that they average more than 12 steals/game, easily the highest in the country. Throw in that they have 4 players averaging double-digits points per game and add that as a team they shoot 45% and this is a very tough team to beat.

Earlier this season, when UC's guards pressured pretty much any Xavier ball-handler that wasn't Semaj Christon, they had a lot of success. Given that VCU's pressure is 10 times that of UC's, feel free to go into the mindset of a scared child walking into a dark alley alone for tomorrow's matchup. More bad news is that the students start their spring break this weekend so our home court advantage takes a hit for these next 3 games.

Just so we aren't completely negative here, I will mention that Xavier has been a home underdog two times this season and both times went well. We beat Butler and Temple. Maybe the trend continues and we make it 3 for 3! Go Muskies!

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!

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 for. The Rams went to 3 straight NCAA tourneys to close out the 90s (including an Elite 8 in 1998) but have not made a single tourney since. They finally canned long-time coach Jim Baron last year after managing ZERO tourney bids in 11 years. New coach Danny Hurley hopes to turn the program around. In his first year, although they fight and scrap and keep games close, they have just a 8-16 record. While their 3-8 conference record looks rough, consider that only one of their 8 losses was by more than 8 points. They've won at SLU and lost close games to VCU and Butler. 

As we know from our battles with other A10 cellar-dwellers this year, no game is a gimme in this conference. The Muskies are in desperate need of a road win tomorrow night. If our road record is any indication, have a drink (or several) ready for this one to help ease the nerves!

Go Muskies!

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.