Just one thing here: Xavier Basketball

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 salvage the season by beating X and they go crazy. The fans are twice as loud, the players show up and play out of their minds. 

That's what the Muskies have to go up against tomorrow at Noon. A team with a mediocre record that is gonna play like a top 25 team tomorrow. X has struggled on the road this year and need to continue to go hard to the glass and play tough defense.  Come on Muskies, let's get a victory! BEAT DAYTON!

Go Muskies!

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 (1st career basket) late. No time to rest, the Muskie head up to Dayton for a noon game on Saturday. X is now 7-3 in conference, tied with Butler and LaSalle. VCU and SLU sit at 7-2.

Go Muskies! 

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 season so far, all things considered. But thus far, we'd consider this one of our worst seasons in quite a while...well, now imagine you are a Fordham fan. The last time Fordham was in the NCAA tourney was 1992! They've only been to it 4 times. The Rams went 0 for 16 in the A10 three years ago and had an overall record of 2-26. That stings a bit.

Here's their last 4 years of wins and losses: 3-25 2-26 6-18 10-19

You would think they were trending in the right direction. (When's the last time a 10 win season was a good thing?) This year, it looks as though things aren't getting any better though. The Rams are 6-18 (including 0-12 on the road) and shooting 40.6% from the field, good for 291st in the nation. Chris Gaston, averaging 14pts/8reb when healthy, was hoping to be back tonight but word is he will not play.

Does this mean that X can finally not put us through a nail-biter and win one comfortably for a change? I sure hope so.

Go Muskies!

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 Davis also added 9 pts and 3 ast. It was nice to see Philmore have a big game, coming off the bench and playing well in 25 minutes. The shaved-head versions of Brad Redford and Erik Stenger didn't score any points in limited action; hopefully as their hair returns, so will their offensive production.

Duquesne shot just 34% but it's hard to say if that was due to X's defense or their poor shot-taking. I think it's a bit of both. The Dukes seemed to chuck the ball up anytime they caught it near the 3-point line. They made 9 threes but attempted 33 of them. Derrick Colter came in as the Dukes leading scorer but was head to 1 of 12 shooting.

The win keeps X within 1 game of first place in the A10. Next up - Fordham comes to Cintas for a Wednesday night game.

Go Muskies!

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, losing by single digits at St Bonnie and at home against St. Joe's and SLU at home. But they've also had some very ugly losses, 20+ point defeats at home to GW and VCU.

There's a lot of ugly stats for the Dukes this year, one of the scariest being that they shoot less than 41% from the field, good for 283rd in the nation! And guess what? They actually shoot worse at the line than the Muskies! Albeit, barely. DUQ is at 63.8% on FTs this year while XU is at 64.6%. Pretty pathetic numbers.

The game is at Consol Energy Center, the Pittsburgh Penguins arena, a nice place that's just a couple years old. Last time X played there, there was a nice following of Muskies fans that made the trip. Let's hope the same is true tomorrow.

Let's Go Muskies!