4:03 PM EDT, Thu March 28, 2024
Mar 21, 2024
The Banners Tournament Preview

The Banners Tournament Preview

Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports Here’s the culmination of our region previews to help guide you through days of the year By the time this hits the wire we’ll be four hours from the tip of the first round of the NCAA tournament. It is, without a doubt, the best two days of the sporting calendar. Xavier isn’t there this year, which brings with it a weird sense of relief. It’s definitely not as good, but there is a lot less of the high grade heart strain and general stomach discomfort that comes with a Xavier tournament game. Hopefully we get back to that next...
Mar 19, 2024
2024 NCAA Tournament West Bracket Preview

2024 NCAA Tournament West Bracket Preview

Xavier pounded these guys | Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports Arizona faces yet another region where the bottom of the bracket is absolutely loaded. After four months of winnowing, the greatest single-elimination contest is sports is set to begin. From 362 D1 basketball programs, 68 have been chosen to spend three weekends playing for the sport’s national title. Each of the four regions will battle to send one representative to the Final Four. Now it’s time for the West. Poor Arizona. Last year they got wiped out in the first round. This year the committee has handed...
Mar 19, 2024
2024 NCAA Tournament Midwest Bracket Preview

2024 NCAA Tournament Midwest Bracket Preview

Probably the only nets Akron will be cutting down this March, but awesome nonetheless. | Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports If the Mountain West wants to silence the haters they will more than have the chance in a wide open region. After four months of winnowing, the greatest single-elimination contest is sports is set to begin. From 362 D1 basketball programs, 68 have been chosen to spend three weekends playing for the sport’s national title. Each of the four regions will battle to send one representative to the Final Four. We start with the Midwest. Oh, Mountain West...
Mar 18, 2024
What was the committee thinking?

What was the committee thinking?

Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK The men’s basketball tournament is the NCAA’s biggest showpiece, and they messed it all up. The tournament is finally here. Xavier isn’t in it, nor should they be, but the glorious bracket has been unveiled, the seeding has been analyzed, and the talking heads have talked. It was a great Selection Sunday, because all Selection Sunday’s are great. Have you ever had a Christmas that didn’t go according to plan, though? Maybe your gifts didn’t land right. Maybe you didn’t get what you wanted, or the roast...
Mar 14, 2024
Big East Tournament Preview: Taking on Goliath

Big East Tournament Preview: Taking on Goliath

He’s yelling at a ref? That’s weird | Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports There are hurdles on the way to the tournament and then there is this game, a veritable high jump. Well, to be (in the tournament with) the best you have to beat the best. In order to win the Big East tournament and earn a shot at the auto-bid, Xavier was going to have to beat UConn at some point. That point is now about four hours away. I’m not going to type you a bunch of hyped up we can do this nonsense. This game will be as difficult as anyone plays all season. The teams that meet in the NCAA...
Mar 12, 2024
Championship Week News and Notes

Championship Week News and Notes

Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports It the time of year where things speed up Championship Week is weird when you are a high major in a low major’s situation. Xavier is only going to the tournament if they win the Big East tournament. The NIT may or may not wait. Until X tips off tomorrow at 4pm, there’s little to do but peruse the college basketball news and see what everyone else is up to. Bids are going out Six teams, Stetson, Drake, Longwood, James Madison, Morehead St, and Samford are already in. Stetson is in for the first time and is going to either play a...
Mar 11, 2024
Quincy Olivari doesn’t get the respect he deserves

Quincy Olivari doesn’t get the respect he deserves

Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK The Big East slapped Xavier’s best player in the face with an indefensible decision. Quick, if a player leads a conference in scoring and three pointers made, finishes second in three point percentage, fifth in free throw percentage, 20th in rebounding as a 6-3 guard, 11th in steals, and is not lower than 19th in any offensive metric, which spot on the all-conference team should he play? Clearly that guy can go anywhere from the one to the three, right? Nope. The Big East named Quincy Olivari to honorable mention...
Mar 10, 2024
The many emotions of Xavier

The many emotions of Xavier

Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK Following Xavier this season wasn’t for the emotionally stable College basketball is probably the best sport there is. The season starts full of hope for 362 teams. All of them know that a chance to appear on the sport’s biggest stage is available to them. UConn, Kansas, Duke, and Arizona can get there by dint of their schedule and the games they will win. The little guys, Stetson, Longwood, Maryland Eastern Shore, and Houston Christian all know that all they have to do is got hot and win four games at the right time and...
Mar 7, 2024
What is going on?

What is going on?

Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK Xavier has been bad before, rarely have they seemed so uninspired. This article is going to read as very critical of Xavier basketball. In a lot of ways it is. I’m not advocating for a change at head coach; I think that would be a horrible decision. I’m not campaigning for a kid to lose a scholarship; that would be cruel. Xavier’s season has been hamstrung by major injuries to Zach Freemantle and Jerome Hunter. The losses of Kam Craft and Reid Ducharme deprived the team of shooting and depth. Recently Sasa Ciani and...
Mar 6, 2024
Without even a whimper

Without even a whimper

He never, ever quits | Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK Xavier gets run off the court early in a disheartening loss to Butler. Somewhere Dailyn Swain is recovering from a surgery that pulled his abdomen open. Hopefully the young man was heavily sedated and didn’t have to watch the first half of this game. What would be a terrible thing to happen in the first game you absolutely had to win? Allowing a 17-0 run? Turning the ball over 10 times? Having leading scorer go MIA? Shooting 30%? What about doing all of that? Would that be terrible? That’s what Xavier...
Mar 6, 2024
Xavier v. Butler: Preview, matchup, keys to the game

Xavier v. Butler: Preview, matchup, keys to the game

[Redacted] | Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK There never was much hope, just a fool’s hope. We are at the pointy end of the basketball season. Teams are scrambling to solidify resumes, get on the bubble, secure a bid, lock down a one seed, and all the other amazing things that happen in March. Xavier is doing none of that. The Musketeers are hanging on to a finger grip on their tournament chances. The chance they gain an at large bid rests on them continuing an improbable run that doesn’t stop until they are in the game that could secure them an auto...
Mar 3, 2024
Have a game, Des Claude

Have a game, Des Claude

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports Xavier’s unfairly maligned sophomore exploded in the second half of a must win game for Xavier. Desmond Claude is a polarizing player. To the unwashed Twitter masses he’s an unrepentant gunner who shoots too much and is a disappointing player in his freshman year. To the people who know the game he’s a guy flashing major upside and hampered only by a jumper that he deploys only to keep defenses honest. To Coach Miller he’s the player he frequently chooses to have the ball with the game on the line. Xavier still has a tiny chance for...
Feb 29, 2024
Finding the Good

Finding the Good

Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK This team has long since drifted away from contention, that doesn’t mean the great moments are gone. In almost any normal circumstance Brad Colbert would be the best basketball player in the area. In any open run at your local Y or the courts where you play he would dominate. He finished a HS career that started at Moeller at the ISA in Willoughby. He’s a baller everywhere other than NCAA DI. Like all of us who picked up a basketball before we could walk, though, DI is where he wanted to end up. Coming into last night’s...

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