O
n Sunday evening, after the NCAA Selection Committee revealed the first three tournament regions with no sign of Xavier’s name, the Musketeers started to sweat.
“For a second there, I was hoping they’d expand the tournament so we could be the (69th) team called,” Xavier coach Chris Mack joked. “There was tension in the room.”
During the final minutes of the selection show, Xavier’s NCAA Tournament bid became official — with a higher seed than most anticipated. ESPN and CBS bracket experts had picked Xavier to earn anywhere from a No. 7 to No. 9 seed, but Xavier (21-13, 9-9 Big East) will travel to Jacksonville, Fla., on Thursday as a No. 6 seed to play the winner of Tuesday’s Ole Miss vs. BYU NCAA First Four game. (This story went to press before the First Four games began; Xavier will play Ole Miss.)
The Musketeers have now made nine of the last 10 NCAA Tournaments and are looking to win their first Tournament game since the 2011-12 season.
Xavier entered the season with high hopes, returning two starters — senior center Matt Stainbrook and senior point guard Dee Davis — and gaining highly touted freshman Trevon Bluiett.
The Musketeers have found success in a balanced offense, with a trio of players averaging double figures: Stainbrook (12.0 points per game), Bluiett (11.7) and sophomore Myles Davis (10.7). Xavier enters Thursday’s game shooting 47.3 percent from the field, best in the Big East, and averaging 73.6 points per game.
Though the team looked inconsistent at times this season, its strength of schedule and strong Big East Tournament run helped earn a favorable seed. The Musketeers are 6-3 against top 25 teams this season, for the highest number of wins over nationally ranked teams in school history. Three of those wins came against Georgetown, two against Butler and one against Seton Hall. All three of Xavier’s top-25 losses were to Villanova, which earned a No. 1 seed in the Tournament.
Last week’s Big East Tournament proved to be an abbreviated version of Xavier’s performance against top teams. The Musketeers upset Butler and Georgetown before falling 69-52 to Villanova in the Big East championship game on Saturday.
“I think once you play three top-25 teams in three days and you’re able to beat two of the three, it says a lot about the makeup of our team,” Mack said. “Some teams in the tournament didn’t even beat one top-25 team. We went 6-0 against top 25 teams this year if you take out Villanova. Our team is more than capable.”
Against Villanova on March 14, Xavier trailed by as much as 16 points in the first half and 21 in the second half. Mack said the game was like “running into a buzzsaw.” But on Selection Sunday, less than 24 hours after that loss, Mack was confident his team was ready to move on.
“There were a lot of tears in the locker room (Saturday) night,” Mack said. “That game meant a lot to our program and a lot of the kids in the locker room. I think they’re going to be ready to go and itching to get rid of that feeling.”
Though Xavier’s seed is better than last year’s, when it lost in the NCAA First Four as a No. 12 seed to NC State, the Musketeers will again have less than two days between the announcement of their opponent and their first game. Mack said the team will wait until Tuesday’s play-in game is over to start preparing for Thursday, as opposed to practicing for two potential matchups.
BYU (25-9, 13-5 West Coast Conference) is known for its high-powered offense. The Cougars are averaging 83.6 points per game, second in the country, and four players average in double figures. The Cougars are led by BYU all-time leading scorer Tyler Haws (21.9 points per game), who surpassed standout Jimmer Fredette’s career scoring total in a win over Portland on Feb. 27. Guard Kyle Collinsworth has notched an NCAA-record-tying six triple-doubles this season.
BYU lost to Gonzaga in last week’s West Coast Conference championship game after beating the Zags earlier in the regular season. The Cougars were one of just two teams to beat Gonzaga this year, but that one quality win in a relatively weak schedule left many wondering whether BYU would earn an at-large bid on Selection Sunday.
Meanwhile, Ole Miss (20-12, 11-7 Southeastern Conference) lost 60-58 to South Carolina in its first game of the SEC Tournament and is entering Tuesday’s game against BYU having lost four of its last five games.
Ole Miss took overall No. 1 seed Kentucky to overtime earlier in the season before losing 89-86 and notched quality wins over Arkansas, Oregon and Cincinnati, but bad losses to Charleston Southern and Western Kentucky left the Rebels squarely on the bubble. Stefan Moody leads the team with 16.3 points per game, and Jarvis Summers averages 12.1.
Regardless of which team the Musketeers end up playing on Thursday afternoon, Xavier’s seniors are ready for the quick turnaround. With a solid last month of play, Stainbrook said his team is peaking at the right time to make an impact in the postseason.
“I think that with a team who is expected to make the Tournament regularly, 99 percent of your legacy is based on what you do there,” Stainbrook said. “I think that’s fair. That’s OK to me. I want to go out and be remembered in a good light. There’s a lot of weight on my shoulders — a lot of weight on our shoulders — but I’m excited for it.”
The XAVIER MUSKETEERS will play the winner of BYU/Ole Miss Ole Miss in the NCAA Tournament’s second round 4:10 p.m. Thursday.
This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2015.
