Last night's game gave me the worst feeling watching a game in as long as I can remember.  We play a complete 1st half and we're up 11 in the 2nd half, only to give up one of the worst runs I've ever seen and a few minutes later we're down 11.

Streak of 5 straight A-10 titles is officially over, chances at a bye in the A10 are nearly zero, and chances of making the NCAA Tourney are slim.  I'm so dissapointed, angry, frustrated....I have nothing positive to say.

Continue reading ...

Eight teams are fighting for the top 4 seeds in the A10 tournament with just 2 games to go.  With a top 4 seed comes a bye from the first round and an automatic trip to the quarterfinal round in Atlantic City.

The winner of the Xavier/St. Louis game tonight is in great shape.  It would clinch a bye for St. Louis.  A Xavier win would not quite be a guarantee, but would put us in great shape with one home game to go.  Everyone else in the A10 plays Wednesday night and the A10 regular season wrap...
Continue reading ...

The games are getting more and more important.  A win at St. Louis tomorrow night (9PM) would draw us even with the Billikens for 2nd place in the A10 and would help boost our resume for the Big Dance.

But this won't come easy.  As you probably recall, St. Louis bored us to death and beat us at Cintas earlier this year.  They are 14-1 at home this year!  That one loss was against Temple.  We will have our hands full for sure.  St. Louis is allowing just 56.4 points a game, the 7th lowest in th...
Continue reading ...

KENNY!  I said the seniors need to step up and Kenny Frease did just that.  Frease had 19 points, 14 reboards (7 were offensive) and he had some huge rebounds down the stretch to seal the game.

11 minutes into the game, it was 14-0 Xavier!  Well, that was a lot of fun to see, but then Richmond started getting serious.  They climbed back into the game and eventually took the lead in the 2nd half after the Muskies offense dissapeared.

Thankfully some big baskets by Holloway and Frease earned us ...
Continue reading ...

The Muskies loss to UMass Tuesday night gives them no breathing room in the fight for a spot in the tourney.  Thankfully, the teams on the bubble this year are much weaker than most years so the Muskies are still in the hunt.

Richmond comes to Cintas Center for an 8pm game Saturday.  They are 4-9 on the road and only 6-8 in the A10, but they've had some solid wins this year.  They beat Temple by 11 (albeit without Temple's big man), they beat LaSalle a few weeks ago, and they won at St. Joe's ...
Continue reading ...

We looked awful out of the gate at UMass.  10 turnovers in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the game.  And as bad as we started, we were leading for a quite a bit of the first half.  But, our poor play caught up to us quickly and UMass started to knock down shots.

Our lead was quickly erased and a big run to close the half put UMass up 12 at halftime.  We were down by as much as 20 in the second half and cut it down to 8, but then traded baskets with the Minutemen down the stretch.  Chaz Williams fo...
Continue reading ...

After that big win against Dayton, the tough games continue.  The Muskies play at UMass at 7pm tonight.  UMass was undefeated at home this season until last week.  They lost to LaSalle by 1 point after the referees changed their decision on what was a game-tying UMass buzzer-beater from a 3 point shot to a 2.

The Minutemen's great home record and Muskies recent road struggles equate to the Muskies being a 1 point underdog tonight.  UMass has a scary team.  They lead the A10 in scoring (76.3 pt...
Continue reading ...

We beat Dayton.  The world as we know it is restored.

The win, combined with UMass losing, put the Muskies alone in 3rd place in the A10.  We square off with UMass on the road Tuesday night.  Until yesterday's 1 point loss to LaSalle, UMass was undefeated on their home court.  Should be another tough game.

Go Muskies!!!
Continue reading ...

I'm anxiously awaiting this game.....as far as earning an at-large bid to the Big Dance goes, I think it's a safe bet that the loser of this game is eliminated from being in that debate.

We all know that Xavier has won exactly ZERO A-10 tournaments since the tourney moved to Atlantic City.  All 3 Philly teams are solid this year and I don't want to have to play any of them in their backyard in that tourney.  So, let's take care of business here.

Came across an interesting statistic.  In Dayton'...
Continue reading ...

It's been over 30 years since Dayton has beaten Xavier in Cincinnati.  I'll be honest, I'm nervous this year.  We've had some glimpses of greatness, but we've had many stretches where we have not looked close to good.  Who's going to step up and score some points to take the pressure off of Tu and Lyons?  How will we defend the screens and ball movement that allowed UD many 3-pointers last time?  We'll find out soon.

Dayton fell apart after beating us a month ago.  After losing 4 straight thou...
Continue reading ...

For the first time in years, all men's practices are closed this week.  Coming off the loss to Temple and leading up to what is now the most important game of the year, Chris Mack said today that practice will be closed this week.

We need a win badly, and it wouldn't feel better to get it against anyone more than Dayton.

A full preview of Dayton vs. Xavier to come later this week.

Go Muskies!
Continue reading ...

Sorry for the delay in posting.  I just got home from Philadelphia last night.  As you know by now, the Muskies lost to Temple Saturday night.  Temple was shooting lights out from the start and we didn't look ready to play in that atmosphere.  The arena was very loud and we simply looked awful.  After 11 minutes, it was 21-6 Temple.  We played them even pretty much the rest of the way but the damage was done.  Every time we had a 4-0 or 6-0 run, Temple would make a big play to end it. 

The Owl...
Continue reading ...

Well, the Muskies started off a bit slow but then poured in on the Rams.  XU only gave up 17 points in the first half.  The Muskies then scored 57 points in the 2nd half.  After several disorganized minutes of reserves from both teams running around, the Muskies won by a final of 84 to 67.  Holloway had 20 pts, 10 reb, and 6 asts.  Taylor and Lyons scored 12 and 10 points respectively off the bench (Redford got the start over Lyons again - Mack has been rewarding the hardest working players i...
Continue reading ...

Rhode Island looks like a gimme game at first glance. The Rams are 5-19 overall. They started out 0-6 in the A10, but have won 2 out of their last 3 (the loss being to red hot Temple) and they have a couple nice wins. Their recent improvements were no doubt correlated with 2 mid-season transfers added to the team.

Andre Malone, who transferred in from Auburn, has scored in double-digits in 5 of the last 6 games. Jimmy Baron (yes, another son of RI coach Jim Baron) transferred in from Virginia,...

Continue reading ...

We led by 11 with 6 minutes left and everything was rolling.  But the Muskies went cold on offense and Memphis fought back into the game and took it from us at the end.

It felt like we had that game the whole way.  A really tough loss to take.

Mack started Redford over Lyons likely as a statement to let the team know that the hardest working players in practice are going to start the games.  Lyons did get significant minutes though and scored 14.  Wells had a season-high 19 points and showed gl...
Continue reading ...

The Muskies finish their 3 game road trip at Memphis Saturday.  Memphis is 11-1 at home.  The one loss was against Murray State, the only undefeated team in the country.

The Tigers are one of the few teams in the country that can boast a top 15 ranking in FG% offense and FG% defense.  Pretty impressive.  Will Barton averages 18.6 pts, 8.5 rebs, and 2.6 ast per game and will likely be a huge factor in this one.  It's going to take quite a game for XU to win in this hostile environment.  Hopeful...
Continue reading ...

Wow, that was too close for comfort.  If you didn't see the end, GW had the ball, down 1 and missed 3 shots from point blank as the final seconds ticked off.  XU 59, GW 58 

It was an ugly win for sure, but a win is a win.  Hopefully this gives the team some of the confidence and swagger they have lacked of late.  Holloway really carried us last night, 21 pts, 7 ast, 6 reb.  Frease had 10, Lyons 9, and Redford was 3 for 4 off the bench for 8 points.  No one else had more than 4 points!  We nee...
Continue reading ...

Another road game for our Muskies tonight.  GW is 3-4 in A-10 play, all 3 wins coming at home.  But they have 0 quality wins this year. 

Here's the reason XU has to win this one: GW is 0-9 against teams in the RPI top 100 and all 9 of those losses are by double-digits.  We are more talented and average 10 more points per game than they do.  Let's go get the win!

How about GW's mascot, Little George?  He looks like George Washington got injected with steroids and hatred.

Go Muskies!...
Continue reading ...