March Madness is finally upon us! Many are saying Xavier got screwed over having to play in a Round 1 play-in game but hey, you gotta play with the cards you're dealt. So, let's go up to UDump Arena and take out some frustration on NC State.

NC State is led by TJ Warren, a super scorer who was just named the ACC player of the year. Warren played AAU ball with Semaj Christon and Jalen Reynolds so they know how talented he is. NC State is a young team that is not great defensively but they've be...
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...Hank2061!  Well done Hank.  SweetRayLaurel finished 2nd and Justin Williamson finished 3rd.

http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/group?groupID=188758&entryID=3462231
Group Password (Password): xavierbasketball

These ESPN brackets really give a hell of a lot of points for picking the national champ.  Everyone who picked UK finished in the top 7 spots. Now you just have to live with yourself for picking UK.

See you next year.
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Well, Kendall Marshall's broken wrist really hurt those of us who picked UNC to win it all. It's a wide open race with only 3 games to go.

Looks like zoffa, hank2061, ruppreid, Matt_Corn, dineenkm1, sweetraylaurel1, and LaBryson1795 are fighting for the top couple spots down the stretch.

Good luck!

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Well, the day is finally here.  As has been the case in many previous tournament games, the Muskies are the underdogs.  I didn't really think this could be possible, but apparently UC's win over Florida State to make the Sweet 16 was the first time in school history that they beat a higher seeded team.  That's pretty wild.  I'm curious how many times Xavier has done that.  I may have to check some numbers and post that next week.

On to the matchup... Baylor is unbelievably talented. They've lo...

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Part 2 of the Baylor/Xavier preview is coming.  Dezmine Wells was able to practice today so he appears to be in good enough shape to play Friday.  Unfortunately, Andre Walker has been held out of practice all week after getting hit in the head a couple times in the games last weekend.  Hopefully he will be alright.

I wanted to pass along a comical breakdown of who to root for of the final 16:
http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story/_/id/7722387/page-2-rooting-guide-sweet-16
It's a quick read but no ...
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If you haven't heard this yet, it's worth repeating...Xavier, North Carolina, Mich St, and Kansas are the only schools to make 4 of the last 5 Sweet 16s.  That's pretty impressive!

On to our next opponent: Baylor.  To be quite honest, the 2 teams I would least want to play in the tournament, from a standpoint of matchups, are Baylor and UK.  And if we are going to the Final Four, that's probably who we're going to have to beat.  Baylor's big guys are very athletic.  Their combination of size a...
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If you didn't see what was one of the coolest upsets ever in the NCAA Tournament yesterday, you probably still know nothing about Lehigh.  The school is in Bethlehem, PA.  Their mascot is the Mountain Hawk and their bold choice of colors are brown and white.  With a total of about 7,000 undergrads + grads, they are very similar in size to Xavier.

Other than that they beat Duke, what do we know about them?  Well, they beat Duke.  Oh, other than that?  Nothing.  They have a respectable RPI of 91...
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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

MUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Sorry Notre Dame.
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Here's a breakdown of our 3 common opponents.  We had the luxury of playing all 3 at home where as the Irish did not.  We certainly fared better but 5 of the 6 games below were very early on in the season.  While the Muskies started strong and then faded, the Irish did the opposite and were on fire during the conference season.

Common Opponents (H=Home, A=Away, N=Neutral site)
               Notre Dame     Xavier
Georgia    L by 4(N)      W by 14(H)
Gonzaga  L by 20(A)    L by 7(H)
Cincy       L b...
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It looks like the Muskies will tip-off closer to 10PM than 9:30 on Friday.  More than half of the original 68 teams will be eliminated before XU's 1st game is decided.  And it may even be St. Patrick's Day when it the game ends as well.

The Irish are getting to celebrate their favorite holiday Saturday, let's hope that'll be all they celebrate.  They are a 2 1/2 point favorite over the Muskies.  The Muskies are in an underdog role that we have certainly thrived in, in years past.  A slight und...
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Go to the link below and enter the password to join in the fun!

http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/group?groupID=188758

Private Group Name: Xavier Basketball.comFans
Password: xavierbasketball

What's on the line?  Bragging rights over your friends.

Go Muskies!
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If you're an out of town Muskie fan, see if the Xavier chapter in your city has a designated place to unite and cheer on our Muskies...

http://www.xavier.edu/alumni/content/get-informed/basketball.cfm#viewing

Scroll halfway down that page and you'll see what chapters are hosting and where.  Hope you can enjoy the game Friday night with some fellow Musketeers.

GO MUSKIES!!!
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We lost to the Bonnies in the A10 title game.  It was not fun. Nicholson was out of this world and was getting the foul calls that a NBA star gets.  But guess what, time to forget about that and move on.

Looks like about a 9:40 tip Friday night against the Irish!  Should be a good one.  Much more to come.

MARCH ON MUSKIES!!!

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