Back in mid-November the underdog Muskies beat the heck out of favored Butler at Cintas Center, 62-47. Soon after, Butler started playing at the level most expected, and then some. They beat then # 9 ranked UNC (obviously they were not a top 10 team), #1 ranked Indiana, and #8 (now #1) ranked Gonzaga. Not too shabby. Butler sits at 23-7 and 10-5 in the A10 after dropping games 2 of their last 3. They lost to SLU and VCU before beating UMass. A Xavier win at Butler on their Senior night would ...
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The Seniors stepped up huge on Senior night. I love it! Travis Taylor had one of the best Senior night games in Xavier history. Although X blew a lead late in the 2nd half, they pulled away to win it in overtime.

Taylor played 43 of a possible 45 minutes and had 19 pts, 19 rebs, and 6 blocks! Brad Redford had 11 pts on 3 3-pointers and 2 big free-throws down the stretch and Jeff Robinson had 9 pts and 6 rebs.

Oh, and in his best attempt to be playing like a Senior, Freshman Semaj Christon had 2...
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The season is winding to an end this week. It's not been an ideal season but I still hate to see it come to an end. The last home game is tonight against St. Louis. As it turns out, it also looks like it will be our last ever Atlantic 10 game at home.

St. Louis is playing great basketball. The Billikens have won 11 in a row and are now 12-2 in conference and ranked #16 in the AP poll and #15 in the USA poll. They run deep, playing 9 guys at more than 12mins/gm and having a balanced scoring att...
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After beating the Bad and Ugly Rams of the A10, the Good remain. VCU has a solid team and has put together quite a program over the years as well. The Rams have made the NCAA tourney 5 times in the last 10 years, and 3 times in the last 4 years, including that Final Four run in 2011. 

Shaka Smart, who's been the head coach since '09, has put together another fine team this year. The Rams have been in the top 25 much of the year, and even after losing at SLU on Wednesday, boast a 9-3 conference...
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The Muskies next play the Bad version of the Rams, Rhode Island. As you recall, X had a tough enough time playing the Ugly Rams, Fordham, last week. So, this could be bad news. While we pulled out the win vs Fordham at home, this one is on the road and the Muskies road woes continue (reminder - I hate you Dayton).

So what's the deal with Rhode Island? Well, since their fall from basketball respectability more than a decade ago, not much good has happened, unless NITs are what you're striving f...
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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...
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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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Revenge is sweet, but pan seared Billikin is delicious. Xavier has not had much luck against SLU this year losing 2 of 2. Today Mack's Mighty Muskies get another chance for redemption. SLU is seen as a tournament lock having big wins in the early part of the season and closing out the conference 12-4. Obviously if XU wants to dance they have to knock out St Louis much like George McFly knocked out Biff Tannen in Back to the Future to get into the dance. Conklin and Mitchell are the two leadin...
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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.

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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...
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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...
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Well, we won 4 in a row and now we've lost back-to-back games.  Despite Lyons and Holloway almost getting 50 points between the two of them, we lost to St. Louis.  It was a very depressing game to watch.  We were down big after giving up several wide open 3s and then had to fight back the whole game.  We tied it at 50 but couldn't pull out the win.  Some discouraging notes about this loss...
- This marks the 3rd loss of the year at Cintas.  In the 4 previous seasons, we had a total of 3 losses...
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XU takes on a very solid St. Louis team at Cintas Wednesday night.  They are 15-4 overall and 3-2 in the A10.  They are a not-so-good 2-3 on the road this year.  SLU is a very good shooting team (47.3% FG - 46th in nation, 39.1% 3pt FG - 29th in nation) so it will take a solid defensive effort.  On top of that, they only allow 55 pts a game!  That's 7th best in the country.  Expect a battle.

So, what the heck is a Billiken?  Some teacher in St. Louis invented the Billiken as a charm doll in 19...

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