Xavier (6) vs Villanova (17)

[DudeAnon]

Sumner was quoted as wanting to play against Nova and then against Butler. So someone is going to have to be sure he doesn't put himself in before he should. Luckily for X, our schedule bottoms off for a while.

Either way, I hope he doesn't come back before the doctors recommend. He is a young kid we are all finding out how serious concussions can be.

[bleedxblue]

I think you'll likely see him back for the DePaul game. But that's just a hunch. We've have a couple of players in the last 3-4 years with concussions and X has been very cautious.

Really looking forward to the game in Feb at the Cintas.

The place will be rocking no doubt.

Lets just hope Mack can whip up something on the defensive end. The last 3 games have not been very competitive.

I think there's a fair amount of X fans that question the timing of the Sumner play so early in the game. He's had some pretty big monster dunks this year and wonder whether the intent was to send a message. I do not think the play was dirty. I think the outcome was part just bad luck the way he landed and part the result of what can happen when you intend to prevent someone getting to the hoop that way.

[EMT]

Sumner was quoted as wanting to play against Nova and then against Butler. So someone is going to have to be sure he doesn't put himself in before he should. Luckily for X, our schedule bottoms off for a while.

Either way, I hope he doesn't come back before the doctors recommend. He is a young kid we are all finding out how serious concussions can be.

Didn't he leave the Nova game on a stretcher? How was he wanting back into that game?

[DudeAnon]

Sumner was quoted as wanting to play against Nova and then against Butler. So someone is going to have to be sure he doesn't put himself in before he should. Luckily for X, our schedule bottoms off for a while.

Either way, I hope he doesn't come back before the doctors recommend. He is a young kid we are all finding out how serious concussions can be.

Didn't he leave the Nova game on a stretcher? How was he wanting back into that game?

Exactly my point lol

[MackNova]

This was a fun thread to read through.

Sumner's injury totally took Xavier out of the game mentally and physically, as we were able to force a ton of turnovers without him in there. Villanova wins even if Sumner plays because if we shoot that well, we're going to be very hard to beat. Just as it was hard for us to beat Oklahoma and Virginia when both were unconscious shooting (especially Oklahoma).

Until proven otherwise, Villanova is the undisputed king of the league. As a Nova fan, I expect to win every single home game and the vast majority of road games. That doesn't mean we won't have a very difficult time at Butler or Providence or Xavier or whoever else is good in a given year, but Nova has been completely dominant in this league, and the metrics say Nova is right at their normal level of the new Big East era. Nova probably will be an underdog one time the rest of the regular season - at Xavier.

As for the "Nova was shooting 31%" thing, that's a bit misleading. Other than Arch, every single player in the rotation is shooting below their career averages from 3, and all 3 freshmen got off to a terrible start shooting. Now one is injured (DiVincenzo), one is taking fewer threes (Bridges), and one is 11-23 since the Oklahoma game (Brunson). They might not be a great 3-point shooting team, but they lead the nation in 2-pt FG pct, and if the 3s are falling, we are an extremely efficient team offensively.

The next game will be a war. I think Xavier is still a very good team, and if Sumner plays, it will be a much different game. But I'll still take my chances with this Villanova team over any other Big East squad, and over most teams in the nation.

And as for the backhanded swipes about the Round of 32, no other team in the league has done anything noteworthy either. Every team needs to pick it up, Nova more than anyone else, but we know that already. And that's why any notion that this game is our Super Bowl is crazy. Our Super Bowl will be that Round of 32 game. That's the game with all the pressure on it, and that's the game all Villanova fans are looking forward to. We have nothing to prove in the new Big East until someone takes it from us.