The Holy Land of Hoops

For the last installment of the three-part Big East Primer series, I put together an in-depth look at the current state of tournament resumes for all of the Big East teams.

http://fromstaaktomack.wordpress.com/20 ... -capsules/

For those who follow Volleyball this is eerily familiar. Xavier got swept in a preseason tournament hurting their NCAA chances but then swept Butler in conference leaving Butler as the highest RPI team to not make the tournament. We have to beat Xavier.

Sactowndog wrote:For those who follow Volleyball this is eerily familiar. Xavier got swept in a preseason tournament hurting their NCAA chances but then swept Butler in conference leaving Butler as the highest RPI team to not make the tournament. We have to beat Xavier.

Not really. Xavier's NCAA chances were distinctly better than Butler's heading into this game, despite getting swept in Atlantis (which, by the way, are the only games they have lost).

Expected OOC SOS: Xavier 80 vs. Butler 175 (and similar records)
Kenpom/Sagarin Rank: Xavier 35/38 vs. Butler 52/58
Good Wins: Xavier 2 (home & neutral) vs. Butler 0
Bad Losses: Xavier 1 vs. Butler 0

The bad loss category is the only place where Butler comes out ahead, and the two good wins more than make up for the one bad loss by Xavier. And USC has a decent shot of not being a bad loss.