The Holy Land of Hoops

At least 1 game this week in the Big East...

Thurs March 26, 2015:
Staples Center, Los Angeles:
10:17pm, Xavier vs Arizona.

A big congratulations to our brothers at Xavier. Great weekend and now a great opportunity.

The intrigue here is of course that Sean Miller left Xavier to take his current position at Arizona. Chris Mack was an assistant under Miller.
Miller was HC at Xavier for 5 years, and had 4 NCAA bids, with 1 Elite-8 and 1 Sweet-16.
Miller is in his 6th year as HC at Arizona, and so far has 4 NCAA bids, with 2 Elite-8's and 2 Sweet-16's.
Mack is in his 6th year as HC at Xavier, and has 5 NCAA bids, with 3 Sweet-16's.

XU has a great mix of veterans and young guys, and a great mix of muscle and athleticism. Really no strong weaknesses, with a great post game and the ability to hit 3's.

I haven't seen much of Arizona this year, but they're 33-3 currently and have wins vs Missouri, K-State, San Diego State and Gonzaga. The 3 losses were at UNLV, at Oregon State and at Arizona State.

Looking forward to a great showing by the Musketeers...!

The thing I really wonder is does Arizona kind of take Xavier lightly, looking ahead to Wisconsin?

A few keys looking at Ken Pom.....
Xavier on Offense.
Xavier #21 in off efficiency. Arizona #3 in defensive efficiency.
Rebounding. Xavier #152 in offensive rebounding. Arizona #1 in not allowing offensive rebounding
Turnovers. Xavier commits turnover 18.1% of possessions. Arizona forces turnovers 20.8% of the time.

Arizona on Defense:
Arizona #7 in off efficiency. Xavier #58 in defensive efficiency.
Arizona #10 in fta/fga. Xavier #96.
Rebounding- Arizona #47 in getting offensive rebounds. Xavier #34 in not allowing offensive rebounds

So I would say things to watch would be rebounding, can Xavier not turn the ball over, and can they keep Arizona off of the FT line?

Hey, look at that, not an automatic ding from ESPN: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/2015/story/_/id/12538993/reseeding-sweet-16-men-ncaa-tournament-field

Xudash wrote:Hey, look at that, not an automatic ding from ESPN: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/2015/story/_/id/12538993/reseeding-sweet-16-men-ncaa-tournament-field

That reseeding is bizarre. Better to just leave it alone.

Bill Marsh wrote:

Xudash wrote:Hey, look at that, not an automatic ding from ESPN: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/2015/story/_/id/12538993/reseeding-sweet-16-men-ncaa-tournament-field

That reseeding is bizarre. Better to just leave it alone.

At least we aren't pegged at dead last because of Big East bias or whatever.

Keys to this game for X is going to be hitting their open 3's (like against Georgia State), rebounding and the effectiveness of the 1-3-1.

Xavier does not have the athletes on the wing to guard Hollis-Jefferson or Stanley Johnson so the 1-3-1 is going to be huge, assuming they can keep York (and to a lesser extent McConnell) from getting open looks. Another concern of the 1-3-1 is Brandon Ashley doing what Isaac Copeland did to the 1-3-1 finding the seams and hitting endless mid-range jumpers. Zona really struggled early in the 1st half against OSU's 2-3 zone but figured it out after halftime.

Stainbrook and Reynolds will again be the key to the offensive end because players like Bluiett and Myles are going to struggle to create their own against those athletic wings. Have to hope the big guys can get some buckets inside/cause the defense to collapse leading to open 3's.

I certainly don't have extremely high hopes for Thursday but if we can somehow replicate our shooting from Saturday then we may have a chance.

Xavier usually plays best, plays bigtime, in big game settings. X will show up, with a big chip on their shoulder.
I expect the Muskies to win vs Arizona.

The size of Arizona is what worries me the most. Xavier's 1-3-1 better be ready to go because I just don't think we can match up with them in man. If they go cold on the jumpers Xavier could have a chance.

Go Xavier Musketeers, beat the Arizona Wildcats!