XU-CU the Korver-West Game 1/12

[Blob]

Surprised the line is double digits. I think X is better than that, but we will see.

Creighton is a tough matchup stylistically for the Musketeers. If there is a weakness to the Pack Line defense, it is that it requires the bigs to help a lot. It works especially well against teams that don't have a lot of outside shooters who rely on dribble drive. A team with a lot of shooters (particularly PFs and Cs that can shoot 3s) is the toughest to defend with this style. If Creighton's big guys are hot from outside, it could be a long day. My biggest worry is that X's 2 young forwards (Reynolds and Farr) tend to get lost on D sometimes and their men could end up getting a lot of wide open looks.

On the other end, X is playing surprisingly well on offense. Semaj's outside shooting has improved which has forced guys to come out on him and leave other guys open. He has done a great job of getting the ball to the open guy. X's big guys, especially Stainbrook, have also been passing really well.

[cr8onbb]

Very surprised by that line. I was expecting something closer to the 3-5 range, especially with Gibbs out and Doug nursing his shoulder. Hope they are right but I am expecting a great back and forth game. Just hope we can pull this one off. Winner likely will be top 25 tomorrow either way. Atmosphere should be great again, looking forward to it. Go Jays!

[anXUfan]

Pray for a good game with no injuries.

[Bluejay]

A lot of respect for Xavier from Creighton fans, despite the odds makers. We had some great nonconference battles before Sean Miller refused to renew the series.

Of the Big East schools, X is far and away the one that Creighton fans are most familiar with. Look forward to another great battle today and am glad we get to play twice a year going forward.

[Blob]

Miller did not enjoy the officiating when X played in Omaha. I believe part of the holdup in scheduling more games was a dispute as to which officials would be used. If my memory serves correctly, X wanted to use officials from a neutral conference, the Big 10, as opposed to the home team picking the officials.

Most X fans I know generally root for Creighton as the schools have so much in common and the rivalry, while a little heated at times, always seemed more of a mutual respect type deal than any hatred.

In looking a little closer at the line, it makes more sense to me. Kenpom has X 28th and Creighton 7th. Which would probably mean about 4-5 points on a neutral court. The big home court bump of 5-6 points is probably justified due both to Creighton's strong home court advantage and the fact that X is a very good home team but completely unproven away from Cintas with only 1 true road game (@Alabama) played all season. Combine that with what I mentioned above about the playing style advantage Creighton has offensively and the 10 point line looks about right.

[BluejaysForThree]

Pray for a good game with no injuries.

Amen to this XUfan, hoping for a good hard fought battle between two very good teams with no injuries. It will be interesting how the Jays play without Gibbs in the lineup- but I think they will be just fine. 10 points is a little high on the point spread for the Jays, unless they are red hot today. Over the last couple seasons, the Jays have had a habit of coming out after fairly long road trips (a week or longer), and just going off at home... will be interesting to see if that happens - or if they are sluggish with Gibbs out and DMcD still most likely a little sore. Still looking for a very competitive game, that comes down to the last 1-2 possessions.

[handdownmandown]

One of the reasons the line is 10 is because we've covered 8 straight times. Stuff like that can inflate lines.

[Jet915]

Link to the game:

http://nutjob.eu/njtvx31.html

[whiteandblue77]

Link to the game:

http://nutjob.eu/njtvx31.html

Thanks bro,

[whiteandblue77]

Uh, says I have to download iLivid... I'm scared don't like downloading stuff. Anybody know if this is safe?