The fifth-ranked (at the moment) leaders in the Big East survived a 29 point effort from Creighton’s Marcus Foster, en route to a 72-71 victory yesterday afternoon. Foster’s made more three pointers (5) than the entire Xavier team (3).
With five seconds left, Creighton took the lead after Ronnie Harrell Jr. sank all three free throws, after being fouled by Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett. WIth the Musketeers out of timeouts, Creighton took one of their own, to set up a defensive scheme. Xavier had to go the length of the floor, and head coach Chris Mack put the ball in the hands of his lightning-quick guard Quentin Goodin. Goodin drew contact from Harrell with 0.3 seconds remaining, sending over 18,000 Bluejay fans at CenturyLink Center Omaha into a shower of boos.
Most of the time, the officials put the whistles away that late in a game. However, replay shows that while Harrell did have his hands straight up, he was still moving his feet at the point of contact. The call was correct, and Goodin drained both free throws to put the Musketeers ahead for good.
At 22-3 (11-2 Big East), Xavier holds a half-game lead over Villanova atop the Big East standings, with five games remaining in the regular season. Villanova suffered a crushing defeat to lowly St. John’s last week, and has to travel to the Cintas Center on Saturday. Their first meeting was dominated by the Wildcats (89-65), and was the last time Xavier has lost. In fact, all three losses by Xavier have been to teams likely to make the field of 68 next month (Villanova, a 16-9 Providence team currently fourth in the Big East, and a 19-6 Arizona State squad very early on in the season).
We always hear about Gonzaga being the small school who gets the high seed come March Madness (No Longer Cinderella, Gonzaga Keeps Hitting Midnight). Wichita State (2014), St. Joseph’s (2004), UMass (1996), and UNLV (1990 and 1991) have all been top seeds from a non-power conference since 1990. Only UNLV has a championship from that group. When Xavier joined the Big East from the Atlantic 10 in 2013, they have bucked the trend of the small fish in the big pond. In fact, Xavier has made the NCAA Tournament each of their four years since joining the Big East, winning a tournament game the past three trips.
There’s still nearly a month before the seedings are official, and the top 16 will be announced later this afternoon. However, Xavier is deserving of getting serious consideration for one of the top four seeds when that announcement is made. Villanova’s loss will cost them the top overall spot to Virginia. Purdue has lost back-to-back games against Ohio State and Michigan State this week. This should put the Musketeers easily into the top four.
After coming off an Elite Eight run last season, Mack has found the right combination to put Xavier in position to make a program-defining run next month. You know the Musketeers and Wildcats will meet at some point in the Big East Tournament, with the winner likely getting a No. 1 seed in “The Big Dance.” These are not the Tyrone Hill or Lionel Chalmers Xavier Musketeers you grew up watching. This team is much better.
With the parody in college basketball, especially over the past couple of weeks, there is not a single team out there likely to buzzsaw through their conference tournament, let alone the NCAA Tournament. There’s a reason why Mack has the all-time school record for head coaching victories next season (207 and counting).
You don’t bring a buzzsaw to a gunfight, especially in March.
-JC24