Xavier at Seton Hall: Preview, Matchups, Keys to the Game

Xavier wasn’t supposed to be able to hang with either of their last two opponents. Creighton had run them off their own home floor a month ago, and St. John’s is two games clear of anyone not named UConn in the Big East. Both teams figured to make short work of the Musketeers. The fact that Xavier was in both games until the horn was emblematic of the fight they’ve shown under Coach Richard Pitino in his first season at Xavier. The fact that they lost both games despite their Herculean efforts is emblematic of the season as a whole.

Now they’re heading to scenic New Jersey to take on Seton Hall. The Pirates hit the ground running this season, knocking off NC State on a neutral court and having a one-possession loss to USC the next day and their only blemish heading into Big East play. A 4-1 start in the conference surged them to 14-2 on the season. They’re 14-6 now, having dropped their last four, most recently to a DePaul team that anyone in the league should be embarrassed to lose to.

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The Pirates enter this game trying to arrest an alarming skid and keep their bubble hopes alive. You’re delusional at this point if you see a realistic way back to an at-large bid for Xavier; the Muskies are just hoping to see process turn into results before the stretch run. While the implications are vastly different for each team, this is a game they’d both dearly love to get.

Team fingerprint

Two things leap off the KenPom page about Seton Hall on offense: they aren’t very good (161st in AdjO) and they don’t shoot threes at all. They’re 361st in the nation in 3P rate, taking just 27.7% of their shots from deep. You’d think this is because they’re bad from three – and you’d be right (30.9%) – but they’re also shooting an abysmal 47.5% from inside the arc. With a 47.2% EFG%, they’re 321st in the nation; they’re just a bad shooting team. They’re just a touch above national average in free throw rate and ball security, but where they shine is…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/xavier-seton-hall-preview-matchups-151957200.html

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Publish date : 2026-01-28 15:19:00

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