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A college basketball season is a long time. Usually by the time nets are being cut and Luther Vandross is warming up to nail One Shining Moment again there have been games going for a shade over five months with all the ebbs and flows, rises and collapses, triumphs and heartbreaks, and everything in between. For some teams, a place in the NCAA Tournament is a foregone conclusion before the calendar flips to February. For others, their fate remains in the balance as the larger sports world begins to take notice in March. For certain others, like Xavier last year, their fate has been hinted for much of those five months and reduced to a prayer that they can conjure up some March magic in their conference tournament.
If you were following Xavier last year, you probably don’t need reminded that things were already looking bleak in terms of a trip to the Big Dance before a ball had been tipped in Big East play. Xavier came out of their non-conference slate at 8-3, but six of those wins were in Q4 and the three losses ended up being the only three opponents they played who ended up with at-large bids. A season can go off the rails after a promising start, but to get back to the NCAA Tournament in year two under Richard Pitino, Xavier will be hoping to set themselves up in a much stronger position before taking on Marquette in their Big East opener.
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Last season, Xavier got pushed by Marist and LeMoyne in the first two games of the season before getting hammered by Santa Clara. Intermingled with four high major opponents were much more perfunctory beatings of Old Dominion, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Saint Francis, and Missouri State. None of those wins ended up amounting to anything resume wise, but Santa Clara ended up being a Q2 game meaning the loss didn’t really hurt Xavier a ton. This season, Xavier has Mount St. Mary’s, Eastern Michigan, Detroit Mercy, Cleveland State, Texas Southern, Purdue Fort Wayne, and FIU lined up to come to Cintas. Eastern…
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Publish date : 2026-09-16 20:14:00
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