Xavier v. Eastern Michigan: Preview

Xavier romped to a win over Mount St. Mary’s on opening night, but the test seems like it will be much sterner in their second outing of the season. Eastern Michigan comes in at 1-0 as well, having fended off Coastal Carolina, and hopes to make waves in the MAC this season after being picked 9th in the 12 team conference.

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The Eagles are in year one under Billy Donlon, who was formerly the head coach at Wright State and UMKC alongside assistant gigs at UNC Wilmington, Michigan, Northwestern, and most recently Clemson for the past four seasons. On offense, his teams tend to shoot the three decently well most of the time, but if they miss they’re usually pretty content to leave it at that, with his teams’ best offensive rebounding finish in 9 previous seasons being 293rd. After his first season at Wright State, he’s never had a particularly good offense, having failed to crack the top 225 in his other 8 seasons as a head coach.

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Defense is another story, with Donlon’s teams having a couple of standout attributes that have made his defenses some of the best in the low majors in his career. First of all, his teams are going to come after the ball. His defense ranked top 50 in turnover rate nationally in 5 of his 6 seasons at Wright State including a run of 13th, 4th, 15th, and 6th from 2011-2014. His UMKC teams were 52nd, 21st, and 37th in that category and were the bet defensive unit in the Summit in his final two seasons there. His teams also tend to rebound the ball well at that end, with 5 of his 9 seasons resulting in top 100 finishes in defensive rebound rate. The achilles heel for Donlon’s defenses is twofold. Firstly, they send their opponents to the line an absurd amount, never even cracking the top 250 in defensive free throw rate. If you think the opponents need that reprieve from seeing their shots miss, you’re wrong because 6 of Donlon’s 9 teams have surrendered a 2 point field goal percentage above 50. Basically, if you can keep the ball…

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Publish date : 2026-11-06 18:54:00

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