2009-10 Result: 26-9 (14-2 in the Atlantic 10) lost to Kansas State 101-96 in the West Region semi-finals
Coach: Chris Mack 26-9 in his first season at the helm in Cincinnati.
Seventeen Musketeers have suited up in the National Basketball Association including current stars Derrick Brown, Jordan Crawford, James Posey and David West.
Seven different coaches have led the Musketeers to a total of 21 NCAA tournament appearances including Eight Eight showings in ’04 and ’08.
Notable Non-Conference Tilts: 11/19 Iowa, 11/20 Alabama or Seton Hall, 12/9 Butler, 12/18 Wake Forest, 12/22 at Gonzaga, 12/31 Florida, 1/6 at Cincinnati, 2/8 at Georgia
Stat of Identity: 29.8 – three point field goal percentage defense (15th in the country).
Key Returners:
Tu Holloway 31.9 mpg, 12.1 ppg, 2:1 A/T, 84.6 FT%
Jamel McLean 24.5 mpg, 8.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg
Mark Lyons 22 mpg, 7.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg
Dante Jackson 25.7 mpg, 6.5 ppg, 3.2 rpg
Kenny Frease 16.3 mpg, 5.1 ppg, 4.3 rpg
Andrew Taylor 10 mpg, 2.1 ppg
By Paul Casey Gotham
Consider this – two schools have reached the Sweet Sixteen each of the last three years: Michigan State and Xavier.
Xavier. Not Kansas. Not Duke. Not North Carolina. Not Kentucky. Not Syracuse.
Xavier.
Since 2004, Xavier has won 11 NCAA tournament games. Kentucky – 9. Pittsburgh – 10. Texas – 10. Ohio State – 7. Arizona – 6. Syracuse – 6. Louisville – 11.
Twelve months ago, the Musketeers were a team in search of an identity. Gone were Derrick Brown, B.J. Raymond and C.J. Anderson. The three led Xavier to the Sweet Sixteen combining for 38 points and 16 rebounds per game.
Chris Mack faced his first campaign at the helm.
The Muskies responded by winning the A 10, knocking off Minnesota from the Big 10 in the first round of the NCAA’s and Pittsburgh from the Big East two days later. Xavier fell in the next round to Kansas State. In a wild tournament with countless exciting games, the XU-K State game was THE game – a double overtime thriller with players making plays.
Now, the Musketeers face the challenge of defining themselves again without their previous leading scorer. Jordan Crawford moved on to the NBA. Jason Love, the team’s leading rebounder graduated. Add to the challenges the loss of three-point specialist, Brad Redford, who went down with a season-ending injury in October.
Worry not. Tu Holloway, Dante Jackson, Jamel McLean, Mark Lyons and Kenny Frease are ready to carry the torch.
Holloway possesses a deadly combination of talents and abilities. The junior from Hempstead, New York dishes out two assists to every turnover he commits. At 6′ he can get himself into tight spaces and finish. He averaged 12 points, and a big part of that is hitting nearly 85 percent from the free throw line.
Senior, Dante Jackson is Xavier’s shutdown defender. Jackson is capable of matching up with perimeter players. At the same time, the 6’5″ native of Greenfield, Ohio is athletic enough to handle a post player.
McLean rises to the occasion. The senior registered double-doubles against Wake Forest and Louisiana State.
Mark Lyons is a stingy on-the-ball defender. The red shirt sophomore can get to the basket and finish.
Frease will need to pick up the slack in Love’s absence.
Andrew Taylor will provide valuable minutes off the bench as will freshman, Jay Canty, who will provide an outside threat.
As in year’s past, Xavier has a loaded pre-conference schedule with games versus Butler, Wake Forest, Gonzaga and Florida in the month of December.
Amazing how a prigram like X can reload each year and ND can’t. I’m guessing that admissions standards and graduation rate at Xavier aren’t exactly low, more in line with ND’s rather than crosstown rival Cincinnati’s.
Add Villanova, Georgetown and Marquette to that list as well … all private Catholic schools. There is ONE big difference though … I believe Casey has pointed this out in the past … ND is driven almost entirely by football (ya wouldn’t know it these years). These other schools mentioned above are almost completely driven by basketball. As is Duke. As is Butler.
Question: what schools consistently do a great job with both sports???
Ohio State? Texas? Florida?
Well I have to admit father, I didn’t see you posting Xavier so low in your top 25! I went to their first preseason game last night, and while they started off a little slow, by the end of the game I was impressed with a lot of the players. I expected that Holloway, McLean, and Lyons would have improved greatly and I was not disappointed. Lyons showed a lot of strength and confidence when driving to the basket, but he needs to work on finishing more. McLean has always been good at getting trips to the line, and from what I saw last night, he has been working on his free throw shooting.
Frease also shocked me! He is starting to play more to his height and I was impressed when he came out of nowhere and started grabbing tough rebounds. I am also really interested to see how Canty does this year. He came right in for his first game and grabbed about seven rebounds, and scored about seven points, two of which were threes. I was really impressed how calm he seemed in his first college game.
Holloway and Jackson are both obviously very good, and I really enjoy watching them play. Jackson’s defense and quick pace is really exciting as are Holloway’s but I like that he can also calm the game down and set the pace for his team.
Ha – need I say anymore? 🙂
Xavier has a basketball team?
To Wally’s question – Texas, Florida and Ohio State are capable of hills, but they also experience valleys – just maybe not as much as ND.
Florida hasn’t won a game in the NCAA Tournament since they won the title four years ago.
Texas? People have overrated them for the last two years. Yeah, the Longhorns should have had Durant and Augustin in the lineup last year. That would make a huge difference. But they rolled the dice recruiting those guys.
Besides, ND is doing really well in some other not-so-glamorous sports. They have been successful in lacrosse. Women’s soccer is always competing for the national title. Didn’t the men’s hockey team go to the final four two years ago?
ND is not doing well in a couple of sports right now. Unfortunately, those are the glamor sports. Thing is, ND is responsible for the glamor of college football.
Looking forward to a great season!! Go Muskies!
Abby, thanks for a nice analysis based on observation. Your dad is going to need your analysis to be accurate, since he is the ONLY one in the nation listing X in the top 40. But then, there have been sleepers before!
Don’t forget Women’s BB at ND. That and Women’s soccer have been ND’s mainstays for years. Hockey’s climb to the top has only been a recent development. Men’s soccer, baseball, and softball have been inconsistent, as has track and field. On the other hand, ND/SMC is the center of the NCAA fencing world. Who cares about those high profile sports anyway?
ND Hockey either won the national title 2-3 years ago or lost in the title game … maybe to BC. I think they lost. Baseball went to the CWS about 10 years ago for the first time since like the ’60s, but they have been very inconsistent over past 4 years.
Back to the glamour sports …. So are there any schools that have had BOTH football and men’s hoops teams in the final AP Top 25 rankings for EACH of the past 5 seasons? I’ll bet Ohio State has. Maybe Utah? This is probably a very short list.
Are you looking at the end of the year? Or at any point during the season?
If it was me, I would look only at final rankings. OSU maybe; Utah? Not for last 5 years. Ever? Florida for some years, but not all of last 5. Did Pitt accomplish it at least at some point within a season? How about Missouri? Poor K State. Lately, either football or basketball is good, but never both at the same time. And my last thought, but not recently, would be Oklahoma.
Surprising and yet not that none of us have mentioned any west coast schools.
Yes, Casey, as Pete says, go with the “Final” rankings. Maybe we could get a list of 5 schools that have accomplished this at least 3 times in the past 5 seasons?
I think Oklahoma would probably make the list. Texas too. Still, the list is probably quite short. Maybe Illinois? Probably not cuz of football. Stanford? Oregon?
Virginia Tech? Florida State? West virginia? I bet one or two of these has been in Final Top 25 in both sports at least 3x in last 5 years.
Are we using the AP?
Yes … the AP polls … which is what we’ve been talking about for the past two hours. See above!!! 🙂
I deserved that one.
This just in – both Xavier vs. Dayton games are sold out.
Great … so who are the 5-7 schools that have had both their football and men’s hoops teams in the the AP Top 25 Final poll in at least 3 of the last 5 years?