Hey, look at what we have here, the Xavier Musketeers! The team who stopped playing the Jays after a long series of great games that both fanbases enjoyed because of reasons no one in Omaha buys. Granted, the coach who made the decision to stop the series, Sean Miller, is now coaching in Arizona, but still. I love that Xavier is the Jays opponent on Friday. Love it. Games against Xavier are always entertaining, usually very competitive, and there is no reason they shouldn’t resume the series. Maybe Friday’s forced matchup due to the Disney matchmakers can start the wheels moving towards that happening.
Any discussion of Xavier has to begin with Miller’s sudden departure for the desert. Widely believed to be happy with the budding powerhouse he’d built in Cincinnati, it surprised a lot of people when he bolted for a potentially difficult situation at Arizona. His replacement, Chris Mack, inherits a team that won 27 games last year but has a lot of question marks heading into this season.
Three starters depart, representing the bulk of their scoring, rebounding and assists — Derrick Brown, BJ Raymond and CJ Anderson are all gone, taking nearly 40 points and 15 boards a game with them. A crop of recruits surround the two returning starters, Dante Jackson (6 points/game, 3.5 boards/game, 3.5 assists/game) and Jason Love (6.7 points/game, 6.9 rebounds/game).
As they showed Thursday against Marquette, Xavier will be a team searching for itself early in the season — a recipe for an upset in November.
As for the Jays, at some point, its not enough to simply be competitive in games against marquee opponents. You’ve got to actually win the games. T. Scott Marr on the Jays radio broadcast Thursday talked a great deal about ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla talking to the teams at a banquet the night before the Old Spice Classic began. Specifically, he quoted Fraschilla as saying that the teams who win early season tournaments are teams that are mentally tough and disciplined. Pretty good analysis, in my opinion, and it eerily describes why the Jays are now on the consolation side of the bracket in this tournament.
Come February, do you want to have some great resume wins to build your case for an at-large NCAA bid should you stumble in your conference tourney? Or do you want to have a resume of a tough schedule but no wins over those teams? Patrick Marshall discussed this in depth in his postgame piece yesterday, and his point is a good one: Creighton can still pick up two quality resume-building wins in this tournament. Do that and the trip can still be a massive success. Fail to do that and the trip can still be a massive missed opportunity that could haunt the team all season.
The resume-building begins today with a down yet still respected Xavier team that Creighton has beaten in the past. They need this one. Lets hope they get it.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton is 6-8 all-time against Xavier, including three of the last four … Their only meeting on a neutral court came in the 1963 National Catholic Invitational Tournament, a game the Jays lost 80-67 … The Jays lost for just the fifth time under Dana Altman when shooting over 50% from the field against Michigan Thursday, dropping to 115-5 in such games. Seriously, this is a real stat … The Jays hadn’t opened 2-2 since the 1997-98 season before Thursday’s loss, and haven’t started 2-3 since the 1996-97 season.
The Last Time They Played: On a night when Omaha mourned the tragic Westroads shooting spree at Von Mour earlier that day, Xavier jumped out to an early lead and never let the Jays back into it, winning 79-66 in December of 2007 in Cincinnati.
Gratuitous Linkage: Check out these 3D painted rooms and try to decide if its the design or too much turkey making you dizzy.
Official Gametime Snack: Its the Day After Thanksgiving, which means leftovers! Pie, turkey, rinse, repeat. I mean, you can do whatever you want, but my hope is to eat enough leftover food to pass out after the Jays game so I do not get roped into watching the Nebraska football game which I have no desire to watch. Hibernation for three hours, strategically placed during that game, sounds great to me.
The Totally Random Song I’d Play Right Now if I was Still a Radio DJ: Yes, this is about to happen.
Welcome back to the schedule, even if its by a fortuitous bracket break. Plus, I’ve never worked the words Horshack or Barbarino into a post before, and those are great words, much less great names. Done and done.
Prediction: Creighton bounces back, adds a nice win to their March resume, and puts the disappointment of the Michigan loss behind them
Jays 78, Xavier 68
