Xavier beat UC in the Crosstown Shootout on Friday. This is becoming so routine as to barely qualify as news, but I figured you’d want to remember it. That win was big for the fanbase, the city, and the program. It was an awesome game and will forever be remembered for Tre Carroll’s frenetic circuit of the Cintas in the waning seconds.
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What it won’t be remembered for is being a great win for the resume. UC was a Q3 home win. To put it bluntly, the Bearcats suck. This game did nothing to help Xavier’s resume. But wait, I can hear you thinking, why does any of that matter? Isn’t this just the season of fun and friendship?
Xavier 79-74 Cincinnati: The Tre Carroll Game
Well… Xavier messed around and accidentally started playing some good basketball. Not great basketball, but 40th in efficiency over the last six games. 40th is the position of a team with tournament ambition. Now, the committee is not going to look at the season from November 17th on. If they did, great news all, we’re watching the Musketeers in mid-March with that fun feeling of fear, excitement, and horror that lingers over tournament games.
But the season didn’t start then. Overall Xavier is mid 80s depending on which efficiency service you prefer. Beat UC dropped the Musketeers on KenPom. In the days surrounding that game they were 81st, 83rd, and now 84th. Want to taunt a Bearcat fan? Mention that beating them with a normal score doesn’t impress the computers at all. Xavier needs that number to jump because it feeds the all-important NET. Santa Clara is only a Q2 loss. The deficit is what is crippling the numbers. Pummeling a good team would help.
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Because the NET isn’t good. Xavier is 109th as of this typing. I don’t need to tell you, but will, that number only gets you in if you win a conference tournament. If you think Xavier is beating UConn to finish running the table right now, God bless you. Here’s the good news: teams have risen from that low to make the tournament as an at-large before.
Last year, Xavier was 93rd right now and did it. In 2023, Michigan St got hot and rose from 86th to make the tournament. Both of those teams won big conference games to get there. In 2022 Texas A&M was 117th, went 9-9 in the Big 12, won three conference tournament games and made it. In 2021 it was Miami (Fl) that was 128th in the NET on December 7th, went 14-6 in a weak ACC but won a huge game against Duke to bolster the resume.
So there is hope. If you want to just enjoy this very enjoyable team, do it. These guys are a blast. But if you want to glance ahead and see a way to go dancing, it is there. Either way, basketball is fun again. Let’s enjoy it… And UC really sucks.
