Two Teams, Two Directions

On a weekend for grading Madness aspirations, one team passed.

UC is out (probably), XU is in (maybe) and what does it matter (everything).

And that’s all youse need today. My work is done here.

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The best college basketball coaches don’t necessarily do their best work in March. But a winter’s worth of teaching, grinding and making the pieces fit does show itself right about now.

If you’re an X-ist, that should make you smile. The Musketeers blew out a good Creighton team Saturday at Cintas. Twenty-four assists, six turnovers, double-figure scoring all over and a senior-type game performance from your most important player equaled XU’s best game of the season, at a time when nothing but Best Games will do.

Sean Miller knows what he’s doing. Always has.

Zach Freemantle has been at Xavier since about 1947. He had 23 points and six rebounds and made it impossible for Creighton to two-team Ryan Conwell and the emerging Dante Maddox Jr. The Muskies are 19-10, 6-1 since Feb.1.

And there is this note, courtesy of the Enquirer’s Shelby Dermer:

The last 71 Big East teams to show up to the league tournament at Madison Square Garden with 21 regular-season wins have been invited to the NCAA Tournament.

If Xavier wins its last two, at Butler and home v. Providence, it will have 21 wins, with at least one BE tournament game to play.

As for the Bearcats. . .