Big East Basketball Power Rankings: Providence, SJU trending oppositely

ANAHEIM, CA - DECEMBER 01: Head coach Ed Cooley of the Providence Friars looks on in the second half of the game against the Pepperdine Waves during the Wooden Legacy at the Anaheim Convention Center at on December 1, 2019 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /

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VILLANOVA, PA – DECEMBER 30: Coach Steele of the Musketeers looks on. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

480. . . . Xavier Musketeers. 7. player

Xavier is a good team. There is no doubt about that. The Musketeers are tough defensively, physical on both ends, and feature some scorers that can occasionally go off for big nights. With that said, though, it’s hard to imagine that they will compete for the Big East title this season. I have never truly bought into this team due to its lack of shooters but Seton Hall also recently exposed defensive weaknesses as well while posting 83 points in the Cintas Center.

Xavier shot 8-for-18 (44.4%) from three and 15-for-18 (83.3%) from the free-throw line tonight. The Musketeers entered the game shooting 29.7% and 67.3% in those categories, respectively.

They still lost to Seton Hall.
— Lukas Harkins (@hardwiredsports) January 9, 2020

It is fairly telling that Xavier shot significantly better than its season averages against Seton Hall and was still unable to take the victory (the Pirates deserve credit to, but I’ll talk about that later). With that home loss, Xavier now sits at 12-4 (1-2 BE). This is a solid record but the Musketeers’ resume is not very impressive. They do not hold a single KenPom Top 50 win and their road loss to Wake Forest isn’t getting much better.

Xavier strikes me as a team that is destined to finish in the middle of the conference and hear its name called on Selection Sunday. The Musketeers are fairly rock-solid as a strong team but I’m not sure where I see them taking massive strides moving forward. I could easily be wrong (and probably will be), but this team has disappointed just a little bit compared to preseason expectations.

I think that Xavier will finish above this No. 7 placement by the end of the season but there isn’t much reason for it to be ranked significantly higher for this week.

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