NCAA Basketball: 5 teams to watch for rest of 2019-20 season

Xavier Musketeers (16-9, 5-7 in Big East)

The Xavier Musketeers may just be 5-7 in the Big East this season but since losing to Marquette by two at the end of January, Travis Steele’s team has won three of their last four including a win over Seton Hall on the road, a game they controlled the entire way. The 16-9 record is a bit deceiving as both of their non-conference losses and two of their league losses have come by single digits. The good news for Xavier is that they have a bunch of games against teams ahead of them, including a return engagement with Villanova and Butler to end the year.

The frontcourt is where Xavier does most of its damage with the forward combo of Naji Marshall and Tyrique Jones leading the way with 16.2 and 13.7 points respectively with Jones also pulling down 11.1 rebounds per game to average a double-double. Junior Paul Scruggs is the Musketeers’ top guard, netting 12.9 points.

A big addition to the team has been the emergence of freshman guard Kyky Tandy who has averaged 9.7 points per game over his last four games. While the overall numbers might not look impressive, but over the last two weeks, Xavier has been playing well, has some big wins and have proven they can take down the top teams in the conference.