Bracketology 2023: Penn State, Marquette and Utah State among biggest winners
By Joey Loose
Xavier
This Musketeers program has taken a mighty step forward with Sean Miller back running the program and will be in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five seasons. They’ve held their own against a talented Big East all season long and had an 11-game winning streak earlier in the season that included wins over Connecticut, Creighton, and Marquette. Having already survived a close call in the Big East quarterfinals, they dispatched one of those teams for another great win on Friday.
That particular foe was Creighton and the Musketeers made easy work of the Bluejays in a dominant 82-60 win in the Big East Tournament semifinals. Souley Boum continued his outstanding season with a 23-point outing while Jack Nunge put up 17 points and 7 rebounds of his own. The Musketeers played significantly better than Creighton on both sides of the ball and earned their chance to play Marquette in the finals.
Even if we didn’t care about seeding in the NCAA Tournament, this kind of performance in March is fantastic for Xavier’s confidence. They looked great in their 22-point victory and got their 8th Quad 1 win in the process. The Musketeers are hovering right around a 4-seed, but could push themselves up an entire seed because of this performance against Creighton. Knocking off Marquette could all but secure that incredible position in their return trip to the Tournament.