Overview: 3 keys for Xavier musketeers to obtain a Big East victory over Butler Bulldogs

Xavier did his part to hang out on the Bulle of the NCAA tournament last week with a victory on the road against Providence and a victory over Depaul at the Cintas Center on Saturday.

It was a particularly good week for musketeers with several teams of bubbles with losses.

Return The ESPN Joe Lunardi update, who listed Xavier in the “next four outings” on Wednesday. During the rest of the week, three of the last four Lunardi teams with a Bye (Virginie-Western, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt) lost on Saturday. Georgia, one of the “last four inside”, fell to Missouri on Saturday.

Two of Lunardi’s “First Out” teams, Arkansas and SMU, also lost on Saturday. The Indiana and the state of Kansas, which were alongside Xavier in the “next four”, also fell on weekends. Finally, three of the last four teams from Lunardi bubbles (Cincinnati, USC and Boisse State) lost on Saturday.

While fans and the media are obsessed with the projections of the NCAA tournament while March is looming, it belongs to Xavier to focus on the task to be accomplished.

“Put yourself on social networks and read all the things in hookyology will not do you good,” said Xavier Zach Freemmantle striker. “We just have to ignore it completely.”

With less than four weeks remaining until the selection on Sunday, it will be difficult to ignore. But Xavier maintained his end of the good deal. Musketeers are still on the right track for a regular season of 20 wins and have no bad losses on their curriculum vitae before the last section of five games.

Xavier’s margin of error in microscopy in the future, which apparently makes each competition a must. This continues Tuesday in another important home game against Butler.

3 keys to the victory of an Xavier Musketeers on Butler Bulldogs

1. Can Xavier’s attack have another effective night?

While the 3 -point shot did not drop (4 for 15), Xavier has always found a way to score 85 points during the victory on Saturday against Depaul. Xavier pulled 26 out of 36 from the 2 -point beach and shot 21 on the charity.

Depaul is the only Big East team abandoning more points per game than Butler (72.3), which ranks n ° 146 in Kenpom in global efficiency. Butler defends the perimeter well, allowing opponents to connect to a rate of 30.6%, which is second in the Big East. Butler also holds the teams outside the free throw line at only 14.2 attempts per game (n ° 2 at Big East).

Limiting turnover is the first step to maintain this efficiency. Xavier had only nine reversals against Depaul, marking the third time in Big East Play, the musketeers have kept reversals in a single figure. Butler is not a defense that ravages. Bulldogs are n ° 362 as a percentage of turnover.

2. The defense of Xavier will be tested against Butler

Head coach Sean Miller said that the end of Xavier’s season depends on how they defend themselves in the second half. While Depaul has mixed his rotation several times, Butler’s offensive hits his stride.

Bulldogs have an average of 87.6 points on his sequence of current victories of three games. On Saturday, the Bulldogs blitzé a good defense of Georgetown by pulling 57.7% of the field in a 97-86 victory at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Butler, offensive n ° 41 in Kenpom, ranks fourth in the Big East as a percentage of goals in the field (46.2%) and third in 3 -point shooting (37.7%).

3. Xavier needs 5th consecutive victory in the battle of rebound

Xavier exceeded his opponent in four consecutive games and that is a great reason why the musketeers are 3-1 in this section. Xavier still ranks 10th in the Big East in total of the rebounds per game (33.8), but there is an improvement in this area and there are fewer rebounds to grasp when shots fall.

It is a range of butler that ranks 14th in the country in average height, but it is always a team that Xavier can compete on the glass. Butler and Xavier are two ninth and 10th respectively in the Big East in offensive rebound. For Xavier, limiting second -chance opportunities is the key to how musketeers come out in transition after a defensive rebound.

Xavier Mousquetaires against Bulldogs Butler

Advice: Tuesday, 8 p.m., Cintas Center (10,212)

TV / Radio: Peacock / 700 WLW

Notes: Xavier is n ° 52 Kenpom and Butler is n ° 72. Xavier is n ° 54 in the NCAA Net classification And Butler is n ° 81.

History: Xavier leads the series of all time, 48-27 and won four games in a row at the Cintas Center.

Butler’s Bulldogs screening report

Save: 12-13 (5-9 Big East)

Head coach: Thad Matta (68-54 in Butler, fourth season)

Offense: 74.6 ppg

Defense: 72.3 PPG

Preview: Butler won more than a month between victories earlier this season after a sequence of nine consecutive defeats and a start of 0-6 in Big East Play.

Butler has gone 5-3 since then with home victories against Georgetown, Providence, Depaul and a pair of victories in the last place Seton Hall.

Butler has only 1-6 in real games on the road this season and his last victory at the Cintas Center was on March 7, 2020, when Kamar Baldwin crowned a 36 -point performance with a 3 -point win of the Buzzer game.

Planned starting line

(Pos., Height, statistics)

Finley Bizjack (G, 6’4 “, 8.7 ppg)

Pierre Brooks (F, 6’6 “, 15.5 ppg)

Jahmyl Telfort (F, 6’7 “, 15.9 ppg)

Patrick McCaffey (F, 6’9 “, 11.8 ppg)

Boden Kapke (F, 6’11 “, 3.3 ppg)

Xavier musketeer screening report

Save: 16-10 (8-7 Big East)

Head coach: Sean Miller (179-85 in Xavier, eighth season)

Offense: 77.3 PPG

Defense: 70.9 ppg

Projected entries

(Pos., Height, statistics)

Dayvion McKnight (G, 6’0 “, 9.9 ppg)

Ryan Conwell (G, 6’4 “, 15.5 ppg)

Marcus Foster (G, 6’5 “, 8.2 ppg)

Dailyn Swain (G / F, 6’8 “, 10.4 ppg)

Zach Freemantle (F, 6’9 “, 17 ppg)

Players to watch

Butler has his own big 3 with Jahmyl Telfort, Pierre Brooks II And Patrick McCaffery Combining 32 goal attempts on the field per game.

Brooks has just released a 30 -point performance in Saturday’s victory against Georgetown. He collected an average of 19 points on three games with Xavier last season. Telfort has scored more than 20 points three times in the last seven games. McCaffery leads an offense of butler which is n ° 25 in the country in 3 points. The transfer of Iowa draws a career summit of 42.3% of the city center.

Dayvion McKnight Had a rebound performance against Depaul with his first two -digit performance (14 points) in February. McKnight has also committed only one turnover since the victory on the road against Marquette on January 18. Xavier’s attack is the most dangerous when McKnight is on the attack and on Saturday was a good sign for the guardian of the veterans.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Big East Basketball: Xavier opts for a sequence of victories in 3 games against Butler