Xavier v. Villanova: preview, matchups, keys to the game
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Xavier hosts Nova looking for a rare and pivotal season sweep to keep their narrow league title hopes alive.
Just about six weeks ago, Xavier went to Finneran Pavilion and beat Villanova. That was Xavier’s offense at its high-octane finest. Souley Boum was 10-10 from the line on his way to 22/10/6. Zach Freemantle stole the headlines though, shooting 12-17 from the floor and putting up a cool 29/11/4 with 0 turnovers. Nova had enough to keep it close, but they never had an answer to Xavier’s star forward.
A lot has changed since that game, most notably that Freemantle has picked up an injury and sat out five games. Xavier has had their two worst performances of the year, losing by single buckets at DePaul and Butler. Despite that, they’ve more or less kept their heads above water, treading through injuries and bad games to hold onto the final spot in the early top 16 reveal and the same #16 ranking in the polls. According to Bart Torvik, that 7-4 spell has seen Xavier play like the #26 team in the country.
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