Keys to Victory: Xavier Musketeers

Photo Credit: Julia Grubbs

Photo Credit: Julia Grubbs


Who: Xavier Musketeers 17-10 (7-7)
Where: Cintas Center, Cincinnati, OH
When: February 19 at 2 pm
TV: Fox Sports Regional
Radio: 1070 AM/107.5 FM The Fan

Despite losing a starter and lone scoring post presence in Andrew Chrabascz, the Butler Bulldogs grinded out a road win against the Creighton Bluejays on Monday night, while the Xavier Musketeers held off a late charge from their biggest rivals in the Cincinnati Bearcats to take their sixth win in eight tries in the Crosstown Shootout series. Butler will search for its first win in the Cintas Center since 2008, but like most wins against Butler’s biggest Big East rival, it won’t be easy. Here are the keys to Butler pulling off the win:

1. Slow down the Stain train – Assuming Tyler Wideman starts again for Butler because he has the best chance of individually being able to defend Matt Stainbrook, he has to stay out of foul trouble and Butler needs to keep throwing different looks at the Senior big man. Stainbrook is so good at scoring through contact, but he’s also great at finding one of the many shooters that Xavier possesses. If Butler is going to have a chance in this one, this key has to be paramount.

2. Slow down the pace – Prior to the game against Creighton, Butler actually had been playing at a solid pace within conference play, but without one of their main offensive weapons, Butler (with Creighton’s help of course), ground the game Monday night into a grinding halt, with only 54 possessions taking place in that game, the Bulldogs’ slowest of the season. With Xavier’s offensive firepower, Butler may need to do the same to stick around in this one. Cincinnati did the same thing in their game against the Musketeers, and while it didn’t result in a victory for the Bearcats, they stuck around despite having struggled all year offensively.

Photo Credit: Julia Grubbs

Photo Credit: Julia Grubbs

3. Find the offensive flow – While I certainly don’t expect the offense to work as well as it did with Chrabascz in the lineup, Butler really has to find a way to improve offensively from where they were at on Monday. Whether that means Butler fans see more Kelan Martin, or they draw up a few more sets for Dunham, it’s going to take a monumental effort against the Musketeers in their building. In the last matchup, Xavier was determined to keep Dunham from beating them, so I’d expect a similar strategy defensively from them, so it’s going to take guys like Woods, Martin, Barlow, Jones and perhaps Wideman to open things up for him while Abell blankets him early on.

4. Own the glass – Perhaps there has been no bigger key for Butler this year than their performance on the glass. Saturday will be no different. Xavier doesn’t generate a ton on the offensive glass, but they have been very good on the defensive glass, so Butler will have to be able to create second chance opportunities to help out their offense, and to keep Xavier from pushing the ball up the floor before Butler can get its defense set.

Let us know what your keys to the game are in the comments section or on the message board.

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One thought on “Keys to Victory: Xavier Musketeers

  1. First post ever on this site! Wish I had been here earlier!
    Gonna say this now – the Creighton game was a must-win. this is really not. I think this will be a very difficult one to pull out shorthanded or not. #Chrabs is #Chrabulous and will be sorely missed, but even with him, X would be a tough tough road win. If I were a betting man, I’d take the Dogs and the points, but I am not expecting a victory.

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