Analysis: Xavier needs to find a response; Musketeers are stumbling at the wrong time

There's no way to sugarcoat it.

Saturday was a bad performance for Xavier's men's basketball team.

The Musketeers have been playing with fire recently and they got burned by inconsistency with a 69-65 loss to DePaul at Cintas Center.

The loss doesn't ruin Xavier's season. The Musketeers dropped one spot in the NCAA's NET rankings to No. 21, but it does pin Xavier in a corner for one reason.

Right now, the Musketeers don't look like a team that's improved after 22 games. And with how important the next month is, that's a dangerous place to be.

When head coach Travis Steele met with the media following the loss to DePaul, a lot of what has been said repeatedly over the last few weeks was said…