The most intense non-conference rivalry in basketball is back. Here's how the teams match up and what X will have to do to win.
There's a sense in which Xavier's first nine games could scarcely have gone better. The Musketeers have avoided both injuries and losses, climbing from a position at which they were a mere afterthought in the polls to their current ranking of 12th. The polls are more of a taking of the press's pulse than an indicator of a team's actual skill level, but Xavier is playing really well and people in both the media and on opposing benches have noticed.