Cast your mind back to the start of February. 2021 had started fitfully for the Xavier Musketeers, but they could just not stop winning. Their first Covid pause had ended with a battering of Butler in which Xavier just brutalized the Bulldogs in a game that was never in doubt. The Musketeers stroked 10 of 20 threes that game. They were a team that could shoot, occasionally defend, and win. They were 11-2, 4-2 in the Big East. No one was calling for Travis Steele’s job, fans were surreptitiously looking for rooms in Indianapolis.
Then, another Covid break hit.