San Jose State is not near the Big East. This is true both geographically and metaphorically. Last season the worst team that Xavier played was Morehead State. The Musketeers cruised through that game at a disbelief inducing clip of 101-49. The Eagles finished 273rd in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings. San Jose State was 301st and lost to the 272nd ranked team by nine. The Spartans played 11 games against Tier A or B teams and were within ten (9, to be precise) once. Xavier went 17-6 in such games last year.
All of this is to say that Ryan Welage is making a jump this year.