Sometimes a game comes down to just being a little meaner than the other guy. Xavier is right now.
I remember last season at this time (as should everyone who has not had a recent TBI). Xavier was still righting itself from an almost perfunctory poor performance over the Thanksgiving holiday. It wasn't clear at all that Dee Davis would ever make another three or that Matt Stainbrook was better at basketball than he was at undermining the cab drivers' union.
It has all gone dim in the relative light of yet another run to the Sweet 16, but there were points in December and indeed later at which we were concerned that X might not be a tournament team.