Xavier @ Georgetown preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 22, 2020 ) Georgetown 57, Xavier 66

Xavier can solidify its case to be included in the NCAA Tournament by winning its final three games, including Sunday's Big East Conference matchup at Georgetown. The Musketeers are projected to be in the field as of now, but adding three Quad 1 wins to their resume, including sweeping the season series from the Hoyas, would help immensely.

The Musketeers haven't exactly impressed against the best competition, going 3-9 in Quad 1 games, with one win over No. 13 Seton Hall and one apiece over Big East cellar dwellers St. John's and DePaul. "Any game in this league is really hard," Xavier coach Travis Steele, whose team will face Providence and Butler to close the regular season, told the media. "Anybody can beat anybody. We got to be tighter with the ball. We got to get rid of the casual turnovers." Turnovers and poor free-throw shooting have been the downfall of the Musketeers, who are one of the better teams in Division I in adjusted defensive efficiency particularly since Jan. 21, and have picked up their 3-point shooting of late. The Hoyas lacked the manpower to make a run late in the season and have lost three straight games going into matchups with Xavier, No. 11 Creighton and No. 12 Villanova to end the regular season.

TIME: 2 p.m. ET. TV: CBS

ABOUT XAVIER (18-10, 7-8 Big East): While Tyrique Jones gets most of the double-doubles, Naji Marshall is the do it all player for the Musketeers. The junior from Atlantic City, N.J., who is one of 10 candidates for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award, leads the team in scoring, assists and steals and is second in rebounding as the only player in the Big East that ranks in the top 10 in each of those four categories. Marshall, Jones and Quentin Goodin have each scored 1,000 points at Xavier and Paul Scruggs is 55 points short of giving them four 1,000-point scorers on the same team, which hasn't happened since 1998-99.

ABOUT GEORGETOWN (15-13, 5-10): Without the services of top scorers Mac McClung and Omer Yurtseven once again, the Hoyas proved no match for Marquette 93-72. Jahvon Blair rebounded from his first poor outing in the last seven games with 18 points against Marquette and his recent solid play likely earned him a starting role next season with Jagan Mosely and Terrell Allen graduating and Yurtseven possibly leaving early. The junior has averaged 38.9 minutes and 18.4 points while shooting 33 percent from 3-point territory over the last seven contests.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Jones leads the Big East and was third nationally entering Saturday with 19 double-doubles while on pace to become the first Xavier player to average a double-double since three-time Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and AP National Player of the Year David West did so in 2002-03.

2. The Musketeers are 11-3 against the Hoyas since joining the Big East in 2013-14 and are 15-5 overall, including a memorable win 30 years ago in the second round of the 1990 NCAA Tournament.

3. Xavier was 312th among 350 Division I teams in free-throw percentage at 65.5.

PREDICTION: Xavier 70, Georgetown 65