Seton Hall @ Xavier preview
Cintas Center
Last Meeting ( Feb 1, 2020 ) Xavier 74, Seton Hall 62
Xavier entered the national rankings after winning its first eight games of the season, but all it took for the Musketeers to fall out of the rankings was one loss to a ranked team last week.
Xavier, which had been ranked No. 22, fell out of this week's rankings following a 66-61 loss last Wednesday at No. 13 Creighton, and with a week off to stew over its first loss of the season, Xavier will try to start a climb back into the rankings against visiting Seton Hall in a Big East contest on Wednesday in Cincinnati.
The Musketeers are 8-1 overall and 1-1 in conference play, while Seton Hall is 6-5 overall and 3-1 in league play.
"You can't get too high or too low in this league," Xavier coach Travis Steele said. "There's a lot of really, really good teams in our league."
Xavier features a balanced scoring attack led by Zach Freemantle (16.3 points per game), Paul Scruggs (15.8), Nate Johnson (13.3) and KyKy Tandy (10).
Seton Hall enters just half-game behind league-leading Villanova, which is ranked fourth in the most recent poll. Just like with Xavier, Seton Hall will be coming off a one-week layoff following a 78-67 home win over Georgetown.
The Musketeers are averaging 81.6 points a game so far this season and have been deadly from the perimeter, shooting 39.1 percent from 3-point range and 49.3 percent overall.
Seton Hall started the year off slow at 1-3, but has since rebounded by winning five of its last six games, with the only loss being in overtime to Providence.
Sandro Mamukelashvili leads Seton Hall in scoring at 18.2 points per game, followed by Jared Rhoden (15.7) and Myles Cale (12.6).
Mamukelashvili scored a season-low two points against Georgetown, but Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said that had something to do with his team playing so many games in a short amount of time.
"Sandro's been our workhorse," Willard told The Washington Post. "This (was) our 10th game in 28 days and he's been playing 38 minutes a game, taking 17 shots per game. I'm running things through him. He has given us everything he can possibly give us. I think he was just mentally taxed."
One thing Seton Hall has been able to do effectively this year is get to the free-throw line.
The Pirates are tied for third in the nation in free-throw attempts per game (24.2) and third in the country in free throws made per game (17.4).
--Field Level Media