It the time of year where things speed up
Championship Week is weird when you are a high major in a low major’s situation. Xavier is only going to the tournament if they win the Big East tournament. The NIT may or may not wait. Until X tips off tomorrow at 4pm, there’s little to do but peruse the college basketball news and see what everyone else is up to.
Bids are going out
Six teams, Stetson, Drake, Longwood, James Madison, Morehead St, and Samford are already in. Stetson is in for the first time and is going to either play a play-in game or get nuked by a one seed. AQs playing a play-in game is a flaw in the tournament, but I digress. Five more from the Horizon, CAA, NEC, WCC, and Summit go out tonight. The big conferences are also kicking off their tournaments over the next two days. It’s the time of year where you can throw the tv on at noon and have basketball until midnight.
Porter Moser is acting strange
First, reports came out that Moser had been in contact with other teams about leaving his job at Oklahoma. Then, the reports clarified that first among those teams was DePaul. After that Moser issued a randomly capitalized denial on Twitter that he attached a gif of an OU flag that appeared to have been made in MS Paint to. It all smacked a lot of Thad Matta’s vociferous denials that he was going to leave Xavier right before he left Xavier.
But why would anyone leave Oklahoma for DePaul? DePaul is a bad program that hasn’t been relevant in decades. Oklahoma is swimming in NIL and football money. It makes no sense, but Moser’s denials ring of “the lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
Xavier is slumping
NCAA Tournament Appearances in last 6 seasons despite NKU loss last night.
NKU: 4 (counting 2020 since they had qualified)
Xavier and UC combined: 2 (barring a miracle run from either this week)Xavier and UC had combined for a combined 11 over the previous 6 seasons.
— Retire FiftyTu (@RetireFiftyTu) March 12, 2024
X made the Sweet 16 last season, but this is shaping up to be the fifth of six in which they don’t make the tournament. Covid ruined a good team and maybe took a bid from a bubble team. Injuries hit hard this year. Still, those are ultimately just excuses for a program that should be doing better than this.