NCAA Tournament Coverage: Xavier vs Dayton

Temple might be the only Atlantic 10 team in the AP top 25, but the Xavier Musketeers just made the kind of statement that could enable them to join the Owls in a select college basketball fraternity.

Saturday's four-point victory over in-state rival Dayton at the Cintas Center enabled Xavier to move to 4-0 in the conference, a half-game ahead of Temple. More importantly, however, the hard-fought triumph showed how much staying power this Cincinnati-based program truly possesses.

This is - of course - yet another season of transition for XU basketball. Pete Gillen - the man who orchestrated many of the program's greatest on-court moments in the 1980s and early 90s - left for the head coaching job at Providence in 1994. No worries: Skip Prosser stepped in and led the "X" to more NCAA Tournament appearances, but Prosser then left Cincinnati in 2001 for the Wake Forest job and a point guard named Chris Paul.

No problem: Thad Matta - fresh from another mid-major school, Butler University - arrived in the southwest corner of Ohio to take over the Musketeers and bring them to the Elite Eight in 2004. Matta maxed out in his stay at the Jesuit-run school and came within one win of the Final Four. Unfortunately, that 2004 Xavier squad ran into a deeper Duke team in the Atlanta Regional Final. When Matta's stock soared as a result of that sensational season, he became the latest Xavier coach to seek a supposedly greener pasture. Not too long after that Elite Eight accomplishment, Matta moseyed on over to Columbus to coach the Buckeyes of Ohio State.

Hey, no sweat: Sean Miller came to town and delivered a record of success just as good as Matta's. In each of the past two seasons, the X marked its spot on the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. In 2008, the Musketeers fell to UCLA in the West Regional Final. Last spring, Xavier reached the Sweet 16 and barely lost to top-seeded Pittsburgh in a vigorous East Regional Semifinal.

When Miller then packed his bags for Arizona after the loss to Pittsburgh - after originally saying he'd stay in Cincinnati - the locals had to wonder if Xavier hoops was finally going to run into bad luck on the coaching front. Could this program continue to deliver the goods and maintain its reputation as one of the most consistent programs outside a traditional power conference?

This game - this win over a Dayton club that reached last year's NCAA Tournament as an at-large entry - will do a lot to affirm Xavier's deservedly lofty place in the college basketball world under first-year coach Chris Mack.

Clutch late-game shotmaking from Jordan Crawford (who gave XU a two-possession lead on a jumper with 14 seconds left in regulation), plus ice-veins free throw shooting from Jerrell Holloway (13 of 14 at the foul line, including the game-sealing shots in the final seconds), gave Xavier enough scoring punch to prevail.

The X also "X-ed out" Dayton's star performer at the other end of the court. By holding UD's Chris Wright to just 10 points on 2-of-7 shooting, the Musketeers mastered the most fearsome Flyer of all and reduced Dayton's offensive options.

Just another day at the office, right? Just another huge A-10 win for a Xavier program that just won't quit, right? Wrong.

Wins like this one have been very familiar in Cincinnati over the past two decades, but that doesn't mean they're becoming stale at all. Another season is bringing smiles to the faces of Musketeer fans. More winning basketball is keeping the "X" in excellence.

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Fans

Xavier vs Dayton Basketball Recap