NCAA Tournament Coverage: Xavier vs Florida

The Florida Gators needed to win this rare mid-February non-conference clash, but the Xavier Musketeers wanted it.

Want-to trumps intellectual need every time.

Florida made number of runs at the brass ring, but Xavier made the last best run in Gainesville, Fla., picking up the kind of intersectional road win that lends completeness and texture to an NCAA Tournament portfolio. Coach Chris Mack's men from Cincinnati aren't a lock for the upcoming Big Dance, but this 12-point triumph in the Sunshine State will go a long way with a certain Selection Committee that's about to pore over reams of papers in an Indianapolis hotel room.

The bottom line in this bubble battle was that Xavier's post players brought a little more brawn to the basketball court. For most of the second half, the Musketeers' bigs played bigger within six feet of the basket. Florida found energy and effort near the basket for certain pockets of time, but the X more consistently "marked the spot" in the painted area. Rebounding totals were similar in this slugfest, but since Florida was and is a more finesse-based team, the Gators needed to convert more regularly from the perimeter.

They didn't.

Both teams hit only four 3-point shots, which meant that the balance of this game's scoring occurred on medium-range jumpers or anything closer to the basket. Xavier stood to gain from that scenario, and sure enough, the toughs from the A-10 profited at the O'Connell Center against Billy Donovan's club, which is likely headed to the NIT Tournament for the third straight season after winning back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007.

The key sequence on Saturday evening came after Florida's Chandler Parsons hit a triple to pull the home team within three points of the Musketeers (62-59) with 3:48 left. UF guard Kenny Boynton - following a defensive stop by the Gators - missed a tying 3-point attempt with just over three minutes to go, and then Xavier guard Jordan Crawford, at the end of a hard drive from the right wing, used just enough English to turn the game in his team's direction. Crawford's scoop shot - released three feet from the hoop - spun off the backboard, bounced onto the rim, tantalizingly sat on the orange-painted metal for a second, and then dropped through the nylon net. A Florida foul occurred on the play, so when Crawford then stepped to the foul line and completed the old-fashioned 3-point play, the X owned a 65-59 cushion with 2:51 on the clock.

The turn of events seemed to take the air out of the Florida balloon. The Gators - who pushed so hard to stay competitive over the game's previous several minutes - suffered an ever-so-slight psychological letdown, a loss of verve that makes a difference in a relatively even-fought event. The higher the level of competition, the more a small deficiency gets exposed, and in many ways, that's what's hounded Billy Donovan's program over the past three seasons. The Gators didn't collapse in the final three minutes of regulation, but they didn't hit another field goal attempt until 59 seconds remained on the clock. By that point, Xavier had established a 72-62 lead, and it was all over but the shouting.

Xavier just firmed up its place in college basketball's postseason. Ironically, Florida did as well... but in a tournament one notch below the NCAAs.

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Fans

Xavier vs Florida Basketball Recap