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A great breakdown of November- If you are into advanced statistics and understanding the game, I cannot recommend this highly enough. Even better, there is plenty of Xavier content here as it is solely a Big East focused piece. As a further teaser: "However, let me present to you the case for a freshman you might want to get yourself familiar with: Xavier's Trevon Bluiett." There are several paragraphs donated to Bluiett and the impact he has had on the Musketeers so far this season.
The Big East joins the It's On Us campaign- At this point I don't think anyone disputes the need for something to happen regarding sexual assault on college campuses. "Launched by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in September, the "It's On Us" campaign aims to fundamentally shift the way the world thinks about sexual assault and encourages students to create safe environments across college campuses." Xavier and the Big East have now announced a formal partnership to begin in January.
The packline defense isn't a flawed premise- You can be forgiven for watching Xavier play defense and thinking otherwise, but the other main practitioners of the packline just dominated Maryland last night. Virginia doesn't have any single player that leaps out as being head and shoulders above anything Xavier has, nor do they play some crazy variant on the pack. What they do is execute spectacularly on every possession. Read this and have a look at the numbers they are putting up defensively. Xavier has a long way to go.
Here's a stunner- Wichita State went on the road and played a good opponent and, shockingly, they lost. Wichita was riding the longest regular season winning streak in the nation and their only recent loss had been the only other time they played a decent team (UK in the tournament last year). It had been 355 days since WSU played a regular season game against a team with a KenPom rating above 80. Feasting on the also-rans gets you bumped in the second round and, last night at least, gets you beat by Utah.
Lauren Hill signs up for hospice care- Hill is still playing while she can, but she and her family made the decision, "Monday we signed on with Hospice. Originally this was planned to be done at the end of October or Early November but got side barred due to the big game. We are excited to have additional resources coming to our home. We have already been able to get supplies to help make things easier here at home." Godspeed.