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Everything seems a little bit better when your team firms up its resume, and Xavier did exactly that in beating down Georgetown on the road last night. That was the marquee win away from home X needed; now they have a solid platform for making the tournament and plenty of upside still left on the schedule to improve their seed.
It should also be noted that Xavier beat Georgetown by 13 in the same building in which Georgetown beat Villanova by 20. It's obviously only reasonable to predict a 33-point home win over the Wildcats when they visit X.
Or maybe not. Here's your weekly KenPom s-curve:
| The | KenPom s-curve | 1/28 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KENTUCKY | VIRGINIA | GONZAGA | ARIZONA |
| 2 | Duke | VILLANOVA | WISCONSIN | Utah |
| 3 | WICHITA ST. | North Carolina | KANSAS | Notre Dame |
| 4 | VCU | West Virginia | Louisville | Oklahoma |
| 5 | Baylor | Texas | Xavier | Northern Iowa |
| 6 | Oklahoma St. | SMU | Butler | Ohio St. |
| 7 | Iowa St. | Georgia | Michigan St. | SAN DIEGO ST. |
| 8 | Davidson | Georgetown | Stanford | Maryland |
| 9 | Cincinnati | Mississippi | LSU | Florida |
| 10 | St. John's | BYU | Dayton | STEPHEN F. AUSTIN |
| 11 | North Carolina St. | TCU | Miami FL | Indiana |
| 12 | Providence | Iowa | Alabama | Arkansas |
| 12 | GREEN BAY | MURRAY ST. | ||
| 13 | OLD DOMINION | BOWLING GREEN | HARVARD | IONA |
| 14 | NEW MEXICO ST. | WOFFORD | HOFSTRA | LONG BEACH ST. |
| 15 | GEORGIA ST. | NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL | SOUTH DAKOTA ST. | EASTERN WASHINGTON |
| 16 | ST. FRANCIS NY | HIGH POINT | NORTH FLORIDA | STONY BROOK |
| 16 | COLGATE | TEXAS SOUTHERN | ||
| First 4 out | Texas A&M | Seton Hall | South Carolina | Minnesota |
| Next 4 out | Valparaiso | Saint Mary's | Tulsa | Connecticut |
And here's how that looks in bracket form:
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It's nice to see Xavier on that 5 line right now. West Virginia (one of eight Big 12 teams in) would be an interesting potential matchup; Remy Abell going toe-to-toe with Juwan Staten would make for good television. The Muskies are one of six Big East teams in right now, and Seton Hall is just the wrong side of the bubble.
The Pac-12 is interesting in how top-heavy it has become. Arizona and Utah are 4 and 5 in the s-curve, Stanford is 30th, and nobody else in the league is particularly close to the bracket right now. A month ago, the league was putting five teams in; now they're sitting on three and looking more likely to drop one than add one.