NCAA Tournament Sweet 16: Xavier v. Arizona Three Takeaways

This team has deserved everything it has won

There were some bad moments and some ugly losses, but there's no question Xavier in March has been a better team than Xavier in November or even early February. People questioned their 9-9 Big East record, questioned their resume, questioned the six seed. Xavier just kept quietly improving and was the last team standing from their city, their state, and their conference. The fact that West Virginia got clubbed in the other 10pm tip game just underscores how much better Xavier was than people thought they might be.

The seniors weren't going to go gentle into that good night

Matt Stainbrook ate until Arizona threw the big-to-big double at him, and then he was effective in moving the ball out of the post and recycling play. Dee Davis was a general on the floor and supplemented that with being the team's second-leading scorer. They may not be the kind of talents that use college as a brief stopping point on their way to making millions to play ball, but that's exactly what makes them so special.

The same issues that cost Xavier in close games all year were present

I'm honestly not going to talk strategy and analysis right now though. I'm proud of these guys, and you should be too.