Xavier will not participate in 2016 Gavitt Tipoff games

The Gavitt Tipoff games schedule for the upcoming season was announced or leaked last night, and the Musketeers were conspicuous by their absence. Xavier traveled to Michigan last year to open up a can on the Wolverines, so Muskies fans were hoping to get a chance to host one this year, maybe forcing Thad Matta to come into town or getting a rematch against Wisconsin.

Well, never mind all that. It appears that Xavier's travel schedule with playing in the Puerto Rico Tipoff the weekend before Thanksgiving was too big an obstacle to surmount in scheduling the Gavitt game.

The matchups that did get scheduled are as follows: Nova @ Purdue, Maryland @ Georgetown, Providence @ OSU, Wisconsin @ Creighton, Seton Hall @ Iowa, Northwestern @ Butler, St. John's @ Minnesota, and Rutgers @ DePaul. When St. John's @ Minnesota isn't your worst game, something amazing has happened.

In the meantime, Mario Mercurio will be at work setting Xavier's non-conference schedule for the upcoming season. If that doesn't fill you with confidence, you haven't been paying attention.