Xavier basketball's Covid pause will include the DePaul game

First, the news:

While this is no fun for Xavier fans, the team will still be able to look forward to carrying a 7-0 schedule into their planned home game against Marquette. For DePaul, this is borderline crippling. While the Blue Demons share with Xavier the distinction of being undefeated, they are also winless. Xavier's visit was going to be their season opener.

DePaul has two games left on the schedule, against Butler and UConn. From there, they need to find 11 more to meet the current eligibility requirements to make the NCAA tournament. While playing 11 games between Christmas and March doesn't seem insurmountable, it may well be when considered in light of the fact that DePaul hasn't gotten any in so far.

Anyway, Xavier got shut down just when they were scalding hot, having put a KenPom top 25 team to the sword last time out in running Oklahoma out of Cintas. It will now be another week until we see whether or not they can maintain that momentum.