An Interesting Comparison...

[Masterofreality]

Our friends (term used advisedly) and Beelzebob apologists over at Clifton like to always trumpet the fact that in 1999-2000 UC "would have won a National Championship if KMart hadn't gotten hurt"- sort of like it was a fact that was pre-ordained to happen. Of course, UC was ranked #1, but should they have been?

Here is an interesting comparison as to the seasons that UC had and Xavier has had this year in the non-conference. Why only non-conference? Because that year was the poster child for the overrating of Convict USA. UC almost singlehandedly raised the league to the #5 rating. UC did go 16-0 in the league, but, frankly the league was crap. It did play the RPI game very well, though. Go back and look. Four teams got bids- 3 lost their very first game and UC lost to Tulsa and never got out of the first weekend. BTW That year Xavier beat both Louisville and UC who got bids. No bid for XU. Of the four teams that got bids- Depaul was 20-11, St. Louis was 19-13, Louisville was 18-11. The rest of the league was a muddle of middling garbage. I'll argue the strength of the A-10 this year vs CUSA that year.

How's this for interesting comparison in the non-conference:

Games vs Top 50 RPI: 2008 XU- 5, 2000 UC- 5
W/L vs Top 50 RPI: 2008 XU- 4/1, 2000 UC- 4/1
Games vs Top 100 RPI: 2008 XU- 9, 2000 UC- 8
W/L vs. Top 100 RPI: 2008 XU- 6/3, 2000 UC- 6/2
Non-conference SOS: 2008 XU- 16, 2000 UC -11

Oh, also. UC lost both games they played against A-10 opponents that year- to Xavier and to Temple.

Those numbers above, folks, are pretty damn close. The purpose of this post is so that the next time that a UC guy pulls the "we would have won" card you can say: Well, by that measure, Xavier has as good a chance to win this year. Or, if the UC guy is demeaning XU's accomplishments this year, pull these numbers out and throw them back in the guy's face. They are about the same.
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Xavier- Overnight Sensation 25 Years in the Making.

[michiganXman]

who cares about UC and what happened 8 years ago? no need to justify the season we've had...

Final Four or failure for XU this year.

[muskieman]

who cares about UC and what happened 8 years ago? no need to justify the season we've had...

Final Four or failure for XU this year.

What a foolish statement from a fan...

[michiganXman]

I guess we should just be happy making the tournement like years past...

[Ron 68]

Both RPI 's have us between 9 and 16. If we perform consistent with our RPI, we go to the sweet 16 and get ousted by a top 8 RPI team. I would love to do better, but if we play the second weekend, how can you call that a failure?

[realxfan]

If we don't win it all we can use the UC KMart excuse that we would have won it aii if Drew was healthy.

[StanleyOwnsYou]

That UC team would've lost to Michigan State that year anyway. That MSU team was one of the best ever, IMO. Great guard play, which we all know leads to tourney success. They also were pretty balanced and could flat our defend anyone in the country. UC even with KMart wouldn't have gotten to Indy that year (Final Four).

[michiganXman]

UC and Michigan State both had great teams. Would have been a great matchup.

Even though I'm not a UC fan, it was tough to see K-Mart go down like that. Bad day for Cincinnati sports.

[stewiex]

Although, I can't call this season a failure in X doesn't reach the Final Four, I think anything less than the Elite Eight would be considered tha way. We pretty much win the A-10 every year now (whoopee!) and this year's team seems to be the best we've seen in awhile. If we don't make our statement with a deep run this year I will be very disappointed.