MBB Minute -- Xavier Tops Arizona, Butler Meets North Carolina
Xavier’s NCAA Championship run continued Thursday after the 11
th-seeded Musketeers defeated No. 2 seed Arizona 73-71 in the West Region Semifinals in San Jose, Calif. Trevon Bluiett scored a game-high 25 points for the winners.
Xavier, which has defeated No. 6 Maryland, No. 3 Florida State and No. 2 Arizona, will play No. 1 seed Gonzaga in the West Region final Saturday at 6:09 p.m. ET on TBS. The Musketeers will be making their third appearance in the Elite Eight. For eighth-year head coach Chris Mack, this is his seventh NCAA appearance, fourth Sweet 16 and first Elite Eight as the Musketeers’ headmaster.
BIG EAST teams historically have done well in the West Region. Ten times a BIG EAST team has advanced to the Final Four through the West. The first was Georgetown in 1982 and the last was Louisville in 2012.
Butler, the No. 4 seed in the South Region, takes on No. 1 seed North Carolina in a regional semifinal game Friday at 7:09 ET on CBS in Memphis, Tenn. The Bulldogs, who have not trailed in tournament wins over Winthrop and Middle Tennessee State, will be playing an NCAA No. 1 seed for the seventh time. They are 2-4 against the top seeds with the wins coming in 2010 against Syracuse and in 2011 against Pittsburgh.
The Bulldogs beat the Tar Heels in their last meeting 74-66 in the 2014 Battle for Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas.
The BIG EAST landed seven of its 10 teams in the NCAA Championship, the highest percentage of NCAA representation for any conference this year. The 70 percent is the second highest mark in BIG EAST history. In 1991, the league placed seven of nine teams in the NCAAs. In its current 10-team alignment, the BIG EAST has earned 22 NCAA bids in four years.