The NCAA tournament is starting up, but Illinois basketball fans have to wait nearly 48 hours to begin what is hopefully going to be a deep run.
The first game of the NCAA tournament starts at 12:15 p.m. ET/11:15 a.m. CT and features No. 8 Louisville vs. No. 9 Creighton. The Illini, on the other hand, gets to wait until the third-to-last game in the first round to begin its quest.
While the tip-off for the Orange and Blue is not until 9:45 p.m. ET/8:45 p.m. CT on Friday night, we finally got to find out which program we will be playing in the first round.
Xavier and Texas went head-to-head on Wednesday night to see which program had the great honor of taking on the Illini. Texas had control for most of the game, taking an eight-point lead heading into halftime and once having a 13-point lead. The Musketeers weren’t going away, though.
While Texas looked good, Xavier had a surge in the second half. They beat the Longhorns by 14 points in the final 20 minutes and won the game, 86-80.
I think either team was going to be an interesting matchup for the Illini, but honestly, I was rooting for Texas. I think the Longhorns would have been an easier matchup between the two, and Xavier kind of scares me a bit.
Xavier has the ability to cause headaches for the Illinois basketball defense
The biggest issue I have with Xavier is their three-point shooting. They hit 39.1% on average from the three-point range, which ranks No. 6 in the country. This three-point shooting got them back in the game against Texas and everyone was hitting.
Against the Longhorns, Xavier was 12-of-25, 48.0%, from three-point range. There are three things I want to point out about the great Xavier shooting.
The Musketeers didn’t even have to have their best shooter perform well. Ryan Conwell only had 11 points and was just 1-of-3 from three-point range. Any team in the country would take that defensively, but it also means that the rest of the team can hit from deep.
I hate how deep Xavier is as well. They can go eight deep and not miss a beat. The Musketeers played three players at least 12 minutes from the bench against Texas. Those three bench players were 6-of-11 from three-point range. Being able to bring bench guys in and getting 22 points out of them is impressive.
Zach Freemantle also worries me. He is Xavier’s big man but is a bit undersized. If Freemantle gets into the paint, I think Tomislav Ivisic and Morez Johnson Jr. won’t have a problem. My issue is that Freemantle can shoot from outside.
Illinois’ big men tend to give a cushion to their opponent. We are more worried about the pick-and-roll or help defense, and this creates space for the opponent to shoot from three-point range. Illinois just has to hope Freemantle is not hitting on Friday night.
Full disclosure, I believe Illinois is still going to win the game over Xavier, but I think our path to the second round just got a little tougher with Texas choking away a win.