The NCAA Tournament round of 16 gets underway Thursday night With a West Regional match-up between the No. 3-seed Xavier Musketeers and No. 7 seed West Virginia Mountaineers in Phoenix, Ariz., with tip off at 7:10 p.m. ET.
Xavier is favored by a single digit (-1) versus West Virginia with a 136 total according to oddsmakers at online sports wagering giant Sportsbook.com.
Xavier advanced to the sweet 16 by defeating Georgia 73-61 in the first round and out pacing Purdue 85-78 in the second round. The Musketeers covered the betting spread in both games, as a 9-chalk favorite over Georgia and covering -3 in their game with Purdue. The OVER slipped above the posted total in both early round games.
In order for West Virginia to make it to the regional semi-finals, the school defeated Arizona as a -1.5 favorite 75-65 in the first round followed by a 73-67 victory over Duke as a +4.5 point underdog. The total split OVER/UNDER in the two early round games West Virginia played.
The Musketeers are making their third straight NCAA Tournament appearance and their seventh in the last eight years. Xavier, which is making its 19th all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament, is making its 18th appearance in the last 26 seasons. Xavier's first appearance was in 1961, although XU didn't return again until 1983.
Xavier has five players averaging in double figures in scoring and a sixth that is very close: senior Josh Duncan (12.1 ppg.), senior Drew Lavender (11.0 ppg.), sophomore Derrick Brown (10.9 ppg.), juniors C.J. Anderson (10.7 ppg.) and B.J. Raymond (10.1 ppg.) and senior Stanley Burrell (9.8 ppg.).
The Sweet 16 is nothing new to West Virginia’s players either. WVU joins an elite list of schools including North Carolina, Kansas and Villanova that have made it to the Sweet 16 in three of the last four years. Veteran players like Darris Nichols, Alex Ruoff and Joe Alexander are tournament tested.
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