'We desperately want to be a part of the tournament.' What's next for Xavier Musketeers?

NEW YORK CITY − After controlling what it could control over a seven-game winning streak and playing its way into NCAA Tournament contention, Xavier has now left it in the Selection Committee's hands.

In a massive opportunity to solidify its chances of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, Xavier came up short to No. 25 Marquette in Thursday's Big East Tournament quarterfinals, 89-87.

Xavier went toe-to-toe with a team projected to be a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but that only goes so far. Xavier is now 1-9 in Quad 1 contests and will have to wait two days to find out its postseason fate.

"We desperately want to be a part of the tournament," Xavier head coach Sean Miller said.

Was Xavier's winning streak enough to get into the NCAA Tournament?

Xavier is now hoping that its seven-game winning streak to end the regular season was enough to push them into the 68-team field.

"We've won 12 of our last 16, seven in a row coming into today's game. Obviously, we played against an excellent team on a neutral court. I think if anybody watches today's game, I think you had two teams that are NCAA Tournament-caliber playing out there."

Xavier went 21-10 during the regular season and 13-7 in Big East play. No Big East team with at least 21 regular season wins has been left out of the NCAA Tournament since 2007.

"The 13 Big East wins, the 21 overall wins, and then what I really try to look at is just our level of play," Miller continued. "We're one of America's best 3-point shooting teams. We're one of America's best free-throw shooting teams. Defensively, we finished third in the Big East in terms of defensive efficiency. The quality of play that we've had for a long period of time, you know, to me that's what we stand on.

Xavier head coach Sean Miller after his team's 89-87 loss to Marquette in the Big East Tournament: "We desperately want to be part of the (NCAA) tournament."

"I know this, that over the last six-to-eight weeks there aren't too many teams in the country that have played at a higher level than our group. Today we played at a very high level."

Xavier was considered one of the last teams in the NCAA Tournament by several bracketologists heading into the conference tournament. According to DraftKings Sportsbook, Xavier was minus-300 to make the NCAA Tournament heading into Thursday's matchup with Marquette. That's an implied probability of 75%.

Over its two-day wait until Selection Sunday, Xavier will pay close attention to fellow teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Xavier might not get penalized for losing another close game to a tournament team, but other programs on the bubble could win and leapfrog the Musketeers, who have no more games to make an at-large case.

Ryan Conwell (7) scored a career-high 38 points in Xavier's 89-87 loss to Marquette in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday, March 13, 2025.

Xavier is now in serious trouble of being bumped by any bid thieves. A bid-stealer is a team that does not have an at-large resume but runs the table during the conference tournament to grab an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, thus taking away a bid for programs on the bubble.

Xavier could be Las Vegas bound

Should Xavier be passed over on Sunday, the Musketeers would likely play in the new Crown Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas, which runs from March 31 to April 6.

The new 16-team tournament will play games at MGM Grand Garden Arena and T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on FOX and FS1. The College Basketball Crown will give automatic bids to the top two teams from the Big East, Big 12 and Big 10 that did not get selected to the NCAA Tournament.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What's next for Xavier Musketeers after Big East Tournament loss?

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