Preview: Xavier Musketeers finish regular season against No. 8 Marquette Golden Eagles

Deflating.

It's the only way to describe Xavier's road trip this week to Indianapolis.

Xavier had won back-to-back games and had a puncher's chance at improving on its seeding for next week's Big East Tournament if it could turn it into a 2-0 week, starting against Butler Wednesday.

Then, just over an hour before tipoff, it was announced that freshman Dailyn Swain would be out indefinitely after an appendectomy. Just five minutes into the game at Hinkle Fieldhouse, Xavier was down 16 points and couldn't recover in an eventual 72-66 loss.

A pair of wins this week would've given Xavier five Quadrant 1 victories on the year, likely bump them in the seeding for the Big East tourney in Madison Square Garden, then given the young Musketeers a better shot at an NCAA Tournament berth if they could rattle off a few wins in Manhattan. It also would've made Xavier 11-9 in league play. Since Big East realignment, 41 of 44 teams to finish over .500 against conference foes have made the NCAA Tournament.

Instead, Xavier had another flat performance in a season littered with what-ifs. Xavier needs a win and some help Saturday against No. 8 Marquette to move up in the standings.

Here's everything to know about Saturday's Senior Day matchup at Cintas Center.

Xavier vs. Marquette scouting report

Tip: Saturday, 5 p.m., Cintas Center (10,224)

TV/Radio: FOX/55 KRC

Ratings: Xavier is No. 53 in KenPom while Marquette is No. 14. Marquette holds the same spot in the NCAA NET Rankings while Xaiver is No. 62.

History: Marquette holds a 58-27 all-time lead in the series, which started during the 1958-59 season. The series is 12-12 since Big East realignment in 2013.

No. 8 Marquette Golden Eagles scouting report

Record: 22-8 (13-6 Big East)

Head coach: Shaka Smart (70-28 at Marquette, third season)

Offense: 79 ppg

Defense: 69.5 ppg

Overview: Marquette is now in need of a win and some help (a Villanova win over Creighton) to jump the Bluejays for the No. 2 seed in the Big East. The Golden Eagles are projected as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament by ESPN and Fox Sports heading into the week, but lost to No. 2 UConn on Wednesday, 74-67. Marquette had won 11 of 12 games before back-to-back losses.

Marquette is 6-5 on the road with losses to Wisconsin, Seton Hall and Providence. The Golden Eagles are one of nine teams to be ranked in the top-25 in KenPom in both offensive (No. 22) and defensive (No. 16) efficiency.

Guard Kam Jones is one of the many returners from last year's squad that won the Big East Championship for the first time in program history and earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament (second-round loss to Michigan State). Jones leads the team in scoring at 16.2 points per game while shooting nearly 50% from the field.

Down low, Oso Ighodaro, a 6-foot-11 senior forward, averages 14 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. He's shooting 60.1% for a Marquette offense that is No. 12 in the nation in 2-point field goal percentage, per KenPom.

Defensively, Marquette forces the most turnovers (15.2 per game) in the Big East. They are top-15 in the nation in turnover and steal percentage. They have struggled on the perimeter, though, permitting opponents to knock down 34.4% of their 3-pointers, which is ninth in the Big East.

Last meeting

Xavier's Big 3 in the backcourt combined for just 24 points against Marquette at Fiserv Forum Sunday, Feb. 25. It wasn't pretty as the Golden Eagles used a 52-point second half to pull away from Xavier, 88-64.

Freshman Trey Green led Xavier with 16 points off the bench and Swain added 11. Xavier shot just 35.7% from the field and turned it over 16 times.

The game was owned by Jones, who tied a career-high 34 points on 11-of-17 shooting and six triples. He was one of four Golden Eagles in double figures.

One day after the game at his weekly radio show, Xavier head coach Sean Miller ripped his team for a lack of effort.

"They were not ready to play, they did not play with great effort, and there's a couple guys that, quite frankly, don't deserve to play anymore," Miller said.

Tyler Kolek out for Marquette

Marquette guard Tyler Kolek, the reigning Big East Player of the Year, will not suit up Saturday. He is resting an oblique injury that caused him to miss the last two games.

Kolek averages 15 points and 4.7 rebounds per game while leading the Big East in assists (7.6). Kolek was three dimes shy of a triple-double against Xavier last month, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Projected lineup

(Pos., Height, Stats)

Chase Ross (G, 6'5", 6.3 ppg)

Stevie Mitchell (G, 6'3", 8.5 ppg)

Kam Jones (G, 6'5", 16.2 ppg)

David Joplin (F, 6'8", 10.9 ppg)

Oso Ighodaro (F, 6'11", 14 ppg)

Xavier Musketeers scouting report

Record: 15-15 (9-10 Big East)

Head coach: Sean Miller (162-71 at Xavier, seventh season)

Offense: 76.2 ppg

Defense: 73.8 ppg

Overview: The hits keep coming to Xavier this season in the form of injuries and road losses. Now, the Musketeers are in danger of something they haven't done this century.

Xavier's streak of 27 consecutive winning season is tied for the fourth-longest in the country. The Musketeers haven't finished below .500 since 1996, the second year of the Skip Prosser era and the team's first season in the A-10.

Since then, Xavier has won 20-plus games in 22 of 27 years, a streak that spanned five coaches and resulted in 19 NCAA Tournament berths.

Senior Day festivities

Xavier's Senior Day will celebrate players Brad Colbert, one of the more popular walk-ons in recent Xavier history, and leading scorer Quincy Olivari. Colbert, who played at Moeller and later Andrews Osborne Academy, landed at Louisville under Chris Mack and is in his second season at Xavier.

It's hard to imagine where Xavier would be without Olivari, who is No. 2 in the Big East in scoring and hit 2,000 career points in his previous appearance at Cintas Center.

"I don't know if I've had a player that's meant more to the overall success of the team from an individual perspective than what Quincy has done for us," Miller said.

Xavier will also honor basketball managers Isaac Fiely, Bobby Gerity, Max Meyer, Michael Witt and Paxton Wong.

Projected lineup

(Pos., Height, Stats)

Dayvion McKnight (G, 6', 12.3 ppg)

Quincy Olivari (G, 6'3", 19.1 ppg)

Desmond Claude (G, 6'6", 16.1 ppg)

Abou Ousmane (F, 6'10", 6.9 ppg)

Kachi Nzeh (C, 6'8", 2.5 ppg)

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Big East basketball: Xavier ends regular season vs. No. 8 Marquette