All the chatter about the bubble team, Quad One won, and the net ratings are finally over. Texas Basketball has won a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive year. There isn’t much time to rest in his first four games against Xavier Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio.
The victory will allow Texas (19-15) to advance as the No. 11 seed in the Midwest region, facing Illinois on Friday in Milwaukee.
The match at Dayton marks the fourth time Texas faced Xavier in the NCAA Tournament. The team finally met in a sweet 16 matchup in 2023 when the Longhorns scored an 83-71 victory.
Below are three things you need to know about the Longhorns’ first four opponents:
Xavier Musketeers: Red hot finish to the regular season
Xavier (21-11) finished his season, tied for fourth in the Big East with a 13-7 conference record, and Musketeers plays the best basketball of the season. They ended the regular season with a seven-game winning streak before falling to 89-87 Marquette in their first conference tournament game.
Dayton: Xavier’s Home Court Edge
Xavier is located in Cincinnati and is about an hour’s drive south of Dayton. Expect the arena to flood the musket loyalists. The private school, which has just over 6,000 students, has a deep basketball tradition, including 18 NCAA tournament appearances in the past 23 tournaments.
Zach Fremantle, Ryan Conwell: All Big East Player Pace Xavier
Xavier relies heavily on a pair of big East players from forward Zack Fremantle and Guard Ryan Conwell. The 24-year-old graduate student, 6-foot-9, 230-pound Fremantle averages 17.3 points, with 7.1 rebounding the game while shooting 52.6% off the floor. 6-4 junior Conwell scores 16.8 points per game with 2.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists. He attempted seven of his 11 three-point attempts, while scoring 38 points in Xavier’s defeat to Marquette in the Big East Tournament.
