Unlike in last year’s NCAA Tournament when they faced off with South Dakota State (which sounds totally made up, by the way), Maryland’s Round of 64 opponent this season has a pretty decent tournament track record.
The Xavier Musketeers, an 11 seed in 2017’s Big Dance, have advanced to the Sweet 16 six times since 2004 and should prove to be a worthy adversary to the Terps in Orlando. Don’t know much about the Cincinnati school? You’re in luck, because TerpsWatch does.
Hope your brain is hungry, because it’s about to be fed some knowledge.
Who is Xavier’s best player?
Junior guard Trevon Bluiett is the Musketeer Maryland should be worried about most. He’s averaging more than 18 points a night this year and shoots a shade under 44-percent from the field. Those numbers are impressive, sure, but they’re even more impressive once you factor in how his last name is pronounced.
Basically, his name is Trevon Blew-it.
When it comes to last names, that’s about as unfortunate as it gets. The only ones worse than Bluiett would be Trevon Hesucks or Trevon Can’tshoot. Oh, and Trevon Isbad would be rough, too. The Indianapolis native is obviously mentally strong for overcoming what’s written on his birth certificate, and the Terps need to be prepared for that strength. Blowing it against Bluiett would sting.
Who is Xavier’s coach?
That would be Chris Mack. Want to know something about Chris Mack? When you punch up a Google Image search using his name, it takes until the 12th picture to get one of him smiling:
When going through the same process for Mark Turgeon, meanwhile, you’ll find that out of the first 12 pictures of Maryland’s head man, he’s grinning in 5.5 of them (the last one in the top row is inconclusive, and therefore, awarded a half-smile):
Turgeon’s smile-percentage owns Mack’s smile-percentage. Also, Turgeon’s hair-on-his-head percentage owns Mack’s hair-on-his-head percentage. Edge: Turgeon.
Did Xavier go on a six-game losing streak near the end of their regular season?
Yes.
Any more analysis to go along with that point?
Nope.
How big is this Ohio school anyways?
Xavier has a total enrollment of about 6,520 students. To put that into perspective, that’s the amount of students who stand in the Panda Express line in Stamp at noon on a normal weekday.
Does Xavier have any famous alumni?
John Boehner, who served as Speaker of the House from 2011 to 2015, is one of the more famous people to attend Xavier. For those who are into gritty NBA power forwards who possess a devastating midrange jumper, Xavier has a guy that’d interest you, too: David West, now with the Spurs, played four years for the Musketeers starting in 1999.
And, finally, is Xavier’s mascot named after a really old dude who fought for the French back in the 1600s, perhaps?
How’d you know!? Xavier’s Musketeer mascot is named D’Artagnan, which is a tribute to Charles de Batz de Castelmore d’Artagnan (you can see why they didn’t give the mascot the full name). According to every professor’s favorite source, Wikipedia, he was a captain of the Musketeers of the Guard, and a “fictionalized account of his life” eventually “formed the basis” of The Three Musketeers.
Essentially, the mascot is named after a guy who eventually inspired the name of a barely palatable candy bar. Testudo > D’Artagnan.
