Hilltoppers to play Xavier in hoops come 2015
We know, we know. Your excitement for the Hilltoppers to take the hardwood for the first time in Conference USA play. We get it. We’re excited too. But, you want some even more exciting news? Are you sure? Okay, here it goes:
The WKU Hilltoppers will face the Xavier Musketeers in December of 2015. Pretty exciting stuff!
The Tops will get a lovely $95,000 for the visit up to Cincinnati, and it’ll be the first time since 1997 that the two teams meet (a 93-60 victory for X in Diddle Arena). The Tops haven’t visited Xavier since 1996.
I actually didn’t know this, but the Tops and Musketeers have somewhat of a history, as they’ve played 25 times in recent memory (well, “recent,” being since 1940), and the last Topper victory game in 1962. The Tops also hold the all time advantage, 13-12.
Xavier will look to capitalize in 2014/15 on a 21-13 year last year, but they lost to NC State in the first round of last year’s dance. The Musketeers’ non-conference notables for this year include Murray State, San Diego, Alabama, Mizzouri, Auburn and Florida Gulf Coast.
This is an awesome game to have scheduled for the Tops, because outside of in state schools, the WKU non-conference schedule is usually…well…not very good. Xavier hopefully will open the door for more big non-conference games (even if it’s just one or two a year) to get WKU to playing the top competition on a regular basis, and help build their resumes for the coming tournaments for possible at large bids. Although, we don’t need to worry about that, since we’re just going to win every C-USA tournament. Right? Right?