Marquette has the defense to neutralize Xavier's 87th-ranked offense. Marquette is 56th in the nation, allowing just 67.4 points per game. The one area where Marquette will have to be careful is with Xavier's three-point shooting, but the Golden Eagles have been above-average this season with a 31.7% three-point efficiency allowed.

The Xavier Musketeers (11-7, 3-4 Big East) meet the No. 7 Marquette Golden Eagles (15-2, 6-0) Saturday. Tip-off from Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee is set for 2 p.m. ET (FOX). Let’s analyze BetMGM

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Jones finished with just 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting but got going late with a flurry of drives to the rim in the final minutes of regulation. David Joplin led Marquette with 18 and guard Stevie Mitchell was huge down the stretch, scoring seven straight to cut Xavier's lead to 53-49 at the final media timeout.

More: Shaka Smart has made Marquette a mainstay in the top 10, but this coach re-ignited program Refresh the browser for live updates from the game. This will be a different game than the previous meeting,

If that's the case, then certainly on some level the stress a fan feels during an important game is also a privilege. Xavier could have spared us all any sort of heartburn from now until the Big East tournament if they had closed against Nova the way they've closed too many other close games this year.