Xavier Musketeers NCAA Basketball Betting
Sean Miller’s third season in his second stint as head coach of the Xavier Musketeers turned out to be one big “meh.” In his first season back, Miller led the Musketeers to the Sweet Sixteen, which sparked hopes of Xavier returning to national prominence. Instead, Miller’s program limped into the NIT last year and was bounced in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Xavier is a solid program that finished 4th in the competitive Big East Conference but was never a serious threat to win the league. Miller has more of a turnaround challenge than perhaps anyone realized. When he took over, he inherited a program that missed the post season for four consecutive seasons.
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
2025 Xavier Musketeers Season Recap
Overall, the Xavier Musketeers are 22-11 straight up, 17-14 against the spread, and 14-16 over/under the total. Xavier has national metrics of 82nd for scoring offense, 88th for field goal percentage, 15th for 3-point field goal percentage, 9th for free throw percentage, and 279th for offensive rebounding. While defensively, Xavier is 129th for scoring defense, 206th for field goal percentage permitted, 176th for 3-point field goal percentage allowed, and 99th for defensive rebounding.
Late on, Xavier has covered eight of its previous ten games and has gone over the total in six of its last ten outings. Zach Freemantle is first among Xavier scorers, with 16.9 points per game.
Will Riley scored 22 points, and Tomislav Ivisic added 20 points and 10 rebounds to pace sixth-seeded Illinois to an 86-73 victory over 11th-seeded Xavier in the first round of the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Region on Friday.
Kasparis Jakucionis added 16 points, 10 assists, and nine rebounds, and Kylan Boswell put up 15 points for the Illini, who had a 45-25 edge on the boards.
Illinois opened the second half with an 8-2 run, going in front 48-37 on a three-point play by Jakucionis.
The Illini hit six consecutive shots over a four-minute span, pushing the lead to 62-48 on Riley’s 3-pointer from the top. They extended the lead to 69-52 on a dunk by Morez Johnson Jr. with just under 10 minutes left.
Xavier pulled within 76-68 on a three-point play from Dailyn Swain, but Riley countered with a 3-pointer, and Jakucionis converted a steal into a breakaway lay-in to make it 81-68 with 3:01 remaining.
Illinois hit 12 of 30 (40 percent) from beyond the arc and was 18-for-18 from the free-throw line.
Swain had 27 points and eight rebounds, while Ryan Conwell and Dayvion McKnight had 12 points apiece for the Musketeers.
Xavier forced 14 turnovers, including 11 steals, for a 13-6 advantage in points off miscues.
Illinois took its largest lead of the tightly contested first half at 35-27 on Riley’s layup with five minutes remaining.
Conwell’s jumper brought Xavier within 37-35, but Boswell’s step-back 3-pointer just ahead of the buzzer put the Illini up 40-35 at the break.
"Illinois is a fantastic team," Miller said. "They're good on both defense and offense. I think you start to really fall in love with their offense watching it because it's the modern game, and they have so many playmakers.
"But I think they're a very good passing team. They look for each other. They're balanced in scoring. Not too many teams really sit there with five players in double figures. And, obviously, we respect the Big 10 as a conference. You know, when you average over 80 points a game in that league, from an offensive perspective, you have a lot of things you do well.
"They play with great pace. They're in transition. They play a very fast tempo. They shoot the three-point shot about as much as anybody in the country when you think about the percentage of shots they shoot – but not with just a couple of guys. It just seems like they have five, six, seven different players on a given night that can make threes, which is always really dangerous."
Latest NCAA Tournament Results
| YEAR |
RESULT |
| 2025 |
Lost First Round vs. (11) Illinois 73–86 |
| 2023 |
Lost Sweet Sixteen vs. (2) Texas 71–83 |
| 2018 |
Lost Second Round vs. (9) Florida State, 70–75 |
| 2017 |
Lost Elite Eight vs. (1) Gonzaga, 59–83 |
| 2016 |
Lost Second Round vs. (7) Wisconsin, 63–66 |
| 2015 |
Lost Sweet Sixteen vs. (2) Arizona, 60–68 |
| 2014 |
Lost First Four vs. (12) NC State, 59–74 |
| 2012 |
Lost Sweet Sixteen vs. (3) Baylor 70–75 |
2024-2025 NCAA Basketball Top Teams
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