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Ogden • If Weber State only needed to worry about three Musketeers, the chance of pulling an upset in its NCAA Tournament opener would be better.
Along with being one of the most talented Big Dance teams, however, first-round opponent Xavier is also one of the deepest.
Seven Musketeers average at least 19 minutes. Six average at least 9.4 points per game, led by sophomore guard Trevon Bluiett (15.5).
Clearly, Weber State's task Friday night in St. Louis will be more difficult than taking a candy bar from a baby.
"They are very, very deep and they don't drop off much when they go to their bench," said Weber State coach Randy Rahe. "That's why they're in the top 10 in the country. That's what those teams look like. They've got depth and they can all score."
Xavier enters the tournament with a 27-5 record, including 14-4 in the Big East, which qualified five teams for the NCAAs.
The Musketeers earned the No. 2 seed in the East Region — its best in school history — partly by going 11-3 against opponents with top 100 RPIs. The Musketeers opened the season with 12 straight wins during a challenging non-conference schedule, including victories over Missouri (78-66), Michigan (86-70), Alabama (64-45), USC (87-77) and Dayton (90-61).
This is Xavier's 14th NCAA tournament in the past 16 years.
"I'm proud of our team," coach Chris Mack said on Sunday. "Our coaching staff has done an incredible job all year long of turning the page and being ready for our next opponent and developing our players."
Last week, most NCAA tournament projections listed Xavier as a potential No. 1 seed. But the Musketeers suffered an 87-83 loss to Seton Hall in the Big East semifinals, which apparently dropped them to a No. 2 seed.
"Our players have had a great year," Mack said. "It was really irrelevant — the two-seed [or] the three-seed. … I'm not smart enough to know the difference between two-seed, three-seed — all that stuff. We just did the best we could."
Although the uptempo Musketeers average 81.3 points per game, a fast pace was their downfall against Seton Hall, which negated a stingy 1-3-1 zone defense that served Xavier well throughout the season.
"We could not get in a track meet with those guys and be successful," Mack said. "Yet we chose to do that and it was to our death. I couldn't make it any clearer before the game, but we chose to go down a different path and hopefully we learned from it."
Mack has been Xavier's coach for seven seasons. He was an assistant at the school under Sean Miller, who moved to Arizona in 2009. The last time Weber State made the NCAA Tournament, it played Miller and Arizona, losing 69-59 two years ago.
"Anytime you win 26, 27 games like they did, they've obviously got a successful team," Mack said of Weber State. "… They played Arizona down to the wire a few years ago, so we'll have to prepare [and] be ready to play."
Twitter: @sluhm —
Xavier at a glance
Conference • Big East
Record • 27-5
RPI • 7
Coach • Chris Mack (7 years, 161-75)
Leading scorers • Sophomore G Trevon Bluiett (15.5), freshman G Edmond Sumner (11.3), junior G Myles Davis (11.1)