The marquee matchup of Big East conference opening day(s) pits the still unbeaten Xavier Musketeers against the Villanova Wildcats.
When glancing at the Big East conference schedule prior to this season, Thursday's tilt between Xavier and Villanova stood out as a good one. Villanova was the heavy favorite to repeat as league champion and Xavier was a team coming off a Sweet 16 appearance. There was every reason to believe this would be a matchup of an undefeated top 10 team and another n the national rankings discussion at the very least.
Little did we know this would be far more than an intriguing Big East battle, but one that pitted two top 20 squads against each other, including an undefeated unit.