Close losses are just losses

Losing basketball games is bad. That may seem obvious on its face, but it needs to be said. Xavier is now 4-3. They are 32nd in the KenPom, they have dropped 10 places to 29th in the Torvik, they were 35th in the BPI before losing to Gonzaga. Wash the preseason numbers and Xavier is 49th. This time last year they were 27th. X has a Q2 win and three Q4 wins. They have three losses other than that. 4-3 thus far is impressing no one.

A weirdly vocal chunk of Xavier Nation seems to think that “But losing in the matter we did actually will help the resume” or “Is it bad? Not at all. In fact keeping it close actually will make it good for us.” That’s demonstrably wrong. For starters it looks at…