Men's Basketball Opens BIG EAST Conference Play On The Road At St. John's

Wednesday, December 20

Queens, N.Y.

7:00 p.m.

Xavier University

St. John's

Men's Basketball Opens BIG EAST Conference Play On The Road At St. John's

12.18.23 | Men's Basketball

GAME NOTES VS. ST. JOHN'S

Musketeers take a two-game winning streak into Wednesday's game.

By: Tom Eiser, Xavier Athletic Communications

CINCINNATI --- The Xavier University Musketeers, 6-5, visit the St. John's University Red Storm, 7-3, to open BIG EAST Conference play on Wednesday. Xavier is 8-2 in BIG EAST Conference openers, including wins in three straight years and in six of its last seven BIG EAST openers.

Xavier is coming off a 75-59 win over Winthrop on Saturday, XU's second-straight victory.

Graduate student Quincy Olivari was named to the BIG EAST Conference Honor Roll for the second-straight week for his game-high 22-point effort vs. Winthrop. Olivari also earned the honor Dec. 11 after averaging 30.5 points while making 61.1 percent (11-18) from 3-point range in games vs. Delaware on Dec. 5 and Cincinnati on Dec. 9. Olivari, who has averaged 25.0 ppg. over the last four games, leads the team in scoring and is fourth in the BIG EAST Conference at 17.6 ppg.

Xavier head coach Sean Miller has not faced off against St. John's head coach Rick Pitino on the court when both have been head coaches. But they did coach against each other in 2004 when Pitino was the head coach at Louisville and Miller was the Xavier associate head coach under Thad Matta (now head coach at Butler). Xavier defeated Pitino's 2004 UL team 80-70 in the first round of the 2004 NCAA Tournament and went on to capture XU's first-ever trip to the NCAA Elite Eight. While a player at Pitt, Miller won vs. Kentucky and UK head coach Rick Pitino at UK in Miller's senior year, 1991-92.

THE MATCHUP

XAVIER UNIVERSITY MUSKETEERS (6-5, 0-0 BIG EAST)
ST. JOHN'S UNIVERSITY RED STORM (7-3, 0-0 BIG EAST)
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2023 AT 7 P.M. ET
AT CARNESECCA ARENA IN QUEENS, N.Y.

TV, RADIO AND LIVE STATS

Television: FS1 with play-by-play from Alex Faust and analysis from Jim Spanarkel.
Xavier Radio: 700 WLW with play-by-play from Xavier Hall of Famer Joe Sunderman ('79) and analysis from XU all-time leading scorer and Hall of Famer Byron Larkin ('88). XU broadcast is also on the Varsity Network and on SXM.
Live Stats: Media stats at Statbroadcast.com and fan stats at GoXavier.com.

X FACTORS

• Xavier is 8-2 in BIG EAST Conference openers, including wins in three straight years and in six of its last seven BIG EAST openers.
• Xavier graduate student Quincy Olivari is second in the BIG EAST in 3-point field goal percentage at 44.6 percent (33-74), including 6-8 vs. Cincinnati on Dec. 9. Olivari is third in the BIG EAST in 3-point field goals at 3.0 per game.
• Xavier's Quincy Olivari has scored in double figures 10 times, including eight straight games. Olivari, who is fourth in the BIG EAST in scoring at 17.6 ppg., earned a spot on the BIG EAST Honor Roll for the second straight week after his 22-point game vs. Winthrop.
• Xavier sophomore Desmond Claude is second on the team in scoring at 15.5 ppg. (13th in the BIG EAST). Claude, the only Musketeer who has scored in double figures in every game, is the only returnee from last season that has played in a game.
• Xavier senior Dayvion McKnight leads the BIG EAST Conference in assist-to-turnover
ratio at 3.47. He is fourth in the BIG EAST in assists at 5.4 per game. He scored a season-high 20 points to go with eight rebounds, four assists and three steals in the win over Cincinnati on Dec. 9.
• Xavier senior Abou Ousmane, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., recorded his first Xavier double-double with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds in the win over Cincinnati.
• Xavier head coach Sean Miller has 153 wins in his seventh season leading Xavier (third on XU's all-time wins list). This is the first time Miller and Rick Pitino have competed as head coaches.
• Xavier has 10 newcomers on the 2023-24 roster, including six freshmen and four transfers. All 10 newcomers have played this season.