Something Old and Something New - Xavier, Duquesne Remain Perfect in A-10 Play

For Xavier, it's business as usual.  Despite some early season non-conference struggles the Muskies are off to a perfect 6-0 start in Atlantic Ten play and look to be on pretty safe footing for earning their tenth trip to the NCAA Tournament in eleven seasons.

Junior point guard Tu Holloway has been the steadying influence all season, meriting All-American consideration averaging 20.4 ppg and 5.4 assists.  Tonight he got a little help from his teammates, namely Mark Lyons who, like Holloway, scored 22 points in the Muskies 81-74 home win over George Washington.

The win pulls Xavier to 14-5, and a perfect 6-0 in Atlantic Ten play - good for a first place tie atop the standings.

Their fellow leader?  It's not Richmond or Temple, both of whom expect to make a repeat appearance to the tournament this season.  It isn't Dayton who returns their three top players from last year's NIT Championship team either.  Rather it is the Duquesne Dukes taking the A-10 by surprise, making a true push to earn their first Tournament appearance in thirty five years. To go back to the last time the Dukes actually won an NCAA Tournament game you'd have to search all the way back to the 1968-1969 season.

They won only one game in the 1969 tourney, yet made it to the yet-to-be-named "Sweet Sixteen."  How is this possible you ask??  Because back then they were 25 teams invited to the tourney, all seeded and bracketed strictly by their geography.  There was no shuffling of locations to make sure teams were seeded fairly by ability and record.  If you were in the West and the second best team in the country, suck for you, because you're gonna see UCLA in the opening weekend!

So, yeah, it's been a little while for Duquesne...

After tonight's 91-72 win over Fordham Duquesne extended their winning streak to nine games, the school's longest in more than three decades.  It is also their best start in conference play since joining the Atlantic 10 in 1976.  Their unlikely run at the conference crown is a storyline even the most jaded fan can't help but pull for. Beyond just the rather pedestrian history of Duquesne basketball, it is really the first time Duquesne has garned basketball headlines rather than the sordid and tragic headline revolving around the shooting incident in 2006. (If you are not familiar, google it if you choose - I'm going to keep it on-the-court related for today).

More impressive than the Dukes 14-5 (6-0) record and their winning streak is the manner in which they are carving up one of the country's best non-BCS conferences.  Their narrowest margin came in their first conference game, a 75-63 win at St. Joe's.  Since then, they have won by an average of 17.2 points per contest - including the eye-opening 78-66 win last weekend over Temple.

Duquesne has yet to travel to any of the conference's elite teams and have a fortunate scheduling break in not having to play Xavier or Temple on the road.  However, they will have several formidable tests before the season is over.  Sunday's visit from Dayton will be an excellent test - pass that on and the Xavier game on February 13th becomes absolutely enormous.

The Dukes still have a lot of work to do before getting into the Tourney, but it is a team and a feel-good story worth watching over the next month and a half.

UP NEXT:  
Xavier - @Richmond, @Charlotte, St. Louis    
Duquesne - Dayton, George Washington, @St. Bonaventure

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