No. 11 Xavier hits road to play No. 19 Seton Hall (Jan 20, 2018)
NEWARK, N.J. -- The only matchup this weekend featuring two ranked teams will be at the Prudential Center where No. 11 Xavier meets No. 19 Seton Hall in a Big East Conference showdown.
Xavier (17-3, 5-2 Big East) has won two straight and features one of the better free-throw shooting squads in the country. The Musketeers are third in the Big East and 12th in the nation in free-throw percentage at 77.8 percent.
Xavier's school record, which was set in the 2007-08 season is 74.9 percent (2007-08). The Musketeers are shooting 82.2 percent in the last five minutes of games and 89.3 percent in the last two minutes of games.
Three Musketeers are ranked in the top 15 in the conference in free-throw shooting: senior J.P. Macura (eighth at .844), sophomore Quentin Goodin (ninth at .843) and senior Trevon Bluiett (13th at .822).
Xavier is second in the nation in free throws made at 371.
Xavier head coach Chris Mack captured his 203rd win at his alma mater on Wednesday against St. John's, taking over the top spot on Musketeers' all-time wins list. Mack is 203-94 in his ninth year at the helm, which surpasses the previous mark set by Pete Gillen, the head coach when Mack was at the school.
Gillen was 202-75 in nine seasons from 1985-94.
"Been around the program a long, long time," Mack said after the milestone. "It's humbling. You know, it really is. When I first became the head coach at Xavier I didn't think about that at all and, quite honestly, I didn't think about it yesterday.
"You worry about the next game or the next day. ... How many guys get the opportunity to be at the place where they wore the uniform? And I didn't have much of an impact as a player because of injuries but, you know, if I've made an impact here on guys that I've coached and we've won some games then, yeah, I'm proud."
Seton Hall is coming off an 80-63 loss at Creighton on Wednesday -- the Pirates' second straight lopsided road setback this season.
Coach Kevin Willard's team dropped an 84-64 clunker to Marquette on Jan. 9.
Willard benched Desi Rodriguez, his leading scorer, just six minutes into the Creighton game. Rodriguez never returned.
"Des, (Rodriguez) ... had that look on his face where he just didn't want to be out there," Willard told the Pirates' radio play-by-play announcer after the loss. "When he gets that way, you just kind of let him regroup and refocus, and it just never happened. But he's done an unbelievable job.
"When you're playing the minutes he's playing, sometimes mentally, you just don't have it. It's not the end of the world, he'll get it back."
Senior big man Angel Delgado was named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll on Monday after averaging 11.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 blocked shots last week. He has recorded 17 double-doubles in his last 18 conference games, and is the nation's leader in career rebounds. Delgado has recorded five or more assists in five of the last eight games.
The Pirates are 11-0 at home this year and have won 13 consecutive home games. The Pirates lead the series, 10-6, have won three of the last four, and are 6-0 at home against the Musketeers.
