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Sleeping with the Enemy: The Musketeers of Xavier

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Your Somewhat Fighting Hoyas of Georgetown head out on the road to face Xavier and as usual we here at THE GLOBAL PHENOMENON are bringing you everything you need to know about our next opponent. Here with us to dish on all things Musketeers are our blog buddies over at Banners on the Parkway, your trusted source for all of your Xavier needs. Let’s do this!

Everything is shit. How are you?

On a personal note I am great! From a basketball standpoint I feel like the this is fine dog. Three straight losses feels terrible. I mean, they did come to the three best teams in the conference and two were road games, but it still sucks. Going into the season we were top 10 and told that we were the clearcut #2 in the Big East, so this feels like a rough adjustment.

It seems like it's been tough sledding for the Musketeers since they last played the Hoyas. Would you attribute the team's three-game skid to the competition they faced, or to any particularly glaring weaknesses?

Absolutely to the competition faced mostly, but also to second half collapses. In all three games, Xavier was either leading or very close midway through the second half before our defense went completely flat and the opponent went on a massive scoring run. Of course the competition was strong so losing at Villanova is to be expected along with (as much as I hate saying it) losing to Butler at Hinkle. I think we would have all been content to go 1-2 during that stretch and thrilled to go 2-1, but just seeing that streak of 3L feels terrible and everything is awful right now.

After he dropped 28 points on us on New Year's Eve, we definitely know who Edmond Sumner is now. Where have you seen the greatest improvements in his game? Do you think he is an NBA-level talent? Any player comp for him?

Sumner has been for to watch for Xavier fans and his game this year has been interesting to see. Running the point he has become an all around guy, and somehow is even getting in a few blocks each game. He can dish it out, drive, block,rebound, play some solid D, but the only thing he seemingly cannot do is shoot 3s. I think he's an NBA level talent but I do not see him being first round pick or lottery pick unless his game picks up a bit. I do not really watch any NBA besides the Jazz, who are quietly actually a really good NBA team, so I would compare him a bit to George Hill if Edmond could pick up his 3 point game.

J.P. Macura is particularly hate-able and annoying. No real question here.

Do you guys worry anymore about the possibility of Chris Mack signing on to coach a higher-profile program?

Before the new Big East, absolutely every day. Years ago there was a rumor that he was flirting a bit with the Cal Golden Bears, but there really hasn't even been big credible rumors these last two years. My entire time in undergrad I assumed that we were a stepping stone for him despite his ties to the school (grew up in the area, loves skyline chili, started college somewhere else before transferring to Xavier), but the last three years have sounded more like unless a too good to be true offer comes he won't leave. So do I worry about Mack leaving us? No, not at all. But do I think there is a chance he'd leave us? I would not be shocked since he's pretty young that a UNC, Louisville, or Kentucky calls eventually.

A lot of broadcasters, pundits, etc. tend to put a lot of emphasis on the 'X' when announcing the name of your school. How much of a pet peeve is it for Xavier fans when people pronounce your school's name incorrectly?

It's a constant thorn in our side. Coach Mack literally stopped a reporters question once just to teach him how to properly say it. The way we usually respond is to talk to the offending person about the xylophone. You would never, ever, say eggs-zylophone, so why on earth say eggs-zavier? It's jut "Zavier", and they might as well make t-shirts saying that. So we're pretty annoyed each time but sadly used to it. Another peeve that I personally have is a lot of people think we are the Eggs-zavier X-men. A few announcers call us that during broadcasts. But most annoyance comes when the offender insists they are right, on the sole merit that they take up space breathing on this Earth.

Every time we play, Georgetown fans like to bash Cincinnati-style chili, so please bear with us as we remind our readership that your city's chili is an abomination unto mankind. Please detail your ideal chili.

I'm a lifelong lover of Skyline Chili, so the first step is that you have to go to Skyline and not Goldstar. Also they sell cans of Skyline in the grocery store so never touch that. That has a 99% chance of changing your post-dinner plans. Alright, so you walk into Skyline and you want to order a 3-way. They also have 4-ways and 5-ways but 3 is the classic and the best. It's simply spaghetti noodles, skyline chili, and cheddar cheese all over it. Wear a napkin and enjoy how the spices hit your tongue. Then repeat every 7 days if you live in Cincinnati. Also you can instagram your experience, but that is a once every now and then kind of thing because you can't keep telling the world that you go to Skyline every 7 days.

Sticking with food since basketball is boring, describe your ideal sandwich. Do not spare any details about bread, toppings, spreads and preferred sides and beverage.

During the work week I'm really boring with my sandwiches but you asked for ideal. I'm a turkey guy, so I'm going that direction. Get two slices of multigrain bread, two slices of hickory turkey, the sharpest cheddar cheese you can find, crispy bacon, and a chipotle spread. Then place them in the order of bread, slice of turkey, bacon, slice of turkey, spread, cheese, bread. Now eat this in private so no one will steal it from you.

Georgetown's in-game promotions team has created a "Copy That Scene" cam that encourages fans to re-enact famous movie scenes, like the "My Heart Will Go On" scene from Titanic or the "Blue Steel" scene from Zoolander. Do you have any suggestions for scenes they should copy next?

This is fantastic. I'm just imagining this going both extremely well but also going to absolute trash in 10 seconds. I actually have not been to a Xavier home game since the 2014-2015 season so I'm not sure what cool in-game promotions we do. I know that you put Jack on a skateboard, so maybe we can have the Blue Blob do tricks? Yeah we should just have the Blob do everything.

Anyway, I'd probably have to go with the scene in O'Brother where art thou when they record their hit song. The facial expressions are extremely animated and it's asking the crowd to fake sing, or actually sing, so that is sure to get some people way too excited to be on camera.

Final score prediction?

Xavier needs to really thrash somebody before we play Cincinnati next week, but we haven't looked great in these last three games, so I'm going to say 75-68