Musketeers. Boilermakers. Sean Miller. Matt Painter. Gavitt Games. Monday Night. Mackey Arena. Nuff said.

At 8:30 tonight the Muskies will take on #2 ranked Purdue in both teams 3rd game of the season. Someone will leave Mackey Arena tonight with their first loss of the new campaign. The Boilermakers open up as 17.5 point favorites which means Vegas is telling us they expect PU to win by 20. It’s fine. Not that we expected to be spotted 17 points, but it’s fine. Purdue is returning almost all of the pieces from a Big 10 championship and 1 seed last year, including defending NPOY in Zach Edey. It’s fine. While the Muskies really only return 1 player from last year’s team (Kam Kraft may redshirt??) and will have a plethora of freshman and transfers playing what is likely the best team they’ve ever faced in their college careers. Like I said.. IT’S FINE. While I’ll be sprinkling a little bit of money on +17.5 (damn right I’ll put some capital on +1150 ml), it is clear that nobody thinks the Xavier Muskies can even keep this thing close. It’s fine. We have Sean Miller and you don’t end of story. They have a big man we have (drumroll please) GUARD PLAY. Let’s use this game as a measuring stick to see how we stack up against the cream of the crop. Let’s see how this freshman class looks against the big boys. Let’s see how we handle our first true road game. Let’s see who rises and who falls. Let’s see if Des Claude is about First Team Big East things. Let’s see if we believe in miracles. Let’s see!

Take the points. Take the money line if you have some extra change lying around. This game is kinda like that one video of the old guy explaining the linear chart of “fucking around” and “finding out”. Not sure what Xavier will find out but it could be good, bad, or just what we need to get ready for a gauntlet of a Big East. It’s fine.

Let’s not let this inexperienced Xavier team and this mammoth of a Purdue team allow us to forget about the best Xavier v. Purdue game all of time (Yes, we also beat them in 2008 to advance to Sweet 16). Down all game. Facing adversity. Oh wait, we have Tu Holloway and you don’t. Watch the video for educational purposes. Damn I miss Tu. What an all timer. Onions!