It was an ugly, but winnable, game for Nova against Xavier Tuesday night. The Cats let it slip away late.
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It feels silly to speak in certainties regarding college basketball in mid January, but it's hard not to feel like this wasn't close to the final blow on Nova's tournament hopes, which feels shocking to say a week removed from beating UConn. But opportunities for top of the line wins are running out, as is Nova's margin for error. And if you're more of a numbers person, the math backs up the feeling of doom. I don't have the exact numbers right in front of me at the moment, but there was something like a 40-point swing in tournament probability stemming from tonight's outcome. Even if this wasn't the death blow, at the very least Nova went from "fairly likely to be in" to "more than likely out" with this result. It's incredibly disappointing, not only because of how the last two games have gone after a huge win, but also because of the way this one in particular played out.
Cats come up short in 69-63 loss to Xavier
Nova was ultimately doomed by a disastrous final five minutes.
It feels silly to speak in certainties regarding college basketball in mid January, but it's hard not to feel like this wasn't close to the final blow on Nova's tournament hopes, which feels shocking to say a week removed from beating UConn. But opportunities for top of the line wins are running out, as is Nova's margin for error. And if you're more of a numbers person, the math backs up the feeling of doom. I don't have the exact numbers right in front of me at the moment, but there was something like a 40-point swing in tournament probability stemming from tonight's outcome. Even if this wasn't the death blow, at the very least Nova went from "fairly likely to be in" to "more than likely out" with this result. It's incredibly disappointing, not only because of how the last two games have gone after a huge win, but also because of the way this one in particular played out.