Xavier May Benefit from Suspensions

            The Xavier Musketeers were essentially without an offense this afternoon when they lost 64-42 against the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles. Starters Tu Holloway, Mark Lyons, and Dez Wells are serving suspensions from their roles in a brawl against the Cincinnati Bearcats two weeks ago. Holloway and Lyons are averaging nearly eighteen points apiece and Wells is scoring almost ten per game. The Muskies had to rely on players who don't often play in the spotlight, such as Andre Walker, Travis Taylor, Brad Redford, and Dee Davis. Taylor and Davis led the team in scoring with 11 and 10, respectively. While no team wants to get destroyed on their home court like Xavier did today, every player, with the exception of Kenny Frease got more minutes than they usually do. Tu Holloway will return next game against Long Beach State and will guide the Musketeers offense and make sure his teammates are involved. Lyons and Wells will serve three more games of suspension before they return. In these few games, Xavier's bench will get more experience than they would normally so that when they are put in the game in important situations later in the season, they will become bigger contributors. Also, Xavier's rank will slip slightly but not greatly. Everyone knows that Xavier is a completely different team without its trio of star players. Take any team in the country, suspend the best three players, and you have a competely different team. Xavier will remain in the top 15 in the country and will be a better team when all of its players return from suspension.