NCAA Tournament 2015: First look at Arizona's Sweet Sixteen matchup, the Xavier Musketeers

Here's a quick look at Sean Miller's former team

Sean Miller and the Arizona Wildcats will take on Miller's former employer in the Sweet Sixteen in Los Angeles, the 6th-seeded Xavier Musketeers. Xavier is 23-13, and finished 6th in the Big East with a 9-9 record.

Xavier knocked off Georgia State 75-67 in the Round of 32, and beat Mississippi in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Offensively, Xavier is a very balanced scoring team. They have six players that average over 8 points per game and three that average over 10 points per game. Their leading scorer and rebounder is their center Matt Stainbrook. Stainbrook is a "wide" individual that uses footwork and positioning to be an effective scorer around the basket. He and Kaleb Tarczewski should make for an interesting matchup as they'll be battling for position all game.

According to kenpom.com, Xavier had the 24th best offense this season.

Their point guard, Dee Davis, does a good job of taking care of the basketball as he has an assist-to-turnover ratio over 2.5. As a team, Xavier is 12th in the nation in assist percentage, so they're a very unselfish team that moves the ball well. It explains why their scoring is so balanced.

Shooting-wise, the Musketeers are an average three-point shooting team. Myles Davis and Remy Abell are their two best three-point shooters as they shoot 37% and 42% from behind the arc respectively. Davis hit five threes in their win against Georgia State. As a team though, Xavier shoots roughly 35% from behind the arc. In conference play, they shot just 31% from three, which was the second-worst in the conference. So they can struggle to hit perimeter shots from time to time.

Xavier does not offensive rebound particularly well though, as their offensive rebounding percentage is 31.3% which was good for 166th in the nation. All in all however, they are a solid offensive team.

While Xavier is a formidable offensive team, their defense isn't as good. Kenpom.com pegged them as the 46th best defensive team. In much of their second round game against Georgia State, Xavier played a zone. Since Ohio State was able to slow Arizona's offensive down after going into a zone, I'd expect Xavier to start the game in a zone. Stainbrook is a threat offensively, but defensively, his lack of athleticism and length prevent him from being a dominant rim-protector. Xavier was 230th in the nation with just 2.9 blocks per game. You can expect the Wildcats to try to take advantage of that by taking the ball to the rim.

One thing you should not expect is for the Cats to be able to control the offensive glass as well as they did against Ohio State. Xavier has the 40th best defensive rebounding percentage in the nation. Ohio State was 240th.

Should be an interesting matchup for Sean Miller and Arizona.

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