After years of relative obscurity, the Xavier Musketeers basketball team rose to prominence in the 1980s, shocking their local rivals with a string of conference championships. It took the Musketeers a while to make an impact at the national level in the NCAA March Madness postseason tournament, but the team did eventually break into the Sweet 16 in 1990. While the Musketeers lost out in that encounter, they would be more successful the next time, in 2004, when they progressed to the Elite 8 for the first time. They would be back in 2008 and 2017, but lost both encounters heavily to the UCLA Bruins and Gonzaga Bulldogs. Recent decades have seen the Xavier Musketeers grow from a mid-level team to being considered, and ranked, among the top teams in the nation, and many fine players from Xavier have gone on to star in the NBA including David West, Tyrone Hill, Brian Grant, James Posey. Nevertheless, a breakthrough into the Final Four still eludes them. The team was even ranked 1st in the nation going into the 2018 March Madness tournament after a 29-6 season, but ended up getting upset in the Second Round, and the team made a disappointing exit last year, in 2023, in the Sweet 16. However, as the atmosphere at the Cintas Center helps to attract more and more talented players year by year, surely that much anticipated breakthrough is only a matter of time. 

How can I get cheap tickets to Xavier Musketeers games?

The Xavier Musketeers not only routinely sell out but actually oversell tickets to their home games at Cintas Center, with standing-only tickets taking their average attendance over 10,500 (higher than their official capacity). Tickets can therefore often be in short supply, particularly for postseason tournament games, key conference deciders, or rivalry matchups. To find the cheapest tickets to Xavier Musketeers games, search the TicketX listings on this page and use our trusty TicketX seating chart to compare prices and locations. You can purchase tickets with the lowest commission fees from TicketX with just one click! 

Xavier Musketeers Rivalries

The Xavier Musketeers have a huge cross-city rivalry with the Cincinnati Bearcats with the annual matchup between the two teams being known as the Crosstown Shootout. The Shootout turned rough in 2011-2012 when a bench-clearing brawl erupted, leading to suspensions for many players that nearly ended up ruining the Musketeers’ season (in the end, they rebounded and made it to the Sweet 16. Despite Xavier’s strength, the Bearcats lead the all-time series at 51-40. The Musketeers also have rivalries with the Dayton Flyers, Butler Bulldogs, and Wake Forest Demon Deacons. 

Are Xavier Musketeers basketball games exciting?

Seating over 10,000, the Cintas Center has become an absolute fortress for the Xavier Musketeers men’s basketball team, with the incredible atmosphere generated by their fans gifting a huge home advantage to the team (and striking fear into the hearts of visiting opponents, as the venue was voted the third hardest away venue to visit in the NCAA). The Musketeers’ overall win percentage at the Cintas Center is close to .850, with the team even going unbeaten at home in 2009-10 at 15-0. With 17 of the Musketeers’ 29 appearances in the NCAA March Madness postseason basketball tournament coming since the year 2000, when Cintas first opened, it seems undeniable that the new arena and the fans who flock to it have made a big contribution towards the team’s recent successes.