*10* ANNIHILATOR on Marquette.

The Xavier Musketeers will host Big East rivals Marquette on Saturday, and this game tips off at high noon. The Musketeers are a heavy favorite, but Marquette looks dangerous as a an underdog getting double-digits. My money is on the visitors.

Here are my keys to the game:

1. Previous History - Five of the last six meetings between these two teams have been decided by single-digits, and two of those games were decided by less than five points. Only once was Xavier asked to cover double-digits, and none of those six games saw a line as big as what we see here in today's game.

2. Three-Point Shooting - The Golden Eagles are red hot from beyond the arc in recent games, shooting better than 40 percent from three-point range over their last five games. Marquette's leading scorer Henry Ellison is 5-for-8 from beyond the arc in his last three appearances, and he scored a whopping 32 points in a home win over Butler last Saturday.

3. X-Factor - The Musketeers are coming off a sloppy 90-83 win over St. Johns, and leading scorer Myles Davis was not happy with the team's effort: "We should have played better," Davis said. "We allowed way too many points. They also stopped us a lot, messed up our offense, took us out of our flow. Of course when you feel you should play better, you feel a little down. But we won."

Selection: This is a play on the Marquette Golden Eagles (10*)