For Xavier, tonight's game against Louisiana-Monroe can't be as hard to win as it was to schedule.

        That's no knock on the Indians (1-3), who beat the same Samford team that gave XU (3-0) fits Tuesday night. It's just to say the Musketeers had a terrible time completing their schedule. They spent 3 1/2 months in dire search of one last home game.

        “If we hadn't played them, they wouldn't have gotten one,” ULM coach Mike Vining said.

LA.-MONROE at XAVIER

• When: 8 p.m. today     • Where: Cintas Center (10,250)     • Records: XU 3-0, ULM 1-3     • TV: None     • Radio: WLW-AM (700)     • Tickets: $18, $15 (at door)     BY THE NUMBERS     • .246: XU's 3-point shooting (15-of-61), ranking 299th of 318 Division I teams.     • .226: ULM's 3-point shooting (14-of-52), ranking 306th of 318 Division I teams.     • 9: Newcomers on ULM's roster this season.

        Men's basketball is XU's money maker, and the athletic department builds its economic picture around an annual slate of six nonconference home games (in addition to the conference schedule). Luxury boxes and season tickets were sold with the assurance of that many dates.

        Yet it was Sept.27, and every other school's schedule was booked. XU coach Skip Prosser said his staff had contacted 300 of the 317 other Division I schools, many of which were available but declined.

        “We talked about it every single day,” XU athletic director Mike Bobinski said. “We got sick of the subject.”

        The Musketeers lucked out when Houston asked to cancel a contract with ULM, and the Indians accepted because XU could fill the date.

        This season is symptomatic of XU's scheduling struggles. XU is good enough to challenge the elite teams but is not an established power against which the elite — Arizona, Duke, UCLA — long to test themselves.

        “It's just one of those difficult anomalies we've found ourselves in,” Bobinski said. “Our record over the past is no secret — at home it's particularly good — and if teams don't have to play the game, they'd rather not.”

        XU seeks home-and-home contracts with top programs. But the sport's elite prefer playing home games (without return trips) or neutral-site TV matchups. XU's only nonconference game on network TV is its annual date with Cincinnati, on ESPN.

        “The networks don't al ways have the ability to wave the magic wand and make things happen,” Bobinski said.

        In one-game contracts, the home teams give guarantees — usually $25,000 to $35,000 — to the visitors. That helps fund programs at smaller schools like ULM, which has visited three Southeastern Conference schools the past 10 days to boost its budget.

        “The money schools try to bring people in and get their 20 wins,” Vining said. “They may not go on the road (in nonconference) at all. One AD told me he had $250,000 to buy his nonconference home schedule.”

        ULM (formerly Northeast Louisiana), which has made seven NCAA Tournament trips, has similar problems finding nonconference home games. It has just three this year, two of which are against Division II schools.

        The Indians went 19-9 last year but have nearly a new team, with nine newcomers and no seniors. They are shooting .226 from 3-point range and averaging 25.5 turn overs a game.

        Three years ago, in the only other meeting in this series, Xavier handed ULM its worst loss ever: 118-61.
       

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