INDIANAPOLIS — It's hard to know how much emphasis to place on Xavier's matchup tonight with No.5 Missouri. It's only November, and this is just the second game for an XU team that coach Thad Matta said is “still searching for an identity.” Yet it's a huge statement-making opportunity against a team that's a chic Final Four pick.

LINEUPS

XAVIER   Player Ht Yr PPG   Dave Young 6-5 Jr. 6.0   Kevin Frey 6-8 Sr. 6.0   David West 6-9 Jr. 25.0   Romain Sato 6-5 So. 7.0   Lionel Chalmers 6-0 Jr. 6.0   Coach: Thad Matta (1-0, first season; 25-8, second overall).   MISSOURI   Player Ht Yr PPG   Kareem Rush 6-6 Jr. 18.5   Najeeb Echols 6-7 Fr. 4.3   Arthur Johnson 6-9 So. 10.0   Clarence Gilbert 6-2 Sr. 21.0   Wesley Stokes 5-10 So. 9.5   Coach: Quin Snyder (42-26, third season; same overall).

        “It's a really big game for us,” XU sophomore guard Romain Sato said. “A lot of people may have an idea that we're good. But if we beat Missouri, then people will really start looking for us.”

        XU got plenty of renown for twice beating archrival Cincinnati when the Bearcats held the No.1 ranking, in November 1996 and December 1999. But the Musketeers haven't beaten a Top 10 team other than UC in the past decade.

        A victory in this Wooden Tradition event at Conseco Fieldhouse probably would catapult the Musketeers (1-0) into the Top 25. It could give them great confidence at a critical time, as they play four consecutive games away from home and follow with four straight matchups against returning NCAA Tournament teams.

        For David West, XU's star junior center, a scoring duel tonight against preseason All-American Kareem Rush could be key to his own All-American aspirations.

        “I can't be worried about what he's doing, trying to keep pace,” West said of Rush. “We as a team have to stick to what we do best, and that's locking teams up (defensively) in the half-court.”

        The timing seems right for XU. Missouri (4-0) has had just two days to prepare since its NABC Guardians Classic title, in which it beat No.22 Alabama and No.8 Iowa on consecutive nights. Rush suffered a broken nose and a contusion above his eye from an errant elbow in the Alabama game, one that knocked him out that night and seemingly affected him in his 11-point effort (4-of-15 shooting) against Iowa.

        Missouri coach Quin Snyder is guarding against a letdown.

        “If there's a time to have a dip, this is it,” he said. “We're not where we need to be yet, but after two close, hard victories, it may be even harder to convince my guys of that.”

        Sato, who's 6 feet 5 and matured last season into XU's top on-the-ball defender, said he has the opening assignment guarding Rush, a 6-6 junior swingman (18.5 ppg).

        Matta is equally worried about how to defend Missouri senior guard Clarence Gilbert, who is averaging 21 points and shooting 48.3 percent, including 40.5 percent from 3-point range.

        “They have a lot of firepower and great depth off the bench,” Matta said of the Tigers.

        Told his starting lineup has virtually the same experience as Missouri's, he said, “Where they get you is they go 6-10, 6-10, 6-9 off the bench, and those are McDonald's All-Americans.”

        If XU can keep the Tigers from getting open inside and instead force lots of long shots, its odds improve. Missouri is 18-3 under Snyder when it attempts 20 or fewer 3-pointers, and just 24-23 when trying more than 20.

        REUNION WEEKEND: This trip to Indianapolis will be a homecoming for Matta, who spent 12 years at Butler as a player, assistant coach and head coach.

        But the XU-Missouri matchup also offers an interesting flashback to the first of XU's two previous meetings with Mizzou. It was a 1987 NCAA Tournament first-round game played in the RCA Dome in Indy — the first college basketball game ever played in the building then known as the Hoosier Dome. XU, a 13th seed, stunned fourth-seeded Missouri 70-69. Matta, then a Butler student, was in the stands.

        Two days later, XU met a Duke team on which Snyder was a reserve guard. Snyder said he remembers that XU had “a really nice team, including (Byron) Larkin,” but Snyder was ill and played only three minutes, failing to score.

        “They thought I had spinal meningitis,” Snyder said. “They took me to the hospital and gave me a spinal tap the night before the game. I had a 103-degree fever and was throwing up on the sidelines. We won (65-60), but I sure wasn't a factor.”

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