By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Saturday's Saint Joseph's-Xavier University game at Cintas Center still has some luster despite the Musketeers' surprising loss at Duquesne Wednesday.

The game is a major showcase for the Atlantic 10 Conference, with two of its most recognizable teams and players on national display at 2 p.m.

"Everything is aligned correctly and this is a big game for us," Atlantic 10 commissioner Linda Bruno said. "All of us knew that these were going to be our two best teams."

The game, which was moved from ESPN2 to ESPN, features the conference's two regular-season defending champions, Saint Joseph's in the East and Xavier in the West. Both teams were favored to repeat. It also features the league's two All-American candidates, Jameer Nelson of Saint Joseph's and Xavier's Romain Sato.

So far, Nelson and Saint Joseph's have lived up to their preseason billing, winning their first 14 games and reaching a No. 6 national ranking. Nelson has become a national player of the year contender, averaging 20.3 points and 5.0 assists per game.

Sato struggled offensively in mid-December, but has increased his scoring average to 17.1 points while leading Xavier with 6.6 rebounds per game.

"Having them both on TV on the same court is important," Bruno said. "It's bigger than seeing them or reading about them separately."

No visiting team of Saint Joseph's stature has ever come into Cintas Center in the four seasons since it opened in 2000. The last ranked team to play here was No. 15 Creighton, on Dec. 31, 2002, in a game that drew one of the noisiest crowds in Cintas Center history.

Xavier (9-5, 1-1 A-10) is trying to regroup after Wednesday's lethargic loss at Duquesne, which ended the Musketeers' four-game winning streak. Entering that game, XU appeared to have solved its offensive consistency problems that led to four losses in six games early in the season.

"It's a big game because we are at 1-1 and they are one of the best teams in the country," XU coach Thad Matta said. "But we have to play better basketball. It's unexplainable how we played (at Duquesne)."