Musketeers Xtra | The Bucklew bag, NET rankings, women's Crosstown Shootout

Before Brian Arlinghaus became the head men's golf coach at Xavier University, he was the coach at Wright State.

He had an idea at Wright State, one he brought with him to Xavier. Arlinghaus would create a custom military golf bag one of his players would get to carry for a week based on their performance at the team's last tournament.

Arlinghaus worked with Bob Philion, a Xavier golf alum who's now the president and CEO of Puma Golf, to design this year's bag to honor and commemorate the military service of Captain Phil Bucklew, a 1936 Xavier grad.

The Enquirer profiled Bucklew earlier this year and when Arlinghaus read the story, he knew he wanted the bag to feature Bucklew.

Xavier University: The unbelievable true story of Ohio's Phil Bucklew, and his decades of Navy service

"There was nobody else you could pick at that point," said Arlinghaus, who sent the Bucklew article to his entire team so they could learn who Bucklew was and why the bag was so important.

Arlinghaus said learning about Bucklew offered them some perspective and appreciation for who he was and what he did.

Once Arlinghaus received the bag, he worked with Matt Jennings, Xavier's assistant athletics director for strength and conditioning, and Glenn Welling, who works in Xavier's Veteran and Military Family Center, to outfit the bag with Bucklew's Navy ribbons.

The bag also has a placard with many of Bucklew's accomplishments.

'Battle-tested': Xavier closes with authority, and beats West Virginia 84-74

"What happens is these kids are carrying this bag and lots of coaches, lots of players, lots of parents will come up and wonder why he's got a different bag and they can pull out the note card and show them who he is and tell his story a little bit," Arlinghaus said.

The plan is for this to be something Xavier does every season and the bag will change year-to-year.

"It doesn't necessarily have to be a Xavier grad. It could be the grandpa of a student-athlete or someone's dad," Arlinghaus said.

The Bucklew bag will be auctioned off after the season and all the proceeds will go back to the Veteran and Military Family Center.

NET rankings released

The first NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings of the men's college basketball season were released Monday.

The rankings on Dec. 5 are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The rankings at the end of February and early March are what matter.

But Monday's rankings were revealing because of where Xavier was situated.

Takeaways: Xavier finally finished against West Virginia. Now, can they build on it?

The Musketeers landed at No. 48. West Virginia, the team Xavier beat 84-74 on Saturday, opened at No. 11 in the first NET release.

The NET is updated daily this year, unlike years past when it was updated weekly.

With where Xavier currently stands, the keepers of the NET clearly don't think very highly of what the Musketeers have done through nine games. That means Xavier has to finish the non-conference season without any setbacks and the Musketeers need to make a stronger statement in the Big East than they did last season.

Women's Crosstown Shootout

The precursor to Saturday's men's Crosstown Shootout is Friday night at Cintas Center when Xavier's women's basketball team hosts Cincinnati at 7 p.m.

The Bearcats have won three straight over the Musketeers.

Xavier enters at 6-3 and the Bearcats are 5-4.

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The Musketeers have three players averaging double figures, led by Mackayla Scarlett (13.9), Taylor Smith (12.6) and freshman Fernanda Ovalle (11.4).

Cincinnati's led by local standout Jillian Hayes, who leads the Bearcats in scoring (15.1) and rebounding (8.4). Mya Jackson offers a nice counterpunch to Hayes with 14.6 points per game.

To purchase tickets, fans can head to goxavier.com/tickets

Postseason volleyball success

Xavier's women's volleyball team earned a spot in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship this season and has already won two postseason matches with another scheduled Wednesday night at Boston College.

The first-round win over Central Michigan was the first postseason win in program history, according to the school. The Musketeers followed it up with a win over Ohio University to advance.

Xavier finished third in the Big East Conference and made it to the semifinals of the conference tournament.

'Head of the snake': On Souley Boum's emergence for Xavier basketball

Head coach Christy Pfeffenberger, and her staff Ed Tolentino, Andre Foster and Mallory Bechtold were named the 2022 Big East coaching staff of the year.

Xavier's Brooklyn Cink, Delaney Hogan and Carrigan O'Reilly were named to the All-Big East team.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Musketeers Xtra | The Bucklew bag, NET rankings, women's Shootout