Against all odds, Xavier is somehow in the Elite Eight

Having lost seven of its last 10 games to end the season, Xavier watched on Selection Sunday hoping to receive an at-large bid.

The Musketeers were awarded one of the final spots in the field of 68 as an 11-seed, and were sent to a first-round date in Orlando against Maryland.

What happened next is probably best described by the team's Twitter account.

Yep, the Musketeers ran through the sixth-seeded Terrapins, blew out third-seeded Florida State, and on Thursday outlasted No. 2 Arizona to punch their ticket to the Elite Eight.

Chris Mack's bunch became just the seventh 11-seed in history to make the Elite Eight, and did so in dramatic fashion with a 9-0 run to end the contest against the Wildcats and win by two points.

Xavier didn't have the shooting night Thursday like it did against the Seminoles in round two, where the Musketeers made an absurd 11-of-17 from deep, but that didn't matter. The team didn't get 30 points off the bench on Thursday night like it did in round one against Maryland, but that didn't matter either.

What Xavier did have on Thursday was the better coach, as Mack outclassed his former boss, Sean Miller, in the final stretches of the game to give the Musketeers the win.

Mack called an expertly drawn-up high-low play out of the timeout that gave Sean O'Mara a clean layup for the go-ahead points.

From there it was Xavier's lock-down defense that stopped Allonzo Trier on the other end and gave the Musketeers their third straight upset in the tournament. That was certainly enough to the send the program's most famous fan, Bill Murray, into a wild celebration in the crowd.

Next up is No. 1 Gonzaga, who will most definitely be favored over the plucky Musketeers, which means Xavier is exactly where it wants to be.