|
XU Loss in Acceptable Range
By
Andy Mac Williams,
3/7/2008
Xavier's odds of prevailing Thursday night at Saint Joe's weren't great going in. The Hawks win about 85% of their games at Alumni Fieldhouse historically. Mix in Senior Night. Add the Hawk's precarious NCAA status. Blend in all the hoopla surrounding the renovation of Hawk Hill with Saint Joe's legends like Dr. Jack Ramsey, Jameer Nelson, and Mike Bantom in attendance. Fold in Muskie point guard Drew Lavender's ankle injury. And don't forget X has already clinched the A-10 title and top seed in the conference tournament. It's no upset in my mind that SJU won 71-66.
One prominent web site now has Xavier "stumbling" into March Madness. That characterization is a bit premature. The Muskies didn't play their best game in Philly, but they played hard and cut a 15 point Hawk lead to 3 before losing.
Derrick Brown was a bright spot with 18 points. He hit from outside the arc and pounded the offensive board. Jason Love did well in his homecoming game. He didn't embarass himself inside against Rob Ferguson and Ahmad Nivins.
Lavender actually showed progress. He played more minutes (29) and shot the "three" reasonably well and handed out 4 assists. He's still not leading the fastbreak and breaking down defenses with those darting drives to the basket, and Drew's gone a few games without those trademark steals, but it's baby steps in the right direction.
SJU won the hustle stats, outrebounding X, 29-27, outscoring the Muskies from the free throw line, 17-7, and topping them in points in the paint, 28-26. Hey, don't get me wrong! A win would have been preferable and was very possible.
X probably now has no room for error to get that "2" NCAA Seed. That means four straight wins - Saturday at Cintas against Richmond then 3 in 3 days at the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Atlantic City. The RPI has slid to 10 (still pretty nice territory).
Richmond is a major suprise at 16-12, 9-6 in the league after going 8-22 last season while playing mostly freshmen. The Spiders are still in the running for an A-10 tourney first round bye.
Temple has the inside track for the second seed at 10-5. The Owls close out Saturday afternoon at LaSalle. Richmond, UMass and Saint Joe's are all 9-6 and competing for the 3 and 4 seeds, but UR comes up short on tiebreakers having lost to both UMass and SJU.
Richmond has to win at Xavier to have a shot at a bye. UMass plays at GW. Saint Joe's is at Dayton. The Hawks own the tiebreaker with 2 wins against UMass.
Spider coach Chris Mooney is a Princeton grad and runs a modified high post-back door cutting offense with an emphasis on long possessions and the three point field goal. UR plays stingy defense allowing just 65 PPG.
Freshman Kevin Anderson (14) is the point guard and may win A-10 Frosh of the Year. He averages 10 points and 3 assists and pressures the ball well on defense. Soph Danny Gonzalez (5) is having a big year (12PPG, 44% from 3). Both guards play about 35 minutes.
Backcourt depth is a problem. Dan Geriot (41) just scored 35 against St Bonnies. He just won A-10 Player of the Week. He's 6-9, 235, scoring 14 PPG with 6 Rebounds.
Xavier needs to win this one. It's Senior Night. X has lost only to Tennessee this season at home. Richmond sits 120 in the RPI so the Selection Committee would consider this a "bad" loss.
Expect a good performance and a Xavier victory.
|
|
