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The Muskies' Opportunity is Now Gargantuan!!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
3/28/2008
Maybe I'm dead wrong and an insufferable Xavier homer, but I think the Muskies have a great chance of beating UCLA Saturday night in Phoenix and roaring right into the Final 4. As I mentioned prior to the X-West Virginia game and will repeat here, the historicals are not all that discouraging. In 25 No. 3 seed/No. 1 seed match-ups at the Elite 8 level since the NCAA field expanded to 64 teams back in the mid-1980's, the 3's have pulled off 12 so called upsets. That's almost 50%. And XU has already been hosed once in the Elite 8, so the tourney gods own us one!!
Hark back to 2004. The Muskies were not a 3 seed but Duke was definitely a No. 1 and the Blue Devils were great with a ton of big guys led by current Chicago Bull Luol Deng plus terrific guards J.J. Redick and Chris Duhon. Coach K couldn't figure out how to stop Anthony Myles defensively so he called over ACC referee Mike Kitts (good friend of John Cahill - the man who stole last year's Ohio State game) and presto chango - Myles had fouled out before Thad Matta could call down the bench for a substitute. X lost 66-63 in Atlanta.
A win over UCLA makes up for that. Bruins coach Ben Howland can't sway the zebras like Coach K. Who can? He's the best at it. Really history and officials' calls and power conferences versus mid-majors have little to do with this.
It is Xavier's time!! The Muskies are good enough and deep enough and seasoned enough to beat anybody on this NCAA Stage. Hey, XU may lose. UCLA is 34-3 with a 13 game winning streak. They are PAC 10 regular season and tournament champs. They feature a super BIG GUY in Kevin Love and according to Dickie V, the best point guard in creation, Darrin Collison. But Xavier definetly belongs in this game.
Not to pick on Dickie V but he's taking the UCLANS. He also thought the Cinderella Dawgs of Georgia would eliminate X in Round 1.
Vitale also thinks Sean Miller is leaving. He started a collection on TV donating 20 bucks to the "Keep Miller Fund." Got news for you, Dickie!! Sean isn't going anywhere. He's home on Victory Parkway. Leave for flawed programs at Indiana or LSU?? You gotta do better than that. Pitt or N.C. State might worry me a little.
Speaking of Sean Miller, he coached a brilliant game in last night's 79-75 OT classic win over West Virginia. Josh Duncan picked up his 4th foul with about 12 minutes left in regulation and still was on the floor at the end of overtime. He scored a career-high 26 making 9 of XU's low total of 12 free throws.
Sean weaved Josh in and out of the line-up plus protected he and Derrick Brown by running a 3-2 zone. The zone also helped to cooling WVU from long range. They made just 1 of 11 from 3 point range.
The decoy move to lob to Duncan with X up 75-74 was poetic. Luckily the in-bounds was right in front of the XU bench. B.J. Raymond leaked out to the far wing. Stanley Burrell made a gutsy cross court pass and Raymond buried the shot. 78-74 ball game over!!
X is resilient. They've come from behind in all 3 NCAA wins. WVA led by 6 early in the OT. Luckily Joe Alexander fouled out and X outscored the Mounties 14-4 to the wire.
It reminded me of Huggs first Crosstown Shootout in 1990. UC had a 6 point edge in the OT over X with 90 seconds left and Xavier rallied to win on Jamal Walker's 3 pointer.
I ripped Huggs on the radio that night when I thought Xavier was done. I learned my lesson and did not lose faith last evening. Alexander's fouling out helped re-enforce my belief.
X still hasn't played a great game in the tournament. Against West Virginia the start was unreal -- up 28-10, but the middle was stagnant and ugly. Obviously, I approve of the 14-4 finish.
The Muskies relied on the 3 pointer, outscoring WVA 10-1 outside the arc. X was outscored from the free throw line which is a rarity, and they worked themselves into acute foul trouble which runs counter to their norm. Those trends need to reversed against UCLA.
X did call on differnt heroes though. B.J. Raymond concentrated all his scoring (8 points) in OT. Stanley Burrell criticized his own performance in the postgame press conference, but he made that vital pass to Raymond, set-up Dante Jackson for a corner 3 with a gutsy baseline drive and dish, and converted a power reverse lay-up of his own at a critical time.
UCLA is a huge hurdle, but they're very human. Texas A&M almost put them out in the Second Round. They turn the ball over a lot. They aren't that adept from 3 point range. X will need to play that excellent 40 minutes to win. But why not?
It's Xavier's time. See you in San Antonio!!!!
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