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Muskies..They're Baaaack!! And Just in Time!!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/12/2012
 | | The Duquesne defenders can only watch as Dez Wells skys above them for a slam.[enlarge] Photo by Bob Stevens |  | The Xavier bench greets Dez Wells at a time out after one of his highlight reel slams.
[enlarge] Photo by Bob Stevens |  | | Senior Kenny Frease gives Freshman Dez Wells a celebratory hug after one of his high flying dunks.[enlarge] Photo by Bob Stevens |
Xavier's dominating 78-50 dismantling of Duquesne Wednesday nite at Cintas didn't suprise me. As I left work,one of the UC zealots on staff did shock me though. He said XU was favored by just 6 and Las Vegas experts had flagged the game as an upset special. He may have been kidding?? Those Bore-cat fans love to toy with aging Andy Mac. I told him to take X-give the 6 and wager all available cash.
Nothing against the Dukes. They played without solid senior forward BJ Montiero(15PPG-7 rebs) and they're small even with BJ in the rotation. In Pittsburgh, DU might have had a slim chance if they'd rained in 15 plus threes but not in Cincy-not at Cintas-not with the Muskies regaining their mojo.
X completely stifled a strong scoring team(78PPG-A-10 leader). The Muskies led 44-16 at the half and it wasn't that close!! The scrappy PacLine defense gave the guard rich Dukes few open looks and fewer second chances after the first 5 or 6 minutes.
And the bench players were major factors. Jeff Robinson scored 12 with 6 rebounds reminding us of the pogo stick leaping hard-to-guard player that emerged last season. Travis Taylor and Justin Martin ate up 30 total minutes with Kenny Frease and Andre Walker in mild foul trouble.
Coach Mack did not have to gamble by keeping Frease on the floor and hoping he wouldn't get screwed on a call when some little DU guard dived at his ankles. Frease seldom reaches on "D" anymore. He walls up and waits and still he doesn't get many calls. Why is it that out of control little guys bang recklessly into stationary big guys-fall down and go boom and wind up shooting free throws??
Brad Redford is dangerous again from long range!! He's nailed 4 threes in the last two games and now thanks to hard work he defends and passes well (nifty cross court alley-oop feed to Dez Wells for one of his 6 dunks-#5 Top Highlight on ESPN SportsCenter.
The rotation is back to 10 viable players again including Dee Davis. The offense was a thing of beauty. Nobody cared who scored thus 57%FG and 20 assists on 32 made baskets. And XU turned it over only 11 times against a DU team that prides itself on forcing almost 20 TO's/game.
Dez Wells was awesome(16 points on 7-7 shooting with 6 dunks and 9 rebounds). He's averaging 15P-7R in 3 A-10 games and making 64% of his shots. Tu Holloway took the ball anywhere he wanted against very quick Dukes' guards(11p-11 assists).
Mark Lyons and Tu combined for 15 assists and a scant 2 turnovers. That ratio is almost unbeatable. The Muskies are now 11-5 overall and 2-1 in the Atlantic 10.
Just one unbeaten team remains in the league. La Salle is 2-0 and they have to play at Dayton Saturday nite. Xavier is in a 2-1 log jam with Dayton,Charlotte,UMass,St Joe's and St Bonnies. Sexy pundit pick St Louis is now 1-2 after losing at home to Temple.
The Muskies host the Bonnies Saturday afternoon at noon(ESPNU). Mark Schmidt (former XU assistant) has SBU playing well (9-6 overall,2-1 in the league). He's assisted by Jeff Massey (Xavier 1995). Senior shooting guard Michael Davenport (Moeller HS) has been out a month. He was their second best player most nights.
The best is 6-9 senior post Andrew Nicholson-a Canadian and a sure fire 1st Round NBA draft choice. He dropped 30 points-13 rebounds and 6 blocked shots on Dayton in Olean Wednesday nite.
SBU beat the Flyers 81-73. Dayton played without 6-6 dynamo Chris Johnson(concussion in practice). 6-9 power forward Josh Benson blew out a knee just before their Ole Miss game. SBU shot 51%FG-made 24 of 28 FTs and kept Nicholson out of foul trouble.
The Bonnies are not very deep. The starting forwards Conger and Cook are good. It seems they've been around forever. The starting guards Wright and Kloof are solid. Bonnies lacks great speed in the backcourt but they get by. SBU scores 69PPG and gives up a stingy 62.
They almost upset Illinois in Champagne losing 48-43 after leading most of the game. They lost by 2 to NC State in Rochester and gave Virginia Tech a strong game in Blacksburg. Duquesne beat SBU last Saturday in Pitt 66-52 but Andrew Nicholson played maybe 20 minutes because of foul trouble.
Schmidt is a great coach. He had Bonnies flying early against XU last January in Olean. The Muskies were down 12 until Jeff Robinson came off the bench to the rescue and Tu Holloway took over the second half.
Expect another focused effort from SBU. It would be the signature turn-around win in the conference Mark Schmidt has been building for. Also expect XU to exploit their depth advantage and superior guard speed and play defense by committee against Nicholson. Anything can happen but it should be another great night to be a Muskie fan.
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