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Better Days Are Ahead!!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
12/27/2011
The Muskies' 9-3 record is what it is. Most D-1 programs would be thrilled with road wins at Vanderbilt and Butler (BU has beaten Purdue and won at Stanford since Xavier throttled them at Hinkle Fieldhouse). A 23 point thumping of city rival Cincinnati and a win over pesky backyard neighbor Miami are positives as is the remarkable rally to nip Purdue at the wire. 6-1 at Cintas isn't too shabby considering the"L" to Oral Roberts happened right out of exams (XU 1-7 in that schedule slot since 2004) and with 3 starters suspended. The Hawaii trip was more paradoxical than paradise-like for the Muskies. 7th place and a 1-2 record is certainly underachieving.
Long Beach State in Round One would have been very close even with Mark Lyons and Dez Wells available. Odds are X would have won with a full roster and played a mediocre Auburn team in the winner's bracket Semis-leading to a Finals showdown with a very physical Kansas State team. Didn't happen!!
Long Beach trapped the heck out of Tu Holloway. He had no Mark Lyons to share the burden with. Kenny Frease got into early foul trouble when he slipped in to draw a charge. It was a text book play by Kenny. The TV replay showed he was riveted just outside the new charge arc but the lead ref who was out of position overruled his colleague. Foul on Kenny! He goes to the bench for 10 minutes.
LB was struggling to guard him on the block with no true post player. LB gets the basket and the FT to flesh their lead to 16-9 plus their player is saved a foul. And Brad Redford missed 3 wide-open shots from 3 point range before halftime. X lost 68-58 to LBSU. Minus 3 points on the Frease charge-block plus more Kenny on the floor before halftime plus one or two Redford 3 point bombs equals a coin flip game. Again,didn't happen!!
The loss to Long Beach set-up a loser's bracket semi-final against Hawaii. The Stan Sheriff Center is UH's home floor. Check the records. Many highly rated teams have ventured boldly from the mainland and found themselves dusted by the Rainbow Warriors. Hawaii went on to beat Clemson Sunday 75-68.
XU lost an unexpected road game 84-82 in OT in an exempt tournament??? Go figure!! Bad luck-bad bracket-bad game!! UH had upset Utah and Mississippi St the season before in the Diamond Head event. Lyons returned from suspension vs Hawaii but ran into foul trouble as did most of the Muskies (unreal total of 28 team fouls). UH found themselves shooting the bonus 6 minutes into the first half and Hawaii was trailing and trapping(12-0 to start-by 15 points on several occassions).
Holloway looked drained from the Long Beach game. He made just 8-12 FTs and missed two front ends. Still X could have pulled it out but Frease missed both FTs with 10 seconds left in regulation and the Muskies nursing a 3 point lead.
Considering the impact of the suspensions,Hawaii is still a "bad" RPI NCAA resume loss. Thank goodness XU salvaged that 87-77 win over Southern Illinois on Christmas Day!!
Do any plusses emerge from this post-Shootout mess? Justin Martin showed he can score the basketball and he played both shooting guard and small forward out of need. Why he played just 7 minutes against SIU I don't know? I couldn't figure out how to watch the game on ESPN3 so I drank some egg nog.
Dee Davis played strong minutes. A three guard line-up had some success. And Jeff Robinson finished around the basket against SIU (9 points in 10 minutes). Andre Walker continues to impress-rebounding-defending-working. The frontline as a group needs to score more inside and get to the FT line more frequently. Dez Wells' return should lead to more fastbreak baskets and push the offense closer to 80PPG.
It's Gonzaga(9-2) New Year's Eve Saturday Nite at Cintas (8PM). The Muskies owe the Zags a couple. A Muskie win makes up for the bad loss vs Hawaii and sets the table for A-10 play. X would be 10-3 with an RPI brushing up against 30-way better than last season's 8-5 non-conference record leading into league play. Xavier was 84 in the Pomeroy rankings before clobbering Rhode Island in the A-10 opener on the road.
More on Gonzaga later in the week. They play Portland Wednesday nite at the Kennell in Spokane before heading for Cincy.
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