Muskies Crashin the Ball in Indy? Why Not? PART 1

The title of this article infers that I am saying that Xavier is going to go to the Final Four. Make no mistake, I AM saying that: I have it in my pools and I am confident that this team is poised and ready to take SLC by the balls and will live to see yet another week. With that being said, this is Part 1 thus I will discuss the Musketeers first task at hand solely. The task is the West Bracket semifinal game in Salt Lake City, Mormonville vs. the Kansas State Wildcats at aprox 9:37 pm EST.

I said it Sunday night on my drive home from Milwaukee back to Cincinnati when I got on to the national radio show on Maddog Radio. I got on and discussed the Muskies and their chances vs. the very solid K St. squad, and ultimately why I think Xavier is going to take Round 2 this season with them. Xavier started off the season with more question marks than I can remember this entire past decade. New head coach, lost their top three scorers as well as team leaders, and their undisputed go-to guy had sat out an entire year and hadn't played a game with Xavier ever. The beginning of the season produced some disheartening showings by the Muskies (aside from the cake games at Cintas) and many of the X faithful were already talking about next year...even before conference play! (Please note that I was NOT one of these people) Xavier played such NCAA tournament participating teams this season as Marquette, Baylor, Kansas St., and Butler before Christmas, and lost all of them.

By the time Christmas rolled around, Xavier was 7-4 and had not won a game versus a noteworthy team. Little did we know, Xavier played and shot poorly against Baylor and Kansas St. because they are both top-tier defensive teams in the country. Both might I add are in the Sweet 16 (a place were the Almighty Kansas Jayhawks are not). Butler, whom Xavier should have beaten, also is in the Sweet Sixteen and I would love nothing more than to play them for a chance to go to the Final Four in Indy. I HATE BUTLER. I went to that game and it took every ounce of restraint in my body to not knock some Butler douche in the skull. What happened with Butler though as well as an extremely tough 2OT loss at Wake (I attended that game as well) in looking back on it, those losses were blessings. This team I would argue is the most battle tested team in the country. There is not a situation (fair or unfair) that they haven't experienced this year. This team is tough as nails and has the nerves of steel. They were able to take the hard-learned lessons from the first half of the season to end up going into the Swamp of the Gators (another NCAA tourney team) and beat them in a crucial bubble game for UF on the road. Xavier also played a hard fought game at Temple although losing, but were able to prevail vs. Richmond at home in 2OT.

Going 14-2 in the Atlantic 10 was no fluke. Temple and Richmond were extremely good, disciplined teams (say what you want about their NCAA games, St. Mary's and Cornell are still playing!!!) Also, I know you don't give a shit about the NIT as you shouldn't but Richmond and Dayton are in the Final Four of that. Big East blowjobbers, any comments on the A10 now?!

As has been discussed all week, Xavier and Kansas St. have a unique situation in the fact that they have already played this year (and the last couple years. See article concerning K St's bitterness towards X
http://www.statesman.com/sports/kansas-state-xavier-have-some-bad-blood-443191.html ) I watched that game in December in Manhattan and Xavier played without a doubt their worst game of the year. I mean Brad Redford was Xavier's leading scorer (tied with Crawford) at 16 points! That will not be the case tonight. No Way! This Xavier team in March is so much more mature, disciplined, and poised than that vague image of a Xavier basketball that I remember from that game. Chris Mack is not a rookie coach anymore. Jordan Crawford is not a first-year player for Xavier. This team has been there, done that, and they are battle-tested.

A stat that I would be doing everyone who reads this a disservice if I didn't show that sticks out to me like a sore thumb is this:

XU scored 56 points vs K St. that game. It was their lowest offensive output of the year by 6 points (61 v Butler) Since both of those games Xavier's lowest output has been 65 v. Minn and 68 v. Lasalle. WOW.

You tell me if you think this poised and momentus Xavier team is going to put up 56 points again. That game was at K St., tonight is on a neutral court. The Xavier faithful will be there, dont worry about that. They will be loud and they will represent. I can assure you of that. I can also assure you that Jordan Crawford will bring it yet again (27.5 ppg in the '10 tourney), Xavier will play good defense, and they will rebound. Minimizing turnovers as well as keeping Tuto and Crawdaddy at the guard positions and J Love and McClean out of foul trouble will be key. We cannot be relying on Lyons, Frease, and Taylor playing big minutes. We don't want that at all! Lastly, Dante needs to step up and hit a couple shots, make his late game ft's for God's sake! and play good individual defense and rebound.

If we do these things, I think the Muskies are playing Saturday. I like Frank Martin. I think his side job is in the Kansas maffia. I think K St. is loaded and talented. It also is tough to beat a team twice in one year, especially one of the caliber of this gritty and tough 2010 Xavier squad.

With that being said, AMDG, All for One and One for All, In It to Win It, May the Power of X be With You. Stayed tuned for Part II blogowers.

KFW

And the Beat Goes On....

First of all, thanks to El Fuerto for the NIT breakdown. Great to see some of the local teams getting some exposure in there. Good for Mick Cronin and Brian Gregory continuing their schools' traditions of mediocrity and underachievement. I aint complaining. The real team in Cincy is live in living color as we have now finally entered the best month of the year: MARCH BABY! (By the way, stay tuned for a CBI breakdown next week from El Fuerto)

The 2009-10 Xavier University Musketeers Men's Basketball team. Another coach, another year of doubters, haters, nay-sayers, and........another "to-be' Atlantic 10 regular season Conference Championship. That's what the Muskies and Mike Bobinski do: get rings (fat rings) and hang banners. I love Chris Mack as the head coach of this team. I will wait until after the season is over before I say why I think he's in for the long run. As for now, I am focused on the here and now, and thats wrapping up a league title for the 4th year in a row! and trying to get the best seed possible. (I say that like I have any control in it. At the Richmond game, I lost my voice, so theres my contribution).

Looks like all the talk about the A10 getting 5-6 teams is dwindling down as everybody is beating up on eachother (aside from Temple, Richmond, and Xavier). I must admit, the Atlantic 10 has been fun to watch this year...for once. The conference doesn't get enough national exposure on ESPN but after last week, I have a ton of respect for the young squad at SLU and for the grittiness of Richmond. Look for the Spiders to be playing in the second weekend of the tourney...you heard it here first!

Finally, just some thoughts on three individual Musketeers:

1) Below is my post on Cincinnati.com (http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100228/COL03/302280010/1007/SPT/Lights++camera++action+...++XU+s+Holloway+) on Terrell "Tutu" Holloway:

TRADITIONX09:

I've been saying it since the great game in the Shootout this year: when all is said and done, Holloway will be the best point guard in XU history. Lavendar was great but didn't play four years, Chalmers always will have a soft spot in my heart but more because of his play during the Run because his career was somewhat inconsistent.

Holloway is still inconsistent but man oh man, when he wants to play, he cannot be stopped. It's the biggest stage that Tutu relishes and the deeper into the game and OT's, the better plays. Crawford has been stellar all season. He had a bad half and it is awesome to see the Muskies step up when their offensive leader was off the mark. Great win.

I like where this team is headed going in to March. #12 RPI and the squad is battle-tested....there is no doubting that!

2) Jason "Buddy" "Lovely" "J Boogie" Love

Has there ever been anyone that exemplified what a Xavier student/basketball athlete is better than Jason Love? He came from D1 bball school-rich Philly and chose Xavier in the midwest, mainly because none of those schools really offered him (no Philly schools, althugh Penn St. and Providence did). He came here overweight, uncoordinated, and basically a big oaf who couldnt walk and chew gum at the same time. He came in though and from Day 1, worked his balls off and got better every season, considerably better at that. I'll give it to him, he had a ton of room for improvement but to go from 20ish % body fat to now like 6ish% or something stupid low is just absolutely unbelievable. That shit doesn't happen overnight. Neither does developing an offensive game or being one of the most dominating rebounders in the conference. All things that Love has become his senior year. A year where he is the lone-senior, he has taken the load on his shoulders and done an exceptional job leading these young Muskies.

I think I speak for all Xavier fans and maybe just basketball fans in general in saying that come Saturday, I am going to be sad after the game knowing that I will never see @LoveJ31 (www.twitter.com/lovej31) play at Cintas ever again. It has been a pleasure watching him grow, battle, and bust his ass all while shutting up and putting up for the Xavier program for 4 years. Thats what Xavier does: recruit those guys that the big boys pass on but who are willing to work harder than most, bring their lunch pale to work, and when they graduate people say "I'm going to miss having that guy in line-up night in and night out."

Thank you J Love for all your hard work. You will be missed. Let's finish strong. After tonight, he will be the WINNINGEST PLAYER IN XU HOOPS HISTORY!

3) Finally, last but not least, Coach Chris Mack and Coach Pat Kelsey

I just wanted to quickly acknowledge these guys for the job they have done. Xavier Nation was fumed after Miller bitched and hitched for Zona. A year later, I thank him because finally, since Skip, we have two coaches in Mack and Kels that CARE about Xavier bball. They are alums, are from Cincy, and have invested interest in the program. Great to have them here.

I just want to note that at the beginning of the season, we were all wondering how Xavier was going to makeup for the loss of CJ, Derrick, and BJ (our top three scorers and 60+ percent of our offense from the Sweet 16 team). Also if you can remember Sean Miller and Thad Matta's rookie seasons, those Xavier teams were hard to watch many times. They struggled and lost games they shouldn't have lost, naturally I guess with new coaching. Thad had D West and lost in the 2nd round...that was unacceptable for the team that he had. Sean had lost Chalmers, Sato, and Myles BUT didn't even make the NIT! People were calling for him to get fired! (Lets face it, that ONE bad year is the norm over there in Clifton).

Mack (www.twitter.com/@coachchrismack) and Kels are on the verge of winning the A10 title in arguably the deepest and toughest the conference has ever been with a ridiculously low 2 losses! (Im assuming we win the next 2 games). Best of luck to the boys and lets hope they can remained focused with their eye on the A10 prize....it's so close! (This is what we do. Good find BG.... http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6271764/20283529?tag=comBlogEntryListCnt;entry20283529)

Over and out,

CLICK CLACK

Ps. Make sure to tune in to the USA soccer squad take on the Dutch today at 2:30 pm. The World Cup in June will be unreal and today will be a little precursor of how it will be. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXHmTJrPaXQ)