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Muskies Embark on Farflung February!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
2/1/2010
January 2010 concluded with an impressive 3 game home sweep for XU. Rhode Island went down 72-61 as the defense clamped down and Jordan Crawford took over offensively. URI drove up I-75 a couple nites later and validated their worth with a victory at Dayton. (Yeah! I've heard all about the tainted cheese steaks!!) The Muskies smothered Duquesne 86-50 with all 3 post players prospering. The Dukes aren't the Lakers but they bounced back to beat St. Joe's Sunday. Then Xavier made short work of Fordham 108-60.
The team has become more consistent defensively in the wake of a subpar effort at Temple(77-72 loss).
The Big Guys have stepped up. Jason Love has delivered solid double-doubles all season inside plus strong post defense.
Now Jamel McLean and Kenny Frease are producing predictably. Foul trouble for Love isn't fatal anymore. McLean is showing up every night. Frease is finishing around the basket and not throwing the ball away.
Andrew Taylor is a dependable 4th guy inside. He's very useful on the road especially where fouls usually are a larger factor.
The guards keep getting better and better. Crawford makes BIG SHOTS and is now forcing very few. He's not a gunner-just a lethal weapon. Terrell Holloway's assist to turnover ratio continues to improve. He's a game closer with his FT shooting ability.
Mark Lyons is returning to form after the knee injury at Wake. He gets to the basket as easily as any XU guard I can remember. Dante Jackson plays his best against the best. In A-10 play he's 19-36 from 3 point range. That's Brad Redford good!! Redford is going to drop a big number on somebody soon.
The rotation is solid and deep. The results are there(8-2 in January). Overall, Xavier sits at 15-6, 7-1 halfway through the A-10 schedule.
That schedule turns nasty now with 5 of 7 February games away from Cintas(21 straight home wins-29 Atlantic 10 wins in a row).
The road games start Wednesday nite(7pm-Fox Sports Ohio) at UMass. The Minutemen are very volatile-mainly because they play so many freshmen and sophomores. They're 8-13 overall,2-5 in the A-10 and they've lost 6 of their last 7. Saturday in Amherst they struggled to shoot the ball against Charlotte's switching defenses losing 72-58,but earlier in the week they ripped St Joe's in Philly 87-80.
Two veterans do most of the scoring-Ricky Harris(18PPG) and Wake Forest transfer Anthony Gurley(15PPG). Frosh forwards Terrell Vinson,Javorn Farell,Sampson Carter and Freddie Riley bring a ton of energy.
The post presence is supplied by 6-9 225 Oregon St transfer Sean Carter. 6-4 Soph David Gibbs has started at guard.
Derek Kellogg played for John Calipari at UMass and coached under him at Memphis, He believes in the uptempo dribble drive approach and he's bringing in the players to implement that style. UMASS has struggled from 3 point range(29%) but they compete well(plus 4 rebounding). They are learning defensively giving up 74PPG.
Crowds have been down but they drew well for Charlotte and may for Xavier. The Muskies need a decent start and patience as things tend to go wrong on the road and UMass with their youthful exuberance will make runs. X should be favored.
They probably won't be at Dayton Saturday and at Florida a week from Saturday. Time to convert that home manufactured consistency into road victory.
UMass can't defend the Muskie post group. The guards need to focus on that offensively and make shots difficult for their good guards Harris and Gurley.
Let February begin!!
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