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Muskies Fade vs VCU!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
2/25/2013
My initial reaction after Xavier's 75-71 loss to Virginia Commonwealth Saturday at Cintas was to rip the officials especially the guy who looked like TV judge Joe Brown's twin brother. Granted, it was a difficult game to ref. Shaka Smart pushes the envelop with Havoc. Especially on the road against good teams he needs the zebras to swallow their whistles and let VCU slap on their physical traps without calling every bump. I took a couple deep breaths and decided to watch the video tape.
Smart is no dummy(Kenyon College grad). After his Ram's poor first half(down by 13 points) he changed his press and targeted Dee Davis. VCU doubled and pummeled him at every opportunity. XU didn't help matters by entering the ball to Dee or Semaj Christon in the corners instead of hitting a big man in the middle of the floor.
David West used to act as a press breaker in that role as did Doellman and Duncan. Last season Andre Walker served as that safety valve, but this season the BIGS lack ball handling skills and it's up to the guards.
Xavier fans are spoiled by press crackers like Drew Lavendar and Tu Holloway. Davis is almost that good, but VCU took him out and the refs allowed it. Dee was worked over especially by Melvin Johnson. #32 elbowed Davis in the chops on one drive across the middle. He hip checked Dee into the cheerleaders on a box-out, he collided head to head with Davis on the press and knocked Dee out of the game. It wasn't an intentional head butt but it was a foul that was not called.
To add insult to injury, one of the refs had the gall to cruise over to the XU bench to see how Dee was doing. Thanks, fella!! If you're doing your job and calling excessive contact, Davis is still playing and the Muskies' chances of winning a pivotal game are improved. Without Davis for the final 13:35 of the game, Xavier was in a tough spot, but they continued to play hard if not well.
Semaj Christon did not charge with 1:59 left and X trailing 71-68. The VCU player took a flat-out dive, a flop. There was no contact. Our friend the Judge Joe Brown look-a-like anticipated contact and blew the call. With 1:39 left Semaj drove to the rim and was whacked on the head, missed lay-up, no foul.
Enough about the officials!! X obviously wore down vs the VCU pressure. 22 turnovers is a bad number. X was outrebounded for the first time in 15 games. VCU triggered 23 more FG tries than XU because of the turnover number and their offensive rebounding. The Muskies also failed to get stops down the stretch.
But the officials aided and abetted the VCU comeback.
Xavier still has a shot at 4th in the A-10 and a first round conference tournament bye. LaSalle sits 4th at 9-4. The Explorers host Duquesne and GW and play at St Louis. X owns the tie-breaker vs LaSalle and Temple(tied for 5th with XU at 8-5). TU hosts URI. They're at Fordham and home to VCU. Xavier faces an A-10 Murderers Row with UMass and St Louis at Cintas and a game at Butler. X needs at least two wins in those three games plus some help.
Tuesday nite it's Xavier against Memphis at Cintas Center. Chris Mack in essence has scheduled his own bracket buster game (ESPNU-7PM). Memphis is a juggernaut on paper (24-3 overall with an 18 game win streak #17 in one National Poll, #19 in the other). The Tigers clinched the Conference USA regular season title Saturday at home shelling the number two team Southern Miss 89-73. They're 13-0 in a weak CUSA plus they have 11 straight road wins dating back to last season. Their losses are to VCU, Minnesota and Louisville. That U of L defeat happened Dec.15th, 2 and a half months ago.
Memphis is ripe for a loss, but Xavier may be without Dee Davis and Travis Taylor. The Tigers beat XU 72-68 in Memphis last February overcoming an 11 point Muskie lead with 6 minutes to play. This year's Memphis team is deeper and more unselfish. Will Barton the CUSA Player of the Year has matriculated to the NBA Portland Trailblazers. Will's brother Antonio has missed the last 4 games because of injury. PG Joe Jackson leads this team (14PPG-5 assists-2 steals).
Soph forward Adonis Thomas missed most of last season injured. He is a slashing stud(12PPG). Juco shooting guard Geron Johnson(11PPG) is from Dunbar HS in Dayton. Chris Crawford is a Senior 3 point sniper. Inside it's 6-9 Tarik Black and 6-9 frosh DJ Stephens(7 Rebounds-3 Blocks).Another frosh Shaq Goodwin plays large minutes. Memphis presses and pushes the ball. They score 76PPG and give up just 64. They are plus 6 on the boards and force 18 turnovers/game. They block shots.
X can win this but they need contributions from Davis and Taylor and they need Memphis to take a breath after clinching their conference. What a nifty resume' building upset this would be!!
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