Published since 1915 by the students
of Xavier University
Published since 1915 by the students
of Xavier University
Rachel Peters
Senior News Editor
Last Monday, a day that was meant to observe nonviolence, turned out to be anything but peaceful when several violent and chaotic scenes erupted during the Martin Luther King, Jr. Classic high school basketball tournament at Cintas Center. A total of six arrests were made throughout the day.
The event began with 30 uniformed officers and 20 security officials. After the problems began, a community bulletin was sent out to local police departments and recruited dozens more police officers. Officers from Cincinnati, Norwood and Xavier Campus Police were all present.
“I live on the campus-side of Cleneay and we all heard the police cars flying down the street in the middle of the day,” said junior Elizabeth Bresher. “It’s always scary when you don’t really know what’s going on right down the street.”
The basketball tournament featured teams from area high schools including Clark Montessori, Shroder Padeia, Hughes, North College Hill, Withrow and Winton Woods.
The tournament produced a gathering of 8700 people, which included 6500 high school students. The event was sponsored by the Student Activity Foundation for Cincinnati Public Schools.
Crowd control became a problem during the second game of Hughes vs. North College Hill as several spectators refused to take their seats. An announcement encouraging people to take their seats was made, but the game itself was uninterrupted.
“There was a lot of noise and yelling in the hallway and cops rushing through the door,” said junior Ali Chadwell who was working at the Cintas Center ticket office during the event. “There were so many people that it was hard to say what was going on exactly but it was definitely scary,” she said. Chadwell said that she was instructed to stop selling tickets for the third game until order was restored.
Many entering spectators were frustrated and angered by the hold up.
After the second game, 18-year-old R&B singer Sammie performed on center court and chaos continued to erupt. Fans were jumping over guardrails to get closer to Sammie during his performance. Several people were tackled; however, an unidentified Cintas Center security guard told the Cincinnati Enquirer, “It was dangerous because we weren’t allowed to touch the girls because they were high school girls.” More chaos was reported after the cessation of the performance as fans chased Sammie into the Cintas Center hallways when he left center court.
Sammie told the Cincinnati Enquirer on Monday, “It’s not always that crazy where there’s people bum-rushing me and security fighting to keep people away. This one was really wild. It was a little too much. But I appreciate the love from the girls. And security did a good job to keep everyone away.”
During the second quarter of the third game of Withrow vs. Winton Woods, two fights erupted almost simultaneously in the upper concourse of the arena. Punches were being thrown and there was speculation that a gun and brass knuckles may have been involved. The game itself was interrupted as players and referees even paused to look up at what was escalating. Order was reportedly restored by halftime.
Kelly Leon, Director of Xavier’s Public Relations, reported that no weapons were involved. “It was described to me as four or five people who got into an argument. There was pushing, shoving, throwing punches and throwing food as they were fighting. More people gathered around so it looked bigger than it was.”
No injuries were reported except a minor head cut on one of the six people arrested. According to the Cincinnati Police Department, most of the arrests were juveniles so little information can be attained as to their identities and specific charges.
This was the second year the tournament was held at Xavier, as well as the second year violence and crowd control have been problematic. Numerous fights also took place at last year’s event and there was a problem with traffic control.
According to a statement released by Leon, “If the tournament is held next year and we are asked to host it, we will take a realistic look at what exactly happened on Monday and consult with Xavier Campus Police, Cincinnati Police, Norwood Police and others before making a decision. In hosting any event on our campus, we must give first priority to the safety and best interest of our students, our campus community, our visitors and the people who work our events.”
Leon said that the university supports the mission of the Student Activity Foundation for Cincinnati Public Schools. “We don’t want [the problems that arose at the event] to reflect negatively on the good [the foundation was] trying to do.”
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Monday that a WIZF (101.1) DJ pleaded with the crowd, “Please, people, remember why we are here. This is MLK Day, a day of peace and love. Please don’t do this right now.”
One student in attendance told WCPO Channel 9 Local News, “It’s kind of ironic that there would be mass fights on his day when he fought for non-violence. We should respect him because it is his day.”
Wins over Illinois, K-State highlight break games
John laFollette
Sports Editor
The Xavier men’s basketball team seemed to make good on senior Brandon Cole’s guarantee that the Musketeers would “right this ship” during the Christmas break, winning four of the five games it played in the last three weeks, including two consecutive nationally televised games against strong non-conference competition.
The Musketeers notched back-to-back quality wins over Illinois and Kansas State, avenging last year’s heartbreaking loss to the Fighting Illini and dealing Wildcats’ head coach Bob Huggins’ a loss in his first return to the city of Cincinnati since he was fired from the University of Cincinnati.
Xavier finished the holiday with wins at home against Temple, 76-68, and on the road against Fordham, 71-56, before losing the second of the team’s two-game Atlantic 10 road trip, to St. Louis, 76-65, over the weekend.
In the week between Xavier’s frustrating 68-67 loss to the Bison of Bucknell and their meeting with Illinois, the Musketeers logged longer, tougher practice hours according to head coach Sean Miller.
“We had not played well and things around Cintas Center tightened up,” Miller said. “Practices [were] extremely difficult and long.”
Xavier’s performance against Illinois was indicative of that extra work; the 13,256 in attendance at U.S. Bank Arena saw the Musketeers play with a toughness, confidence and resiliency that had been absent for much of the season.
The Musketeer who showed the most improvement was junior guard Drew Lavender, whose previously inconsistent play had some in Xavier Nation wondering about his reputation as the solution to Xavier’s inconsistency at point guard.
Lavender averaged 11.8 points per game over the break, well above his season average of 7.9. Lavender attributes it to his encouragement from Coach Miller. “Coach challenged me to see what happens when I play hard for 40 minutes,” Lavender said. There was no official word on why the junior transfer wasn’t playing hard for 40 minutes in the twelve games the Musketeers’ played before Illinois.
Senior forward Justin Doellman also improved his consistency and offensive output over the break, averaging 15.4 points per game with a near 50 percent shooting percentage. Doellman has also quietly climbed into a tie for fourth on the team’s all-time blocked shot list with 117.
Senior forward Justin Cage, who is just 14 points shy of joining teammates Doellman and junior guard Stanley Burrell in the Xavier 1000-point club, maintained his steady, reliable play at both ends of the floor, averaging 8.4 points and keeping opposing teams’ top scorers in check.
In case you missed it:
Men’s basketball since break
Dec. 29 vs. Illinois: 65-59 W
Jan. 3 vs. Kansas St.: 76-66 W
Jan. 6 vs. Temple: 76-68 W
Jan. 11@ Fordham: 71-56 W
Jan. 13 @ Saint Louis: 65-76 L
Up next:
Jan. 18 vs. UMass 7 p.m.
Student tickets still available at the Cintas Center box office
Burrell was a team leader in scoring over the break, notching games of 23 and 21 points against Kansas State and Temple. He has averaged 16.3 points per game over the last four games, despite scoring just three points off 1-8 shooting last weekend against St. Louis.
With a 12-5 record, the Musketeers look to their Atlantic 10 schedule to save this season of high expectations from the pitfalls of the inconsistently good teams of years past. This team must improve their physical and mental toughness, gain more confidence shooting and control the basketball better if they hope to make the NCAA Tournament’s field of 65 without having to win the conference tournament.
They face a tough test on Thursday night against A-10 scoring leader Massachusetts. The Minutemen enter the match up averaging 86 points per game in conference play, behind the play of Dick Vitale National Player of the Week Stephane Lasme. Xavier tips off against UMass at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Cintas Center.
Brian Bowsher 
Editor-in-Chief
Jennifer Downing
Senior News Editor
The Xavier Newswire
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