Published since 1915 by the students
of Xavier University
Defensive woes continue for Xavier
Another road game, another loss as Musketeers drop second of last three
John LaFollette
Sports Editor
The Xavier men’s basketball team temporarily took the Atlantic 10 conference lead with a quality 83-77 win over Massachusetts last week before losing it again with yet another loss on the road, this time to the St. Joseph’s Hawks by a score of 82-74.
The Musketeers won a hard fought game against the high-scoring Minutemen with grit, determination and physical play that left senior forward Brandon Cole with gashes across his upper chest from big man Rashaun Freeman’s fingernails.
Despite being out-rebounded 47 to 31 and surrendering 25 offensive rebounds, 11 of which went to Freeman, a group scoring effort and second-half toughness got them the win.
“We gave them too many second shots, they really killed us on the offensive glass and that’s more of a toughness issue than anything,” said Cole, who led the team with 10 rebounds. “To gut this game out, down the stretch, we really had to have some big rebounds, and that’s the kind of mentality we have to have for 40 minutes every game if we want to win this conference.”
That mentality was undoubtedly absent over the weekend though, as Xavier’s rebounding and defensive struggles continued in the loss to St. Joseph’s. Xavier again gave up more rebounds than they should have, with 31, and got to the foul line just 15 times, their third lowest total all year.
Still, poor defense contributed to the loss more than anything else. Xavier has given up an average of 78.3 points per game over the last three games, two of which have been losses.
Gaping holes in the frontcourt allowed the Hawks to push the ball inside to free up open three-point shooters on the perimeter.
Assistant coach Chris Mack said the coaching staff was considering giving 6’9’’ freshman forward Jason Love more playing time, partly due to his tremendous wingspan.
Offensive output has not been a problem for the Musketeers as of late, and occasionally substituting Love for, say, the offensively prolific freshman Derrick Brown, could provide a much needed presence down low.
Look for the Musketeers to hold both St. Bonaventure and Dayton to low scoring in their upcoming contests.
Xavier takes on the Bonnies at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 24, in Olean, N.Y., and the Flyers at noon on Saturday at Cintas Center.
The Spectator: by John LaFollette
From the 2007 FedEx Orange Bowl
John LaFollette
Sports Editor
The Florida Turnpike, which stretches the vertically massive Sunshine State from the outback town of Inverness to the southernmost shore, is a road plagued by bandits of all kinds; highwaymen and petty thieves, all under some Down South trance that makes them oblivious to the basest, most depraved acts of rationalized extortion since the Bowl Championship Series’ conception.
And while various BCS officials drew the deafening, unavoidable, almost predestined ire of the Spectator over the few days he was exposed to firsthand BCS fervor, the object of the Spectator’s deepest wrath during his recent trip to the FedEx Orange Bowl is undoubtedly the Florida Office of Motor Carrier Compliance.
This rag-tag gang of stone-faced, unflinchingly greedy goons charges out-of-staters (credentialed journalists like the Spectator and his companions, namely) $23 in rent for a seven-hour drive down a two-lane death ramp whose average speed of 85 is distressingly close to the median age of its travelers.
As frightening as that journey sounds, it was not without its simple pleasures. There is a strange satisfaction, at 8:30 in the morning on the day after New Year’s, in watching someone’s fossilized ancestor steer her 10-ton pickup at 90 miles an hour into the “slow” lane, about 18 inches from the front bumper of the Spectator’s Subaru, so she can avoid some other maniac in the “fast” lane who’s just as old and going twice as fast.
But as a fine traveling companion remarked, that satisfaction probably had more to do with the quality of our Burger King coffee, the massive reserves of Kentucky bourbon in the back of the car and the spectacular nature of our destination than with the miraculous avoidance of an early morning and premature death.
It is, in fact, the destination which made these trials and tribulations worthwhile for the Spectator. There is no sense in risking life and limb in the foreign graveyard of the Florida Turnpike without some sort of payoff: excellent seats at the 2007 FedEx Orange Bowl, held at Dolphins Stadium in Miami, Fla., and contested between the ACC’s Wake Forest Demon Deacons and the Big East’s Louisville Cardinals. Only the allure of such an historic game in such a pristine climate could warrant such a perilous pilgrimage.
And there, amidst the intimidating turmoil of the Florida Turnpike (which is paradoxically nicknamed “the Less Stressway”), but just three hours from more hospitable accommodations in Fort Lauderdale, spirits were high for the Spectator and three of his most highly-regarded associates.
-Killing time/ Gushing hearts/ Exhaustion sets in-
After spending some 17 hours in a car that was packed to the gills with four people, beach attire, economy beer and the aforementioned bourbon, we were eager for more stationary and less cramped environs. Obviously anticipating the arrival of four highly acclaimed and road-weary travelers, the hotel management had our suites prepared a full six hours before we were expected, and even had room service send up the finest in Fort Lauderdale cuisine.
Before conking out from severe exhaustion, the Spectator finally had a chance to see with his own eyes the shenanigans that comprised the final seconds of Boise State’s overtime win over Oklahoma. He was driving through rural Georgia when the game finally ended around 1 a.m. and could only listen on the radio. The game-tying hook-and-ladder and game-winning Statue of Liberty plays looked much better on ESPN the next morning (no matter how often they were replayed) than they sounded on the radio.
Those plays were so good, in fact, that the Spectator didn’t even mind Bronco running back Ian Johnson’s cheesy proposal to his bubbly cheerleader girlfriend; that, and his severe exhaustion, put him right to sleep.
-Rainy daze/ Rude hostilities/ Spectator at the gate-
After a much needed nap and a quick trip down I-95, we pilgrims reached our Kaaba, the sacred house of Dolphins Stadium, which, at 2 p.m. (six hours before kickoff) was surrounded by countless revelers. Despite the steady but manageable rain that had been falling since around noon, good people with good drink abounded, and the Spectator and company soon joined their ranks.
Clad in T-shirts of black and red, and shorts of denim, the Louisville fans proved their affable, fun-loving reputation to be true. While getting the lay of the land, we were welcomed into several tailgating parties by indiscriminant strangers (our kind of people) whose only demand was our participation in raucous C-A-R-D-S cheers.
In making his way through the Wake Forest boroughs of this temporary party town, the Spectator encountered a different breed of bowl-game-goers entirely. When they weren’t sipping import beer, adjusting their sundresses, tying their boat shoes, pulling their creased chinos out of the mud or hand-combing their wispy hair just so, these Demon Deacon fans were telling the Spectator, whose only declaration of team allegiance was a red Cardinals T-shirt, to go back to his “own side.”
Repulsed by this southern inhospitality and a little frightened by the kinds of North Carolina depravity he overheard being discussed, the Spectator retreated to greener pastures. His comrades, who had not ventured into apparently “hostile” territory, were finishing poster board signs to hold from our second- and 12th-row seats, which we had prodigiously purchased on eBay for well below face-value.
Quickly crafting his own, simple sign (RUCK FUTGERS), the Spectator capped his inch-wide magic marker (aptly named “the Magnum” by the folks at Sharpie) and finished his glass of bargain-priced swill (Kentucky Tavern). Then we all went inside.
-A Shifty upgrade/ The Greatest/ Censorship at its lowest-
Despite having been on site for nearly six hours, we found our seats with only minor difficulty – two of us in Row Two and two, including the Spectator, in Row 12. The sight of the Orange Bowl playing field was titillating for a lifelong fan watching his team play in its first-ever BCS Bowl, even from the 12th row.
Minutes before the coin toss, however, the Spectator noticed that a group of seats in front of his second-row companions (that’s the first row, eight feet above the field) was still unoccupied. All too willing to make the lowest rows appear fuller for the TV cameras, the Spectator, a compatriot and a man who had been met just moments earlier, bee lined for the exquisitely available front row seats.
Unobstructed, we arrived just in time to see Louisville hero Muhammad Ali, Wake Forest hero Arnold Palmer and Miami hero (and former Cardinal basketball nemesis) Dwayne Wade arrive at midfield for the coin toss. We were also just in time to be made television stars, as the Fox cameras focused on our rambunctious section’s loyal cheers for the Louisville Lip.
The first quarter of the game was largely uneventful, excepting regrettable and unwarranted interference with the Spectator’s peaceable having of a good time by some Event Security stooges. Under the orders of some clearly unqualified superiors, they confiscated the RUCK FUTGERS sign (but not before it appeared on local broadcasts!) and destroyed it.
Staunchly opposed to censorship (especially of a hand-crafted poster whose cleverness depended on people knowing the meaning of a certain word anyway) and circumstantially loose-lipped, the Spectator showered these and every other visible, field-level Orange Bowl official with every kind of angry condemnation his nimble mind could think of for the rest of the game.
During one such tirade, house cameras focused on the Spectator himself, projecting his irate but photogenic likeness onto the Giant Video Board for all 74,470 in attendance to see. Conveniently, the Spectator’s angry face looks just like his intense cheering face, and no one noticed just who was being “encouraged.”
-Finally some football/ A Hero’s welcome/ Looking past a traitor-
Louisville’s explosive offense was stagnant for much of the game; Wake Forest’s secondary clamped down on Cardinal quarterback Brian Brohm’s wide receivers and didn’t give up many big plays.
Louisville was limited to its less effective running game, and needless to say, the unexpectedly close game had all 18,000 well-manicured Wake Forest fans on their feet.
Solid Cardinal play defined the fourth quarter and a late interception finally secured the 24-13 win for Louisville. Brohm finished with 311 passing yards, the third most in Orange Bowl history.
The atmosphere in the stadium following the game was electric; it took the Spectator’s ravaged vocal chords a full week to recover.
Following a highly gratifying Orange Bowl trophy presentation, our merry band returned to the parking lot for more celebrating, our hotel for more rest (and celebrating), the beaches of South Florida the next day for sunny, 85-degree relaxation and eventually to our hometown for a triumphant tickertape parade held in our honor the Friday after the game, since our cheering surely affected the outcome of the game as much as Brian Brohm’s right arm.
Next year, look for a Spectator report from the 2008 BCS bowl season, in which the Cardinals will be playing despite being without running back/Mack truck Michael Bush and traitorous head coach Bobby Petrino.
Perhaps between now and then the BCS system will have undergone some tweeks (or a total overhaul), but the Spectator is sure that the giddy, competitive aura surrounding top-tier college football games will remain intact.
John LaFollette 
Sports Editor
Tennis men fly to victory over Eagles
The Xavier men’s tennis team traveled to Morehead State University in Richmond, Ky. over the weekend to do battle with the Eagles. In an impressive performance, the Muskies flew away with a 5-2 victory and taking five of the six singles matches with them.
Xavier was led by a sophomore charge as Doug Matthews, Ra’ees Ismail and Mike Dieciuc were all able to capture wins from the Eagles. The two additional wins for the Musketeers came courtesy of freshman J.T. Torbeck and junior Adam Shaeffer.
Unfortunately, the tennis men were unable to carry the singles success onto the doubles court. The Eagles of Morehead State were able to leave the match with something to feel good about after winning two of the three doubles matches. Despite the loss on the doubles court, the Xavier tennis men still had the victory wrapped up.
$10,000 Available in A-10 Shootout
Anyone who could use an extra $10,000 is encouraged to stop by the O’Connor Sports Center at 3 p.m. on Friday for the first round of the 2007 CSTV Atlantic 10 Shootout.
Teams of two compete to hit as many shots from eight different spots on the basketball court in under 30 seconds. Individuals are more than welcome, and will be matched with a partner.
The top two teams in the men’s, women’s and co-ed divisions will advance to the final Xavier round to be held during halftime of the men’s basketball game against Dayton this Saturday, Jan. 27.
The winners of the men’s and women’s divisions will have the chance to win a pair of Nike shoes and a Spalding gift card.
The winners from each division of the final Xavier round will receive an all expense paid trip to Atlantic City to compete against the winners from other A-10 institutions for a chance at $10,000 and other prizes.
Register online at atlantic10.cstv.com or at O’Connor.
