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Viva Lex Vegas! Xavier does Tourney

Close to family, Xavier Nation, Musketeers head to Lexington to face BYU

John LaFollette
Sports Editor

Following a suspenseful selection show last Sunday, made more so by an untimely loss to Rhode Island in the Atlantic 10 Tournament semifinals, the Xavier men’s basketball team could finally breathe easy after being awarded the ninth seed in the South bracket of the NCAA Tournament.

The South was the last of the four regional brackets to be announced, and the mood was so tense that senior forward Justin Doellman said “you could hear a pin drop” at head coach Sean Miller’s house where the team convened to watch the show.

“Every time it went to a commercial it made it even worse,” said junior guard Stanley Burrell. “Finally we saw our name go across the board, and it was a big relief. Everybody was excited and started yelling.”

When the dust settled, Xavier found itself playing the eight-seeded Cougars of Brigham Young in the first round at approximately 9:40 p.m. on Thursday in nearby Lexington, Ky.

Playing just a short hour away from a devoted fan base, the Musketeers are much happier with this year’s first round site than they were with last year’s.

“A year ago we played in Salt Lake City, Utah, against Gonzaga, who historically has a lot of fans in Salt Lake City,” Miller said. “We had a lot of fans against us.”

With their inclusion in the field of 65 no longer in question, the Musketeers’ focus quickly shifted to matchups within their bracket, especially to a possible second round meeting with one-seed Ohio State.

If Ohio State wins its first round game against Central Connecticut State Blue Devils, the Buckeyes will meet the winner of the Xavier-BYU game on Saturday afternoon, which would potentially pit a large part of this Xavier team against its former head coach.

Thad Matta left Xavier following the 2003-04 season to accept the head coaching job at Ohio State.

Miller was the associate head coach that year, and current seniors Justin Cage and Doellman were starters on the team that made the run to the Elite Eight, the deepest NCAA Tournament run in school history. Classmate and fellow forward Brandon Cole also made significant contributions that year.

The fact that such a matchup could potentially take place was by no means lost on this year’s squad, though they made it very clear that their focus was on the task at hand.

“I don’t know anything about Ohio State,” said Doellman. “I’m worried about BYU right now, I’m not worried about the next round because if you lose this game, you’re done.”

Talk about seeding, rankings and brackets abounds around tournament time, but March Madness is really about matchups.

“After the top 10 teams in the country, there’s not that big of difference,” said Miller. “The 8/9 game is historically a battle of great teams.”

The Xavier coaching staff has been at work reviewing many hours of BYU game tape, starting just a few hours after the conclusion of the selection show.

Brigham Young rebounds exceptionally well, led by 6’6” forward Keena Young and 6’11” center Trent Plaisted who grab nearly 13 boards per game between them.

Young also leads the team in scoring with 17.2 points per game. Strong defensive play in the post, which was visibly absent during Xavier’s Atlantic 10 tournament games, will be crucial to a Xavier win on Thursday.

Despite Xavier’s tournament-quality résumé, some talking heads were somehow surprised to see them take the place of middling teams from major conferences.

ESPN’s Jay Bilas gave the Musketeers some bulletin board material when he said (in a childish tirade marked by whining about the exclusion of the 29th and 30th at-large BCS-conference schools) that he was shocked to see Syracuse and Florida State left out when “a team like Xavier gets in.”

Miller shrugged off those comments, saying there were 29 other teams who should be scrutinized before his ninth seeded Musketeers.

“Pick on somebody else,” he said of Bilas. “We’re a nine.”

Pointing to Xavier’s strength of schedule (or lack thereof), Matta was sympathetic on Tuesday, though he stopped condescendingly short of admitting the big-conference versus smaller-conference prejudice.

“At Xavier, you’ve got to play good games at home, and how many games is Syracuse or other big-conference schools going to play at Cintas Center?” he said.

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Women bound for Austin after winning A-10

Emily Neubauer
Contributing Sportswriter

As the season winds down for the Xavier women’s basketball team, the heat picks up. The women defeated St. Louis, Temple and Saint Joseph’s to win the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship last week at Cintas Center, outscoring their opponents 183 to 175 in the three games.

The No. 3 seed Xavier took on No. 11 seed Saint Louis on Friday night and barely escaped with a win, defeating the Billikens 64-63.

Freshman Amber Harris led the Muskies with a game high 24 points, followed by Suntana Granderson’s 13 and Joei Clyburn’s 10. Xavier trailed the majority of the second half and found themselves behind 62-55 with 4:10 to go after Tyler McIlwraith buried a pair of free throws.

Granderson converted on a driving lay-up 20 seconds later, and senior guard Miranda Green made a free throw at the 3:30 mark, closing the deficit to 62-58.

After Saint Louis made a free throw, Harris drained both of her own attempts on the following possession and pulled XU to within a point at 63-62, when she grabbed an offensive rebound and made the lay-up with 2:30 remaining.

After another defensive stop by the Musketeers, senior guard Michele Miller was fouled and made both of her attempts from the charity stripe to give XU a 64-63 lead that it would not relinquish.

After narrowly escaping the Billikens, Xavier beat No. 2 seed Temple 54-53 in another nailbiter on Saturday.

Clyburn led the way with 15 points while Granderson followed with 11 points of her own. Clyburn’s 15 points came on 5-of-12 shooting and she also hauled in six rebounds. Harris led Xavier with nine boards.

Xavier protected the ball exceptionally well against the Owls, turning over the ball just four times. The four miscues marked the fewest XU has committed since Kevin McGuff was named head coach prior to the 2002-03 season.

Xavier trailed by as many as nine points in the second half but battled back to take a 51-48 lead with 1:50 remaining after Harris made a put-back lay-up. After two consecutive stops from each side of the court, Clyburn buried a lay-up to put X up by two at 53-51.

After making a basket of their own to tie the score at 53, the Owls fouled Clyburn with eight seconds left in regulation. She made the first free throw but missed the second, making the game tense until the end.

Temple’s star, Kamesha Hairston immediately received the ball down the floor, but met a shot-preventing double team that earned the Musketeers a trip to the finals.

Xavier took on the St. Joseph’s Hawks for the title on Monday and won another close one 65-59. Clyburn once again came up big for the Muskies, scoring 19 points from the floor and snaring 13 rebounds en route to being named the Tournament Most Outstanding Player.

Clyburn’s 19 came on 6-of-8 shooting, and the 13 rebounds marked a new career high. Granderson added 13 points and was a spotless 6-of-6 from the free throw line.

Xavier extended a 23-21 halftime lead to 10 points, 35-25, with 14:10 remaining in the second half after charging out to a 17-4 run over a nine-minute stretch.
Saint Joe’s would not go away quietly, tying the score at 55 on a jumper by Whitney Ffrench with only 1:30 to go.

However, Xavier was clutch from the free throw line, hitting 10 of 12 attempts in the game’s final minute.

Senior guard Michele Miller gave XU the lead for good after she grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds, was fouled and hit a free throw with one minute to go to give the Musketeers a 56-55 edge.

With the tournament win, Xavier improved to 26-7 on the year, which is tied for the second most in program history. In the A-10 Final, the Muskies improved to 3-1 and took home the honor for the third time in seven years.

Three players received individual accolades from the conference: Clyburn was named A-10 Sixth Player of the Year, Granderson was a named a member of the All-Conference Second Team, and Harris was named to the All-Defensive, All-Rookie and All A-10 First Teams, while also garnering Rookie of the Year honors.

With the conference tournament win, Xavier secured an automatic bid to the Women’s NCAA Tournament. The sixth-seeded Musketeers will take on 11th-seeded West Virginia on Saturday in Austin, Texas. If Xavier wins, they will play the winner of a game between 14th-seeded UNC Asheville and head coach-less LSU, a 3-seed.

 Briefs

Doug Tifft  
Sports Editor

Baseball wins home opener

Xavier freshman pitcher Zac Richard worked with senior Mark Janszen to throw a seven hitter in the Musketeers home opening win against Bowling Green. The 4-1 victory came on March 13 at Hayden Field. Senior Jordan Wolf extended his hit streak to seven games as the Muskies won their second game in three tries to improve to 3-14 on the season.

After giving up three two-out singles and a run in the first, Richard settled down not allowing another run in his outing.

Down 1-0 going into the third, the Xavier offense came alive. The charge was led by senior Matt Waskerwitz with a one-out single which was followed by Wolf’s first hit of the contest. Timely base-running produced two runs after a ground-out to second that brought in Waskerwitz and a wild pitch that brought in Wolf to go up 2-1. The Musketeers would never look back as the Falcons were unable to score again in the game.

In the bottom of the eighth, the bats came alive again for XU as they notched two more runs putting the game out of reach for BGSU. Freshman pinch-hitter Bobby Freking poked a double that scored Lipski. Freshman Pat Coffey came in to pinch run for Freking and scored on a Pasono single up the middle of the diamond.

RBIs were notched by senior Adam Lipski, sophomore Adam Pasono and freshman Bobby Freking. Richard got the win allowing six hits and one run in six innings of work, his second of the season and Janszen worked three scoreless innings for his first save of the season.

Golfer garners A-10 honor

Xavier senior golfer John Streibich was named A-10 Performer of the Week. The Virgin Islands native helped the Musketeers take fifth in the Mission Inn’s El Campeón Course.

Streibich shot +1 for the tournament at Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida with rounds of 71, 74 and 71 in the final round, the second lowest of the day.

The finish in the top 10 was the fifth time Striebich has done so this season for the Xavier University Musketeers. In addition, he leads the Muskies in rounds under par with 10 and is second in scoring average at 72.

Xavier hits the lynx again next week at the famous Pasatiempo Golf Club in sunny Santa Cruz, California.