Sorrowful Saturday
Last second shot sinks men
Women lose shooting stroke vs. WVU
John LaFollette
Sports Editor
frank victores
Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams bowed of the NCAA Tournament Saturday.
For the second year in a row, the Xavier men’s basketball team saw its season end after devastating late-game heroics, this time with a game-tying shot by Ohio State with two seconds left. Exhausted and demoralized, the Musketeers came out flat in overtime and succumbed to the Buckeyes 78-71 last Saturday afternoon in Lexington’s Rupp Arena.
With Xavier leading by two and 16 seconds remaining in the game, Ohio State junior guard Jamar Butler missed a go-ahead 3-pointer. Senior forward Justin Cage emerged from the ensuing rebound battle with the ball with 11 seconds to play, and was vicously fouled by freshman center Greg Oden two seconds later.
The foul, which appeared to have been committed intentionally and out of frustration, was Oden’s fifth and sent him to the bench amid bi-partisan booing from the sell-out Rupp Arena crowd.
Cage made the first of two free throws, giving the Musketeers a three point lead with nine seconds remaining. His second caught just enough of the rim to bounce off, and Ohio State came down with an uncontested rebound.
Fifth-year senior guard Ron Lewis caught a pass from freshman guard Mike Conley Jr., took a dribble to his right and made a game tying 3-pointer over the outstretched arm of junior guard Drew Lavender.
Lavender’s last-second heave came up short, sending the game into overtime. Ohio State opened the extra period with a Conley-led 7-2 run that was too much for the physically and mentally exhausted Musketeers to overcome.
Cage, along with senior forwards Brandon Cole and Justin Doellman, was playing in his final game as a Musketeer and played the finest of his career, racking up 25 points off flawless 8-of-8 shooting from the field. He was also 6-of-8 from the free throw line, including the infamous miss that could have sealed the game.
Days later, controversy still swirls around Oden’s final foul. In person and on television replay, it was clearly a hard foul. Oden’s sizeable outstretched arms can be seen shoving Cage out of bounds a full two seconds after Cage came down with the rebound.
“It was one of those plays where Greg was aggressive, and I want him to be aggressive,” Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said of Oden’s late push.
Though Cage was in possession of the ball and looking for an outlet pass at the time of the foul, Matta was surprised to learn that a foul had been called on Oden and not on one of the Xavier players during the scrum a few seconds earlier.
“I thought we got fouled on the putback,” he said after the game. “That’s what I thought the whistle was – I thought we’d be shooting free throws.”
Cage interpreted the events differently. “I thought so [that it was an intentional foul], I don’t know how I fell on my own,” he said. “They didn’t call it, but I had a chance to make free throws and win the game.”
Cage added, “I’m sorry, but you can tell ESPN they’re lucky I missed that free throw.”
That comment was likely aimed at ESPN analyst Jay Bilas who, after railing against Xavier’s inclusion in the NCAA Tournament, had the gall to say on Monday that he thought Cage should have been assessed a technical foul for an intentional flop.
Oden himself showed little remorse, saying “They’re going to call bull crap fouls, I might as well get one that’s hard.”
The mood among Xavier faithful following the loss of what would have been one of the most significant wins in program history was somber and peppered with “What if?” scenarios.
frank victores
Senior forward Justin Cage picked Ohio State’s inexperienced freshman center Greg Oden to pieces on Saturday afternoon. A formidable foe in the paint, Oden’s defense around the perimeter was sluggish, of which Cage took advantage on plays like this, his third 3-pointer of the game.
Some are critical of head coach Sean Miller’s handling of the game down the stretch. Among the complaints are Miller’s decision not to position any rebounders on the block in the event of a missed Cage free throw, defending Ohio State’s shooters too late and too loosely as they tried to tie the game and, chiefly, the decision not to foul Ohio State before they had a chance to shoot a 3-pointer.
Miller addressed the final criticism after the game, giving a convoluted explanation of his concern that a foul with too much time left might give Ohio State a chance to win the game in regulation after the two teams traded free throw possessions, rather than tie it with a low-percentage 3-point shot.
With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight and the positive result of Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl’s employment of the prevent-foul strategy in the Volunteers’ win over Virginia the following afternoon, Xavier Nation seems unlikely to accept Miller’s decision.
Still, without Miller’s well-crafted game plan for the second half there would not be a late-game strategy to criticize. Armed with an intimate knowledge of Matta’s style and personnel, Miller designed a game plan that brilliantly exploited the Buckeyes’ weaknesses just as well as Wisconsin and Florida did earlier in the season.
Through most of the second half Lavender drew Ohio State’s quicker defenders away from the wing with a screen, before passing to either Cage or junior forward Josh Duncan who dominated Oden in a one-on-one matchup.
While Duncan primarily shot over Oden’s slow defense, Cage simply drove past him for easy scores in the post. “He’s quicker than me,” Oden said of Cage. “He took me off the dribble; basically he did everything to me.”
Oden is an intimidating presence inside but is largely ineffective as a defender outside the lane, a weakness Cage and the Musketeers exposed as his largest shortcoming as a potential top NBA draft pick after this season.
It was this style of second-half offense that not only kept the Musketeers close to the top-ranked Buckeyes, but propelled them to an 11-point lead after trailing by four at halftime.
The open shots started falling as Doellman led Xavier on a 7-2 run to start the second half.
A shot clock-beating 3-pointer by Lavender put Xavier ahead by 11 with 7:21 left. Leading by nine points with less than four minutes to play, some Xavier players admitted that they were playing “not to lose.”
Ohio State scored six points in 30 seconds off a made 3-pointer, a stolen in-bounds pass from Doellman and a lay-in and accompanying foul shot, which cut Xavier’s lead to one with 1:36 to play.
Two clutch free throws by Cage gave Xavier a 61-58 lead, but Oden got Ohio State back within two points with a free throw of his own with just under a minute to play. Duncan turned over the ball with 29 seconds left, setting up the missed Ohio State 3-pointer and ensuing rebound battle.
An intentional foul called on Oden would have given Cage two technical free throws and Xavier possession of the ball, which would have all but put the game out of reach for Ohio State.
As it was called though, the Musketeers still had a chance to win the game, at the free throw line and in overtime.
The heartbreaking loss ended the careers of three Xavier greats on an undeservingly sour note.
“Our legacy will be as winners,” said Cole. “More so than anything, we’ll be remembered as one of the winningest classes that came through Xavier.”
“It’s hard to say goodbye,” Miller said in summation.
Former NFL lineman sacks homophobia
Esera Tuaolo speaks to XU about homosexuality in pro sports
Rachel Peters
Senior News Editor
XU res life
Former Minnesota Viking Esera Tuaolo spoke to Xavier Thursday.
Last Thursday, the Xavier Alliance hosted former NFL lineman Esera Tuaolo, a Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transsexual (GBLT) friendly speaker who came out in 2002. The presentation was held in the Cintas Center Schiff Family Conference Center.
About 275 people were in attendance including members of the Xavier Alliance, students, faculty and members of the outside community. Several members of the Gay/Lesbian/Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) were also in attendance and handed out brochures and information about their monthly meetings.
As a prelude to the Tuaolo presentation, the Xavier Alliance handed out 500 free T-shirts with the tagline “Gay? Fine by me.” on Tuesday. The slogan is part of a campaign by Fine By Me, Inc. to encourage friends and allies to “come out” against homophobia. Fine By Me, Inc. has contributed over 60,000 T-shirts since 2003.
Xavier Alliance president sophomore Patrick McNearney commented that the T-shirt campaign greatly supported the Tuaolo presentation.
“The purpose of the T-shirts is to condemn homophobia and support equal rights, and I can’t think of a more macho and homophobic organization than the NFL.”
The Alliance hopes to hand out more T-shirts in April, as well as participate in the Day of Silence on April 18. The Day of Silence is a nationally recognized annual event held to commemorate and protest anti-GBLT bullying, harassment and discrimination in schools.
Students and teachers observe the day in silence to echo the silence that GBLT and ally students face every day. The Day of Silence is one of the largest student-led actions in the country and is in its 11th year.
Tuaolo grew up “dirt poor” on a banana plantation, but his passion for football eventually pulled him out of poverty. Tuaolo played college football in Oregon and eventually went on to the NFL, but never revealed his sexual orientation to his teammates or coaches.
“I started living a double life. I started being bigger and tougher and stronger than anyone else so that no one would know that I was gay,” said Tuaolo.
Tuaolo tried to keep his speech entertaining and lighthearted, but the presentation became emotional after he showed the clip of his coming out on ESPN in 2002.
He spoke of the pain and anguish he felt and how many times he thought of ending his life. Being raised in a “holy roller” church, Tuaolo struggled with his homosexuality and said that he asked God to take away the burden or his life many times.
Tuaolo believes that homosexuality is something people are born with and that it is not a choice because no one would choose to be discriminated against.
“Although some argue that [Tuaolo] is a big shot who went to the Super Bowl and can’t relate to struggling young adults, I heard many things on Thursday which I could relate perfectly well with—whether it be not wanting to live a double life, the relief after coming out, the panic attacks of what people might say or do, having to hide the person you love and care about— these are all very hard issues that we all deal with as human beings,” said McNearney.
“Personally, as leader of the Alliance, [Tuaolo] gave me even more courage and strength to keep fighting these issues—to keep fighting so that in 10, 20, 30 years, being a gay athlete is no more taboo than anything else.”
“The country is extremely torn right now and in some ways I see it my responsibility to fix it,” said McNearney.
John LaFollette
Editor-in-Chief
Rachel Peters
Ann Tassone
Darren LaCour
Senior News Editors
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