Muskies escape George Washington
Miller unhappy with team after 66-56 victory on Saturday night
Doug Tifft
Sports Editor
Erika Breese
Freshman Dante Jackson.
The experts will tell you that a successful college basketball team should be on a roll as March begins.
On the surface Xavier fits that molds, winning their last 11 games and clinching the Atlantic 10 Conference title.
Further inspection, however, will reveal a much different story after the Musketeers latest game, a 66-56 win over George Washington.
A fiery Sean Miller blasted his team after the game saying “as a team it was probably our worst performance in about a year and a half. We were very fortunate to win.”
Some may say that the poor performance was due to the Musketeers lack of their star point guard Drew Lavender.
However, Miller said before the game, “Watching him run he almost looks 100 percent.”
Also, Lavender did not show any signs of a significant limp in his 16 minutes of action.
So this begs the question: If you have a great point guard then why not play him, especially when the team is underperforming the way that Xavier was on Saturday night?
“I think he was really struggling as a player. Being able to guard the ball, push the ball, being effective. I wanted to make sure that I was putting our team in the best position the win and playing those other guys was the best answer.” Miller said.
Miller has had a year long quest to get Lavender to play with more intensity on the defensive end, and while the rest of the team picked up the defense while Lavender was nursing his ankle injury, Miller seemed to hope that Lavender would be able to blend in with the newly increased defensive effort.
Miller said before the George Washington game, “We might be a better defensive team without Drew. He is going to really have to come back and play some defense to be able to have that role that he had (before the injury), and be the player that he is capable of being.”
Whether it was because of the injury, or the intensity level, Lavender’s play did not sit well with Miller.
Lavender was not the only one who Miller was displeased with, however.
Miller also criticized C.J. Anderson for his play saying “C.J. has got to play a lot better for our team… You got to throw it to the color jersey that you are wearing. You got to be a guy that takes care of the basketball when you enter March. Five turnovers are too much.”
This fiery side of Sean Miller is rare, but it signifies that Miler seems to sense that his team is slipping away from the possible Final Four contenders that they once were.
While on the surface the Musketeers may still be a highly ranked team nationally, they will have some steep challenges to recover from their performance on Saturday night.
Miller gave the impression that he would look to his seniors to lead that path back to where the team once stood.
“Stanley (Burrell) and Josh (Duncan) are doing a great job of leading our team right now. Both in practice and how they are performing in games,” Miller said.
Burrell stepped up with 11 points, four assists and only one turnover in the point guard role against the Colonials zone pressure defense.
Duncan had 13 points and five rebounds for Xavier. He was also much more demonstrative, calling for the ball down low late in the game.
The Musketeers will need to recover quickly as they now head to Saint Joseph’s on Thursday night to face what will surely be a fired up bunch of Hawks in the last game before Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse is torn down after the season.
Xavier will need a consistent performance on both ends from more than just their seniors if they are to right the ship, and return to being the premier team that they were before Saturday.
Where are they now? Lionel Chalmers
Tyler Grote
Sports Writer
viewimages.com
Lionel Chalmers was the only player from the Elite Eight team in 2003-04 to go on to play in the NBA.
I’ve talked a lot about Xavier’s historic run to the Elite Eight the last couple of weeks as part of the “Where are they Now?” series because that is how most of the guys became legends of this campus.
Doellman, Myles, Sato…all players that, given their absence, Xavier may be left wondering what it’s like to play after the Sweet Sixteen.
There’s still a major piece missing to this puzzle, however.
Without the 16.6 points per game in 2004 averaged by 6’0 guard, Lionel Chalmers, Xavier students would have never known what it’s like to play on the second Sunday of the NCAA tournament.
After leading Xavier with 17 points against Duke in the Elite Eight, Chalmers walked off the court for the last time wearing a Xavier jersey.
Life after Xavier? Just like life at Xavier; minus the whole college part.
Chalmers was drafted in the second round of the 2004 NBA Draft to the Los Angeles Clippers, where he played 34 games that season, averaging 3.1 points per game.
On August 20 that year, he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves where he only managed to play in the 2005-2006 preseason before being waived before the regular season commenced.
From November of 2005 until February 2006, Chalmers played in Greece with AEK Athens BC before leaving to join TAU Ceramica in Spain.
Chalmers made it back to the Unites States in 2006 where he played for the Phoenix Suns’ summer league team.
He was not retained by the Suns, but did make it to the Atlanta Hawks for the 2006 preseason.
Once again, Chalmers was released before the start of the regular season which led him to sign with Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari of the Italian second division in December 2006.
In May 2007, Chalmers signed with Basket CAI Zaragoza, a Spanish basketball team.
In July 2007, he moved to the Serie A team Benetton Treviso, an Italian basketball program.
In Italian basketball, the Serie A is the highest level club competition where play determines the national champion, so Chalmers has plenty to anticipate.
Chalmers is seeing significant playing time overseas, which will hopefully lead him back to the NBA.
Check on Chalmers and Benetton Treviso at www.benettonbasket.it/.
Just make sure to have your Italian dictionary handy.
Doug Tifft
Sports Editor
Lav to be on Sports Illustrated cover
Photographers from Sports Illustrated were at Cintas Center Monday afternoon for a photo shoot with Xavier senior point guard Drew Lavender.
Lavender will be on the cover of the March 24 NCAA Tournament Preview Issue of Sports Illustrated, which will hit newsstands March 19.
There will be six different covers throughout the United States.
Lavender will grace the cover for the Midwest and upper-Midwest regions.
Lavender was also named to the second team of the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 10 team.
The selection for the team makes Lavender eligible to be named to the State Farm All-America Team.
Women head into A-10 Championship
The Xavier women’s basketball team went 1-1 on the week with a loss to Dayton and a victory over Saint Bonaventure.
The week started with a 68-58 loss to Dayton on Wednesday night.
Sophomore Amber Harris had 17 points and 12 rebounds, while freshman Ta’Shia Phillips had 16 points and nine rebounds in the loss.
Xavier then traveled to Olean, N.Y. on Saturday, where they picked up a 60-57 victory.
Harris led the way again with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
The Musketeers now head into the Atlantic 10 Championship at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse on the campus of Saint Joseph’s University, March 7-10.
Xavier has earned a number three seed in the tournament and will play the winner of the game between Saint Joseph’s and Saint Louis.
