After early wins, Xavier prepares for Puerto Rico
XU overpowers IPFW, Toledo; addressing weak spots before P.R.
Doug Tifft
Sports Editor
Erika Bresee
Senior shooting guard B.J. Raymond scored 18 points against Toledo on Monday night while dealing with a tough defensive assignment in Toledo’s Tyrone Kent.
After breezing through two early tests against Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne and Toledo, the Xavier University men’s basketball team heads south to Puerto Rico this weekend for the Puerto Rico Season Tipoff, and what should prove to be their first true test of the season.
As with any young team, the Musketeers’ first week of the regular season proved to confirm some of Sean Miller’s suspicions of where his team would be strong and where they would be weak.
One area of strength for the Musketeers on paper coming into the season was the frontcourt. Xavier posses a deep, experienced and talented group lead by seniors C.J. Anderson and B.J. Raymond along with junior Derrick Brown.
The frontcourt proved to be the difference in Xavier’s opening game of the season on Friday, Nov. 14, when Xavier out-rebounded IPFW 46-31, and outscored the Mastodons 36-22 in the paint en route to a 71-43 victory.
A big reason for the Musketeer frontcourt dominance was the contributions from bench players sophomore Jamel McLean (10 points, 10 rebounds) and freshman Kenny Frease (12 points, seven rebounds).
“I thought Jamel McLean and Kenny Frease really had great games,” head coach Sean Miller said after the IPFW contest. “That was the storyline of the game, when you can have two people significantly impact the game in their first game at Xavier.”
Miller was able to dip into his bench for longer periods of time against IPFW in the absence of Brown, who was hobbled by a left ankle injury suffered in the Nov. 7 exhibition game against Findlay.
While Brown’s absence was felt on the defensive end of the court, where Miller has called him Xavier’s best defender, the most glaring hole that the 6’9” junior left was in the transition game. Without the athleticism of Brown filling a lane on the break, Xavier’s transition offense only produced two points in the game.
While Miller was pleased with the way that his talented frontcourt performed against the Mastodons, there were still many points of contention that emerged from the game, namely the team’s free throw shooting, as the team only made 20 of 34 shots.
“[Free throw shooting] is something that we have to concentrate on. We shoot a lot of them in practice, and as the year goes by we will get better as a team,” C. J. Anderson, the senior leader, said.
Anderson’s words proved to be true in Xavier’s next time out on Nov. 17 against Toledo, when the team made 25 of 35 free throws, a steady improvement that aided the team to an 81-65 victory.
While the free throw shooting was rectified against the Rockets, Xavier’s defensive effort was not of the same caliber that it had been against IPFW, especially in the second half when Toledo shooting guard Tyrone Kent scored 32 of his 37 points, the highest total ever scored by a Xavier opponent in Cintas Center.
“It wasn’t always the guy guarding [Kent], it was his teammates around him. As the game wore on, the guy on the ball stayed true to what he was supposed to do, but the guys off of the ball were different,” Miller said after the game. “We kind of had ‘Casper the Ghost’ to the right and left of him, and he was just playing one on one for the next 16 minutes of the game.”
While the help defense of the Musketeers was the root of the problem, Miller recognized a bigger problem in the second half.
“When you break the game down, we did not finish the game, we had 20 turnovers — not because of our guards, [but lapses from our experienced big guys] — and clearly our team broke down against Kent in the second half,” Miller said. “All of those things spell misery in games ahead if we are not better at finishing games, older players taking care of the ball and defending as a team.”
“They have to be in place for us, because where we are headed next (Puerto Rico), we might as well just stay right here if those things are going to happen,” said Miller.
Miller’s concern over the competition in Puerto Rico is well warranted, as the Musketeers will face an experienced frontcourt-oriented team — featuring senior posts DeMarre Carroll and Leo Lyons — in the Missouri Tigers on Thursday, Nov. 20 in the opening round in Puerto Rico.
Possible matchups with major-conference powers Virginia Tech, USC or Memphis lie ahead as well, in what should be a true test for Xavier’s youth.
Women advance to semis of Preseason NIT
Ken Burton
Sports Writer
goxavier.com
Senior guard Tudy Reed (left) drilled a three-pointer with 1:50 remaining in the game against Indiana to give the Musketeers the lead for good.
That cloud of uncertainty following the Xavier women’s basketball team may have just dissipated, as the Musketeers opened the season with impressive wins over Robert Morris and Indiana.
The Musketeers, highly-lauded and picked as the top team in the preseason A-10 poll, lost Amber Harris, one of the nation’s top players, to injury and then fell in exhibition play to the Ohio Girls’ Basketball Report Legends.
The team was looking to rebound, on Friday, Nov. 14 when they hosted the Robert Morris Colonels in the opening round of the Preseason WNIT.
Xavier guard Tudy Reed fed Ta’Shia Phillips, who converted on the block for the game’s first points just 14 seconds in. The asserted effort and early emphasis on post play would be a sign of things to come.
After sustaining a hit in the form of an 8-0 Colonial run to tie the game at 19, Xavier regrouped and scored seven unanswered points on its way to a 10 point halftime lead.
The Musketeers would put the game away early in the second half by wearing down the Colonels in the post with a 36-16 advantage in the paint.
Ten Musketeers recorded double digit point totals and the team’s bench outscored that of the Colonels by an eye-opening 31-8 margin.
While the Musketeers were clicking offensively, shooting nearly 50 percent from both the field and from three point range, the team kept the clamps on the Colonels all night. Robert Morris was held to just 27 percent shooting from the field and 23 percent from behind the arc on the night.
Two talented Robert Morris juniors, Monet Johnson and Monica Jones, combined for 30 of the team’s 49 points in the 79 49 loss.
Ta’Shia Phillips filled up the stat sheet for the Musketeers, scoring 25 points, grabbing 12 boards and registering three blocks and two assists.
Guards Special Jennings and Tyesha Moss also recorded double digit scoring nights, with 12 and 14 points respectively.
The Musketeers then headed west to Bloomington, Ind. to face the Hooisers of Indiana University in the quarterfinals of the tournament on Sunday, Nov. 16.
The Hoosiers proved to be much more of a test for the Musketeers, jumping out to an early 17-5 lead. The resilient Musketeers would then come back and go on a 15-3 run of their own.
The back-and-forth game was headlined by two All-American candidates in Indiana senior forward Whitney Thomas and Xavier sophomore center Ta’Shia Phillips. The two battled in the post all night; Thomas recorded 12 points and 14 rebounds and Phillips scored 11 points and also grabbed 14 rebounds.
The hard fought game would see seven ties and five lead changes, with Xavier’s largest lead of the game being its margin of victory, 62-59.
The Musketeers will face the 6th ranked North Carolina Tarheels to fight for a spot in the championship game of the Preseason WNIT. The game will be hosted by the Tarheels tonight, Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m.
The Tarheels are led by 6’3” center Jessica Breland (13.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg), guard Italee Lucas (12.7 ppg, 42.9 3pt%) and small forward Rashanda McCants (10.7 ppg, 6 rpg).
Transfer Jordan Crawford’s situation still up in the air
Doug Tifft
Sports Editor
Erika Bresee
Jordan Crawford will have to spend Xavier games in streetclothes on the bench until Xavier gets word from the NCAA on his eligibility.
With his point guard position in a state of turmoil to begin the season, Xavier head coach Sean Miller was hoping for some good news this week in regard to sophomore transfer guard Jordan Crawford.
What Miller has received, however, has not exactly been to his liking: a whole lot of silence.
Miller, along with the Xavier program, is still awaiting word from the NCAA with regards to Crawford’s eligibility.
“We are hopeful that sometime in the next couple of weeks that we can find out either way because I am more concerned about Jordan Crawford than I am about Xavier. If you were him, you would probably want to know if you could play this season,” Miller said on Thursday, Nov. 13.
Crawford, a 6’4” guard out of Detroit who spent the past season at Indiana University, decided to transfer to Xavier in August amid the threat of NCAA sanctions being levied against the Hoosier basketball program as a result of recruiting violations by former coach Kelvin Sampson.
Indiana’s self-imposed sanctions in October 2007 forfeited one scholarship following allegations from the NCAA that Indiana assistant coaches conducted impermissible phone calls to recruits (including current Xavier freshman Kenny Frease) and handed out improper benefits to recruits.
The situation worsened in February of 2008 when the NCAA revealed that Sampson himself had been involved in the violations and had attempted to deceive the NCAA when questioned about the incident.
Indiana did not take any further action, however, arguing that the monetary loss of having to buy out Sampson’s contract in February, coupled with the hit to the men’s basketball program’s academic progress rate (APR) that the exodus of players from the IU basketball program has caused will be enough penalty for the program.
The APR is a score determined by the NCAA to gauge each program’s academic proficiency, and determine if that program should receive any merit or penalty. Indiana has withheld two scholarships this season in anticipation of APR violations.
The Indiana program only retains two players from a season ago and saw six players — Crawford (Xavier), Brandon McGee (Auburn), Armon Bassett (UAB), Eli Holman (Detroit), DeAndre Thomas (Robert Morris) and Jamarcus Ellis (Oklahoma City) — transfer as a result of the allegations.
Each of the four eligibility cases — Thomas and Ellis did not transfer to division one schools, so they have received immediate eligibility — have been filed separately.
Crawford is believed to have the strongest case of the four as a result of his late exit from the program in August, and the bleak outlook of the program at the time of his transfer, that arguably necessitated the transfer.
“Jordan Crawford is very unique in his situation. Anyone who left Indiana University is separate from the next one. We have taken Jordan and his family’s word along with a lot of different facts that allow us to appeal,” Miller said before the season. “We are confident in our appeal.”
The final verdict on Crawford’s eligibility, however, will likely be closely tied to the severity of the sanctions that the NCAA imposes on the Indiana basketball program.
If IU is barred from NCAA play for three years then Crawford would receive immediate eligibility under the rules stating that a student-athlete will not have to sit out a season if his former school is suspended from postseason play for the duration of his academic career, three years in Crawford’s case.
The ambiguity in the case comes in if the NCAA levies a softer sanction, such as the expected one year ban on postseason play. In such an instance, it becomes a judgment call by NCAA President Myles Brand and his staff based on Crawford’s individual situation.
In Crawford Xavier would gain a player with the ability to play either guard position, help out on the glass, score off of the dribble adeptly and, perhaps most importantly, run an offense. Crawford averaged 9.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists as a freshman at Indiana, starting alongside NBA talents Eric Gordon and D.J. White.
Miller has been seeing some of those skills in practice, yet has tried to reign in his talented sophomore as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the situation.
“It’s tricky because on one hand Jordan and our team deserves to think about him being a part of things. On the other hand, Jordan and our team deserves to prepare as if he is not a part of things,” Miller said. “He competes everyday in the parts of practice that have nothing to do with the plays that you are running or [game planning]. He competes like any transfer student would, knowing that he can’t play.”
As it currently stands Crawford is not eligible for the 2008-09 season, and will be forced to watch the first few games of the season from the sidelines, including being left behind on Xavier’s trip to Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Season Tip-off.
Volleyball wraps up A-10 play
Scott Mueller
Asst. Sports Editor
The Xavier University volleyball team wrapped up the A-10 regular season this past weekend at the Cintas Center by defeating Duquesne, but falling to No. 20 Saint Louis.
On Saturday, Nov. 15 the Musketeers defeated the Duquesne Dukes (15-14, 3-10 A-10) 3-1, and halted a four match losing streak.
The first set was back and forth at the beginning, with the Dukes eventually taking a 17-12 lead.
But Xavier showed some resilience, fighting back on a 13-6 run, including a five straight points at the end to take the first set, 25-23.
After opening the second set with a 10-8 lead, Xavier fell victim to a service ace followed by three consecutive attacking errors that propelled the Dukes on a 17-5 run to close out the second set, 25-15.
The third set was the most contested of the match, featuring 16 ties and eight lead changes. With the score tied at 18, Xavier sophomore Shannon Voors rattled off three aces to give the Musketeers the lead for good, as the Muskies soon took the set 25-21.
The fourth set started inauspiciously for Xavier, as they found themselves down 12-11 following a 7-1 run from the Dukes. The set remained tight throughout, but Xavier pulled away scoring the final three points in a 25-22 set victory to take the match.
Junior Lauren Kaminsky recorded a double-double, posting 10 kills and 10 digs.
Junior Hillary Otte and sophomore Chelsea Campbell both chipped in with nine kills a piece.
However, the Musketeers were unable to keep the momentum going their next match, as they dropped a 3-0 decision to No. 20 Saint Louis (24-4, 13-0 A-10) on Sunday.
The match marked was the last of the regular season, and marked senior night for defensive specialist Megan Hellman and setter Jenn Welsh.
Xavier had already dropped a 3-0 decision to SLU in St. Louis earlier in the season, and the Billikens gave the impression of a repeat performance early by jumping out to a 10-5 lead and cruising to a 25-15 first set victory.
Xavier faired better in the second set, holding a 9-7 lead at one point before succumbing to the Billiken onslaught 25-20.
In the third set, SLU was once again over whelming, riding a 13-3 run to put the match out of reach with a 25-18 set victory.
SLU posted an incredibly high .310 hitting percentage, while Xavier only managed a .079 percentage. The Billikens also had three players record double-doubles, as they proved to be too much for the Musketeers.
Xavier could get another chance at the Billikens in the A-10 championship, as SLU will seek their second A-10 championship from the top seeded position, whereas the Muskies enter with the No. 4 seed and take on Temple in the first round on Friday, Nov. 21.
If the Musketeers advance they will meet the top-seeded Billikens again, this time on their home court as the tournament is being held at Chaifetz Arena on the campus of Saint Louis University.
Historic finish for cross country at NCAA’s
Tyler Grote
Sports Writer
The Xavier women’s cross country team earned a spot in the history books this past weekend by earning a 17th place finish in the NCAA Regional Championships in West Lafayette, Ind., their best finish ever in the event.
Despite the cold, rainy conditions, the women bested 16 of the 34 schools competing for their historic finish.
The honorable mention goes to sophomore standout Christina Schneider, who has been the women’s shining star this season.
In the women’s first 6,000 meter race this season, Schneider finished first for Xavier with a time of 22:40, earning her 60th overall.
Fellow Academic All-Conference and All-Conference Team member Becky Clark finished just after Schneider, placing 69th overall with a time of 22:48 in her last Cross Country race at Xavier.
The victory for the Musketeers was made all the sweeter as they bested A-10 rival Dayton, the only other A-10 school in the field.
The women’s season ended impressively, with a 97-35 overall record to go with a 14-7 conference mark.
The men recorded with a notable finish in their own right in the Regional, as they placed 21st out of a field of 29, marking their first, and only, 10k race completion this year.
Sophomore Tommy Kauffman placed 65th overall as he once again provided the men with their best finish of 32:53. Senior Luke Beuerlein finished with a time of 33:16, giving the team one of his best finishes of his college career.
Senior Clinton Womack was just coming off running the third fastest time in Xavier history at the Atlantic 10 Championships two weeks ago, but was the last to cross the finish line for the Musketeers after rolling his ankle a mile into the race, forcing him to limp the final 5.2 miles of the race.
Patrick Smyth of Notre Dame was the winner of this event, finishing with an impressive time of 31:06. The men’s team finishes with an overall record of 82-44, but unfortunately only managed to go 9-12 within the conference.
The Xavier cross country team will send off eight seniors, as they say goodbye to Luke Beuerlein, Aaron Smith, Clinton Womack, Becky Clark, Danna Deans, Katie Dominguez, Ashley Stick and Katie Wetterau.
