Xavier Encroaches On UD And Puts On NCAA First Four Show

By Hal McCoy

UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from UD Arena for a second night of NCAA First Four distraction, bleary-eyed after leaving UD Arena at midnight Tuesday, then getting up at 6 a.m. to watch the Dodgers and Cubs in the TokyoDome.

—As far as the University of Dayton’s Flyer Faithful were concerned, Xavier’s NCAA First Four win Wednesday night in UD Arena was some kind of injustice and certainly not poetic.

It was, “Get off our floor.” And Xavier left after a heart-palpitating 86-80 win over Texas.

The Musketeers earned it and earned it the hard way. They trailed most of the way until Marcus Foster clutched in a couple of late 3s.

Texas still led, 74-70, with six minutes left, but Xavier’s intestinal fortitude took over and the Musketeers outscored the ‘Horns, 16-6, in a final flurry.

Well done. But. . .

That Xavier (22-11) was invited to March Madness and not the University of Dayton (22-10), was a bitter pill for the Flyer Faithful.

But did the NCAA have to dip the pill in castor oil, too, and place Xavier in UD Arena?

Pardon the provinciality, but Dayton versus Xavier is the McCoys verus the Hatfields, Budweiser versus Miller, Ford versus Cherolet and Nike versus Under Armour. . .all stuffed into one package.

The rivalry was never heated, it was an inferno.

Once it was intense on the football field when both schools played D-1 football. Back in the 1960s, when John McVay coached Dayton and Ed Biles coached Xavier, there was a blatant cheating controversy.

Xavier scored a winning touchdown late in the game, using 12 men. Biles denied it after the game, but a photograph taken from the press box roof and published in the Dayton Daily News proved that Xavier won using ‘The 12th Man Theme.’

When Biles was confronted with the photo, he laughed and said, “Ya got us. We practiced that play all year just for UD.” Then he winked.

The basketball teams used to play each other twice a year, home and away. But the series concluded when Xavier joined the Big East.

And to forever cement the animosity, Xavier did everything it could to keep UD out of the Big East. . .and succeeded.

Nevertheless, the ‘X Factor’ was big Wednesday. Xavier fans were dominant. They booed lustily when Texas took the floor and rattled the rafters with, “Let’s go X” when their Musketeers took the floor.

Didn’t seem fair for a ‘neutral’ floor with Xavier just 45 miles from UD Arena and Texas 1,007 miles from home.

**Mount St. Mary’s built a 10-point first half lead over American U. during Wednesday’s first gam because the team’s ‘Dutch Boy,’ Jedy Cordilia couldn’t miss. He made 8 for 9 en route to 16 first-half points. And ‘The Mount’ slowlyt built the lead in the second half en route to an 83-72 victory.

Cordilia finished with 22, tying his career high done twice before. He made10 of 11 shots.

American’s hopes for a comeback was helped to the lockerroom late in the first half with an injured rightr knee.

The Eagles’ best player, 6-9 grad student Matt Rogers hit the floor hard and was done. In the Patriot League tournament Rogers was MVP. He scored 25 and snagged eight reebounds in the final, a 74-52 rout of Navy.

The Mount St. Mary’s reward? They get to play Duke. And if they wear their Carolina Blue uniforms, that probably will put more fire in Duke’s bellies.

Outwardly, after scoring 22 Dola Adebayo said about playing Duke: “It’s basketball. It doesn’t matter how big they are, how they’re ranked. They still have to tie their shoes just like me.”

Guess Dola hasn’t heard that Duke employs ‘Official Shoe Knotters’ for the basketball team.

OFF THE CUFF STUFF

**While a near-capacity 12,546 sat in UD Arena for the NCAA First Four pageantry, the University of Dayton Flyers were in Boca Raton, FL. to play Florida Atlantic in the NIT.

The game was in Baldwin Arena. Arena? It is a small gymnasium. It seats only 2,500, one of the smallest venues in D-1 basketball. My high school gym at Akron East had more seats.

**The campuses between Mount St. Mary’s (Emmitsburg, MD) and American (Washington D.C.) is 60 miles, but the two basketball had to travel 400 miles to play each other in the First Four.

**Xavier Lipscomb played for Mount St. Mary’s against American. . .but shouldn’t he have played for Xavier against Texas?’ Or maybe he should play for Lipscomb, which plays Iowa State in the NCAA’s first round in Milwaukee.

With muscle on top of muscle, Lipscomb actually looked as if he should be in a boxing ring. He wore a tight light blue shirt under his jersey and it wouldn’t b e surprising if there was a big red ’S’ on it.

**It was almost a homecoming for Mount St. Mary’s coach Donny Lind. He was born in New Knoxville (Population: 946), just outside Wapakoneta. There were 946 people in Section 203 and 205 in UD Arena.

But Lind has no players from his area, or any from Ohio. on his roster.

**Mount St. Mary’s forward Jedy Cordilia is from Tilburg, The Netherlands, but at 6-foot-9 nobody calls lhim ‘The Little Dutch Boy.’

And Mount St. Mary’s must be easy to find because Cordilia and Avdou Khadre Kebe of Senegal both found it. . .or Lind found them.

On the American University side, Mason Whittaker found the school from New Zeland, 8,620 miles, as the Eagle flies. . .yes, American’s nickname is Eagles.

**Former Xavier basketball star Byron Larkin was center court as a color commentator for Xavier’s radio broadcast.

Larkin? Yep, Byron is a brother to baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin and a brother to former NFL star Michael Larkin.

**The night’s best uniforms. . .the burnt orange worn by Texas. The night’s best name. . .Xavier’s Zach Freemantle, a 6-foot-9 grad student from Teaneck, NJ. But fans didn’t get to see much of Xavier’s leading scorer on the year (17.7 ppg). . .until he was needed the most.

He encounterd early foul miseries and mostly had a free ticket to the game, sitting on the bench and scored only points. . .until the final two minutes.

But with the pork chops on the table, Freemantle came off the bench to hit a big side jumper and two free throws in the final two minutes.