Jeez, XU crushed SLU 66-47.

Xavier 66, St. Louis 47 (final)
Posted by ShannonRussell at 3/12/2009 12:04 PM EDT on Cincinnati.com

XU 66, STL 47: FINAL. XU advances to meet the Temple/St. Joseph's winner. Game is at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow.

XU 53, STL 34: Kwamain Mitchell's basket ended a nearly-four minute STL field goal drought. They've had a couple of those today. XU has had a great defensive effort thus far, as exhibited by STL's 34 points. 10:38, second half.

XU 52, STL 32: CJ Anderson's two free throws extended the lead to 20. 14:50, second half.

XU 50, STL 32: Another Kevin Lisch layup, followed by a Terrell Holloway trey. This is XU's biggest lead today. 14:50, second half.

XU 47, STL 30: Kevin Lisch scored again. The senior - playing like it's his last game - has nine points. 15:47, second half.

XU 47, STL 28: Jason Love = two free throws. B.J. Raymond got an ovation from the crowd when he was replaced by Brad Redford. 16:27, second half.

XU 45, STL 28: The Billikens finally got on the board with a Kevin Lisch trey at 17:05. Jason Love's free throw capped XU's run to start the half at 7-0, and B.J. Raymond just hit a trey. That's 16 points for B.J. 16:37, second half.

XU 41, STL 25: Derrick Brown, B.J. Raymond and C.J. Anderson have fueled XU's 6-0 run, which triggered a STL timeout. 18:20, second half.

HALFTIME: Xavier led by as many as 13 in the first half, but the Billikens rebounded from early 25 percent shooting to hit 52.6 percent for the half. The Billikens found a rhythm - although not from the free-throw line, where they're 3-for-9. XU is 6-for-10. The Muskies are led by B.J. Raymond's 13 points (on perfect shooting from the field). Willie Reed leads STL with eight points.

XU 35, STL 25: Holy cow! B.J. Raymond put up a buzzer beater 3-pointer that banked in. The crowd went nuts, and C.J. Anderson bear-hugged B.J. as the team ran to their locker room for halftime.

XU 32, STL 25: Shot clock violation, St. Louis, on a potential last shot. 2 seconds left.

XU 32, STL 25: Terrell Holloway penetrated the lane for a bucket, and then C.J. Anderson scored on an easy lay-in. Kevin Lisch, who was guarding Anderson (behind him, when he should have been between Anderson and the basket) swore in frustration. 1:55, first half.

XU 28, STL 25: Jamel McLean's foul sent Willie Reed to the line again. He was 0-for-3 before this stint. Now he's 2-for-5. 2:23, first half.

XU 28, STL 23: Derrick Brown missed the front end of a one-and-one. 2:56, first half.

XU 28, STL 23: Make that 1-for-5 for St. Louis from the line, as Willie Reed missed both his opportunities. 3:26, first half.

XU 28, STL 23: The Billikens are 1-for-3 from the free-throw line. XU is 6-for-9. 3:26, first half.

XU 28, STL 23: Derrick Brown, clutch basket. It was followed by a Kenny Frease foul on Willie Reed. Timeout. 3:26, first half.

XU 26, STL 23: We're still in a timeout as officials huddle over monitors to determine the shot clock violation. The shot clock said five seconds when they called it, so I'm not sure if it wasn't running or what. XU is shooting 42.9 percent now, and St. Louis is shooting 62.5 percent. 4:28, first half.

XU 26, STL 23: Xavier shot clock violation. 4:33, first half.

XU 26, STL 23: Tommie Liddell III hit a trey. B.J. Raymond nearly dribbled the ball off his leg. What's going on? 4:44, first half.

XU 26, STL 20: Well, looks like St. Louis found its sea legs. The Billkens scored four straight points to cut the lead to four, but B.J. Raymond scored his 10th point to pull XU ahead by six. The Muskies' field goal drought surpassed four minutes. 5:22, first half.

XU 24, STL 18: Willie Reed strikes again. XU's last field goal was more than 3:30 minutes ago. 5:53, first half.

XU 24, STL 16: Offensive foul, Kwamain Mitchell. 7:06, first half.

XU 24, STL 16: Timeout. St. Louis' biggest fan is two rows back from here, and he's adamant that the Billikens are getting a raw deal. Not sure about that. Looked like Jason Love just got demolished in the lane going up for a shot. No call. One STL stat that stands out = no offensive rebounds. 7:31, first half.

XU 24, STL 16: Nice hustle from Terrell Holloway, who tipped away the ball from a St. Louis player. That player scrambled to get the ball and knocked it out of bounds. 8:01, first half.

XU 24, STL 16: Kenny Frease hammered by Brett Thompson, heads to the free-throw line. First basket = miss. Second basket = make. 8:35, first half.

XU 23, STL 14: Kwamain Mitchell had a nice move there under the basket for a bucket in traffic. It was followed by a C.J Anderson basket and a Kevin Lisch pull-up jumper. Then a Kenny Frease dink. 9:42, first thalf.

XU 19, STL 10: B.J. Raymond = two more free throws. Great hustle by C.J. Anderson, who collected his second steal leading up to Tommie Liddell's foul on Raymond. He dished to Raymond, who went up for a lay-up and drew the foul. 10:48, first half.

XU 18, STL 10: Willie Reed again. His jump shot cut XU's lead to eight. 11:19, first half.

XU 18, STL 8: This is the first we've seen from forward Willie Reed. He made a basket and was fouled but missed the bonus shot. Timeout on the floor after Dante Jackson turned over the ball (stepped on the baseline). Check this out - XU has five assists so far. St. Louis has one. That's a great sign for the Muskies. 11:46, first half.

XU 18, STL 6: The Muskies are pulling away in this one. The Billikens have no spark, no pizzazz. In fact, in the last possession Paul Eckerle threw the ball at Jason Love's back. C.J. Anderson's three-point play gave X another substantial lead. 12:54, first half.

XU 15, STL 6: Paul Eckerle ended a three-minute Billikens scoring drought with a trey, and Barry Eberhardt made one of two free throws. 13:53, first half.

XU 15, STL 2: Terrell Holloway's pull-up jumper gave XU an 11-0 run. Where is St. Louis? 14:28, first half.

XU 13, STL 2: Chalk up 7 straight points to B.J. Raymond, who just drilled two free throws. 9-0 XU run. 15:10, first half.

XU 11, STL 2: St. Louis timeout. Great play by B.J. Raymond, who grabbed a defensive board and went coast-to-coast for a layup. That's five straight points for B.J. and a 7-0 run for XU. The Muskie are shooting 80 percent; St. Louis is shooting 25 percent. 15:40, first half.

XU 9, STL 2: Jason Love strikes again, followed by a B.J. Raymond trey. Xu on a 5-0 roll. 16:45, first half.

XU 4, STL 2: Kevin Lisch gets St. Louis on the board with a long jump shot. Kwamain Mitchell, the hero of yesterday's game, is interesting to watch, and not just because of how he plays. He chews on his mouth guard as he plays, so it dangles half out of his mouth. Isn't the point to have it IN to protect your teeth? 17:25, first half.

XU 4, STL 0: Whoa, two fouls already on Brian Conklin. Jason Love drilled one of two free throws. Officials are conferring at the scorers' table, not sure why. Oh, because the clock says 1:75. That's wrong. 17:44, first half.

XU 3, STL 0: The Muskies are 1-for-1, thanks to a Derrick Brown trey. 19:15, first half.

WAY TO GO: XU started the game with frenetic defense, and Brian Conklin was called for an offensive foul on St. Louis' first possession.

READY TO TIPOFF: The officials had to do a little minor surgery to the basket on St. Louis' end. One of the loops of the net came loose from a 'w' bracket. It's all set now.

CATCHING UP: Even the officials were glad to see Bracketologist Joe Lunardi, who's here on press row. They chatted him up before the game.

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll...innati.com

'Ole Fatso at St. Louis is the most over-rated coach in America. His teams don't run a good OHH-fense.

(03-12-2009 01:18 PM)QSECOFR Wrote:  'Ole Fatso at St. Louis is the most over-rated coach in America. His teams don't run a good OHH-fense.

SLU is even younger than UC, I think. They will be a lot better next year.

X has a nice team.

They play to their strengths (the big men) by getting the ball out of their guards hands as quickly as possible. When forced to run set offense they play inside out, bringing Brown or Anderson out to get the ball and start their offense with those guys as point forwards quite a bit.

A zone against them is tricky because they have shooters who can hit 3's if they get their feet set.

I still think you need to speed the game up on them and make it more of a guard oriented, fast paced game.

Should be interesting.

BJ Raymond and Redford (?) can definitely bury 3s.

(03-12-2009 01:27 PM)ctipton Wrote:  

(03-12-2009 01:18 PM)QSECOFR Wrote:  'Ole Fatso at St. Louis is the most over-rated coach in America. His teams don't run a good OHH-fense.

SLU is even younger than UC, I think. They will be a lot better next year.

Q, you can call him " 'Ole Fatso" [sic] if that's your thing, but I don't see how you can call him the most-overrated coach in America. He won at Marquette; he got Ball State to 29-3 his second (and final) year there; he turned Utah into a legitimate NCAA force (which they haven't been able to continue since he left); and is rebuilding St. Louis. And ctip is right about how young his team is: 10/13 are FR or SO.

Majerus has no where the salary cap that he did at Marquette and Utah. when did well at Ball State, there was no competition in the league.

On Lance's blog it mentions that Sean Miller is Arizona's top candidate.

If true, I can't see him turning that down. He'll never win a national championship at Xavier.

(03-12-2009 04:16 PM)Bearcat04 Wrote:  On Lance's blog it mentions that Sean Miller is Arizona's top candidate.

If true, I can't see him turning that down. He'll never win a national championship at Xavier.

No, but at Zavier, he has just about a life-time contract. In that conference, it was like us in C-USA. Always, big fish, little pond.

(03-12-2009 04:16 PM)Bearcat04 Wrote:  On Lance's blog it mentions that Sean Miller is Arizona's top candidate.

If true, I can't see him turning that down. He'll never win a national championship at Xavier.

I'm not saying he will, but I could see him turning it down. I think there are a lot of parallels between Miller at XU and BK at UC even though they are in different sports. Seems like each will be a candidate for every "big" job that comes available but I suspect each knows he's actually got a pretty good thing going where he is. I'm not saying neither of them will ever leave for their "Holy Grail" (e.g. BK to ND or Miller to Pitt), but I think they both have administrations fully on their side and committed to keeping them if possible. And both understand the grass isn't always greener...

(03-12-2009 04:16 PM)Bearcat04 Wrote:  On Lance's blog it mentions that Sean Miller is Arizona's top candidate.

If true, I can't see him turning that down. He'll never win a national championship at Xavier.

AZ would be hard to turn down.

Or they could go for Jamie Dixon- (he's a west coast guy) and open the Pitt job up for Miller.

By the way I'm not saying Dixon would take it, just that it could hypothetically happen.

I still think X is very overrated this year. They have few quality wins and several bad losses in the last few weeks, but they will get in due to a terrible A10.

(03-14-2009 02:21 PM)bearcats23 Wrote:  they will get in due to a terrible A10.

That doesn't make much sense. If a team wins the automatic bid from a bad conference you could make that argument, but X will get a good seed as an at-large team. I agree they haven't looked very good lately, but they earned their slot.

And the A10 isn't as bad as many of us around here think. I was somewhat surprised to see them ranked as the number 8 (or 9 by another method) conference by Sagarin.

(03-14-2009 03:00 PM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  

(03-14-2009 02:21 PM)bearcats23 Wrote:  they will get in due to a terrible A10.

That doesn't make much sense. If a team wins the automatic bid from a bad conference you could make that argument, but X will get a good seed as an at-large team. I agree they haven't looked very good lately, but they earned their slot.

I'm saying they were helped by playing in the A10 and battling it out with teams like George Washington every night. It gave them a nice & pretty W/L record. They have some pretty bad losses, and few good wins.

(03-14-2009 03:00 PM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  And the A10 isn't as bad as many of us around here think. I was somewhat surprised to see them ranked as the number 8 (or 9 by another method) conference by Sagarin.

The A10 is bad, and not very deep. The top two teams in the A10 can compete in larger conferences, but the rest simply can't. And being the 8th or 9th ranked conference doesn't sound like a good thing to me.

I think X is a legit tournament team, but I would have them a little closer to the bubble than most do.

Honest, if UC had to stay in a crap conference like that I wouldn't even watch. Dayton is okay and Ugzavier is good but the rest are crap. I am surprised Bobby Lutz has not won that league every year.

(03-14-2009 03:38 PM)bearcats23 Wrote:  

(03-14-2009 03:00 PM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  

(03-14-2009 02:21 PM)bearcats23 Wrote:  they will get in due to a terrible A10.

That doesn't make much sense. If a team wins the automatic bid from a bad conference you could make that argument, but X will get a good seed as an at-large team. I agree they haven't looked very good lately, but they earned their slot.

I'm saying they were helped by playing in the A10 and battling it out with teams like George Washington every night. It gave them a nice & pretty W/L record. They have some pretty bad losses, and few good wins.

Fine, but they are not getting into the tourney as an at large solely because of their won-loss record. They get in because the committee looks at who they played, where they played and how they did and then ranks them based upon that. If the "experts" are to believed, it sure looks like they did good enough as a whole to get a decent seed - we'll see tomorrow. I'm not saying the committee is perfect, but I don't think there is a conspiracy to favor Xavier.

Quote:And being the 8th or 9th ranked conference doesn't sound like a good thing to me.

I guess that depends upon your perspective. There are 31 Division 1 conferences plus a group of independents. 8th or 9th out of 31+ may not be great, but doesn't sound terrible to me and I certainly felt the same way when UC was in CUSA.

(03-14-2009 03:56 PM)beck Wrote:  Honest, if UC had to stay in a crap conference like that I wouldn't even watch. Dayton is okay and Ugzavier is good but the rest are crap. I am surprised Bobby Lutz has not won that league every year.

I assume you didn't watch when we were in CUSA then? Lutz and Charlotte were very competitive in CUSA but have really struggled in the A10.

Look, on my list of interesting things in sports, subjectively ranking conferences is pretty low given everyone has their own (evolving and typically self-serving) criteria. But I do think it is lame for fans of not so great teams to try to bash superior teams based upon their conference. Hearing UC bball fans bash A10 bball makes us sound a lot like UK football fans for example, trying to bash UC by knocking Big East football.