NEWS AND NOTES
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-Florida State outscored Georgia Tech in the second half last night. The problem was they were down by close to 30 at halftime and still ended up losing by 22. It’s time to start thinking of Georgia Tech as a tournament team. I’d like to see them do more on the road, and had they held on to win at Virginia Tech I’d have them much further inside the bubble, but they’ve avoided bad losses and they now have wins over North Carolina and Florida State.
-USC defeated UCLA last night, which is their fourth win against the Bruins and was a win they kind of needed to help shore things up on their resume. UCLA is still in the protected seed range, but they have lost two straight.
-Butler picked up a nice road win at Seton Hall, who isn’t a great team by any means, but is still a pretty good team and it gives Butler a true road win, which is an area where they had been struggling.
-Creighton continues to struggle without Mo Watson. They lost by 20 at Georgetown yesterday. Truth be told, this appears to be more of a setback than what it should be. To lose to a non-tournament team by a much wider margin than what Watson’s ppg average even was is a bit alarming. Creighton may be in for a rough ride down the stretch.
-Memphis lost at Temple. So much for me singing their praises anymore.
-Miami FL held on to beat Boston College at home. By 1 point. As much as I rant about being unimpressed with Arkansas, I’m even less impressed with the Canes this year.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-XAVIER AT CINCINNATI. This game is of heightened importance for several reasons. It’s a rivalry game, but it’s also a chance for both teams to boost their resumes. This is important because Cincinnati has very few (if any) chances remaining to beat a team that’s likely to end up on the top half of the bracket, and for Xavier they currently have just one true road win and their best win of the season is currently against Clemson, who is barely inside the bubble at the moment. So, not only is this a rivalry game, it’s a rivalry game with a sense of urgency.
-NEBRASKA AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten). Northwestern isn’t just inside the bubble at the moment, they’re on track to be wearing white in the Round of 64. They should be able to win this game and hold serve, which would get them to a very impressive 6-2 in the conference play.
-VIRGINIA TECH AT NORTH CAROLINA (ACC). North Carolina still looks safe for a protected seed, and Virginia Tech still looks safe for the NCAA Tournament. If the Hokies could somehow pull this off the quality of their resume would undergo a huge spike.
-INDIANA AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten). Indiana appears to have righted their ship having won four of their last five, but I still get the sense that they are good enough to make their profile a lot better than what it currently is. Michigan needs to string together some wins just to land on the right side of the bubble, so they need to have a sense of urgency coming into this game.
-SAN DIEGO AT GONZAGA (West Coast). Gonzaga should roll in this game as if it were a buy game. They will stay unbeaten, and could be the #1 team in both polls when they come out Monday.
-WASHINGTON STATE AT ARIZONA (Pac Twelve). Arizona is coming off a huge win against UCLA from this past weekend, and shouldn’t have too much trouble at home in this one.
-NEW MEXICO STATE AT SEATTLE (WAC). It’s the same thing with New Mexico State for every game. They’re good enough to win out, and if they do the committee should at least consider them.
-OREGON AT UTAH (Pac Twelve). I really think both of these teams have improved as the season has progressed, but feel Oregon has improved at a higher rate. Utah is at home, and this won’t be an easy game for Oregon to win, but they’re certainly capable of doing it. This would be a really good win for either team’s profile, which is important because Oregon is trying to secure a protected seed and Utah is trying to land on the right side of the bubble.
-SAN FRANCISCO AT SAINT MARY’S (West Coast). Saint Mary’s should coast to an NCAA Tournament bid so long as they continue to hold serve.
Throwback Thursday: The Crosstown Shootout
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Xavier University and the University of Cincinnati are separated by about 3 miles within the city of Cincinnati, and since 1928 they have played each other in the annual Crosstown Shootout. UC leads the series 49-34, although Xavier has had the upper hand in recent memory (winning 14 out of the past 20 meetings).
This rivalry has included coaches like Chris Mack, Mick Cronin, Sean Miller, Thad Matta, Bob Huggins, Skip Prosser and Pete Gillen. Only Ed Jucker has gone on to win two national titles – he was the head coach for Cincinnati during their 1960s heyday that saw 2 national titles and multiple Final 4 appearances. Famous players in recent memory include Sean Kilpatrick, Semaj Christon, Lance Stephenson, Derrick Brown, Lionel Chalmers, Jason Maxiell, David West and Kenyon Martin.
After the early days of the rivalry saw Cincinnati hold a slight 12-10 edge in the series, UC would win a whopping 22 out of 24 games from 1957 to 1979. Xavier would win 6 out of the next 10 Shootouts under the leadership of Bob Staak and Pete Gillen.
Cincinnati also had a second heyday in the early to mid-90s after Bob Huggins took over a dormant UC program that struggled throughout the Tony Yates era. (Yates’ teams did have one shining moment – a Joe Stiffend buzzer-beater at then-Riverfront Coliseum gave UC a 75-73 win over a Xavier team that would advance to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament.) After Huggins lost his first Shootout to Xavier in a 90-88 OT thriller at the Cincinnati Gardens, the Bearcats would win 5 out of the next 6 Shootouts. Xavier’s only win in that stretch was an 82-76 win in overtime that was hotly contested; Gillen and Huggins had what can best be described as a contentious postgame display over the behavior of the coaches and benches during the game. This was also a time in which UC went to the Final 4 in 1992 and also to the Elite 8 in 1993 and 1996.
A funny thing happened in the 1996-97 season – UC was ranked #1 in the preseason. They couldn’t even get to Thanksgiving undefeated thanks to Lenny Brown’s legendary buzzer-beater (click here for the shot) to give Xavier a 71-69 win at what was then the Shoemaker Center for the first time. That would not be the only time Cincinnati would come in to the Shootout with a #1 ranking – history would repeat itself 3 seasons later. UC was #1 in the country (including a thrashing of North Carolina in a made-for-TV game in Chicago) and had an excellent core of players in Kenyon Martin, Kenny Satterfield and DerMarr Johnson. Xavier had a couple of veteran players and a superb freshman (David West) – they would win the final Shootout played in the Cincinnati Gardens by a 66-64 score.
Since that time, Cincy’s most notable win was in 2002 when they blasted Xavier 75-55 thanks to Steve Logan’s leadership. Xavier fans will say that West was injured in that game, but that Cincinnati team would go on to dominate Conference USA en route to an eventual #1 seed. However, they were sent to Pittsburgh (a place where top seeds like South Carolina in 1997 and Villanova in 2015 were upset early) and ended up losing to UCLA in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament.
Another milestone win for Xavier was in 2004 – after a shot by Lionel Chalmers in the final 10 seconds of the game gave Xavier a 71-69 win at the Cintas Center, Xavier went from 10-9 to a team that would become white-hot along the way, winning all but one game up to an Elite 8 appearance. They blasted then-#1 Saint Joe’s en route to an A-10 title, and would also beat Louisville, Mississippi State and Texas in the NCAA Tournament.
There were not as many games that caught the eye of the nation until the 2011-12 season. After a slightly contentious win by UC in 2011, Xavier was on their way to a blowout win the following season. After some initial words were exchanged, a major brawl ensued at the end of the game that ended up with multiple players being suspended – UC had Yancy Gates, Cheikh Mbodj and Ge’Laun Gwyn suspended for 6 games apiece and Xavier would have Dez Wells, Mark Lyons, Landon Amos and Tu Holloway suspended for multiple games (except Holloway) as well. Strangely, a struggling UC team would go on a run of their own to the Sweet 16 that year, but a Xavier team that was dominant went through a very turbulent season afterward until getting a last-second NCAA Tournament invite of their own (along with a Sweet 16 appearance of their own).
The next two games were played downtown at USBank Arena as a result of the melee, but moved back to both campuses beginning with the 2014-15 season. Tonight, as David Griggs alluded to in his daily writeup, another chapter will be written in this rivalry. Will Cincinnati finally hold serve at home and launch themselves closer to a top NCAA seed, or will Xavier turn a sagging season into another memorable one with a road win?