NEW YORK– There was a frightening clap of thunder heard throughout the Garden last night.
That was just fifth-ranked Xavier, once considered just another good team from the Atlantic 10 that was buried in the shadow of neighborhood rival Cincinnati, announcing itself as a national contender.
The second-seeded Musketeers (27-4) made a bold statement here last night, dominating Marquette from start to finish during a 90-72 victory to advance to a semi-final match up against feisty third-seed Seton Hall in the Big East Tournament. They certainly made a believer out of Eagles’ coach Steve Wojciechowski. “I’ve coached on teams that have made multiple Final Fours and won national championships,” he said. “I think Xavier is a team that can win a national championship.”
As we approach March Madness, this reinvented, basketball only conference would like nothing better than to increase its street cred in its thrid year. .
Xavier has demonstrated it has all the tools– physical front court size, quality depth, shooters, quickness and aggressive defense– to play with anyone in the country, not to mention a street toughness that has brought back fond memories of rugged teams like Georgetown and Pitt from the old Big East.
“One of our goals was to make it to the third weekend, the Final Four weekend,” Xavier’s chiseled 6-6, 225-pound sophomore wing Trevon Bluiett said. “Ever since August, we’ve had our eyes set on that.”
That would be a first for this program. “You have to be careful that it’;s not talked about like the huge monkey on our back,” Xavier coach Chris Mack said. “But, it’s probably the next step in terms of what this program hasn’t accomplished.”
Bluiett, a first team all league selection and the team’s leading scorer, helped the fifth-ranked Musketeers keep an eye on the ultimate prize when he scored 24 points on 9 of 14 shooting
Bluiett, who averaged 35 points as a senior at Tudor Park High in Indianapolis, originally committed to UCLA before signing with Xavier because he wanted to stay closer to home.
He is an effortless scorer, a young Paul Pierce. But he had a disappointing March Madness last year when he averaged just 5.6 points in six Big East and NCAA tournament games before this latest break out tournament game. “It’s satisfying,” said Bluiett, who had been bothered by a bad ankle. “My teammates set me up to give me perfect looks. Once a couple went in they kept finding me. That was pretty much how it went. When there’s a hot guy, the team, we’re unselfish enough to keep going to them.”
It is one of the many strengths of this balanced team. Xavier’s 6-10, 244-pound senior forward James Farr and 6-5 sophomore guard J.P. Macura each had 12 points while 6-10, 238-pound junior center Jalen Reynolds added 11. Marquette’s 6-11 freshman center Henry Ellenson, a projected lottery pick, led Marquette (20-13) with 14 points but was in foul trouble most of the game. The Golden Eagles trialed by just five points late in the half, before Xavier blitzed them, using a 16-5 run to take a 46-30 lead. Mack played his subs liberally in the second half and 11 players scored.
Mack is one of the rising coaching stars in this country. He coached the Muskies to a Sweet 16 last season before losing 68-60 to second seeded Arizona and former Xavier coach Sean Miller.
That team was good.
This one is younger but has more potential, even though it had to replace bulky 6-10 center Matt Stainbeck and point guard Dee Davis. These Muskies get up and down the court faster and are more versatile on the defensive end. They locked up a Marquette team that scored 101 on St. John’s the night before, limiting the Eagles to 38.1 percent shooting with their trademark 1-3-1 zone out rebounding them, 43-31, with a smaller lineup.
“I thought our team was a little different than we’ve been the last couple of weeks defensively, and we’ve been making a big poiont of it in practice,” Mack said. “The message seemed to be heeded. I thought our guys from the very beginning played really hard defensively. They are a tough match up. They are one of the best scoring teams in the league.”
Mack has taken a team that was unranked in preseason into rare Top 5 atmosphere, putting an exclamation mark on his ranking when the Muskies defeated Villanova, which was No. 1 at the time, 90-83, before a sellout crowd Feb 24 at the Cintas Center. But he was overlooked in the Big East Coach of the Year balloting when the coaches voted to split the award between Jay Wright of Villanova and Kevin Willard of Seton Hall.
“I said it in my last press conference, he’s National Coach of the Year,” Wojciechowski said.
Some members of the media attempted to create a controversy over a perceived slight. But the Xavier players wouldn’t bite when asked if it served as extra motivation.
“No, not really,” Farr said. “You know, we just want to go out and play hard knowing that we;re in the tournament season now. It’s one and done. You lose and you go home. If we don’t play hard for ourselves, I mean, we won’t go very far. We can’t play for anybody else by ourselves.” .
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Dick Weiss is a sportswriter and columnist who has covered college football and college and professional basketball for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News. He has received the Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and is a member of the national Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He has also co-written several books with Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Dick Vitale and authored a tribute book on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
