CNATI: Cincinnati OH Sports Journalism

College

Call them winners

By Paul Dehner Jr., CNATI.com Posted March 21, 2010 10:40 PM ET

MILWAUKEE - Go ahead, try to make the Xavier Musketeers about one player. Go ahead, try to make them the underdog. Go ahead, try to underestimate this program.

Go ahead, try to call them a mid-major.

"Forget that mid-major," Xavier senior Jordan Crawford said while storming into a victorious Xavier locker room inside the Bradley Center.

His teammates Terrell Holloway and Dante Jackson, walking behind him, shouted the same sentiments with all the pride and swagger of a team moments removed from its latest conquest, a 71-68 victory against Pittsburgh.

Xavier ran through the Big 10 and Big East on the way to becoming one of only two schools to make the Sweet 16 each of the last three seasons. And Michigan State needed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to be the other.

What this program accomplished not only over the past three days, but the past 10 years has not only changed the atmosphere within the Cintas Center, but challenged the entire structure of college basketball.

"We got high-level talent and we got high-level goals," Crawford said in a cooler tone 15 minutes later. "You can't call us a mid-major."

So, what do you call this call this program?

Well, let's start with resilient.

Xavier wouldn't have been the first team to crumble as one quadrant of the Bradley Center shook when Pitt chopped what was a 13-point Musketeers advantage to one in the second half.

They didn't.

Their senior, Jason Love, coming off two of the worst games in his tremendous senior season, drained four consecutive free throws.

Holloway, the confident point guard often overshadowed by the highlight reel plays of Crawford, added a Sportscenter special of his own. The falling fadeaway with a foul officially silenced the Pittsburgh push.

Three times Pittsburgh would cut the lead to one possession over the final seven minutes. Each time, Xavier answered.

"Every time they would make a run, bam, we would take the shot and make our own little run," Jackson said. "The toughness of our team is so high right now. The will to win is so great right now."

Xavier didn't crumble like mid-majors are supposed to under NCAA tournament pressure.

So, what do we call this program?

Well, let's move to talented.

It's easy to start with Crawford. He of the step-back 3-pointer from 25 feet, hanging scoop in the lane and 27 points with six rebounds. At one point Crawford reeled off eight consecutive points to anchor a 10-2 run midway through the second half.

"Put the Superman cape on him, because he is on fire right now," Jamel McLean said.

But many mid-major teams have one great player. Those on the national scene only viewing Xavier for the first time this weekend learned on Sunday the talent pool owns a deep end.

Holloway could have attended any number of major schools: Southern California, Ohio State, Kentucky and even at one point committing to Indiana. Instead, in a Xavier uniform, Holloway broke down Pittsburgh's Ashton Gibbs on repeat, drained four consecutive free throws in the game's final minutes and shook a defender to break free during a treacherous inbounds play from the coffin corner up three with under 30 seconds left.

He finished with 13 points, three assists and held Gibbs without a field goal in the second half.

"I was recruited by - it was all big-time, high-major schools," Holloway said. "Also, this program, we went down and beat Memphis, just check over the last four years, all we do is beat big-time schools."

How many mid-major schools in the last three years own six wins over teams from power conferences in the NCAA tournament? Georgia, Purdue, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pittsburgh, all cast aside

Yeah, none.

So, what do we call this program?

Let's close with winners.

After two heart-stopping 3-point shot attempts from Pittsburgh missed the mark, allowing the Musketeers to erase any thought of LeVance Fields Part II, Jackson sprinted toward the cheerleaders and picked up the large, blue and white Xavier flag. He waved it in front of a screaming fan base he urged on all game.

He's been here before. But it never gets old.

"It's a great feeling," Jackson said with an ear-to-ear grin. "To be able to do what our program has done since I have gotten here is fantastic."

To have done it with yet another new coach - from Pete Gillen to Thad Matta to Sean Miller and now to Chris Mack, it's more than fantastic.

It's unprecedented. So much so, we need to invent a name for it.

"For us, everything we do, we operate at a high-major level," Mack said. "How you define that, I don't know. The way we travel, the way we recruit, the way we win, the way we produce NBA players, the way we graduate our kids. We don't look at ourselves as anything but being a high-major program.

"I think some things speak for themselves."

Yes, much like this win.

So, what are we going to call the Xavier University Musketeers? Super-Mid-Major? Win-Major?

Call them what you want. Just call them still playing.

"The writing is on the wall, people just aren't reading it," Jackson said. "Sooner or late they are going to realize, maybe they aren't a mid-major, maybe they are doing something big at Xavier."

Categories: College, Featured Stories, Men's Basketball, News, Xavier Musketeers

Tags: Chris Mack, Dante Jackson, Jamel McLean, Jordan Crawford, NCAA Tournament, Xavier