College
Xavier not there yet
By Paul Dehner Jr., CNATI.com Posted February 6, 2010 4:20 PM ET
DAYTON - Before Dayton's Chris Wright took the UD Arena floor surrounded by 13,435 screaming fans all dressed in white on Saturday, he knew to expect madness.
"People were all on my Facebook," Wright said. "People were calling me that hadn't called me in two or three months. It was crazy. We knew they were going to bring the energy."
The Flyers assumed the role of "wounded animal" after falling to Rhode Island at home and seeing their NCAA tournament hopes begin to fade. They needed a win and their crowd planned to will them to one. They needed a boost back into the Atlantic-10 race and sought revenge on a Xavier team they felt stole a win from them last month.
For the Musketeers, it created a perfect storm as potent as the one which blew over the region on Saturday morning. More importantly, it created an opportunity for a team with a desire to begin what has become an annual separation away from the middle of the pack in the conference to again return to the NCAA tournament run radar.
It was an opportunity to figure out if Chris Mack's version of the Musketeers were ready follow the same path of its accomplished predecessors.
And, in four minutes, we learned our answer: Not yet. Not even close.
"One team showed up...one team didn't show up," Mack said of the most lopsided loss of the season, 90-65. "We were thoroughly outcoached and outplayed. It's disappointing because I thought coming into this game our team was making strides and becoming better."
Instead, for the second consecutive road game against the upper tier of the A-10, the Musketeers were knocked down. Only, unlike the 77-72 loss at Temple, Xavier (16-7, 8-2) never put up much of a fight.
"(Dayton) played consistently harder from the first minute to the last minute," Mack said. "Hopefully this is a lesson that our kids will learn. When you come into an environment like this and play against that caliber team, you got to bring it."
XU did not.
In fact, the opening minutes couldn't have gone much worse for the Musketeers. In a game where a premium was put on closing a 19-point rebounding disadvantage Xavier was somehow able to overcome in the first meeting, bigs Jason Love and Kenny Frease went out with two fouls in the first minute.
All the while, Dayton opened up a 17-3 start.
The fouls shined a spotlight on the lack of interior depth and the Flyers exploited it. Wright had 17 points and nine rebounds from the wing spot and forward Chris Johnson added 18 and six.
Granted, few teams rebound in the A-10 the way the Flyers do (they are first in defensive rebounds and second in offensive rebounds in conference play). But this was a second-consecutive physical beating endured in this rivalry. UD outrebounded Xavier 42-24.
"We should have learned a lesson from Game 1," Mack said. "You can't accept anything in victory that you wouldn't except in defeat. Obviously, we didn't make a good enough impression on our team to correct it."
The unpleasant taste in the mouth of Xavier and Mack would be more than a rebounding inconsistency that has plagued it throughout this season. The concern comes from a defense that appears to have lost an edge that it showed in opening up 8-1 in conference play.
Counting a second-half collapse salvaged by some late Jordan Crawford heroics at UMass, this made for a three halves allowing an average of 45 points.
Dayton connected on four "And-1" buckets that all came off driving unrestricted to the hole. By game's end, a string of layups and open jumpers allowed Dayton to shoot 56.4 percent from the field and 72 percent in the second half.
"It begins with our on-the-ball toughness. A basic understanding of keeping the ball in front of you," Mack said. "Too many times we are getting beat off the dribble. We are not defending. We haven't the last three halves. That has to change and that is going to change. We haven't had that competitive fight."
Suddenly, the momentum grown during a four-game win-streak on the heels of the Temple loss is a distant memory and the Musketeers fall into an unfamiliar role of third place in the A-10 in February.
Such is not to say the turnaround can't still come for Xavier. After all, Sean Miller's crew lost at UD last year and eventually went on to the Sweet 16.
But faced with an environment where so many Xavier teams have proven themselves, this version proved it still has a long way to go.
Categories: College, Featured Stories, Men's Basketball, News, Xavier Musketeers
Tags: Chris Mack, Xavier
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