X Marks the Spot

X Marks the Spot

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Behind Jordan Crawford, the sophomore that transferred from Indiana and dunked on LeBron, Xavier is standing tall after the first round.


By LEW FREEDMAN
Basketball Times Online
    
   MILWAUKEE -- It took a team from a league named after an ocean to make Minnesota go jump in one of its 10,000 lakes.
  The five Musketeers from Xavier solved the puzzle of Minnesota’s defense in the second half and the at-large representative of the Atlantic-10 Conference gave the Golden Gophers “Groundhog Day” nightmares in a 65-54 victory at the Bradley Center Friday.
  Blame Jordan Crawford for haunting Minnesota in the first-round NCAA match-up before 17,875 fans at the Bradley Center. He was the Gophers’ personal poltergeist, styling with 28 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists in the finish-‘em-off second half.
  The 6-foot-4 sophomore guard from Detroit has a knack for finding the limelight. At a summer camp last year he was filmed dunking on LeBron James and the video went viral. As a freshman at Indiana he averaged 9.7 ppg. under Kelvin Sampson, then when Sampson was exiled for breaking NCAA rules, Crawford went searching for his own fresh cell phone plan.
   He landed at Xavier, under the radar for a year as a red-shirt, but he has re-introduced himself to the college basketball world again this winter. He was selected first-team All-Atlantic Ten, scored 19.7 ppg., and when after the Musketeers shot just 21.4 percent in the first half Friday he answered Coach Chris Mack’s SOS.
  Not only did Crawford nail 5-of-11 three-pointers, he sank three spinning highlight film lay-ups splitting the Minnesota defense that left the Golden Gophers slack-jawed.

  “I just kept attacking,” Crawford said. “My mode before the game was to attack. Coach said don’t go in tip-toeing.”
  Xavier moves into Sunday’s second round against Pitt.
  Up until last week, Minnesota, 21-14, would have been an unlikely invitee in the field of 65. But a three-win run to the finals of the Big Ten tournament changed perceptions that not even a 90-61 loss to Ohio State in the championship game spiked. The late-season spurt gave Minnesota a No. 11 seed in the West Region and the right to face Xavier, 25-8, the No. 6 seed, which is making its ninth NCAA appearance in 10 years and fifth in a row.

   Xavier carries the sobriquet “mid-major,” but it is an established program that come each March is always in the mix for some juicy reward. Mack, a rookie head coach, is a former Xavier assistant, a former Xavier player and is as someone who is as Cincinnati as Sky Line chili.  He bristled when a Minnesota writer suggested his team would be easy fodder for the Gophers. That was an extreme misreading of history.
  “We’re really tired of being ‘The Little Engine That Could,’” Mack said. “We’re a very good program.”
   Certainly there can be no remaining doubters in Minnesota. The Gophers starting line-up out-sized Xavier, notably 6-11 sophomore center Ralph Sampson III (Yes, son of the Virginia three-time All-American). Running their usual dart-to-the-basket game, the Musketeers found more rejection than a match.com wannabe. Minnesota blocked 10 shots, contributing to the anemic Xavier shooting percentage, but could muster only a 26-26 tie at the half.

 “I thought we didn’t capitalize,” said Minnesota Coach Tubby Smith.
As much as the Gophers didn’t make the most of its defensive opportunities, there were suggestions Smith was about to make the most of his coaching future, perhaps departing Minneapolis-St. Paul for a locale where he doesn’t have to start his car with a blowtorch on winter mornings.
   The sizzling rumor is that Smith is on his way to Auburn in Alabama, a place where the most popular sport is bass fishing, not ice fishing. In the midst of explaining how Xavier’s shooting percentage leapt to 56 in the second half, Smith said he is not going anywhere.
  “It’s just talk,” he said of the Auburn reports. “I’m looking forward to coming back to Minnesota.”
  In three seasons at Minnesota, Smith has taken Gopher clubs to one NIT, and two NCAAs. He was hoping to take Minnesota into the second round this season, but Xavier, ranked No. 25 in the last AP poll, owned the second half.

  To counter Minnesota’s size, Mack employed back-up center Kenny Frease, who is listed as 7 feet tall and weighing 265 pounds (an apparent underestimate by several boxes of Twinkies), and is really much like a Great Lake all on his own.
  Frease scored 5 points and gathered 6 rebounds and ate up about as much space under the hoop as a woolly mammoth. That helped free up 6-8 forward Jamel McLean to seize 14 rebounds.
   The second half was back-and-forth until Crawford hit a three-pointer with 15 minutes, 40 seconds to go. That pushed Xavier’s lead to 40-34. Minnesota briefly closed to within one, but inexorably Crawford took command, mixing lay-ups and long-range jump shots. When the lead stretched to 55-44 with just over seven minutes left, the fat lady was gargling with Minnesota in mind.
  Only senior guard Lawrence Westbrook (19 points), shot well enough for Minnesota to entertain thoughts of a comeback. The even play of the first half evaporated and the Gophers could find no adequate response, shooting only 26.5 percent in the second half.
  “We’re definitely disappointed,” guard Blake Hoffarber said. “We were feeling good about ourselves.”
  In a game with player box score shooting lines reading 1-for-6, 1-for-6, 1-for-9, and 2-for-10, Crawford’s 11-for-21 was like a light house illuminating the entire neighborhood.
  “He’s pretty talented,” Smith said. “He just seemed to get better as the game went on.”

  Just ask LeBron.

Lew Freedman is a Chicago-based contributor to Basketball Times Online and the author of 45 books.

Photo Credit: www.xavier.edu